A self-help book with some sense but much confusion.
In this nonfiction guidebook, Nua (Heart of the Universe, 2015, etc.) describes his own spiritual enlightenment and recommends practices for attaining it.
More than 15 years ago, the author “experienced a powerful transformation” after a job change, “various personal struggles,” and close encounters with nature. He writes that he felt a new intensity of experience—even colors seemed more vivid—and that he felt released from the constraints of society. Striving to understand this spiritual awakening, Nua pursued answers by reading books, but was still left with questions. He came to believe that his new freedom and heightened perceptions arose from connecting to “the source of all things”—the soul, God’s voice, one’s inner core, or however one conceives it. This source, common to all of nature, provides an infinite “universal energy” and “wonder and greatness,” he says, which prompts people to act with sincerity, compassion, and selflessness. The author explains the obstacles that people face in trying to connect with the source and offers ways to overcome them through various means, including practicing meditation and mindfulness (active attention to the present moment), taking walks outside, keeping a journal, stretching one’s mind and imagination through books and art, and expressing thankfulness. Those who follow this path, he writes, can expect a greatly enhanced life full of creativity, excitement, and bliss. Nua’s recommendations are unobjectionable and make good common sense; most people could benefit from outdoor exercise, for example. However, many of the concepts here are fuzzy and ill-defined; for example, bliss is said to accompany heightened awareness because of how “center-oriented designs interact with the universe at large” through “vibrational energy” that resonates from “sharing of forms.” If enlightenment greatly increases one’s ability “to conceptualize and articulate ideas,” as the author says, the evidence of this book suggests otherwise. In some cases, though, Nua is simply incorrect; satori, for example, isn’t a method but an experience of enlightenment, and sanzen isn’t a Zen master—it’s the teachings of one. It’s perhaps telling that the book is careful to hedge its bets: “Expect difficulty in communicating your new ideas.”
A self-help book with some sense but much confusion.Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5043-3686-4
Page Count: 76
Publisher: BalboaPress
Review Posted Online: Dec. 8, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.
A teacher and scholar of Buddhism offers a formally varied account of the available rewards of solitude.
“As Mother Ayahuasca takes me in her arms, I realize that last night I vomited up my attachment to Buddhism. In passing out, I died. In coming to, I was, so to speak, reborn. I no longer have to fight these battles, I repeat to myself. I am no longer a combatant in the dharma wars. It feels as if the course of my life has shifted onto another vector, like a train shunted off its familiar track onto a new trajectory.” Readers of Batchelor’s previous books (Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World, 2017, etc.) will recognize in this passage the culmination of his decadeslong shift away from the religious commitments of Buddhism toward an ecumenical and homegrown philosophy of life. Writing in a variety of modes—memoir, history, collage, essay, biography, and meditation instruction—the author doesn’t argue for his approach to solitude as much as offer it for contemplation. Essentially, Batchelor implies that if you read what Buddha said here and what Montaigne said there, and if you consider something the author has noticed, and if you reflect on your own experience, you have the possibility to improve the quality of your life. For introspective readers, it’s easy to hear in this approach a direct response to Pascal’s claim that “all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Batchelor wants to relieve us of this inability by offering his example of how to do just that. “Solitude is an art. Mental training is needed to refine and stabilize it,” he writes. “When you practice solitude, you dedicate yourself to the care of the soul.” Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it.
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-25093-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
A moving, heartfelt account of a hospice veteran.
Lessons about life from those preparing to die.
A longtime hospice chaplain, Egan (Fumbling: A Pilgrimage Tale of Love, Grief, and Spiritual Renewal on the Camino de Santiago, 2004) shares what she has learned through the stories of those nearing death. She notices that for every life, there are shared stories of heartbreak, pain, guilt, fear, and regret. “Every one of us will go through things that destroy our inner compass and pull meaning out from under us,” she writes. “Everyone who does not die young will go through some sort of spiritual crisis.” The author is also straightforward in noting that through her experiences with the brokenness of others, and in trying to assist in that brokenness, she has found healing for herself. Several years ago, during a C-section, Egan suffered a bad reaction to the anesthesia, leading to months of psychotic disorders and years of recovery. The experience left her with tremendous emotional pain and latent feelings of shame, regret, and anger. However, with each patient she helped, the author found herself better understanding her own past. Despite her role as a chaplain, Egan notes that she rarely discussed God or religious subjects with her patients. Mainly, when people could talk at all, they discussed their families, “because that is how we talk about God. That is how we talk about the meaning of our lives.” It is through families, Egan began to realize, that “we find meaning, and this is where our purpose becomes clear.” The author’s anecdotes are often thought-provoking combinations of sublime humor and tragic pathos. She is not afraid to point out times where she made mistakes, even downright failures, in the course of her work. However, the nature of her work means “living in the gray,” where right and wrong answers are often hard to identify.
A moving, heartfelt account of a hospice veteran.Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-59463-481-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
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