Kyler Phillips &
The Practice of Not Thinking by Ryunosuke Koike

some interesting commentary towards the end but some of this advice seemed shallow and even a little condescending. breaking one of book’s suggestions right now by writing this review LOL

A crash course on aspects of Buddhism I didn't sign up for but definitely welcome 😅

I unintentionally embarked on a personal self-help course on managing overthinking, without meaning to, mainly because of the books I've read this year in succession. The theme is definitely loud and clear: proper thinking is less thinking. To put it simply, quality > quantity. It sounds easy enough to understand in theory, but how is this put into practice? This book gives a primer on that, and focuses on how this can manifest through our different senses (how very...Buddhist).

The items covered in the book were summed up nicely by the last part: a conversation between Koike (author) and his friend Ikegaya Yuji, a neuroscientist. The matter-of-factly tone typical of Japanese self-help translated into English (consistent through most of the book) made the book feel like a lecture that the conversation style exchange of ideas in the last part was a welcome change. This made for an even easier read and an interesting contrast of some concepts that were challenged by Koike's guest. The afterword ties everything neatly with encouraging words, instead of a focus on getting everything right.

I appreciate the focus on select Buddhist precepts (mostly the pre-sectarian version) being practical and scientific. This underscored my understanding of Buddhism (albeit not quite deep) as a philosophy.

Highlights underway~

Helps to consider subconscious thought patterns and being aware of how these affect our actions. Wish I would have had a pen on me more often when reading as there were a lot of quick lines I wanted to recall but couldn’t find later on. Short read—will probably go back annually for introspection.