Living the therapeutic touch
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Keen's "unknown god" is thus neither the god of the philosophers- the absolutely self-sufficient unmoved mover, standing aloof and untouched by the strivings of those who would contemplate his glory- nor the jealous creator god of the Christian bible who, though active in history, has become estranged from his creation, thus requiring a mediator and vicarious atonement. His is a deity who comes into existence only in and through the continuing conscious acts of self-inquiry and self-transcendence of individuals. It is a god made, more than discovered; the creative energy of Becoming, rather than the static perfection of pure Being; not Lord and Master, but rather fellow pupil and player. Paradoxically, the unknown god, while not yet born, is brought forth in every authentically spiritual moment. Spiced with self-deprecating humor and hilarious anecdotes, Hymns to all Unknown God is a wise, moving, absorbing work of practical value for those on the quest. -JOSEPH M. FELSER Autumn 1995 The World's Wisdom: Sacred Texts of the World's Religions by Philip Novak; HarperSanFrancisco. 1994; hardcover, 425 pp. In fifteen years of teaching philosophy and religion, Dr. Philip Novak's need for a manageable scriptural anthology led to his developing this book. Novak is chairman of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Dominican College in San Rafael, California. He has dedicated this work to Dr. Huston Smith, who wrote the foreword and with whom Novak has studied and collaborated for the past twenty years. Novak's book is intended as a companion work to Smith's The World's Religions (the new edition of his earlier work The Religions of Man). Novak's goal is "to treat the world's religions at their best" while presenting the basic ideas of each, just as Smith has done in narrative format in his work. Three criteria for inclusion in the anthology have been applied: (I) the inspirational and uplifting power of the scriptural or other passage; (2) its instructional value, including that for the independent reader; and (3) linkage to Smith's book. There is no slavish adherence to the outline of The World's Religions, yet use of The World 's Wisdom as a companion is clear in chapter headings and content. The religions covered in The World's Wisdom are Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Primal Religions (the latter a varied group emanating chiefly from tribal traditions). The author has edited selections for inclusive language and abridged them so that a greater number of se lections could be accommodated. At the end of each chapter Novak has included "Grace Notes," which highlight "the brightest gems" he could find in the literature and include biographical information on their authors. As an example of the author's approach, his treatment of Buddhism begins with a passage on the Buddha's life, from his reputed miraculous birth to his last words. Novak portrays him as a rebel saint defying authority and the prevailing ritual of his culture. He then outlines the core doctrines of the Buddha- the familiar Four Noble Truths and the Eight- fold Path, highlighting concepts such as karma, samsara, and anatta. The various schools of Buddhism and their practices are outlined, and the Grace Notes at the end of this chapter include a number of quotations from the Dhammapada and a few parables from the Buddhist tradition. The treatment of Christianity is much the same: first, the life of Jesus; second, the sayings of Jesus (eighty-one, to be exact); and next a description of the early Christian community. The Grace Notes are as diverse as the Gospel of Thomas, discovered around 1945, and passages from Saint Augustine, Hildegard of Bingen, and Thomas Merton, concluding with the words of the gospel hymn "Amazing Grace." While intended primarily for use in religious studies classroom s, this book will be of interest to other readers seeking an anthology of the major religions of the world. -MARY JANE NEWCOMB Autumn 1995 Navajo and Tibetan Sacred Wisdom: The Circle of the Spirit by Peter Gold; Inner Directions, 1994; paper. In a stunning example of spiritual anthropology, Peter Gold meticulously compares the perennial and parallel wisdoms of the Navajo and Tibetan worldviews. The author has shared the everyday lives of both peoples, informing his book with a vibrancy that complements his exhaustive research: Ask any Tibetan or traditional Navajo about one's place in the scheme of things, and the answer will inevitably be that we must act, speak, and think respectfully and reasonably toward others...When one lives with Tibetans and Navajo Indians for extended periods, one notices these positive qualities very clearly in them. The personalities of both exude reasonability and measured and thoughtful consideration toward others. True understanding of one's connection with the scheme of things inevitably yields such qualities. Peter Gold reverently offers these Navajo-Tibetan interrelationships: creation myths I and deities, geographic polarity, sacred mountains, directional symbolism, spiritual physiology, healing rituals, sand mandalas, holy chants and objects, and even witchcraft and exorcism. Separate chapters delve into the preeminent ceremonies of both cultures- the Navajo Nightway rite and the Tibetan Wheel of Time (Kalachakra) initiation. Over the years, I have studied both philosophies, and have spent a little time on the Navajo reservation in northern Arizona. This book finally ties it all together for me and is a revelatory teaching in itself. The chapter on "The Cosmic Mother" notes the common qualities of the Navajo White Shell Woman and the Tibetan White Tara, among other feminine emanations: "Like the White Tara, White Shell Woman is the aspect of Changing Woman dedicated to creating life and nurture." Even before reading this book, I found that camping and ritually sweating on the skirts of Black Mesa (a “female" mountain on the reservation) felt like an absorption into the Heart of a Great Mother energy field. Peter Gold's work is both confirmation and inspiration for me-an invitation to orient myself to the universal sacred directions, exactly where I stand. The cross-cultural photographs and graphics are an exquisite accompaniment to the text. As the Navajo say, "Hozho Nahastli.”