Some may find this a surprising work from famed atheist writer, Sam Harris. Most of the atheists I've known didn't need a deity in which to believe because they were their own gods; the author of Waking Up seems no different. In this he follows the Buddhist insight that while these these may bring temporary happiness, they are transitory, and that there is more enduring serenity and bliss to be found beyond these through greater clarity about human life and the workings of our minds. Reviewed in the United States on December 19, 2018. Even as a teenager I saw the value in the 4 Noble truths. We need sanity to deal with our burdens. Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion at Amazon.com. But he cannot tell what the “truth” is except in vague suggestive terms. “Surely that’s an exaggeration,” you may protest. I don’t want the law to forbid people to take drugs. You can still see all customer reviews for the product. So much time devoted to the self by the self for the self to prove that the self does not exist! That would be a lasting gain. Annoying? It may spend years achieving what it calls its own transcendence. Feeling love and compassion may be very pleasant and satisfying for the one who feels them. I’ve known people ask to have a limb cut off, or even to be killed, rather than be forced to swallow lysergic acid (LSD) a second time. However, meditation is considered a relevant exercise and a general discussion of meditation is provided. … Nothing need replace its ludicrous and divisive doctrines … So, even without the drugs, it is not morally good. And the exercise is useless to anyone else. Referred to by Pico Iyer and Michael Krasney, July 30, 2015, on Forum, KQED. It is quite possible to lose one’s sense of being a separate self and to experience a kind of boundless open awareness – to feel, in other words, at one with the cosmos. And what about feeling “at one with the cosmos”? That is the whole difference between the moral religions of the West and the contemplative religions of the East. Don't be deceived by the title as I was. It can give you nothing to help you live your life. Very intriguing reading - found myself wanting to underling many passages in the book. The first page was very engaging with a down to earth writing style. Dennett, Hitchens) disagree, and this helps to illuminate his own take on spirituality. Because reconstruction must be finished first, does that mean there are two conscious people that are considered you? "Spirituality begins with a reverence for the ordinary that can lead us to insights and experiences that are anything but ordinary. Above all, he tries exceptionally hard not to be as dogmatic as some of the gurus he refers to. Your mind will first thank you and then deconstruct you AND your entire world. Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion by Sam Harris, Simon & Schuster, New York, 2014, 237 pages, Spiritual Adventures: Aesthetical, Ethical, and Pharmaceutical, “I am often asked,” Sam Harris writes, “what will replace organized religion. But I suspended my disbelief to follow his exposition. The achievement when it comes – the convincing experience of enlightenment – is, he admits, ephemeral. Is conscious defined by physical continuity or physiological continuity, as with the teleport machine? Might it be, as Harris tells us, an understanding of what consciousness is? But one thing the author is certain of: the goal is worth achieving. It remains private, personal. Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion by Sam Harris, Simon & Schuster, New York, 2014, 237 pages. So far the Harris book I liked the most. We note that Christians, Muslims, Hindus and others can experience something spiritual in regards to their religions. That sounded like a " Celestial Accounting System that worked on Auto Pilot". And many who are not religious value moral goodness, and may even practice it, no more or less than the religious do. Discussion of this is the “philosophical unraveling of the feeling of self we call ‘I’.” (His discourse on the non-existence of the self is similar to David Hume’s.) I particularly enjoyed the refined descriptions of what it is to be in the meditative state and how to achieve it. This page works best with JavaScript. I might say: “I do this or that in a spirit of fun”; “I had a spirited reaction to this or that idea”. Is it possible to be happy before anything happens…in spite of life’s difficulties, in the very midst of physical pain, old age, disease and death?… Most of us are living as though the answer were ‘no.’” This is the center focus of Harris's new interesting book. Reviewed in the United States on August 14, 2018. Many of your friends have already done this safely and are already on Mars. The appeal is neither to theology nor to the conventional sources of happiness alone: hedonic pleasure, family, wealth, contribution to others. I enjoyed some so Sam's anecdotes about his spiritual travels and the book showed me new ways of thinking about meditation and spirituality. Harris points to some of the places where he and his "horsemen" companions (e.g. Finding out that you “have no self” as Harris insists is the case, will not banish anxiety, confusion, discontent, disappointment or anger. He thinks so. … Nothing need replace its ludicrous and divisive doctrines … [its] terrifying and debasing fictions. After viewing product detail pages, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. ), His goal is, he says, profound: “The true goal of meditation is more profound than most people realize – and it does, in fact, encompass many of the experiences that traditional mystics claim for themselves. But it would be better occupied with cooking the dinner, inventing an app, or writing a book. For others to know it they too must experience it. He attempts to show that a certain form of spirituality is integral to understanding the nature of … To take it is to put yourself into a state of clinical psychosis. If I ever want to. The moment is all that matters, then and there. But they are not true. Is it not the fear of losing oneself that makes one fear death, or being in a coma, or in a permanent vegetative state? But pleasant and satisfying to what if not that very self which has come to feel them by being dissolved away? Neither does Sam Harris. . And he can say that it feels marvelous. I suspect, if that time comes, Dr. Harris will have discovered a new perspective. More here than in most cases, where you stand on a series of points could make quite a difference to what you get out of this book. Is it worth the vast expense of time and effort, the years of brooding, that the author lavished on the enterprise?