Name: Bastiaan's review of The Practice of Not Thinking by Ryunosuke Koike
Item: The Practice of Not Thinking
Rating: 1
Author: Bastiaan

Ryunosuke Koike

"What would happen if we learnt to look instead of see, listen instead of hear and feel instead of touch? With remarkable clarity, Ryunosuke Koike shares the ways we can incorporate Zen practice into our daily life, resulting in a more productive, honest and present way of living. Koike's theory tells us that our energy is predominantly being used to think negative and unnecessary thoughts, causing us to lose our ability to make decisions and our five senses to lose their strength. Ranging from complacency in your relationship, over-commitment at work to searching for approval from others, The Practice of Not Thinking will teach you how to re-train your brain and eliminate these challenging habits, leading to a quieter and more peaceful life"--Publisher's description.

A Guide to Mindful Living

The Practice of Not Thinking

What if we could learn to look instead of see, listen instead of hear, feel instead of touch? Priest and bestselling author Ryunosuke Koike shows how, by incorporating simple Zen practices into our daily lives, we can reconnect with our five senses and live in a more peaceful, positive way. When we focus on our senses and learn to re-train our brains and our bodies, we start to eliminate the distracting noise of our minds and the negative thoughts that create anxiety. By following Ryunosuke Koike's practical steps on how to breathe, listen, speak, laugh, love and even sleep in a new way, we can improve our interactions with others, feel less stressed at work and make every day calmer. Only by thinking less, can we appreciate more.

taylor miles hopkins

Kyler Phillips

Very much an impulse buy and still underwhelmed me. 

The advice given is very basic and either too obvious or too simplistic. 

Wouldn’t have finished it it it wasn’t so short. 

Bastiaan

Very much an impulse buy and still underwhelmed me. 

The advice given is very basic and either too obvious or too simplistic. 

Wouldn’t have finished it it it wasn’t so short. 

a pretty underwhelming book that seems more preachy than anything else. the advice is almost naïve, just overstatements of the obvious. it would’ve made as much of a point as a poster in a therapist’s office.  

jordan

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

em 摇摇

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.

Claudine

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. 

Kyler Phillips &
The Practice of Not Thinking by Ryunosuke Koike

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Kyler Phillips &The Practice of Not Thinking by Ryunosuke Koike

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Kyler Phillips &
The Practice of Not Thinking by Ryunosuke Koike