The Power of You

This book is by Rav Berg of the Kabbalah Centre.

Although I did gain a few valuable personal insights and learned some interesting facts from reading this book, I was a little disappointed in it overall. I am sorry to say this, because I do agree with so much of what the Kabbalah Centre says and would not want to interfere with their good work.

The main problem that I had with the book was that although it explained life's problems from an interesting perspective that I agree with for the most part, it was very weak on specifics as to what to do about them. More often than not, the book said that what to do was to study the Zohar (a 23 volume work) and practice Kabbalah without many specifics. The few specifics given are things one can find in all the other Kabbalah Centre books that I have seen (and explained better in some of these than in the book I am talking about here) - the importance of sharing being the main specific in all of these I think.

I am not saying that what the Kabbalah Centre people have to say is not worth your time. Actually, I think the basics are very valuable, but what I am saying is that their books are kind of repetitive and short on the details of the how to steps - at least the ones I have read and that is now several. This one is not one of the better ones of these either.

I have a few more books from them on my shelf to try. These are maybe a little different from the others I have read - at least I think/hope. One is on the essential parts of the Zohar; I don't think I am quite up to 23 volumes of the actual Zohar just yet - it is not that easy to understand for one thing, even in English.

In future entries, I will let you know how things progress. Let me know your opinions on the subject as well.

Meeting Jesus AGAIN for the First Time

This excellent book with the unusual title is by Marcus Borg. The title does make sense after you have read the book.

I truly enjoyed this book and learned a great deal from it. Some of it is very personal, but other things I do not mind sharing to some extent here.

Mr. Borg starts off by talking about his first understandings of Jesus which were very much like mine and probably many other people's as well - very "traditional" shall we say. He then went on to show how this changed over time for him and how he came eventually to some new understandings on the subject.

He makes many interesting points, but I think the major one has to do with how he believes (and I think I agree with him) Jesus saw himself, God and life. This is a human Jesus working toward and apparently succeeding in having a very personal relationship with a loving and accepting God and sharing this in many ways with others through teaching and (other) acts of compassion. Some may think this is not totally new and maybe it isn't, but Borg does express it very well and in a new way. Borg does seem to drop a lot of the "divine/second coming" trappings that many give to Jesus and that can get in the way at times. Borg made me feel like I could have something like this human Jesus had and in the here and now if I paid attention to what Jesus was really saying.

Borg discusses other points as well, and of these, one that stands out for me is the discussion of three main "stories" in the Bible and how they apply to our understanding of Jesus and life today. These are the "stories" of exodus from slavery in Egypt, exile in and return from Babylon and the priest/temple activities. They really can apply as Borg says!

I cannot do Borg's book justice in a short space, so read it yourself; it is under 150 pages and well written. I hope you will read it and let me know what you think.

The Peaceful Warrior Collection

This book contains both "Way of the Peaceful Warrior" and "Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior" by Dan Millman. Overall, I liked the collection even though I thought that the writing was a little rough in places.

These books give an account (of part) of the author's journey to spiritual awareness. The path he followed brought to mind those "Rough Guide" travel guides. Millman did not find an easy path here; I commend him for his apparent honesty - he does not seem to hide mistakes that he made on his way. Some people may find that his story is a bit hard to swallow in places; he does indicate that some liberties were taken, but it is hard to figure out how he meant this.

Hopefully, we all won't have to go through something this wild/rough to find our way. Maybe it varies with the person, and the speed with which they choose to travel the path. All this being said, there are some lessons that most people would probably find useful in the this book. Love is the key - see the book for the details as I would not want to spoil it for you.

I think that Millman now works to help others "along the path". I may take a look into some of what he has written since the collection here. Actually, I did read his book that has lessons based on a numerology of birthdays (the title escapes me right now, sorry) - I did see some truth in it for me, so don't laugh.

If you give Millman's work(s) a try, let me know what you think.