Reading this was challenging - I was worried about the religious content in the beginning when I read about the authour, only to read the first chapter and to relax that it wasn't "contaminated", struggled with the later ones, when terms like good and bad, evil and sin, soul and ego flew in all directions, only to find in the latter chapters quite a unique view of how he thinks God is, even though he consider himself as a christian, and was actually baptized in his forties as a christian, but not belonging to any religion (how is that even possible?), and confessed that he even did not read the whole Bible. So the ideas that did stuck wih me was his opinion on the existence of paradoxes and the need for " wholeness" and "integration/integrity", maybe even the importance of awareness. The poem at the end was an infusion of spirituality, so I'm pretty happy that I stuck with reading it all the way trough.

This book is about spiritual growth, and so said offers a religious (Christian) approach to its message. However Mr. Scott successfully avoids being preachy. He does not present the Christian faith as superior to others, and the subtlety of this approach makes any reader across the board comfortable with his message.

His first emphasis is on thinking. No one need mention what an important component this is, of all human acts of choice. And the author offers a critical study against simple thinking, instead campaigning for depth. He goes on to tackle consciousness and its mystery, showing how a sense of awareness can bring to life harmony and serendipity.

His other main assertion is that in order to grow, we need to learn. And learning is equally a choice, in a sense that we chose to, and or not to learn in our endeavor to come out of our narcissism.

Part two of the book offers insights on the everyday life. It shows the personal life choices such as those of vocation as well as organizational life choices and the choices we make about society. It is in the third part of the book that he talks about God. Here I find a few things that I do not agree with. But generally the writing is honest and heartfelt enough.

Since this is my first book this year, I hope that I will keep up and read more of non-fiction works this year.

Heavy going, but a valuable resourse...

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To SEE a WORLD in a Grain of Sand,
And a HEAVEN in a Wild Flower,
Hold INFINITY in the palm of your hand
And ETERNITY in an Hour"
~ William Blake ~

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“Wisdom tells me I am nothing. Love tells me I am everything. And between the two my life flows.” Nisargadatta Maharaj

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Form is Emptiness; Emptiness is form.
Form is not different than Emptiness;
Emptiness is not different than form
~ Heart Sutra ~

Like the ocean and its waves,
inseparable yet distinct

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" I and The Father are one,
I am The Truth,
The Life and The Path.”

Like a river flowing from its source,
connected and continuous

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Thy kingdom come.
Let the reign of divine
Truth, Life, and Love
be established in me,
and rule out of me all sin;
and may Thy Word
enrich the affections of all mankind

A mighty oak tree standing firm against the storm,
As sunlight scatters the shadows of night
A river nourishing the land it flows through

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The Road Less Traveled and Beyond, by M. Scott Peck - about 1 and a half stars; author shamelessly quotes from his own previous titles; the wisdom in it is mostly sound, but it really is a bit of a re-hash

Ένας άνθρωπος μπορεί να κάνει απίστευτα κατορθώματα και να αποκτήσει ευρύτα τες γνώσεις, κι ωστόσο να μην κατανοεί τον εαυτό του. Τα βάσανα όμως οδηγούν τον άνθρωπο να κοιτάξει μέσα του. Αν αυτό συμβεί, τότε εκεί, μέσα του, αρχίζει να μα θαίνει.

I absolutely loved the first of this trilogy of books, The Road less travelled. I felt the second one was too centred on religion and this third one felt too long. Especially the second part was very heavy. Nevertheless I still feel Scott Peck was probably one the most enlightened psychologist of the last century successfully intertwining psychology with spirituality.

I read this just out of high school. I loved it and it changed my life. It was a stepping stone into inner self work.

L. An education in Christianity

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I feel like it was one of the best books in terms of usefulness and ability to enlighten. I think the book can be summed up by the idea if we want to be a productive member of society we have to open ourselves to the pain of living, to overcome the pain we must discipline ourselves, we also cannot be loving without this discipline.

Key Quotes:

“Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult-once we truly understand and accept it-then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.”

“Love is the will to extend one's self for the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth... Love is as love does. Love is an act of will -- namely, both an intention and an action. Will also implies choice. We do not have to love. We choose to love.”

“Until you value yourself, you won't value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it. ”

I liked this book, but it was more of a review of his others. Not great unless you've never read his others.

I reread this book about once a year and it always has a calming effect