Living Deeply: The Art & Science of Transformation in Everyday Life

This book will nourish and guide the hungry heart. It is a diverse, balanced, full consideration of the art and science of transformation. The editors explain their goal: "Our single-minded focus was on the phenomenon of experiences people have, and practices they engage in, that stimulate and sustain a new worldview that may best be described as positive consciousness transformation." Theme - Find your own way: The editors try very hard to be diverse and balanced while requiring the reader to be responsible rather than providing a program for transformation: "Ultimately, you need to find your own balance between convention and innovation, between the tried and true and the emerging forms of transformative practice." The editors encourage you to discover ways to enrich, deepen, and find joy in each moment. Quoting George Leonard: "I can't live the life of some teacher. I'm never going to get there the way somebody else did." Theme - Balance: Balance is addressed in different modes. Throughout the book there is attentiveness to the balance "between courage, determination, discipline, and choice on the one hand, and letting go, acceptance, and surrendering to the mystery of transformation on the other." The editors recognize that transformation can be painful, and they balance it by sharing the joy and liberation that come out of the transformative journey. Medicine woman Tela Star Hawk Lake: "...we have to keep everything in balance. Everything has to be in harmony. Not just for the human beings, but for the animals, for the birds, for the plants, for the fish, for the rocks, for everything." Theme - Compassion: Active compassion is part of transformative worldview. Psychologist Stanley Krippner says in this book that it requires "a love that actually gives people something to eat, something to wear, a place to live, self-esteem, self-empowerment." Using the best description of tonglen I have ever read, you are invited to practice this technique and journal your experience. Exercises: The exercises at the end of each chapter require you to write in a journal. You will investigate your life from all angles: your experiences, perceptions, practices, how they interconnect, and how all things in existence interconnect. Last chapters: The last chapter summarizes the whole book with the intention of getting the teachings to stick and grow and evolve. It is followed by a resource guide which provides detailed information about The Institute of Noetic Sciences, and how to get involved in it, which would be a very worthwhile way of continuing your work and education in transformation. There is also information about the companion DVD for this book and e-courses you may take. No index: This book is limited as serious research tool by the absence of an index. Even only a name index would be useful. I was wondering if Ken Wilber was included in this book, but had to read every page to find out. Jerry Katz

Whether you are rushed and harried, wanting peace, bored and restless, desiring meaning, or balanced and relatively happy, yet seeking transformation, this book promises guidance. With amazing clarity and grace, it fulfills this grand promise! Based on decades of research and scores of in-depth interviews, the book has a refreshing objectivity. While others speak eloquently of one religious tradition, this book draws evenhandedly from a myriad of traditions and spiritual paths. While others often dwell on religious differences, this book illuminates and celebrates common insights. Even more importantly, you will find here, in readable and practical form, practices that will help you integrate your peak experiences with your ordinary life in ways that lead to personal transformation.

This is a book about the human potential to experience an enlightened state through the careful application of conscious intent. It is the product of three diligent researchers working for ten years to collect and analyze subjective accounts of transformation, and to distill and record the meaning thereof. The stated purpose of the book is contained in this excerpt. "Throughout all of our research, our goal has been to learn more about the phenomenon of transformation, whereby people's lives are changed for the better in profound and long-lasting ways." To some, this statement may contain a religious ring, but the book carefully avoids the promotion of any particular religion. It does contain many places where the idea of sacredness is honored. The concept of a person adopting a serious daily practice is described as a crucial pathway in the search for enlightenment. This comes from the observation that practice acquaints us with those things in life that bring meaning, the numinous things, so that we can recognize and honor them when they appear in ordinary life experience. The book is full of rich quotes, artfully arranged where they will be the most effective. It is full of the words of great teachers, sometimes quoting their own teachers, so that the wisdom comes to the reader in successive layers. One feature seems to lead to the conclusion that it will prove to be an extremely influential force in its field. This is that the book slowly and carefully builds a rational for seriously choosing to lead a good life.

For many, "spirituality" equates with emotional, felt experiences that are overwhelmingly inner-directed, as suggested in practices such as meditation, contemplation, prayer, and solitude. This is indeed a genuine aspect of the spiritual life, but today -- more than ever before -- our world requires a grounded, practical spirituality whose fruits spill outward into a troubled globe. This fine book is a guide in how spirituality can be both cultivated inwardly and make an outer difference as well. Unless we learn to translate our spirituality into a pragmatic approach to life, our spirituality will ring hollow. Our world's problems demand that we "go forth" and put our spirituality to work, if we are to survive in a threatened world. I say BRAVO to editors Schllitz, Vieten, and Amorok for pointing us in the right direction. They have assembled the voices of a great many wise teachers and guides. This book exudes wisdom and integrity. Highly recommended! -- Larry Dossey, MD Author: THE EXTRAORDINARY HEALING POWER OF ORDINARY THINGS

In sharing the results of more than a decade of research, Living Deeply is truly a brilliant synthesis between the science of achievement and the art of fulfillment. It goes beyond conventional wisdom and provides hands on advice on how to connect with your deepest knowing so you can begin to live a life of meaning, purpose, and contribution to yourself and others. It facilitates this journey by sharing the most hidden secrets of all wisdom traditions worldwide. This book is a must read for everyone who wants advice from the world's most remarkable sages.