Book Review: Living Fully: Finding Joy In Every Breath by Shyalpa Tenzin Rinpoche
It may sound strange to describe it as such, but this book is like a great selection of short, fast punk rock songs. No need to go off into heavy, long guitar solos. Time to just get to it. Get in and get out. Living Fully does just that. It’s a collection of many short chapters that together give a full soundtrack to what it is to be human and how to discover how best to navigate this reality we find ourselves in.
Quite a bit of terrain is covered in this book, but don’t be fooled, it is a deep read and does cover every aspect of human existence. Ambitious yes, but Shyalpa Tenzin Rinpoche has successfully achieved this with this book in my opinion. The writing is clear and concise and grounded very much in Tibetan Buddhism as well as the full experience of being human - every nook and cranny.
The concept of freedom is referred to quite often within the pages of “Living Fully”, as the essence of this book is about how to experience each moment of our lives and be present. The topics covered within its pages primarily relate to the theme of how to break through confusion and how to find freedom from suffering and provides instructions on what qualities we can cultivate to help us on the path and in turn, live a good life.
Suggestions such as examining our intentions, thinking of how to be of benefit and working with our minds by using meditation and mindfulness are referred to regularly in “Living Fully”. A large part of the book speaks to how meditation helps to reveal wisdom and serves as a buffer against the challenges that can arise in our lives.
Concepts core to Buddhist thought such as the nature of change and impermanence, obstacles, antidotes, karma, self-liberation, non-duality, attachments and specifically, as the title would suggest, the power that comes from realization around our precious human birth and the need to act now are all explored within the book. Shyalpa Tenzin Rinpoche also spends some time expressing how important it is for one to have a teacher in one’s life and how this relationship can help us on our spiritual path. The concept that the teacher is always available to us 24/7 is also explored as well as how we ourselves are our best teachers in guiding ourselves along the way since at the end of the day, nobody can do the work for us but ourselves.
The final chapter of the book comes from a Question and Answer session with Shyalpa Tenzin Rinpoche and mainly focuses on the topics of love, work and life in our present age. This section alone was quite nourishing for me as it related much to topics that I’m currently focused on such as how to balance my attachment to technology with my desire to share and connect with others as well as how to function in the material world but be free.
“Living Fully: Finding Joy in Every Breath” is one of those valuable books that can be picked up and referred to at any point as any chapter that you turn to will provide you with insight. Regardless of how far along in practice and study a student is engaged on the path, Shyalpa Tenzin Rinpoche has written a book that deepens the core principles of how to be present in every moment and makes that possibility less daunting.
