THE CHAOS THEORY

“The Autobiography of a Yogi” by Paramahansa Yogananda

This is a rare book about life as a guru, from the first-person vantage point in a form of an autobiography. It tells the tale of Paramahansa Yogananda’s life, from childhood, to his apprenticeship, his many teachers, to becoming a monk of the Swami order, to eventually establishing his own teaching of Kriya Yoga meditation.

The book is raw and unfiltered, which is part of the appeal as well as the downside. Here we can see clearly the honest human side of an often deified guru, the everyday scenes at the ashram, even some mystical aspects that will render us with disbelieve. But sometimes the rawness of the stories can be a little bit bland and uneventful.

But nevertheless, through the pages and the many stories, The Master shares the wonders that he saw and the wisdom that he gained, where he emphasizes a life of self-respect, self-realisation, calmness, mindfulness, the power of intiatives, frugality and minimalism, even a simple diet and the importance of exercise.

But most importantly, as the master of Kriya Yoga, Yogananda provides an in depth explanation about the practice, including the science part and the astral system behind it. And perhaps also important for the American readers was the 15 years that Yogananda spent in the US to be one of the firsts (or indeed the pioneer) that teaches people about spiritualism and Yoga.

It is no wonder that it becomes Steve Jobs’ favourite spiritual book, which he read over and over again many times. And it is said that before he passed away Steve Jobs requested that this sole book to be handed out to those who attended his funeral. Because at the end of the day, after we strip out all the worldly material things, all we have left is arguably the most important aspect of our lives: our spirituality.

“The Satanic Verses” by Salman Rushdie

On 12 August 2022 Salman Rushdie was attacked on stage, stabbed multiple times that left him wounded including on the right side of his neck where he lost a lot of blood.

The attack is still related to this 1988 novel, The Satanic Verses, which became controversial because of the blasphemous nature towards Islam.

But what exactly is the blasphemy?

According to a theory that the likes of Rushdie believe, The Satanic Verses is a reference to a few lines that were said to be temporarily included in the Qur’an by the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) that mentions about Al-Lat, Al-‘Uzzá, and Manāt, which, according to the pagan religion that existed in Mecca before the spread of Islam, are the daughters of Allah.

The theory suggest that the lines acknowledge the existence, worship, and worthiness of these three goddesses, and it went like this: “Have ye thought upon Al-Lat and Al-‘Uzzá. And Manāt, the third, the other?”

Eventually, however, according to the theory the Prophet (PBUH) informed the Islamic community that these specific verses did not come from Allah through the angel Gabriel, but deceptively whispered by Satan (hence, the satanic verses). And thus the verses were said to be omitted from the Qur’an, never made it into the hadith compilation, and erased from history (due to its false idolatry nature).

So, what did Salman Rushdie wrote in the novel that becomes so controversial?

The controversy is centred at the disrespectful portrayal of a character “inspired by” the Prophet (PBUH). Starting with the choice of name, Mahound, that was used in the past by medieval Christian writers in a derogatory tone to depict the Prophet (PBUH) as a demon who inspired a false religion. In addition, the exact age, vocation, family situation, even the physical description of Mahound is also identical with the Prophet’s (PBUH).

Furthermore, in the novel Mahound is portrayed as a deceitful person with self interest (unlike the real Prophet), who, for example, casts doubt on the divine nature of the Qur’an, and misattributes certain actual passages in the Qur’an that puts men “in charge” of women and gives them the “right” to strike wives, thus indirectly attempted to portray the Prophet as sexist (Sure, plenty of hardliners are doing it, but not the Prophet).

The novel itself is nothing like I’ve seen before. It paints a multi-layered picture on life, magic, and spirituality, with multiple narrations occurring through dream sequences that centers around 2 main characters that fall from a plane crash but miraculously survived. But then one character (Gibreel Farishta) turned into an angel, while the other (Saladin Chamcha) turned into a devil.

What comes afterwards are bizarre sub-plots in a form of those dream sequences. While some sub-plots tell the love triangles and ordinary human interactions between the characters, others are notable for their stance that made the book so controversial.

