Customer Reviews

Spiritual Warfare

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Having read all three books and having initial difficulty with the TONE, I have come to feel that as a body of work with progressive evidence of detachment from ego and identity, they are extraordinarily useful. The MP3 books were a better experience than the print versions.
They are hilariously useful as he elucidates what enlightenment is not. Soggy, moony, dreamy, kind, blissful...tantric, Hindi, Buddhist, Zen...nicely read and fashionably accessorized.
And what it is, an increasing distance from believing you are a mind or body, while being viscerally intimate with all of it. Being human, without the usual stagecraft.
A life in which the question "why the hell not?" is increasingly unanswerable.
Like Adyashanti, this guy is a closer. If you are near the end of teachers and teaching, a friend indeed.
E. Dunn

I read this book several months ago when it first came out. I had previously read the first two books in the trilogy. I enjoyed the first book but the second one was disappointing for me. I would say this one is the best written. It's dramatic, funny, and even touching at times. What a great writer! I would have given it 5 stars but the first chapter was irritating and drawn out to point of becoming boring. It's basically a chase scene that goes into minute detail about every move made. I knew the details of the chase were irrelevant so I just skimmed through it.

There is a lot of great stuff in this book. I love the way he skewers much of the new agey spiritual scene. There is page after page of fresh musings on life and the spiritual path. BUT, this book left a weird taste in my mouth. He definitely sets himself up (or the main character in the book) as an authority on how to become grown-up or self actualized or an adult. I can't remember the main term he uses. But do I really want to listen to the teaching of someone who needs an assistant to travel with because he can't deal with routine interactions with the public? Or how about the fact that he wants nothing more than to live alone with his dog and not have any close relationships with other human beings? If this was a book on geometry, then his personal life wouldn't matter, but he's talking about becoming a mature adult and "experience a direct and authentic spirituality". If he can't really deal with everyday normal stuff, how seriously can I take his mature adulthood?

I really liked Jed's first book. While this book has some interesting things to say, I couldn't help but feel, especially toward the end, that the author is writing not from his experience but rather from what he has gleaned from whatever spiritual books he has read. It lacked a certain authencity for me.

I quite liked the first book in the trilogy, and the second was a grind to get through, although I loved the literary analysis of Moby Dick. Spiritual Warfare, however, was a total page turner for me, and when I finished it, I picked it right back up and read it again (this is only the second book that has ever inspired me to do that).

There is no book quite like this one, and I resonated so greatly with its suggestion to focus on what's really true - that we can die at any moment, and that we have no idea when that moment will be. No spiritual practice gets to me quite like the practice of remembering, at as many moments of the day as possible, that in a flash, this could all be over. The concept is presented and illustrated brilliantly throughout the book.

Also covered, surprisingly, is intuition and manifestation, though he certainly doesn't call them by those names. Those sections are a great reminder of what's possible when we're in a state of flow.

If you've made it this far, and have read the first two in the series, Spiritual Warfare is the icing on the cake. Don't deprive yourself of reading the best of the three. If you're considering diving into the trilogy, do the work of reading the first two thoroughly so that you can fully enjoy this fully worthy ending.

Well, this book certainly made me ooh, ahhh, laugh........and think.
Jeds' approach is not for the delicate of spirit. The easily hurt ego will be offended.
Jeds' writing has acknowledged something I KNEW, and am now very much encouraged to follow my perceptions to a new germination of paradigm.

A worthy read and one of the few "truth" books out there. A pleasure to find and a valuable asset to give my children when they are ready. (They still read picture books)

The truth is direct, factual and clear.
Who are you?
What are you?
All is one
One is all

Get with the flow and stop obstructing your life with illusions. See through the ego and NEVER give in to it. Even though it's a tricky little bast**d. Be a wake up to the ego - smoke it out.

Good luck.....you can do it.....it's worth the effort. Sooner or later you will realise, may as well be now.

Something for JED - if he ever reads these comments:
"Source cannot contemplate its own death"

Thanks to the Universe for allowing the creation of this book and its contents.

Sharon

This book pulls every string you have. I hate it! Yet it it touches a place of truth - one I don't want to look at. It is well worth a read, but beware it will offend you at the least.

This book marks a grand finale to Jeds enlightenment trilogy and he goes out with a bang. The book is wrote in his usual novel-ish style, fully packed with the words of truth, only this time he really doesn't beat around the bush. He uses the example of a woman who has grown tired of the world and of normal life and she decides to leave it all behind. With Jed's help she manages to grasp what is true and what really matters or doesn't matter. I think her storey and the teachings Jed gives here will strike a chord with all who read this. He also tells of how he works in the flow of the universe, which makes all his desires come about without effort - something like manifestation. I think Jeds books are recommened reading for anyone who is serious about enlightenment. A book called The One: (Finding Reality & The Awakening of Spiritual Awareness) would also go well with this book, both being similar in theme.

This review is for all three books in the trilogy, as well as his notebook.

