Religion Books

This is a wonderful companion piece to "The Power of Now". Meditation is a great stress reliever. And not worrying about where you came from or where you are going is the key to enjoying the present moment. great book.

This is a wonderful stand alone tool or a complimentary tool to the Power of now book. Powerful and insightful. I always have it near me.

The teachings of this book are a tremendous help in turning my life around and being a happier human been.

I read this after New Earth and I can't believe the peace that really exists. I've tried some of the exercises and meditations and the feeling is beyond me. It's very challenging to keep it up through everyday life, but certainly is something I hope is with me forever.

i haven't read PRACTICING The Power of Now as i am in the middle of reading THE POWER OF NOW. but i believe it will be very helpful in keeping me in the present for longer periods of time, which is the goal after all.

I am not a tech savvy individual and I get frustrated having to scroll through many pages to get to the chapter and verse I want to read. Time is a precious commodity, and this kindle version of the King James Bible has just given me more bible reading time! No more endless back and forth scrolling, the navigation is easy-to-use and takes me where I want to go in just a few clicks.

When I first used my Kindle, I inadvertently downloaded the wrong KJV. It had no table of contents and to get to the New Testament I had to turn every single page. I wasn't through the first chapter in Genesis when I realized the futility of my task. I began a more thorough search for a Bible that was more "user friendly." This one caught my attention because Diana Mecom, the lady who formatted this version, offered to send a sample of it. I requested it and was pleasantly surprised to receive a personal note from Ms. Mecum which instructed me in how to transfer it from my computer to my Kindle. The sample was ample. It gave me Old and New Testament books to experiment with. I bought it and am delighted with it. I was extremely impressed with Ms. Mecom's kindness and follow-up on this transaction. I highly recommend this version of the greatest story ever told. STLemos

This was one of the easiest books to navigate through that I have ever seen because it emulates the hardcopy. In fact, it's better because I don't have to keep paging and paging to get to where I want to read. Instead, each chapter or individual book is just a click away. This decreases my frustration which increases my enjoyment. Thank you, it's fantastic.

This offers book and chapter navigation - without such an ebook of this size is useless. I have tried a number and this is by far the best and worthy of 5 stars. Also includes a previous and next link on each chapter so you can easily navigate to the next. Great formatting of each page.

This was the 3rd or 4th purchase I made when I received my Kindle. I was pretty hesitant that the Kindle version of the Holy Bible would be as good of quality as an original paper copy. I took a few minutes to see if I could navigate through the books and chapters with ease. I am pretty critical when it comes to a Bible in terms of what I want and expect. But after a few short minutes of searching through the text, I had forgotten that I was actually reading the Kindle version. It is very impressive. I am enjoying having the Holy Bible at my fingertips. I have given this 5 stars...for the simple reason that I notice nothing different between my Kindle version and my favorite hard copy of the Holy Bible. A perfect addition to my newly expanding Kindle Library.

After reading this book, I went out and bought the rest of Craigs books. This is a must have for any pastor or business owner who wants to be more creative with their profession.

I loved it. Craig is great and his books are very easy to read.

Christianty could use more voices like Craig Groeschel.

At first 'It' comes off as a 'trying to be way to cute' read, but, once one gets past the 7 million uses of 'it' per page, the author has great insite into the culture we live in & how to not fall into the trap of thinking that the presence of God comes from programs. I have enjoyed & been challenged by the book.

It is a great page-turner for any church leader. Craig challenges us to do the things that are often found in ministries that have it. If your ministry has it or if you wish your ministry had it, get IT, read IT and apply IT. And pray that God will give IT to your church.

Great book! Groeschel does a good job of writing about the invisible element found in some churches but missing in most. He writes about "It" like someone defining and describing "wind"; not an easy thing to do. You can't see wind or where it's coming from or going to, but you can sure feel it's presence. Anyone who has experienced "IT" knows when it's present and when it's not.

The book offers practical insights and is not overly spiritual. I especially enjoyed the last two chapters, because Groeschel addresses areas of our personal lives in which we can increase the "IT" factor.

Highly recommended.

For anyone in leadership at a ministry, this book should be required reading. Groeschel describes the characteristics of that elusive "it" that some ministries have where God is very clearly moving on a regular basis. Places with "it" have aspects similar to the early church of Acts. They commonly have strong vision from leadership as well as specific focus on areas of ministry.

Rather than trying to be involved in 500 different things, ministries with "it" tend to focus on certain core areas that they are good at and believe God has called them to. Groeschel also discusses the importance of having fun and being involved in each others lives. Churches with it are vibrant, active, and alive.

Just because a ministry doesn't have "it" doesn't mean it can't get "it." And just because a ministry has "it" doesn't mean it will always keep "it." Copying another church's successful program or style does not necessarily work for everyone so the church needs to evaluate how God has uniquely called them at a particular moment. This clearly involves lots of prayer for direction and humbleness to admit mistakes and move on.

