Customer Reviews

Brother Asaiah

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My mother Audrey married Asaiah when I was pre-school, and my first memory of him was when he tossed me out a window! Actually it was a good thing, since I would have burned to death in the double suicide bombing of the Fountain HQ back in December of 1958. I only got to know him between the ages of 12-16, and he was the most intense person that I have ever known. I always wondered why he did not do more preaching, but I eventually realized that he loved to learn about others instead of pushing people to do his will. And he loved to talk. He was the greatest source of income for the Fountain (our group in Box Canyon, Chatsworth California), and he wasn't afraid to knock on doors. He spent 2/3 of his life giving to others, and he was a man of action. He just couldn't sit still.

Anyway, his greatest enemy was his own guilt. He was always seeking answers to the question "Why does the animal component of humans have so much power over our lives?". He constantly sought perfection, but he also knew that perfection is allusive. In this wonderful book you learn how he dealt with the guilt of killing others, and how Krishna Venta set him on the path to guilt resolution. This is a book for everyone who has conflicting feelings about war, and the Iraq insanity is dealt with in this book in very subtle ways. Martha has done a great job, and I hope that every member of the US Congress reads this book.

Brother Jon

Brother Asaiah picked his own biographer, and he made a great choice. I can't say I knew him well, but he was as close to a saint as I expect to meet. A man who succeeded in cultivating a wise and kind soul.

I've always loved Homer, Alaska! It is more than just a gorgeous location surrounded by ocean and Mountains. It has a unique culture all of its own. No one could coin it better than Brother Asaiah's "Cosmic Hamlet by the Sea". He knew the town. He was the town. And now thanks to Martha Ellen Andersen's biography of this great yet gentle spirit, more of us have an opportunity to live and breathe a little bit of Homer, Alaska. For me this was more than just an account of a highly respected local legend. The interaction of Asaiah's pacifist views and loving ways with the local community gives the reader a glimpse of what life at the end of the road in Homer, Alaska is all about. It is a very heart endearing account of a special man whose life impacted many and I highly recommend it to all.