The Lotus Effect: Shedding Suffering and Rediscovering Your Essential Self

by Pavel Somov

The Lotus Effect offers readers a variety of Buddhist meditative techniques, both ancient and modern, for shedding the worry, rumination, obsessive thinking, and overthinking that causes suffering and prevents people from fully absorbing positive situations and experiences.

What if we could go through a day of spilled coffee, traffic snarls, and fights with our loved one, and emerge feeling balanced and unscathed? The Lotus Effect offers ancient meditative techniques designed to help readers do just that. Written by clinical psychologist and practicing Buddhist Pavel Somov, this book breaks down the 'lotus effect'—the ability of the lotus plant to repel any non-nourishing foreign substances that cling to it in order to allow it to access as much sunlight and water as possible. This natural resilience helps it to thrive and bloom in even the worst conditions.

Using the lotus flower as its central metaphor, The Lotus Effect offers meditation techniques and intriguing thought and perception exercises for shedding difficult thoughts and experiences, anger, worry, stress, and feelings of low self-worth. Readers discover what triggers their minds to focus on these feelings, and they practice disidentifying with these thoughts and instead identifying with their essential selves—the selves which, like lotus flowers, remain unstained by the slings and arrows of daily life. Somov introduces practical meditation practices including neti-neti (mindful detachment from distressing information, 'I am not this'), vipassana meditation (interconnection between mind and body), Dzogchen meditation (acceptance and awareness of reality), and Western relaxation training.

Genres: Self Help

200 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Gianmichael Salvato · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first couple times I read this book, I did so while traveling, and found it to be a compelling combination of bringing to life historical tradition, mythos and the philosophical concepts of the Sanatana Dharma and Buddhism, in a way that was interesting and inspiring.

The author's method for overcoming negative emotional patterns is both engaging and practical.

I intend to read it again soon, when I can engage in the literal practices Somov recommends. His playful art of communication reminds me of how I imagine the great Krsna or Śakyamuni would have light-heartedly "played" with their students.

Definitely one of those books I recommend for those seeking informational detox.

[Erika]

I enjoyed the exercises Somov suggests to help with letting go of suffering to rediscover "your" essential self. It's a good self-help book to pick up at some later time when you feel the need to refer to an exercise to get yourself back on track.