The Unspeakable Joy of Less: Discover your Path to Radiant Joy, Unshakable Peace and Deeply Satisfying Liberation
Tabata Yukio and Joyce Fung
2018
CreateSpace
pp. 108
Another one in the life management, self help genre, this one is in line with what I have been trying to change in my own life. The book is brief and rests around the central concept of Ma, what I understood as the space between things. I realised the need for decluttering some time back and my attempt at the same has been far from successful. There are strains of thought which have been initiated in the book but not taken to completion. One of these being the need to meditate and be conscious of one’s surroundings. The need for developing a sense of awareness is key, I feel, to knowing, in the words of Marie Kondo, what ‘sparks joy’.
The book did not provide me with any new wisdom. The usual idea of the Japanese style of minimalism was put forth in a capsule form in the various aspects of one’s life, has been put forth. So if you have seen enough documentaries, tutorials or read enough books, this will not help. However, if you are new to the idea, this will give you a quick introduction to it.
(The language is grammatically problematic but not much.)
There are two things that put me off a bit. One, the book is quite dispassionately written. It is almost instructional. The book in itself did not spark joy. The tone is expressionless. Second, the occasional emotion is only to spite everything American. It is a Japan vs America. I don’t understand the need to look down upon someone for the sake of proving that your way is good.
Tabata Yukio and Joyce Fung
2018
CreateSpace
pp. 108
Another one in the life management, self help genre, this one is in line with what I have been trying to change in my own life. The book is brief and rests around the central concept of Ma, what I understood as the space between things. I realised the need for decluttering some time back and my attempt at the same has been far from successful. There are strains of thought which have been initiated in the book but not taken to completion. One of these being the need to meditate and be conscious of one’s surroundings. The need for developing a sense of awareness is key, I feel, to knowing, in the words of Marie Kondo, what ‘sparks joy’.
The book did not provide me with any new wisdom. The usual idea of the Japanese style of minimalism was put forth in a capsule form in the various aspects of one’s life, has been put forth. So if you have seen enough documentaries, tutorials or read enough books, this will not help. However, if you are new to the idea, this will give you a quick introduction to it.
(The language is grammatically problematic but not much.)
There are two things that put me off a bit. One, the book is quite dispassionately written. It is almost instructional. The book in itself did not spark joy. The tone is expressionless. Second, the occasional emotion is only to spite everything American. It is a Japan vs America. I don’t understand the need to look down upon someone for the sake of proving that your way is good.