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Rating: 
Summary: Inner roadtrip.
Review: "The road to wisdom is often an obstacle course," journalist Tony Schwartz writes (p. 430). "Looking deeply within challenges people to engage their own feelings of emptiness, dissatisfaction and despair. Most people instinctively avoid such pain at any cost, and the culture provides us with endless ways to anesthetize ourselves" (p. 425). Schwartz spent four years travelling the country, "seeking out people who had made the search for meaning primary in their lives" (p. 9), interviewing psychologists, philosophers, physicians, mystics, psychics, teachers, and scientists. He writes, "I spent four years looking for answers to the straightforward, age-old questions Who am I? and Why am I here? The wisest people I met offered very different answers" (p. 14).In his book, Schwartz introduces us to a few of those people who reveal that a "richer, deeper, more meaningful life is within reach" for each of us (p. 431). For instance, in Chapter One we meet Ram Dass, who tell us "the spiritual journey is a journey of continually falling on your face . . . you take a step, which you think is wise, and you blow it and you fall on your face" (p. 60). In Chapter Two we meet Michael Murphy, the 1962 cofounder of Esalen, in Chapter Four we meet right-brainer Betty Edwards, and in Chapter Eight we meet Buddhist vipassana teachers, Jack Kornfield and Joseph Goldstein. In Chapter Nine, transpersonal psychology's leading theorist (p. 346), Ken Wilber, says: "It's hard work. The truth is that transforming oneself is a long, laborious, painful process" (p. 364); "The point is that each of us has to take the actual journey, in our own way, in our own time, at our own pace" (p. 374). Although this book covers a lot of ground, that ground is always deep and fertile. In the final pages of his book, Schwartz arrives at a number of personal conclusions, each of which rings with universal truth. "To live a complete life requires drawing deeply on all one's potentials--mind, body, heart, soul, and spirit" (p. 423). "The planet's survival--and evolution--depends on our collective capacity to look within more honestly, and to act more consciously and less defensively in every spere of our lives" (p. 422). Schwartz concludes his spiritual roadtrip with an impressive, nine-page bibliography sure to appeal to the seeker in each of us. G. Merritt
Rating:
Summary: Inner roadtrip.
Review: "The road to wisdom is often an obstacle course," journalist Tony Schwartz writes (p. 430). "Looking deeply within challenges people to engage their own feelings of emptiness, dissatisfaction and despair. Most people instinctively avoid such pain at any cost, and the culture provides us with endless ways to anesthetize ourselves" (p. 425). Schwartz spent four years travelling the country, "seeking out people who had made the search for meaning primary in their lives" (p. 9), interviewing psychologists, philosophers, physicians, mystics, psychics, teachers, and scientists. He writes, "I spent four years looking for answers to the straightforward, age-old questions Who am I? and Why am I here? The wisest people I met offered very different answers" (p. 14). In his book, Schwartz introduces us to a few of those people who reveal that a "richer, deeper, more meaningful life is within reach" for each of us (p. 431). For instance, in Chapter One we meet Ram Dass, who tell us "the spiritual journey is a journey of continually falling on your face . . . you take a step, which you think is wise, and you blow it and you fall on your face" (p. 60). In Chapter Two we meet Michael Murphy, the 1962 cofounder of Esalen, in Chapter Four we meet right-brainer Betty Edwards, and in Chapter Eight we meet Buddhist vipassana teachers, Jack Kornfield and Joseph Goldstein. In Chapter Nine, transpersonal psychology's leading theorist (p. 346), Ken Wilber, says: "It's hard work. The truth is that transforming oneself is a long, laborious, painful process" (p. 364); "The point is that each of us has to take the actual journey, in our own way, in our own time, at our own pace" (p. 374). Although this book covers a lot of ground, that ground is always deep and fertile. In the final pages of his book, Schwartz arrives at a number of personal conclusions, each of which rings with universal truth. "To live a complete life requires drawing deeply on all one's potentials--mind, body, heart, soul, and spirit" (p. 423). "The planet's survival--and evolution--depends on our collective capacity to look within more honestly, and to act more consciously and less defensively in every spere of our lives" (p. 422). Schwartz concludes his spiritual roadtrip with an impressive, nine-page bibliography sure to appeal to the seeker in each of us. G. Merritt
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting book
Review:
I read this book primarily because of the positive reviews it's received here on Amazon. Having read it, I must sadly report that it completely fails to live up to its name. Apparently the author's opinion of "What Really Matters" is drastically different than mine.
The things that really matter to me, for example, are giving and receiving love, being in right-standing with God, taking care of my family, and understanding the meaning of life and my purpose here on this planet. Schwartz completely ignores these things, and instead concerns himself with self-understanding, apparently so that he can be happier, more creative, less prone to stress and anger, and so that he can rid himself of back pain and play his best tennis. Toward this end he explores psychedelic drugs, meditation, psychoanalysis, biofeedback, "drawing on the right-side of the brain", the Enneagram, dream interpretation, etc.
