I heard about this book last year in Tim Ferriss’s Tools of the Titan book. A majority of the interviewees recommended this book. Also, earlier this year, in a podcast, Naval Ravikant recommended this book. So, I took it with me on one of my backpacking trips and read it lying in my tent.
I would not say that I was disappointed, but it was not as enlightening as I expected. The book recounts the story of a man, Siddartha, who leaves his house at a young age to find nirvana.
The story made me realize that in the theater of life, we are such minuscule individuals. We have this tendency to hyper-focus everything on ourselves and the search for our own happiness makes us unhappy. One way to make us less unhappy to stop constantly looking for things to make us happy.
One claim in the book is that the peace of mind comes from inside, not from a quest, not from the teaching of a wise man. One has to struggle and go through life and experience various ways of living, before one can learn which is the best way to live and find peace.
Another thing I can infer is that one has to learn to inspect one’s thoughts and emotions, understand where they are stemming from and then decide how much value to put into those thoughts and emotions.
Overall, this was an average book but with some gems hidden here and there. I might read it again at some point to see if my thoughts on this book changes.
Published at: 09/19/2020