Irini Rockwell

Irini Rockwell presents an interesting take on different learning styles, looking at them from a Buddhist perspective. With descriptions on the different personalities and exercises to engage the reader, she presents a potentially exciting piece of work. However, it could use some polishing. It is unclear whether the exercises are intended to strengthen the good qualities for the featured personalities or to enhance them for other personalities. Many of the exercises are intended for groups, so that solo readers end up losing the engaging feature. These exercises are interesting and useful, such as encouraging the full focus on certain senses, but when they cannot be used or understood, they lose all utility. It would probably be more useful for therapists to use in the workplace rather than for the average layperson.… (mehr)

Irini Rockwell offers a brief introduction to one interpretation of maitri, the mandala, and energy. She presents just enough about Buddhism to arouse interest, but focuses primarily on the concepts of these five energies and how they relate to personality, emotions, and practice. Being nearly sated with personality theories, I'm happy to report the dimensions of mandala appear highly orthogonal to other common schemes. Relative to others, this approach also gives more emphasis to leveraging all the types rather than compartmentalizing the individual into a few tidy little categories.… (mehr)