- Paperback: 600 pages
- Publisher: Hohm Press (June 1999)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0934252912
- ISBN-13: 978-0934252911
- Product Dimensions: 23 x 18.1 x 3.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 939 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #586,268 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
"Fool's gold exists because there is real gold," coined Rumi. Here author and anthropologist Mariana Caplan herself extracts valuable nuggets from the writings of spiritual masters, both ancient and contemporary, as well as personal interviews with more than 30 esteemed masters, spiritual practitioners, and scholars and psychologists such as Andrew Cohen, Claudio Naranjo, and Robert Svoboda. Contending that "the present condition of contemporary spirituality in the West is one of grave distortion, confusion, fraud, and a fundamental lack of education," Caplan sets out to correct this situation by encouraging seekers to carefully examine the ideas--and ideals--of the spiritual teachers with whom they are involved. The introduction by Fleet Maull, a lay monk in the Zen Peacemaker Order and founder of the National Prison Hospice Project, alone makes this worth reading. --Randall Cohan
From Publishers Weekly
Caplan (Untouched) asserts that "the reality of the present condition of contemporary spirituality in the West is one of grave distortion, confusion, fraud, and a fundamental lack of education." She claims that, as positive as the tremendous rise in spirituality is, there is not any context for determining whether any particular teaching, or teacher, is truly enlightening. Caplan compiles interviews with such noted spiritual masters as Joan Halifax, Andrew Cohen, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee and Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi on the nature of enlightenment. In the first section, Caplan examines the motivations people have for seeking enlightenment and contends that very often they seek this state as a means of gratifying the ego. This "presumption of enlightenment," she says, often afflicts teachers masquerading as spiritual leaders. These teachers sometimes look down on their students and gloat over how far they have come and how far the students have to go. A second section focuses on "The Dangers of Mystical Experience," in which Caplan claims that many seekers mistake the mystical experience itself for enlightenment; she and the teachers she interviews all assert that enlightenment always involves gaining some knowledge about self and others. The third section, "Corruption and Consequence," focuses on the nature of power and corruption; the fourth section, "Navigating the Mine Field: Preventing Dangers on the Path," provides a survey of the ways in which practitioners can avoid the "pitfalls of false enlightenment." A final section, "Disillusionment, Humility and the Beginning of Spiritual Life," concludes that "the Real spiritual life [is] the life of total annihilation and the return to just what is." Caplan's illuminating book calls into question the motives of the spiritual snake handlers of the modern age and urges seekers to pay the price of traveling the hard road to true enlightenment. (July)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
just found the book amazing really,
By minty (cornwall) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Halfway Up the Mountain: The Error of Premature Claims to Enlightenment (Paperback)
for me, for the first time, it was quite amazing to "meet" or be introduced to so many spiritual gurus, thinkers and so forth from all traditions. I found many of them very moving - and very true. I think a book like this that looks at the spiritual marketplace (as its so yukkily called) with a wide and deep vision can only be helpful to those who are seeking and who are / or have encountered problems whether it be false teacher, disillusionment etc. Also, many of the quotes are inspiring and intriguing.
5.0 out of 5 stars
This book will slap your ego,
By Matthew A Mertens (Maryland Heights, Mo United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Halfway Up the Mountain: The Error of Premature Claims to Enlightenment (Paperback)
If you're a person craving for spiritual experiences and looking for the hand of God in your life, you will not enjoy the head blow your ego with get from this book. Even better than John of the Cross does, it will point out within yourself what Thomas Merton called: "the birds of appetite", which is the ego circling and searching for spiritual experiences so that it may prove its false existence to God. This is book shows in great detail how spiritual people, even humble and well-meaning spiritual people, fall to the conscious and subconscious tricks of the ego. The tricks are many and this book seems to hit them all.A big plus of this book is that it quotes from teachers in all the major spiritual traditions of the past 3000 years. But my "birds of appetite" don't enjoy this, because the book demonstrates that all major religions present a very similar purpose of spiritual practice, which is the removal of the ego. This book, like no other except Scriptures or other public relevation, is merciless in turning over stones in your ego mind, so you can see how false and hollow your spiritual life really is. A previous reviewer complained that this book was too dark. My view on is: the darker and more hopeless you feel after reading this book, the more your ego has been unmasked. If you don't have a very qualified spiritual mentor, or even if you do, this book could supply your need for spiritual direction. And if you are serious about your spirituality, you need to buy this book.
4.0 out of 5 stars
you've seen the light, now what?,
By Orva Schrock "Author of "Worthless Boy"" (goshen, in United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Halfway Up the Mountain: The Error of Premature Claims to Enlightenment (Paperback)
spirituality is evolving and running over and leaking out and popping up its ecstatic head here, there, and everywhere. and you have felt, seen, heard things beyond the normal range of human experience and knowledge. now what? are you enlightened? must you tell all who will listen? time for you to save humanity? ms caplan has given us here a fine book of words to the wise. odd as it may seem: as the ego is transcended it comes rushing back as the "new improved better than ever one of a kind ego" and thereby tightened its grip on you even more. your "experience" is unique only to you. learn from it. thank God for it. forget it and return to your practice. the true realization and religion is the true transformation of the inner self, heart, soul, and mind. if ego runs amok, you've fallen off the track. this book is a very good and timely warning.
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