Customer Reviews

Sweeping Changes: Discovering the Joy of Zen in Everyday Tasks

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Mr. Thorp's deceptively small book is packed with wisdom, clarity, and humor. The book speaks to mundane tasks in every day living: Sweeping, washing dishes, and various other chores both in and outside of one's dwelling. Taking what would seem to make for a boring book topic (namely housework), Thorp explains and demonstrates what he refers to as the state of mindfulness. This zen-based approach to moving through the business of life's details is a challenging concept initially. Satisfaction in doing the many little things that are a part one's daily regimen seems foreign to most of us; it certainly was to me. The writer allows the reader to see things through a different lens, with a new perspective and a fresh perception. After reading Sweeping Changes, I felt an acute awareness and appreciation for the world literally at my fingertips, and a more positive feeling about myself and about the little things I do that mean a lot. I now feel mindful of the things I touch and of the things I do, and I feel a new appreciation for myself and how I am connected to all things. Finally, I do, at least for the time being, experience a real joy in doing things that I formerly would have considered dull. I look forward to Mr. Thorp's next work.

When I received this book the rougher edged pages made it intriguing to handle. In a way this prepares you for the message of the book. It is the little things that form us as well.

Upon reading the first section of the first chapter, a mere page or two, I knew this book was going to be a treat. It frames for you a single thought or consideration about the world around you. This I found well worth using the rest of the day to ponder.

I deliberately then read only one section each day. Sadly after 39 days of having this book as my daily companion, I have finished reading it.

It was shear joy, as this book illuminates your own life, your common everyday occurances and helps you see how each contributes to the whole. I plan to read this over and over again. This has given me an inside to Zen, that I would not have oridinarily had. With the bibliography in the back of the book I'm encouraged to read more.

Also, as not to miss the point of the name "Sweeping changes" it gives a much more satisfying view on housework. It brings it more into an overall perspective. You are caring for the things that help support you. It is a synergistic relationship.

Fantastic book

Maybe it is a California thing but as a native, I think the term Zen gets overused. The author notes on page 2 "Zen is the Japanese word for "meditation," and while this is usually understood as sitting quietly in a formal posture, it can also be applied to the everyday movements of daily activity."

I am neither Zen or Buddhist in the purest form of the word. But I bought the book because I have been involved in simple living for almost two decades and I am always interested in how different people approach simplicity and quietness in everyday life.

So what value did I find in this book? Well, for starters its nice to see the everyday tasks that must be done, elevated to a higher or revered level. I have always believed that preparing food or making a house a home and feeding the bodies as well as the mind of the ones around us is something very spiritual or even holy. That bring order from chaos is wonderful. And seeing smile and laughter and contentment from daily tasks is a sure sign of enlightenment.

There are so many gems in this books from pots and pans to where one sleeps, to the colours that surround us and how that effects us, to simple things like learning that in Japan that when a precious tea container is broken it is not only mended but gold leafed so that the repair is shown as a continuance of the life of the item. Whereas here in America when something is broken it usually gets tossed out and a new replacement is sought.

Mr. Thorp's clear prose and common sense analogies bring forward the accumulated wisdom which informs this rumination on mindlfulness, zen, and every day tasks.

Mr. Thorp lets us see (without lecturing) that the extraordinary is certainly to be found in ordinary, and in this case, essential tasks.

One of the pleasures of the book (and there are many) is that even after having read through it from front to back each chapter can be read as if entering a room of one's inner house, and within each room spending mindful time with each task.

Are you familiar with the story of the young beginning monk who goes to the Zen master and asks him what he should do to attain enlightenment and the master asks him if he has eaten his bowl of rice, the boy says yes and the master says, "Wash your bowl." ? Gary Thorp with compassionate good nature explains how to wash your bowl. Enlightenment needs no special equipment and each and every creature and object in your life is just waiting to give it to you. I think this book suggests many ways of how to see that. It's magical. You don't have to stop anything that you are doing, you don't have to join any club or cult or religion, you don't have to be anything but what you really are. Just read the book and meditate on it and everything will be fine. No kidding. It's that good.

I had been looking around for an electric broom, so I could take care of the floors in my home between my cleaner's every-other-week visits. I couldn't make up my mind, then I came across this book and decided to give the old-fashioned broom and dustpan another try, with a better attitude. For now, I'll stick with them. This is a delightful little book. While so many other books on adding meaning to ordinary life come across as merely clever, repetitious, or self serving, Thorp seems to have written this little gem with sincere desire to simply share some of his accumulated wisdom. I hope he is working on another book

I've been on a thirty year search for a book like "Sweeping Changes". Although, I've read a lot of books on zen, only a few seem to capture zen's true essence. Gary Thorp, author of "Sweeping Changes", is able to convey this zen essence to his reader. He writes of bringing mindfulness into all aspects of daily living. But Thorp does this without being prescriptive. Instead, after reading (or shall I say savoring) a chapter of "Sweeping Changes", you find yourself inspired to bring your entire presence to the task at hand; whether it is sweeping the kitchen floor, taking care of the kids, or addressing a challenge at work.

For now, "Sweeping Changes" will have a special place on my book shelf; a place where it comforts me with its very presence of zen.

I've seldom read such kind hearted and helpful wisdom as Gary Thorp offers in Sweeping Changes. Read this book and then watch the everyday "ordinary" moments of your life become embued with meaning and deserving of profound respect. You'll never look at dust or think of water in the way you once did. I feel compelled to give my small review as a way to help this book make it's good way into the wide world. With deep bows to Gary Thorp. I hope you have a second and third and fourth book in mind...

Cleaning and sweeping have never been so enlighten after I read this book. Thorp is for sure someone who knows very well how difficult is to cope with the house's cleaning. However, he gives us wonderful tips to face them with joy and happiness. Try this book!

Having just read Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer's Life which emphasized the importance of repetitive work e.g. making one's bed, it is appropriate to read the Buddhist perspective as offered by Gary Thorp. The subtitle of the book "Discovering the Joy of Zen in Everyday Tasks" describes the book well. Or, if you prefer, you make think of the books as a manual on mindful living.

What Gary Thorp does well is to show how the everyday tasks - sweeping the floor, washing the window, raking the yard, repairing the rood - can be both an exercise in simply doing what one is doing well and a lesson on the interconnectedness of all things. He gently introduces some Buddhist practices of thankfulness and non-attachment (letting things simply be as they are) but retains the tone of teaching those who have no teacher but experience. Thus he provides a real service to those who do not have the opportunity to study in a Zen Center; it also broadens the appeal of the practices to those who are not attracted to philosophical Buddhism.

He closes the book with an excellent list of books to consult if one is interested in further exploration of the Zen experience.