Practical Wabi Sabi

by Simon G. Brown

Practical Wabi Sabi

Genres: Zen

Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

From the authors website:

I studied macrobiotics in nineteen eighty in London and went to the USA to study with Michio Kushi, Aveline Kushi, Shizuko Yamamoto and Denny Waxman. Whilst there I ran the Macrobiotic Association of Philadelphia. Returning to London I became the director of London's Community Health Foundation, the leading macrobiotic centre in the UK, from 1986 to 1993. I co-authored ‘Against All Odds’ with Dr. Faulkner charting his macrobiotic recovery from Pancreatic cancer. I regularly hosted courses for Michio and Aveline Kushi and Shizuko Yamamoto.

Whilst at the Community Health Centre I ran the fist large feng shui courses in the UK with William Spear and Takashi Yoshikawa. I left the CHF in 1993 to persue a freelance career in feng shui, macrobiotics, face reading and shiatsu living in London and travelling thoughout the UK, Europe and USA.

Since 1993 I have worked as a macrobiotic consultant, macrobiotic teacher, feng shui teacher, feng shui consultant and shiatsu practitioner. I have written numerous books including ‘Practical Feng Shui’, ‘The Practical Art of Face Reading’, ‘The Chi Energy Workbook’, 'Modern Day Macrobiotics', 'The Feng Shui Bible' 'Astrology by Numbers' 'Practical Wabi Sabi' and ‘The Energy Booster Workout’. I am currently involved in the macrobiotic shop Luscious Organic in Kensington High Street with my wife Dragana.

I offer one to one training days in feng shui, macrobiotics and shiatsu. These are flexible and can be adapted to what ever you are looking for. I also provide consultations in feng shui, nine ki astrology and macrobiotics as well as shiatsu massage sessions in London. I also work as a feng shui expert, face reader and macrobiotic expert for the media.

My appraoch is friendly, open and positive. I take a non judgemental approach to my work with people and my emphasis is on empowering my clients in their lives rather than risk enslaving anyone to any doctrine.

I am a member of the Feng Shui Society of Great Britain, the Macrobiotic Association of Great Britain and the Shiatsu Society of Great Britain and abide by their proffessional ethics.

Reviews

[Kathleen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I got interested in wabi-sabi a couple of weeks ago and requested a number of books on it from the library. I read one very good book, Simply Imperfect by Robin Lawrence, so I already know that I am drawn to and interested in wabi-sabi as an attitude as well as a design philosophy.
And even though I am partial to wabi-sabi, I could not stand this book for a few reasons. First, the author starts from the premise that wabi-sabi is difficult to explain, so instead of explaining, he just tells the reader what it means to him. I'm sure he's a great person and all, but I'm not interested in what it means to him specifically.
Second, I am not sure that an editor ever looked at this. There are so many typos and grammatical errors that it was distracting. By page 10 I had already noticed so many mistakes that I wondered how far I was going to be able to make it into the book. The style the author chose was already pretty unprofessional, and with all the mistakes the unprofessionalness was compounded.
Third, the pictures in this book were very, very bad. Almost comical. Not only did they look like still images taken from a pharmaceutical commercial, they also were, to me, completely unrelated to the ideas discussed on the page.
Wabi-Sabi is great, but if you're looking for an introduction to it, this isn't really the place to start.

[Marika · Rating 3 out of 5]

it has to be said first that i would recommend this book to everyone simply because i would recommend getting to know the idea of wabi sabi. try it! it can really make a difference in your daily life. and even if you didn't end up getting into it, it will at least make you think of many important factors in your life and in your home.
with that said, i'm not at all sure this is THE book on wabi sabi. there are probably better ones out there. i was expecting a bit more from the book, a bit deeper delving into the subject and more practical, tangible ideas and examples. it's mostly just skimming the surface now, explaining a lot whereas i feel it would work better if it explained less in words only and presented more examples (with images/photos).
as such this turned out to be more introductory-only than i expected. anyway, that's not necessarily a failure. i can imagine the whole point of the book is to be a introduction of the idea of wabi sabi and as such it might serve more readers(?).
anyway, perhaps good to look on other books on wabi sabi too, to see what suits you best.

[Loree · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book on Wabi Sabi, it covers the full gamut and the recipes are good too.

[LemontreeLime · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just could not read this, i tried 3 times. But it came across like a pamphlet someone had expanded for publication, and rang as hollow as a decorating show on cable.