This is a short book on Buddhism, meditation and mindfulness (being aware of your thoughts as you go about your day).
There's 3 primary sections, not including notes from the translator and from one of his students.
The first section covers meditation, mindfulness and contains some nice stories. Great section!! Easy to read and useful, although it does get bogged down a bit by the writing at times.
One of my favorite parts was the instruction to just wash the dishes when you wash them, don't think about what you're going to do next, or something that has already happened. I've employed this when doing dishes, making my bed, riding my bike, paddling my surfboard - every time I'm more aware of my own surroundings and my mind feels at ease.
The second section covers specific meditation practices. This was challenging to get through, due at times to the writing, but I gleaned many insights from this as well. I didn't do the meditations, just read through them and considered the advice.
A favorite from that: look at your greatest successes and outline all the favorable situations that allowed for it. Then look at your greatest failures and look at all the unfavorable situations that allowed for those. In doing so you're supposed to learn to detach yourself from both your successes and your failures.
I noted that hard, disciplined work, a positive mindset and adequate recovery (food, sleep, days off from the gym) were the factors consistent in all my successes regardless of outside circumstances.
And negative thoughts, lack of disciplined effort and over-doing it were consistent in all my failures.
The final section is a selection of Buddhist teachings. Extremely repetitive, though the latter ones get away from this.
I think the book would be useful for anyone interested in improving their ability to be present and not get swept away by their emotions.
I got my copy from the library and although I took a good amount of notes, it would be nice to have a copy to keep.