Unity Bookstore Book Review
Living Deliberately – Experiments In Practical Spirituality
By John H McMurphy, Ph.D
Even though Thoreau lived during the 1800’s, the message he taught about how to make life truly meaningful certainly speaks to today’s times. Living deliberately meant conducting your own life in such a manner as to reconnect with nature, thus facilitating your spiritual rebirth. Thoreau shed his connection with conventional society, pared away material things, moved out into the country and worked only enough to sustain himself. While living at Walden Pond, Thoreau came to know the Divine Spirit that permeated all of Nature. He believed that humanity must access this spiritual dimension in order to reach its highest potential. However for the most part, people had become obsessed with obtaining material treasures, and protecting them by becoming more powerful than others. This left no room for the development of a spiritual nature.
A lot of people in this modern age have not developed a spiritual connection with Nature, and are aware of an “emptiness” they need to fill. Their typical reaction to this emptiness is to work to obtain more material pleasures. This depletes the Earth’s resources, which results in upsetting the natural balance and destroys our environment. Inevitably, the environment can no longer support human life and we will become extinct. We are seeing the foreshadowings of this now.
The main problems we focus on–poverty, drugs, racism, war, injustice–are not our real problems. They are symptoms of an overly complex lifestyle, divorced from Nature. Our spiritual slumber is the true cause of all our problems. Nature is acknowledged by almost all religions as a spiritual entity with which Mankind has a relationship as a spiritual being. Re-establishing this relationship with Nature will allow Mankind to be guided by her spiritual energies to the transcendental connection.
The author lists steps to help live deliberately and offers a good explanation of how to meditate. He also suggests we follow the Native American’s example of living with Nature as a true spiritual partner and gives us some of their prayers and rituals for doing this.
You can find this book in our own Unity Book Store.
Namaste,
Lisa Madewell
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