Jose

Super sweet book. The tale of a sensitive boy.

Revisado: 02-10-20

It is a very sweet book telling the story of Flea's childhood, showing how sensitive he is and how his life was impacted by these events that later formed the man he became, which is where the book ends, just at the end of his adolescence, right at the beginning of the RHCP.

Being read by Flea himself, this is as immersive as it gets. You can hear his voice breaking during some particularly emotional passages, or mentioning special people in his life.

Before giving it a try, I was turned off knowing that the book was not about his time in the RHCP, but his childhood. Now, I'm just happy I got this sweet book by a sweet man.

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Nice tell-all book, very entertaining. The narration though...

Revisado: 12-30-19

Nice book by Anthony Kiedis, maybe a bit dated now -released almost 15 years ago. It includes plenty of war stories from the RHCP and his personal struggle with addiction.

The narration deserves a review of its own. Rider Strong, whom I didn’t know at all before listening to this, is a great interpreter. It came as no surprise at all when I found out he voices characters in cartoons.

Here, he gives everyone a voice of their own, like he was dubbing a script. The recording is amateur -you can hear the pages turning, and the echo of the room. Even though his voice is not the right one for the subject of the book, he does a tremendous job here, and takes the book to another level.

I agree with other reviewers claiming this wasn’t the right guy for this book, given the character of his voice, but what a great job he did.

So, download this book and give the narrator a chance. It is highly entertaining.

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Ram Dass' Greatest Hits

Revisado: 11-15-19

If you've been following Ram Dass for years, this will serve as a beautiful "Greatest Hits" compilation. Maybe you have heard most of these talks, but the selection is very well made and thoroughly enjoyable, full of wisdom and struggle, which resonates very easily with anyone who listens.

If, on the other hand, you're discovering Ram Dass and want to know more about his work, then this is definitely the best way to dive into his teachings. Not a dull moment.

Ram Dass delivers like no other. What a beautiful, open and honest teacher. Highly recommended.

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esto le resultó útil a 23 personas

Mostly a waste of time, unfortunately.

Revisado: 11-15-19

Lama Surya Das is a lovable teacher and character, yet this work is highly informal and improvised.

Being about Dzogchen, the instructions here should be very straightforward (just be and pay attention to what's happening. No effort, nothing to do), yet Surya Das manages to ramble incessantly using Buddhist jargon, running rounds and rounds around the point, but hardly getting to it, which is funny because Dzogchen is about stripping Buddhism from all adornments and going straight to the essence, exactly the opposite of what Surya Das does here.

A big part of this book are just these long chains of Buddhist pre-packed phrases in between the very few bits of actual instructions. Lama Sarya Das suffers from what I like to call Buddhist Tourette syndrome: "just sitting here, in the -here it starts- nowness, presentness, not pastness, not futureness, the Buddha, the You-ddha!, right here, ever present, never absent, Buddha awareness, shining-lotus-in-the-palm-of-your-hand, ever-present awareness, infinite Buddha, beyond time, beyond space, beyond personality, beyond you, no personal story, no narration,,," and so on. This is not an exageration.

So, while it is nice to listen to Surya Das, this book is a waste of time given its very improvised, informal form, with basically 5 minutes of instructions enveloped in hours upon hours of rambling.

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esto le resultó útil a 41 personas

One of the best Ram Dass lectures there is.

Revisado: 11-08-19

This, being a (kind of) complete lecture, is different than most other Ram Dass releases, in that the topic through it all is basically the same.

The parts about the Gita are actually few, most at the beginning -and this fact is also acknowledged by Ram Dass near the end. It’s mainly about the concepts in motion behind the Gita and how we see them in everyday life.

Great lecture, highly recommended.

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Alan Watts expressing Zen while getting out of the way.

Revisado: 10-21-19

This is Alan Watts first book, as far as I know, and it is a wonderful exposition about Zen (starting from Ch’an), its way of life and how it has been permeating life ever since Bodhidharma brought it from India to China, and before, with Taoism in China.

Highly recommended.

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An essential on real Zen

Revisado: 09-28-19

Over the centuries Zen has apparently been changed into something else, a fixed practice and a way of life that contains none of the real Zen essence, diluted and flavored to match our western palate.

This book, by Ch’an master Foyan and wonderfully translated (and read, as far as I know) by Thomas Cleary, points directly to the ineffable Zen way, as taught by the original Ch’an masters.

If you want a taste of real, non-westernized Zen, this is one of the essential books to get.

I wish more of these books on Zen by Thomas Cleary find their way to audiobooks.

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esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

An essential on real Zen

Revisado: 09-28-19

Over the centuries Zen has apparently been changed into something else, a fixed practice and a way of life that contains none of the real Zen essence, diluted and flavored to match our western palate.

This book, by Ch’an master Foyan and wonderfully translated (and read, as far as I know) by Thomas Cleary, points directly to the ineffable Zen way, as taught by the original Ch’an masters.

If you want a taste of real, non-westernized Zen, this is one of the essential books to get.

I wish more of these books on Zen by Thomas Cleary find their way to audiobooks.

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esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

A Classic for a reason

Revisado: 08-27-19

This classic book earns its merit because it accomplishes something very rare, which is to successfully transmit the essence of zen, with beautiful words and language. It is like poetry.
This is absolutely a must for anyone interested in zen. Might very well be the only one book to read.

The performance of the narrator, Peter Coyote, is remarkable. At the beginning it is stated that the audio has been “digitally remastered”, but it seems they only removed some of the background noise and not much else. A proper remaster of this narration is deserved for this work.

Again, this is the one book you need to read on zen. The rest of them just describe the exoteric aspects, traditions, history and such. This is the pure essence.

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A Classic for a reason

Revisado: 08-27-19

This classic book earns its merit because it accomplishes something very rare, which is to successfully transmit the essence of zen, with beautiful words and language. It is like poetry.
This is absolutely a must for anyone interested in zen. Might very well be the only one book to read.

The performance of the narrator, Peter Coyote, is remarkable. At the beginning it is stated that the audio has been “digitally remastered”, but it seems they only removed some of the background noise and not much else. A proper remaster of this narration is deserved for this work.

Again, this is the one book you need to read on zen. The rest of them just describe the exoteric aspects, traditions, history and such. This is the pure essence.

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