Robert Coles

Minding What Matters

Minding What Matters could be considered part of a new genre, the “literary self-help” book. Echoing the style of Kundera and the insights of Jung, with dashes of The God of Small Things and Thoughts Without a Thinker, this timely book alternates between discursive sections on Buddhist topics and engrossing fictional scenes between a psychotherapist and a patient. Sometimes going so far as to directly address the reader, the book shows how of any one of us can intimately explore his or her mind. By encouraging readers to create a stare of inquiry and allowing them to put themselves into hypothetical situations-such as participating in therapy or engaging in Buddhist practices-the book shows us how to discover our inner thoughts and then act on them in positive ways. At once informative and evocative, Minding What Matters offers an entrancing vision of, in Robert Coles’s words, “what is possible to do and to be.”

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