For example, one sub-plot seems to attempt to re-write the history of early days of Islam. It briefly mentions about the story of Siti Hagar (PBUH) and the zamzam water, but most significantly it describes the life of the character Mahound in 7th century Jahilia (Rushdie’s name for Mecca) that includes the debatable satanic verses incident, where in the attempt to escape persecution Mahound publicly acknowledges the existence of Allah’s daughters, but later after safety he declared that the revelation came from Satan and not God through the angel Gabriel (while according to Rushdie the revelation did come from Gabriel, thus portraying Mahound as a deceptive character and questioning the tenet of his “Submission” community – aka Islam – as a monotheistic religion).

Another sub-plot attempts to re-write the history of the incident where the Prophet (PBUH) and his followers came back to take control of Mecca without a bloodshed, but in Rushdie’s version the character Mahound became a vengeful dictator that ruled Jahilia with heavy self-interest.

Another notable sub-plot depicts a character that was sitting in exile and received a revelation from an angel (aka Farishta himself) to fight the goddess Al-Lat (one of Allah’s daughters) in the battle to control Desh (an analogy for Iran). The character resemblance the real-life Ayatollah Khomeini, which is why the Ayatollah then issued a fatwa to kill Rushdie (not necessarily because of Rushdie’s depiction of Islam, but could be because of the depiction of him), which FYI goes against the real teachings of Islam.

So, is the book worth the risk of controversies, anger, and even decades worth of death threats for Rushdie, not to mention several failed marriages that may or may not caused by the threats?

The theme of the book appears to be based around Rushdie’s own background as an Indian-born British citizen to a Muslim Kashmiri family, which could be a clue on the tone of victim of racism (of the Indian characters, by the British) and his biased view towards Islam.

Moreover, although there’s no record of Rushdie’s falling out with his liberal Islam upbringing, he self-proclaimed himself as a “hardliner atheist” that would put him in the same category as Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris, rather than Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Geert Wilders. In other words, more pretentious intellectual snob looking down on “organised religion” than someone who had a traumatic personal experience which turned them into a “free speech” warrior.

But at the end of the day, freedom of speech is one thing but the book doesn’t look to be an attempt for a healthy scholarly religious debate, but instead it is a thinly veiled attack on an entire religion’s history that emboldens its false negative stereotypes, which reflects the author’s atheist hardliner way of thinking. Because Salman Rushdie studied history at the University of Cambridge, so any historical inaccuracies are not the result of ignorance or lack of research. He knows exactly what he’s writing about.

And speaking of historical inaccuracies and lack of research, the so-called “Satanic Verses” actually still exist in the Qur’an, in Surah 53:19-20, and if you read on to verse 21-23 you’ll see clearly that they are a part of a longer sentence that addresses the false idolatry nature. Again, Rushdie knows exactly what he’s writing about.

Now, of course any attacks on him are not justifiable, but I understand the anger. Just like I don’t agree with what Rushdie is trying to portray, but from looking at his background I also understand why he did it. We don’t need to like it (or choose a side, for that matter) in order to understand it. Funny what one book can do to someone’s life.

But objectively and purely from a reader’s point of view, like I said the big picture of the story is a bit out of the box and nothing like I’ve encountered before, with a plot line that could even become an interesting movie (although it can do without the insults). But as a book, the writing style is generally painful to follow, and in need of a further editing (and not even for the content, but for the structure and poor punctuations). Which makes me wonder whether all the awards that it gets are the result of a genuine literacy excellence or due to its “freedom of speech” controversies.

All in all, I believe one sentence from the book can summarise his whole motive for writing it. “What is the opposite of faith?” Rushdie asks in part II of the novel. “Not disbelief. Too final, certain, closed. Itself a kind of belief.” No, the opposite of faith is “doubt.” And he’s attempting to install this doubt through insulting the fundamental premise of a religion, the integrity of its Prophet, and oh I almost forget, he also portrays the Prophet’s (PBUH) wives (Peace Be Upon Them) in the novel as whores in the most popular brothel in Jahilia, “The Curtain, Hijab.” That’s why it’s so controversial.

“Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process” by John McPhee

This is a charming little book about the inner workings behind the professional writing process. It has the feel of a scrappy note book of a pro writer, with the narration can jump from explanations to stories to memoir to stories to explanations in a fast-paced manner.