In nearly 400 pages there is virtually zero discussion of God, love, prayer, service to others, or life after death. For a book called, "What Really Matters" I found that flat out weird until it occurred to me that there is no indication that the author even believes in a God or an afterlife. That would explain the self-absorbed (in my opinion) nature of his search, his lack of a higher purpose, and his inability to acknowledge that there is anything more important than himself out there. This shallowness is also apparent in the writing-style which practically screams, "I'm egocentric", despite the author having just spent years surrounded by "consciousness" types who all, in one way or another, advocate the banishment of the ego as a path to enlightenment.
Overall, the book is an interesting survey of some people and topics related to human potential and consciousness, but from a standpoint of "What Really Matters" it misses the mark.
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Guide to American Wisdom in Journalistic Style
Review: Ever wanted a guide to transformative practice in the US? What's available to the committed seeker? Look no further- Tony Schwartz has written a valuable guide to what New Age practices really deliver- and what they don't. In "What Really Matters", Tony presents different movements and thinkers, chapter by chapter, in an eminently readable and easily digestible format. Covering meditation, dreamwork, creativity exercises, personality and emotional studies, athletics, Michael Murphy's Esalen work, Hameed Ali, and Ken Wilber's integral philosophy, Tony's journalistic journey is recommended to anyone who seeks a distinctly American approach to spirituality.
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Guide to American Wisdom in Journalistic Style
Review: Ever wanted a guide to transformative practice in the US? What's available to the committed seeker? Look no further- Tony Schwartz has written a valuable guide to what New Age practices really deliver- and what they don't. In "What Really Matters", Tony presents different movements and thinkers, chapter by chapter, in an eminently readable and easily digestible format. Covering meditation, dreamwork, creativity exercises, personality and emotional studies, athletics, Michael Murphy's Esalen work, Hameed Ali, and Ken Wilber's integral philosophy, Tony's journalistic journey is recommended to anyone who seeks a distinctly American approach to spirituality.
Rating:
Summary: An engaging but Pollyanna review of new age thinkers
Review: I bet that if I met Tony Schwartz I would really like him. He comes across in this deeply personal book, as a decent, heartfelt and loving person. The book is the story of his five-year quest at the start of the 1990s to find wisdom and insight in the "new age" movement in America. Though at times a bit solipsistic, Schwartz generally does an entertaining job of conveying the ups and downs of the various experiences he goes through on this quest. The first three chapters of the book introduce us to some of the key figures in creating what has become the "new age" movement in America. The first chapter introduces us to Ram Dass, who was part of the original LSD experimentation with Timothy Leary. The next chapter tells the story of Michael Murphy and the founding of Esalen, and the third chapter covers Elmer Green and the biofeedback movement. For me this section was a wonderful introduction to how these institutions and practices got started in America in the Sixties (ignoring, of course, the historical connections back to American transcendentalism and the like). The middle section of the book covers some of the powerful tools that were developed and refined as part of the "new age" approach. Chapter Four covers Betty Edwards and her tools to improve "seeing" and so drawing; Chapter Five reviews the insights about how the mind effects and interacts with our health; Chapter Six details tools that have been developed to help people achieve peak performance; and Chapter Seven explores the use of "new age" tools in exploring the meaning of our dreams. These chapters capture well the some of the clear gains from the "new age" movement - a set of practical tools that people now use to live healthier and more complete lives. The final section discusses several thinkers who have tried to develop more integrative views of human nature. Schwartz reviews the thinking of Jack Kronfield, Joseph Goldstein, Ken Wilber, Helen Palmer and Hameed Ali. Schwartz finds much to appreciate in each of these thinkers, but at this point, for this reader, it becomes clear that Schwartz has started to partake in much "covering over" of the negatives associated with the "new age" approaches. For one thing Schwartz has decided to only write about his experiences with those who he felt were truly enlightened and decent people. As for the many potentially detrimental components of this movement, Schwartz spends only one sentence: "I have spent much of my time detouring around New Age popularizers, self-promoting hucksters, and charismatic demagogues posing as enlightened teachers." While I respect Schwartz desire to focus on the positive, the result is clearly not an objective review of the movement. Another question that runs through the book is whether psychotherapy may not be a more powerful and reliable tool for addressing individual needs. Only at the end, does Schwartz reveal that this was a critical tool in his growth. To highlight only the best of the "new age" experiences and to minimize the potential benefits of psychotherapy, as Schwartz has done, is to create a Pollyanna view of the "new age" world that ignores much of the damage and difficulty that should be part of the full picture.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Read for the Soul
