If you are looking for an enjoyable yet informative read Benjamin Hoff's "The Tao of Pooh" is for you. I have read this book twice now, gaining new knowledge and different insights both times. There is a certain childhood magic Hoff writes with and about that evokes not only a deep seated nostalgia in the reader but also a new respect for Taoism.
Hoff takes the reader through a basic conceptual explanation of the ancient ideas of Taoism pronounced (D)aoism, Confucianism and Buddhism. There are a countless number of books that try to and are dedicated to elucidating these three ways of being, but none as far as I know are as playful as "The Tao of Pooh". The author focuses his discussion quickly around Taoism as a way of explaining self, others and the word as we see it. This is all normal and good, but here is where the magic comes in; Hoff uses Winnie the Pooh, the childhood friend, hero, playmate, stuffed animal of many children as an exemplar of many important Taoist teachings, practices and ideas. Winnie and the other members of the hundred acre woods act as personifications of Taoist sayings and ideas. Rabbit the Bisy backson, Owl the out of touch academic, Piglet the frightened friend centered nervous being, Tigger as one would expect employs the role of the un-selfaware and over confident friend, and Eeyore the ever pessimistic and discontented soul. But then there is Pooh the ever consistent, "Uncarved Block" and all understanding and ignorant soul who simply is.
A number of Pooh and friends most well known stories are included in this book as illustrations of how to understand and live a more Taoist centered life. Childrens' stories often have morals and ideals built into them, but the way Hoff uses the stories of Pooh to illustrate Taoism come from an authentic and outside point of view. He has not created these tales, nor has he altered them he has simply found a way to project and glean new meanings from them. The author has fit Taoism into the life of Pooh simply because Taoism fits into Pooh's life, what could be more simple than that. An absolutely Western story, that of Winnie the Pooh becomes a beautiful way to at least begin to explain an absolutely Eastern tradition.
Benjamin Hoff has breached the gap and left his readers with a new take on Winnie the Pooh as an exemplar of Taoist thought.
All in all Winnie just is and Hoff explains this in elegant, playful and simple language.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Friday, July 16, 2010
Away For a Bit
Hello All,
I will be away from a computer for the next week and will be unable to blog. But I will be doing lots of reading and will have plenty to blog about when I return. If you haven't read the reviews I have posted I hope you read and enjoy them and subsequently read the books they are about. See you in a week or so.
I will be away from a computer for the next week and will be unable to blog. But I will be doing lots of reading and will have plenty to blog about when I return. If you haven't read the reviews I have posted I hope you read and enjoy them and subsequently read the books they are about. See you in a week or so.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
William Segal's "A Voice at the Borders of Silence"
Zen Buddhism has become more or less an accepted, understood and at times a largely misunderstood religious and lifestyle practice here in the U.S.. William Segal's autobiography "A Voice at the Borders of Silence" describes the life of a truly interesting and amazing citizen of the world. A self described Buddhist, Segal sheds light on some of the mysteries that are Zen Buddhism and where to turn to gain a better understanding of it.
Segal spent his life on a spiritual quest during which he encountered many teachers and felt their influences. His greatest of spiritual teachers D.T. Suzuki became an important force in Segal's life and helped guide him through his trips to Japan and to some of the ancient nations remotest monasteries. Throughout Segal's life he became a trained artist and an accomplished painter of portraits and landscapes. In May of the year 2000 at the age of 95, William Segal left this world to enter back into the place from which we all come and inevitably all go. His life left a legacy of being an incredible student and in the end a kind of spiritual master himself.
The text is at times hard to relate to because of the extremely personal nature of some of the events and places described, but a little patience and this work becomes a worthwhile read. As with many autobiographies this one is populated with illustrative pictures of Segal's life, his artwork and some of the important figures he met and places he traveled to. I would not call this an easy read but I would say that it is quite accessible and non academic in nature. From his life in rural Pennsylvania to his journeys throughout Japan and China there seems to be something to gain in reading each and every chapter of this book.The life that the late William Segal lived is a guiding light for the interested few who want to learn about the life of a remarkable citizen of the world.
