Customer Reviews

The Last Barrier: A Journey into the Essence of Sufi Teachings

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Finding this book in print is like finding an insider's multi-million dollar stock tip in the pages of the Wall Street Journal, or an original Rembrandt etching at a yard sale. Such things aren't supposed to happen. But when they do, the finder is perversely negligent not to take advantage of them.
We all know that the way to learn an art or a skill is to apprentice to a master, and this is truest of all in the case of the ultimate art - the art of becoming fully human, becoming what Jesus and St. Paul called "perfect", "completed". However, though it's easy to find a fine surgeon or an expert carpenter, it's not so easy to locate a reliable teacher in the realm of the spirit. The field is full of frauds since so few of us are equipped to judge true quality. And instruction in this art is usually private and secret, for good and sufficient reasons. The fate of those who go public can be unhappy.
Here is the autobiographical record of a young British pop musician who went east on a spiritual journey. So far not unusual. He found a capable teacher who was not a fraud and was willling to talk: less usual. And he took notes! He took copious notes, and put the record of his experiential learning into a book, and this book is available on the internet.
Only in these strange times, when, as Jesus said, there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and nothing whispered in a private room that will not be shouted from the rooftops, could such a thing be possible.
Thank goodness that Reshad went looking, that Bulent was willing to teach, that Reshad took notes, and that Lindisfarne Press has brought the book out again. It contains instructions for learning to live, a skill most of us are still beginners at.

I have read this book twice -- still remembering the mesmerizing effect this account of a seeker's discovery of Sufism had upon me when first I read it.

Sufism is the mystical side of Islam. With its emphasis on mystical experience, personal entrance into the divine presence, with its emotion, joy, its oft comparison of human love to divine love -- the main body of Islam has seen it as suspect, somewhat aberrant, and on the verge of heretical.

If you enjoy a spiritual "adventure" story filled with mysterious happenings and demanding of its main character, the author, Reshad Feild, his complete devotion and obedience --- you should appreciate this true account.

If you want to gain some inkling of the nature of the "other" Islam -- so different from mainstream Islam -- that it seems in feeling and practice more akin to Buddhism or Hinduism -- I think you will be more than satisfied.

This review may seem a little bit offensive and look like a personal attack but I'm sorry to say that's the best I can say about this book and its author.

This book is as evil as the painting found in the hypothetical healing session that the author narrates.

It's evil because it can deceive would be Sufi aspirants and mislead them concerning the essence of Sufism.

To be honest I don't think this autobiographical exposition is true. I think it has all been made up, crafted with slyness (but not intelligently) to appeal to would-be Sufi aspirants and fans of mysticism.

The only impression I got from reading this book, I couldn't finish by the way because of its sheer banality, is that Mr. Reshad is not very a very genuine man (that's saying it in the best of manner I can).

Please if you're looking to know what Sufism is really about, read somewhere else. This is not Sufism!