I've listened to the books on audio more than once, and I've also read them thoroughly.

There is no fundamental difference in saying "I believe in xyz" versus someone saying "This IS the truth." Why? Because in the end it is all based on written word. And the source of the writing cannot be verified.

Seems the most solid foundation we all have when approaching these books is: not knowing.

I have figured out, however, how to write an exact replica of his Trilogy. Follow this easy pattern and you too may be able to write the books (doesn't matter if you're enlightened or not).

Here is how to start the book:

1) Make a statement (example: "I am enlightened")
2) Create statements that contradict each other sharply.
3) Cover your ass with each contradiction by employing other supporting contradictions.
4) This creates the dynamic of ... you may have heard of it ... *plausible deniability*. If someone comes here and disagrees with a certain claim in the book, another person will come and say "well, on page so and so he does say the opposite."
5) This keeps the tale alive and resolves nothing. We all end up in a circular motion.

Also understand this: The act of contradiction does not imply a greater truth. It implies exactly that: simply the act of contradiction. Don't look beyond it. As soon as you look beyond it you will try to rationalize and make sense of it by looking at other contradictions within the same piece of writing... thus reinforcing that "maybe this guy is right."

It is only your own mind's earning compulsion to "know" as well as the books' deeply intertwined contradictions that make this dynamic possible.

Furthermore ask yourself the question: what is his motivation for putting some of the scenarios in the book? For example the car ride with the Mercedes where he is apparently disturbed by the driver's yapping. Ask yourself: what part of Jed McKenna is disturbed? There is no one there, as he claims, no-self. So what is it, really, that is disturbed?

Same with the dinner party. What within him is fundamentally disturbed. It can't be truth, because the truth is already so. Truth cannot be disturbed by falsehood, because truth has grounding. So what within Jed is so disturbed? What drives the guy? In all the various examples he writes about, what is it that really drives him to do and say what he does?

What within him is the faculty that discriminates? And why does it discriminate? What is it moving away from, and what is it moving toward? (Notice the contradictions between these examples and his assertion that he does not move away or to anything.)

Do you think you will ever get that answer? Is the answer even important?

Look at this review either under the context of me giving it one star or five stars... or anything in between. It doesn't really matter.

Jed McKenna is no ordinary author. He has written a trilogy of books that are easy to read and very entertaining, yet at the same time exceptionally profound. These books are nothing short of excellent, in fact they're so spiritually advanced that a lot of people might quite simply not realise what true gems they are.

Spiritual Enlightenment: The Damnedest Thing is the first in the series and announced the arrival of a major new voice in modern spirituality. Jed McKenna pulls no punches, but tells it like it is. It's probably not to everybody's liking, in fact some people might find his approach a bit upsetting, as he obviously seems more interested in truth than making you feel good. The second book is called Spiritually Incorrect Enlightenment and is every bit as good as the first one. It contains a very interesting and enlightening in-depth discussion about Herman Melville's book Moby Dick (Wordsworth Classics), as well as more of Jed's hilarious and outrageous experiences and profound insights. The third book, Spiritual Warfare, might well be the best of the three books, and is even more uncompromising and direct than the first two.

Jed McKenna speaks of enlightenment and spiritual awakening, and does so without sugar-coating it. This is not for people who want something nice to play with, something pleasant to doze off to or some new belief or theory to occupy themselves with. Jed McKenna doesn't provide any kind of self-help and offers no tools for self-improvement. It would be more accurate to say that he encourages a complete dismantling of the self, instead of developing or perfecting it. His message is a stark and unforgiving wake-up call, yet it's all written in the most charming and eloquent manner possible. These are spiritual books in the very best meaning of the word. If you are serious about spiritual awakening, you are likely to find the weird, wild and wonderful writings of Jed McKenna truly enlightening.

Pathik Strand, author of All This is That

Jed is not for everyone. He is irreverent, somewhat "chatty", and when he pursues his literary interests he can appear erudite and arrogant. That being said, I love all of his books. I could not put them down. Each book left me feeling cleaned out and excited - Jed transfers the responsibility for your personal undoing to the reader.

Jed encourages the reader to question/challenge any idea that you hold sacred. He digs under all those ideas that you would never think of questioning. He takes you through a journey of devaluing your self-constructed world. The reader joins in a journey of seeing the "stuckness" of various characters, and following them either in their undoing or their glossing over their "stuckness".

This book is a challenge to the whole "new age", spiritual movement. There is no progress. We do not accumulate knowledge and good karma, and thus become more holy and enlightened. Reading more spiritual books is not the answer - of course, this includes 'Spiritual Warfare'. The illusion/dream will not be conquered by the mind, but the intense questioning of everything will weaken its hold - it will cease to matter. Any ideas that you insist on keeping and giving value will be part of the construct of the veil obscuring the truth. Allow Jed to put a rent in the fabric of this veil; but be careful: you may not be able to hide behind the veil again!