Book review

I just finished another book (don't worry, knitting content to come soon, almost done with the cardigan fronts!), called What Makes You Not a Buddhist. This book covers the four seals or truths of Buddhism, which are: impermanence, emotions are pain, all phenomenon is illusory, and enlightenment is beyond concepts.
Impermanence is pretty easy for me to comprehend. Nothing is forever. We will die, our possessions will deteriorate, etc. Emotions are pain was a little harder for me to understand, I mean, all emotions are pain? Come on! But on reflection, I can understand this idea, too. Thinking of loving someone and how great that is, but then what about when something happens to that person? The feelings of love for that person end up hurting. No pleasurable emotion lasts forever. Every high has a low.
All phenomenon is illusory, or emptiness, was another 'huh?' chapter for me, but the essence seems to be about getting rid of labels. We label everything and everyone...pretty, ugly, large, small, good, bad. But what may be pretty or good or fair for you might be ugly or bad or unfair for me. Also, we shouldn't get caught up in the labels others impose on us.
Enlightenment is beyond concepts seemed pretty straight-forward to me. I can't imagine what enlightenment or nirvana is like, and I can't expect someone to be able to explain it to me so I do understand it.
I loved this book! It was a very quick read, and I know I'll read it many more times.

Today and tomorrow I'm hoping to finish the cardigan fronts and get back to work on the quilts. My goal is to get all four of the quilts done by March 26th, the first anniversary of Mom's death. Everything is out, staring me in the face, and taking up part of my living room, so no excuses!

And in totally gross news, I woke up this morning with an awful taste in my mouth, looked and my tongue in the mirror....all black! Ewwwww! It freaked. me. out. but Sir B said it could be from my taking Pepto-Bismol before bed after brushing my teeth (he said it says on the packaging it can cause a black tongue. Funny how I never remember reading that!).