The book is indeed written by an actual pro, in fact it is none other than John McPhee, a four-time finalist of the Pulitzer Prize (winner of the 4th) who is considered to be the pioneer of creative non-fiction writing.

And his credentials are reflected in the book. With so many tips and tricks on writing, and plenty of anecdotes from McPhee’s decades of experience and war stories in the publishing industry, it is such an intriguing book to read.

“The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read: (And Your Children Will Be Glad You Did)” by Philippa Perry

All behaviour is communication, according to psychotherapist Philippa Perry, and behind the behaviour we’ll find feelings. Therefore, unraveling where the feelings are coming from becomes a key component in any form of communication.

This is a phenomenal book about our range of emotions, about the awareness and the ability to label our feelings, and understanding our triggers and reactions so that we can develop the ability to control and channel our emotions properly.

The book is also about empathy, about understanding where people’s behaviour are coming from, and about the communication tools to properly approach them.

Indeed, all behaviour is communication and it doesn’t really matter whether you’re a baby, a young kid, a teenager, or an adult. As long as we keep our lines of good communication open (without judgement, dismissal, lies, or negative reaction), it will be easier to share our honest emotions and trust with each other in order to build a healthy relationship.

But first and foremost, this book is about parenting. It’s about acknowledging our kids’ feelings, the balance between praising and criticising, the environment that we provide for them, how to healthily help them during distress, how to create a normal childhood (even in the case of a divorce), how to fight and argue in the correct way that it doesn’t damage the child’s psychology, how to repair a ruptured relationship, with the book actually begins with passed down parenting, about what our parents taught us or did to us that we pass on to our kids.

Yes, unlike any other parenting books, this book’s aim is to first analyse (and maybe fix) us first, before we can teach our kids about healthy emotions and relationship. And it does take the pressure off from being a picture perfect parent.

Because we’re humans with emotions, this is hands down one of the most practical parenting books (even relationship books) I’ve read so far. And with 230 highlights in Kindle out of 262 pages, there are so many great lessons and actionable advices from it. So highly recommended.

“The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow’s World” by Charles C. Mann

This is a story about William Vogt and Norman Borlaug. They are two relatively unknown people who have long passed away, but both are responsible for the creation of two contradictory intellectual blueprints that we all use today for understanding our environmental dilemmas and how to survive in it.

Vogt laid out the fundamental ideas for modern apocalyptic environmentalism, which believe that unless humans drastically reduces consumption its growing population and appetite will eventually overwhelm the planet’s ecosystem.

Borlaug, meanwhile, has become the emblem of the so-called “techno-optimism”, the believe that science and technology, if properly applied, can help us produce our way out of consumption problem. He was the primary figure in the research in the 1960s that created the “green revolution”, a mix of high-yielding crop varieties and agronomic techniques that raised grain harvest around the world.

While both men thought of themselves as environmentalists facing a planetary crisis, Vogt believes that affluence was the problem (i.e. economic over consumption), and by contrast according to Borlaug affluence is actually the solution (i.e. only by getting richer and more knowledgeable can we create the science that can solve our environmental problems).

One sees the problem from a pessimistic view, the other from an optimistic view. One is a prophet of doom and the other is a wizard unveiling technological advances.

Written in a novel-like style by Charles C. Mann, this book is the epic debate between the worldview of the prophet and the wizard, supported by perhaps the grandest scientific findings of the Earth and the history of its most vicious residents, the homo sapiens.

The book tells the background stories of these 2 men, the hopes and despairs, the luck encounters, opportunities not taken, the overlapping social circles that nearly made them physically meet, the many friendships gained along the way, and the long journey on how they eventually get to shape their worldview and earn the stage to tell it to the world.

And more significantly, it also tells the story about the many, many scientists that somewhat become the disciples of these 2 opposing categories, with all their backgrounds, the many experiments, their findings, what we do with the findings, and all the politics and vested interests by multiple sides.

All in all, the book doesn’t give us the easy solution for our climate change problem, if any solution at all. But instead, it points out the vast problems, presents the debates, and the complex human dynamism in the road to solve it. With this in mind, this book is a crucial puzzle piece to understand the big picture of the environmental catastrophe. Simply unmissable.

