Rating: 
Summary: A great read for people on the path!
Review: How anyone can imagine that they are being helped by this book is beyond me. To quote Samuel Johnson, "What is good is not original, and what is original is not good."
The gist of the book is that even the "quest for enlightenment" can become a hangup of its own. Instead of "chasing" such things as enlightenment, awareness, peace of mind, and the like, the author suggests that we just...
...stop...be still...let the stillness work on our minds...and stop all the restless striving.
That's a good point. It is made in about 8 words in the Bible--"Be still and know that I am God"--and not many more in the Tao Te Ching, which says, "The ten thousand things rise and fall while the self watches their return." It also occurs in the Bhagavad Gita, the Dhammapada, and other spiritual works.
None of those works takes 132 pages to make the point, as Harrison does, and none of them write in his leaden prose, a style that enables you to glide over 20 pages before you suddenly recollect yourself and realize that you have hardly absorbed a word. I am thinking of paragraphs like this, on page 53:
"We can only address this question within the context of the objective reality. By standing back from reality, our freedom is limited by our dissociation and fear of contact. We truly live in this relative world only when we have an intelligence that transcends division. This intelligence must be based on both a recognition of the nature and limitations of the relative 'me-object' relationship and the underlying unity, which is its wellspring."
...and on, and on, and on...page after PAGE of this ... Would *anyone* willingly read this in preference, for instance, to St. Paul's beautiful and elegant "Now we see through a glass darkly; then, we shall see face to face; now I know in part; then, I shall know, as also I am known..."
Harrison writes like a bright 10th grader who, having been congratulated for having a more mature vocabulary than his classmates, seeks to deserve the compliment by writing in his idea of "grownup" prose. The result is deadly.
Rating: 
Summary: The author should have taken his own advice and done nothing
Review: How anyone can imagine that they are being helped by this book is beyond me. To quote Samuel Johnson, "What is good is not original, and what is original is not good."The gist of the book is that even the "quest for enlightenment" can become a hangup of its own. Instead of "chasing" such things as enlightenment, awareness, peace of mind, and the like, the author suggests that we just... ...stop...be still...let the stillness work on our minds...and stop all the restless striving. That's a good point. It is made in about 8 words in the Bible--"Be still and know that I am God"--and not many more in the Tao Te Ching, which says, "The ten thousand things rise and fall while the self watches their return." It also occurs in the Bhagavad Gita, the Dhammapada, and other spiritual works. None of those works takes 132 pages to make the point, as Harrison does, and none of them write in his leaden prose, a style that enables you to glide over 20 pages before you suddenly recollect yourself and realize that you have hardly absorbed a word. I am thinking of paragraphs like this, on page 53: "We can only address this question within the context of the objective reality. By standing back from reality, our freedom is limited by our dissociation and fear of contact. We truly live in this relative world only when we have an intelligence that transcends division. This intelligence must be based on both a recognition of the nature and limitations of the relative 'me-object' relationship and the underlying unity, which is its wellspring." ...and on, and on, and on...page after ... PAGE of this ... Would *anyone* willingly read this in preference, for instance, to St. Paul's beautiful and elegant "Now we see through a glass darkly; then, we shall see face to face; now I know in part; then, I shall know, as also I am known..." Harrison writes like a bright 10th grader who, having been congratulated for having a more mature vocabulary than his classmates, seeks to deserve the compliment by writing in his idea of "grownup" prose. The result is deadly. Not only that, but the book, succumbing to a risk of so many books of this type, deals heavily in a kind of faux-profundity and pseudo-wisdom. Because egotism causes so many problems, Harrison swings far too much to the other side and tries to prove that the self doesn't exist, or ought not to. That's like going to Weight Watchers and telling people with diet issues that there is no such thing as appetite. In fact, the kind of writing that is in this book, were Harrison writing on physical fitness, would have him saying things like: "Analyzing the orthographic basis of the conceptual dichotomy, I became aware that the difference between 'fit' and 'fat' was but a single letter. What, after all, is a letter but a symbol on a page, not a judgment on a human life. Moreover, it is merely my beliefs about the significance of that letter that drive me to despair over being fat. 'Fat' is, therefore, an arbitrary belief, not a reality state...
Rating:
Summary: A succinct presentation of timeless wisdom.
Review: I have bookshelves literally overflowing with books written by authors who know about spiritual topics. It has been refreshing to read a book written by an author who knows. It was likely not a coincidence that I obtained this book and a copy of the Upanishads in the same week. Steven Harrison does a wonderful job of succinctly presenting timeless wisdom in a form very relevant to our modern lives.
Rating: 
Summary: on the pointlessness of ego-based spiritual search.
