Average customer rating:
- Finally...an honest, down to earth book on finding direction in life
|
EMBRACING DESTINY'S CROSSROADS
Lucile Stephens Richardson
Manufacturer: Xulon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Religious | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
General | Christian Living | Christianity | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1600343864 |
Book Description
"Embracing Destiny's Crossroads" is: The unveiling of the author's real life journey that goes beyond her autobiography in revealing simple life's lessons on what to do when reaching crossroads in your life.
Customer Reviews:
Finally...an honest, down to earth book on finding direction in life.......2007-04-08
Who has not, at one time or other in life, wondered why they were where they were and whether they had made the right or wrong decision? Embracing Destiny's Crossroads helps the reader to gain insight and understanding of why some things happen in life. There are times in life when one regrets the decisions that were made. Dr. Richardson, by sharing real life experiences from her own journey in life, is able to help the reader not only gain an understanding of the purpose behind some of what happens in life but uses her years of experience as a teacher to teach the reader how to pick up and move on, embracing what has happened as a stepping stone to what awaits. What I appreciated most about the book was that it was so down to earth and honest that I felt like Dr. Richardson was sitting right in my living room having a conversation with me. Infact, I normally read a book over several weeks. I read Embracing Destiny's Crossroads in two days. Its one of those books which once you start reading, its hard to put down. I respect Dr. Richardson for being very open about some very difficult and personal details of her life.
Book Description
In his first bestseller, Financial Peace, Dave Ramsey taught us how to eliminate debt from our lives. Now in More Than Enough, he gives us the keys to building wealth while also creating a successful, united family. Drawing from his years of work with thousands of families and corporate employees, Ramsey presents the ten keys that guarantee family and financial peace, including: values, goals, patience, discipline, and giving back to one's community. Using these essential steps anyone can create prosperity, live debt-free, and achieve marital bliss around the issue of finances. Filled with stories of couples, single men and women, children, and single parents, More Than Enough will show you:
* How to create a budget that fits your income and creates wealth
* What finances and romance have to do with one another
* What role values play in your financial life
* How to retire wealthy in every way
* And much, much more
Resonating with Ramsey's down-home, folksy voice, heartwarming case histories, inspiring insights, quotations from the Bible, and exercises, quizzes, and worksheets, More Than Enough provides an inspiring wealth-building guide and a life-changing blueprint for a vital family dynamic.
Customer Reviews:
Decent so far.......2007-04-11
Am only halfway through, and not bad so far. Not as many practical suggestions--his website seems much better for that. Good principles, especially in reagrds to including your spouse--even if one of you really gravitates towards finances, and the other doesn't. We're using it as a small group study for couples, and it's going well. Allows good conversation points that let you easily explore how your family histories affect how you manage finances.
Great Sequel to Financial Peace or total money make over.......2006-05-20
This is financial step 2(If you have read either of Dave's other books):This will continue your journey.I have been listening to Dave Ramsey since he started in Nashville in 1993. His common sense information is why I have a 6 figure 401K, and have had financial peace over the past 13 years. He taught me what my parents should have about personal finance. I have only made 4 car payments in 8 years(I have the cash to pay it off whenever I choose)and have had alomost zero credit card debt in 8 years.(A divorce set me back for 5 months).When I started listening to him I was BROKE.This is a great beginners book in personal finance,it can show you the way out of debt.I Would recommend strongly reading this mans books and listening to him on the radio if you want:
1) To be completely debt free.
2) Have peace of mind.
3) Have the freeedom to quit your job if you want to.
4) Have a large checking and savings account.
5) Retire young
More than Enough.......2006-02-22
Although I liked Financial Peace and The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey more than I did this book, it is still a good one. Dave really knows how to help you get your finances in line and he can really give you a wake up call of what can happen if you ignore your financial situation.
Very very good reading.......2003-12-04
I've read Dave Ramsey's other books and I think this book is worth reeading even if you've already read the others. This one I felt focused a little more on the foundations of character, values, patience, and discipline. It contains the best description of 'diligence' I've ever seen.
Highly recommended for those interested in taking a hard look at not just their debt to income ratio, but also a hard look at themselves and their values.
Life Changing!.......2003-05-14
This book is life changing. For people with financial wisdom it may be yeah, I know that. But for those of us that missed the lessons not taught on financial management in school or by our parents this book is wonderful. It is an outstanding gift for new college graduates and newlyweds. I love it and have already given it as a gift a half dozen times within a month of completing the book. It helps couples talk about their disconnects on managing the household income in a self mocking way. It also helps eliminate some of the stress around money when you truly recognize it's purpose.
