A wild tapestry of various teachings held together by the author’s candidness in her search for spiritual fulfillment.
Maxey’s (I Am Liberty, 2011) memoir about her spiritual quest through life and marriage.
Since an ugly split with her husband, Gil, Maxey’s life has taken some unexpected turns. From barely surviving on unemployment checks to searching for a new relationship on the Internet, Maxey has met new people and ventured to places she would never have dreamed of a decade ago. It may seem unlikely that a single mother in Tennessee would form a soul-mate connection with a computer programmer in Southern California, but such are the wonders of the modern world. The story details the excitement of their blossoming relationship: After exchanging ideas about life and religion, they agree to marry even though they’ve never met in person, and though their backgrounds are steeped in a variety of spiritual traditions ranging from Hindu texts to the teachings of Jesus, they make revelations of their own, too. Part spiritual journey, part rant against a difficult ex-husband and part criticism of the material world, Maxey’s book unfolds with struggles both existential and physical. While readers disinclined toward chakra descriptions and ascension planes may feel alienated at times, the author’s constant anchoring to the real world helps distance her book from being an unapproachable New Age diatribe. The infighting at liberal-minded church meetings and custody battles over her preteen son don’t always make for the most compelling or inviting storylines, and the same can be said of her frustration with those who don’t take her spiritual path seriously. Speaking of a Nashville church retreat in which she reveals that her greatest desire is “the awakening and ascension in consciousness of the world’s people,” Maxey is dismayed when “the minister revealed that her greatest desire was to fly in a hot-air balloon, [and] everyone applauded. WTF?”
A wild tapestry of various teachings held together by the author’s candidness in her search for spiritual fulfillment.Pub Date: Dec. 22, 2012
ISBN: 978-1453832226
Page Count: 344
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2013
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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