From cover to cover this book is by no means a page turner, thriller or exciting work, but as in meditation there is much to learn from the seconds the reader spends in contemplation of Segal's life, teachings and work.
Segal spent his life on a spiritual quest during which he encountered many teachers and felt their influences. His greatest of spiritual teachers D.T. Suzuki became an important force in Segal's life and helped guide him through his trips to Japan and to some of the ancient nations remotest monasteries. Throughout Segal's life he became a trained artist and an accomplished painter of portraits and landscapes. In May of the year 2000 at the age of 95, William Segal left this world to enter back into the place from which we all come and inevitably all go. His life left a legacy of being an incredible student and in the end a kind of spiritual master himself.
The text is at times hard to relate to because of the extremely personal nature of some of the events and places described, but a little patience and this work becomes a worthwhile read. As with many autobiographies this one is populated with illustrative pictures of Segal's life, his artwork and some of the important figures he met and places he traveled to. I would not call this an easy read but I would say that it is quite accessible and non academic in nature. From his life in rural Pennsylvania to his journeys throughout Japan and China there seems to be something to gain in reading each and every chapter of this book.The life that the late William Segal lived is a guiding light for the interested few who want to learn about the life of a remarkable citizen of the world.
From cover to cover this book is by no means a page turner, thriller or exciting work, but as in meditation there is much to learn from the seconds the reader spends in contemplation of Segal's life, teachings and work.
Friday, July 9, 2010
"Seven Days in the Art World" By Sarah Thornton
For anyone interested in the Contemporary Art World this is the book for you. To call this a novel is in my opinion wrong, but in terms of accessibility it reads like one. Thornton provides access into the cryptic, closed off and at times confusing world of contemporary art. The author delivers a kind of all encompassing glimpse into this world of new age art through a multifaceted approach while writing in a non pompous and humble tone.
The book draws one in first with an intriguing cover and secondly with a promise of a view inside the inside(s) of a world most of us only come across haphazardly or by chance in the art section of a newspaper. I quote from the section labeled "The Auction": "The art world is so small and resolutely insular that it is not much affected by political problems. 'At the sales after September eleventh,' explained Juliette, 'you had absolutely no sense of the reality of the world outside. None whatsoever. I remember sitting in the sale that November and saying to Jack, 'We're going to come out of this room and the Twin Towers will be standing and everything will be good with the world." With statements like this, one can see just how hard it is to puncture the skin of this world from the outside.
To provide her insightful vison of the inner workings Thornton breaks the narrative into seven sections, as the title "Seven Days in the Art World" promises. Thornton gives her readers a visit to a number of the places where in her summation the talking points begin and to the places where dialogue becomes reality in the contemporary art world. Places like the auction houses of Sotheby's and Christie's, an infamous critique class at a contemporary art institution, the art fair(s), the Turner art prize competition, a number of art magazines, a visit to the studio's of Takashi Murakami and the series of world renowned and globe trotting Biennale(s).
These seven spheres of the art world operate separately but are so intertwined and dependent upon one another that hardly a thing can go on in one without the ripples being felt in all seven almost simultaneously.
These chapters describe the price fluctuations, pricing, and ways in which artists careers are made in an instant and destroyed in the next. Top dealers, museum curators and influential buyers become the characters in this non fiction narrative.
This book provides a good starter for anyone who wants an in to the inside, at least on paper. I think that like with many spheres of contemporary society that the only way to really get inside this world is to become a part of it in the flesh.
The book draws one in first with an intriguing cover and secondly with a promise of a view inside the inside(s) of a world most of us only come across haphazardly or by chance in the art section of a newspaper. I quote from the section labeled "The Auction": "The art world is so small and resolutely insular that it is not much affected by political problems. 'At the sales after September eleventh,' explained Juliette, 'you had absolutely no sense of the reality of the world outside. None whatsoever. I remember sitting in the sale that November and saying to Jack, 'We're going to come out of this room and the Twin Towers will be standing and everything will be good with the world." With statements like this, one can see just how hard it is to puncture the skin of this world from the outside.
