Average customer rating:
- Simple Path
- A simple path anyone can travel
- Dave from Carlsbad
- Inspiring
- A good reminder
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Simple Path
Mother Teresa
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Mother Theresa
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ASIN: 0345397452
Release Date: 1995-10-31 |
Book Description
Known around the globe for her indefatigable work on behalf of the poor, the sick, and the dying, Mother Teresa has devoted her life to giving hope to the hopeless in more than one hundred and twenty countries. She inspires us all to find a way to translate our spiritual beliefs into action in the world. How has one woman accomplished so much? And what are the guiding principles that have enabled this humble nun to so profoundly effect the lives of millions?
Now, in her own words, Mother Teresa shares the thoughts and experiences that have led her to do her extraordinary charitable work. A candid look at her everyday life--at the very simplicity and self-sacrifice that give her the strength to move mountains--A Simple Path gives voice to the remarkable spirit who has dedicated her life to the poorest among us.
Just as important as her beliefs are how they are put into action in the world, and A Simple Path also tells the story of the founding of the Missionaries of Charity, their purpose and practice, and the results of their tireless work. Through faith, surrender, and prayer, the missionaries live to serve others; they have improved the lives of countless souls and given dignity to the dying. Their mission has also produced a ripple effect, spreading human compassion to communities where there is need.
Through these examples, as well as the uplifting words and guiding prayers of Mother Teresa and those who work with her, everyone can learn how to walk the simple path that Mother Teresa has laid out for us, to help create a truly kinder world for the future.
A Simple Path is a unique spiritual guide for Catholics and non-Catholics alike: full of wisdom and hope from the one person who has given us the greatest model of love in action in our time.
Customer Reviews:
Simple Path.......2007-09-24
Most excellent writing. Use the steps in my daily spiritual life. Have used the book for workshops/meetings/sermons...she is a true spiritual guide! I often give this book to a number of friends. Mother Teresa truly exemplifies the life of Our Savior!
A simple path anyone can travel.......2007-08-04
I am a devotee of Mother Teresa. I am not catholic. But I have been intrigued and drawn to her compassion, her mission and her determination. I have watched her move in the hightest political circles without compromising her mission and her message. This book has removed the rhetoric of all religions and exposed the essence of being a "Christ"ian.
The message is truly Simple. Our entrapments are what get in our way but she shows us ways to lighten our load and take the simple path.
This book is for anyone who wants to enrich their spiritual life and celebrate in action the words of their faith, regardless of your faith base.
Dave from Carlsbad.......2007-01-15
Mother Teresa's mission and how she answered her calling shine through this as a great example for us to follow. What is revealed in this book is how we can each follow the simple path to peace in our own lives. Not having to sell all we possess and serve the poorest of the poor as she did, but in our own lives with those we meet. A few of the writings, including The Simple Path, are so moving to me, that I bought many copies of this book to give to others. What better gift could we offer someone than a path to peace? Hope you find it too.
Inspiring.......2004-06-17
I bought this book about 6 years ago. It's one of those books that you pick up and cannot put down. I was totally enthralled with it from the first few pages and every chapter became more and more inspiring. I was not a Christian when I read this book, so it's not just for believers. Rather it is a book for those who long for something more in their lfe, to walk in a deeper yet more 'simple' way. All of the chapters such as the ones on prayer, love, faith etc touched me deeply and even though it's been several years since I read it, I would read it again most definately. I lent it to someone and have never been given it back. I may just have to buy it again! --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
A good reminder.......2004-06-01
This book is a good reminder of how to love. Many of us discuss, debate and guess at what real love looks like. This book reminds us that love can range from serving to just holding someone who is living their last days. This book often wisely suggests that we could preach less and serve more. Inspiring.
Book Description
This is a must have book for admirers of the Dalai Lama and is an ideal gift.
Customer Reviews:
Simple Path / Graduate Level Book.......2003-12-23
(3.75 Stars)
The cover of the book is so warm and inviting. His Holiness The Dalai Lama smiling at you with mouth and eyes. Every time I look at it I smile. I'm tempted to cut the cover off and frame it...
The book discusses in great detail the 4 Noble Truths.
It's difficult to write a review on books regarding Buddhism. Everyone's experience will be different and everyone's understanding will be different and I don't want to discourage anyone from exploring The Path...
For myself I found this book difficult to follow. Someone else may take to it better and find it an easier to understand (I ain't the sharpest knife in the drawer)
I felt like a freshmen walking in late to a lecture and the audience and class this was for was all graduate students. I felt like I missed the beginning of the talk and that the level of content was for more advanced students.