. It is finished in beauty." -KAREN MARTINA MCCORMICK Autumn 1995 The Self-Aware Universe: How Consciousness Creates the Material World by Amit Goswami;G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1993; hardcover, xvii +320 pages. Amit Goswami is professor of physics at the Institute of Theoretical Sciences at the University of Oregon. Growing up immersed in Indian mysticism (his father was a Brahmin guru), he obtained a scientific education and soon found himself building a successful career in physics. In doing so, he temporarily lost sight of the mysticism of his youth and the inquisitive spirit of his student years. Finally reaching his own personal crossroad, he began to regain the excitement that he had experienced during his youthful studies. Prompted in part by a reading of Fritjof Capra's The Tao of Physics, which seemed to leave certain questions unanswered, Goswami began a long pilgrimage in search of understanding. This led him to supplement his study of physics with investigations into cognitive psychology, neurophysiology, and artificial intelligence. This book, Goswami says, is the result of this roundabout journey. Beginning with an overview of classical physics and its legacy of "material realism," Goswami discusses five key ideas that are essential to this philosophy: strong objectivity, causal determinism, locality, physical monism, and epiphenomenalism. These, he emphasizes, are metaphysical assumptions, not conclusions supported by experiment. On the contrary, careful experimentation carried out over many decades has shown that many of these postulates are seriously flawed. This being the case, another philosophical approach is required to deal honestly with modern physics. Goswami advocates for this purpose a philosophy of "monistic idealism" in which consciousness is regarded as the primary reality. The book is organized in four parts. In the first, "The Integration of Science and Spirituality," the author discusses the metaphysical postulates underlying classical physics, the development of the "new physics" in the twentieth century, and the compatibility of the philosophy of "monistic idealism" with the new physics. The second section, "Idealism and the Resolution of the Quantum Paradoxes," is a more detailed exploration of the paradoxes that arise in a world governed by the laws of quantum mechanics. Here, faced with a set of experimental observations that contradict our commonsense ideas of how the world works, we are free to interpret the data in several ways-ranging from the standard probabilistic "Copenhagen interpretation" to the mind-boggling "many worlds" theory of Hugh Everett. Goswami explains why he believes that an idealistic metaphysics, in which a "transcendent, unitive consciousness" is responsible for the "collapse" of the quantum wave, provides the most satisfactory explanation for what goes on in the world around us. The result, according to Goswami, is "an idealistic science that integrates spirit and matter." The third section of the book is "Self-reference: How the One Becomes the Many," in which the author attempts to explain how apparent dualities such as the one versus many and subject versus object arise in a monistic philosophy. We are told that the answers are to be found in such concepts as tangled hierarchies and self-reference. In the fourth and final section, "The Re-enchantment of the Person," that which is conventionally known as the "spiritual journey" is addressed in terms of the idealistic philosophy of science introduced earlier. The four sections are followed by a helpful glossary of scientific and philosophical terms, a section of notes containing references compiled by chapter, a bibliography, and an index. Despite the author's clear and lucid style of writing, his wealth of stories and personal anecdotes, and the many illustrations that decorate the pages of this book, I have to admit that I still do not really understand what it means to say that consciousness collapses the wave function or that a tangled hierarchy results in a form of awareness that distinguishes self and other. I have read many books on these subjects. Each time I get a new one I think that this time I am going to understand why Schrodinger's cat can' t collapse his own wave function and why I think I am myself and not somebody else. But, alas, each time I am disappointed to find that, while my understanding has perhaps grown a little, I still don't really understand what it all means. This used to bother me. I thought I was missing some essential neurological circuitry and, even now, it seems that this is a distinct possibility. I have, however, discussed these questions with a number of rather intelligent and well-educated colleagues who, by their own admission, don't understand what it all means either. While this does not solve the problem, it makes me feel a little bit better. At any rate, it is just possible that other readers will find themselves in the same position. To these readers I can only say that we should not expect this or any other book to provide final answers or complete solutions to questions that have perplexed the deepest thinkers. A reader who expects this book to explain it all is asking too much of any writer. The present book does, however, provide a lot to think about and will help the thoughtful reader to move several steps forward in search of greater understanding. That is enough for now. -W. D. McDAVID Winter 1995 Love and the Soul: Creating a Future for Earth by Robert Sardella; HarperCollins, New York, 1995; hardcover. 