A Monk's Guide to a Clean House and Mind,  Shoukei Matsumoto
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Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

Genre: Health, Mind & Body , Religion & Spirituality  

I like to read books about other cultures and religions, and thought this sounded interesting. Its a quick and easy read, very slanted towards monks and temple life but with some parallels that apply to everybody. 

I do find when I've had a mammoth blitz on the house that I feel better, that I get pleasure from seeing a clean room so I can understand the ethos about taking pride in cleaning, in doing a job well. I think the message I got from it was that and also give a task your full attention, don't let your mind wander but focus and appreciate what you are doing as an important task. Its not just cleaning a floor, but making the home smell good, appealing to visitors, a place you can take pride in and focusing your mind while doing so lets some of the other clutter in there go, relaxes us. Well, that's the way I read it ;-) and it does make sense to me. 
I made a note about this part that resonated with me. “Adherence to the past and misgivings about the future will fill your head, wresting your mind from the present. That is why we monks pour ourselves heart and soil into the polishing of floors. Cleaning is training for staying in the now. Therein lies the reason for being particular about cleanliness.” Sometimes we're so busy looking ahead, to whats yet to come but which can change and looking to the past which we can't change that we don't appreciate today. Its time we'll never get back so enjoy it. 
When early in the book he is talking about Buddhism, and not harming other creatures he explains by keeping the temples clean they avoid insect and other infestations which they would then need to deal with, so its easier to keep to their beliefs by preventing it happening in the first place. My agnostic cockney gran used to say “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” so clearly that transcends countries and religions. 

I am going to try to take on some of the things I've read, make cleaning a regular schedule instead of my current ad-hoc when-I-feel-like-it one...and to focus on what I'm doing wholly instead of letting my mind wander. Like most of us I could do with some calm so its well worth trying. 


Stars: 5. a short but very interesting book. Mostly centred around monks and temples it never the less has an ethos we can bring into our own cleaning regime. 

ARC supplied for review purposes by Netgalley and publishers

In 2017 I began to incorporate more self-care and spiritual practises into my life. In 2018 it has been my goal to really engage with a more mindful, present, and tranquil lifestyle. For that reason I felt very conflicted about what to rate this book. I loved the essence of this book and was so sure I was going to adore it, before I began reading. In actuality, I loved the idea of it more than the end result.

This book opens up the ideologies behind many of a monk's daily practises and shows how the reader can also use the same mindful techniques to improve their environment and mindset. I really appreciated how, for such a short book, this provided details on a multitude of everyday items in the Japanese culture. I found these sections of interest but, perhaps, not of great use to a Western reader. Once I understood the simple concept of the book - how cleaning is led about getting rid of grime and more about cultivating the mind - there was nothing more this book had to offer me as I have little use on knowledge of how to properly care for a shōji or a monk's clothing.

With a proliferation of 'mindfulness' books taking up vast quantities of shelf space to convey what the author here boils down to the sparest, most essential hints and suggestions ... like a well thought out Japanese Zen garden, this has not a piece out of place nor a word wasted in its short length.

This is an an absolute delight of a book that can be read quickly, but will be contemplated for far longer - the suggestions for a more peaceful settled core seem entirely logical and obvious, but conveyed with such charm and evidence that 'of course' they make sense.

The illustrations are very apt also - and it was pleasing to find these carried over to a kindle format where usually they get discarded.

Full marks all round - a little gem of a book.

This book wasn't quite what I expected, but it wasn't a disappointment - it just touched me in ways I didn't expect. I'm clearly not a Zen monk living in a temple in Japan - I'm an English mum with two young sons and a cluttered house, and a cluttered mind to match. Perhaps naively, I didn't expect this book to be literally about keeping a temple clean, but despite the huge gulf between our everyday situations I found plenty of common ground and thought=provoking reflections. Much of the advice appears basic on the surface, but somehow it's so basic that you can easily overlook it, for example the importance of noticing and honouring the change in the seasons. I was planning to give this quick and quirky little read three stars, but I've gone for four because I suspect I'll be drawn back to it again in the future, not least because of the charming illustrations and deceptively simple insights in the human condition.

There some interesting notions about cleaning in Japan, in general, and in a Monastery in particular, but as a matter of fact I liked this book mostly because I love everything that is Japan related.

Ci sono alcune informazioni interessanti rispetto al pulire in generale ed al farlo in un monastero in particolare, ma per quanto mi riguarda ho letto questo libro fondamentalmente perché mi piacciono tutte le cose che hanno a che fare con il Giappone.

THANKS NETGALLEY FOR THE DRC