I do not recommend this to a newcomer to Buddhism, again I found the "level" to be more advanced, but that's your call and like I said you may take to it better than I did and hey - it's your path.
I did get things out of the book and did learn some things. I felt incredibly honored to be reading the words of HH The Dalai Lama and that's what kept me reading.
The photographs are absolutely beautiful! - and again - I love the cover!
A wonderful introduction.......2001-06-18
Although this book doesnt get into anything complex, it is a wonderful book for people new to Buddhism. Full of great pictures, and easy to read text, it introduces basics of Buddhism. It may favor with more Tibetan Buddhist information, but it does include other schools of Buddhism. Highly recommend
Simply beautiful.......2001-03-08
thorsons have done us a great service with the publication of this book. HH the dalai Lama gave a lecture on the 4 noble truths in england, and instead of merely publishing the text[good enough in and of itself},Thorsons has interspersed scores of color pictures of some of the finest photographs available,throughout the volume. Heavy bonded glossy photograhic paper is used,highlighting this amazing volume. The typeset is bold and clear,the pictures are breathtaking!Monasteries, monks praying, pilgrims outside the ptola palace,children playing...absolutely stunning photgraphs, perfectly compliment the text of His Holiness.And at this price?!?! What an exquisite book, and what a bargain. Absolutely magnificent! Highest recommendation.
A gorgeous volume with luscious photographs.......2000-10-27
I must confess, I picked up this book because it was just so lovely! It is nicely bound, on superb high quality glossy paper, with stunning photographs of Tibet. Everything about it just makes you want to cradle, or worship, it.
Then there's the text. They took a lecture that H. H. the Dalai Lama gave on the 4 Noble Truths and cut it (thank heavens) and put it in the book. The result is weird. The extremely philosophical treatise makes an odd accompaniment to scenes of Tibet. On the one hand, you're reading about how all the world is suffering and we are ignorant louts for getting so caught up in this illusion, and then we glance at the photograph (every pair of pages has one, so you're always looking at something wonderful). I thought, "Gee, if I'm not supposed to care about the world, or I'm not supposed to delight in its pleasures and glories, then what is all this color and visual drama? Illusion?" Thus, the book highlights in an unwitting way one of the paradoxes of Buddhism... we try to disentangle ourselves from the grosser life of merely sensate pleasure but we can and should still love the world. Who says Christianity has a corner on the market of paradox?!
Still, there are some real textual gems and pearls scattered in the pages, and it is quick reading because of all the pictures. Occasionally you'll have to slog through a passage on Tibetan cosmology and physics, which sounds pretty medieval, but then you come across a glorious section that makes your heart sing.
It's a fun ride!
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
"Works of love are always works of joy."
"Do we look at the poor with compassion? They are hungry not only for food, they are hungry to be recognized as human beings."
"There is only one God and He is God to all; therefore it is important that everyone is seen as equal before God."
These rich words of wisdom and conviction are among the pearls of thought found in Meditations from A Simple Path. Comprised of luminous selections culled from the New York Times bestseller, this warm and very loving volume is a joyful celebration of prayer, faith, love, service, and peace.
Profound and uplifting, this elegant book will provide a tremendous source of inspiration for you or someone you love. It is brimming with timeless messages for us all.
Customer Reviews:
Meditations from a Simple Path by Mother Teresa.......2005-12-27
This work typifies the simplicity of the life lead by the
Mother Teresa. The major themes of the volume are as follows:
- The Fruit of Silence is Prayer.
- The Fruit of Prayer is Faith.
- The Fruit of Faith is Love.
- The Fruit of Love is Service.
- the Fruit of Service is Peace.
The layout of the book builds up to peace from the fruit of
silence which is prayer. This is a spiritual rendition by
the author born of modest parents some 95 years ago. It should
be widely read by theologians , philosophers and academicians
everywhere.
Encouraging.......2000-03-04
This is a wonderful book. The layout allows you to read only a few of the entries or, if inspired, the whole book. As always, what Mother Teresa says is touching and simply profound. The meditations found in this book allow you to witness the beauty of a life of service.
Book Description
It’s the best beginner’s book on stonescaping ever—a simple guide to projects novices can handle. There’s guidance on developing a layout, drawing a plan, choosing tools, mixing mortar, jointing, excavating, providing drainage, and aesthetics. Pictures present magnificent stones, from granite to marble to quartzite.
