Sweeping Changes: Discovering the Joy of Zen in Everyday Tasks

Rating:
Summary: Wash Your Bowl
Review: Are you familiar with the story of the young beginning monk who goes to the Zen master and asks him what he should do to attain enlightenment and the master asks him if he has eaten his bowl of rice, the boy says yes and the master says, "Wash your bowl." ? Gary Thorp with compassionate good nature explains how to wash your bowl. Enlightenment needs no special equipment and each and every creature and object in your life is just waiting to give it to you. I think this book suggests many ways of how to see that. It's magical. You don't have to stop anything that you are doing, you don't have to join any club or cult or religion, you don't have to be anything but what you really are. Just read the book and meditate on it and everything will be fine. No kidding. It's that good.

Rating:
Summary: Looking for something...just maybe not Zen
Review: I bought this book because I wanted guidance in discovering the meaning in everyday life and everyday things. I thought I might also learn how better to "care for the things that care for me." I didn't really find that here; instead the book is filled with obscure instructions and seemingly disjointed statements. I'm not sure what I've read. Is this Zen?

I wanted to like the book, but I think I'm looking for something else, something that feels a little more concrete. I will say that the book is a nice compact size, with nicely textured paper--it felt good to hold. If I'd found it more useful, I could imagine carrying it around with me, allowing the corners to become dog-eared and worn. Alas, it will be retired to the shelf.

Rating:
Summary: Developing zen in your daily life.
Review: I've been on a thirty year search for a book like "Sweeping Changes". Although, I've read a lot of books on zen, only a few seem to capture zen's true essence. Gary Thorp, author of "Sweeping Changes", is able to convey this zen essence to his reader. He writes of bringing mindfulness into all aspects of daily living. But Thorp does this without being prescriptive. Instead, after reading (or shall I say savoring) a chapter of "Sweeping Changes", you find yourself inspired to bring your entire presence to the task at hand; whether it is sweeping the kitchen floor, taking care of the kids, or addressing a challenge at work.

For now, "Sweeping Changes" will have a special place on my book shelf; a place where it comforts me with its very presence of zen.

Rating:
Summary: Meaning in the Moment
Review: Mr. Thorp's clear prose and common sense analogies bring forward the accumulated wisdom which informs this rumination on mindlfulness, zen, and every day tasks.

Mr. Thorp lets us see (without lecturing) that the extraordinary is certainly to be found in ordinary, and in this case, essential tasks.

One of the pleasures of the book (and there are many) is that even after having read through it from front to back each chapter can be read as if entering a room of one's inner house, and within each room spending mindful time with each task.