To provide her insightful vison of the inner workings Thornton breaks the narrative into seven sections, as the title "Seven Days in the Art World" promises. Thornton gives her readers a visit to a number of the places where in her summation the talking points begin and to the places where dialogue becomes reality in the contemporary art world. Places like the auction houses of Sotheby's and Christie's, an infamous critique class at a contemporary art institution, the art fair(s), the Turner art prize competition, a number of art magazines, a visit to the studio's of Takashi Murakami and the series of world renowned and globe trotting Biennale(s).
These seven spheres of the art world operate separately but are so intertwined and dependent upon one another that hardly a thing can go on in one without the ripples being felt in all seven almost simultaneously.
These chapters describe the price fluctuations, pricing, and ways in which artists careers are made in an instant and destroyed in the next. Top dealers, museum curators and influential buyers become the characters in this non fiction narrative.
This book provides a good starter for anyone who wants an in to the inside, at least on paper. I think that like with many spheres of contemporary society that the only way to really get inside this world is to become a part of it in the flesh.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Stephen King's "Just After Sunset"
It has been far too long since my last blog review, sorry for the delay.
If you like scary stories based in realistic settings, this is a great book for you. Some scary stories are ghostly, others are ghoulish, but some are uniquely realistic and carry a degree of coherence with the everyday world we move about in. Stephen King's "Just After Sunset", is one of these books. His work touches on nuances of everyday life that are just as haunting as the horrifying events that take place in his stories.
To tell a story well one must place emphasis on the detail, the characters, the plot and the rhythm with which everything moves together. King accomplishes this feat while simultaneously creeping out his audience with what seems like a never ending supply of frightening stories. I have read two books by him now, the first perhaps his most well known the infamous "IT", later made into a feature film was an incredibly intricate and detailed story that was woven together tightly and efficiently. I thoroughly enjoyed reading "IT" and "Just After Sunset" met and at some points exceeded my the expectations after reading "IT".
The book "Just After Sunset" consists of a number of short and not so short scary stories based in New England and largely in Maine. If you are a fellow Mid Atlantic resident this close to home aspect of King's writing makes things seem even more real.
The stories create scary situations out of seemingly normal lives, situations and aspects of society. A man develops an acute case of obsessive compulsive disorder which leads him to take part in a ritualistic series of observances of a deserted field in the Maine countryside. Another protagonist becomes severe addicted to an illusory world of stationary biking he creates in his basement complete with a video projection screen which takes him into a schizoid mental break. The stories go on and on, they break apart families, delve into personality types and point to potential rifts in the fabric of New England and American culture and society that lead its citizenry astray and afoul of common mores and behaviors.
King is a master of creating disaster inside the nuance and the microscopic. His stories don't tell of giant beasts roaming the earth or aliens inhabiting the skies waiting to strike us down; they speak to everyone, to the everyday person who has lived and experienced a degree of mystery, strange circumstance and the occasional nightmare.
"Just After Sunset" is glimpse into the possibilities of King's mind and the deeply troubling potentials that lie therein. This is a good read one story at a time or for the more focused reader who reads a complete work then move to the next.
If you like scary stories based in realistic settings, this is a great book for you. Some scary stories are ghostly, others are ghoulish, but some are uniquely realistic and carry a degree of coherence with the everyday world we move about in. Stephen King's "Just After Sunset", is one of these books. His work touches on nuances of everyday life that are just as haunting as the horrifying events that take place in his stories.
To tell a story well one must place emphasis on the detail, the characters, the plot and the rhythm with which everything moves together. King accomplishes this feat while simultaneously creeping out his audience with what seems like a never ending supply of frightening stories. I have read two books by him now, the first perhaps his most well known the infamous "IT", later made into a feature film was an incredibly intricate and detailed story that was woven together tightly and efficiently. I thoroughly enjoyed reading "IT" and "Just After Sunset" met and at some points exceeded my the expectations after reading "IT".
The book "Just After Sunset" consists of a number of short and not so short scary stories based in New England and largely in Maine. If you are a fellow Mid Atlantic resident this close to home aspect of King's writing makes things seem even more real.
