This book is about the way that the majority of humanity has become alienated, from ourselves and our true essence. We have allowed ourselves to become consumed by particular thought patterns and habits, these have disconnected us from experiencing reality in its fullness. The consequences of this folly can be seen all around, including in the degradation of the environment and the destruction of the planet for short-sighted financial benefits.Furthermore, our beliefs have contributed to an impoverished worldview. Our over-reliance on the qualities of the mind – sitting on top of the body has resulted in our disconnection from the body and the fundamental ability to accept the wholeness of reality. Our ability to remain present in our bodies (what the author refers to as ‘bodyminds’) has been compromised by our over-reliance on our five senses and disregarding of other, more subtle sensory inputs.This has resulted in a forgetting of the heart-centred mind and, more fundamentally, the pelvic bowl intelligence. This, he argues, has caused a fundamental imbalance in humanity and caused us as a species to lose the sense of the wholeness and presence necessary to achieve wisdom in our interactions with ourselves, others, and the universal unfolding.This results in attitudes and actions which fundamentally undermine our ability to live life as conscientious, loving, grounded beings. As an example, the author asserts “there is no such thing as away” – so our attempts to throw rubbish ‘away’ only deceives us into hiding things out of sight rather than dealing with our rubbish – literally and metaphorically!Personally, this book has changed the way that I conduct my daily meditational practice. I now ensure that I meditate on becoming aware of my presence in the present moment. Attempting to be aware of the unfolding nature of reality is not easy to describe – however there are moments when I feel that I can tune into myself and how it feels to be in that exact moment. Consequently, I feel attuned to myself and the moment, conscientiously.Furthermore, at the end of my meditation, before I tune out, I ensure that I give a hearty laugh – and I bring that laugh into my heart centre. I take the smile off my face and place it in my heart instead. I then move my hands down to sit on top of my pelvic floor and centre my smiling awareness from this area. I feel more integrated and centred tuning out by recognising the other minds of my heart and pelvic floor.I have added these practices to my meditation as a direct result of reading this book, and I feel I have an increased ability to connect with and come from my core and heart centre by doing so.I would recommend this book to anyone seeking to come more into their body and spend less time in their minds. It also emphasises the importance of increasing the practice of presence and the awareness of the universal unfolding.Below are a couple of quotes from the book.
“Our way of being has turned the essentially wavelike reality of our world into one that seems to consist of independent things. That effect is akin to the way a wave of light will change its nature and behave like a particle if we start observing it. Our way of being also deeply affects the wavelike reality of the self: the more you observe rather than inhabit your body, the more it will feel like an obdurate, mechanical thing rather than a fluid field of intelligence. You have a choice in the matter, though. If you surrender your awareness to the body’s cavernous, connected intelligence and unite with it, you will unite with the world. And then you will experience what might be called the wave function of the self—extending infinitely, indeterminate, overlapping all that exists. It is a choice that carries you from self-consciousness to world-consciousness. It is also a choice between maintaining the status quo of a collective fantasy and surrendering to your individual, flesh-and-blood communion with the eternally fluid, vigilant Present.”
Radical Wholeness -P Shepherd
“When holosapience is recovered and we can once again feel wholeness, we begin to feel its guidance. And if a mere ant is guided by the emergent intelligence of its colony—an intelligence that is invisible, un-locatable, irreducible—does it not make sense that we might find guidance in the emergent intelligence of the Whole, though it too is invisible, un-locatable, irreducible? The felt, unknowable Present won’t exist for you while you remain in your head and insist on being in control—but it steadfastly abides as your most intimate companion. If you find self-tyranny exhausting, “if you find the top-down mode of our culture impoverishing, why not permit yourself the neutrality of a smile deep in your being that illuminates Being and welcomes What Is? In that surrender you will be gifted with a sense of rest you do not own, but that is home; and you will share in a harmony you do not own, but that is home. In that surrender, you will be summoned to devote the whole of your heart to some work you cannot know the outcome of, and that does not serve you alone.”
Radical Wholeness – P Shepherd
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