Summary of Steve Hagen's Buddhism Is Not What You Think

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 We try to encapsulate our experience in frozen, changeless form: this means that. But Truth is not like this. It's beyond the spin of paradox that Truth and Reality are glimpsed. If we would simply not try to pin Reality down, confusion would no longer turn us away. #2 We can free ourselves from paradox and confusion only when we set ourselves in an open and inquiring frame of mind while on guard not to impose our particular beliefs.
If we're after truth, we can't start with any assumptions or concepts. #3 The Five Precepts are the basic tenets of Buddhism, and they are not commandments but descriptions of the moral stance that would necessarily be taken by one who is on the path to Awakening. To keep the Precepts, you must be here, right now, with what's going on and not lost in thought or speculation. #4 The Buddhist precepts are about noticing how we do these things all the time.
They help us come back to this moment, where Reality is experienced immediately, before we interpret anything.