Sample Book Review on “The World is Made of Stories” by David Loy
The author of “The World is Made of Stories”, David Loy, describes humans as storytellers of their self-created stories which they experience throughout their life. Unfortunately, people are unaware that the lives they live are nothing more than a self-creation of many layered stories. Loy believes that there is trouble that people when they cling to a story. He recommends shunyata (emptiness) as the only tool that can entangle humans from the stories that keep them glued to imagined realities “a heuristic device to free us from wherever we are stuck” (Loy 44).
To some people, being enlightened is the solution to finalize story creation. However, Loy believes that people can still rise beyond stories of the world and enjoy a more flexible life in the midst of numerous stories. Flexibility in a world of stories saves humans from drowning in the Samsara sea and, instead, overcome the waves by surfing and dancing on them. The book is a challenge to religious faith since it implies that the beliefs and values we hold in different denominations might just be self-created stories and that nobody could know the best religion or its background.
It is complicated to establish the real roots of various religions since the stories that convince different people to be loyal to different religious beliefs are nothing but stories, probably more developed than the previous ones. “Stories do not have sharp edges. They never begin at the beginning” (Loy 10). The stories we hear shape our beliefs, character, and values, depending on how convincing they sound. The conclusion I drew from the book is that life is a mystery, and, instead of making efforts to understand it better, the stories created to explain it make life even more complicated to fathom.
Works Cited
Loy, David, R. The World Is Made of Stories. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2010. Print.