Though geared towards people in leadership of church ministries, lessons can be gleaned from It for an individual's life as well. I particular drew some ideas on developing vision and focus for life.

Discussion questions are also provided and can be effectively used in a group study. An added feature are pictures through out the book illustrating various points that Groeschel makes.

If nothing else, the book will help in evaluating your ministry to determine areas for improvement and getting back to the important things of the Bible and God's leading.

"In the midst of life we are in death." Julian Barnes has discarded God and religion, albeit admitting that he misses the certainty that religious faith offers. That makes his thoughts on mortality and death particularly intriguing, especially for others who share his lack of religious conviction or who grapple with questions. Death is the central and inevitable fact of our lives; our fear of confronting it means that works like Barnes's are all-too-rare.

In the hands of a lesser writer, this could have become a tedious and self-indulgent exercise. But Barnes blends memoir, literary reflections and personal philosophy to produce a series of extended essays that should prod the most reluctant baby boomer to re-examine their lives. Ultimately, the value of this eloquent book lies not only in Barnes's own insights about death and life, but in the way that it spurs readers to define for themselves what makes a well-lived life.

Should be mandatory reading for everyoone over the age of 40. And now I'm going back to read some other Barnes, after rediscovery the delights of his prose style and agile intellect.

Novelist Julian Barnes thinks a lot about death. And he doesn't like it; he describes himself as "one who wouldn't mind dying as long as I didn't end up dead afterwards." Naturally death has been part of some of his books, but in _Nothing to Be Frightened Of_ (Knopf), death takes center stage in what is a memoir and an essay on a popular subject. Everybody thinks about dying, but Barnes has used his thoughts to power a book that is funny (look at the two meanings in that title), sad, informative, and earnest. Barnes quotes many stars from history about the big subject, like Freud, who said that it was impossible for any of us to imagine our own deaths. Barnes strongly disagrees. He is 62, and does not give any intimation of ill-health, but since adolescence he has been thinking about his own death, and those of others. He isn't morbid. "I am certainly melancholic myself," he writes, "and sometimes find life an overrated way of passing the time; but have never wanted not to be myself anymore, never desired oblivion." The inevitable end is coming, however, so Barnes seems to be saying let's look at it seriously, and learn and laugh, and keep it in mind to season the days of our lives. Just remember, as he says, "that the death rate for the human race is not a jot lower than one hundred per cent."

Barnes's family had a family Bible, but it was someone else's family's, bought at auction, "... and was never opened except when Dad jovially consulted it for a crossword clue." His father was a "death-fearing agnostic", his mother a "fearless atheist", and much of his book has to do with how the two of them interacted, and then, well, died. The other family member frequently consulted in these pages is Barnes's older brother, an analytic philosopher and expert on ancient Greek, who lives in France, teaches, and keeps llamas. The brother has come very close to death, and even breathed out what it seemed were going to be his last words: "Make sure that Ben gets my copy of Bekker's Aristotle." Barnes remarks that the wife of the philosopher found this "insufficiently affectionate." For an unbeliever, Barnes finds God all over the place. Barnes reflects that the important divide may not be between believer or nonbeliever, but between those who fear death and those who don't. He tells us how he conquered his fear of flying; perhaps he will conquer his fear of death, but he admits that even writing about it, which other people would think an exercise "to get it out of your system", does not work.

It doesn't matter. Barnes has a terrific subject, and if he doesn't have firm answers, he has great questions which any reader will enjoy thinking about. After all, as he quotes Montaigne, "The end of our course is death. It is the objective necessarily within our sights. If death frightens us how can we go one step forward without anguish?" Barnes himself wonders at the beginning, "How is it best to write about illness, and dying, and death?" And if we are not writers, how are we to think about death? And as a writer, he wonders about the last person to turn the pages of a Julian Barnes book, ages hence; he is no sentimentalist, cursing such a person for not recommending the book to the next reader. What is the meaning of words carved on a neglected headstone, or a mutilated photo within a family album? If you don't have faith, does this keep you from fully appreciating religious music and paintings? Do we have less fear of death if we consider how insignificant we are in the cosmos, or do we have more? Maybe there is no consolation on offer here: "We live, we die, we are remembered, we are forgotten," he concludes, but if there is no consolation here, there is also little despair, and there are heaping amounts of joviality, sympathy, and curiosity. "For me, death is the one appalling fact which defines life; unless you are constantly aware of it, you cannot begin to understand what life is about; unless you know and feel that the days of wine and roses are limited, that the wine will madeirize and the roses turn brown in their stinking water before all are thrown out forever - including the jug - there is no context to such pleasures and interests as come your way on the road to the grave. But then I would say that, wouldn't I?" Readers with any interest in the subject (and we all are) will find conversational but lucid prose from a writer who has complete engagement and enthusiasm for his subject.

