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.

October Read

Title: The Sage's Tao Te Ching: Ancient Advice for the Second Half of Life
Author: Martin, William
Call Number: 299.51482 M383S 2010
Book Description from amazon.com:
Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching, one of the world’s most widely read books of wisdom, reminds its readers that the sage has been venerated in China for thousands of years. In this free-verse interpretation of theTao, William Martin subtly and powerfully captures the complex emotions connected with growing older. He encourages today’s sages to recognize their inestimable worth in a youth-centric world that often goes astray: “Will I be able to harvest my life in compassion and love for the world? Will I find in my own heart the wisdom for which I long? This question trumps all others for me. I suspect it is the same for you.”
My Read: 
Page 52-Chapter 33: Gifts of  Beauty
               We have embraced those things which others shun. Embracing death, we find life.
               Embracing uncertainty, we find awe.
               Embracing limitations, we find the path of effective actions.
               Life is sweetest only when we know that we will die.
               Breathtaking wonder comes only in the presence of indescribable mystery.
               Correct actions emerge only when we understand what we can and cannot do.
               The thing you have feared the most will be your greatest friends.
               When they knock on your door, welcome them with graciousness.
               They seem unattractive but they bear gifts of greatest beauty.
Page 75-Chapter 48: What Will Be Left Is Life Itself
               Each day that passes, the sage discards another useless weight.
               Finally all the accumulated burden of a life spent seeking something is gone.
               In its place is a lightness of being and a clarity of seeing that makes a heaven of each moment
               Make it your daily discipline to lay aside one little thing; a tiny fear, a simple preconception, a 
               useless book, a piece of household clutter, a habit of avoidance, a bit of shame or guilt, a 
               desire that distracts, even a good intention.
               What will be left is Life itself.
Page 87-Chapter 56: The Power in Our Later Life
              How refreshing not to have to strut about like a Bantam rooster in a coop.
              We have nothing to prove anymore
              Disgrace and honor mean the same to us-nothing
              Our power in our later life will give birth to many wonders.
I like the following saying in this book:
Page 102-Chapter 66: It Is Time to Really Live
              The sage, with arms open wide, lets life flow through, like a river on its way to the sea.

September Read-3

Title: Mindfulness
Author: HBR Emotional Intelligence Series
Call Number: 152.4 M663 2017
Book Description from amazon:

The benefits of mindfulness include better performance, heightened creativity, deeper self-awareness, and increased charisma―not to mention greater peace of mind.

This book gives you practical steps for building a sense of presence into your daily work routine. It also explains the science behind mindfulness and why it works and gives clear-eyed warnings about the pitfalls of the fad.

This volume includes the work of:

Daniel Goleman

Ellen Langer

Susan David

Christina Congleton

This collection of articles includes “Mindfulness in the Age of Complexity,” an interview with Ellen Langer by Alison Beard; “Mindfulness Can Literally Change Your Brain,” by Christina Congleton, Britta K. Hölzel, and Sara W. Lazar; “How to Practice Mindfulness Throughout Your Work Day,” by Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter; “Resilience for the Rest of Us,” by Daniel Goleman; “Emotional Agility: How Effective Leaders Manage Their Thoughts and Feelings,” by Susan David and Christina Congleton; “Don’t Let Power Corrupt You,” by Dacher Keltner; “Mindfulness for People Who Are Too Busy to Meditate,” by Maria Gonzalez; “Is Something Lost When We Use Mindfulness as a Productivity Tool?” by Charlotte Lieberman; and “There Are Risks to Mindfulness at Work,” by David Brendel.

How to be human at work. The HBR Emotional Intelligence Series features smart, essential reading on the human side of professional life from the pages of Harvard Business Review. Each book in the series offers proven research showing how our emotions impact our work lives, practical advice for managing difficult people and situations, and inspiring essays on what it means to tend to our emotional well-being at work. Uplifting and practical, these books describe the social skills that are critical for ambitious professionals to master.

My Read:

I usually practice mindfulness while driving. Since I was confined in the car I found it helpful if I was  able to make the connection between traffic lights and focus on deep breathing. When I stopped at a red light I would look at the traffic light and slow down my breathing. The practice calmed me and helped me to begin the day with a clearer mind.

October Read

Title: Straight to the Heart of Zen
Author: Kapleau, Philip
Call Number: 294.384 K17S 2001
Book Description from amazon.com:
Koans are at the very heart of Zen practice; this collection of informal koan talks will bring the Zen student into the presence of Roshi Philip Kapleau, the famous author of The Three Pillars of Zen . The talks in this collection came directly from the zendo (training hall) and from the intense form of practice known as sesshin, a Japanese word meaning "to train the mind." These are direct presentations of the practice and understanding of one of the century's greatest American masters. 

These Zen talks focus on koans that illuminate fundamental issues of the spiritual life. While koans may be said to be uniquely Zen, in Roshi Kapleau's talks they become as familiar, everyday, and relevant as the questions we ponder—in one form or another—all our lives. Why was I born? Why must I die? How can I find an end to suffering? 

