{"id":34606,"date":"2025-11-30T13:24:32","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T19:24:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/?p=34606"},"modified":"2025-11-29T08:43:29","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T14:43:29","slug":"book-report-four-gates-to-health-eastern-ideas-and-techniques-for-vital-living-by-julian-lynn-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2025\/11\/30\/book-report-four-gates-to-health-eastern-ideas-and-techniques-for-vital-living-by-julian-lynn-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Report: Four Gates to Health: Eastern Ideas and Techniques for Vital Living<\/i> by Julian Lynn (2013)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BookOf all the sets of authors’ books which I would complete in 2025, the smart money would be on the Ben Wolf books I bought in 2024<\/a> and 2025<\/a> especially as I have stated my goal to read them in case I am again in Davenport, Iowa, in October. But it turns out I have completed the three books I bought from Julian Lynn at ABC Books in 2019<\/a>–I previously read Divine Fruit<\/em> in 2019<\/a> and Yoga’s Devotional Light<\/em> in 2020<\/a>. This book took me a while because the title sort of seemed like it would be hints at diet and whatnot, but that’s not what it is at all.<\/p>\n

First, though, a story from the ABC Books book signing. I guess I was talking to Mrs. E., who used to attend our church, about church or other people from church before picking up the three Hindu-influenced books by Ms. Lynn (which are unsigned for some reason, or at least this one is).\tAfter I left, Ms. Lynn expressed surprise that a church-going person would pick up her books, and I guess Mrs. E. eventually gave the author an answer she could accept: He is a poet. Given that Divine Fruit<\/em> is a collection of poetry, maybe she thought I bought them all in solidarity with a fellow poet. Truth be told, I buy too many of these books both to help out ABC Books and to encourage the authors.<\/p>\n

At any rate, this book is not a dietary guide. Its basics are that the Four Gates are considering:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The short term affect on my vitality<\/li>\n
  2. The long term affect on my vitality<\/li>\n
  3. The short term affect on society’s vitality<\/li>\n
  4. The long term affect on society’s vitality<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    It comes in an early chapter, so it’s not like I am spoiling the whole book for you.<\/p>\n

    It focuses a lot on the concept of vitality, which is the, I dunno core energy of your person, breathing exercises, and self-improvement the yoga and Hindu way. <\/p>\n

    So it’s not as deep as say post-sesshin talks from Shunryu Suzuki<\/a> or Joko Beck<\/a>, but I suppose it’s helpful if you’re into yoga. The book doesn’t smell like essential oils, but the target audience probably has some handy even today.<\/p>\n

    One thing I did dispute, though, was a couple of exhortations to leave behind toxic or unuplifting relationships once you start your journey. I bet this eat pray love<\/em>-styled advice blew up a lot of families when some wives started taking yoga and got this message, and ultimately led to unhappier lives and less vitality for those involved, including the women. But I espouse stoicism, which is not far off of these teachings but definitely differs in vital ways.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Of all the sets of authors’ books which I would complete in 2025, the smart money would be on the Ben Wolf books I bought in 2024 and 2025 especially as I have stated my goal to read them in case I am again in Davenport, Iowa, in October. But it turns out I have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3334,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-report","category-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3334"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34606"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34607,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34606\/revisions\/34607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}