Read

January/February 2004 Conscious Media
Book Reviews

A Monk in the World
By Wayne Teasdale, New World Library, 2003, $14.95

In A Monk in the World , the author’s life experiences and spiritual journeys demonstrate how to live a deeply spiritual life and yet remain a functioning part of modern secular society. Brother Teasdale describes in down to earth language how to introduce the spiritual element into daily life, into friendships and the workplace. He helps us understand and respond to the world's suffering. "Without a doubt there is great value in spirituality that emphasizes and supports withdrawal from society," writes Teasdale. "But in our time, we require a spirituality of intense involvement and radical engagement with the world."

His last two chapters speak of interspirituality, the combining of different spiritual paths and methods to enhance your spiritual journey and live in the heart of awareness. He distinguishes between vertical awareness – of transcendent Mystery – and horizontal awareness – of relationships to others. Teasdale encourages one to use all ideologies and practices that can aid in your spiritual growth, and compels you be consciously aware of all that is seen and unseen.

In the epilogue Brother Teasdale challenges his beloved Catholic Church to engage other religions, get involved in world peace, the struggles of humanity, ecological pursuits and embrace interspirituality. Exploring the pages of this text cannot help but enhance the reader’s knowledge of one’s power to create a rich spiritual life within the layman’s world.

---Jude Norris

You’re Bigger than Death and Life too:
by Daniel Thomas McAneny, Xlibris Corporation, 2002, $22.99

I really, really, really wish I had had access to this book about 40 years ago, when I was struggling to find meaning and purpose in the world, and more particularly in my life! Through a lifetime of exploration and research, Daniel Thomas McAneny has compiled an impressive body of evidence from Quantum physics, channeling, mediumship, history and individual experiences of highly respectable people about things like life after death. What is more, our scientists agree with them!

He presents their consensus on two enduring, fundamental truths, which, if accepted, could change anyone’s life dramatically:

1. The world is not what it seems and
2. We are much more than we think we are.

Says McAneny, "The positive news is that we have wonderfully reassuring, logical, easy-to-understand answers that have been given us over the centuries, and we could attain much greater peace of mind, as well as a comfortable sense of why we’re here and where we are going, if only we’d pay attention to the reams and reams of solid evidence."

I recommend this book to everyone – seekers and the "enlightened" alike! It offers a Big Picture Perspective, incorporating both heart and intellect, that allows one to relax into peace and security. And, perhaps even more importantly, it provides a personal "Noah’s Ark" within which to ride out the challenges of this very significant time in our planetary evolution.

---Jenny Swanpool

Riding Between the Worlds
By Linda Kohanov, New World Library, 2003, $22.95

Stated simply, Linda Kohanov has pioneered a therapy for humans in which horses participate in the sessions as fully interactive sounding boards for the emotions of their partners. Kohanov shows in story after story how therapeutic work with a properly matched horse can bring about amazing results for both horse and human. She explains how important emotional honesty is for us and for horses as well. Once an emotion is named and brought out into the open, the horse can relax and relate much more easily. Any disparity between words/action and underlying emotion will cause a quick, instinctive reaction that acts to bring the emotion to the surface. She points out ways we sabotage ourselves by staying separate from our true needs and desires.

Concepts which she introduced in her earlier work, The Tao of Equus, are fleshed out and taken even further here. Her love for both horses and humans, and her belief in the higher consciousness that links them, comes through clearly and convincingly. People who love horses will especially appreciate this book, but there is much here for anyone who wants to live a more authentic life.

I am not much of a horse person, but I may very well book my next vacation at Epona Equestrian Services with a horse like Noche or Mariposa!

---Sarah Saito

The Big Book of Tai Chi: Build Health Fast in Slow Motion
By Bruce Frantzis, Thorsons (an imprint of HarperCollins), 2003, $19.95

Yoga may be the exercise of choice for the enlightened, at least for now. If author, Bruce Frantzis, has his way, tai chi will overtake it. According to Frantzis, most Indians don’t know about yoga, and only about two percent of them practice it. In China, 200 million people practice tai chi daily. Everyone there knows about tai chi. If they don’t practice, they have a neighbor, a coworker or a relative who does.

Most Chinese don’t start tai chi practice until their fifties, looking to it for tension relief and improving their health. Most Chinese don’t even know the martial applications of the tai chi they practice daily.

Frantzis, a martial artist who spent 11 years training in China, is a linage master in Taoist arts and the first Westerner recognized as a tai chi master by the Chinese. He peels away the ambiguous language and metaphor often surrounding tai chi discussions and tells the reader about history of the art, its spiritual aspect and why slow movements are beneficial to health.

He discusses how to find a teacher, which tai chi styles to consider, and explains what beginners should learn. This makes his book an excellent starting point for those with general interest in tai chi. And it’s also helpful to advanced students. While it’s not meant to correct flaws in your style, there is a chapter explaining what advanced students ought to learn and another on tai chi martial applications. Frantzis also describes the differences in some of the tai chi movement’s among the major styles and explains the health benefits of these and their promotion of chi (energy) flow through the body.

Frantzis knows intimately the health benefits of tai chi. Using the low impact of tai chi, he recovered from an injury so severe that doctors believed he’d never walk again. This personal experience of tai chi health benefits fuels the book’s enthusiasm for tai chi as a path to healthier living.

---Martin Middlewood, martinm@pacifier.com

We Are All In Shock: How Overwhelming Experiences Shatter You…And What You Can Do About It
By Stephanie Mines, Ph.D., New Page Books, 2003, $16.99

Thoughts of treating shock for most people involve elevating the legs and keeping the victim warm, but the author of this book would like to add energy medicine into the first response recommended for anyone in crisis. Readers who are familiar with acupressure will recognize the basic method of treatment, in which certain points on the body are pressed in combination with other points. In this case, points are chosen in order to alleviate symptoms of shock.

Her work, called Jin Shin Tara, is based on the techniques of Mary Iino Burmeister, an energy work pioneer who brought Jiro Murai’s work into the United States.

This book argues that we are all actually in a state of untreated shock from the accumulation of traumatic experiences throughout life, starting as early as during pregnancy and birth. The after-effects of these traumas can have a negative effect on many different areas of our lives, even slowing down normal brain development and impairing the immune and adrenal systems.

A whole chapter is dedicated to energy treatments for different symptoms of shock. A simple chart and some picture illustrations are included for ease in locating the points used. This book can be a valuable aid to anyone suffering from the symptoms of untreated shock or wishing to have a basic "tool box" of energy treatments on hand.

--- Sarah Saito