Book Description
The Simplest Path, Step One: Free Your Mind delineates, in one slim volume, a complete system for achieving personal spiritual awakening, along with a straightforward, no-nonsense plan individuals and groups so enlightened can follow to awaken Humanity en masse and positively transform the world. This book contains keys to awakening. Awakening from our personal dream shatters the solid "box" of limitation memes have built around our lives, and frees us to fluidly craft our personalities, environments, relationships, careers, etc. as an artist paints a landscape or a sculptor teases form from formless clay. All of us awakening together from the shared dream of the planet will mark the birth of our species out of our current global nightmare of decline into a limitless future literally beyond our present ability to imagine, even in our "wildest dreams," indeed.
Customer Reviews:
Way Beyond "Socrates Revisited".......2007-08-22
After reading the commentary attached to the one star rating given by the young man from Texas, I feel compelled to step forward in defense of this very fine book. With only one exception, every point made in that negative review is simply wrong. Just not factually correct. The reviewer identifies himself as a young man (... "to my young mind"), and since all of his other Amazon reviews are of TV episodes on DVD, video games and rock music CDs I take him at his word. Well, I am an "old man," closing in on my sixty-third birthday, and I came to Mr. Casspriano's book after six decades of life experience, the last three of those decades a zealous practitioner of Zen Buddhism. I say this not to "brag," but simply to qualify myself as a reviewer before beginning.
I'll start where the one star reviewer closed his argument, with his statement that the simplest path reduces to two Socratic concepts: "Admit that you don't know anything" and "know yourself."
The first part is nominally true (the exception). Like Zen Buddhism, a central tenet of the simplest path is working to release the false notion we all hold that we know ourselves, other people, the world around us. But identifying and releasing our attachments to our illusions is a life's work, not some brash "I don't know nothin'!" as the young Texan seems to imply. Under normal circumstances, we go about our daily lives with no idea we are deluded about anything, as Maya (the illusion of the phenomenal world around and even inside us) is so convincing that most of us never even think to question its validity. Casspriano did not invent the notion of human beings being trapped in illusion, as this truth was known to the timeless authors of the Hindu Vedas and is central to all schools of Buddhism (not just Zen). But his scientific/spiritual exploration of the mechanism by which Maya ensnares our minds and can, with effort, be overcome is among the best "plain English" explanations of this process I have read. There is no "inscrutable mystery" in the simplest path (a criticism that has been accurately leveled toward Zen Buddhism, as a lot of Eastern thought truly does come off as "inscrutable" when translated into English and/or the metaphors of Western culture). Casspriano lays out in no-nonsense American English exactly what our brains are doing when they create the illusion we mistake for reality, then shows the reader in the same clear terms how to train his or her brain to break free of illusion and taste reality as-it-is. In just 216 pages, that is no mean feat. After thirty years of Zen practice and numerous kensho experiences (of varying depths and intensities), I can say from personal experience that Casspriano is correct. Enlightenment comes as the fruit of a long, incremental process of retraining the mind to touch reality in a new way, and the process described in the simplest path is the same as that followed in Zen practice, especially Rienzi Zen koan study (I'll have more to say about this in a later paragraph). Casspriano's approach and language is very different from traditional Zen (more "scientific," and no sitting meditation is required), which I think would appeal to Americans and other Westerners seeking to experience "awakening" without necessarily committing themselves to a religion like Buddhism, but the internal mental/spiritual process and final destination are the same.
"Know yourself," on the other hand, is not in this book at all, at least not in the way the young reviewer, or Socrates for that matter, uses the phrase. As in Buddhism, Casspriano takes pains to demonstrate that "self" is as much of an illusion as our misapprehension of the phenomenal world, and is a byproduct of exactly the same mind process that creates outer Maya. A core teaching of Buddhism is that our "self," our personality/ego, is nothing more than an aggregation of outside influences that cluster together in our minds like shiny stones gathered into a pile, and which we mistake not only for something "real," but tragically, for our essential selves. Yet this "pile" has nothing really to do with who we are at all. Buddhism teaches "no-self." Belief in the illusion of a unique and independent "self" is our greatest obstacle to enlightenment. Wasting time and energy getting to "know yourself" in the Western sense is foreign to Eastern thought. Casspriano again does a great job of translating the Buddhist concept of "no-self" into Western scientific/spiritual terminology. He shows the process by which our ego/personality aggregate "piles up," as well as how to take the pile down, stone by stone. Enlightenment is what the pile was covering up, and so it naturally appears as soon as the pile is removed - but oh how we cling to our personal pile of stones! "Self" is what we must trade for enlightenment, what must be surrendered, and Casspriano returns to this truth many times in the simplest path. My point is that the one star reviewer's reduction of the simplest path to "know yourself" has no basis at all in the actual book.
