Rating: 
Summary: I have given away 5 copies of this book, I keep rereadng it.
Review: I wish everyone could have it, and read it at their leisure. If you would like to give someone a gift, consider this book.
Rating:
Summary: The Most Practical Approach to Meditation Ever Written!
Review: Journey of Awakening: A Meditatior's Guidebood by Ram Dass was a complete surprise to me. I had been looking all over for a book that gave you meditation techniques rather than places to go and pay to learn meditation. This was the first such book I found. Since I found it in the New Age section of the bookstore I expected to be weeding through a lot of mumbo jumbo and new age nonsense. Instead I found it to be a very practical guide to meditation techniques.I was also pleased to discover that it taught how to use meditation within several religious practices including Muslim, Christian and Judism as well as Eastern traditions. This makes this book appealing to persons of any faith. At the end of the book there is a listing of places around the country where you can go if you want more instruction or group meditation. But it is not neccessary as the book is a complete guide to meditation.
Rating:
Summary: Want to meditate and don't know where to start? Read this!
Review: Ram Dass leads you on your meditation path,
as he simplifies the method for you.
Interjecting quotes from poems, scriptures, and wise zen sayings, Ram Dass pulls from wisdom and faith to help you along your journey. An especially helpful chapter on learning mantras,
and the value in repeating mantras
Rating:
Summary: One of My Favorites
Review: This book, so well and kindly written, is a very easy read, and thereby seduces the reader into practicing what many find to be daunting or intimidating. This book introduces you to the many ways of meditation. It is rigorously non-sectarian -- or perhaps one should say that it demonstrates the universality of meditation and spiritual quests in general among all religious cultures. It offers a broad variety of methods, and introduces ancient quotes from the world over providing very human insights into the benefits, difficulties, and pitfalls of meditation. This is an enjoyable read for beginner and expert alike.
Rating:
Summary: One of My Favorites
Review: True story... One day I was walking in San Francisco on my way to the Carl Jung Institute, when I had an overwhelming urge for a cup of cappucino. I mean, completely overwhelming. I turned and headed down a street (Van Ness) that I knew (at the time) did not have any cafes or coffee shops, yet I could not seem to help myself. I was being pulled. After walking a few blocks, I noticed a sign for a bookstore below street level, and for some reason I went in. It was a weird little place filled with crystals and Hopi dream catchers, and I knew immediately it was probably not my kind of bookstore. Nonetheless, I decided to stay and browse a bit. I was turning one of those turning bookstands, when my eyes hit upon this book among a bunch of extreme New Age titles. I looked through it, and got tremendously excited as I realized that I had found something I had been barely aware I was looking for. So I bought it, read it about a dozen times, and it provided me with absolutely the right information I needed to make some decisions about meditation techniques, teachers, etc. In that sense, you could say it changed my life. Based on my own experiences, I would recommend this book unconditionally to anyone who feels themselves drawn in that direction but needs a bit more information first. As always, Ram Dass does a first-class job of presenting somewhat arcane information in a very accessible manner. Going back to that particular day, the funny thing was that as I walked out of the bookstore with the book, that overwhelming urge for a cup of cappucino had completely disappeared. And when I went back a few months later to find the bookstore again, I couldn't find it. I've always wondered what Carl Jung would have thought of the whole episode.
Rating:
Summary: Just what I needed
Review: True story... One day I was walking in San Francisco on my way to the Carl Jung Institute, when I had an overwhelming urge for a cup of cappucino. I mean, completely overwhelming. I turned and headed down a street (Van Ness) that I knew (at the time) did not have any cafes or coffee shops, yet I could not seem to help myself. I was being pulled. After walking a few blocks, I noticed a sign for a bookstore below street level, and for some reason I went in. It was a weird little place filled with crystals and Hopi dream catchers, and I knew immediately it was probably not my kind of bookstore. Nonetheless, I decided to stay and browse a bit. I was turning one of those turning bookstands, when my eyes hit upon this book among a bunch of extreme New Age titles. I looked through it, and got tremendously excited as I realized that I had found something I had been barely aware I was looking for. So I bought it, read it about a dozen times, and it provided me with absolutely the right information I needed to make some decisions about meditation techniques, teachers, etc. In that sense, you could say it changed my life. Based on my own experiences, I would recommend this book unconditionally to anyone who feels themselves drawn in that direction but needs a bit more information first. As always, Ram Dass does a first-class job of presenting somewhat arcane information in a very accessible manner. Going back to that particular day, the funny thing was that as I walked out of the bookstore with the book, that overwhelming urge for a cup of cappucino had completely disappeared. And when I went back a few months later to find the bookstore again, I couldn't find it. I've always wondered what Carl Jung would have thought of the whole episode.
Rating:
Summary: This is a must have book!
Review: What can I say it's Ramm Dass. Many times when I read what he writes it is as though he knows my questions before I know them myself. He'll address an issue that i'm just becoming aware of and then he provides guidence as what to do and expect next. He has a great deal of experience in this area and that really pays off when human beings are so similar at the core. Which is what it is all really about, getting to know yourself at your core. Also, by experience I mean that he has done a lot of deep thinking himself and has many years of experience with talking to various people around the world about this same thing. In this book he also demonstrates various kinds of practices which you can do. I think the main point of this book and any book on this subject matter is to follow your heart. The problem then is how do you clear your mind enough to be able to hear your heart. This book is the next best thing to having guru, atleast that is my two cents about it.
Rating:
Summary: This is a must have book!
Review: What can I say it's Ramm Dass. Many times when I read what he writes it is as though he knows my questions before I know them myself. He'll address an issue that i'm just becoming aware of and then he provides guidence as what to do and expect next. He has a great deal of experience in this area and that really pays off when human beings are so similar at the core. Which is what it is all really about, getting to know yourself at your core. Also, by experience I mean that he has done a lot of deep thinking himself and has many years of experience with talking to various people around the world about this same thing. In this book he also demonstrates various kinds of practices which you can do. I think the main point of this book and any book on this subject matter is to follow your heart. The problem then is how do you clear your mind enough to be able to hear your heart. This book is the next best thing to having guru, atleast that is my two cents about it.
Rating:
Summary: An experience in disillusionment
Review: When you don't happen to have a teacher on hand this book will answer most questions that come up on the path through the jungle of the mind. It helped me get in touch with much that I had forgotten. Anyone who meditates or has the intention to meditate will love this book.
Rating:
Summary: An experience in disillusionment
Review: When you don't happen to have a teacher on hand this book will answer most questions that come up on the path through the jungle of the mind. It helped me get in touch with much that I had forgotten. Anyone who meditates or has the intention to meditate will love this book.
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