A Beginner’s Guide to Spiritualism & Philosophy (Pt.I)
- harrypd21
- Jan 22, 2016
- 2 min read
Updated: Jun 28, 2019
‘He who saddens At thought of idleness cannot be idle, And he’s awake who thinks himself asleep’Keats to John Hamilton Reynolds, 1818
While not wishing to embroil myself in douchebaggery; if that quote means something to you about restlessness, and your soul (should you believe in such things) you might be inclined to proceed:
1) James Redfield – The Celestine Prophecy:
The first two entries on this list are ones that I’ve had battered copies of lying around which are always being lent out to friends as “a good starting point”. I was first turned onto these novels via The Underachievers’ (a Brooklyn rap duo) blog – and their eminently readable content at first made me sceptical that I had started too lightly with pseudo-spiritual pap-fiction. I couldn’t have been more wrong and I urge anyone with the slightest interest to read both as they have some of the most pervasive lessons I have thus far learned.
Set in Peru, the protagonist is tasked, against his previous nature, to search for a set of ancient insights that will not only teach people goodness and the secret but will end the government-church feud that is tearing both of these communities apart. With analogies as simple yet broad as acknowledging feelings and behavioural dramas, it is a great mix of genre to begin a fruitful journey into this type of literature
2) Paulo Coehleo – The Alchemist:
Equally, Paulo Coehleo’s (world-renowned for this style of morality/analogy novel) The Alchemist is short and readable with a simple storyline, but one that brings the protagonist Santiago to an awakening alongside the reader. The messages are transparent, the writing competent and atmospheric and I may well thusly prefer it to The Celestine Prophecy – either way, another useful stepping stone.
3) Robert M. Pirsig – Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance:
Whereas, despite the conceit of the first two entries, this list is not ordered in ascension of weight of material, Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is not only the most enjoyable book I have recently read; it’s the one that has made me reconsider so much. Think the mouth-agape moments at the endings of Interstellar, Memento and The Usual Suspects all at once and you’re getting there.
Based (which I naively wasn’t aware of until completing it) loosely on Pirsig’s own life, Zen basically challenges the whole history of rational thought and argument – no small task; while utilising the novel form, while constructing a coherent storyline and while employing the running embodied conceit of motorcycle maintenance as the battleground of this argument. Pirsig’s meditations on classical vs. romantic thought, hipness vs. squareness and the nature of quality were so revolutionary to me and yet so tangible. The sections regarding learning and universities also, will come as a knowing read for any students or graduates.
There is ultimately too much to be said here, and I may have to dedicate more time to it, though you should really go and read it yourselves, and it may well just change the way you think about everything.
In part. II: Lao Tzu to Bernard Shaw
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