Book Club: NAIKAN (Gratitude, Grace, and the Japanese Art of Self-Reflection

Hello our Dharma friends,

Hope this message finds you well. As one of the most active Buddhism groups online, we often get so many questions such as the following:

How to be accepting of our fate specially when bad things happen?
How to surrender to our fate?
Trying to be kind to myself though it's not easy.
I suffer feeling I’m constantly struggling; why do we live life?

Compassion in Buddhism means removing suffering and enabling joyfulness. When Siddhartha Gautama reached the enlightenment of a Buddha, he taught us the 4 Noble Truths, the first of which is life is suffering. But he also taught the second Noble Truth, which is there is a cause to suffering. And the third Noble Truth: the cessation of suffering & the 4th Noble Truth: the way to the cessation of suffering.

To the extent we understand the root cause of our sufferings, we can gain confidence in living life and supporting others as well. That adds to our joyfulness and vitality in life!

In our meetups, we talk about the 4 Noble Truths and in this book club gathering, I'd like to go over how self introspection (NAIKAN) is helping us understand the cause of our sufferings and resolve those entanglements.

We're going to read Gregg Krech's book NAIKAN (Gratitude, Grace, and the Japanese Art of Self-Reflection) and have discussions about it. From page 31, "If we are not willing to see and accept those events in which we have been the source of others' suffering, then we cannot truly know ourselves or the grace by which we live."

June: What Is Naikan? pages 25-32
July: Gratitude & the Practice of Attention and Reflection pages 35-65
August: Giving to Others pages 69-79
September: A Moral Self-Examination pages 86-111
October: No book club in October
November: Mysteries and Myths of Separation pages 114- 126
December: Intimate Attention pages 132-152
January 2025: The Practice of Naikan pages 155-177
February 2025: Self-Reflection & Service pages 186-197

https://www.amazon.com/Naikan-Gratitude-Grace-Japanese-Self-Reflection/dp/1880656639

For questions or supporting my cause, please message me at [email protected]

Gratitude donations for the classes are gratefully accepted at https://donorbox.org/purelandschooldonation

Our zoom password is 426646

Thank you and hope to see you soon! Please don't be discouraged by the few RSVPs on this page as friends join us from other venues as well.