November Read

Title: It's Not About the Shark: How to Solve Unsolvable Problems
Author: Nevin, David Ph. D
Call Number: 153.43 N734I 2014
Book Description from amazon.com:

It's Not About the Shark opens the door to the groundbreaking science of solutions by turning problems―and how we solve them―upside down. When we have a problem, most of us zero in, take it apart, and focus until we have it solved. David Niven shows us that focusing on the problem is exactly the wrong way to find an answer. Putting problems at the center of our thoughts shuts down our creative abilities, depletes stamina, and feeds insecurities. It's Not About the Shark shows us how to transform our daily lives, our work lives, and our family lives with a simple, but rock-solid principle: If you start by thinking about your problems, you'll never make it to a solution. If you start by thinking about a solution, you'll never worry about your problems again.

Through real-life examples and psychology research, David Niven shows us why:

*Focusing on the problem first makes us 17 times less likely to find an answer
*Being afraid of a problem is natural: we're biologically primed to be afraid
*Finding a problem creates power – which keeps you from finding a solution
*Working harder actually hides answers
*Absolute confidence makes you less likely to find the answer
*Looking away from a problem helps to see a solution
*Listening only to yourself is one of the best ways to find an answer

Combining hard facts, good sense, and a strong dose of encouragement, David Niven provides fresh and positive ways to think about problem solving.

My Read:

This is one of the books that I was able to read and remember some cases in the book after I closed the book. It's a fairly good read.

Page 208-"We tend to write ourselves off and think that only some small, select number of people can come up with extraordinary ideas. But you can solve anything if you refuse to view it as a problem-if you refuse to let the problem define your options."

Page 22-"When you are stuck, find a good distraction that takes you away from your problems and sets your mind free."

Page 36-"In any walk of life, having the guts to get past negative reactions, to get past bad news, to get past fear-it opens up a world of opportunities. Indeed, overcoming fear makes it possible to redefine a problem, or even the entire universe."

Page 33-"Good makes other things seem boring. Bad things, on the other hand, are always compelling to us. Bad is so compelling to us that even when we have every incentive to value good over bad, we value bad over good."

Page 104-"When confidence gets in the way of asking questions, then it no longer propels us forward, it chains us down."

Page 165-"When you are stumped by a problem-when the only thought you can abide is that this is a problem that can not be solved-you have to open your mind to opposites. Flip the situation on its ahead consider the possibility that the obvious negative is really a positive. Within opposites we find our most creative selves."

Page 84-"No one ever told us that the way to solve something is to put fewer people on the case."

October Read/2

Title: The Best Buddhist Writing 2013
Call Number: 294.3 B561 2013
Book Description from amazon.com:
An eclectic and thought-provoking collection of Buddhist and Buddhist-inspired writings on a wide range of issues published in North America during 2012.
The collection includes writings by Pema Chödrön, Thich Nhat Hanh, Joseph Goldstein, Natalie Goldberg, Sylvia Boorstein, Dzongsar Khyentse, Sakyong Mipham, Norman Fischer, Philip Moffitt, Karen Miller, Tsoknyi Rinpoche, Kay Larson, and Lodro Rinzler, among others.  Selected by the editors of the Shambhala Sun, North America's leading Buddhist-inspired magazine, this anthology offers an entertaining mix of writing styles and reflects on a wide range of issues from a Buddhist point of view.
My Read:
Page 72-"The Three Marks of Existence: impermanence, suffering, and emptiness"
Page 168-"There is an old Chinese saying that describes the Buddhist path: First there is a mountain; then there is no mountain; then there is a mountain again."
Page 176-"We can't really understand that there are no mountains and no rivers until we understand mountains and rivers. We can't really understand mountains and rivers until we understand that there are no mountains and rivers."
Page 33-"Q: What is Tao?
                A: It is one's everyday mind.
                Q: What is one's everyday mind?
                A: When tired, you sleep; when hungry, you eat."
Page 115-"The less you try to hold onto whatever virtue you have as your little treasure, the more there seems to be."
Page 117-"Instead of looking for recognition from outside, we develop the confidence to trust the action itself for feedback."
Page 187-"Laughing at others' misfortune is a kind of expression of our own anger."
Page 188-"All we need is the space between trigger and reaction to mindfully look within."
Page 190-"When anger arises, it is pointing to something. Our anger is a clue to our underlying beliefs about ourselves. It can help to reveal our constructed sense of self-identity."
I like the following saying about practice on page 192:
We're going to keep getting angry. It's going to come up. It has come up in our lives before, and it will come up again. this practice is about becoming more mindful, becoming aware of how we are getting stuck. With care and work, we find ways to get unstuck. But we also know that the moment we get unstuck, we're going to get stuck again. That's why it's called a practice--we never arrive.
Also, somewhere in the book it says: Life is just as it is. Well, yes life is just as it is.