209 pages. In case you thought soul work was a picnic, think again. In fact, think with your imagination, says Robert Sardello, a psychotherapist turned soul advocate. And if you thought caring for you r soul was a leisurely swim through currents of inner pleasure, you'd better reorient yourself. Soul work if anything, is breast stroke all the way. If you want to reach the future intact, you better swim with your heart, and make room in your life to be disturbed. Soul work "stimulates soul capacities that have slumbered long in the history of humanity," and their awakening can be upsetting, Sardello says. If you want to care for your soul, he says, you need to start caring equally for the “soul of the world -the inseparable conjunction of individual and world." In our quest for inner wholeness, we have abandoned the world for 100 long; now we must extend our spirituality to include the world as if it were a person with a soul. The sustained popularity of Thomas Moore's best-selling Care of the Soul has generated a rash of feel-good soul books and seminars, but Sardello lifts the subject to its rightful us as he argues that it is not only yo ur individual soul that needs to feel good; it is the soul of the world that is grieving and needs solace. For more than twenty years, Sardello, a psychotherapist, has worked to bring solace to the soul of the world. A philosopher of the soul, he has been toiling behind the scenes, yet as one of his peer s puts it, he is "something of a legend.” The far better known James Hillman readily admits, "I have thieved privately from his mind for fifteen years." This is Sardello's master text, a challenging work destined to put his name on the map of cultural luminaries. Reading Sardello, you'll feel as if you're getting a nineties blend of Plato, Rudolf Steiner, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Carl Jung. The most important thing you need to know about soul, according to Sardello, is that soul is not an object but an activity. Soul is about imagination, inner life, feelings, fantasies, aspirations, desires, dreams, and archetypes; it is the activity of making mental images and concept s through which you come to understand the world. What is important in the life of soul is not the images themselves, but the process of making them-the dreaming, not the dream; the activity, not the content. Soul is a capacity, not an object. This is how soul emerges in our everyday world. Soul work is hard, and often painful issue from a soul in pain with intimacy with the world in which we live," Sardello writes. "Thinking that the suffering I have felt for as long as I can remember arose from an unknown cause sent me in search of healing.” The truth Sardello realized is that pain and grieving make a bridge connecting the soul with the inner life of the world. The "unknown cause" of his suffering, he discovered, was I deeply felt sense of exile from the world. "You begin to get a feeling for the fact that each individual is truly a drop in the soul of the world, an expression of the sufferings of Sophia. When you make your first real connection with the soul, you will probably experience grieving, bewilderment, fear, ignorance, the disturbing feeling of not knowing what's going on any more. These are the feelings of Sophia, the Soul of the World." That's why Sardello sees depth psychology as a transitional approach at best, preparing the way for our next phase of turning again to face the world with soul. We desperately need a "psychology of the outer world" that can school us in sensing the inner quality- the soul-of every outer event and object. We must learn to be open to "the ever-present possibility of the format ion of a soul consciousness in conjunction with the soul of the world." The future is flowing towards us, yet it won't break magically all on its own on the beach of our lives, bringing either apocalypse or salvation. "The future of Earth is already there as a time current, but it doesn't have to happen; it's in the making and we're the ones who are making it.” We have to meet this current of possibility with our creativity, and that means from within our soul. But if the future is "not already known," it could be a positive outcome, not a disaster. It could be an epiphany of soul. It's all a matter of how you imagine it. The requirements of facing the world with soul tend to go against the American grain. Sophia isn't going to pay you for giving her, attention; there is no retirement plan for having lived a soulful life. If you want to face the world with soul, you'd best prepare yourself for a life of "hermetic solitariness which nevertheless takes place in a community of soul." It's not an easy path, but it's an absolutely necessary one, Sardello urges, because the fate of the world is in our hands, not those of the gods or extraterrestrials. Take up the cause of the world soul, but don' t hand out business cards saying you're an expert. Keep things fluid and don't adhere, because otherwise you start to dam up the lime current for the future, says Sardello. You need to keep the channels clear and free as you "soul swim" into the future. -RICHARD LEVITON Winter 1995 The Power of Place: How Our Surroundings Shape Our Thoughts, Emotions, and Actions by Winifred Gallagher; Harper Perennial, New York, 1994; paper. Winifred Gallagher states in the introduction to The Power of Place (not to be confused with James Swan's recent Quest Book, a collection of essays bearing the same title ) that the recipe for the good life requires "being in the right place at the right time as often as we can manage." An award-winning journalist, Gallagher lives in Manhattan, but