• The Miracle of Mindfulness © 1975
• Translator: Mobi Ho
• Beacon Press
• 140 pages

A couple years ago I found myself sitting in the back seat of a truck beside a person I met the night before while bumming a ride back to my van after an semi-aborted canoe trip. After learning I was a pastor he asked, “what’s your view on meditation?” I know the answer I was taught in Bible College. Christian meditation is a filling of the mind with scriptures, where Eastern-style meditation is a wicked emptying of the mind where who-knows-what can enter. My back-seat companion convinced me to look into things a little further. The Miracle of Mindfulness is the result of that conversation.

This short and simple work describes the fullness of life available to us when we slow down and notice everything around us. And we start to take notice by following our breath. It’s really that simple. Slow down, breathe deep, and focus on every breath you take. The world opens up before you. Since most of our lives are spent reacting to stimulus around us, and stress has become an epidemic, this is some good advice.

I should comment on the relationship between Buddhism and Christianity. I know many Christian readers see nothing good in other world religions. In my view, other world religions are human attempts on the basis of natural revelation to understand the divine. Why should we not learn where there’s wisdom to be found? As they say, all truth is God’s truth.

I was encouraged by Thich Nhat Hanh’s respectful tone whenever he spoke of Christians. I’ve started to integrate small breathing exercises into some of my morning devotions. It’s amazing how seven deep breaths will clear my mind to receive God’s Word.

Of course, there were parts of this book more directly related to Buddhism that I found difficult. The selection of Buddhist Sutras at the end, and some of metaphysical views on human nature were misguided.

Following the breath, while not an end in itself, is a good means to experience eternal life in God’s multifaceted creation.

• The Stranger © 1946
• Translator: Stuart Gilbert
• Vintage: Random House
• 155 pages

Have you ever dreamed that you committed murder only to awake in a panic about the consequences? The Stranger is a short, simple, and strangely disturbing philosophical novel of casual murder and its consequences. I mentioned dreaming because as you read the work, you almost get the impression that the main character is dreaming his way through his life and crime. It feels too casual to be real.

This novel gripped me in a couple different ways:

1. The apathy and lack of engagement in life on the part of the protagonist echoes the way we live life on the surface today. Camus nailed that attitude over 60 years ago.
2. The protagonist’s atheism, especially as it clashed with the prison chaplain’s worldview, forces the reader to contemplate death and the afterlife. I found it profound that a clash with religion (even to reject it) was the major cathartic moment in the killer’s life.

This novel deserves its fame. If you want to reflect on life as you live it, The Stranger will get the gears spinning.

• Introducing Sartre ©1998
• Icon Books
• 176 pages

I’m no philosopher, but I love these “Introducing . . .” or “. . . for Beginners” books. They’re full of drawings that help you remember the key points of a person’s philosophy without needing a degree to get started.

Sarte, as most of you already know if you’re looking this up, was a French existentialist who protested the French occupation of Algeria and believed socialism was the answer to the oppression of the working class. He believed strongly in human freedom, but not in a positive way. Humans are free because they are always one step removed from experiences—they always have a choice in their response to circumstance. Sarte believed that humans always wish they could live the experiences directly, without being one step removed.

If there are any philosophers out there reading this, feel free to correct me. The preceding paragraph is merely my summary of a beginner’s book on a brilliant thinker. For those looking for an introduction to his life and works, this book will get you thinking.

• Letters to a Spiritual Seeker © 2004
• W. W. Norton & Company
• 266 pages

Let me just confess something up front: I bought this book because of the beautiful canoe on the cover. Sure, I rationalized it in other ways. “Spiritual” in the title peaked my interest, and I did appreciate Walden. But it was the canoe sold it.

To read the blurbers, you’d think this book was a new gospel. Here’s what Terry Tempest Williams said: “I open this book at random and find daily strength in Thoreau’s words that gives me courage. . . . This is a book I keep on my desk as a record of shared faith.” I can’t agree.

While there were occasional moments of brilliance, I found this collection of letters increasingly self-indulgent. The off-hand references to scripture and mythology came off as pretentious.

The layout of the book was another problem. Because of the culture gap and Thoreau’s wide range of references, there were copious notes. This would be good if they were printed on the same page as the letter. Instead, all 64 pages of footnotes were tucked away at the end of the book. That means you have to flip back and forth to read just under a third of the content of the volume.

Read and enjoy Walden. Don’t get sidetracked here.

• Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar . . .: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes © 2007
• Penguin Books
• 215 pages

This book succeeds in making philosophy interesting. It takes the basic categories of philosophy—existence, knowledge, government, ethics, etc.—and illuminates them by telling jokes.

I bought this book as a light read during summer holidays and loved it. It made me laugh out loud, and added a few jokes to my arsenal. It had an other interesting side-effect, though: its broad overview of philosophy helped to clarify the major schools of thought in my mind. The glossary contributed significantly to this. It was written in such a witty manner that it compels you to read it. (I can’t ever remember reading a glossary before!)

Buy it for the knowledge or the humour—you will not be disappointed.

• Candide © 1759
• Translated by Henry Morley © 1922
• Barnes & Noble Classics
• 146 pages

It’s funny how many small coincidences there are in life. I picked up this book about a year ago with good intentions, only to let it sit on a shelf until I stuffed it into a box to move to Bracebridge. I was looking for something different to read a few nights ago and stumbled across it.

In other news, I’m currently preparing to preach a series of “Meaningless Messages” on Ecclesiastes. Imagine my surprise when I realized that Candide was essentially a retelling of Ecclesiastes!

Does life have a purpose? Do we live in the best of all possible worlds? What should we do in life?

Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him—for this is his lot. (Ecclesiastes 5:18, NIV)

“Let’s work, then, without disputing,” says Martin. “It is the only way to make life bearable.” (130)

For an old classic, Candide is surprisingly readable. If you want to rethink your position on the meaning of life, this is an interesting place to start.

• The Harvard Classics, Vol. 2
• Includes: The Apology, Phaedo, and Crito (Plato), The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, and The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius
• New York: P. F. Collier & Son Corporation
• 345 pages

This volume was interesting, enlightening, but profoundly frustrating.

Let’s start with interesting. Most Christians have little or no idea how much of their belief system is founded on Platonic and Stoic principles in place of Judaism. Reading these works helped me to see the extent of the damage!

Next comes enlightening. There is a lot of wisdom packed into this volume that can be mined and practiced even in a Christian milieu. Here’s some of the good stuff:

• Men of Athens, I honor and love you; but I shall obey God rather than you. — Plato
• The difficulty, my friends, is not in avoiding death, but in avoiding unrighteousness; for that runs faster than death. — Plato
• To you, all you have seems small: to me, all I have seems great. Your desire is insatiable, mine is satisfied. — Epictetus
• I esteem what God wills better than what I will. — Epictetus
• Tranquility is nothing else than the good ordering of the mind. — Aurelius
• Where a man can live, there he can also live well. — Aurelius

Finally, reading this was frustrating. I became very irritated by the Stoic’s propensity to passively accept everything the universe might throw their way. The constant refrain of remember your death wears thin after a while also, because there’s no hope in Stoicism. The body’s just a prison that returns to dust while the divine part flies up and does something we’re not quite sure about until it happens.