Man’s Search for Meaning

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I wanted to read this book ever since I read Stephen Covey mentioning it as an inspiration for his “7 habits of highly effective people”. It is small book written very clearly. Part One describes Viktor Frankl’s experiences in the Nazi concentration camp. This is most touching part of the book and I was shocked to read about the brutality in the concentration camps. It is very inspiring to see that Frankl survived it with lot of kindness and grace. His “Logotherapy” (basically an elaboration of “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how” by Friedrich Nietzsche) is pretty much explained through his experiences in the camp. But in Part two, he explains it more formally using technical terms. This part is rather dry but still very useful. The book concludes with a lecture titled “Tragic optimism” which is optimism in spite of the tragic triad of pain, guilt and death. It is a perfect positive ending to the book.

Read this book to understand and fully embrace life. May be it will also prompt us to search for a meaning in our lives.

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Review: Dying to Be Me: My Journey from Cancer, to Near Death, to True Healing

Dying to Be Me: My Journey from Cancer, to Near Death, to True Healing by Anita Moorjani

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is a true story of a remarkable woman who had a Near Death Experience (NDE) that not only cured her stage four cancer but also gave her a new purpose in life. Her NDE story is fascinating to say the least. Skeptics may question the “reality” of her NDE story but the important thing is that she is transformed by that experience, whether it is real or imaginary. Part-1 of the book describes her life before the NDE. It is a story of a simple Indian origin woman in Hong Kong who found a soulmate in her husband and started living a happy married life until cancer played spoilsport. Part-2 describes her NDE in detail and her life after it. Because of her NDE, she realizes that she needs to accept and love herself first. With fear of death gone, she decides to live fearlessly preaching how connected we all are in actuality. This message is not new (at least to me) but putting it in the context of death and her NDE makes a different kind of impact than just hearing those things causally. I think that’s why this book struck a chord with millions of people. The author is indeed fortunate to have played a role in creating happiness and world peace in her own little way. Part-3 describes her philosophy in more detail. I did not find this part very interesting but it is a good articulation nevertheless.

After I read this book, I did bit of research on NDEs and studied a bit more about the author (check out her Ted talk, which is pretty good). It is all very interesting and inspiring even though I am somewhat agnostic in my views on NDEs. But really you do not need to believe in God, after-life or NDEs to read this book. The key message is to embrace the life you have right now with all love and kindness and fearlessly offer the same to the world. For that alone, this book is definitely worth a read!

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