Customer Reviews

The Dice Game of Shiva: How Consciousness Creates the Universe

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It's about time!! Finally, someone, i.e., Richard Smoley, has done an excellent job putting together a book about the very heady topic of consciousness, made accessible for everyone (yet not simplistic), regardless whether one is a novice or journeyman. From start to finish, Smoley uses easily understandable language to explain various theories of consciousness down through the ages, including questions of how and why, and sums up the essence and what it means to modern man and his world.

Throughout the book, there are two intertwined threads, that of discussions from: 1)the world of philosophy (including references to Plato, Kant, and Schopenhauer), and, 2)the world of spirituality -- with detailed explanations from the Samkhya (dualism) and Advaita Vedanta (nondualism) schools of thought, and references to Esoteric Christianity and Buddhism. Additionally, there are references to science and its stand on issues. I particularly liked the explanation of the myth of the Dice Game of Shiva and Parvati as an explanation of consciousness, nature, and realization.

Smoley's presentation is a breath of fresh air -- I have spent years reading books about the details of various topics he brings up and have not come across as clear a presentation as his.

I was fortunate enough to find this brand spanking new book at our local library, and I thought I would spend some time raving about how great it is. What I particularly liked was that the author is able to meld insights from vastly different backgrounds with stunning insight. It would be too easy to dismiss this book once you get the basic theme, it is much more than that. It is a valiant defense of the mystery of consciousness against the onslaught of reductionistic materialism via Oxford's linguistic analysis in philosophy, the current fad of neuroscience and artificial intelligence in computer science. I thought the discussion of consciousness in view of Western philosophy was particularly valuable, and I share the author's doubts that science will ever explain consciousness. If you ever share the spiritual experiences that you find invaluable with others, and find yourself feeling a fool at the hands of your hard nosed, aggressive materialist friends: read this book!

I should also mention that it is a beautifully published and printed book with numerous well documented quotes throughout which is will be a big help for further exploration of the subject. I hope it is hugely popular, it stands head and shoulder above the self improvement drivel that I find in long rows at our local big box bookstore.

The Dice Game of Shiva tells the story of the Hindu god Shiva, lord of the universe, and his consort Parvati who learn a game with dice. Interestingly, Parvati wins round after round to the point that she cleans Shiva out... down to his last item of clothing... until he retreats to the wilderness. There is much more to this story, yet it captures an essential core sense of the eternal dance between universal consciousness (Shiva) and experience of the world (Parvati).

Richard Smoley writes with the intelligent voice of the Harvard and Oxford graduate that he is, and better yet as a professor who passionately loves the topic of consciousness as viewed from every philosophical and spiritual lens known to man. Smoley has a rare gift for describing ineffable concepts articulately and elegantly, such as when he writes, "It is this higher love, which Christianity calls agape and I call 'conscious love,' that reflects the insight that the Self at the center of one's own being is exactly the same as the Self that lies at the core of everyone else's as well, human and nonhuman, animate and apparently inanimate."

Smoley explores one of the six "orthodox" darshans of the Hindu sacred texts known as the Vedas, the Samkhya, weaving it together with Western ideas from philosophy, science and religion. Samkyha analyzes reality into its fundamental components, while Yoga is a system of meditative practice for spiritual liberation, and Vedanta is a way to detach ones awareness from physical being to a knowingness that all is as One.

Even as physicists currently seek a "Theory of Everything," humans pursue a comprehensive answer for the true nature of reality, the meaning of life, and the relationship between universal consciousness and worldly experience. The Dice Game of Shiva takes us on a mystical philosophical journey full of fresh new insights into who we truly are.

Having tacitly approached Consciousness through the framework of Esoteric Christianity in 'Conscious Love', Smoley now sets his sights on this now popularly burgeoning Science through the lense of an Indian Myth. Shiva and Parvati, Lord of the Worlds and His Consort respectively, have their apparent eternal lovemaking interrupted by a trixter figure who introduces the two to the game of parcheesi. As the two begin to play the game, Shiva very soon recognizes although He can win maybe a couple of games in a row, He is the Big Loser when matched with Parvati. Shiva, you see, taken subjectively, represents pure Consciousness, the state that exists in the premoments of waking when one is All with the World and there is no duality to speak of. Parvati, again taken subjectively, on the other hand quickly entices Shiva into duality and all out multiplicity and soon has Him believing He is what He thinks and feels. Besides all this, there is the mode in which Shiva and Parvati interract, this being causality, and more satisfying to me, synchronicity, or as Smoley presents it, 'constant conjunction'. Though Smoley reduces perhaps what could be a very complex subject, Consciousnes, to these three aspects, Pure Consciousness, entrapment in the 'World', and the mode by which this interplay takes place, there is no shortage of interesting and even expansive elaborations to be made. Feel constantly caught up in Life? Ever feel trapped like you can't escape? Let Smoley give you a few pointers on finding a way to step back and even transcend your daily thinking that just may keep causing you conundrums. Very good read and highly recommended!

I purchased this book for members of my Sunday class. It has stimulated very interesting and thought provoking discussions. It not an easy read and I sometimes have trouble keeping up with Smoley's train of thought. However, I would recommend it to anyone seriously seeking a better understanding of consciousness and spirituality.

This book is an attempt to explain the importance of consciousness for the future of mankind by using a Hindu myth as the basis of his argument. Smoley ultimately paints a negative picture for the future of humanity and manages to alienate all the disciplines and faiths that might champion his cause.

For example, his opinion on justification for faith is that religion is "the stupendous human capacity for self deceit" (143). Karma is a "shadowy entity" that sometimes works and sometimes not with punishments and checks and balances that are beyond his understanding(132). His view of comtemporary psychotherapy is "prone to fads and absurdities" (168). Astrology, reincarnation and past life regression are held in contempt by quantitative analysts according to Smoley (124). This may be true but they ad to the search for human consciousness and should not be discounted as invaluable in the search for spirituality.

I was terribly disappointed as I had hoped the book would be a valuable addition to my research on consciousness. Smoley states that "the world civilization is moving toward the aim of exploring consciousness, whether this manifests through psychological introspection, neurological research, or work with artificial intelligence." Then he tells us that it may never happen because we "are only creatures who seek knowledge for it own sake," not because it might improve the human condition (175). Bummer.