The Way in:
A Book of Self-Discovery

The Way in:
A Book of Self-Discovery  |
'Wonderfully clear, incisive and honest,
this book cuts through the crap
with the flame of truth. I love it!' - Cassandra
Eve, Insight Magazine (Australia)
Barry Long offers various ways to the Way - the ways of truth, love, stillness,
and prayer - and then charts the blind alleys and false trails of the
spiritual path.
We are invited to look for the truth in our own direct experience
of life and not in hand-me-down systems of belief.
There is advice on how to meditate, how to pray, what to look for in relationships
and how to discriminate between true and false teachings.
There is instructive comment on other spiritual traditions, psychic practices
and the New Age.
Towards the end of the book the focus is on the goal of all spiritual
self-discovery - freedom from suffering and conscious participation in
the purpose of life on earth.
Readers will learn to recognise which are the reliable signposts on the
spiritual path as Barry Long guides us finally to The Way Out, where the
ultimate or highest truth is found.
Some of the questions answered in this book:
- What is truth? What is the spirit? Does God exist?
- What has sexual love got to do with love of God? How can I bring the
love back into my life?
- Why should I meditate? How can I stop my mind from getting in on the
act?
- What is the real effect of prayer? What is there worth praying for?
- Is visualisation a help or a hindrance?
- What distinguishes psychic teachings from spiritual ones?
- Where do channelled teachings come from?
- Can therapy really help?
- Does the term 'New Age' have any real meaning?
- What's the difference between Eastern and Western teachings?
- Is enlightenment just an abstract concept?
The Way In includes the contents of Barry Long's popular audio
cassette
'Start Meditating Now' and puts its exercises into print for the
first time.
BARRY LONG'S 'WAY IN' TO SPIRITUAL SELF-KNOWLEDGE
Barry Long's response to the perennial questions of life and death is
original, compelling and up-to-the-minute. Over many years as a spiritual
teacher in Europe and Australia he has confronted his audiences with 'The
Simple Truth' and shunned traditional and intellectual paths to God. Now
we have a collection of his writings that gives a thorough overview of
his way in to the mysteries of the spirit.
'The Way In' is essentially a practical manual for spiritual life in the
contem-porary world, written in short and pithy chapters. It has much
to say about meditation, prayer and the many means of bringing truthfulness
and love into daily life. Barry Long's world is the one we live in and
share everyday with our husbands, wives, lovers, children and colleagues.
So it's easy to relate to what he says, even though the truth of it may
not always be comfortable.
The underlying message is the one at the heart of all Barry Long's work
- the proposition that we cannot truly trust or believe in anything outside
our individual and immediate experience of life now. Least of all can
we believe in a 'teaching'. By continually inviting his readers to test
the truth of what he says in their own experience, Barry Long actually
teaches us to discover the truth for ourselves.
As with all true teachers, his primary concern is to disabuse us of what
hinders or impedes our own self-discovery. For Barry Long this is not
just the incessant chatter in our heads, but every false, ignorant or
less than fully-conscious act. And this includes any teaching that is
itself less than the highest truth. A large part of the book is a systematic
reappraisal of 'spiritual paths', both traditional and New Age.
The central message of the book becomes clear towards the end. What we
are really being shown is the way out of the labyrinth of 'spirituality'
to a true and free state of being. Those well-read in spiritual literature
may find this new book both refreshing and unsettling, instructive and
inspiring. It is well worth accepting Barry Long's implied challenge that
there is always more to discover about ourselves. And newcomers to this
field could hardly come across a more stimulating 'way in'.
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