“The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living” by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler, M.D.

This book is written by psychiatrist Howard C. Cutler, and not by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. This is an important distinction to make early on as it sets the tone of the book more into the clinical investigative side of happiness, since Dr. Cutler is a leading expert on the science of human happiness.

However, it is also important to distinguish that the big picture of the book is generated from the many interviews and conversations that Dr. Cutler had with the Dalai Lama, which makes them a perfect combination: the many wonderful Buddhist teachings provided by the Dalai Lama, elaborated by Dr. Cutler with the scientific explanations behind them. Now that’s a match made in Nirvana.

The result is this magnificent book, the almost anatomical break down of the determinants that create (or prevent) the multiple journeys to our end goal: happiness.

Right from the start Dr. Cutler remarks that, “If there is a fundamental principle in The Art of Happiness with the greatest potential to make a significant contribution to the new science of human happiness, it is this: There is an inextricable link between one’s personal happiness and kindness, compassion, and caring for others. And this is a two-way street: increased happiness leads to greater compassion, and increased compassion leads to greater happiness.”

Indeed, while unhappy people have the tendency to be self-focused, often socially-withdrawn, and even antagonistic in nature, by contrast happy people are generally more sociable, creative, flexible, can endure and tolerate daily frustrations more easily, and perhaps most importantly they are more loving and compassionate.

Compassion towards others, of course, includes developing tolerance and understanding even towards our enemies. As the Dalai Lama commented, “In Buddhism in general, a lot of attention is paid to our attitudes towards our rivals or enemies. This is because hatred can be the greatest stumbling block to the development of compassion and happiness. If you can learn to develop patience and tolerance towards your enemies, then everything else becomes much easier—your compassion towards all others begins to flow naturally.”

Because what if we go through life never encountering an enemy or any obstacle? If from birth to death everyone we meet pampered us, helped us, never challenge us, or in short, everyone continued to treat us like a baby? Sure, it might feel nice at first, but if persisted it could turn us into a some kind of gelatinous mass with the mental and emotional development of veal. As Dr. Cutler emphasize, “It’s the very struggle of life that makes us who we are. And it is our enemies that test us, provide us with the resistance necessary for growth.”

This last point is a form of reframing perception, one of the many Buddhist tools taught in the book to convert frictions or stumble blocks in our lives into something more positive from simply just looking at things from a different perspective. Because, if we can make even our enemies – that have bad intentions towards us – into some positive force in our lives, there is quite literally nothing that can make us upset and unhappy. You see, it’s not about what happens, but our interpretation of what happens that matter.

The Dalai Lama also teaches us about eliminating other negative forces in our minds that can rob us the joy of happiness, by seeing things from a larger perspective, by dealing with grief properly, by healing the sense of remorse, by reframing anger, and many more.

As Dr. Cutler explains, “By mobilizing our thoughts and practicing new ways of thinking, we can reshape our nerve cells and change the way our brains work. It is also the basis for the idea that inner transformation begins with learning (new input) and involves the discipline of gradually replacing our “negative conditioning” (corresponding with our present characteristic nerve cell activation patterns) with “positive conditioning” (forming new neural circuits). Thus, the idea of training the mind for happiness becomes a very real possibility.”

Indeed, happiness is actually trainable. And throughout the book the Dalai Lama has repeatedly emphasized the importance of inner discipline as the fundamental method of achieving this. It involves combating negative states of mind such as greed, anger, and hatred, and cultivating positive states of minds such as kindness, tolerance, compassion, and perhaps most importantly, contentment. And all of these are built on a foundation of a calm and stable state of mind (aka the state of mindfulness).

As Dr. Cutler concludes, “The art of happiness has many components. As we’ve seen, it begins with developing an understanding of the truest sources of happiness and setting our priorities in life based on the cultivation of those sources. It involves an inner discipline, a gradual process of rooting out destructive mental states and replacing them with positive, constructive states of mind, such as kindness, tolerance, and forgiveness.”

And the book is filled with so many examples and real-life stories about the struggle and eventual triumph to implement this.

