Customer Reviews

The Mystic Path to Cosmic Power (Reward classics)

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Vernon Howard's classic Mystic Path to Cosmic Power has been on my nightstand for years. This is the author's most comprehensive and inspiring book. Mr. Howard's principles, if applied in a practical way, are like magic and will make a wonderful difference in your life. I rate this book absolutely tops in its category, and I have read many of the genre.

I've been working with the ideas and techniques in this book for about 18 years. They have absolutely changed my life, enabling me to have and enjoy things in my life beyond my wildest expectations. This book is about changing your life and results by changing yourself (through insight). The changes I've achieved have been positive and permanent. Thank God for Vernon Howard; he is the only spiritual writer I read.

The Mystic Path to Cosmic Power is en excellent starting point if you are ready to begin your own, personal spiritual journey. Vernon Howard avoids an ego-pleasing, erudite, overly philosophical approach, instead offering an extremely practical guide: the beginning steps to self-enlightenment. Taking as a basis that we are all living in a kind of psychic sleep, he offers practical techniques to 'wake up'.

For those who have already done a significant amount of spiritual reading, Howard's approach may seem 'populistic', but his dichotomy between the 'true self' and the 'false self' is misleadingly simple. In fact, he has distilled a very powerful thought system that is easy to understand for those who have little experience in spiritual matters but are looking for a better way of life, but that is also very much worth considering for those already well on their way.

I've read a lot of books - this is one of the best ever. It explains completely the human condition including the cause of all suffering, problems, etc. and gives clear steps how to change everything.

The title might seem odd but don't miss this one! For those looking into the meaning of life and themselves, I haven't come across a book so helpful,enjoyable nor easier to read than this one. God bless Mr. Vernon for lighting the path to the truth of why we are here and how we can enjoy our lives during the trip. Each re-reading is a new experience!

This book illuminates the cause of much of humanities' pain and conflict, with helpful suggestions on identifying "the false self". This book is a key to living life in a truly new way, and will tell you more about yourself in one reading, than most discover in a lifetime.

BACKGROUND--An ex-girlfriend gave me this book ages ago--she used to read tons of new age feel-good books, so, I shelved it. Now, reading the accumulated books of decades, I was in for a big surprise. Wish I'd read it before--& discussed it with her. I was a Rosicrucian & Buddhist for over 30 years & must say that VH did a marvelous job explicating numerous mystical principles in an easily read/absorbed manner. He's neither pushy nor a pushover. He's eclectic though--drawing from both Eastern & Western sources--from Richard Cory's story (Simon & Garfunkle, I think, did a song on this) to Taoism. He also has a real knack for using similes. For example, p. 233: "The Mystic Path winds upward, like a mountain road, with many tunnels of various lengths. The traveler passes through he darkness of each tunnel to find himself on a higher level than before. Each tunnel represents a fresh crisis which must be daringly met." Such crises concern the false (ego) vs. True Self (Jung's Self, Zen's No-Self). People are in "life-hypnosis" when they identify themselves as ego (~robots or zombies)--p. 224: "like placing a peach label on a can of sauerkraut & expecting a peach pie."

PRACTICALITY--He's also quite practical, advising you to avoid--expecting people to act better than they are, letting events control how you feel, trying to heal others when you're ill yourself, but rather to let others be nice to you for a change. I knew this before, but consistent practice is quite another thing. He says, p. 221: "You have just covered information that might otherwise take you a lifetime to discover in the hard way. For your own sake, do things the easy way." His comments on daydreams were quite interesting--p. 209: "Destroy your imaginary self-pictures with ruthless persistence." Frankly, reading the book, felt like being in his seminar, & he does include a great many Q&A from his seminars & study groups.

SUMMARY--Mostly, becoming a p. 45: "self-free man" means detachment from results/desires & awareness (Buddhist mindfulness) of the Now since p. 68: "We cannot become happy by altering our exterior affairs anymore than we can improve our handwriting by getting a new pen." My favorite line, however, is-- p. 179: "So many people, when they have nothing to do, go ahead & do it anyway." This book tells you what to do is to truly be.

I suggest an exercise I intuited & find very effective if challenged by emotional reactions or seeking a selfless state or equanimity, recite the last line (mantra) from the Buddha's Heart Sutra (I do it 7 times).