As to the book being "gimmicky": Yes, the words "The Simplest Path" recur frequently throughout the book, but not in reference to the book itself (at least that's not how I took it), but rather to the system of understanding the mind and working toward "awakening" Casspriano is describing - and it is a complete system that deserves to be considered as a whole, on its own. At times the repetition does have a feel of "branding" in the commercial sense, so I understand where the reviewer may have taken his impression. But the simplest path, while resonant with Zen Buddhism (and apparently, according to Casspriano, with the Toltec philosophy espoused by Carlos Castaneda, of which I have no personal knowledge, so I'll have to take the author's word for that) is far enough different that it needs its own "name" to set it apart from other schools of similar but not identical thought. The reviewer's criticism is like saying that every use of the term "Zen" in a book called "Zen Buddhism" should be taken as a reference to the book, and not to the larger practice of Zen Buddhism as a spiritual discipline that the book is describing. Casspriano's point in repeatedly linking The Simplest Path, Zen Buddhism and Toltec Shamanism throughout the book, at least as I understood it, is to highlight these three spiritual practices as related reliable paths through a dark forest of illusion, a forest in which many apparent (and more popular) paths, including most (all?) religious beliefs, actively vie to mislead travelers toward deeper ensnarement in the dream, rather than leading them toward "awakening."
I want to say a word about koan study in Rienzi Zen and how it relates to the simplest path. Koans are those quirky Zen sayings and stories like "what is the sound of one hand clapping?" or "what was your original face before you (or your parents) were born?" that have no rational answer, and which Zen students turn and turn in their minds like the tumblers of a combination lock until their imprisoned psyches "explode" in a "super-rational" experience of reality beyond the illusion ("irrational" would be the wrong term, as that implies "nonsense"). That "super-rational" vision of reality is called "kensho." I have experienced it myself, more than once in my lifetime. I have come to think of Casspriano's "Key Questions" in the second half of the simplest path, especially the later seven of the ten, as "cultural koans" designed to trigger "collective kensho" for the whole human race at once. Like "what is the sound of one hand clapping?", unflinching consideration of the value of human life, of how our beliefs about the future shape the present, of the true origin and destiny of life on Earth, etc., especially as seen through the lens of Casspriano's "Key Question Technique," reveals that none of these questions have rational answers, yet all require our active and immediate response. Successful resolution of these larger riddles that impact everyone will require us all to eventually "explode" into reality, together, in a "super-rational" way. We'll have to break through the illusion and wake up together, as one (which has been the goal of Mahayana Buddhism, of which Zen is a sect, since around 200 BCE). That is the "Planetary Awakening" addressed in this book, and I believe Casspriano's "Key Questions" are a concrete step in that direction. I'm glad I spent my fifteen dollars.
This is my "old man" take on the simplest path, having encountered it after 30 years of Zen Buddhist practice (I'm not veering off my chosen path here, just bowing respectfully in passing toward Casspriano's). From a Buddhist perspective, the simplest path is true Dharma, though I do not get the impression from reading his book that Vincent Casspriano is himself a Buddhist or a follower of any religion. That to my mind makes his book all the more interesting.
True, but gimmicky.......2007-08-09
Casspriano's book is scientifically and philosophically sound as best as my young mind can tell, but I don't recommend this book. Its scattered with numerous pages of advertising about how his "program" works and how it compares to other religions and spiritual movements. Why must this author physically write out "The Simplest Path" in reference to his book every other page, and talk about his second volume? Perhaps because he's not out for pure truth, but for our money.
All this book comes down to after you strip away the nonsense is two things. First, admit that you don't truly know anything. Second, know yourself. Do those two things (they essentially both mean to question EVERYTHING), and you'll have Casspriano's "Planetary Awakening," with 15 bucks still in your pocket. And you'll be following the fundamental truths already said by Socrates.. so do yourself a favor and pick up Plato's "Apology" and read up on the Socratic dialogue on how to live a good life. And don't stop there, because you can't be sure he's right.
And I have 10 bucks that says these other couple of reviews were written by the book publisher. In any case, ignore the hype.