Review: In his concluding chapter, the author recounts the more general insights he has attained on his quest which many readers will find more valuable than any of the specific approaches to wisdom described in the rest of the book. The "first and foremost challenge" is to become and remain more aware, of oneself and of others - to accept the truth about oneself and to be more open and non-judgmental in relation to others. Part of this self-understanding is the great tendency toward self-deception. There are also no easy or absolute answers in the art of living. The key is to obtain balance for a "complete" life in which inner resources are cultivated both for their own sake and the sake of those we encounter. There has to be emotional, intellectual, social, aesthetic (and I would say spiritual) development. If one of these is severely neglected, or if one is greatly overemphasized, there is a distortion and we are less than what we are called to be. Humility he found essential, but too often lacking in the teachers and gurus he met. A better mind and heart should lead to better behavior and greater personal integrity and peace, again too often lacking in the gurus. Perhaps most impressively, he came to the conclusion that acceptance is a great and necessary virtue - accepting one's own limitations, even moreso those of others who we are inclined to want to change. He discovered that honesty is not always a virtue, nor an end in itself (as when it causes unnecessary hurt and instead of building trust, damages it). Greater awareness affords the possibility of greater self-control and thereby greater effectiveness in acheiving whatever we can because there is so much less wasted energy, stress, and anxiety. He recounts how his change of attitude with both his own parents and his teenage daughter enabled him to have a more satisfying relationship with them by not projecting onto them his own needs and agenda. In sum, there is a considerable wisdom reflected in the author's final chapter. And reviewing his admonition on tolerance, I am inclined to be tolerant of his entirely secular quest. It well may be that there is a significant portion of people who are forever indisposed to a religious consciousness and will never, therefore, consider "the possibilities that there might be a God, or higher power, or even a form of deeper, unseen intelligence in the universe" (as the author says he had not p. 4). They may view it as a futile speculative exercise because they can't envision such an intelligence that is an active and caring force in this world or any world to come. However, to ignore that possibility altogether most certainly risks leaving a "hole" in one's psyche that cannot be filled by any purely secular fix. Notably, the author has little to say about the larger personal and social issues of suffering and evil that religious traditions seek to confront. For a compelling modern take on Christian understanding of "wholeness" in human beings including a traditionally "spiritual" dimension, read Hans Kung's "On Being A Christian" which explains why humanism alone will not satisfy us in the last analysis.
Rating:
Summary: Bright, frank, biased
Review: It is odd -- Tony Schwartz loves to think and talk about what he thinks; he's singled out what he thinks are important disciplines on the American spiritual landscape and, oddly, skips several influential traditions of the last few years: Tibetan Buddhism, Kabbalah, Tai Chi and related moving meditations; why? I'm not sure; he attempts a review of Vipassana Buddhism, or Insight Meditation -- he speaks to Jack Kornfeld (a leading teacher of Buddhist meditation and headquartered in California) but makes a final assessment based almost exclusively on Jack's opinions as to why traditional Buddhism just doesn't work in this country; sadly, Tony confines himself to meditating roughly 30 minutes a day and never signs on for a retreat at East Coast Insight Meditation mecca, Barre, Mass. (or anywhere else); he researches little in the tradition and appears to be in too much of a hurry to throw himself at and into Ken Wilber and the hot new discipline of Transpersonal Psychology; while Ken's practice includes considerable meditation, it is primarily one of Jnana, or thinking on things spiritual, emotional, psychological -- and how Tony grooves on that; Tony likes talking up the spiritual life and sampling the initial highs; he is not in it for the long haul; his transformational path is apparently one of words -- and he is unusually articulate (as is Ken Wilber); while I am gratified for much that Tony has given -- and his gifts are concise and appetizing (I am pushed to look deeper into the Enneagram, for instance, and it was wonderful to remeet Baba Ram Dass), I am left feeling as if once he cornered his subject -- What Really Matters -- he found he had a taste for little more than what he'd begun with -- a high, high-minded gift for gab and unwillingness to commit. Try again, Tony.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting book
Review: This book is a very interesting exploration of consciousness and particularly transpersonal experiences. It examined the experiences of many individuals who have tried to experience this altered state of consciousness in various ways. It is written very well and is a joy to read. I would recommend it to people who are interested in the topic of consciousness and transcendence. If you want to know what transcendence is, I'd really recommend The Ever-Transcending Spirit by Toru Sato. It explains transcendence better than any other book I have read on the topic!
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding!
Review: This is one of the most honestly written books I have ever read. Anyone interested in personal evolution will get clear, concise information on some of the best of what really works, and a wonderful explanation about why it works. Integrative and realistic, it is written from the perspective of someone willing to expose his own personal challenges and limitations. It is one of the most insightful and comforting pieces of work I have ever read. Having read over 300 works on this subject, it takes a lot to impress me - this work has gone beyond doing so!
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