Julian Barnes has long been a novelist preoccupied with death. Every one of his previous books has, I think, contained at least one section featuring ruminations on the inevitable dénouement to life, but never before has he devoted a whole book to the subject.

Nothing to be Frightened of is a book that will appeal mainly to long term Barnes fans. It is a return to the smorgasbord style - part essay, part epistolary debate, part philosophical disquisition, part literary homage that hallmarked his great 1984 novel Flaubert's Parrot, and was reprised in his 1989 meditation on history, A History of the World in 10 ½ Chapters. This book is hard to summarize, but the blurb writer has an impressive stab in one sentence: `among many things, a family memoir, an exchange with his brother (a philosopher), a meditation on mortality and the fear of death, a celebration of art, an argument with and about God, and a homage to the French writer Jules Renard.' That just about does it. It is something of a departure from Barnes's previous novels and essays, a comedown from the lofty heights of intellectual detachment, as he gives the reader an insight into episodes from his own life, particularly his relations with his family, people he has written of very little in the past.

Not that we should read this as his autobiography mind. A scrupulous guarder of his privacy, Barnes is unlikely to rip the lid off and spill everything in a messy reveal all in one go. Rather, he reaches into the pot to reach out carefully chosen morsels, starting with an account of his maternal grandparents who were an arch conservative and communist respectively. He recalls how his grandfather used to let the young Julian and his brother watch while he wrang chicken's necks in the garage. Here, the Barnes brothers' memories diverge over the exact nature of the execution (was there a guillotine mechanism? Was there a bucket to catch the heads?), and a tense dualism between them is set for much of the book.

Barnes, the younger of the brothers, gives us the impression that he is an intuitive, novelist thinker who is interested in things such as whether human life has a narrative, what happens after our death (he contemplates a huge array of options), how to get value out of a life in an age where Darwin and Dawkins have pretty much done for the idea of God - his chosen path, is a devout appreciation, the religion of art as Flaubert called it, even to the extent where he downplays his blood relations and instead considers his genetic lineage as a line of great artists including Renard (a death haunted artist who features prominently in the book), Flaubert, and Stravinsky.

Perhaps this worship of art is a result of his tricky family relations. His older brother, Jonathan, is a remote, fiercely rational Aristotelian philosopher. He features at points throughout the book, hoisted in at carefully chosen moments to illustrate a cold, philosophical angle on life. In an early exchange Barnes recounts a discussion in the car on the way home from their mother's funeral that turned into a stern grammatical debate on the music that should have been played at the service, and whether this construed an inadmissible `hypothetical want of the dead'. Some readers may find this medical gloved dissection of the event appealing in its precision, many more may find the reaction of the Barnes brothers, with their mother's corpse not yet cold, rather sub zero on the emotional scale.

Barnes's pere and mere were a difficult couple too. His father was a quiet, reserved French teacher, frequently overruled by his domineering wife who was frequently damning of her sons' literary talents `one son writes books I can read but can't understand, the other writes books I can understand but can't read'. Parts of the book focus on their respective declines and deaths, Barnes painfully watching as his father suffers a series of strokes, his mother reacting with stern admonishing towards his aphasia.

The deaths of his parents are the way into this book, the gate at the entrance, but most of the short sections feature great artists and their reactions to the inevitable. Philip Larkin, author of the great death angst poem Aubade, we learn would have died gibbering with fear in a Hull hospital were he not heavily sedated. Flaubert maintained stoical impassivity in the face of the void. Renard himself aimed to die a stylish, French death and eventually succumbed to standard emphysema. Barnes himself fears death constantly, waking up in the night pounding his pillow screaming NO, NO, NO at the injustice of it all. He says he expects his departure to be preceded by extreme pain, coupled with extreme frustration at the euphemistic, imprecise language used by those about him. A grammarian to the end.

Coupled with fear of death is fear of God, or rather, wistful unhappiness at the absence of God. `I don't believe in God, but I miss him,' is the first sentence of the book. His brother finds this soppy, but Barnes can't give up so easily. As with his 1986 novel Staring at the Sun he asks a number of questions concerning God - on Pascal's wager: `What if it turns out that God exists but disapprovesof gambling'. He ponders the hypothetical fury of the resurrected atheist and posits a would you rather question (one of many in the book - would you rather be an atheist philosopher who finds a wonderful surprise after your death, or be right after all.

The scale of the philosophising in this book stretches from the solipsistic to the very large. In the worst passages of the book, Barnes engages in self indulgent games, wondering what the last ever reader of his books will be like, or how it would work if he were to die in the middle of writing the book, or a sentence, or a wo (not one of the high points of his normally erudite style). But he can also stretch his mind to contemplate the bigger picture. Towards the end he considers Martin Rees's warning to us that humans are nothing in the scheme of things. By the sun's demise, in 6bn years time, any creatures left will be as different from us as we are from bacteria or amoebae.

Yes, as John Maynard Keynes said, in the long run, we're all dead. So enjoy this witty and contemplative death volume while you can, and try not to worry about it too much.