A Unique and Inspiring Wake-up Call.......2007-05-15
This is one of the most clear-headed books I've read in years on the subject of real, nitty gritty, get your hands dirty spiritual development (as opposed to the fru fru New Age variety). So much of what passes for "spirituality" in our time amounts to some author, celebrity, priest, philosopher or self-appointed guru telling us what to "believe," sight unseen, if we want to reach heaven, attain enlightenment, achieve "ascension," etc. Casspriano takes an at times startling opposite approach. For Casspriano, such unquestioned/unquestionable beliefs are not only NOT the path to spiritual awakening, they represent the chief obstacle blocking our realization of higher consciousness. And it's not just religious beliefs ("faith") he's talking about, but all our beliefs about reality, especially those that enclose our thinking in "boxes" that limit our freedom to find solutions to real-world threats like Peak Oil, overpopulation, Global Warming, etc. Though much of the book focuses on individual enlightenment, for Casspriano, these larger planetary issues are "spiritual," as well. Whether the issue is our personal inability to find happiness or Humanity's collective rush toward physical extinction, the cause is the same - our wrong-headed beliefs about what's real. The solution is the same, as well - continuous, deep questioning. Using Richard Dawkins' concept of "memes" as a central metaphor, Casspriano first breaks down the basic process of belief, showing the mechanism in our brains by which beliefs misdirect and control our psyches, then he walks the reader through an exploration of a series of ten "anti-meme questions" aimed at breaking down the walls of our mental "boxes" and setting our minds free. With each question, he supplies an exercise designed to allow the reader to attain a personal taste of reality "beyond the box," especially as flavored by that chapter's "Key Question." For the most part, this formula works very well (with a few rare moments of over-exuberance on the author's part, as already described in other reviews, though as a card carrying vegan environmentalist, I can't say I particularly minded), delivering a cumulative series of death-blows to some of the most basic "pillars" of our present human consensus reality. Beyond the walls those pillars supported lies real reality, where we are all interconnected and interdependent, and, in Casspriano's view, mutually destined for greatness, if we can just wake up and grab the reins of our runaway culture in time. This is not a book for spiritual "feel gooders" seeking soft assurances that they're perfect just they way they are and everything's going to be all right, no matter what. This is a wake up call, a tool kit and a concrete action plan for becoming individually enlightened and collectively saving the world, all rolled up into one. That, I think, is a cause well-worthy of exuberance.
Challenge Consensus Reality!.......2007-05-10
This is a thoughtful book that addresses how we may go about developing a process to question our everyday consensus reality. I suppose if I have learned anything in 49 years of life, it is that all personal and social problems stem from our fundamental views on the nature of reality itself. Vincent Casspriano uses the concept of a "meme" as a fundamental unit of ideas, assumptions, etc. that often block our understanding of reality itself. One such meme, for example, may be that we have to "fight for our freedom" or the world's a "fearful" place and hence, we have to be ready to kill to protect ourselves. I suppose you could also use the word "paradigm" here as well, but the essential point of this book is that we "unconsciously" function in our life with many limited points of view that block our ability to solve problems on both a personal and a social basis.
While Vince Casspriano is to be congradulated for producing a book that presents both a methodology and a motivation for personal transformation, there are a few pitfalls here that the potential reader should be aware of before tackling this material. The author has some rather strong views on fossil fuel consumption, meet consumption, and the role of humans in the cycle of procreation. While I generally agree with his analysis on fossil fuel consumtion and meat consumption (as I have viewed large tracks of deforrested grazing land in developing countries), these viewpoints can distract the reader from the essential point here which is to rigourously question consensus reality. Since I am single, and have no motivation to have children, I definitely disagree with his views on the necessity of human procreation on this planet, but here again, it is important to extract the essential meaning rather than get caught in the specific political/social debates that these issues may spawn.
If you are serious about personal transformation with the potential for changing our global consciousness, than this book can be an invaluable tool. I do agree with the Author that a world population of "high functioning" people can resolve every planetary problem we face today. As we systematically question our consensus reality, we will see our problems in new ways, and with this new perspective, problems can often be quickly resolved or transcended.
A Simple Cure For What's "Eating Us".......2006-11-13
I considered titling this review, "Stop Whining, Wake Up and Get Busy Saving the World," but decided "Eating Us" would be more attention-grabbing - which matters because I believe Vincent Casspriano, Jr.'s "The Simplest Path, Step One: FREE YOUR MIND" is an important book, and I want to do whatever I can to draw your attention to it. Pick the title you like best. Both very fittingly describe what you will find within the pages of this remarkable new release from New Paradigm Press.
I have selected three short quotations to explore in this review that I think best summarize Casspriano's overall message:
From Chapter One, "The Boxes We Dream In":
"Right now, this very moment, you are asleep... Even if you are reading these words in broad daylight - sitting at your desk or beside the kitchen table, your feet firmly planted on the floor, eyes open, senses alert, feeling the weight of this book in your hands as sounds of life rise and fall rhythmically around you - you are deeply asleep, and dreaming furiously"
Now, the idea that Humans are sleeping, and must therefore "awaken," is by no means unique to Casspriano's "Simplest Path" spiritual system, being the root observation underlying pretty much all Eastern religion, and a lot of Western Occultism and New Age metaphysics, as well. In fairness, Casspriano makes no claim to this as an original insight, openly supporting his assessment of the human predicament with quotations taken from Animism, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Islam. He then flows seamlessly into a list of complementary illustrations from the secular realms of Quantum Physics, brain/consciousness research, and most to-the-point, the study of memes and memetics, ala Evolutionary Biologist and world's best-known cheerleader for scientific atheism, Richard Dawkins.
