I want to adopt valuable practices and test them, wherever they may come from. This is the biased reason I listened.
Overall this is a great book with valuable insights within.
However….
I’m trying to be careful in how I word this review to be as fair as I can. Theravada practice is not the most skillful means for me specifically. It might be for you.
That being said, this book was not presented or written skillfully. I feel like the ideal listener is practicing theravadan Buddhism and wants to appeal to their confirmation bias.
From an outsider, this was poorly organized and inconsistent.
Theravada Buddhism is definitely a major focus in this book, and the way the author talks about other lineages felt unbalanced to me. Based on my interactions with other lineages, this felt divisive to me, in an egotistical way. I hope others don’t perceive it the same, because I remain open to learning more, while others may base their opinion of what theravada means on this book alone.
These are the reasons I will likely not read this book again and will not recommend it to anyone else. In the last year I’ve read over 50 books on buddhism alone. The majority feel denser in essence and explanation. When pushing Theravadan-specific dogma in this book, there were several sections with glaring logical errors.
Ironically, listening to opposing views, or views that have logical errors, blind assertions, and appeal to authority strengthen your own beliefs also; belief is a dichotomy of knowing what you don’t believe in contrasting to what you believe. In a way, whether you agree or disagree, you may be serving your ego through confirmation bias. Lets remain skeptical in a healthy way that keeps us learning.
I think there are better Theravada-based book out there, and I look forward to finding them.
Conclusion: this book has some amazing insights but a lot of fluff around them. The author’s personal dogma also comes through in this book—you’ll hear familiar phrases/dogwhistles if you’ve read his other books.