In NOTHING TO BE FRIGHTENED OF, Julian Barnes uses the history of his immediate family and the comments of many writers--who he considers his "true bloodline"--to examine death, as well as its connection to God. Rest assured that this book, like A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters, is a primarily an essayist's intellectual journey. The book is never morbid or creepy.

For me, NtbFo was best when Barnes was writing about his biological family. When writing about the death of his parents, for example, he conveyed the weakness and humiliation and rage of the dying, as well as the complex feelings of anger, pity, and responsibility in survivors. Likewise, the book was strong when Barnes wrote about his grandfather. Then, he pondered how little a person leaves after death, with mystery and a few random artifacts all that's left after, say, 50 years pass. These family-based musings are thoughtful and tender. And Barnes's brother, a philosopher who does not allow slack thinking, adds rigor to Julian's thoughts.

On the other hand, the results are mixed when Barnes uses the comments of numerous writers to explore his subjects. Here, the ideas and anecdotes he presents are always interesting, ranging from consoling to depressed, from accepting death to dread. And, his work with this material is a pleasure to read when an essay--few are longer than five pages--starts with the adroit presentation of a concept, moves to a supporting or contrasting idea, and then finishes with revelation or connection.

But occasionally, his short essays develop in an inscrutable and arbitrary fashion, with this reviewer finishing an essay in confusion, not insight. (How the heck did I get here?, was my not infrequent reaction.) Even after rereading, these particular essays struck me as brilliant babbling, not the achievement of sparkling or new connections. This has unfortunate consequences for NtbFo, since Barnes frequently circles back to ideas he has already explored, returning to them to layer or enrich meaning. But, this strategy doesn't work when an idea's original presentation, or new context, lacks clarity.

Nonetheless, Barnes has a very interesting mind. He writes fine prose and this book renewed my interest in his work. Next: Arthur and George.

Julian Barnes in NOTHING TO BE FRIGHTENED OF has written a thoughtful, sometimes humorous treatise on death that begins with the lines: "I don't believe in God, but I miss him." He contrasts his views-- an atheist at twenty but now an agnostic at sixty-two-- with those of his philosopher brother, who remains an atheist. His story meanders-- or in his words it "lollops"-- in the way we expect from a novelist; and I am sure it is far more interesting, at least for me, than a more logical one that his professor brother would have written.

Mr. Barnes attempts to be brutally honest about both himself and his family although he is quick to admit the unreliability of memory and quotes many events from his family's past where he and his only brother have totally different recollections about the same event. His parents, at least as he remembers them, are an interesting pair. "I'm sure my father feared death, and fairly certain my mother didn't: she feared incapacity and dependence more." Barnes regrets that he father never told him he loved him although he is pretty certain that he did. He reserves his harshest criticism, however, for his mother. She would prefer deafness to blindness, were she given a choice, because she wanted to be able to do her nails. After the death of his father, Barnes, though attentive to his mother, would never spend the night with her. "I couldn't face the physical manifestations of boredom, the sense of my vital spirits being drained away by her relentless solipsism, and the feeling that time was being sucked from my life, time that I would never get back, before or after death."

Barnes, rather than quoting the clergy and medical community, for the most part quotes from many of his favorite writers and other artists on death: Shostakovich, Ravel, Zola, Flaubert, Somerset Maugham, Jules Renard, even William Faulkner who said that a writer's obituary should simply read "He wrote books, then he died."

Some of Mr. Barnes' observations and conclusions: We escape our parents only to become them. Religion makes people behave no better or worse. He fears both death and what it takes to get there, the loss of memory ("memory is identity") and the loss of bodily functions. He is fairly certain that he will die in hospital and alone. The fear of death, at least for Barnes, doesn't "drop off" after the age of sixty as one friend of his believes. Finally he concludes that as a youth he was sure that art survived the temporal. He now reminds us that "Even the greatest art's triumph over death is risibly temporary. A novelist might hope for another generation of readers--two or three if lucky-- which may feel like a scorning of death, but it's really just scratching on the wall of the condemned cell. We do it to say: I was here too."

When Barnes asks a Catholic friend of his with whom he has lunch on his [Barnes'] sixtieth birthday why he is a believer he responds he wants to believe. I was reminded of Reynolds Price's many books on religion in which is asserts that he has had at least two actual physical visits from Jesus and am fairly certain what Barnes would conclude about that. He is quick to say that the God he misses is not the fundamentalist God of the United States and goes into a rant of how much he dislikes the narcissism of New Yorkers. I was all ready to be up in arms like the man who can complain about his wife but no one else can until Mr. Barnes has difficulty with "such fantasies as The Rapture" and America's obsession with Cabbage Patch dolls. It is difficult to find fault with those observations.

You may find that this book brings out the melancholia in you. Mr. Barnes, however, would probably-- quoting Richard Dawkins who said that the universe does not owe us consolation-- invite us to make the best of the short time we have on this planet and get on with it.

