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daviddavidkatzman 's review for:
A useful sanitized version of Buddhism. Buddhism isn't mentioned once in the entire book, that I can recall. Instead the focus is about how the practices of meditation and mindfulness can help with stress reduction and pain relief.
Just as in The New Earth , which was too optimistic about the evolution of human consciousness (yet still a worthy book), John Cabot Zinn is too optimistic that medicine is becoming more integrated and aware of mind-body connections. It bothers me when practices are recommended that are truly meaningful and helpful but then the author mars their advice by makes these sweeping generalizations about societal changes. Practitioners have absolutely no control over societal evolution, and they are not necessarily the best cultural critics. Right now, medicine is obsessed with a pandemic! It’s not working on mind-body duality as a body of knowledge. Also, I think he never touches on how health insurance--pay for care--is greatly skewing provided services.
This pet peeve aside, regardless of your philosophy or religion, if you are a novice at meditation and mindfulness, this book is a good primer and how-to. Overall, it's better for beginners than the experienced but not bad as general reinforcement.
Just as in The New Earth , which was too optimistic about the evolution of human consciousness (yet still a worthy book), John Cabot Zinn is too optimistic that medicine is becoming more integrated and aware of mind-body connections. It bothers me when practices are recommended that are truly meaningful and helpful but then the author mars their advice by makes these sweeping generalizations about societal changes. Practitioners have absolutely no control over societal evolution, and they are not necessarily the best cultural critics. Right now, medicine is obsessed with a pandemic! It’s not working on mind-body duality as a body of knowledge. Also, I think he never touches on how health insurance--pay for care--is greatly skewing provided services.
This pet peeve aside, regardless of your philosophy or religion, if you are a novice at meditation and mindfulness, this book is a good primer and how-to. Overall, it's better for beginners than the experienced but not bad as general reinforcement.