Meditations from the Road [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

M. Scott Peck (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1993

Using excerpts from both The Road Less Traveled and The Different Drum, Peck provides a unique understanding on the challenges of everyday life including overcoming pain, caring for others, and making difficult decisions.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

M. Scott Peck, M.D., is a psychiatrist, diagnostician, management consultant, bestselling author, and a founder of the Foundation for Community Encouragement. He lives in northwestern Connecticut. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter 1

JANUARY 1

Once we truly know that life is difficult -- once we truly understand and accept it -- then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, it no longer matters.
RLT, p. 15

JANUARY 2

Life is a series of problems. Do we want to moan about them or solve them?
RLT, p. 15

JANUARY 3

Without discipline we can solve nothing. With only some discipline we can solve only some problems. With total discipline we can solve all problems.
RLT, p. 15-16

JANUARY 4

Problems are the cutting edge that distinguishes between success and failure. Problems call forth our courage and our wisdom; indeed, they create our courage and our wisdom.
RLT, p. 16

JANUARY 5

Wise people learn not to dread but actually to welcome problems because it is in this whole process of meeting and solving problems that life has its meaning.
RLT, p. 16

JANUARY 6

The tools of discipline are techniques by which we experience the pain of problems in such a way as to work them through and solve them successfully, learning and growing in the process. When we teach ourselves discipline, we are teaching ourselves how to suffer and also how to grow.
RLT, p. 17-18

JANUARY 7

You can enhance the pleasure of life by meeting and experiencing the pain first and getting it over with. RLT, p. 19

JANUARY 8

The time and the quality of the time that their parents devote to them indicate to children the degree to which they are valued by their parents. RLT, p. 23

JANUARY 9

When children know that they are valued, when they truly feel valued in the deepest parts of themselves, then they feel valuable. This knowledge is worth more than any gold. RLT, p. 24

JANUARY 10

The feeling of being valuable is a cornerstone of self-discipline because when you consider yourself valuable you will take care of yourself -- including things like using your time well. In this way, self-discipline is self-caring.
RLT, p. 24

JANUARY 11

You can solve any problem if you are simply willing to take the time.
RLT, p. 28

JANUARY 12

Problems do not go away. They must be worked through or else they remain, forever a barrier to the growth and development of the spirit.
RLT, p. 30

JANUARY 13

We cannot solve life's problems except by solving them.
RLT, p. 32

JANUARY 14

We must accept responsibility for a problem before we can solve it. We cannot solve a problem by saying "It's not my problem," and hoping that someone else will solve it for us. We can solve a problem only when we say "This is my problem and it's up to me to solve it."
RLT, p. 32

JANUARY 15

To be free people we must assume total responsibility for ourselves, but in doing so we must possess the capacity to reject responsibility that is not truly ours.
RLT, p. 64

JANUARY 16

The problem of distinguishing what we are and what we are not responsible for is one of the greatest problems of human existence. To perform this process adequately we must possess the willingness and the capacity to suffer continual self-examination.
RLT, p. 37

JANUARY 17

It is only through a vast amount of experience and a lengthy and successful maturation that we gain the capacity to see the world and our place in it realistically, and thus are enabled to realistically assess our responsibility for ourselves and the world.
RLT, p. 37

JANUARY 18

No problem can be solved until an individual assumes the responsibility for solving it.
RLT, p. 39

JANUARY 19

By attempting to avoid the responsibility for our own behavior, we are giving away our power to some other individual or organization. In this way, millions daily attempt to escape from freedom.
RLT, p. 42

JANUARY 20

As adults, our choices are almost unlimited, but that does not mean they are not painful. Frequently our choices lie between the lesser of two evils, but it is still within our power to make these choices.
RLT, p. 42-43

JANUARY 21

The entirety of one's adult life is a series of personal choices, decisions. If we can accept this totally, then we become free people. To the extent that we do not accept this we will forever feel ourselves victims. RLT, p. 44

JANUARY 22

If our lives are to be healthy and our spirits are to grow, we must be dedicated to the truth. For truth is reality. And the more clearly we see the reality of the world, the better equipped we are to deal with the world.
RLT, p. 44

