Sam Harris' book Waking Up, a Guide to Spirituality without Religion is now available as of Tuesday
It is rather short with just five chapters and a conclusion, but it is cogent and to the point. I am about halfway through it, having bought it today. Chapter 1: Spirituality Chapter 2: The Mystery of Consciousness Chapter 3: The Riddle of the Self Chapter 4: Meditation Chapter 5: Gurus, Death, Drugs, and Other Puzzles Conclusion There are simple instructions for meditation that look as simple as TM: Vipassana (or mindfulness, or perhaps a better translation — clear awareness), and of course it's free, and is the most researched meditation technique. It is a brief guidebook for spirituality for atheists, or anyone who does not buy the spiritual mumbo jumbo of metaphysicians and those into the occult*. I suppose religious people could read it too, religion is not really discussed that much. Unlike TM, which proclaims itself not religious, this is what Maharishi could have made of TM if he really wanted it to be non religious. Buddhism is mentioned because its theory of self (they are not talking of Self with the capital 'S' in Buddhism) has many parallels to scientific research into the nature of self, which does not appear to exist. Consciousness he seems to regard as a mystery, and the examples he gives, give one pause as to the strangeness of what we call our awareness. * supernatural, mystical, or magical beliefs, practices, or phenomena. An example from the beginning of Chapter 5: 'One of the first obstacles encountered along any contemplative path is the basic uncertainty about the nature of spiritual authority. If there are important truths to be discovered through introspection, there must be better and worse ways to do this — and one should expect to meet a range of experts, novices, fools, and frauds along the way. Of course, charlatans haunt every walk of life. But on spiritual matters, foolishness and fraudulence can be especially difficult to detect. Unfortunately, this is a natural consequence of the subject matter. When learning to play a sport like golf, you can immediately establish the abilities of the teacher, and the teacher can, in turn, evaluate your progress without leaving anything to the imagination. All the relevant facts are in plain view. If you can't consistently hit the little white ball where you want it to go, you have something to learn from anybody who can. The difference between an expert and a novice is no less stark when it comes to recognizing the illusion of the self. But the qualifications of a teacher and the progress of a student are more difficult to assess.' And Chapter 1 is on Harris' web site: WAKING UP: Chapter One : Sam Harris http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/chapter-one http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/chapter-one WAKING UP: Chapter One : Sam Harris http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/chapter-one Sam Harris, neuroscientist and author of the New York Times bestsellers, The End of Faith, Letter to a Christian Nation, and The Moral Landscape. View on www.samharris.org http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/chapter-one Preview by Yahoo
