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Unlearning the Basics: A New Way of Understanding Yourself and the World
In fresh and inviting language and making frequent use of strikingly clear diagrams and illustrations, Unlearning the Basics challenges many of our common-sense understandings about ourselves and the world. The author lays out a new way of seeing that enables us to live more serenely, more compassionately, and more free from the slings and arrows of our busy lives.
Along the way, Rishi Sativihari looks at love and grasping, at "the great unfixables," and at how vulnerability and pain feed the "evolution of character"-all in the service of helping us return to our true home and find new ways to flourish. Grounded in the Buddhist tradition yet completely free from the formulas of traditional, tired presentations, Unlearning the Basics has an informal, straightforward style that will immediately captivate the reader.
Along the way, Rishi Sativihari looks at love and grasping, at "the great unfixables," and at how vulnerability and pain feed the "evolution of character"-all in the service of helping us return to our true home and find new ways to flourish. Grounded in the Buddhist tradition yet completely free from the formulas of traditional, tired presentations, Unlearning the Basics has an informal, straightforward style that will immediately captivate the reader.
- GenresSpiritualityBuddhism
168 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
November 11, 2025
This book promises to give a new perspective of the buddha’s 4 primary teachings. It does not.
It’s customary when reviewing books like this to say something like, it could do with better editing. But this is faint praise. It needs to be completely rewritten.
The real book opening is at chapter 7, page 79, where the author memorably reflects for a few paragraphs on the difference between their experience and their teacher’s experience, and asks the reader to reflect on the difference between their experience and what is described in the book.
This is the best opening.
Page 74 has an amazing image of dependent origination as a Shoggoth, which in the 15 years since this book was written has become associated with artificial intelligence. It’s a fascinating insight that our intelligence is just as artificial as an AIs despite being embodied.
Chapter 9 on wisdom is honestly frustrating and unclear. The author says a lot of things like a big pile but they don’t relate or build to one another. I felt like the bits were almost about to connect but did not.
The person who first read my copy stopped making notes at page 30, before the good stuff around page 74 even started. They stopped reading 30 pages into a 130 page book!
Fortunately, I jumped around and found the good stuff:
I would appreciate a rewrite from chapter 7, sharing experience and provocations on each of the 4 noble truths with vivid stories, culminating in powerful chapters sharing apt stories on wisdom, morality, and refuge. And maybe relegate the first 6 chapters to appendices.
It’s customary when reviewing books like this to say something like, it could do with better editing. But this is faint praise. It needs to be completely rewritten.
The real book opening is at chapter 7, page 79, where the author memorably reflects for a few paragraphs on the difference between their experience and their teacher’s experience, and asks the reader to reflect on the difference between their experience and what is described in the book.
This is the best opening.
Page 74 has an amazing image of dependent origination as a Shoggoth, which in the 15 years since this book was written has become associated with artificial intelligence. It’s a fascinating insight that our intelligence is just as artificial as an AIs despite being embodied.
Chapter 9 on wisdom is honestly frustrating and unclear. The author says a lot of things like a big pile but they don’t relate or build to one another. I felt like the bits were almost about to connect but did not.
The person who first read my copy stopped making notes at page 30, before the good stuff around page 74 even started. They stopped reading 30 pages into a 130 page book!
Fortunately, I jumped around and found the good stuff:
I would appreciate a rewrite from chapter 7, sharing experience and provocations on each of the 4 noble truths with vivid stories, culminating in powerful chapters sharing apt stories on wisdom, morality, and refuge. And maybe relegate the first 6 chapters to appendices.
Displaying 1 of 1 review