Book Review: The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down

The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down scratches on the edges of simplicity and complexity at the same time. The teachings of Haemin Sunim is transparent. You don't have to deliberate or drag yourself to the depths of the ocean to understand what he is saying. With it short quotes and uncomplicated anecdotes, the book is in and of itself an embodiment of slowing down. While reading I couldn't help think that this book was too simple, and that it's statements seemed too obvious. Buried in my ego was this misconception that in order for something to be worthwhile it had to be profound. Something was valuable only if it was unabashedly throwing itself at you with it's textured words and glittery images, but this book doesn't pretend to be something that it is not. One minute you could be reading about the deception of pizza advertisements, and then a quote like "knowledge wants to talk, wisdom wants to listen" comes up; I had no idea what was coming next, and that made reading this book all the more enjoyable. The joy of such spontaneity could only be realized by slowing down; if you didn't slow down, you'd miss the humor and fun in Sunim's teachings. Maybe that process of unwinding from our own expectations and seeing things as plainly and simply as they are is where true happiness can be found. A saying from the book that stuck with me was:

"I squeeze myself into the subway car. People are crowded all around me. I can either get annoyed or think it's fun that I don't have to grab a handrail. People react differently to the same situation. If we look closely, we see it's not the situation that is troubling us, but our perspective on it."

In other words, what if our problems are only problems because we perceive them as problems? Perception is a pretty strange thing. Each and every single one of us operates within our own little world, separated from the truth of what actually is. What if human beings are incapable of truth? Or maybe each of us are small fragments of what could be true? Some of us (myself included) don't like being in a crowded subway car, but why? If we never had the concept of feeling "crowded", then would we have felt bothered by it in the first place? In that moment when I feel suffocated in the subway, is it really me feeling that way or is it something that I was taught to feel by the world around me? It makes you wonder how much of our feelings are really ours to begin with. Maybe if you dig a little deeper and slow down, you'll know how to differentiate between the two. This book was a much needed reminder that I am allowed to be a tortoise in a hare world. Slow down, otherwise it'll all just be one giant blur.