The idea that the total public scientific datum is prone to crystallization within the mindstream of a functional interpreter as honest belief in the irreality of the supernatural is the memetic fallacy (the wack wrapper, antimoreality, unfactual selection, true malefiction, neophobe's fun and exciting new crush, I'm>sick manoeuvre, missed-leading heathen's fiendingest lebensphenomenologie, intentional deficit, intelligence failure, for them: somehow too-ready being-un-ready-to-hand, vainglorious needs' IV, Janjaweed dro, waterless fountain, rotten apple that should have been left behind, stipend of bad-faith, willed Nyeism, nihlargesse, "I didn't", ethanol ... the devolutionary gnome's playhouse and favoured hiding spot of Earth's most vulgar and detestable confabulists) par excellence.

It's nice to read the viewpoints of different authors. I never tire of reading how intelligent people view religion. I do, however, tire of dogmatic imbeciles like Rush Limbaugh, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson etc. who blather on about "what the bible says." Maybe that should read those books someday and understand that no civilized society should look to them as anything more than literary entertainment.

While I believe no philosophical idea or scientific explanation can ever put to rest the idea of god, let alone the possibility, The Portable Atheist is a brilliant collection of examples in which people have used the idea of god through religion to intimidate, persecute, enslave and murder millions of people for thousands of years. This book also exemplifies the civilized and promising nature of scientific enquiry in the writings of men including Carl Sagan and Albert Einstein. What I think books like this one do best is to demonstrate how obscenely religion weakens the human spirit and destroys education, but most importantly I think it gives atheists and agnostics a voice, a way and a reason to stand up to insane thoughts and assures the nonbeliever, someone like me, that I am not alone in this world. So I thank you Christopher Hitchens and everyone else who contributed to this book for assuring me that I am indeed not alone.

Monsieur Christopher Hitchens has performed a necessary intellectual work of mercy. Once humankind desists from its vulgar notion of deity, it can begin the tiresome duties of keeping as much of us as possible alive.

Since we are competently trained in ancient Semitic and Ind-European languages and theoretical mathematics, we twin brothers know who has been doing the heavy lifting of keeping humanity alive and prosperous. It certainly is not the dolts in political, religious or military systems (they who live off the backs of the common people).

Mr. Hitchens has given us fresh fruit from the tree of 'real' knowledge to advance the survivability of our species. Professor Dawkins and to-be Dr. Sam Harris (neuro-science technical background) have enriched the soil of these trees in the enclosed orchard of learning.

If we presently do not get beyond this vulgar Bronze Age duplicity of rulership and priestcraft, we will be doomed to extinction as a species in our niche biosphere, or filmy skin of Earth!

The fools in religion merely have to adduce one rare, slender piece of evidence for the existence of deity. Perchance, our archeologists will find the finger of Yahweh on Mt. Sinai who impertinently gave us the incompetent Ten Commandments (Do not read in Egyptian Hieroglyphics the Book of the Dead for the 'real' 42 commandments---from whence the Hebrews shamefully and slavishly stole!) to bolster their puny claims.

Right ideas for the right time!


Respectfully,


John E.D.P. Malin,
Chairman of the Board & Chief Executive Officer
James F.D.P. Malin,
Vice Chairman of the Board & Chief Research & Development Officer
Informatica Corporation [A.D. 1984-2008]
Executive Division
P.O. Drawer 460
Cecilia, Louisiana 70521-0460

"Fathers of the Silicon Bayou"

Contact Information: InformaticaMalin@gmail.com

P.S. Master the higher mathematics of Algebraic Geometry, it is the genuine and authentic language of global human survival; presently, it is the mathematics adduced by our structured and unstructured data systems running our economic business structures or organizations.

--

This book is a nice collection of essays, letters and excerpts from other writings from a number of different non-believing and freethinking authors throughout history.

The introduction by Hitchens does a nice (and poignant as always) job at framing the chronologically arranged collection of pieces. Along with contemporary writers such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennet and Salman Rushdie, other 'jewels' are collected from times past: from Benedict de Spinoza and Thomas Hobbes, to H.P. Lovecraft, Albert Einstein, Mark Twain, George Orwell and many more.

Most of the segments are accessible reads. Some offer interesting insight, like Thomas Hobbes and Bertrand Russell. Some show the sharpest wit, such as Mark Twain and George Eliot, and a couple (in my opinion) were on the boring side, most notably Karl Marx's introduction to Hegel's Critique of Pure Reason.

The book closes with Salman Rushdie's remarkable letter to a new-born baby written for the UN-sponsored book, "A Letter to Six Billion People". All in all, a great (and long!) read.

I am a middle-aged professional with a academic background in philosophy.

