Spiritual Enlightenment: The Damnedest Thing

Oh well, this is to continue discussion of books I put on the reading list in Closing the Circle, either because I read them or because I recommended them "for further study." This one is a gem, and one of the most fun books about spirituality you could ever read. In short, I recommend it.

While per se the path that this book describes diverges in form from A Course In Miracles, it manages to clean up an awful lot of garbage, misunderstandings and plain misinformation, which plagues the whole category of spiritual literature. Why is that so, you ask? In the end it's simple, besides making interesting conversation, e.g. "I'm spiritual, not religious," is in vogue just now, nobody really wants to have anything to do with spirituality in the first place. That's exactly what I said. Nobody really wants to have anything to do with spirituality in the first place. And the reason for that is oh so simple. It is the same reason as why Jesus said that the Kingdom he talked about was not of this world, so that if we're at all attached to this world, which we all are if we take our personalities at all seriously, then we would not be interested in Jesus and/or his Kingdom, and we would be deeply offended by the irreverence of Jed McKenna.

McKenna does not leave any comfortable pseudo-truths in tact, but barges straight into the uncomfortable fact that undertaking a serious spiritual path means to always challenge everything and never ever stop questioning everything, until you get to the bottom of it all. A Course in Miracles says:

To learn this course requires willingness to question every value that you hold. Not one can be kept hidden and obscure but it will jeopardize your learning. No belief is neutral. Every one has the power to dictate each decision you make. For a decision is a conclusion based on everything that you believe. It is the outcome of belief, and follows it as surely as does suffering follow guilt and freedom sinlessness. There is no substitute for peace. What God creates has no alternative. The truth arises from what He knows. And your decisions come from your beliefs as certainly as all creation rose in His Mind because of what He knows. (ACIM:T-24.in.2)

McKenna's book, and in fact all his books, see www.wisefoolpress.com reflect this spirit, no holds barred inquiry, until there is no place left to hide. That is what it takes. The shelves full of supposedly spiritual literature, are full of prayers, affirmations, meditations, etc. as if these were so many more skills we have to learn. All of that is BS, and McKenna does not leave those illusions in tact, and demonstrates very tangibly that the truth is on the other side of all that hoopla, and therefore that 99% of all spiritual literature belongs in the garbage. What makes these books great, is that they are written in an absolutely enjoyable style. Once in a while I find people who are offended by his approach, which is irreverent to say the least, but far more people seem to realize that it is really helpful how they puncture all these little balloons of pseudo-spirituality. Putting out the garbage does help you move on to the next thing, and that's the huge service that is given by these books and their author. So if you're serious about spirituality and are fed up with pablum, run, do not walk to the store, and buy these, or order them.