4 out of 4 stars
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Bestselling author Richard L. Haight wrote Inspirience: Meditation Unbound: The Unconditioned Path to Spiritual Awakening because he wants the readers to know they are ready for enlightenment. According to Haight, "there is a presence, intelligence, and power so perfect, so loving that no human words can adequately describe it, and it's within you." He calls this presence Isness. It just is and encompasses the whole universe. Inspirience is when people experience a "direct conscious awareness of Isness." The purpose of the book is to help the readers tune to Isness and change their lives for the better. Meditation is the way to tune to Isness. For that reason, Haight shares with the readers several meditations that he learned through his lifelong study of meditation and martial arts.
This is a non-fiction book about meditation consisting of 112 pages. It is pretty organized and divided into four parts. Part I is about Haight's path of exploration of meditation and its meaning. Part 2 is about how he found unconditioned ways to practice meditation. For example, he learned how to meditate with his eyes open and all the senses. He also talks about neuroplasticity and the importance of appreciation. Part 3 discusses the different types of conscience, such as cultural conscience, moral conscience, and innate conscience. He explains how various areas of deceit have a negative impact on ourselves. Examples are flattery, gossip, complaint, and spite. Part 4 is about what happens when we finally tune to Isness. At the end, the book includes a handy glossary with definitions of concepts the author mentioned in the book and an appendix with instructions on how to do several meditations.
I liked a number of factors about this book. Haight makes it clear that the meditations he shares with the readers do not come from Eastern religious practices, such as Buddhism and Zen. He came up with the meditations himself after many years of studying martial arts and meditation. I found it interesting that he does not like meditating with his eyes closed and seated. He says that a martial artist needs to be calm and alert in battle. I thought it was quite original of him to find new ways to practice meditation. He even has a meditation for tidying up the house.
Haight also offers a lot of beneficial information in this book, which is not long. However, he managed to be succinct. I thought he gave some great pieces of advice. An example is that he applies the idea of "forward motion" to his meditations, which means to give up expectations and simply move forward. The mind gets distracted again and again, so we must accept that the mind will rebel. Another example is that he explains what neuroplasticity is and how we can retrain the brain.
The only issue I had with the book is that Haight's tone sounds too philosophical and existential at times. I had to read some sentences and paragraphs more than once to grasp their full meaning. The following is an example: "But the reality is that even immediacy is beyond words. Even to say that this moment is, is false. To say that it is not is equally false."
I rate Inspirience: Meditation Unbound: The Unconditioned Path to Spiritual Awakening by Richard L. Haight 4 out of 4 stars. The author teaches the readers about meditation and provides beneficial information about retraining the brain, different types of conscience, and appreciation. Even though some of his arguments were too philosophical and existential for my taste, I was not detracted from the importance of the book. What is more, I only found two grammatical errors. I recommend this book to readers who practice meditation and martial arts and those who have an interest in learning about meditation.
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Inspirience: Meditation Unbound
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