The quiet mind

Author: John E. Coleman
Genre: Non-Fiction, Religion
Original publication date: August 2000
Book Description (from GoodReads): A fascinating, engaging, and unique memoir, this story covers John Coleman’s life after his cover is blown as a CIA agent in Asia in the late 1950s, leading him to embark on a vigorous pursuit of spiritual truth. In his travels through India, Burma, Japan, and Thailand, he encounters luminous teachers such as Krishnamurti, Maharishi, and D.T. Suzuki. Ultimately, his search for peace of mind and liberating insights comes to fruition in Yangon—also known as Rangoon—under the tutelage of the great Vipassana meditation master Sayagyi U Ba Khin.

Thoughts:

I am going to admit, I was expecting something more thrilling. Maybe not the book's fault but when you begin with a line like a CIA agent whose cover is blown I expect action and danger to be present in the story. 
That was not at all what I got.

Again this book was picked from Scribd on a whim, it did open saying that a CIA agent so I expected a lot of action or depth in the story. 

We get a man who is trying to decide what to believe in, he goes in search of inner peace, moving from one discipline, religion to the next. This is introductory in many of them yet it does not explore too deeply in any and he shows his doubts in each one of them. We see a bit of his current life as he goes. ou can't rate a person's life really.

If you are very inexperienced in any form of meditation and are interested in some eastern ideologies, this is good for you. But if you have a bit of understanding of them already this will be very repetitive, also it does not provide you insight on how to.

What I mean, you will not accomplish meditation or get into the mindset of the ideologies discussed here, for that you would need to look elsewhere. This is as described, the journey of a man exploring the different cultures and beliefs, this is not a guide on how to adopt those beliefs into your life. 

This falls under the 'not for me'.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Bird Box

Mid Month Wrap up (Hous Pocus + #AYearAThon)

The Diabolic

Frankisstein: A love story