The book has three main sections. As Zen begins with the Buddha's life and enlightenment, the threeteishos (talks) in Part One are each drawn from an incident in the life of the Buddha. Since Zen in the West is a lay movement, not a monastic one as it is in Japan, Part Two presents koans and commentary drawn from the lives of three great lay figures in Zen. Part Three contains five teishos on traditional koans that reflect fundamental concerns common to all of us, man or woman, monastic or lay, Buddhist or otherwise: What is the road to enlightenment? What will happen to me when I die?
My Read:
Page 92-"Foor the rich man a thousand mouths are too few and for the poor man one body is too much."
Page 93-"If you try to be a good person, a loving person, the very effort will undermine the result. To be truly good and loving is the outcome of a certain mind-quality, a certain harmony, poise, and equilibrim, a certain inner purity, if you will. In other words, when you remove the hindrances to the natural outflow of these qualities, which are your birthright, everyone's birthright, then you naturally become what the world would call good and loving and compassionate. People in our society are constantly told to be good and loving-to love their neighbors as they love themselves. Perhaps from a purely ethical point of view, this has value, but it's a superficial approach to the matter. And it is most difficult to achieve. In as sense it is looking backward. Analogously, if you try to find a buddha, you can never see one. If you search for a dharma ancestor, you will never meet one. The very effort clouds your vision."
Page 115-" Having nothing, such a person has everything."
Page 122-"Our whole life is nothing but cause and effect, our own thoughts and deeds."
Page 125-"Having the freedom means being free of attachments, free of the addictive need to grasp at people, things, or even concepts."
Page 126-"We can get so taken up with work we have to learn to take one thing at a time, to be fully one with it and then when it's over, to be fully one with whatever's next."
Page 127-"As long as we are separated from life we think about life and death."
Page 132-"To work physically is to rediscover one's body and to empower it."
Page 150-"But as long as there is a thought in the mind of wanting to do this or to achieve that, there is limitation."
Page unknown-"We walk the road asking "Where is the road?"
Last night as I was closing the book one question popped up in my head:If nothing is allowed to carry away with me then what can I leave behind as I am leaving this world? My answer is "my hardworking."
At least, that's what for now.

September Read-2

Title: The Secret Life of the Mind: How Your Brain Thinks, Feels, and Decides
Author: Sigman, Mariano
Call Number: 612.82 S577S 2017
Book Description from amazon
From an: world-renowned leader in neuroscience, a provocative, enthralling journey into the depths of the human mind.

Where do our thoughts come from? How do we make choices and trust our judgments? What is the role of the unconscious? Can we manipulate our dreams? In this mind-bending international bestseller, award-winning neuroscientist Mariano Sigman explores the complex answers to these and many other age-old questions. 

Over the course of his 20-year career investigating the inner workings of the human brain, Dr. Sigman has cultivated a remarkable interdisciplinary vision. He draws on research in physics, linguistics, psychology, education, and beyond to explain why people who speak more than one language are less prone to dementia; how infants can recognize by sight objects they've previously only touched; how babies, even before they utter their first word, have an innate sense of right and wrong; and how we can "read" the thoughts of vegetative patients by decoding patterns in their brain activity. 

Building on the author's awe-inspiring TED talk, the cutting-edge research presented in The Secret Life of the Mind revolutionizes how we understand the role that neuroscience plays in our lives, unlocking the mysterious cerebral processes that control the ways in which we learn, reason, feel, think, and dream.
My Read:
I didn't finish this book, yet. But I found the following paragraphs interesting:
Page-140-141
"An American psychologist, Dan Gilbert, gave this idea physical substance with a cell phone app that every once in a while asks users:"What are you doing?';"What are you thinking about?';"How are you  feeling?' The answer, gathered from people throughout the world, comprise a sort of chronology and demographics of happiness. In general, the states of greatest happiness correspond to having sex, talking with friends, sports, and playing and listening to music, in that order. Those of least happiness are work, being at home at the computer or on public transportation in the city.
Obviously, these are averages and do not imply that working makes everyone unhappy. And, naturally, these results depend on social and cultural idiosyncrasies. But the most interesting part of this experiment is how happiness changes according to what we are thinking about. During a daydream, almost all of us feel worse than when our brain isn't wandering freely. This doesn't mean that we shouldn't have daydreams but rather just that we should understand that they entail-like so many other trips-a complicated mix of discoveries and emotional ups and downs."
Contrast to the answers listed in that experiment in this book I found thinking about work make me happy. So is being at home at the computer. I don't like to chat after work; I found chatting energy consuming. The gathered answers in the book and mine got me wonder "What's wrong with me?" It's a question I asked myself in the shower stall.

September Read

Title: Koan: The Lessons of Zen
Author: Manuela Dunn
Call Number: 294.3443 K75 1996
Book Description from amazon.com
This beautifully illustrated small book contains some of the most profound and inspiring koans excerpted from two of the classics of Zen literature: "The Gateless Gate", and "The Blue Cliff Records", along with dozens of full-color reproductions of classic Eastern paintings and a comprehensive introduction.
My Read: 
Reading this small book brings back memory of a time when I read books of koans in Chinese. Allow me to share Case 40-Tipping Over a Vase from "The Gateless Gate"-page 35: 
Hyakujo wished to send a monk to open a new monastery. He told his disciples that whoever answered a question mostly ably would be appointed. Placing a water vase on the ground, he asked, "Who can say what this is without calling its name?" The chief monk said, "No one can call it a wooden shoe." Isan, the cooking monk, tipped over the vase with his food and went out. Hyakujo smiled and said, " The chief monk loses." And Isan became the master of the new monastery.
Footnote: The truth, her symbolized by the water vase, can not either be told nor not be told. It can only be shown. Isan, a monk who studied with Hyakujo for twenty years, made a striking demonstration of this teaching. 
Reading Koans also reminds me of Aesop's Fables. We love stories. Reading abstract ideas or concepts bores us sometimes. But teaching with story telling interests us and interesting things stay with us and last longer. Case study books intrigue me more than contexts of explanations and descriptions.