"Millman, or at least his publishing company try to portray him as the
intellectual equal of Socrates, or perhaps Plato. Sadly, all he does
is re-hash "Bubblegum Zen" philosophy, advocate vegetarianism and
equate gymnastics with some deep meditative process. Worse, he does it
with little sense of writing style, numerous factual errors, and a
creepy relationship between him and an underage girl named Joy.
One would expect a warrior, even a peaceful one, to show qualities
like courage, stoicism, honor, loyalty, and so forth. Millman's self-
portrayal is a whining, self-pitying, individual who shows absolutely
no loyalty to his first wife (the most likable character in the book)
and daughter. Particularly saddening is that his daughter is little
more than a footnote, the reader never gets to feel any parental
emotion from Millman.
Millman also is not so much an actor as something that is acted upon
by outside forces. He has no apparent free will. His early ennui is
caused by society, his enlightenment is caused by Socrates, his misery
is caused by his wife, his happiness by Joy. He even blames her for
leading him on about her age. I really don't understand how Millman
could not have guessed that this girl for whom he was pining was not
of age. He doesn't come across as dumb. His willingness to give in to
every one of Socrates' demands too is a little bothersome, didn't the
Heaven's Gate, Branch Davidian and Jonestown folks think their leaders
were deeply enlightened? Think before you obey.
The best thing about this book is that it is an easy read, and most
philosophy books do read like bad VCR instructions. However, Zen and
the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, the Tao of Pooh and the Te of
Piglet, are just as easy to read, a lot more fun, and have better
messages. For that matter, Everything I Need to Know I Learned in
Kindergarten is also an easy to read book that changes lives.
Some of you love this book, and that is really great, but please don't
let this be an end to any search for enlightenment, after all there
are five major world religions, dozens of minor ones, and dozens of
schools of philosophy to explore. This book is a dip in a kiddy pool,
let's try for the deep end."
http://www.amazon.com/review/product/0915811006/ref=cm_rdphist_1?%%5Fencoding=UTF8&filterBy...
