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4.07 AVERAGE
4.07 AVERAGE
emotional
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
Spiritual litterateur is always difficult to summarise. If you read it at the wrong time in your life, even Ram Das can sound sententious. I can’t say I read Grounded Spirituality at the right time, but I read it a point when I needed some confirmation for my growing suspension of nonduality as a means of escaping.
Jeff Brown certainly makes a good case why that is so and instead offers a model still rooted in eastern practices, through the lens of western individualism. The book is divided in two parts. The first part Is Brown's biography and it is where the reader will get a basic understanding about the author’s beliefs. It so sort of pitch, but longer.
The second part is a dialogue between Brown and an imaginary character, based on the younger Brown and spiritual seekers he met along the way. If the first part is the textbook, this is the workbook.
I can certainly understand why a lot of people will get triggered by Brown's writing. Though I don’t find it cynical, some of the language used to describe these ancient eastern beliefs and practitioners is generalised. I don’t know a lot about Brown or which people he encountered, but sometimes his criticism is based on points he just assumes. Like the chapter about Eckhart Tolle.
But on a positive note I think the global community of seekers needs people like Jeff Brown. Like the psychedelic community, so many beliefs, rules, worldviews are taken for granted. Brown deconstructs these concepts. Grounded Spirituality may not be the book that will change modern western spiritualism, but it is certainly a worthy addition to an ever growing collection.
Jeff Brown certainly makes a good case why that is so and instead offers a model still rooted in eastern practices, through the lens of western individualism. The book is divided in two parts. The first part Is Brown's biography and it is where the reader will get a basic understanding about the author’s beliefs. It so sort of pitch, but longer.
The second part is a dialogue between Brown and an imaginary character, based on the younger Brown and spiritual seekers he met along the way. If the first part is the textbook, this is the workbook.
I can certainly understand why a lot of people will get triggered by Brown's writing. Though I don’t find it cynical, some of the language used to describe these ancient eastern beliefs and practitioners is generalised. I don’t know a lot about Brown or which people he encountered, but sometimes his criticism is based on points he just assumes. Like the chapter about Eckhart Tolle.
But on a positive note I think the global community of seekers needs people like Jeff Brown. Like the psychedelic community, so many beliefs, rules, worldviews are taken for granted. Brown deconstructs these concepts. Grounded Spirituality may not be the book that will change modern western spiritualism, but it is certainly a worthy addition to an ever growing collection.
Not going to put any more time in on this one. The first part of the book has some meaningful things to say about spiritual bypassing and the potential tyranny of "mastery", but the second part -- which consists of a long series of imagined dialogues -- just didn't work for me. It carried an aura of urgency, earnestness, and certainty that undercut or at least muddied some of the earlier messages.
Life changing stuff, especially for those who have been hurt by the way nondualism and the way it sees life and all its treasures as meaningless trivialities that must be sacrificed on the altar of enlightenment. It helped to validate the reasons I walked away from it and toward earth spirituality. It helped me to more deeply understand my complicated past relationship with nondualism, and if course I found the content to be smart and wise. I think that for many people this book will be a profound read, and its time has truly come.