Seven Life Lessons of Chaos : Spiritual Wisdom from the Science of Change

Rating:
Summary: The power to change our worldview
Review: Briggs and Peats accomplish something truly extraordinary. They make clear to us, with the help of Chaos theory, to what extent our Western worldview dominates and distorts our take on or sense of reality. They trace the history of Western thought from the Renaissance to the present and demonstrate how this mechanistic worldview has led to a severe distortion not only of our own sense of self, but of the true nature of our planet and the all life forms it supports.

Without attempting to replace one belief system with another and without telling us what to do, they leave us with a clear sense that the relativism of the post post-modern world is nothing but a misunderstanding of the nature all worldviews:

They are basically theories, and as such, they are provisional in nature and self-destruct eventually because they get stuck and cannot be updated anymore, no matter how hard we try. We have reached that point - a point that does not signal the end of history but rather the beginning of a new chapter.

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Summary: But can it explain synchronicity ??
Review: Here we get a better glimpse at infinity, the living interconnectedness of our universe, and chaos theory. Entering into this chaos we have creative moments. The authors take an in depth look at the creative mind. The problem with our modern western minds is that they are dualistic and mechanistic. "Lo! Men have become tools of their tools!" With chaos comes wholeness, and we need not restrict things into dualities and put power above all weaker things. We need see that systems are complex and simplistic at the same time through chaos, and that every action is connected to everything. 'The Butterfly Effect' The Earth, let's call her Gaia, is a living ecosystem and organism. We can look at the cell as its microcosm. Because of missing information, we never fully understand things, and therefore should not mechanise them to our satisfaction. We shouldn' t view everything as linear. This includes time. Those moments where time stands still---they explore the realms of the possibility of fractal time planes, as opposed to a mere irreversable arrow. They want the mystery of contemplating the great unknown restored in our minds. This book will definitely supply you with a new mind expanding outlook and perspective on the world in which you live.

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Summary: Amazing book
Review: I found this book to reverse every mental polarity in me, as if I had been pulled through infinity.

Rating:
Summary: Too Bad
Review: I was really hoping this would be a good one. It had all the right qualities to turn out a great piece of literature. Unfortunately, it ended up being an insight to the not-yet-matured mental ramblings of its authors. Briggs and Peat insult everything from mountain climbing to the Rennaissance to the Mendelbrot Set itself. Then they glorify things like the Dark Ages! The book seems to be a struggle to overcome a Kantian mindset, in which the authors present themselves as incoherent and more "searching" than their proposed audience. The only reason I've granted it two stars, is that perhaps it could serve as an introduction to Chaos Theory, or more likely the philosophical disease of Collectivism. To anyone with any knowledge of Chaos, on the other hand, this book will leave you frustrated when the authors continually misuse terms such as "feedback loop," or when they generalize with terms such as "scientists found..." or "researchers say..." but fail to cite specifics. This kind of circumlocution leaves me wishing I had gotten more out of the book, and even insulted by the book's presumption that I would overlook such emotive language. Read at your own risk! I advise something a little less societally degrading. Look for a book that will actually teach you something about this amazing scientific discovery without slandering its position in academia and your own life. Try "Chaos," by James Gleick.If you need something that brings philosophy into a revolutionary science, look for "The Dancing Wu-Li Masters," by Gary Zukav. It deals with quantum physics rather than Chaos Theory, but in a much more respectable way.

Rating:
Summary: The Amazing Rose.
Review: SEVEN LIFE LESSONS OF CHAOS : Spiritual Wisdom from The Science of Change. By John Briggs and F. David Peat. 207 pp. New York : HarperPerennial, 1999. 0-06-018246-6 (pbk.)

Writing in the thirteenth century, Japan's great Zen Master Dogen Zenji (1200-1253) told this little story :

"Long ago a monk asked an old master, "When hundreds, thousands, or myriads of objects come all at once, what should be done?" The master replied, "Don't try to control them." What he means is that in whatever way objects come, do not try to change them. Whatever comes is the buddha-dharma, not objects at all.... Even if you try to control what comes, it cannot be controlled" (trans. Ed Brown and Kazuaki Tanahashi, 'Moon in a Dewdrop,' p.164).

All our life is spent trying to make things happen. Nice things, to us. But how often do we succeed ? Isn't it the case that we almost always fail ? And given the enormous effort that we all put into trying to make nice things happen, isn't it puzzling that we so very rarely succeed ?

