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58 of 61 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Brilliant, Inspiring Vision and Birth of a Movement, September 16, 2009
This review is from: The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism (Paperback)
With The Hope, Andrew Harvey has given a name to the path that so many of us are now following and to which many are being called: "Sacred Activism". As he explains, "When...the joy of compassionate service is married to a practical and pragmatic drive to transform all existing economic, social and political institutions, a radical and potentially all-transforming holy force is born. This radical holy force I call Sacred Activism.... My deepest prayer for the vision of Sacred Activism is that it will inspire you to harness the energies of love, both in yourself and with others, and to discover, with wonder and hope, the joy and power of...that fiery passion of compassion that, when allied with grounded wise action, will help us change everything."
Not only does this movement--a fusion of the paths of spiritual awakening, social responsibility and selfless service--now have a name, thankfully, but a brilliant, inspiring, passionate and beautifully articulated vision. We are immensely blessed to have The Hope to guide and inspire us on the way, as we face the daunting and overwhelming task of helping to birth a new paradigm of sustainability and heart-centered consciousness on our beloved planet Earth.
This book is rich with many deeply moving and inspirational stories that will touch your heart and linger in your memory--from Andrew Harvey's personal life, from his personal experiences with illumined souls such as Mother Theresa, the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela, as well as from many others. One of the most memorable stories of Sacred Activism is about an ordinary woman who performed an extraordinary and unimaginable act of forgiveness. It was originally told in Towards a Spirituality by Elaine Prevallet, and took place during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission proceedings in post-Apartheid South Africa. The commission brought an elderly black woman face to face with the white policeman who brutally and savagely murdered her husband and son and who had forced her to witness the crime. When the commission asked her how justice should be served, she said that she had forgiven the man and that she wanted to hold him in her arms so he could know that he was truly forgiven. As she was being led across the courtroom to embrace him, he fainted.
As Andrew Harvey concludes, "You might be deeply moved by this story but think that its relevance to the nitty gritty reality of world affairs is marginal. This is a mistake.... The embrace of unconditional forgiveness is essential to the success of all the major activist adventures in our world." All of us who feel passionate about ending wars, pollution, injustice and the ravaging of the Earth by corrupt forces would do well to heed his wise words and the extraordinary example of this elderly South African woman.
How easy it is in our passion for social justice to blame, project anger and hatred, and seek retribution. And yet, as The Hope so beautifully and lovingly explores, this just perpetuates the very problems we seek to resolve, as when we indulge in these behaviors, we are not taking responsibility and not facing our own unconscious "shadow" side.
A thread of light woven throughout The Hope is the important and urgent message of facing our own unconscious shadow. Although not necessarily a popular topic, it is an utterly essential one if we are to succeed in our quest for change. With great humility and accessibility, Andrew Harvey guides us intimately and tenderly through this challenging subject. Using his own candid, personal example of taking responsibility for his role in the "wrecks" in his life, we learn how doing the shadow clearing work results in breakthrough, empowerment and spiritual awakening. Among the many extraordinary aspects of this luminous book, perhaps the most profound for me is Chapter 13, "The Law of Constant, Humble Shadow Work", which is the most beautifully articulated, inspiring, passionate and hopeful description of how and why to do the shadow work that I have ever read.
The Hope is a very easy read, and you will be tempted to move through it quickly, as it grips you from the very first pages with its deeply touching insights, essential humor and grounded practicality. However, there is much to savor in its exquisitely expressed wisdom, and it is best read slowly.
My hope for The Hope is that its urgent, hopeful and vital message reaches multitudes of potential Sacred Activists right away. Ultimately, the ancient and timeless spiritual truths it presents are what we must rely on if we are to live up to the challenges we face at this pivotal moment in humanity's evolution. May the blessing of this book find its way into the hearts and minds of the masses immediately!
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34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Passionate, Erudite and Well Reasoned Call to Action, September 9, 2009
This review is from: The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism (Paperback)
Many of us feel that we stand at a critical period in history. We face enormous physical, psychological, social, economic and spiritual challenges. But that is what they are: challenges. We are not impotent passengers on a runaway train; we all have it within our gift to make small changes that will together transform the world. But as Albert Einstein once said, "Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them." We cannot simply hope for an intellectual or technological fix for the problems that we have created for ourselves. We need a change of heart, a radical transformation of ourselves, and that is what this book is about.