If you've never heard of memes or memetics, a quick Google of those terms will reveal hundreds of serious, information-rich websites devoted to this now thirty-year old science. In a nutshell, a "meme" is a sort of contagious thought-form that spreads between people by way of imitation. Obvious memes in our environment include advertising jingles, fads and fashions, etc. Casspriano somewhat radically extends the concept to include just about everything that makes up the contents of our individual brains and shared human culture. While he resists redefining the word "meme" wholesale, he decidedly expands its definition to make memes and "memeplexes" (what you get when a number of memes band together into an organic, relational unit, like a religion or cultural or political movement) the basic, fundamental building blocks of everything we habitually label "real..."
And then he demonstrates, in at times excruciating detail, the complete emptiness of the "apparent-reality" that is a byproduct of memetic activity in our brains. What we call "real" is not real at all. It's an illusion spun up by our memes. And our memes are not original to us. They are "viral invaders" assailing our minds from without. Worse - and, while even this thought is not wholly unique to Casspriano, he certainly gives it his own very effective spin - memes are by no means mere passive beliefs or simple "harmless ideas." They are, Casspriano believes, actively predatory psychic parasites whose survival depends on our buying into the illusions they create in our minds. Think of illusion (Samsara, Maya, etc.) as a web we're caught in. Memes are the spider. We are the fly. Gotcha.
One thing I like very much about Casspriano's book is that he never asks us to take anything on faith, least of all this rather ugly depiction of the human psychic/spiritual condition. He not only challenges readers to test his hypothesis firsthand in order to experience what is real and true for ourselves, he spends a large chunk of the book outlining specific exercises anyone can do to escape memetic interference and personally experience reality as-it-is. The exercises in Part II of the book are powerful medicine... But this is a digression, so let me return to the point.
Memes are the spider, and we are the fly. A better metaphor might be that memes are the farmer, and we are the cow. Domesticated and docile, we allow memes to milk us daily, to extract from our minds the potent human psychic energy which, if reclaimed by us and put to proper human use, would quickly and positively transform our lives and our world. This transformation is awakening, ascension, enlightenment, metanoia, the Buddha-like change of consciousness most religions and spiritual systems on Earth hint at, but few ever actually deliver to followers. In this analysis, Casspriano's "Simplest Path" is very much in line with Gurdjieff's "Fourth Way," Carlos Castaneda's Toltec sorcery, and a few other well known spiritual practices inhabiting a somewhat darker, though perhaps more realistic corner of the New Age. But unlike most of those other systems, Casspriano's prescription for escaping illusion and awakening to reality is remarkably, well... simple.
From Chapter Three, "Waking Up":
"The simple truth is that we are sleeping because we lack sufficient energy to wake up."
And later in the same chapter:
"The real work that brings about awakening, rather than merely granting the external appearance of "being spiritual," while actually embroiling us ever more deeply in the dream, is a rigorous, daily commitment to the identification and elimination of every self-serving belief from which our personal dream-lives are constructed."
For "belief" in the quotation above, read "meme/memeplex." Casspriano certainly does, treating the terms as largely interchangeable. In the end, this genuinely simple - at least in the sense of being uncomplicated and pragmatic - spiritual practice amounts to discovering reality as-it-actually-is less by searching for a glimpse beyond the illusion, than by systematically withdrawing our participation in, and identification with, the dream. When we disentangle our psyches from memetic illusion, only reality remains. We don't have to chase it; to a meme-free mind, reality just appears. This is "Satori" in Zen Buddhism. This is "stopping the world" in the Toltec sorcery of Castaneda and others. Casspriano's genius lies in his talent for exposing the core mechanism behind such complex and often inscrutable spiritual systems, and for putting into plain language clear instructions for unraveling the dream and achieving personal awakening. The virus-like process by which memes take over and control our human minds, as described by Casspriano is, to my mind, very complicated (but well worth struggling through). What is genuinely simple about "The Simplest Path," however, is Casspriano's prescription for breaking those bonds, once you've made the effort to understand how they are created and maintained. For Casspriano, remaining a victim of spiritual sleep and energetic exploitation by memes is a complex activity in which we unconsciously invest enormous amounts of psychic energy every day of our lives. Awakening is the product of a simple act of withdrawing that investment, which automatically re-energizes of our minds and lives. Or as Casspriano cleverly phrases it when closing Chapter Three, "Waking Up":
"Unweave the tapestry of the dream, and awakening happens."
Anyone can do this. Spiritual awakening, in Casspriano's view, may be hard work, but it is not complicated work. The path to enlightenment is really rather shockingly simple. Fall out of love with the dream. Reclaim your psychic energy. Wake up to reality.