Could it be that our constant failures hold a message for us ? Could it be that we cannot in fact make things happen ? And if this is so, why is it so ?

Is it because that behind any event there are so many causes that we could never hope to have personally generated more than a few? And that those few are not enough to nudge an event in the precise direction we would like it to take ? A happy direction, and one that will bring good things to us ?

Rather than desperately trying to make things happen, wouldn't it be wiser to shift into alignment with the one big thing that is happening all around, letting it lead us along through the good and the bad, no longer struggling but calmly being guided, so that the event may unfold, naturally, like a Rose ?

If you are still with me and haven't yet read Briggs and Peat's marvelous and inspiring book on Chaos as the unfoldment of the Amazing Rose that is the Universe, and how best to play one's role within that ongoing unfoldment, I'd suggest that you get your nose into it now. The fantastic news it brings was brought for you.

Rating:
Summary: The Amazing Rose.
Review: SEVEN LIFE LESSONS OF CHAOS : Spiritual Wisdom from The Science of Change. By John Briggs and F. David Peat. 207 pp. New York : HarperPerennial, 1999. 0-06-018246-6 (pbk.)

Writing in the thirteenth century, Japan's great Zen Master Dogen Zenji (1200-1253) told this little story :

"Long ago a monk asked an old master, "When hundreds, thousands, or myriads of objects come all at once, what should be done?" The master replied, "Don't try to control them." What he means is that in whatever way objects come, do not try to change them. Whatever comes is the buddha-dharma, not objects at all.... Even if you try to control what comes, it cannot be controlled" (trans. Ed Brown and Kazuaki Tanahashi, 'Moon in a Dewdrop,' p.164).

All our life is spent trying to make things happen. Nice things, to us. But how often do we succeed ? Isn't it the case that we almost always fail ? And given the enormous effort that we all put into trying to make nice things happen, isn't it puzzling that we so very rarely succeed ?

Could it be that our constant failures hold a message for us ? Could it be that we cannot in fact make things happen ? And if this is so, why is it so ?

Is it because that behind any event there are so many causes that we could never hope to have personally generated more than a few? And that those few are not enough to nudge an event in the precise direction we would like it to take ? A happy direction, and one that will bring good things to us ?

Rather than desperately trying to make things happen, wouldn't it be wiser to shift into alignment with the one big thing that is happening all around, letting it lead us along through the good and the bad, no longer struggling but calmly being guided, so that the event may unfold, naturally, like a Rose ?

If you are still with me and haven't yet read Briggs and Peat's marvelous and inspiring book on Chaos as the unfoldment of the Amazing Rose that is the Universe, and how best to play one's role within that ongoing unfoldment, I'd suggest that you get your nose into it now. The fantastic news it brings was brought for you.

Rating:
Summary: Creative Transformation
Review: Seven Life Lessons of Chaos is the only book I have ever finished and begun again. This is not a "how to" book, but a piece of literature -- one that does not end, but continues to begin again. I began this book expecting "lessons" in the ordinary sense. Thinking I would be "shown how to do something," I braced myself for the pointer and the lectern and the maps. A non-scientist (to say the least), my only understanding of chaos was "messy and disordered." But like any good student, I waited for Briggs and Peat to teach me, in an orderly, structured way, their "lessons." What happened, though, was something else entirely. Instead, by using chaos theory as a metaphor, Briggs and Peat offered a series of overlapping and merging lenses through which I began to see the world in new ways. Like a great piece of literature, the words began to fall away and as I glanced to watch them tumble, the world appeared in sometimes fleeting, sometimes sustained glimpses -- a world that is at once more chaotic and more possible to be with. This is not a book that "tells you" how to give up control, but one that offers shifting glances into the relieving realization that you didn't have it in the first place. In the end (which is also the beginning), what remains is an oddity so beautiful you will want to touch it. And when you do, you will realize it is your life.

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Summary: Practice Positive Butterfly Power
Review: This book will not change your life - but it will enlighten you to the possibilities of how to view life in the future. This is not eastern mysticism by scientists, but rather a clear statement of how uncertainty is the most certain of all things - we live in a world of opposites and that alone provides limitless opportunity.

You should read this book - just once will be enough to 'get it'.