way off topic

Sure signs of a really good book...

Well, it happened again. In fact, it happened twice this month. I finished two books I wished would never end. Both of which I was reading for the second time. One of which left me longing to read every reference in its single-spaced, ten-page bibliography.

"Some books you read.

Some books you enjoy.

But some books just swallow you up

heart and soul."

~Joanne Harris~

Most of you know I am inclined toward science, having chosen medicine as my field of study. You may not know that I have been following developments in the mind-body-spirit realm for over fifty years, ever since I entered medical school in 1970. That was around the time Ram Dass and Timothy Leary started experimenting with hallucinogenic mushrooms in order to explore the path to enlightenment. I have sought out practitioners in energy medicine, therapeutic touch and massage, Reiki, neurofeedback, yoga, and meditation out of curiosity and desire. It might surprise you to know that I am also captivated by physics and quantum theory...and that I practice meditation in the Buddhist tradition. Nothing akin to traditional Western medicine, which is how I was trained.

Which has led me to do some serious reading over the years...

...among many others

...eventually leading me to these two books:

This one:

This book offers a readable and commonsense link between Buddhist thought and contemporary physics and neuroscience. How and why meditation works. How and why you should give it a try. 

And this one:

I was reading this book for the second time, and was a good quarter of the way through it before I understood a word about quantum theory. Then came the dawn! From the Big Bang to the subatomic quark, to the dismantling of formal theology, this book is a mind-boggler. This is the one with the ten-page bibliography of intriguing references that, regrettably, I have not read...about science I never knew existed.

The point is not that you should be interested in the same books I am. The important thing is that what you read excites, enlightens, and guides you. That it affects your perspective, impacts your beliefs, and prompts you to action. Or makes you laugh. Or cry. Or simply entertains you. 

The way Aristotle put it:

"The more you know,

the more you know you don't know."

...which is pretty much where I am, right now.

jan