Learning to Dance Inside

Originally read it from the local library. Really changes the way you see yourself as connected to the universe. Can't recommend it enough. Should be required reading for all world leaders :-)

Manifesting my thoughts, I found this book in a used book store. Like the late Trappist Monk, Thomas Merton, George Fowler has found after a 17 year vow of silence, devoted to contemplative meditation, that God lives in all. That fundamentalism and religion are the products of human fallibility, where as mysticism and universalism embrace both the ground of our being, the acceptance of God within and that of all life. Echoing the words of other non-theists, Fowler acknowledges God as the center of our being, Fowler explains the meaning of meditation and that of contemplation, how some people are born contemplators, while the rest of us must engage in meditation to achieve higher awareness. Excellent book from a man who has both experienced meditation and lived it.

If you find yourself lacking in proper motivation when meditating, please read this book. Before reading this book, I could only meditate for 10 or 15 minutes. After reading it, I can do 60 minutes in the morning (I get up at 5 am). This book provides a proper reason to meditate. I prefer to call meditation the practice of 'praying constantly' and it is a demonstration of our love for God. We must practice in secret - something we do not demonstrate in front of others (becasue it would be a form of spiritual pride - thus an attachment). Meditation is a form of practicing detachment from the desires things of this world (fame fortune, pride). Not that there is anything wrong this these things, but it's our desires or attchments that we need to master.

I became interested in the peacefulness the Tibetan people possessed after watching "Seven Years in Tibet." Assuming it had to do with their meditation I looked up some of the books by the Dalai Lama. I found this book also. It is much easier and gets you to the root of what meditation is and can do for you. Excellent primer.

If you are a Christian, beware! This book could turn your world upside down. Is doctrine more important than spiritual growth, or should it be the other way around? That depends on who you ask of course. This former Trappist monk has looked at the heart of the matter of "religion", as we know it today, and found it wanting. This is not a "How to Meditate" book; although, it does have a section on technique. It is much more than that. It asks you to search your heart and conscience to find what it is that you really believe