As I grew older, I felt more strongly that there must be a spiritual realm to our existence. But I was relegated to the thought that this spiritual realm was something that would probably go unanswered for the rest of my life. At times, I would have more spiritual feelings and sensations which reinforced this belief, but still felt that my belief of the spiritual real would be faith based and could never go beyond this.

As I entered into my forties, I entered into unrest and discontent with life. I felt spiritually, intellectually and even emotionally dead. Raising two great children and being married to a wonderful person was not enough. The mundane-ness of the routine and daily tasks was not fulfilling and living did not provide me with peace. I was somewhat at a crisis point.

About a year ago, I entered Barnes and Noble because my 11 year old daughter wanted to buy some new books. I dropped her off and walked straight across the floor to this book which was sitting on a shelf -- the book not being singled out or advertised specially. It was the Power of Now. I picked it up, looked at the cover and decided to allow myself to impulsively purchase it (something that was out of the ordinary for me).

The next two weeks were incredibly intense for me. And what happened after that was even greater. His words rang truth to my core. For the first time in my life, my existiential views were married/bridged with a deep spirituality. It made sense. I couldn't put the book down. As I read it, I used the meditation practices that Tolle subtley infers. The inspiring energy of his words aided me immensely to get into a transcendental realm -- a switch. Not magic, not really enlightenment (as the term conjures up something unreachable and unrealistic). But I felt at peace and felt joy. I felt intensely transformed. The world did come to me and I surrendered (accepted) the world existentially. My mind was finally much, much calmer. For the first time as an adult, my mind didn't control me. People and my environment vibrated with a vibrant energy. I knew (not believed) that there was a One Being that essentially came from stillness or silence and everything was one with that One Being. (Reminiscent of what I think Sartre's Being and Nothingness painfully attempted to point to). I felt this sense of peace on and off for a month or so. Admittedly this intense feeling declined somewhat as a result of some crisis life situations that proved too difficult to surrender to. I am still working on it with joy of knowing that this spiritual realm exists.

This book is the greatest book I've ever read. No book has come close. Tolle's presentation (sign-posts) are succinct and clear.

I hope you find the energy of my review helpful.


The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

...and it's not even the "best of", sort of reference.
My thoughts are, that this guy is potentially a cult figure, with followers who are grabbing at straws. I can't imagine what Oprah was thinking. Her original spiritual strengths, were strong enough to take her, further than most people can imagine going.
2-stars is over-rating his books...in my book.
My concern:
Charlatans, exploiting those who may be needing real help.

Very useful for me. I was sure that this book will be what I want, before buying it. And it is. Many thanks to the author.

When I saw Oprah mention this book on her show I ran out and got a copy right away. All I can say is THANK YOU VERY MUCH OPRAH. Excellent book teaching you how to live in the now. The best book I have ever read that exposes the false self (EGO) and how the primary job of the ego is to take your happiness away and create all kinds of problems every day.

Here's the ego's program that it is running to justify it's existance "Never Satisfied"

No matter how a situation turns out, the ego will find a way to be unhappy about it.

P.S. The book is so good, I ran out and bought extra copies for all my friends and family.

No matter if you're religious, spiritual, or neither, Tolle's gift to the world is this book and it should be read before one dies (sooner rather than later, if you really want to improve your life). Westerners are especially poor at living in the now...we have no examples or teachers of this in Western society -- or few, at best. Until one discovers how to live in the moment (this will take much practice and re-reading or re-listening to Tolle), life is either anxiety- or depression-ridden, or we are all trying to escape from our underlying fears. The only escape from this is to concentrate on the present. I recommend this to everyone. When the student is ready, the teacher appears and Tolle is an excellent guide in this regard. This book changed my life. I now experience more joy and less worry. If you want to be more fulfilled, read this book (or listen to the cd).

I enjoyed reading this book it was fun and interesting. It did get a little lengthy toward the end and I found myself loosing interest.
all in all it was an enjoyable read since I find things like this very intreguing.

Ainslie MacLeod's book, "The Instruction, Living the Life Your Soul Intended" is a guiding light in an uncertain world. By connecting to my spiritual quides, I am directed to more choices that are insync with my soul's purpose. Not what my family or friends want me to do, but what is good for my developement and education. To better understand your Soul's intention for yourself in this lifetime, to breakthrough the illusions that hold you back, and to live a more spiritual life, is what this Instruction is all about. I recommend this book to everyone. It helps us raise our conscienceness and live our lives in the love house and not in the fear house. Everyone's journey should include reading this book.

This book met all my expectations. Easy reading. Informative. and effective. It delivers on it's promisies

Very informative, easy to read. Instructions were complete and explicit. The double spacing made it a fast read. I wanted to do a workshop on it so more people could have awareness. The information was fascinating and the fact that we all have spirit guides was new learning for me.

