Sylvia Boorstein

Three Buddhist teachers reflect on the nature of suffering and the human condition. Buddhism mainly concerns itself with suffering, so you'd think all Buddhist wisdom would be wisdom for difficult times, and that's true. However, there's suffering, and then there's suffering. I liked that Norman Fischer talked about the difference between his regular meditation practice helping him to understand the nature of change, and the sudden experience of grief when his good friend passed away show more deepening his understanding. In a way, daily meditation practice is just that - practice for the Olympic marathons of suffering that drop into our lives. show less

I love this book's title: instruction, motivation and humor all in one. However, the rest of the book is not as special. A good, solid book with meditation instructions and personal experiences. A good meditation companion, but not better than others.

Sylvia Boorstein organizes and presents and illustrates with stories in a cheerful tone the 10 Paramitas or Buddhist virtues. At first I was put off by her personality. She seems like a happy extrovert who has lots of friends to share her spiritual journey with and a genuine desire to perfect herself. Feeling like her polar opposite, I took a little time to sit with the resentment I feel for not being like that and the book grew on me and I enjoyed it more.

Aside from some unsettling remarks about Israel that I can tentatively attribute to ignorance, I found this book full of wisdom and useful commentary on the nature of Buddhism and religion in the modern world.