JANUARY 23

Our view of reality is like a map with which to negotiate the terrain of life. If the map is false and inaccurate, we generally will be lost. If the map is true and accurate, we will generally know where we are, and if we have decided where we want to go, we will generally know how to get there.
RLT, p. 44

JANUARY 24

Only a relative and fortunate few continue until the moment of death exploring the mystery of reality, revising their maps of it, ever enlarging and refining and redefining their understanding of the world and what is true.
RLT, p. 45

JANUARY 25

The biggest problem of making internal maps of reality is not that we have to start from scratch, but that if our maps are to be accurate we have to continually revise them.
RLT, p. 45

JANUARY 26

We must always hold truth, as best we can determine it, to be more important, more vital to our self-interest, than our comfort.
RLT, p. 50

JANUARY 27

What does a life of total dedication to the truth mean? It means a life of continuous and never-ending stringent self-examination.
RLT, p. 51

JANUARY 28

The life of wisdom must be a life of contemplation combined with action. RLT, p. 51

JANUARY 29

To know the world, we must not only examine it but we must simultaneously examine the examiner.
RLT, p. 51

JANUARY 30

Fortunately, we are beginning to realize that the sources of danger to the world lie more within us than outside, and that the process of constant self-examination and contemplation is essential for ultimate survival.
RLT, p. 51-52

JANUARY 31

Examination of the world without is never as personally painful as examination of the world within.
RLT, p. 52

Copyright © 1993 by M. Scott Peck, M.D., P.C. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio; abridged edition edition (September 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671874772
• ISBN-13: 978-0671874773
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,237,784 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

M. Scott Peck's publishing history reflects his own evolution as a serious and widely acclaimed writer, thinker, psychiatrist, and spiritual guide. Since his groundbreaking bestseller, The Road Less Traveled, was first published in 1978, his insatiable intellectual curiosity has taken him in various new directions with virtually each new book: the subject of healing human evil in People of the Lie (1982), where he first briefly discussed exorcism and possession; the creative experience of community in The Different Drum (1987); the role of civility in personal relationships and society in A World Waiting to Be Born (1993); an examination of the complexities of life and the paradoxical nature of belief in Further Along the Road Less Traveled (1993); and an exploration of the medical, ethical, and spiritual issues of euthanasia in Denial of the Soul (1999); as well as a novel, a children's book, and other works. A graduate of both Harvard University and Case Western Reserve, Dr. Peck served in the Army Medical Corps before maintaining a private practice in psychiatry. For the last twenty years, he has devoted much of his time and financial resources to the work of the Foundation for Community Encouragement, a nonprofit organization that he helped found in 1984. Dr. Peck lives in Connecticut.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Solid and Intelligent, June 4, 2000

By 

Ryan Vooris (Ithaca, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Meditations from the Road (Paperback)

Scott Peck has been a voice of peace and determination for the past 20 years. In this wonderful combination of two of his most famous and successful books, "The Different Drum" and "The Road Less Traveled" simple, insightful and useful tips are given for each day of the year.

They are a combination of spiritual growth and personal struggle to an eventually goal that are as true today as when Peck wrote both books.

1.0 out of 5 stars Comments on "MEDITATIONS FROM THE ROAD", March 14, 2010

By 

Robert D. Boden (NORTH FORT MYERS, FL, US) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Meditations from the Road (Paperback)

I was disappointed in the meditations. They consisted only of exerts from the author's books. I was hoping for personal thoughts form the author on each exert. I would not recommend this book as a source of thought for meditations.

5.0 out of 5 stars Anything by M. Scott Peck is absolutely worthwhile. This has less content. Recommend In Search of Stones. So fantastic!, March 23, 2009

By 

Vivianne "Celtic Thunder Fan" (Mico, TX) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Meditations from the Road (Paperback)

Anything by M. Scott Peck is absolutely worthwhile. This little book has less content than the others as is an excerpt. Recommend In Search of Stones. So fantastic!