Book Notes: Dancing with Fire

Dancing with Fire (John Amodeo) was recommended to me by the kind Eric Couillard. The core message of the book is that we should not confuse the buddhist idea of non-attachment with disconnecting ourselves from relationships and other people.

This core idea was not particularly novel to me – I understand non-attachment as a suggestion to be mindful about our grasping and craving, and not as an admonishment against loving or caring about others. So there weren’t any big “aha!” moments for me in this book. Instead, for a few months it served as a way for me to dip daily in a little of spiritual inspiration and reminders.

I ended up highlighting a bunch of things that resonated when I read them. I would recommend this book to anyone who struggles to reconcile traditional budhhist teachings with relationships, especially love and other ‘intense attachment’ type of relationsips.