The ten "Key Questions" Casspriano explores in the second section of the book are designed to put the theory laid out in Part I to practical and immediate use. Essentially, I think Casspriano sees these ten issues - why we treat enlightenment as an "airy-fairy" ideal instead of a measurable transformation of brain functioning, the excuses we make for avoiding personal responsibility and integrity along the lines of Castaneda's "impeccability," the fallacy of belief in a "separate self," etc. - as pillars of both our personal and collective human dreams. They are by no means an exhaustive listing of the memes twisting our minds. But they are primary keystones on which layers upon layers of the grand illusion are built. Topple these ten baseline pillars and the larger structure crumbles.
Casspriano explores some "Keys" more successfully than others. One downside to the book is that, especially in the "Keys," Casspriano's own memetic prejudices shine at times rather glaringly through, as when, in his discussion of the American "What Would Jesus Do?" religious fad, he characterizes the Evangelical Christian purveyors of WWJD as, "ultra-conservative, right wing ideologues." Even should the reader personally agree with such pronouncements, its hard to resist thinking, "Hey Vince! Your memes are showing!" But where he nails his point, Casspriano's prose can be downright inspiring, as with the "Key" cosmological study "Is Earth the Center of the Universe?," which explores the gap between what we know, scientifically, about the Universe and what our daily choices and behavior says we really believe, about the cosmos and about ourselves. His closing "Key" "Are We Alone?" so poetically frames the true stakes of our global human predicament - species survival VS extinction - that its hard to imagine anyone keeping their gaze glued squarely to their own self-involved navel in the wake of reading it. Of course we are not alone. There are six and a half billion of us on Planet Earth, and whether we awaken to what's best in us or follow our darkest drives over History's cliff into oblivion, we do so as one. One planet, one fate.
This notion of "oneness" and of a common, intertwined human spiritual and biological destiny is a core theme in The Simplest Path, Step One: FREE YOUR MIND that sets it apart from any spiritual book in recent memory. My final quotation from the book returns us to the opening lines of Chapter One, "The Boxes We Dream In":
"We are all aware of the challenges facing us as we enter together into the 21st Century:
· World oil supplies are running out.
· Global warming is transforming the Earth into a steamy greenhouse.
· Even as our technology connects the world, ideological extremism, terrorism and militarism divide us as never before.
· Headlines bombard us with news of war, famine, pestilence and death until we feel overwhelmed and unable to respond.
· Time is running out..."
Vincent Casspriano, Jr.'s "The Simplest Path to Personal and Planetary Transformation, Step One: FREE YOUR MIND" does not offer easy escape from these very pressing real-world human ills, but rather, a down to Earth, workable prescription for their cure. Yes, we must awaken as individuals, and, rest assured, "The Simplest Path" shows spiritual seekers exactly how to do that. But a prime message of "The Simplest Path" is that, for personal awakening to have meaning, it must occur within the context of a complete re-visioning of global culture, and a mass wrenching away of the wheel of History from the control of viral memes, that we might create a common cosmic human destiny worthy of our highest potential as a species.
Now that's a meme worth feeding.
Book Description
Whether you are a businessperson, a homemaker, a student, or a head of state, author Myles Munroe explains how you can make your dreams and hopes a living reality. Your success is not dependent on the state of the economy or what the job market is like. You do not need to be hindered by the limited perceptions of others or by a lack of resources. Discover time-tested principles that will enable you to fulfill your vision no matter who you are or where you come from. You were not meant for a mundane or mediocre life. You do not exist just to earn a paycheck. Revive your passion for living. Pursue your dream. Discover your vision--and find your true life.
Customer Reviews:
Vision and purpose understood.......2007-09-12
If you want to really, fully understand how and why one is given a Christian spiritual gift like purpose and vision you will truly enjoy reading this book....it's hard for me to put it down...and I'm only into the 3rd chapter. Myles Monroe has been given a rare gift of explaining the actual "mechanics" of various spiritual gifts in terms that are so plain and understandable....I've read his book on prayer as well "Understanding the Purpose and Power of Prayer" it was TERRIFIC!! I can't wait to order another one of his books when I get through with this one.
Great & Inspiring.......2007-02-19
I can't get enough of this book, every page is an "aha" moment. It's taking me to the next level. I think the book was written just for me, answering/addressing the questions I've had & couldn't seem to figure out the answers.
A spiritually motivational booster shot!.......2006-11-10
Myles Munroe has done it again! In his own uniquely simplistic way of informing people who are searching, of the principles in scripture which help us to move forward in the purpose that God has given each of us. Munroe shows us how to identify the talents that God has given us and to utilize them to our fullest potential. This book along with the study guide helps the reader to remain on track in regard to prioritizing what is really important in life. The fulfillment of our individual purpose for being. It's not about competition, it's about purpose!!
