https://melpine.substack.com/p/news-about-books-and-buddhism?r=7iprh

A New Way of Seeing: From Knowledge to Insight by Dominique Side, who writes the Substack blog the softer gaze. Her 2022 book, Discovering Buddhism, provides a thorough textbook-like overview of Buddhism. The new one goes deeper into helping those of us in the West to an experiential understanding (grokking) of Buddhism that cuts through cultural and semantic obscurations. She writes:

The Buddhist perspective is not just another lens. Taking the Buddha’s teachings to heart does not mean discarding an old pair of spectacles and donning Buddhist-shaped goggles instead. The point of the Buddhist teachings is not to offer a new pair of glasses that magically produces a true perception of reality. In fact, we could say that it’s the opposite of this. Buddhism helps us to become aware of the various lenses we are already using, to see through them as it were, and finally to discard them altogether. The aim is to see reality directly without filters or props of any kind…


There is a world of difference between thoughts and ideas. Thoughts fill the airwaves; systems of thought are structured carefully and coherently and are shown to be far neater and, for some, more satisfying, than life itself. But ideas are different. Ideas have legs. Ideas change people; they move the masses; they actually shape the world. Ideas are dynamic, they have force and power and refuse to be consigned to the dictionary or to any type of written page. The fabled Tibetan yogi Milarepa would tell his students that the Buddha’s words are not like other philosophies that we read for pleasure or stimulation and then put back on the shelf. We can actually practise the dharma and apply it to our day-to-day life.

That’s what Dominique is attempting to do in her book.

A New Way of Seeing by Dominique Side delves into a careful exploration of the Treasury of Metaphysics (Abhidharma Kosha),. My knowledge of, and experience with, Buddhism has never gone this deeply into the practice.

I found the book to be very carefully written with much thought given to how to help the reader understand how to enlarge their practice with this method, and in my case, this isn't a book to be rushed through, so I haven't finished it yet.