The stories create scary situations out of seemingly normal lives, situations and aspects of society. A man develops an acute case of obsessive compulsive disorder which leads him to take part in a ritualistic series of observances of a deserted field in the Maine countryside. Another protagonist becomes severe addicted to an illusory world of stationary biking he creates in his basement complete with a video projection screen which takes him into a schizoid mental break. The stories go on and on, they break apart families, delve into personality types and point to potential rifts in the fabric of New England and American culture and society that lead its citizenry astray and afoul of common mores and behaviors.
King is a master of creating disaster inside the nuance and the microscopic. His stories don't tell of giant beasts roaming the earth or aliens inhabiting the skies waiting to strike us down; they speak to everyone, to the everyday person who has lived and experienced a degree of mystery, strange circumstance and the occasional nightmare.
"Just After Sunset" is glimpse into the possibilities of King's mind and the deeply troubling potentials that lie therein. This is a good read one story at a time or for the more focused reader who reads a complete work then move to the next.
Monday, June 14, 2010
James Hillman's "The Soul's Code"
James Hillman, the author of "The Soul's Code", spent many years as a student of Carl G. Jung and helped develop Archetypal Psychology. Archetypal Psychology is a branch of Psychology that asserts that people from all times and all cultures share a number of similar symbols, meanings and mythologies. These mythologies are represented in symbols that seem to reappear over thousands of years, in paintings, religious rituals, dances, writings and myths. One of the basic concepts rests upon the assertion that there is a collective unconscious that connects all people, places and times with these archetypes or symbols.
Hillman starts and ends this book with a concept he calls the Acorn Theory. This Theory is an idea that Hillman has conjured out of years of experience as a psychologist, student of Carl G. Jung and as an interested party in this world. The acorn theory delves deeply into a restructuring of the soul as we know it. The acorns in Hillman's theory are like the acorns that spawn monumental trees that grow from the sometimes rich sometimes infertile soils and regions of the earth; trees that live in all places, countries, lands, regions and environments. To simplify the theory, each person has their own individual and special acorn that has a predestined mission in life, well before birth or even inception.
"The acorn theory suggests a primitive solution. It says: Your daimon selected both the egg and the sperm, as it selected their carriers, called 'parents.' Their union results from your necessity ---and not the other way around." -Hillman
I know, this sounds like destiny, which reminds one of determinism, which leads to no free will, which leads to "why should I even go outside today if everything I do is predetermined"; but I promise it is not. The acorn theory does not insinuate that everything "you" do is determined already by some divine, sometimes cruel and sometimes gentle presence in the sky. Instead of "God" deciding each and every one of our fates, the acorn inside of all of us is a guide, a soul, a helping hand along the way that pushes one into doing what it one is meant for. Fate becomes an extension of and directed by ones character or acorn. For instance, Hillman uses a number of famous and renowned figures in world history as examples of his theory, many of these exhibited signs of their fates at an early age. Former United States presidents Washington and Roosevelt, religious figures Gandhi, musicians, business men and women and more all become illustrations of the acorn theory in its many facets and possibilities. One such striking and particularly illustrative example is that of the renowned violinist Yehudi Menuhin. "Before Yehudi was four he frequently heard the concertmaster (first violinist) Louis Persinger break into a solo passage as little Yehudi sat with his parents up in the gallery of the Curran theater. 'During one such performance I asked my parents if I might have a violin for my fourth birthday and Louis Persinger to teach me to play it.' His wish was granted, it seems, when he was given by a family friend a toy violin made of metal with metal strings. 'I burst into sobs, threw it on the ground and would have nothing more to do with it.' Because the genius is not bound by age, size, or by education or training, each child is too big for its britches and has eyes bigger than its stomach." -Hillman.
This child, who would later rise to fame as a concert violinist, would have nothing less than the real thing. The acorn was speaking strongly from the depths of this child's inner most longings. His daimon called out for a violin that would be dramatically too big for his four year old hands and abilities. Hillman provides countless examples throughout "The Soul's Code" of other such instances. During the course of reading this work I became frustrated with the idea that the acorn theory may simply be reserved for those who become extraordinary in some fashion during their time on earth. This would indeed be a fatal flaw in any overarching theory of a nuance of human nature, to leave out the majority of people. But being the comprehensive archetypal psychologist he is Hillman addresses this point with a chapter dedicated to 'mediocrity' and another dedicated to the 'bad seed' which is mainly illustrated by Adolf Hitler.