a visit to the village of Chimayo near Santa Fe, New Mexico inspired her to write this book. Retreats to Long Eddy, New York, with her husband and five children, where they had purchased a small piece of property away from the traffic and confusion of Manhattan, had already shown her the therapeutic value of place. In Part I of the book, Gallagher views Alaska as "a giant living laboratory" for study of the effects of the environment, of light and temperature, on all living things. A condition called seasonal affective disorder (SAD) has been experienced and recorded by explorers as far back as the nineteenth century, and authorities consider this should be of serious concern in other parts of the world as well, particularly where employment requires people to be deprived of sufficient daylight. A chapter on "Sacred Places" points out that science has found that certain "weird phenomena" associated with places are linked with perceptual, chemical, or energy –field stimuli. The author deals with the connection between extraordinary environments and perceptions, for example, when a person disembarks from a plane after a long flight and then perks up in a new environment, such as seeing the Eiffel Tower or the Grand Tetons. She cites natural areas around the world that attract those seeking healing, insight, or inspiration, such as Lourdes or Mount Sinai. In Part II (“Inside Out"), no place seems to be omitted, even the womb. Implications are drawn on intrauterine existence and current studies on maternal stress, as well as the artificial environment provided in neonatal intensive care units. Even what is called a special fascination on the part of the fetus for its mother's speech is examined. Gallagher deals with "Environmental Addictions," or environmental influences on behavior and thus stability at work. In schools, place has power that is evinced by students' scoring better on examinations in a room in which learning has previously occurred than in a new setting. Conversely, a bereaved person may not recover while remaining in the same environment in which the loss occurred, but may respond positively to the stimuli of new places and activities. In a similar manner, drug addiction may cease when the afflicted person moves to an environment not associated with the drug. In Part III, "Synchrony," Gallagher introduces the importance of being in harmony with one's environment. Cities have traditionally been considered as negative places that cause bad behavior, and Gallagher helpfully catalogs the many distractions of city life along with what environmental factor s should be considered in arriving at solutions, problems of the work place, such as the effects of noise, are discussed along with some solutions proposed by environmentalists. Gallagher points out that people pay a price for adapting to environmental stress, but that this varies with different personalities. For instance, Type T (thrill-seeking) personalities are contrasted to Type t (uptight) personalities. But people in general feel happiest in parks and other social places and more constrained in places of employment. As to home life, Gallagher provides some concepts from her research that may well be helpful for both men and women. In a chapter entitled "From the Nest to the Global Village," the effect on behavior of continuing urbanization is surveyed. One authority quoted draws a parallel between our being shaped by the womb and our species' being influenced by the locality that formed mammalian, then human, ways. Gallagher emphasizes the importance of respecting the environment through efforts to conserve it, by approaching large territories as we do our homes, and by being as concerned about neighboring regions and our nation as about our home and our locality. An extensive reference list is provided, and Gallagher has treated her subject thoroughly and masterfully. -MARY JANE NEWCOMB Winter 1995 Prometheus the Awakener: An Essay on the Archetypal Meaning of the Planet Uranus by Richard Tarnas; Spring Publications, Woodstock, Conn., 1995; paper. In 1991, cultural historian and philosopher Richard Tarnas exploded onto the literary scene with Passion of the Western Mind, a critically acclaimed look at the evolution of Western thought from ancient Greece to the present time. Less well known to many of Tarnas's readers, however, is the fact that he also has pursued a long-term interest in astrology, with particular emphasis on the relationship of astrology to both psychology and history. (His astrological essay, "The Western Mind at the Threshold," appeared in The Quest, Summer 1993.) Skillfully pieced together from essays penned for various journals, including James Hillman's annual journal of archetypal psychology and Jungian thought Spring, this slim volume focuses its attention on the meaning and significance of the planet Uranus and its symbolic connection to the mythic figure Prometheus. Though ostensibly directed towards an astrological audience, this work is of considerable interest to non-astrologers as well, for its eloquent and often brilliant discussion of astrological philosophy, particularly the question of archetypes. Tarnas's description of the uncanny way astrological patterns appear to coincide with events or destiny patterns in the lives of both individuals and societies will also provide provocative reading for those who arc skeptically inclined toward astrology. Currently, Tam as is at work on a more comprehensive study of astrology, tentatively titled Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View (scheduled for 1997 publication) , Until then, this work offers readers an appetizing glimpse of what one of the premier intellectual voices of our time has to say concerning this controversial and perennially fascinating subject. -RAY GRASSE
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