Reviews

The Wisdom Way of Knowing by Cynthia Bourgeault

breenmachine's review

5.0

I love Cynthia Bourgeault. This is my third book by her and they were all eye opening. I especially loved the parts about the imaginal realm, surrender, and conscience.

"The imagination must be contained between the twin banks of attention (teaching it to stay put at a single point) and surrender (letting go of all phenomena that occur)."

"Conscience is the heart's own ability to see the divine hologram in any situation, no matter how obscured, and to move spontaneously and without regard for its personal well-being in alignment with that divine wholeness".

"The gate of heaven is everywhere"

bookish_olga's review

5.0

I am a huge fan of Cynthia's work and this book does not disappoint. It is a short course in ancient Wisdom tradition and its aim is to 'traverse the 12 inches between the brain and the heart'. It gives just enough historical background, pulled skilfully from various wisdom tradition, and marries it with powerful daily practices that are very simple yet profound. If you are a spiritual seeker that likes to be inspired by a variety of sources: Sufism, hermeticism, Gnosticism, mystical Christianity and others, you will find this book hugely inspiring.

ajlewis2's review against another edition

informative inspiring

5.0

dgshroyer's review against another edition

4.0

So much beauty in this book. My one caveat is that I felt her approach to the passions and emotions felt too negative for me, at times almost Gnostic. I may need to reread to understand what she means by the language she is using but that took away some depth for me, as did the lack of discussion on justice/action as a fruit of Wisdom. Nevertheless a helpful corrective to so much of what has gone awry in Western Christianity...and modern religion in general.