These cards collect the essence of the Dhammapada Sutra, a Buddhist sacred text gathering the teachings of Buddha, which were originally spoken by him during his life.
GOOD STUFF
> Great affirmations. This is the most spiritual deck in the Rockpool small series. The affirmations are reminders of what matters in life, of what's important, of universal truths that better our spirit and lighten our soul. The deck affirmations are not only motivational, but also invitations to ponder and they go well with any ethical principles in the major world religions. > Perfect deck for people with small hands.> Sofan Chan's design of the deck is both vibrant, colorful, modern and elegant. Very good lettering and contrast. Elegant modern design with great colors and contrast on the top and inner box. In a way I love that the deck is in a vibrant red color and not in a subdue color, it makes me reflect on the fact that Buddha messages are powerful, fiery and strong and not the soft pastel-colored New-Age soft dreamy version of Buddhism.> Good quality glossy flexible cards that shuffle beautifully. > Very good quality keepsake box with upper non-detachable magnetic lid.> Instructions of how to use the cards are written on the inner lid. > Great portability.
I MISS
> There is no booklet or cards explaining which part of Buddha/ism reflect the divine masculine and the divine feminine. Chan has another deck devoted to Buddha and the divine feminine, so I wonder what's the difference. As a non-Buddhist, my vision of Buddha is both masculine and feminine, neutral or yin-yan. I find this association/dissociation in the two decks puzzling.
> Tiny deck, so if you have big hands, it might not be for you.
> The upper side of the cards has one standard image, so it is not very artistic or as artistic as other decks in this Rockpool deck series. I get that the main focus is the affirmations not the artwork, but I would loved having Chan, who's a wonderful painter, create different images for each card.
I purchased this book because I wanted a work to add to my interior design Taschen books, and this seemed to be comprehensive. It is indeed a nice coffee table book, both informative and entertaining, and nicely printed. It is not as tiny as some of the other reviewers made me think. It is on the small size, for sure.
I LIKE
> Portable and compact coffee-table sort of book.
> Elegant cover and inner cover design.
> Pleasurable paper stock.
> Informative without being a bore. Easy to read.
> Mix of design pieces (think Aalto, anything produced by Alessi or Jansen) and invented/patented pieces that are part of our daily lives (zip, Dixon pencil, safety pin, metal dustbin, cylinder lock, door handle, corkscrew, etc.).
> Very good photos overall. Many of them are vintage images of the designers or of the adds used to sell the products.
> Excellent binding. You can comfortably open the book and read both pages without fearing that they will come out.
> Index of products at the end.
DOWNSIDES
> The paper is too thin and a bit transparent-ish.
> No fabric page marker included in the binding, something that is common in similar design books by Taschen.
> The lettering is very small and I need a magnifying glass to read the text.
> The body of the text is not justified, something that always annoys me.
> The book has no introduction with the criteria used for the selection of the pieces included in the book, period covered or any other relevant information on the matter.
> The selection lacks cultural diversity, as there is a constant rotation of specific designers and areas of the world. I would have liked a bit of more open-minded, to call it something, because it is difficult to understand why there isn't any South-East Asian, African, or South American designer in the book, and why France and Spain and so under-represented. Because, you aren't going to tell me that there designers from those parts of the world haven't designed anything we use or didn't contribute to the history of design at all.
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