Care of the Soul : A Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life

Rating:
Summary: Pretentious, dry and BORING!
Review: I excitedly bought this book after hearing wonderful things about it from friends, fellow students and teachers. I was profoundly disappointed. Moore never actually guides one through "cultivating depth and sacredness". He lectures about subjects that the average reader cares little about. There are a great many books out there that are infinitely more accessible to the common reader. I suggest that they be sought out. This book is thoroughly unenjoyable.

Rating:
Summary: Very little to do with care or the soul.
Review: You better know your Greek mythology, and be prepared to get lost in detailed abstraction if you want to read this one! I found this to be a drudge to get through. Moore never defines "soul", but says something like everyone knows when a person has soul: She's got soul. What does that mean??? Very little is defined in this book, and there are no footnotes where there should be!! I found this to be a hollow book, promising much and delivering little. I didn't even bother to pick up "Soul Mates". What Dorothy Parker supposedly said about a novel is also true of this book. It is not "to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force".

Rating:
Summary: Read it and make up your own mind
Review: I agree wholeheartedly with Thomas Moore's assertion that "loss of soul" is a major problem facing us today. People who are cut off from soulful family and friendship may find themselves in a cultural void, a barren world where problems are solved with pills and the media replaces real community. We have lost ourselves in the chaotic din and senseless rush. We are more sophisticated than ever, yet we remain unsatisfied. Do we know what will really satisfy us? Can we be still and take an honest look at ourselves? Are we making the best use of the one short life that has been given us?
If you recognise these questions, then 'Care of the Soul' might help you begin to answer them. Moore has a sense of the sanctity of human life, he urges us to see each life as precious and has respect for what each individual presents, however unpleasant it may seem. Every story and pathology is meaningful and can reveal truths about not just the individual but also about their family and society. When I first read the book I was most impressed by the chapter on narcissism, which remains the most authoratative account of self-love I have read. We are used to hearing that we must love ourselves before we can truly love another, but do we really know how? Moore correctly interprets the story of Narcissus not simply as an example of the symptom of narcissism, which is how it is often misinterpreted, but as the myth of true self-love, and he tells it with the insight you might expect from a therapist. This alone was a revelation and changed my life. I wonder if when Narcissus recognises himself he is experiencing the well~known 'Thou Art That' of Indian philosophy.Other key themes such as jealousy, power and depression are explored also.
A previous reviewer wrote that Moore thinks we should not change. I think this is a misrepresentation. Change is an inevitable part of life and cannot be avoided. But the feeling that we need to be someone different is a rejection of ourselves. I think we have to accept our past before we can be free of it, then change occurs naturally, out of stillness and reflection. Other reviewers have discussed what age range this is suitable for, Moore himself says that it is never too early or too late to begin caring for the soul. I read it in my early twenties and wish I had read it sooner, I know people who are much older and would still benefit from it`s message.
This book is the best introduction to spiritual life I have read and I feel grateful for it almost every day.
Thankyou Mr. Moore!

Rating:
Summary: Search for Soul
Review: I have to admit, I was hoping to find a simple and concise definition of the soul in the first few pages. Sigh, it's not there.

What I did find is a vague and complex description which lasts the entire book. I'm come to appreciate this approach though. I believe it is consistent with the nature of the soul. At least, what I've come to understand the soul to be. A machine might produce a simple guide to the soul but a machine has no soul. It is very human, and soulful, for the author to struggle and explore. This book is both a guide to the soul and an example of the author's well developed soul.

I've read very few books in my life. So when I started this book I was cautious. I don't want to be misled or waste my time. This book required a lot of concentration but it was worth it. I used this book to help me deal with a new job in a large corporation.

Even before I had this book I complained that my new work environment was a soul robbing hell hole. I used the term "soul robbing" but I really didn't understand what that meant. This book helped me see how robot-like attention to procedures, treating people like cogs in a machine and being devoted to one "right" way all violate the nature of the soul. I have the same job now but I compensate. I may not change the company but I can at least hold on to my soul.

This book also confirmed some of my own thoughts about what's important. I used to tell yoga teachers that I come to class mostly just to learn how to be a kid again. I was partly serious and partly joking. Now, after reading this book, I'm more convinced than ever that being a kid is the right direction. A lot of what the author values in soul work (wonder, curiosity, patience, honesty, simplicity, vulnerability, appreciation, action, vision and love) seem natural for the type of kid I want to be. I'm relieved that I don't have to create a soul from scratch. Hopefully it's just a matter of reclaiming the soul I started out with.

This book is full of interpretations. Of dreams, myths and poetry. So I think the author would be sorely disappointed in me if I didn't look deeper for what's behind this book. Here goes... This book is about the soul but it was written for love. I believe Thomas Moore wrote this book as an expression of his love for a woman. Her name is Joan Hanley. And I would give anything to know how this book affected their relationship. I know, many who have read this book will think I'm crazy. But, I swear, I found this in the pages.

Read this book and you'll be able to tell all your spiritual friends that you've got soul. Study this book, pour over it and read it like you're going to teach it and you'll understand we all have soul. But don't stop there. Read it and be open to the possibilities why one man would pour so much energy into such a tenuous subject. Read it and wonder.

Rating:
Summary: A few gems in the trash
Review: This is my second book by Moore that I've read. I have found him to be an alternative thinker. He writes some great things criticizing the course of modern society however some of his positions on morals are just unthinkable for a former monk. I agree with the reviewer who questions Moore's advice to the women whose husband was cheating on her. I've found some good insights while digging through this earthy volume.



Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I had high hopes for this book as I thought it would address spirituality in a humanistic way. At first, I thought I agreed with the 'accepting of self' philosophy, but gradually statements made by the author just didn't ring true. I kept on thinking that maybe I was resistant to the reevaluation of my own thought processes, but gave up when the author spoke of a patient who found out her husband was cheating on her and the author's response was that she had control issues (!?!) and was acting like a victim. I think at that moment, perhaps she feeling victimized. But instead of telling her to 'embrace her victim', she is a control freak. Then he presents depression like it is some kind of choice, instead of a chemical imbalance. Perhaps depression can spawn creativity, but you have to be able to get out of bed first -- and that is a problem. I gave up on the book after that.

Rating:
Summary: The sleeper awakes
Review: It is the nature of people to try and pigeonhole this writing in some category or another. Several times though the book there is a warning against this. I my self see him as a hybrid of Jung and Catechism.

However I find this a revolutionary work that allows one to see the world in a new or ancient light. We have an opportunity to require or gain a perspective, a reality, a dimension that Thomas Moore calls soul. If nothing else reading the introduction will make this clear. I do not want to paraphrase Moore's works.

The book is well written and the layout is perfect to take you from ground zero of the process of Care of The Soul to a whole new life. However for me I felt a little like reading Dave Berry where he takes the normal and mundane and expands it beyond logic. You wonder how you got there.

He gets into interpreating dreams but not the standard stuff in other dream books. And shows how to relate tem to the topic of Care of The Soul. Somehow he bypasses a subject that I would be interested in. I use dreams to be more creative in work. Usually I can come up with unique solutions or insights in the middle of the night.

By the time you reach chapter eleven "Wedding Spirituality and Soul" you can see he is more into Jung than S. Freud. Also items that start to look like hypnosis byproducts ate creeping into the conversation.

Towards the end of the book he gets more concrete and wraps up lose ends.

Bottom line is you can not just read the book; you must live it to, to know it. And then again there is no guarantee.