Mystic Journey Reviewed By Bani Sodermark of Bookpleasures.com
- By Bani Sodermark
- Published December 19, 2012
- Self Help
Bani Sodermark
Reviewer Bani Sodermark. Bani has a Ph.D in mathematical physics and has been a teacher of physics and mathematics at the university level in both India and Sweden. For the last decade, her interests have been spirituality, healthy living and self-development. She has written a number of reviews on Amazon. Bani is a mother to two children.
Author: Robert Atkinson
Publisher: Cosimo books
ISBN:
978-1-61640-715-5
Soul Making
Quintessential questions: “Who
am I? What is my purpose? Where am I going? Is there a God?” These
questions have for long been the domain of religion/philosophy and
the institutions/ policymakers that govern them. That stranglehold of
control is fast losing its grip as more and more people are asking
these existential questions, independent of a deity/religion and
demanding forthright answers. This book attempts to answer some of
these queries by proposing a framework that is independent of
religious dogma, being based on the very personal experiences of :
1)
remembering who we are,
2) revisioning our lives in a timeless
pattern, and finally,
3) reclaiming our spiritual heritage.
When
we speak of experiences, we usually see them in the light of duality,
e.g.happy or sad, good or bad, and so on. In this book, the author
proposes a different way of seeing an experience, it is seen as a
special form of a story, which he calls a sacred story. By this, he
means that one focuses attention on the wholeness behind the duality.
Just as every story has a beginning, a middle and a resolution, a
sacred story is defined as a situation that starts with an experience
of separation from wholeness, a transformation as a result of the
above into a more unified frame of mind, and finally an integration
into a greater wholeness as a resolution of the duality experience.
By seeing the experience as a resolution of duality, one intuits the
passage of the soul through the shadowy world of material
consciousness.
The cognition of an experience as a sacred
story, according to the author, is based on the experience of
consciousness at three different levels
1) the individual level,
where the human being concentrates his energies on furthering his
personal causes,
2) the group level,where the individual
identifies with a group that is bigger than his inner circle. It
could be, for instance, a community, an ethnic group or a national
identity
3) the universal level, where the individual identifies
with a transcendental consciousness, a state of consciousness when he
connects with the heart of all of humanity.
The process of
soul making according to this book, is the journey of the soul
through progressively higher states of consciousness as it goes
through the three pronged process of separation, transformation and
integration. According to the author, we progress on our
mystical journey
1) by looking back at our lives and remembering
events in the light of separation- transformation- integration
2)
by revisioning our lives in this timeless pattern where we encounter,
amidst all change, a so called place of initiation, and finally,
3)
by learning to live in this new plane of existence where we reclaim
our spiritual heritage by helping others on their particular
journey.
“When we clearly identify the movement from order
to disorder and back to order in our lives, along with the resolution
of our own conflict, we have found the universal in the unique and
the sacred in the personal”- Robert Atkinson
To illustrate
his point, the author uses quotes from the holy books of all the
major religions, highlighting aspects which are common to all of
them, and pointing out those that are relevant to our mystical
journey. “It is the path where others have already trod, where joy
and sorrow, light and shadow, meet, clash and merge”.
After
each chapter, there are a number of questions and suggested exercises
that are geared to advance the interested reader on his/her mystical
path. These are strongly recommended to seekers of the mystical path,
who have been put off by conventional ecumenical literature.
By
the nature of its contents, this book is not an easy read. It is well
worth the effort, however. This is an uplifting book, the ambience it
creates, lingers, long after the book has been laid aside.
I
recommend this book very strongly to all seekers of their own
mystical path.
Check Out Some Great Deals From Amazon.com