Rate this book

Buddha Standard Time: Awakening To The Infinite Possibilities Of Now (2011)

by Lama Surya Das(Favorite Author)

3.95 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0061774561 (ISBN13: 9780061774560)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

HarperOne

review 1: I read this book in Buddha Standard Time that's for sure - it has taken a while, but it has felt like dipping into a quiet meditation session with each chapter. This is really beautifully written. I simply get to the end of these sorts of books, and I despair - because I can't understand why we don't teach children a lot of these practices and principles at school. Don't get me wrong - I'm a nerd. I enjoyed trigonometry and calculus, but neither have served me one dot in my adult life. I left school as insecure, ill equipped, and as painfully lost as I'm sure the rest of you did. It took friends being brutally murdered, a heart attack (my own) and pretty much seeing my own life begin to implode before my eyes at the age of 36, that finally had me reaching for underst... moreanding of a world I could no longer make any sense of. And thank goodness there were books like this one. In the depths of these very simple Buddhist ideas, I find a very deep and abiding peace. So I often return to Buddhist writings when I feel the world is getting too noisy for me again. When the chaos and madness is becoming too potent around me. And I am reminded to return to my meditation practices. A place of hope opens up again, that makes sense of things in my world that are just completely nonsensical. Why don't we teach children to still the mind, long enough to hear the voice within that guides us best. To where 'God' or whomever your religion dictates is your guide, sends his greatest advice and most potent truths? Instead, we fill their heads with noise and chatter, and let their inner voice of fear and doubt erode their self worth until medication seems their only hope of survival? Something is inherently wrong that we aren't teaching children some Buddhist practices to carry them forward into the world, and to provide them a place of calm and solace that is with them wherever they may roam. I come away from these books calmer and more centred. In a world of madness, I can find a place where redemption is possible, and where love is the only thing that ever matters. Self love, and compassionate love for each other. Find me children in our Western world who understand these concepts? In fact, find me 100 adults?? There were some real highlights in this book for me. I spent so many years trying to 'find myself' only to discover, I was right here all along. This book reminded me of that, and it was a joy to come back home again. We live in a time of war and ecological destruction, corporate greed, and overpopulation - where the 99% have so little and the 1% couldn't give a damn. And as I am now involved in Animal Welfare, I often struggle with coming to terms with an even new army of 'enemies' who seem to be out there, doing harm. I sometimes think, to engage in the world is to risk drowning in bitterness and rage. I have been reminded, reading this book, that I cannot ever bring peace to the world unless I can find peace within. Therefore, in a time where I see so little to forgive, I have to dig as deep as I can, and find forgiveness for all. I think this piece. quoted in the book is one of the most humbling, and beautiful I have ever read : this prayer was found in 1945 beside the body of a Jewish child in the Ravensbruck concentration camp, where 92,000 women and children died : O Lord,remember not only the men and women of goodwill,but also those of ill will.But do not only remember the suffering they have inflicted on us, remember the fruits we bore thanks to this suffering,our comradeship, our loyalty, our humility,the courage, the generosity,the greatness of heart which has grown out of all of this.And when they come to judgement let all of the fruits which we have bornebe their forgiveness. Amen.Wow, that is a forgiving heart for me to aspire to.And I am reminded that this moment, right now, is perfect. The golden eternity. All there is.I can highly recommend that you spend this now doing the following : Breathe, smile, relax and settle down with a good Buddhist teaching!! Lama Surya Das offers a very beautiful one with this book.
review 2: Stop and smell the roses. Repeat.Choose your relationship with the universe from the menu of any religion or philosophy, leaving out the parts that dwell on the past of stress you about the future.Now stop and smell the roses some more.Snark aside, I actually thought this was a decent book for bits and bobs about how to dwell in the present.ETA: Okay, that was a damn with faint praise sort of review, and this book deserves better than that. Case in point, this morning when I was mentally going over what I wanted to accomplish today, some of what Das pointed out about a balance between right and left brain came back to me. I'd never thought of there being a correlation between balanced hemispheres in a brain and The Middle Path, but it does make sense. Perhaps I need to give the book a second read to see what else I didn't pay enough attention to the first time. less

Download links for: Buddha Standard Time: Awakening to the Infinite Possibilities of Now

Advertising