I first became aware of this book by an email from Sounds True. My first thoughts were, it seems cool but I never heard of the author before so I deleted the email. Maybe a couple of weeks later, got another email from Sounds True saying he would be on Oprah's Soul Series. I then googled his name, went to his website, and explored around. Even took his Soul Type quiz. Anyways, I did watch the Oprah interview. I liked most of what I heard, so I decided to order the book. I'm now on Part 2 and look forward to finishing the book, however a few things concerns me. One of the main reasons I bought the book is for confirmation and clarity. He over simplifies this with the meditations at the end of the chapters. I mean if we could all connect with our spiritual guides that easily we wouldn't even need his book right? Let along pay the now $650 for three sessions with him. Alot of people won't be able to afford that. Makes me question his integrity as a psychic. I would just give everyone who bought my book a summary reading; a list of their soul age, soul type, primary & secondary missions, fears & phobias, desires, primary & secondary challenges, investigations, and talents. That way you wouldn't be dependent on me. Also there are two of his ideas I disagreed with ... first, he told Oprah that the soul cannot change levels within the current lifetime. As if our growth & evolution depends on the astral plane? He said you have to experience what some call the 'life review' to go up a level. What of Near Death Experiences and OBEs? Second, on page 136 he talks about annihilating your fears. Doesn't sound too loving or enlightened does it? In conclusion, I recommend this book for insights and reference and to someone already connected with their spiritual guides. If your not, you'll probably want to check out other paths. I plan on checking out the Michael Teachings myself. Namaste!

I enjoy,savor and collect almost every book by Thich Nhat Hahn,Ajahn Chah and others and this one goes right into the realm of Gem.The wisdom of Ajahn Chah(from "Food for the Heart",Everything arises,Everything falls away,Being Dharma,and A still forest pool,All highly recommended)is made easier to understand.The Structure of the book and contents is perfect.I read this one chapter and sometimes one section of a chapter at a time,realizing this is the best it gets with these kind of books.A perfect gift and I will give it away and reread when paperback comes out.I like to do that with Gems.Im doing that now with The Joy of Living(Yongey Rinpoche). This book is an excellent summary of all teachings of the Mind Science,Buddhism.

Use this book with my boyfriend (he has a copy)We take approximately 10 minutes to read a chapter, then we follow up with a 20 minute meditation.
Useful information.

As anyone who has heard Jack Kornfield speak or has read his previous books (e.g., A Path With Heart) knows, Jack is a wonderful storyteller who uses his beautifully touching stories to teach us the most profound truths about life. Any reader of The Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology will not be disappointed.

Fifteen years after having written A Path With Heart, Jack's story telling abilities have not diminished--and he has new stories to tell. In addition, he clearly enunciates 26 principles of Buddhist psychology; moreover, as other outstanding teachers of psychotherapy have noted (including not only therapists with a solution-oriented bent, but also such psychoanalysts as Allen Wheelis and Herbert J. Schlesinger--e.g., see Endings and Beginnings: On Terminating Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis), he reminds us that psychotherapy is not just about understanding but is also about action. In contrast with much of Western psychology, however, which has primarily focused on the contents of consciousness, "on what we think about," he points out that Buddhist psychology focuses on how we think, on our mental states themselves. In line with that orientation, at the end of each chapter, he offers a specific practice to help us shift from unhealthy states of mind to healthy ones, thus making it possible to turn theory into a living reality.

The Wise Heart is an outstanding book, worthy of being not only read but also chewed and digested.

Frank R. Timmons, Ph.D., P.C.
Certified Hudson Institute Executive and Life Coach
Licensed Psychologist
303-751-6301

This is an exceptionally intelligent, well-written and useful book. Based on Buddhist principals, it lays out a way of looking at the world and wisely becoming an integrated, constructive, comfortable member of it. It is generous and compassionate and anecdotal enough to show how its applications can enhance one's life. It's contrast of Buddhist psychology and Western psychology is extremely interesting and explains how the Eastern view gives more room for one to use already present internal mechanisms for healing. I recommend it highly.

I purchased The Wise Heart in June of 2008. I read many of this type of book but this wise heart has caught me like no other. It is an easy read but I have not yet finished it and this is August. I have found that I must pause and think after each chapter. I often can't make it through the entire chapter before I am in the midst of a new realization. His writing is clear, simple in presentation, diverse in his resources, and profound in content.
If I do not reach enlightenment after reading this wonderful book I am sure I will after I read it a second time.

This book has a lot of information not only on how to read the Bible, but also on its historical context (exegesis) and how it can apply to us today (harmenuetics.) This book has so much though that to read this book for all its worth requires a dictionary and time. If you want to learn about the Bible as well as how to read and understand it and have the time to go through it, then this book will be a great buy for you.

Great book that provides a great tool for how to get deeper into the Bible. It is easy to follow and fairly simple to see the points. They provide great examples from different passages with different translations. And using different examples on how to go through an exegesical study helps the reader to follow the process. Highly recommended.

Another book that was required for a course. Another book that would not otherwise have been purchased. Content was OK. It contained some helpful and insightful information.