Moreover, while the wisdoms are priceless, perhaps the best feature of the book is a glimpse of the Dalai Lama’s demeanor, which we can learn a lot from. His relaxed approach, with open mind, humility, compassion, sincerity, brutal honesty, and a heavy doze of humor and laughter all created a kind and approachable aura. He always thinks before he speaks, never attacks, listens intently with sympathetic understanding, and able to frame and reframe his interpretations and responses in an impressive speed, even when he makes a mistake.

Simply put, he is the living embodiment of every single lesson that come out from this book. And that’s why his picture is respectfully put as the cover of the book.

“When Breath Becomes Air” by Paul Kalanithi

Paul Kalanithi began to read books at a very young age, and he has always wanted to someday write his own book. In fact that was what led him to study English literature for his BA and MA in Stanford. But life had a different plan for him, as after two more impressive degrees he found himself in Yale Medical School, dealing directly face to face with life and death in his 7 years of residency.

This book is the culmination of his 2 loves, literature and medicine, where he eventually gets to write a beautifully written memoir about his experience as a top notch neurosurgeon who abruptly turned into a patient himself after he was diagnosed with a stage IV metastatic lung cancer.

Indeed, this book has a sad ending, as it is published posthumously a year after he passed away. But this isn’t a spoiler because the main point of the book is not about the ending (we’re all going to die eventually), but it’s about the journey, about hopes and dreams as a medical student, all the sleepless on-calls, the emergency room drama, the extraordinary hard work to become a neurosurgeon, the life-changing split-second decision makings in the operation room, and finally about dealing with illness and mortality along with his deteriorating health condition, the 5 stages of grief, the in and out of therapy, and the emotional toll on the family and close friends.

And somewhere between his face-to-face encounter with death as a doctor and patient lies a space and time where Kalanithi ponders about the meaning of life, and he learned them one lesson at a time in the hospital, where births meet deaths meet every disaster, hope, loss, recovery, and the mess in between, and the zen clarity of a wisdom that can only be obtained by someone who is dying but have accepted their fate.

All of these are written in a first-person vantage point that brings us the reader into his shoes, as if we’re the ones who are living it. And it was all so very moving and inspiring. The last chapter in particular almost reduced me to tears. Incredible, incredible book.

“The Merchant of Venice” by William Shakespeare

For a novice in reading fiction, I thought after reading a bit of Coelho, one or two Hemingway, or accidentally read Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha thinking that it was a biography of the Buddha (it’s not), I thought I was ready for the big one, THE William Shakespeare.

But as it turns out, no amount of poetries from Rumi or Kahlil Gibran could prepare me for 16th century English. In a prose format. And while The Merchant of Venice is said to be a Shakespearean comedy, I did not laugh even once. Dare I say that this is a bit of a, tragedy? Right, no.

3 stars for now, but will definitely revisit this book in the future when I’m older and perhaps a little bit more posh.

“Effortless: Make it Easier to Do What Matters Most” by Greg McKeown

How can we become effortless in what we do? There are so many things covered by this book, but these are the essentials:

Make the most essential activities the easiest ones. Stop filling our head with unnecessary thoughts or needless emotional burdens, clear up the clutter in our head and heart. Make our tasks fun to do. Rest properly and don’t overload ourself or push ourself to burnout. Break our tasks down into several steps and make the first step very easy to do. Set a manageable pace. Start with trash and edit as we progress forward.

Moreover, get rid of unnecessary add-ons. Simplify. Automate functions that can be automated. Have a checklist or a cheat sheet. Seek to understand the principles of things (the why and the how) rather than only the isolated info (the what). Write clear messages that are hard to misinterpret. Leverage trust. Prevent problem before it happens. Define what “done” looks like. Produce residual results. Find ways to make every day a little easier.

McKeown then ends the book with a very moving story that completes it in a full circle, story that inspired him to produce the effortless principles, which prompted him to conclude that “Whatever has happened to you in life. Whatever hardship. Whatever pain. However significant those things are. They pale in comparison to the power you have to choose what to do now.”

Indeed, whatever tasks or challenges we have in front of us we can choose to tackle them by overcomplicate things or we can decide to do them effortlessly. The way we respond is still within our control. And this is deep, coming from his own personal experience.

