Customer Reviews

Doorways to the Soul: 52 Wisdom Tales from Around the World

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

 

 

I stumbled on this book when looking for wisdom stories to use in my own (feeble) attempts at story telling. I wanted something with a spiritual basis, but not just one faith. This book has stories from many places - Buddhist, Hasidic, Middle Eastern, Native American, Sufis, Christian, Desert Fathers, Rumi, Japan, Zen, Burma and Tailand, Africa and China...

In her introduction, Pearmain talks about the connection between spirituality and storytelling (my own note: read Psalms or Proverbs aloud if you want to find great stories!) She gives suggestions for personalizing the stories to fit situations, and the use of visualization and journaling. This is a short section, and not key to the book -- the stories are definitely good ones!

Each story fits most often on just two pages -- some a tiny bit longer. This is handy for those of us with limited room in the brain.

Pearmain gives also some ideas after each story for ways to further explore it (through meditation, visualization, writing, art, etc.), on ways for the teller and listeners to make a personal connection to the story, and a little encouraging bit on sharing the story.

This book is an excellent source -- short short stories from all around the world, with stories that have a way of telling the truth in an entertaining way.

This book is designed to be a year-long journey into tales of wisdom from around the world and different cultures. An enjoyable read with ideas for incorporating wisdom, and journeys of the soul shared, in every day life.

I thought the book was pretty concise, and had a good collection of wisdom tales. Handy little book, as well. There were a few stories that seemed a bit of a stretch, and I was not particularly interested in their "personal exercises", but it had some stories I had not seen before. I hope they publish another volume, with lesser known wisdom tales.

I am a fan of Elisa Davy Pearmain so I was delighted to finally get this book in my collection. It is full of short tales, many familiar to me; however following each story, there is a guide to reflection - very helpful. I decided to do as Ms. Pearmain recommended and use the stories for a years worth of personal reflection. So far, it is going well and I eagerly anticipate the next story in the collection.

I'm always happy to find some new wisdom tales, and this book has a few that I haven't seen before. It was very helpful to have the guide for better storytelling.
For those who like different tales, have you seen Ayat Jamilah: Beautiful Signs by Sarah Conover? It has tales from all over the world, and most of them are new to the written scene

This is a good reference book for short stories from different religions and philosophies. Some of the stories are well known in their specific spiritual traditions, but some were rather obscure.

The sections after each story on how to further "explore" their meaning was a bit repetitive and did not need to be placed in each chapter. One section at the end of the book would have sufficed.

The best part about the book is I could pick it up and read it any time, without having to remember where I left off when I put it down. The stories about Nasrudin were very entertaining.