Vox Hunt: Help Me Out Here

Book: Share a self-help book that meant a lot to you.

Meditation For Dummies (Book and CD edition)

Stephan Bodian

Yeah, for the rest of us dummies.

I really should just post this without comment, but I don't want people to think this of me.  So, here is comment:

My first year in Japan, my crazy roommate from Buffalo, New York, was reading this.  Actually he was working his way through it while contemplating cinnamon trees.  He was not a bad fellow, but he had so many...um, shall we say "quirks" that amused me highly.  This was one of them.  I simply could not get my head around the idea of referring to a "For Dummies" book to learn a spiritual art.  But, then, I am fairly grumpy about the whole "meditation as stress reliever" and "I'm so deep because I superficially embrace Buddhist ideals--oh, and see the 'Free Tibet' bumper sticker on my SUV?"  I mean, I don't know.  Whatever floats your boat, I guess.  But this book in particular meant a lot to me because I got so much mileage out of it while making fun of him in long emails to my friends.  In that sense, it really helped me.

Kevin had lived in Korea just prior to coming to Japan, and when I asked him how he liked it there, he said that Korea and Japan were the same.  That made me think that the help he actually needed was to meet my old friend Adam Sheridan, a Korean by birth, who would kick his ass so hard he would be unable to practice zazen for days.

Oh, Kevin.  Where are you?  I'm sure you've married a Japanese girl by now, because that seemed to be your primary goal.  And I'm sure you love her for her "clarity of thinking" that she cannot communicate to you because she cannot speak English.  Just like the good old days.  Sigh.  And I'm sure you have a cinnamon tree growing in your yard.

But, no.  I don't read self-help books.  Unless As I Lay Dying counts.