Average customer rating:
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The Simple Path To Health: A Guide To Oriental Nutrition and Well-Being
Kim Le
Manufacturer: Sterling
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Binding: Paperback
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Similar Items:
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Chinese Healing Foods
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Live in the Balance: The Ground-Breaking East-West Nutrition Program
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Clinical Biochemistry Made Ridiculously Simple (MedMaster Series, 2004 Edition)
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Streetwise Guide: Chinese Herbal Medicine
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The Energetics of Food
Accessories:
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RESPeRATE Blood Pressure Lowering Device
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Airborne Effervescent Health Formula, Original Orange, 10 Tablets (Pack of 3)
ASIN: 0915801620 |
Book Description
An illuminating overview of Oriental nutrition and medicine that's packed with ideas for achieving optimum health--as well as helpful diagrams and illustrations. See how to select foods to achieve balance and harmony, and try recipes for health, natural home remedies, food plans, and 7-day diet forms. With these personal and home care tips, you'll be well on your way to applying Eastern principles to everyday living. 241 pages, 21 b/w illus., 7 1/4 x 9.
Book Description
Build your nest egg, finance your retirement, fund a college education... Protect your savings against inflation, bad times, unemployment or injury... Find solid, growing businesses to invest in... Increase your personal wealth with only modest risk... For more than forty years, Brad Perry has produced excellent results like these for his clients by introducing them to the simple, common sense approach to successful investing favored by such giants as Warren Buffett, John Templeton, Rowe Price, Peter Lynch and others. Now you can benefit from Perry's rich experience.
With your personal copy of this concise new guide to sensible investing, you'll learn to focus your efforts on the basic, long-term strengths of good companies. Discover how to locate well-managed businesses, understand market trends and cycles, avoid investment fads and risky "can't fail" IPOs. Get priceless advice on picking a qualified advisor. Master stock statistics and market formulas - and f! ind they aren't very tricky after all. Using easy, proven evaluation methods, you'll find stocks with true staying power and build dramatic wealth without the worry and hassle we often associate with the stock market.
Will tomorrow's market be up or down? Will "Company X" be a moneymaker or a loser? Like the marathon runner, an investor must conquer obstacles with well-conceived strategies. Thanks to the coaching you'll gain from Winning the Investment Marathon, you'll race smoothly past the pack to reach your goal - and profit no matter what the challenges.
Packed With The Secrets Of Highly Successful Investors!
"Hot tips" that turn into costly disappointments - and how to spot them
Key moneymaking factors you must look for in a prospective investment
Risks you take buying stocks - and why these risks are vastly overrated
Popular "market timing" strategies that almost never work
The pitfalls of short-term, follow-the-crowd stock-picking
Secrets of outg! uessing and outfoxing the professional traders
Why You Need Winning The Investment Marathon:
Priceless advice to boost your own portfolio performance
Concise beginner's introduction to investing for your children or spouse
Perfect gift for clients, friends, family
Order extra copies to give away!
Customer Reviews:
How risky are stocks?.......2005-12-17
The main thing I noticed about this book was that its author repeatedly emphasized how great stocks were. He said that if you do it right and study the company, its earnings, and dividend payoffs (instead of the stock price) you'll pick good companies to invest in. After that you'll hold onto the stock for years and years and years, and if you have enough diversification in your portfolio, you'll be sitting pretty in the long term. This book is all about long term investing, and that's why I like it so much.
In addition to promoting the safety of stock investing (if you pick them right and diversify correctly) the author also mentions that bonds aren't all they're cracked up to be. Because of callback features on many of them, it's a lose-lose situation. I think the author suggests something like an 80% stock and 20% bond portfolio ideally, unless you're squeamish about day to day fluctuations.
The intended audience for this book seems to be a more wealthy crowd than the average joe. Most people can't afford a completely diversified stock portfolio, so they have to pick a mutual fund that will choose stocks the way stocks are chosen in this book. That just takes research and help from a reliable financial advisor with a very satisfied clientele.
This book doesn't promise any short term gains and suggests that any books that do are full of bunk. There's no way you'll predict the next huge upsurge in the market. You still have to work your whole life and invest over years and years. That's reality.
The main feature of this book is its surprising emphasis on the relative safety of stocks, as long as you follow the procedures the author suggests and don't sell unless there are problems with the company. I agree with his plan. The problem is you need a lot of capital to implement it and unless you have a lot of time on your hands, you'll need a good financial advisor you can trust to help you along the way.
Disappointed.......1999-12-14
I was very disappointed with this book. It basic premise is fine, but it would have been better suited for a magazine article - not a book. It is the same tired old stuff, nothing new. Cannot recommend, even to beginners.
Most sensible advice I've seen.......1999-11-29
This book HITS THE NAIL RIGHT ON THE HEAD. It provides the most sensible investment advice I've ever seen -- a sure way to become an investment winner without taking a lot of risk.
