Scan barcode
A review by aaylajanelle
Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living by Pema Chödrön
3.0
First let me start by saying that I really love reading some Pema wisdom. This woman knows how to speak ina way that engages your attention.
About half of this book, or a little more, was brilliant and useful to me. Unfortunately, the title is a little misleading.... there are some things that she talks about very briefly, and the lack of detail or explanation makes it difficult for a new practitioner to access her wisdom. Unlike what you may imagine, this book isn't really for beginners in Buddhism. The phrase "start where you are" seems to pertain more to the fact that you can start Buddhist practices whether your are a very kind and open or a very unkind and closed off person... it doesn't have much at all.to do with the idea that you could pick up this book and benefit from it whether you had read 0 or 100 Buddhist texts.
With that in mind... I benefited a lot from the ideas I understood, and I wished she would've explained more about some of the other ones. Still, I like her style and plan to read some other books my her.
About half of this book, or a little more, was brilliant and useful to me. Unfortunately, the title is a little misleading.... there are some things that she talks about very briefly, and the lack of detail or explanation makes it difficult for a new practitioner to access her wisdom. Unlike what you may imagine, this book isn't really for beginners in Buddhism. The phrase "start where you are" seems to pertain more to the fact that you can start Buddhist practices whether your are a very kind and open or a very unkind and closed off person... it doesn't have much at all.to do with the idea that you could pick up this book and benefit from it whether you had read 0 or 100 Buddhist texts.
With that in mind... I benefited a lot from the ideas I understood, and I wished she would've explained more about some of the other ones. Still, I like her style and plan to read some other books my her.