10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Desert Island Book, September 15, 2009
This review is from: The Way of Selflessness: A Practical Guide to Enlightenment Based on the Teachings of the World's Great Mystics (Paperback)
This is a great book. If you had only one spiritual how-to-do-it (become wiser, more compassionate, happier, and--if you persist--Enlightened) book you could take to a desert island, you could do no better than to take "The Way of Selflessness."
Not only does it contain detailed instructions on how to walk a spiritual path with grace and style, it shows the reader that at the core of all of the world's major religious traditions (and even many of the smaller ones--Native American, e.g.) there exists one core capital T Truth. There's simply no other book I know of that demonstrates this fact so comprehensively.
Written with warmth and personality, this book is imminently accessible and entertaining as well. I can't recommend it enough.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent... Practical..., September 12, 2009
This review is from: The Way of Selflessness: A Practical Guide to Enlightenment Based on the Teachings of the World's Great Mystics (Paperback)
As a child has no idea the value of a good teacher until years down the road so am I, in regards to this book. There is just an inkling of its value, and words to describe that suspicion are difficult.
Joel points in this book to the well worn path the mystics of all great traditions have traveled and sets our feet firmly on it. Because of the purity and conciseness of their voices with his it is difficult for the ego to find comfort in its old ways of approaching the world. He quotes the great saints, sages and enlightened ones then applies their teachings in modern terms so that their secrets are revealed. He shows us clearly what is mysterious on the path and what is not, this alone cuts through years of unnecessary confusion. We marvel with him at the fact that cross culturally and across the centuries these teachers are saying the same thing. Then as any good teacher he implores us to find out for our-selves if what these great masters have said is true. In our time I would say of this book "where the rubber meets the road" on the spiritual path.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Clarity, Comprehensiveness, Accuracy, Selfless Truth in all its forms, October 18, 2009
This review is from: The Way of Selflessness: A Practical Guide to Enlightenment Based on the Teachings of the World's Great Mystics (Paperback)
I have searched high and low for a book of this stature, that clearly sets out the universal understandings of all spiritual, mystical, and religious traditions in a way that is eminently useful for both understanding one's own way as well as how others approach Truth.
That there is such a Truth is the point of Part I of this book. Again, the points are clear and succinctly given with just enough words to make them understandable, but no more, and adequately illustrated by quotations from writers without regard to what traditions they are associated with. The effect of this is two-fold: they reinforce what the author is stating and they break down the hard divisions that we are so ingrained to expect. That latter is a subtle way of reconfirming that first point that there is an absolute Truth.
But please don't misunderstand me. Nowhere in this book will you find the absolute Truth, nor does the author imply that you will. What you will find in this book is an expression of an understanding of that Truth with clear and comprehensive explanations of the different paths to understanding (gnosis/realization) regardless of how you must approach your own path, whether through an intellectual exploration of your own illusory beliefs, or as devotional practice. Even here though the author does us all a great service by pointing out that these two ways that understanding unfolds are not exclusive. They are, rather, a continuum within which we all find ourselves, thus we are more or less attracted to one pole or another of that continuum, but never are we exclusively served by the one or the other pole. This is not very frequently the case with other books as they all tend to focus on one path or another.
This book is very practical and Parts II, III, and IV serve to guide you in the practical aspects of entering upon a path, and giving a clear explanation of what they are, with explanatory quotes taken from far and wide. You will learn what the point of meditational practices are as well as what the point of prayer is, for instance.
Parts V, VI, VII provide focus on the three major steps in all practices of all traditions, Cultivating Love and Compassion, Dismantling the Delusion of Self, and Contemplating Reality.
Finally, Part VIII is a discussion of the End of the Way. While never purporting to be a depiction of what this would be, this part of the book again clearly indicates the general 'gist' of the fruit of all paths. The benefit of this is that it undercuts any false impressions that may be picked up along the way that could serve to stymie us by holding us to some expected point of arrival. This would be an attachment that would forever hold us down.
This book is also highly recommended for scholars. It is not oriented as a scholarly book and that is not what I mean by the recommendation. Instead, I recommend it to scholars because of the clarity and comprehensiveness of the text, from which they would benefit by developing an understanding of the point of spiritual, mystical, and religious traditions, that is often lost within the idiosyncratic expressions found in the specialized languages used by each tradition. This book is very effective in stripping these down to the 'bare particulars' without the kind of reductionism that would also strip them of meaning.
I applaud the author and the Center for Sacred Sciences. Together they have performed a great service for us all. Please excuse me now, because I have to buy this book for everyone I know :)
James Corrigan
An Introduction to Awareness
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