It's not often that you come across a book that touches you to the very core of your self. The one book which forces you to think and act upon later. I am really glad to say that today, after a long time, I read one such book - 'tuesdays with Morrie' by Mitch Albom. The first such book was 'The Monk who sold his Ferrari' by Robin Sharma. This post is not a comprehensive review of that book per se, but I wanted to share my thoughts on it and some other things too.
To start off, this book is the dialog between a teacher and a student. What's so special or interesting about this dialog is its timing. It happens during the last days in the life of the teacher. This might remind us of similar works by Randy Pausch and may be even Steve Jobs. But what is truly captivating about this book is the point of focus, the central theme around which the whole dialog proceeds. Given the timing of the dialog, as you might have guessed it, this whole dialog revolves around the concept of death. Sounds dramatic, right?
If you have heard of the Stanford Commencement speech by Steve Jobs in 2005, Steve Jobs talks about death as one of his stories. He also mentions all his realizations related to death as a result of his close encounter with it. Now imagine the realizations of a person who knows he is going to die in a few months. This book talks about all such little nuggets of wisdom in very simple and elegant words. If you are wondering about the topics he chose to talk about, don't push yourself much, they are the most fundamental concepts we all struggle to find answers to - regrets, money, forgiveness, love, family, emotions, etc.
As you read the book further, a kind of feeling starts slowly in your mind which basically says 'hey, I've come across this stuff before in our scriptures'. Yes, interestingly, all of the points of wisdom which Morrie talks in the book are present in our scriptures, vedas, upanishads etc. and I myself have heard/read about them a lot of times. The point is, the words in this book, for some reason went deep into me than anything else earlier. Eventually, I got this question - why is the wisdom in our books not so simple? If the whole point of having wisdom is to enlighten others and help them make their lives better, why not present it in a simple way?A lot of texts on spirituality and wisdom that I have come across are either too abstract or too complicated. May be I have not come across a correct book yet, or may be I am being too judgmental. If someone has some books in mind, please let me know, I'll be really thankful to you.
Speaking of thanks, I express my heartfelt thanks to my friend Ramya for pointing me to this book.
Good day and happy reading!
Some more sources of such wisdom:
Tiny Buddha
Zen Habits
To start off, this book is the dialog between a teacher and a student. What's so special or interesting about this dialog is its timing. It happens during the last days in the life of the teacher. This might remind us of similar works by Randy Pausch and may be even Steve Jobs. But what is truly captivating about this book is the point of focus, the central theme around which the whole dialog proceeds. Given the timing of the dialog, as you might have guessed it, this whole dialog revolves around the concept of death. Sounds dramatic, right?
If you have heard of the Stanford Commencement speech by Steve Jobs in 2005, Steve Jobs talks about death as one of his stories. He also mentions all his realizations related to death as a result of his close encounter with it. Now imagine the realizations of a person who knows he is going to die in a few months. This book talks about all such little nuggets of wisdom in very simple and elegant words. If you are wondering about the topics he chose to talk about, don't push yourself much, they are the most fundamental concepts we all struggle to find answers to - regrets, money, forgiveness, love, family, emotions, etc.
As you read the book further, a kind of feeling starts slowly in your mind which basically says 'hey, I've come across this stuff before in our scriptures'. Yes, interestingly, all of the points of wisdom which Morrie talks in the book are present in our scriptures, vedas, upanishads etc. and I myself have heard/read about them a lot of times. The point is, the words in this book, for some reason went deep into me than anything else earlier. Eventually, I got this question - why is the wisdom in our books not so simple? If the whole point of having wisdom is to enlighten others and help them make their lives better, why not present it in a simple way?A lot of texts on spirituality and wisdom that I have come across are either too abstract or too complicated. May be I have not come across a correct book yet, or may be I am being too judgmental. If someone has some books in mind, please let me know, I'll be really thankful to you.
Speaking of thanks, I express my heartfelt thanks to my friend Ramya for pointing me to this book.
Good day and happy reading!
Some more sources of such wisdom:
Tiny Buddha
Zen Habits
1 comment:
Excellent post. Yeah Robin Sharma did a great job with this book.
Read 'Siddhatha' by Herman Hesse, it will strike the cord some where just like the monk book.
And your question on our scriptures...may be you did not read the right books or may be you are not the set of audience for which the book was written.
If you can specify the book which you thought was too abstract then we can discuss it.
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