Review: In this book author Steven Harrison focuses on an aspect of the "journey" that is hardly ever mentioned in this age of feel-good spirituality--that is, the action of most seekers is one of grasping. He suggests that instead of chasing after this or that "experience," we work at removing the ego from center-stage. Once we do that, the spiritual journey is done, because we find ourselves already in a highly spiritual state. I can't disagree with his ideas here, however, he doesn't really explain well enough (for my purposes) HOW one does the work of getting the ego to budge from center stage (the book Shadow Dance by David Richo does deal thoroughly with this topic). His musings on the relationship of ego to consciousness and our daily lives are written in a way which is highly abstract and cerebral. For instance, "Integration can communicate with, interact with the projected thought-reality. It inherently commnicates because integration includes the space within which this thought-reality arises." OK, the whole book is not written that densely, but much of it is. This sort of prose is hard to sink your teeth into and digest in a way that changes your actions in the world. I now see why Jesus spoke in parables and metaphors--he employed simple, concrete terms, and it was the very simplicity of the images which allowed them to act as psychic catalysts ("the Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed"). Harrison does include some little teaching stories in his book, and I savored them much as I once did an iced cola after driving across the Mohave desert with no air-conditioning. Regardless of the language, however, I think there are some important ideas in this book which make it worth reading, and I also believe the author has paid the personal dues necessary to be a teacher.
Rating:
Summary: This book changed my life!
Review: Once I saw, through my own experiences, that all belief systems are just that--beliefs, with no basis in reality--I was left with "nothing" to hang onto. This may seem like a desperate condition--and at times it was--but it seemed to me like the only honest way to live, to admit that I know nothing. Reading Doing Nothing gave life to my understanding of the bankruptcy of beliefs. It gave me a fuller appreciation of what this means in a human being's day-to-day life. And it helped me to see that even when we give up our "belief in beliefs" they are still there! I experienced this book as an extended and very moving Zen koan that is just the doorway to a life of complete engagement with the truth of unknowing.
Rating:
Summary: A whole lot about...nothing!
Review: Steven Harrison's Doing Nothing packs a big wallop for such a slim volume. Its subtitle is "Coming to the End of the Spiritual Search." The end of the spiritual search, according to Harrison, is not enlightenment but the discovery that there nothing to be enlightened about and no one to be enlightened. The spiritual seeker who answers to the name of "me" turns out to be ...nothing and all. So what do we do now? You guessed it. Nothing.
Rating:
Summary: A good book for Buddhists to read.
Review: Steven Harrisons book is important for anyone on a a religious quest. It is especially important for those who are studying Buddhism. The book fits very well with "Buddhism Plain and Simple" by Steve Hagen and with "The Meaning of Mind" by Thomas Szasz. (Though I suspect Dr Szasz might object to having his work placed in the Eastern Religions category it is helpful to those who are wrestling with the issue "what is mind".) Mr Harrisons book also fits well with Batchelors "Buddhism Without Beliefs". This book must be read carefully. It's central message (on my interpretation) is the central message of Buddhism; once you abandon the "self" the quest is over. This doesn't mean one can quit the deep spiritual life; it simply means, as Gautama the Buddha is reputed to have said, once you reach the other shore of "enlightenment" you no longer need the raft that took you there. This is a wonderful book. Seekers of all kinds will like it. Buddhists would do well to read it more than once.
Rating:
Summary: A good book for Buddhists to read.
Review: Steven Harrisons book is important for anyone on a a religious quest. It is especially important for those who are studying Buddhism. The book fits very well with "Buddhism Plain and Simple" by Steve Hagen and with "The Meaning of Mind" by Thomas Szasz. (Though I suspect Dr Szasz might object to having his work placed in the Eastern Religions category it is helpful to those who are wrestling with the issue "what is mind".) Mr Harrisons book also fits well with Batchelors "Buddhism Without Beliefs". This book must be read carefully. It's central message (on my interpretation) is the central message of Buddhism; once you abandon the "self" the quest is over. This doesn't mean one can quit the deep spiritual life; it simply means, as Gautama the Buddha is reputed to have said, once you reach the other shore of "enlightenment" you no longer need the raft that took you there. This is a wonderful book. Seekers of all kinds will like it. Buddhists would do well to read it more than once.
Rating:
Summary: A challenge to every reader to go deeper...
Review: Take this book with you on your next solo hike in the mountains or walk on the beach. Take a weekend by yourself and read this book. It is a powerful book if the reader brings his or her full attention to it.
Doing Nothing is a book that requires a great deal from the reader - but it is well worth it. The author describes the book as "an investigation into the bare actuality of our existence..." and it is that and more. The book takes you into a contemplative state in its Zen koan - like content, and yet this is not a book about Buddhism or any other religious or philosophic system.
After you have read it, pass it on to a friend. It's that kind of book - a classic gem.
Rating: 
Summary: Absolutely not necessary
Review: The book is clumsily written; whatever interest I had in his message was lost along the way. Don't waste your money. And whatever you do, don't buy an audiotape, unless you're into inept, boring mumblings and meanderings. There are much better books out there with essentially similar messages -- Tony Parsons's As It Is, for one.
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