A sensible, wildly successfull investment method.......1999-10-28
This little book is a jewel. It is for the indivdual investor who should absorb and practice its contents. The best book on the subject I have read. 1 "In rural Maine, the best compliment one can pay a person is 'he's really sensible.'" The same view applies to investing." "I believe the essential factors for success are quite simple. Complexity breeds confusion and often failure in this seemingly volatile, difficult field." 2 "Although stocks do swing widely in price at times, their trend is what counts: in the long run, every stock's price rises just about in direct proportion to the growth of the company's earnings and dividends." 3 "It is very importent to analyze the basics of different businesses and see what their sustainable long term growth has been. Past growth does not portend the future. This involves gathering information and making subjective judgments 4 "However, missing a long term growth forecast occasionally is not fatal. Baseball players do not get a hit every time at bat. It's the average of the investor's decisions that determines success." 5 "The first thing to analyze in any company is its competive position." 6 "Here are are three tests to use to make intelligent stock purchases and sales. Is the company growing more or less than the typical pattern for the company and its industry? Is the company's profit margin above or below its historical norm? Is the current superior or inferior performance reflected in an historically high or low valuation?' 7 " Be a sensible skeptic." 8 " Don't be a sucker." 9 "Spread your bets." The book finishes up with more pithy advice to have you stay the course. All of the above is illustrated by actual data to prove the case.
A Solid Reinforcement of Growth Investing Fundamentals.......1999-09-01
I settled in on my couch for a closer look at this work by one of Babson's finest. By the time I stood up, I had finished it. It provides a solid reinforcement of NAIC (strategic long-term) investing principles. Brad Perry suggests a strategy of analyzing companies as business enterprises and their valuation in the stock market. Complexity breeds confusion - and often failure - in this seemingly difficult field. Perry presents a common sense outlook, shaped with healthy skepticism, that demonstrates that the factors for investment success are actually quite simple, and that investors should focus on some basic principles.
Average customer rating:
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Simple Paths to Yoga
Eric Chaline
Manufacturer: MQ Publications Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Yoga
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ASIN: 184072305X |
Product Description
A Spiritual path for modern times. Too often quick-fix books get us excited and we only wait. The writer of this book reminds us no matter who or where we are, we are all able to make a difference.
Average customer rating:
- Very user friendly, beautiful pictures, and great ideas.
|
Making Paths & Walkways: Creative Ideas and Simple Techniques
Paige Gilchrist Blomgren
Manufacturer: Lark Books
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Patios and Walkways (Do It Yourself)
ASIN: 1579901085 |
Amazon.com
Paige Gilchrist Blomgren takes an almost spiritual approach to this new book. "We long to head out," she says in the introduction, "to explore new territory, change our surroundings, and find a better--or just different--view. We daydream about setting out for parts unknown as we contemplate paths to wisdom, spiritual paths, and--in the wee hours--the notion of the one true path."
Regardless of your destination, choosing your path is a significant and defining part of the journey. It is much the same in your garden, yard, or entryway at home, where paths and walkways create a feeling, a presence, an amusing diversion, a hint of things to come, or simply a warm welcome.
This is a comprehensive manual that covers all the basics: siting; design and positioning of a path; discussions of all manner of materials that can be used; and basic how-to advice for planning, grading, clearing, marking, leveling, digging, and providing for proper drainage.
At the same time, Blomgren's sense of history and many-layered view of gardening and life make this an unusually deep and enjoyable look at more than the basic nuts and bolts of creating walks and pathways. The book is generously illustrated with helpful drawings and beautiful color photographs of gorgeous walks and paths, and lively descriptions and photographs from famous walkways and paths in history are sprinkled throughout the book. Blomgren has made "choosing your path in life" clear and attainable in this lovely and lively book. --Mark A. Hetts
Customer Reviews:
Very user friendly, beautiful pictures, and great ideas........1999-08-05
While I was thumbing through my new book, a good friend was looking over my shoulder, and asked if I would buy her a copy. We were both very impressed with the color pictures and great ideas. Instead of ordering through her book club we decided to look at Amazon.com. There is was.
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- The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science (James H. Silberman Books)
- The Evolution of Cooperation
- The Federalist Papers (Signet Classics)
- The Freedom Writers Diary : How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them
- The Last American Man
- The Life of Elizabeth I
- The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography (Oprah's Book Club)
- The Nature of Consciousness : The Structure of Reality: Theory of Everything Equation Revealed : Scientific Verification and Proof of Logic God Is
Books Index
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