Sacred Desire: Growing in Compassionate Living

Great, interesting book. The authors combine science and spirituality. If you are a person want to understand more about human inner desires, or looking to find your oun spirituality, this is something for you to read. The neat thing about the book itself, it is spiral bound, so turning the pages and getting comfortable is easier.

Inside the pages of this book you will find a spiritual journey. The authors communicate to you the oneness we are made to have with the Creator and how this spills over into our lives with each other from the moment of birth. They give many case histories and examples of their study which I found very interesting. This work shows that we are all connected to God and to each other, in mind, body and soul and how important this is in our daily life communications. The words brought a true awareness of what perhaps has been perceived by many of us, but we just didn't know how to put it into words. As always when God is involved we find love in one form or another and the importance of giving and receiving acceptance and encouragement. This is not an easy read, or a quick one, but one that should be read slowly allowing yourself to absorb the information given to you. A book that will enhance your relationship with God and those we share this earth with. Allowing you to walk in a better understanding of the importance of God and His loving ways towards you and those in your life.

It is enlightening to find a book written by two academic psychiatrists that integrates recent research in neurophysiology with the research in attachment theory and the literature on interpersonal attunement. It is also refreshing that the authors make the material understandable and enjoyable. The authors use the device of sidebars or boxes to help clarify the neurological issues. Vignettes flow throughout the text adding a sense of richness and realism to the theoretical points. Throughout, there is a continual focus on the sacred and the spiritual, both of which are often omitted from professional psychological writings. The spiritual implications span the personal and inter-personal realms of experience, as well as political and global issues including violence. The authors introduce original terms such as the "womb of compassion" and "grace of gaze" that create a feminine flavor. The new terminology demonstrates the care that was taken to suggest and allow for nuances of meaning. All the new terminology is well explained and enhances the overall task of intellectually and emotionally understanding the relevant points. It is evident that this book was written by sensitive hands and informed minds who were attuned to others and especially to their reading audience.

This book is an original. A one of a kind. It is written with great skill, care and intelligence by two women (and I believe it is a book that could only have been written by women) who are psychiatrists living in the Albuquerque area. There are few books that give the reader a weltanschauung of human development and the inner workings of his/her very self. This is one of them. I believe it will become a classic of psychiatric/psychological literature on the level of Abraham Maslow's Toward a Psychology of Being, Erich Fromm's The Art of Loving and the works of Edrita Fried. Plus it has added dimensions of scope: neuroscience and spirituality. The authors derive a model of the psychobiospiritual human being in presenting their knowledge and understanding of the essence of human nature. Sounds like a wide, even impossible, literary menu. A formidable task. Yet the authors undoubtedly, and even easily, succeed. I guess it is obvious that I am impressed, even awe-stricken, with this book. It started out slow for me because I had scant knowledge of neuroscience. I decided to do a little research first by consulting some on-line encyclopedias. With this preparatory information I was able to reach a cogent understanding of a, for me, foreign territory. It was easier going from there on. The book is especially moving because it will get the reader to thinking about the time he/she was zero years of age. I had given it little or no thought in my life, only looking back to years of rising consciousness. I was shocked to realize that my primary caregiver was not even my mother. She was too busy. Instead, it was someone else. From there I had to examine what kind of care I might have received. This experience was self-revelatory. Above all, it is a book about individual transformation which leads to healing and a return to the self we are meant to be, taking along with us the consciousness we have gained. Is it perfect? Not exactly. I found myself disagreeing with some of the statements, irritated at times at what seemed to be overoptimistic individual and global goals and expectations and some views which seemed to me to be Pollyannaish. But the authors redeem themselves in their final acknowledgments by stating that some issues have been oversimplified because they were eager to make their knowledge accessible. They present a question which they deem is the most important one a person can ever ask or be asked (shades of Parsifal, no less). It is almost shocking in its veracity and is deserving of considerable thought. I wish they had presented a solution if the reader's answer is "No." But the authors pass it on to become the reader's responsibility, a vital task if you will. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It is a work I will be returning to again and again, if only in thought, for refreshment and the ongoingness of reflection on an onward, endless journey toward self-knowledge.

For a book that speaks eloquently and at length about the physiological, neurological, even anatomical aspects and radicles of such emotions as desire and compassion, it does so with an almost simplistic, but resounding clear expression and in language that never bores and frequently delights. Part psychology (certainly not tres academique, but not quite poppsych either) and part theology (Buddhism and Christianity are mentioned a lot, but the ideas here apply ecumenically and pandenominationally. There's a lot of solid scholarship here, presented practically and poetically. The work ends aptly with a bit from Thomas Merton, who as ever weights in with an apt comment: "We must try to accept ourselves, whether individually or collectively, not only as perfectly good or perfectly bad, but in our mysterious, unaccounable mixture of good and evil." Brilliant in its brevity and bouyancy, this, uniquely so in its genre, is a pleasure to read, redolent in teachable moments.