The Power of Now, by Eckhart Tolle

(I decided to revisit the book and finished reading it. The full review is here.)

The book is evil.

Page 1-15.
From my reading so far, I feel that what the author proposed is similar to the idea of "letting it go, putting it down, giving it up, abandoning yourself"  which is essential to Buddhism. But the author modified the idea a little.

To abandon yourself, you first need to "have" yourself, which means that you need to know your true self, including what's hidden behind your conscious. This would be a painful process to face yourself, examine yourself, fight with yourself, correct yourself, during which you grow and enrich yourself. All this make it possible to abandon yourself eventually and become oneness with the "God". I believe thinking is essential in this process, at least, in initial stage.

In my experience, at numerous moments, especially when I am alone with the nature, I enter a state to "letting everything go", and find the connection between myself and the nature, and the power behind the nature. This is similar to what author proposed. However, I believe thinking should be interleaved with mediation, and thinking is perhaps more important in the early stage.

As a result, I do not think the author's view that we should abandon thinking is right. This view even brings harms since it become a perfect excuse for people to flee from the painful process of understanding and "having" yourself.

Page 14-17. From my understanding, the author uses the word "thinking" to mean "explicit conscious" in addition to thinking's normal semantic. It is true that we should not become slave of explicit conscious, but I believe that the proper way (at least in early stage) to enter the world of unconscious, instead of abandoning/stopping it, as suggested by the author. Again, by emphasizing one side of the story to an extreme, the author's view could bring harm.

As Dr. Scott Peck said, "Much heresy arises when people run with just one side of a paradox in their thinking. And heresies, being at best half-truths, are essentially lies". And I will add that the book is evil.

Page 18-25. I kept my previous opinion, and decided stopping reading. The author has many good observations, but he drew wrong conclusions.


Published by New World Library, 1999. ISBN 9781577314806.

文学回忆录（上），木心

的确是一本有趣的书。木心妙语连珠，其中有些观点和我最近读到的、听到的、想到的有共同之处。木心以艺术家的手法说出来，显得更有味道，但是不直接、晦涩、而且多义。这也许就是艺术的一个特点，让你感觉到一些，却说不清、道不明，留有余味。

只是木心的“妙用”说多了，慢慢地，显得不够诚挚，有些油嘴滑舌了。

陈丹青笔录。广西师范大学出版社，2013年。ISBN: 9787549530816。

Jung a journey of transformation, Vivianne Crowley

The author did a good job in presenting Jung's very basic ideas and his major life experience. Jung's idea is fantastic, and Crowley's presentation is clear and easy to follow. I am really glad that I read this book.

Published by Quest Books, 1999. ISBN 0835607828.

余光中跨世纪散文

第一次接触余光中。这个选集应该比较全面，选了多种类型的散文，包括抒情、游记、忆人记事、诗论文论。

其中有几篇是精品，如逍遥游、望乡的牧神、听听那冷雨、隔水呼渡、第十七个圣诞。华丽的文字，流动的意向，交错的时空。的确是诗人的风格。从诗论文论中可以看出余光中对现代诗的不一般造诣，尽管我是个外行，而且不感兴趣。

但是，整体上说，我不是特别喜欢余光中的散文风格，觉得文字飘忽，虚幻，与生活脱离。

最后的70多页放弃了。真的不感兴趣。

陈芳明选编。九歌出版社。2008年10月。ISBN: 9789574445424。

迷走京都樱花小旅 中村雪

是一本给游人用的介绍京都樱花景点的书。文字一般，但是书中有每页上都有非常美丽的樱花照片。真美！也感慨京都的环境保护得这么好。

山岳出版。2003年。ISBN 9789862483152。

诗馨篇（上）， 叶嘉莹

从诗经、楚辞到晚唐的李商隐，介绍了各个时期的代表诗人及其代表作。每章分细讲和简单的代表作选注两部分。看了以后对中国古典诗词的发展有了大概的了解。有收获。

但是觉得这本书和叶嘉莹讲词的书差别很大，甚至读得费劲、不舒服。可能有几个原因：
1. 我自己更喜欢感性的词，对很多理性的、抒怀言志的诗没有共鸣。
2. 与词相比，诗用词更晦涩，多用典， 陶渊明之前的诗更是如同读天书。
3. 由于受篇幅所限，细讲部分经常没有展开。我怀疑编辑删了很多文字。
4. 代表作选注部分的注释非常不全。感觉是作者随便挑一些字词来注释。所以经常有看不懂的。
5. 觉得叶嘉莹可能讲解感性的词更出彩。

下册是说词篇。还没有看。

书泉出版社。1993年。ISBN 9576482763。