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Inner Frontier |
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Inner Frontier |
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The Sacred Art Balance and Depth in Spiritual Practice
By Joseph Naft
Book Description “Deep within each of us dwells the source of peace, purpose, and love. Yet we live in the chaotic dissonance of the superficial layers of our hearts and minds. A sea of the most precious spiritual energies surrounds us, inside and out, yet our thirst remains unquenched, our souls malnourished and unformed.” (from the Introduction) Bridging East and West, The Sacred Art of Soul Making addresses the central questions of spiritual practice with the depth and subtlety they require and with unexpected clarity. The book offers several unique features. First, it addresses people looking for ways to bring Eastern spiritual practices of meditation and presence into relationship with Western religious sensibilities. For example, large numbers of Westerners have found spiritual succor in Buddhist practice, but now realize they also yearn for a personal relationship with the Divine, for the practice of prayer, and openness to conscience. Others find themselves in the reverse situation, with their Western religious experience missing certain essential elements found in Eastern practices like meditation. The Sacred Art of Soul Making speaks to both groups, showing how the inner work of meditation and presence naturally blends with the search for God. Second, the author presents the hierarchy of inner energies, demonstrates their deep spiritual significance experientially, and teaches methods for transforming energies. Through the completeness of this scale of energies and their related practices, The Sacred Art of Soul Making shows readers how their spiritual work can gradually deepen, even beyond the level of the conscious energy. This matters because a widely-held conceit in the New Age spirituality of our time claims that consciousness itself is the Ultimate, which is not even nearly true. Third, the book discusses the nature of will, the Divine as will, and the relationship between our individual will and the One Sacred Will. This authentic, substantive, and multi-faceted spirituality for our time begins where we are and ultimately takes us beyond consciousness, toward the abode of the sacred. That sacredness can touch and transform each of us. This book helps make that possible. About the Author: The son of Holocaust survivors, Joseph Naft was born in a Displaced Persons’ camp in northern Italy in the aftermath of World War II. That legacy of unspeakable evil engendered his abiding interest in how the seemingly intractable problem of human violence can be resolved. For over thirty-five years, he has studied Buddhist, Sufi, Christian, and Jewish spiritual practices in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. Joseph Naft has taught meditation and spiritual practices since 1976.
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About Inner Frontier Send us email Copyright © 2001-2008 Joseph Naft. All rights reserved.
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