The title says it all. If you want to read the Bible for all its worth, you, not only read the book, but have to have your own copy. I borrowed the book from the library and started digging into it. There were many valuable Bible verses provided to illustrate and support the important points of the author's view. In order to gain the most from the book, I would need to go through all of these references. Since I did not have the time to do this at one time, I would like to keep a copy on my book shelf. In this case, I would be able to refer to it whenever I need to. So, I decided to purchase my own copy. If you are serious about understanding the Bible, I highly recommend this book to you.

The book is an excellent journey into the word of God and will get you pointed in the right direction. Many Christians do not study the word of God in the correct context and this book rectifies a long standing problem in the Evangelical community concerning the interpretation of Scripture. I was concerned about the author's pushing the TNIV as the translation of choice for serious study of the Bible. I would have preferred that they used the NRSV with the TNIV being a strong secondary translation for study. I did appreciate the fact that they encouraged the use of Bible dictonaries and commentaries to study scripture, but I felt that thay should have done a chapter on good study bibles that can aid in understanding the text. I did feel that they interjected their opinions too much in the book and gave us their pet peeves, couched in the language of exegesis and hermeneutics. In the same vein, they did debunk a few misinterpretations on some biblical passages and they allow for healthy dissent. The most important thing is to read the Bible and this book gives a good start.

Like all Lewis' works, this book is full of insights into human life - into those aspects which are often too big and obvious for us to notice. These insights are given us directly from the enemy through the writings of a devil named Screwtape. He writes to his nephew (a novice tempter devil) about his nephew's "patient," a human struggling with faith, who is a representation of us. This book bettered my attitudes about people and life and faith by orders of magnitude! I recommend it to everyone!!

Though seemingly humorous in style, there is an intense sense of sobriety behind every scene that C.S. Lewis depicts to illustrate how the devil operates to tempt us. The background is World War II England. The object that the devil preys on is a young Christian. The circumstances of temptation; all of which are something we can relate to everyday, vary from personal devotional time, personal relationships, romance, and vocation to culture, worldviews and the war itself which the readers would discover to be the means to a happy ending for the young Christian, not a usual one, however. The appendix entitled, "Screwtape Proposes a Toast" deals with a more general strategy that the realm of evil formulates in their quest to ruin mankind by pushing them to the deepest abyss their depravity is capable of, "to harden these choices of the Hell-ward roads into a habit by steady repetition, ... to turn habit into a principle." Another interesting strategy is to wreck havoc in the culture by twisting the meaning of the word "democracy" from a narrow strict sense to a broad one.

The reason why Lewis does an excellent job in giving us the insights on the operation of the realm of the devil is because he understands human beings and culture well, which makes this book deeply personal, worth reading and learning from.

Of all of the fanciful worlds C.S. Lewis has created, this classic dealing with the realities of faith, Church, and the struggle between good and evil takes the prize. Often humorous, too-often right on target, The Screwtape Letters explores the journey of faith from the perspective of two demons. Wormwood, the novice demon, has taken on a new 'client' and receives advice from senior demon Screwtape. Lewis challenges the church's status quo and makes us think about whether we 'Christians' are really 'demons' at heart. Sometimes, it's hard to tell! You'll laugh and then you'll say 'hmmmmm'.

This is the second time that I have read this book. The first time was as a youth a very long time ago and it had a positive impact on me. I decided to reread it and see what additional insights it would bring into my life. It was clearly worth the few hours of my time it took to read this book. The device Lewis uses is very clever and forces one to look at sin, pride, and mediocrity from a totally different viewpoint. It becomes clear that it's not the big mistakes we make in life that really hurts us; sometimes those are the things that cause us to reevaluate our lives and repent. The things that really hurt us are the pride and the accumulation of little sins. Lewis seem to really be pushing for greatness of soul. Bottom line is this little book made me think about my life. That is what a good book should do.

The book also includes the essay, "Screwtape Proposes a Toast". This was written much later and instead of Screwtape writing letters advising Wormwood, he is at an awards ceremony at the school for tempters proposing a toast to future and past successes. It is basically a vehicle to complain about how the modern education system focuses on mediocrity. It also brings out some very good points to ponder.

I highly recommend this book to everyone. The principles espoused here apply to all people, religious or not.

I don't know how well this great book translates to agnostic readers, but for me it was a very enlightening and concrete way to understand what it means to try to be a good man in a world of temptation.

In keeping with the time period, I believe it was Winston Churchill who said "All evil needs to triumph is for good men to do nothing". In the Screwtape Letters the senior tempter, tells his apprentice, it is just as affective to get a man to stare into a fire until it turns to ash, as to get him to commit some great sin, because either keeps him from doing what he should. I wonder what Mr. Lewis would have thought of digital cable television? I am as guilty as anyone of staring at that box instead of doing good.

So here's the deal.

This is an excellent book for any believer from High School on up, that wants to be good and avoid evil.

But that's just me.