Excellent.......2006-10-10
I had the opportunity of taking a class on this book. The book is awesome. It made me think seriously on somethings I wanted to do in my life. One statement in this book was, "Stop procrastinating and hoping you will eventually get somewhere in life. Decide whether you're going to get a curse or a blessing." Revelation 3:15-16
I decided I would rather have a blessing and began to focus more towards my purpose in life. Knowing that God is my source and He would never give me a vision or assignment that I am not equipped for.
I also liked the Chapter Principles at the end of each chapter (ie. "If you don't have a plan, God doesn't have anything specific to direct you in.").
Life Changing.......2006-03-25
You find yourself looking at YOU & what YOU can accomplish in a totally new light.
Many revelations on LIFE & your purpose in it.
Average customer rating:
- How to achieve your destiny through positive emotions
- Great resource for changing the way you think
- Be Creative With Your Destiny
- Very Good
- Create a more Joyful Life
|
Your Destiny Switch: Master Your Key Emotions, and Attract the Life of Your Dreams
Peggy McColl
Manufacturer: Hay House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General | Self-Help | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
Motivational | Self-Help | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
Personal Transformation | Self-Help | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
Emotions | By Topic | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
General | Occult | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Walsch, Neale Donald | ( W ) | Authors, A-Z | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:
-
The Intention Experiment: Using Your Thoughts to Change Your Life and the World
-
Choices and Illusions: How Did I Get Where I Am, and How Do I Get Where I Want to Be?
-
Quantum Success: The Astounding Science of Wealth and Happiness
-
The Divine Matrix: Bridging Time, Space, Miracles, and Belief
-
The Astonishing Power of Emotions
ASIN: 1401912362 |
Book Description
Your Destiny Switch isn’t just another self-help book. It’s a powerful concept and process that can consciously and creatively transform your life. You could call it a paradigm shift in creative consciousness, a shift that speaks to your demand for a richer and more experiential engagement in your quest for growth. More than a book, Your Destiny Switch allows you to balance your key emotions in order to reach your destiny.
Peggy McColl supports this work with a wealth of reference materials that provide an abundance of valuable and usable life-changing tools: state-shifters, the scale of human emotions, performance indicators, measurement tools, and a daily and weekly destiny planner. This book will help you understand your own creative power by way of your emotions and, more important, show you how to use this power to create desired results by tapping into a powerful energy source within.
Customer Reviews:
How to achieve your destiny through positive emotions.......2007-09-08
The authors concept of achieving your destiny is first through identifying what it is that you truly desire, then to create very positive affirmations in words and through acting it out if possible (like visiting the type of house you would like to own). You journey toward them ever day through positive emotions. She gives you many to choose from, you are suppose to pick out the 4 most powerfule ones for you and place them on the top of either a drawn set of 4 switches or buy a real dimmer switch and place the four positive emotions on the top switches and there negative counterparts on the bottom of the switches. You are to review how you felt daily and move the switches up or down based on your feelings. The goal is to eventually max out the switches toward there top due to a learned focus toward positive emotion. If your goal is to feel more love, love would be on the top of the switch and hate would be on the bottom, each day as you felt more love for others you would slide your switch upward. Positive emotions to choose from are calm, confidence, faith, kindness, trust, curiosity, worthiness, inspiration, motivation, and wonder. I really liked the authors premise of how we attract people and circumstances to ourselves based on our emotions, it is an interesting concept to the law of attraction. It works!!!
Great resource for changing the way you think.......2007-09-06
Peggy has created a great resource for changing the way you think. She offers the critical reminders that your emotions guide your destiny, and that you have at your constant disposal an array of powerful tools to impact them. Sound content coupled with good examples and practical processes make this book an effective tool for anyone wanting to improve the way they use their mind to purposely define their life.
Be Creative With Your Destiny.......2007-09-03
"Your Destiny Switch: Master the Key to your Emotions and Attract the Life of your Dreams" by Peggy McColl is a most delightful book about a paradigm shift in co-creating with the Universe, and thereby manifesting a richer and more experiential practice of intentional living and higher consciousness.
Highly recommended!
My most recent best find in New Age novels where the main character embarks on a metaphysically spiritual healing journey is...
Nexus: A Neo Novel
Very Good.......2007-08-26
This was a good reminder of what most of us already know. If you don't know about keeping emotions in check then this is a must read. Very informative.
Create a more Joyful Life.......2007-08-23
Wonderful and helpful book. Should be highly recommended to people of all ages, especially young people!
