Are you going through a difficult period and looking for a caring, gentle and wise friend to give you advice? This book could well be the best friend you never knew that you needed!
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Genre: Non-Fiction, Spirituality, Buddhism, Self-Help, Psychology
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Review in one word: Comforting
Zen Buddhist monk Haemin Sunim offers immensely powerful insights and gentle advice, showing you how to feel less lonely, more in touch with your real self and more connected to others. A highlight for me was how to brush off and overcome failure and get back on track.
Haemin Sunim is a Zen Buddhist monk from South Korea who was educated at Berkeley, Harvard, and Princeton. He received formal monastic training from Haein monastery, in South Korea and lives in Seoul.
I highly recommend this book. The style is caring, familiar and like putting on an old jumper that you love but never wear. Something about his style is incredibly reassuring. If you are going through some heavy stuff and feel inconsolable, then I really hope this book reignites some hope for you and comforts you in your time of need. He mixes longer form reflections from his own personal life with prose and quotes from many different luminaries of psychology and philosophy.
I would say it’s not a book only suitable for people who feel that “things have not gone their way”, anyone could benefit from reading this. Please buy this book! it’s available from all great independent bookstores. Some incredible quotes from this book are below:
The present mind
“If the mind is in the present, thoughts cease
HAEMIN SUNIM
and the mind naturally becomes tranquil.
This tranquility is empty of forms and boundless,
and, therefore, its depth is without end.”
Tips for an easier life
Don’t ask what others have said about you.
Haemin Sunim
Say up front what you like or don’t like.
Let go of things outside of your control.
Don’t go out of your way to find out
what others are saying about you.
It will only cause you annoyance and hurt.
Arguing with someone who has already decided to
dislike you will do more damage to you than to them.
Master the art of brushing it off and
keep focusing on the work that matters to you.”
Don’t wait passively
“If you really want to improve your life,
don’t wait passively for someone to come and change it.
Instead, actively look for people who can guide you.
When you make the first move, the universe will respond.
If you don’t knock on the door, it will stay closed.We don’t get to know people when they come to us;
HAEMIN SUNIM
we must go to them to find out what they are like.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe”
Don’t be discouraged by rejection
“Don’t be discouraged by rejection:
Haemin Sunim
an even better path may lie ahead.
What may seem like a setback often
turns out to be a blessing in disguise.”
“If you could go back ten years and
offer one piece of advice to your younger self,
it would probably be something like:
“Don’t worry, it will all work out.”
Now listen to the same advice from your future self:
“Trust me, no need to worry. It did all work out.”
The reason people are lonely
“The reason we are lonely is not that
there are no people around us,
but because our hearts are closed to them.
Have the courage to open up and speak to them first.
You will be surprised to discover
how many things you have in common.”“Loneliness is the poverty of self;
HAEMIN SUNIM
Solitude is the richness of self.
—May Sarton”
Content Catnip 