8 UNIVERSAL LAWS

Spiritual teacher Broca presents a set of universal laws to provide self-help and spiritual aid.

The author was born to a Catholic family in Mexico City and, he says, taught not to hope for too much in life. However, as a child, he read constantly and clipped images of the world’s most beautiful places from magazines and calendars. As an adolescent, he became interested in spirituality and encountered different guides on his journey, beginning with a Spanish teacher who taught him about meditation. Broca eventually visited places that he had once only dreamt about, including Vatican City, the Notre-Dame cathedral, and more than 80 other countries. For this book, the author has selected what he characterizes as eight universal laws that “govern the flow, movement, energy, and vibration of everything,” he asserts, and are drawn from a range of disciplines; karma, for example, is a Hindu concept, and the philosophy of wu wei emerged from ancient China. Some other laws will be familiar to readers, such as peace and oneness, but the author asserts that most people don’t fully understand them or how to implement them. Rounding out the list are the principles of dharma, ollin (from shamanism), resonance, and generation. Broca uses simple language and descriptive examples; for instance, he characterizes ollin as an ability to “go with the flow,” and to illustrate a lack of it, he describes a person arriving in snow country wearing summer clothing, such as a T-shirt and flip-flops, and then getting angry at the weather, rather than adapting to it. The author also relatably draws on his own personal experiences, as when he describes an instance of acting childishly during a crisis of faith. He includes self-help practices such as meditations, affirmations, and reflective questions, as well. Broca’s ideas sometimes seem too easy to be very useful, such as advice to wear a ring to remind one to think positively; however, when he notes, in an analogy, how a net in the ocean looks different to a fisherman, a fish, a plankton, and an observant artist, he achieves a lyrical simplicity.

A collection of unadorned but thought-provoking advice.