Out of the Labyrinth: For Those Who Want to Believe But Can't [Paperback]

J. Donald Walters (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 4, 2004

The last hundred years of scientific and philosophical thought have caused dramatic upheavals inhow we view our universe, our spiritual beliefs, and ourselves. Increasingly, people are wonderingif enduring spiritual and moral truths even exist.Out of the Labyrinth brings fresh insight and understanding to this difficult problem. Waltersdemonstrates the genuine compatibility of scientific and religious values, and how science and ourmost cherished moral values actually enrich and reinforce one another.

Editorial Reviews

Review

...Labyrinth is thought-provoking, intelligent, and filled with remarkable wisdom. This belongs in any thinking/feeling person's library. -- Fred Alan Wolf, Ph.D Physics/Author-Taking the Quantum Leap & The Spiritual Universe

...This message must spread everywhere. -- Leon Kolb, Professor of Anthropology, Emeritus, Stanford University

...a much-needed affirmation of the limitations of trying to apprehend reality only through the mechanism of reason. -- Rene Dubos, microbiologist, Pulitzer Prize for So Human an Animal

An engaging and compelling argument for the continuing relevance of spirituality to modern life. ... -- Reverend Chip Wright, Unitarian Universalist Church, Yakima, WA.

From the Publisher

Out of the Labyrinth is essentially a work of philosophy, not science. It deals with the facts of human nature that are essentially changeless, and relates them to findings of science and to statements by other thinkers that, although no longer of recent date, are by no means out of date.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: Crystal Clarity Publishers; 3 Revised edition (June 4, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565891481
• ISBN-13: 978-1565891487
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,591,634 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Swami Kriyananda (J. Donald Walters) , a direct disciple of the great master, Paramhansa Yogananda, is an internationally known author, lecturer, and composer. Widely recognized as one of the world's foremost authorities on meditation and yoga, he has taught these principles and techniques to hundreds of thousands of students around the world.

In 1968, Kriyananda founded Ananda Village in Nevada City, California, dedicated to spreading the spirit of friendship, service, and community throughout the world. Ananda is recognized as one of the most successful intentional communities in the world; over 1,000 people reside in Ananda communities in the US, India, and Italy. The European retreat and community located in Assisi, Italy, also serves Ananda meditation groups in Europe, Croatia, and Russia.

Ananda Village is also home to The Expanding Light, a world-renowned guest retreat facilities where thousands of visitors annually visit for renewal or instruction in many aspects of meditation, yoga, and the spiritual life. The nearby Ananda Meditation Retreat, located on Ananda's first property, function both as a retreat and as the site for Ananda's Institute of Alternative Living.

An advocate of simple living and high thinking, his more than 90 books covering a wide range of subjects emphasize the need to live wisely by one's own experience of life, and not by abstract theories or dogmas.

A composer since 1964, Kriyananda has written over 400 musical works. His music is inspiring, soothing, and uplifting. Many of his later albums are instrumental works with brief affirmations or visualizations. Chuck Dilberto, of Awareness Magazine says, "[His] words and music are full of his life and light. His sole intention is to heal, something we could all use during these chaotic times."

Through Crystal Clarity Publishers, his works, have sold over 3 million copies worldwide and been translated into over 25 languages.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A lot more fun than Fritjoff Capra..., December 26, 2000

By 

George Beinhorn (Mountain View, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Out of the Labyrinth: For Those Who Want to Believe But Can't (Paperback)

Walters does a <far> better job explaining New Science in the context of Eastern wisdom than such respected luminaries as Fritjoff Capra, Ken Wilber, and Deepak Chopra. For one thing, his writing is accessible to a far wider audience. A good thing, too, because what he's done is nothing less than demolish the West's leading killjoys: the twentieth-century thinkers who claimed that life is meaningless because science has shown us that the universe simply doesn't make sense: evolution is random (Darwin), light behaves like both a particle and a wave (Einstein), and we are creatures of mud who struggle to rise above our roots (Freud).

The ringleader of modern western nihilism was Jean Paul Sartre. While fully accepting the findings of science on which the nihilists based their claims, Walters arrives at radically different conclusions. When he's done, Sartre stands revealed as the last in a line of rationalist con-artists, and life is shown to be not bereft of, but bursting with meaning.

Walters wakes me up and inspires me to shout with pleasure. Finally, here's a synthesis of western and Eastern wisdom that is a joy to read as well as intuitively and rationally persuasive.

Thank you, JDW!!

6 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book propels Walters to the stratospheric heights of human reason!, July 18, 2005

By 

Siva Balan "Cosmic Consciousness" (Singapore) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Out of the Labyrinth: For Those Who Want to Believe But Can't (Paperback)

This book is definitely an ESSENTIAL reading for all philosophers, evolutionists, scientists and rational human beings. It basically takes on a new approach to the problem of meaninglessness and seemingly random events in our universe. In short, this work is an all out attack against nihilistic philosophy AND absolute philosophy. It condemns a rigid approach to religion as well as in science in a very sophisticated yet simple style of writing.

This book in fact engages any deep thinking reader to further define his/her thoughts and reasoning capabilities on subjects such as evolution, religion and purpose of existence. This work reveals that the author is more intellectual (and intelligent) than any other famous philosophers of the past. For example, Walters' unsympathetic attack on Sartre shows the reader that Sartre was actually an "intelligent idiot"! In fact, this pseudo intelligence is quite common among western philosophers and scientists.

In summary, this book MUST be read by any aspiring philosophers and students of evolutionary biology. It WILL strengthen the faith of any scientist or evolutionist.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Straw man, May 10, 2011

By 

Buyer Beware - See all my reviews

This review is from: Out of the Labyrinth: For Those Who Want to Believe But Can't (Paperback)

I wouldn't recommend this book. Chapter 3 is a clear straw man version of Sartre's philosophy and so it's criticisms are irrelevant. However, I don't think the author intentionally built a straw man argument. I simply think he was more concerned with refuting Sartre than understanding him.