Come Read with Me - Jan - June 2017

I must say my reading style has changed over the years. I used to be determined to read at least a book a month - to ensure I don't lose the love of reading and maintenance and expansion of my vocabulary. That was my personal "KPI". over the years, I realised that by 'forcing' myself to read a book a month, I kinda lost the main objective - the LOVE of reading. So now I just read a book (or two) and take my own time to digest and enjoy them. I  discovered that I was setting these restrictions for myself. Therefore, I don't do that anymore :) Happiness is a Choice!

Anyhow, during Christmas shopping this book was on sale. I told my sis to buy it for me as my Christmas gift ..as I was curious to read it, and I thought he looked rad in transition lens. haha #thickskin

 

His Holiness the Dalai Lama has a lot of wise insights and shares about the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism.  I must admit some of the content confused me a lot and some gave me a wider perspective on things like death, impermanence and non-attachment. The rituals shared weren't really resonating for me, but I am glad I read this book as it gives me some understanding on this topic. He does focus on the importance of the "practice" and how living in the present moment is all we have.

My favourite part was in the "Dying in Peace" section:- 

"Embarking on a spiritual practice that is measured in lifetimes and eons gives you a different perspective on death. In the context of our existence through many successive lives, death is something like changing your clothes. When your clothes become old and worn out, you change them for new ones. This affects your attitude toward death. It gives rise to a clearer realization that death is a part of life."

What I take from this book is that we may never know how our "karma" plays out from the past, but you have a choice to practice love in the current life you live.

This book - I'll be blatantly honest; I got sucked into reading it because Oprah (my spirit Godmother) has been raving about this book for a long time, and she has interviewed Zukav multiple times over the years. Yet again, curious to see what he wrote. You're welcome Zukav, Oprah has given you free publicity. Verdict: It's too freakin' deep for me! I can grasp the gist (well Oprah uses this line frequently): Authentic Power is when your personality is in alignment with the soul. Basically the physical you understanding the deeper purpose of your life and you executing it. I guess. He goes on to share some interesting "theories" (I would call them that cause I don't know what else to call it!) regarding the soul and such. It's similar to the Eckankar belief (which a dear friend shared some booklets on it - very fascinating). I was particularly interested in the spiritual partnership section - about how the human relationship transcends the "marriage" - more of the soul connection. I would sure like to experience that kind of partnership. Zukav also said each soul has something to learn that's why they are here on the "earth school" - and these souls know about this before they are manifested in the physical form - with the 5 senses that make up the personality. You can either learn through resistance or through love - either way you learn what your soul wanted to learn. I may revisit this book in the future, but for now - I'm glad I was able to be the "observer" and question certain things rather than just absorbing and believing everything (I guess it was a lesson I learnt during The Power of Now - couldn't deal with the negative feedback of the book as I was so determined it was the truth. hehe). I am a little skeptical as it came from a spiritual place of Zukav and no physical basis in that sense. Let's see. :)

I have 2 fiction books that I have waited a long time to read - the 5th book of the Throne of Glass series. (I almost wrote Game of Thrones - my 17-yr old cousin discouraged me from reading it cause she said it had too many plot twists that my dear heart won't be able to handle. Hahaha bless her) and the sequel of Ember in the Ashes - A Torch Against the Night. The thing about waiting for the book to continue the series is that - I have poor memory and totally forgot everything that happened in the previous books. :D first page and i'm like.. Who's Gavin?!

Have a great week!!