Average customer rating:
|
Key To Destiny
Piers Anthony
Manufacturer: Mundania Press LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
General | Anthony, Piers | ( A ) | Authors, A-Z | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Paperback | Anthony, Piers | ( A ) | Authors, A-Z | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:
-
Key to Chroma
-
Key to Havoc
-
Key to Liberty
-
The Magic Fart
-
Pornucopia
ASIN: 1594260443 |
Download Description
The Third Novel in the Epic ChroMagic Fantasy Series At last Havoc and Gale are married, having discovered the source of the changelings, but the King and Queen have yet to enjoy a peaceful reign. The knowledge they've gained, as well as their new Glamor status, opens doors to new questions-and new missions for Havoc's loyal friends. While Ennui, Aspect, and Nonce are discovering the source of the enigmatic loom, Aura, Augur, and Ini are sent in search of more altars. And in the midst, the royal family quickly blossoms. With the adoption of three remarkable babies, and the news that Gale will soon add a fourth, the King and Queen find themselves very busy! When the loom points the way to Counter-Charm the whole assemblage makes ready to visit and explore the mysterious sister planet. With the help of the peculiar cloud-like ifrits, the Glamors must find the location indicated by the tapestry and permeate powerful illusion fields to find whatever lies at the center. In the process they just might discover that the key to their destiny may be the smallest among them.
Customer Reviews:
Well Done.......2006-03-19
This is an extremely well-written campaign, filled with tons of optional encounters. I was very impressed with the number of options many parts of this campaign had, taking the pressure off of the person running the setting. Highly recommended for a Dragonlance gamemaster without a lot of spare time to come up with homebrewed ideas.
Not a problem.......2006-02-24
Did not have a single problem with this item. Came well packed and wrapped. No complaints.
Average customer rating:
|
The Key Of Destiny And The Truth About Evolution And The Bible
Harriett Augusta Curtiss
Manufacturer: Kessinger Publishing, LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General | New Age | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Controversial Knowledge | Religious Studies | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Unexplained Mysteries | Occult | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
General | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Evolution | Professional Science | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1425481744 |
Average customer rating:
|
Keys to Unlocking Your Destiny
Aaron D. Lewis
Manufacturer: Whitaker House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General | Christian Living | Christianity | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
General | Christian Living | Christianity | Religion & Spirituality | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
General | Religion & Spirituality | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0883687208 |
Download Description
You're too fat, too thin, too short, too tall, too white, or too black. You've heard it all your life... You're just not good enough! Now is the time to break out of the mold that people's words have made for you. Now is the time to journey toward your goals, no matter how impossible they may seem. Now is the time to fulfill the call of God upon your life and live out your purpose! Your God-given destiny awaits! Drawing from scriptural insight and a wealth of personal experience, Aaron D. Lewis reveals the roadmap to reaching your maximum potential. You can become all that God has created you to be! You have abilities and giftings that match those of no other person in this world. Find out how you can fulfill your spiritual vision and overcome all that stands in your way. Throw off mediocrity. Discard poverty. Cash in your fearfulness for the power of God. The road to greatness is the road of your destiny. Get on the road to greatness!
Average customer rating:
|
Key of Destiny
Harriette Augusta Curtiss , and
F. Homer Curtiss
Manufacturer: Kessinger Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Numerology | Divination | New Age | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Tarot | Divination | New Age | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
General | New Age | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Controversial Knowledge | Religious Studies | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
General | Occult | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Unexplained Mysteries | Occult | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:
-
The Voice of Isis
ASIN: 1564597008 |
Book Description
1919. A Sequel to "The Key to the Universe." This book gives the spiritual interpretation of the numbers, Hebrew Letters, Tarot Cards and Commandments from 11 to 22 whereas "The Key to the Universe" covers them from 1 to 10.
Customer Reviews:
Phenomenal Sequel!.......2005-09-06
If you don't already own Key to the Universe, then buy that book first to get the most out of this one. Frankly, you should just buy both of them at the same time because after you finish, Key to the Universe, you will be hungry for more and this sequel does not disappoint!
Books:
- Favorite Folktales from Around the World (Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library)
- Flotsam (Caldecott Medal Book)
- Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood (Sisterhood of Traveling Pants, Book 4)
- Get Organized Without Losing It (Free Spirit Laugh & Learn Series)
- God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time
- Grace Under Fire: Letters of Faith in Times of War
- Happy Never After : A Callahan Garrity Mystery
- Harmony in Context
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7)
- Hell Hath No Fury (Multiverse, Book 2)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Chopin: Pianist and Teacher: As Seen by his Pupils
- The Facts In The Case Of The Departure Of Miss Finch
- Rachel and Leah: Women of Genesis
- Moon of the Spider
- Stage Fright on a Summer Night
- The Female Brain
- Stanley Kubrick: Interviews
- Master Strokes: Pastel: A Step-By-Step Guide to Using the Techniques of the Masters
- Practical Electron Microscopy: BEGINNER'S ILLUSTRATED GUIDE
- One Patriot's Saga: An Enlisted Man's Story of Wwii, Korea, and Vietnam
