28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Solid Confirmation of What I Knew Inside, November 23, 2001
This review is from: The Way of the Labyrinth: A Powerful Meditation for Everyday Life (Compass) (Paperback)
A dear friend gave me this book.
My friend is not someone who talks about feelings or his spiritual life and he rarely finds himself walking in a labyrinth. Yet he knew when he saw The Way of the Labyrinth in a museum bookstore in Washington DC that it was a book he must get for me. On December 31 2000 my friend and I did walk in a laybrinth in Hamilton Montana. My friend enjoyed the walk but for me it was transforming. I didn't know much about the power of Labyrinths until then, nor did have much information about them. Lucky for me I have a woman friend in Missoula who has created several labyrinths in Vermont. She came to my house in May of 2000 and we installed a labyrinth of mowed paths in my backyard. I immediately felt more happy and at peace than I had in months. I have a much deeper connection to my small piece of property as a result of the labyrinth that has been uncovered in yard.
I walked in my "lab" for almost a year before my friend gave me this book. After a year of meaningful walks I was still without much formal understanding of the labyrinth concept. I was now ready to take in information and become more knowledgeable of the history of labyrinths and how they have helped people throughout time. This book is a wealth and gift of gentle information. As a result of walking my labyrinth for 18 months and reading this book I feel more grounded in my labyrinth practice. I feel very lucky to have recieved such a lovely gift from such an unlikely friend. I'm happy every morning to see this book on my desk in my yellow kitchen and I am even happier to have read a book that is so well written.
The book confirms what I've always known inside. The truth is already there, you just have find your way to the center to listen as it quietly speaks to you in ways you can understand. I reccomend this book to everyone who has ever walked a labyrinth, and even for those who have been walking all year without any formal understanding of the journey. You won't be disapointed.
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19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
We All Meet at The Center, November 24, 2000
This review is from: The Way of the Labyrinth: A Powerful Meditation for Everyday Life (Compass) (Paperback)
Helen Curry is an internationally recognized expert on the labyrinth movement and is a founding member and current President of the Labyrinth Society. Helen puts an overdose of her personal experience in to this book. She includes sections on the history of labyrinths and how to build labyrinths as many recent books do, but more importantly, she gives many personal experiences in operating the Connecticut Labyrinth Project, and shares the anonymous comments of many pilgrims. I was a bit amazed in reading the personal comments, that I had much of these experiences myself, over the same time frame. Special features include meditations for each portion of the traditonal walk, and a series of 'ecumenical' blessings that can be used on different occasions in setting the environment when opening the labyrinth for public walks. Added bonuses are the embossed 'walkable' labyrinth on the cover and a preface by Jean Houston.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very helpful tool, April 17, 2005
This review is from: The Way of the Labyrinth: A Powerful Meditation for Everyday Life (Compass) (Paperback)
This book was my introduction to labyrinths - I didn't even know that labyrinths weren't mazes before reading "The Way of the Labyrinth". Reading this book was a valuable experience for me. I found the tone very agreeable and it helped me make my way through the book at a comfortable pace that was a nice complement to the material. The whole "labyrinth concept" is sort of a personal experience and a lengthy intellectual document would have missed the point entirely. I read it one or two pages a day and every time I picked it up it was like continuing a interesting conversation.
Reflecting on and meditating with labyrinths is a process of carefully and peacefully reflecting on life with something tangible, labyrinths. It was surprising to me how relevant some of the aspects of labyrinths were to issues I was thinking through. A labyrinth, as opposed to a maze, is a path you can follow which winds you around till you get to the center - always. There are no dead ends, and no choices (other than the choice to keep walking forward). This book outlines a few famous historical labyrinths and discusses basic lessons that people have relearned every time they incorporate labyrinths into their society: focus, patience and reflection among many more. The method in which labyrinths focuses people on these lessons shows how powerful a symbol labyrinths are. Its sort of like how you can't help thinking about the future (or the past!) when you see funeral.
There are many personal experiences that Helen shares about her experience with labyrinths. They are a nice guide to what to what you might think about when walking a labyrinth - or even just thinking about labyrinths. Helen seems to be sort of new-agey and religious and I'm not in to new age stuff. Also, I don't have any concrete feelings about religion - I don't even pray. So, any reflections on religious aspects of labyrinths could have been distracting; but they weren't. Her religious reflections were sort of offered as her experience, not something you had to think was part of the labyrinth experience. I could see how they would be helpful for people who were thinking about religion while walking labyrinths.
I really was able to take from this book a set of insights into labyrinths and how this very old meditative tool can help guide your thinking in a secular, non-new-age manner. So, for all you out there who see the word "christian" or "self development" printed in reviews of other labyrinth books, don't get scared away from labyrinths because you think it has something to do with any organized religion or new age philosophy. The reason that people have religious reflections on labyrinths is clear to me - as it will be to you if you know about labyrinths or decide to read up on them. But religion does not have to be a part of your understanding of labyrinths.
I think that meditating is something everyone has tried at some point in their lives (usually when they are teenagers) and that most give it up as life gets more complicated. Part of the problem with keeping with it, I think, is that there's usually this feeling when you try to meditate, that you have to "do" all these things - clear your mind, focus on your breathing, think of a white light, focus on your energy, sit still for 15 minutes, blah blah blah. As we all know if somethings hard, people just won't keep doing it. But, my experience has been that the labyrinth concept gives you a tangible tool for meditating that takes a huge burden off of you. Since reading this book 2 years ago the concept of the labyrinth pops into my head at least once a week and helps me think through things more easily. I know it sounds crazy, but the basic concepts I pulled from the book have helped me lead a calmer, more comfortable life - and I'm not even one the hardcore "labyrinth walkers" that Helen refers to throughtout the book.
In fact, I have yet to actually walk a single labyrinth (aside from tracing the labyrinths in the book) - but the concepts are concrete enough that I have taken something valuable from this book. If I have the opportunity, I will walk a labyrinth and am sure that I will notice things I haven't thought of yet.
I now believe there are real, meaningful reasons the concept of the labyrinth has been a helpful meditative tool for people for thousands of years and I believe it is worth a read for everyone else to find out about labyrinths for these reasons. This book was a nice way to get in touch with that information for me and I suggest it to everyone with an open mind.
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