Although I have never met him, Andrew Harvey - the author of this wonderful work - is evidently a remarkable individual. A prodigy who became a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford when he was only 21 years old, he soon became disillusioned with the academic world and departed for India to begin a spiritual quest that continues to this day. In the course of his quest he must have met and conversed with most of the great spiritual and intellectual figures of our times.
He has come to the realization that any spiritual path worthy of the name must ultimately lead us to do something to bring about positive change in the day-to-day world. It should not simply be source of comfort, but of radical change both in ourselves and in society. We have to evolve beyond navel gazing and worship to become active agents of change, what Andrew calls "Sacred Activism." Andrew has carefully delineated seven "Laws" of Sacred Activism that he believes have the potential to transform each of us and our world. I am absolutely certain that he is correct. Once you really comprehend the inter-connectedness of life and feel compassion, joy, gratitude and forgiveness as real living, breathing entities, you are changed forever.
He is a very fine writer, and it was easy to read the whole book at one sitting. Here is an example of his delightful prose. Amongst the "Laws" that from the structure for the book is the "Law of Sacred Practice." Andrew quotes the Jungian analysts Marion Woodman who said to him, "Continuing to do pioneering sacred work in a world as crazy and painful as ours without constantly grounding yourself in sacred practice would be like running into a forest fire dressed only in a paper tutu."
As with all of Andrew Harvey's books this one is passionate, erudite and well reasoned. I sincerely hope that it is read very widely, and that readers take at least some of the actions that he details.
This is going to be one of my Books of the Year, and I already plan to send out a lot of copies to people ready for this essential Message of Hope.
Very highly recommended.
Richard G. Petty, MD, author of Healing, Meaning and Purpose: The Magical Power of the Emerging Laws of Life
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22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Activism as a Sacred Pursuit, September 18, 2009
This review is from: The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism (Paperback)
"The Hope" captures the very heart and soul of Andrew Harvey's lifelong spiritual journey, and seems to be a synthesis of all the passion and wisdom he acquired along the way. The reader is caught up in a kaleidoscopic swirl of prose, poetry and prayers of saints and mystics against the background of Andrew's extraordinary life experiences. The book can move you to tears one moment and overwhelm you the next with the torrent of prose and erudition, but always Andrew's impassioned desire to share his hard-won wisdom shines through. It is filled with diamonds of inspiration for all agents of change wanting to help birth a world of justice and compassion.
Andrew Harvey, one of today's best-known mystics, lays out his new vision for Sacred Activism - an amalgam of the activist's passion for social change with the inner peace and unity consciousness of the grounded mystic or spiritual seeker. He makes a strong case for the need to merge the two into a symbiotic union - a "third flame" - in order for each aspect to compensate for the shadow side of the other:
"The mystic's shadow of narcissism manifests as an addition to transcendence, as an escapism from responsibility from the real, as a sometimes passive and childish belief that the Divine will take care of everything, and as a subtle but devastating denial of the reality of evil and the heartbreaking misery of the world...
" The activist's shadow of narcissism ...manifests...as a messiah complex, as a dark ego-reinforcing delight in humiliating and destroying one's opponents, and as a depreciation of ordinary life in favor of heroic sacrifice. It also manifests as an addiction to doing for its own sake, with exhaustion, body neglect and burnout seen as signs of authenticity and badges of courage."
He implores activists on the front lines to keep themselves strong in body, mind and spirit to avoid burnout, and gives detailed examples of spiritual and physical practices to help. He warns against being naive about the existence of evil in the world, and points out that what we detest in our adversaries is somehow also present in our own shadow side. Prayer, patience and working through one's shadow issues, however, will make us more understanding of the other side, and more effective, and Divine Grace achieved through earnest spiritual practice is the best protection.
Andrew concludes with a call to action, and calls for readers to set up "Networks of Grace." Using a tactic from terror cells, he suggests turning this sword into a plowshare by coming together in "imaginal cells" of 6 to12 to provide a support system for each other in the challenging work of Sacred Activism.
In the end, the book describes the path we all travel, with all the zigs and zags of a drunkard's walk. The times we live in, however, with our demonstrated and escalating capacity for destruction, lends an undeniable urgency to the need for powerful agents of change. Andrew's impassioned plea is that we heed the call, but that we avail ourselves of all the help and protection the Universe is just waiting to lavish upon us, if we will only ask for it.
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