“The Effortless State is an experience many of us have had when we are physically rested, emotionally unburdened, and mentally energized. You are completely aware, alert, present, attentive, and focused on what’s important in this moment. You are able to focus on what matters most with ease.” McKeown couldn’t summarize it any better. Hope Eve can recover and get back into her old vivacious self.

“Silence: The Power of Quiet in a World Full of Noise” by Thich Nhat Hanh

According to the Buddhist tradition, there once lived a deity named Avalokiteshvara. It is said that he can listen to all kind of sounds and he can also utter 5 different types of sounds that can heal the world.

The first is the Wonderful Sound. It is the sound of the wonders of life such as the sound of the rain, birds singing in the morning, and so on.

The second is the Sound of the One Who Observes the World. It is the sound of listening and silence.

The third is the Brahma Sound. It is the transcendental sound, om, which has the innate power to create the world.

The fourth is the Sound of the Rising Tide. It symbolises the teachings of the Buddha. It can remove affliction, clear away misunderstanding, and transform everything.

The fifth is the Sound That Transcends All Sounds of the World. It is the sound of impermanence, a gentle reminder not to get too attached to particular sounds or words.

And according to Thich Nhat Hanh, if we can find silence within ourselves, we can hear these 5 sounds. So, how to achieve this? The key is to control what we consume.

“There are four kinds of food that every person consumes every day”, said Hanh. “In Buddhism, we call these kinds of food the Four Nutriments. They are edible food; sense impressions; volition; and consciousness, both individual and collective.”

The edible food is the food that we eat every day through our mouth. Sense and impression is the sensory experiences we receive through our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind such as reading books, listening to music, the sound of the bus outside our window, our phone’s alerts, all of the information and ideas that we consume everyday and come into our consciousness.

The third source of nutriment is volition. It is our will, our desire, our concern that feeds our decision making and actions. And lastly, consciousness. It is the way our individual mind feeds itself and feeds our thoughts and actions. It also includes collective consciousness and how it can affect us as an individual.

Hanh then elaborates that “[a]ll of these foods can be healthy or unhealthy, nourishing or toxic, depending on what we consume, how much we consume, and how aware we are of our consumption.”

Just as we can get sick if we eat too much junk food, or drink too much alcohol to distract ourselves from our suffering, we can experience the same thing with other nutriments. We can engage in too much video games, movies or series, gossip, or other dopamine inducing activities to avoid facing our problems. Volition can also be unhealthy, where instead of having constructive motivation we indulge on craving and obsession. And likewise, collective consciousness can bring out the best in us or we can get dragged by the group’s ugly moods such as anger, gossipy, competitive, etc.

Therefore, because each nutriment affects us profoundly, just like controlling the healthy food that we eat, it is important for us to be aware what exactly we consume for other nutriments and how much we consume them. This, in short, is the essence of mindfulness.

As Hanh remarks, “[m]indful awareness is like a sunscreen protecting the sensitive skin of a newborn baby. Without it, the skin would blister and burn. With the protection of our mindfulness, we are able to stay healthy and safe and take in only those nutriments that help us thrive.”

It is about deliberately curating what we read and see and hear. It is about refraining from our indulgences. It is about stepping back and observing our environment and consciously joining or avoiding the group mood. It can even be as simple as sitting down and meditating on our breathe or absorbing the energy of our surroundings.

Indeed, mindfulness is a form of meditation, but the book teaches us that it does not have to be done through only meditation but can also be conducted through everyday activities such as washing dishes, walking, eating, brushing our teeth, etc.

As Hanh concludes, “[p]racticing silence to empty all kinds of noise within you is not a difficult practice. With some training, you can do it. In noble silence, you can walk, you can sit, you can enjoy your meal. When you have that kind of silence, you have enough freedom to enjoy being alive and to appreciate all the wonders of life.”

Because it is only after we get rid of all the distractions and noises, both from outside stimulants or inside our own head, that we can once more hear our deepest thoughts, get in touch with our innermost feelings, and eventually listen to the 5 types of sound. And this is what this soothing book is ultimately all about.