This book breaks down not only the acorn theory, but something that the author calls the "parental fallacy" and he provides a new third option to the nature and nurture debate and in turn insinuates that human nature may be far different from how we view it.
I recommend Hillman's book to anyone who was interested in Viktor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning", and those who are looking for a different spin on parenting and a new way to view their own life past, present and the potential future (s). This was certainly an enjoyable and insightful read that provides a great deal of food for thought.
Hillman starts and ends this book with a concept he calls the Acorn Theory. This Theory is an idea that Hillman has conjured out of years of experience as a psychologist, student of Carl G. Jung and as an interested party in this world. The acorn theory delves deeply into a restructuring of the soul as we know it. The acorns in Hillman's theory are like the acorns that spawn monumental trees that grow from the sometimes rich sometimes infertile soils and regions of the earth; trees that live in all places, countries, lands, regions and environments. To simplify the theory, each person has their own individual and special acorn that has a predestined mission in life, well before birth or even inception.
"The acorn theory suggests a primitive solution. It says: Your daimon selected both the egg and the sperm, as it selected their carriers, called 'parents.' Their union results from your necessity ---and not the other way around." -Hillman
I know, this sounds like destiny, which reminds one of determinism, which leads to no free will, which leads to "why should I even go outside today if everything I do is predetermined"; but I promise it is not. The acorn theory does not insinuate that everything "you" do is determined already by some divine, sometimes cruel and sometimes gentle presence in the sky. Instead of "God" deciding each and every one of our fates, the acorn inside of all of us is a guide, a soul, a helping hand along the way that pushes one into doing what it one is meant for. Fate becomes an extension of and directed by ones character or acorn. For instance, Hillman uses a number of famous and renowned figures in world history as examples of his theory, many of these exhibited signs of their fates at an early age. Former United States presidents Washington and Roosevelt, religious figures Gandhi, musicians, business men and women and more all become illustrations of the acorn theory in its many facets and possibilities. One such striking and particularly illustrative example is that of the renowned violinist Yehudi Menuhin. "Before Yehudi was four he frequently heard the concertmaster (first violinist) Louis Persinger break into a solo passage as little Yehudi sat with his parents up in the gallery of the Curran theater. 'During one such performance I asked my parents if I might have a violin for my fourth birthday and Louis Persinger to teach me to play it.' His wish was granted, it seems, when he was given by a family friend a toy violin made of metal with metal strings. 'I burst into sobs, threw it on the ground and would have nothing more to do with it.' Because the genius is not bound by age, size, or by education or training, each child is too big for its britches and has eyes bigger than its stomach." -Hillman.
This child, who would later rise to fame as a concert violinist, would have nothing less than the real thing. The acorn was speaking strongly from the depths of this child's inner most longings. His daimon called out for a violin that would be dramatically too big for his four year old hands and abilities. Hillman provides countless examples throughout "The Soul's Code" of other such instances. During the course of reading this work I became frustrated with the idea that the acorn theory may simply be reserved for those who become extraordinary in some fashion during their time on earth. This would indeed be a fatal flaw in any overarching theory of a nuance of human nature, to leave out the majority of people. But being the comprehensive archetypal psychologist he is Hillman addresses this point with a chapter dedicated to 'mediocrity' and another dedicated to the 'bad seed' which is mainly illustrated by Adolf Hitler.
This book breaks down not only the acorn theory, but something that the author calls the "parental fallacy" and he provides a new third option to the nature and nurture debate and in turn insinuates that human nature may be far different from how we view it.
I recommend Hillman's book to anyone who was interested in Viktor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning", and those who are looking for a different spin on parenting and a new way to view their own life past, present and the potential future (s). This was certainly an enjoyable and insightful read that provides a great deal of food for thought.
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