An Open Heart

A difficult and not very engaging read; it is basically an excerpt from his talks in New York. I considered setting it aside, but it was short so I finished it quickly. It covers some Buddhist meditation styles and some reflections that, in my view, are quite advanced. If you are deeply into meditation, you might get something useful from it.

Notes

• Maintaining a positive attitude is essential. Negativity breeds more negativity
• We should work on becoming better people with compassion and empathy. We often focus only on what others think and ignore how we ourselves act
• Spirituality is not tied to Buddhism: every religion has a similar structure
• Change the “us and them” mindset; we are all the same, together in the world
• Favorite part: if someone is your enemy, worrying and stressing only plays into their hands, and they do not even need to do anything. Being happy is the best countermeasure to conflict

The rest seemed less interesting to me, mostly very advanced stages of meditation. As some comments say, if you are not into this it “falls flat”, and that is what happened for me. Not my style.