This is, fundamentally, a memoir documenting the problems Harris has had in his life and career and how meditation and buddhist principles have helped him deal with them. At no point does he make himself out to be any sort of expert, or even to have anything but the barest level of competence as a meditator. But he tried it, and he talked with a bunch of people more experienced with him, and he talked to a whole bunch of spiritual leaders, and in the end he's turned out to be a better person even if he's only taken the first couple of steps on his spiritual journey.

I quite enjoy Harris' skepticism at every point of this book. He goes on his first retreat practically on a whim expecting it to be awful, but he learns a lot. He expects his teachers to be a bunch of head-in-the-cloud yuppies with no idea how to deal with the real world, but he gets little but actionable, practical advice. Hell, he spends a while talking about how weird people were for being so enamoured by the Dalai Lama, then he falls for him himself. Harris spends most of the book struggling with how to fit his life and his developing worldview together, and every time he thinks he's figured out what the core problem is he gets a bit of advice from a mentor that immediately reconciles the whole thing. It's kind of remarkable how he hasn't just gone all-in on buddhism considering how many of his inner demons have been calmed by a bit of mindful advice.

This book doesn't really try to sell you on meditation or mindfulness or anything, but considering how relatable most of Harris' problems are the benefits to everyone's everyday lives is evident anyways. It's about his personal journey, and his journey illustrates how most people's paths would be a bit clearer if they could sit with their thoughts for half an hour a day. It's written fantastically, always demonstrating why a viewpoint is better rather than trying to convince you.

Personally, I've been trying to maintain a meditation practice for quite a while now, so the book was little more than a good reminder that it's a good thing to do. His initial resistance to loving-kindness (metta) meditation was honestly a bit funny because I also went through the initial "this sounds stupid" phase before trying it and crying embarrassingly. Still, it was a great listen; good enough I might actually pick up a dead tree copy to keep on the shelf. Highly recommend.