cover image Unsubscribe: Opt Out of Delusion, Tune in to Truth

Unsubscribe: Opt Out of Delusion, Tune in to Truth

Josh Korda. Wisdom, $17.95 trade paper (272p) ISBN 978-1-61429-282-1

Korda, founder of the Buddhist community Dharma Punx NYC, teaches that the path to living a good life is readily available, and that it requires one to engage in a profound radical questioning of one’s conditioning. Korda’s teaching emphasizes three basic points for living in line with the Dharma in modern times: skillfully reprioritizing goals, fully integrating emotions and feelings with rationality, and cultivating authentic, empathetic connections with others. Korda writes that the work he prescribes is difficult and, at times, uncomfortable. He stresses that by being more conscious and mindful of one’s place in the world, one can create meaning and purpose, but first one must extract oneself from prescribed roles. Korda particularly emphasizes reorienting the self by feeling one’s emotional, felt embodiment in the world, which comes close to the meditation practice of paying attention to visceral sensations and physical surroundings. In casual prose (“We survive by connecting to others. That’s our advantage. We can bond, share information, act as a team”), he offers guidance for everyday practice, including mindfulness techniques, visualizations, and investigations of one’s emotional, embodied experience. Korda’s work doesn’t tread new ground, but it is an intelligent, compassionate addition to popular Buddhist literature that doesn’t shy away from the grim and sometimes bleak realities of life and practice. [em](Nov.) [/em]