Seeing with the Eyes of Love: A Commentary on a Text from the Imitation of Christ

Easy to read but deep in content. Easwaran offers many insights and suggestions to develop spiritual growth and a contempletive awareness of God's loving presence.

Eaknath Easwaran takes one of the most loved passages from the classical christian work "The Imitation of Christ" and brings it to life. He uses examples from contempary times to demonstrate the applicablity of the text to our modern day circumstances. Always compassionate, insightful, and practical he encourages the reader to remake themselves in a higher image suggested by the passage. He briefly provides a description of tools the reader may use to accomplish the transformation and provides references for indepth instructions of these tools. He assures the reader that "full effort is full victory" and honestly advises the reader that such a transformation is hard work and encourages patience with the transformation. I have read this book twice and will read it again and again. I recommend this book to everyone who would like to transform themselves into a beneficial and benevolent being.

This is the first book I have read by this author, but I have heard much about him. I agree with other reviews that he presents his topics in a very warm and affectionate manner. It's almost like you're having a conversation with him. Because of that, you can tell that he actually practices what he is teaching. Easwaran pulls together an interesting mix of Catholic Christian, Hindu, and other middle eastern beliefs to describe the method by which we can attain a perfect love for all things. In this book, Easwaran takes apart a section of The Imitation of Christ phrase by phrase and shows how it applies to someone seeking spiritual enlightenment through meditation. If you happen to be someone who includes meditation as part of your daily routine, this approach will be very helpful for you. If you never have meditated but at least have an inkling of what it means to be "spiritual" in your life, you can still apply his ideas in your own way. Just replace the word "meditate" with "pray" or "ponder" etc. But only those with an open mind will be able to see the meaning behind the words no matter which religious philosophy you subscribe to. The reason I rate this only at a four is that as the text that Easwaran is reviewing becomes repetitive, he becomes repetitive as well. So you may end up covering the same topic two or three times using different anecdotes or viewpoints. Sometimes this is done well, but mostly it looks like he is at a loss for a way to pull it together coherently. Overall, I recommend this book for only those who have a mind that is open enough to see beyond the words and read with the eyes of love.