An incisive and wide-ranging inquiry into the hidden workings of reality.
This comprehensive examination of mystical literature seeks a transcendent truth.
The hunt for some kind of transcendental truth is not only universal in humans, according to Eckhart in this expanded edition of his debut book, but also a matter of personal urgency: “It is imperative that you raise your consciousness by applying reasoning beyond your conditioned thinking; otherwise, you will remain bound to your own impotent mental creations and beliefs of limited nature that deter you of your full potential.” The author draws on 45 years of personal searching for mystic enlightenment and imparts to his readers wisdom that he claims to have received in part telepathically from “esoteric Masters” who gave him “access to their world of sacred wisdom.” In nearly 500 pages, the author draws on a wide variety of religious and spiritual writings in order to detail the teachings of the universal consciousness. “This Consciousness is also within us always; it reigns in the deepest layers of our own consciousness and, yet it is the same omniscient Consciousness as God’s, for there is but One, and only One Omniscient Consciousness in existence and by Divine virtue it operates in man,” he writes in one of the blanket declarations that are a common staple of spiritual works. This Consciousness gives power to the Law of Life, which Eckhart also refers to as the Law of Being or the Law of Liberty. Occasionally, the author’s enthusiasm leads him to make questionable statements, as when he writes: “How could the Universe, which is Infinite, ever have a beginning?” But the bulk of his ambitious book challenges readers to embrace a path of inner change, insisting that “when you forget about yourself, about all your petty concerns and about all the negative, unimportant thoughts hindering you…you do more for yourself than by any other behavior.” This essentially humanistic outlook should please readers looking for a more open, less dogmatic approach to elevating themselves.
An incisive and wide-ranging inquiry into the hidden workings of reality.Pub Date: Dec. 13, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-981706-94-5
Page Count: 492
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 13, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
These platitudes need perspective; better to buy the books they came from.
A lightweight collection of self-help snippets from the bestselling author.
What makes a quote a quote? Does it have to be quoted by someone other than the original author? Apparently not, if we take Strayed’s collection of truisms as an example. The well-known memoirist (Wild), novelist (Torch), and radio-show host (“Dear Sugar”) pulls lines from her previous pages and delivers them one at a time in this small, gift-sized book. No excerpt exceeds one page in length, and some are only one line long. Strayed doesn’t reference the books she’s drawing from, so the quotes stand without context and are strung together without apparent attention to structure or narrative flow. Thus, we move back and forth from first-person tales from the Pacific Crest Trail to conversational tidbits to meditations on grief. Some are astoundingly simple, such as Strayed’s declaration that “Love is the feeling we have for those we care deeply about and hold in high regard.” Others call on the author’s unique observations—people who regret what they haven’t done, she writes, end up “mingy, addled, shrink-wrapped versions” of themselves—and offer a reward for wading through obvious advice like “Trust your gut.” Other quotes sound familiar—not necessarily because you’ve read Strayed’s other work, but likely due to the influence of other authors on her writing. When she writes about blooming into your own authenticity, for instance, one is immediately reminded of Anaïs Nin: "And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” Strayed’s true blossoming happens in her longer works; while this collection might brighten someone’s day—and is sure to sell plenty of copies during the holidays—it’s no substitute for the real thing.
These platitudes need perspective; better to buy the books they came from.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-101-946909
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2015
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should...
Greene (The 33 Strategies of War, 2007, etc.) believes that genius can be learned if we pay attention and reject social conformity.
The author suggests that our emergence as a species with stereoscopic, frontal vision and sophisticated hand-eye coordination gave us an advantage over earlier humans and primates because it allowed us to contemplate a situation and ponder alternatives for action. This, along with the advantages conferred by mirror neurons, which allow us to intuit what others may be thinking, contributed to our ability to learn, pass on inventions to future generations and improve our problem-solving ability. Throughout most of human history, we were hunter-gatherers, and our brains are engineered accordingly. The author has a jaundiced view of our modern technological society, which, he writes, encourages quick, rash judgments. We fail to spend the time needed to develop thorough mastery of a subject. Greene writes that every human is “born unique,” with specific potential that we can develop if we listen to our inner voice. He offers many interesting but tendentious examples to illustrate his theory, including Einstein, Darwin, Mozart and Temple Grandin. In the case of Darwin, Greene ignores the formative intellectual influences that shaped his thought, including the discovery of geological evolution with which he was familiar before his famous voyage. The author uses Grandin's struggle to overcome autistic social handicaps as a model for the necessity for everyone to create a deceptive social mask.
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should beware of the author's quirky, sometimes misleading brush-stroke characterizations.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-670-02496-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012
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