Book Review – Jibuntoka, Nai Kara

It is probably a bit silly, reviewing in English a book only available in Japanese, but maybe if I can get people interested, it’ll get translated.

Anyway, this is a book about “Eastern Philosophy” (really, almost exclusively Buddhist thought) written by failed Japanese comedian Shinmei P. It’s real core, though, is its emphasis on introducing the important ideas that  offered the writer himself ease during his worst lows.

And he did have lows. Much of his life story is in this book, but he started out at an elite university as a great student, but it was all show. He killed it at interviews, but then couldn’t manage to work in teams so failed as an employee.

Everything he tried was a failure. His marriage, his entertainment career, everything. And he eventually ended up holed up in his room, reading philosophy to try and figure out the emptiness he felt.

Apparently, this book was born from an article he wrote about how, after reading fifty books about Eastern Philosophy, his own identity just stopped mattering.

And that is what guides his selection of thinkers (and I apologize for calling the Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama himself, a “thinker”) here. It’s all about emptiness, the negation of self, and the pursuit of freedom from attachment.

The good thing is, this book was overseen by an actual professor of religion, Kamata Tōji, so it’s not just a goofy listicle style of book (although it is that, too).

Personally, I found it a really accessible intro to some important Indian, Chinese, and Japanese figures in the history of Buddhism.

I really liked it, and it wasn’t that hard at all to read. Good stuff!