The Way: Meaningful Spirituality for a Modern World
The Way integrates religion and science and reconciles Eastern and Western worldviews, confirming with the mystics and the scientists that everyone is related, and everything is connected.
There is a serious interest in spirituality, even among those who are “spiritual, but not religious” and those who are not religious at all, as well as among those who are religious.
There are millions of people who are interested in exploring spirituality, in finding meaning in their lives, and in overcoming any harm that religion has caused them. The Way can help them.
When we consider different worldviews, different perspectives on God, and different understanding of consciousness, free will, self, and soul, we can be freed from the confines of inflexible and irrational doctrine, and we become more experiential, more open-hearted, and more open-minded. The book changed the author’s life for the better; it can change others’ lives, too.
The Western worldview is based on separation. In the Bible, everything is separated – light and dark, land and water, animals and people. In church, people are separated, too – believers and non-believers, clergy and laity, men and women, straight people and gay people.
The Eastern worldview is based on Oneness. God is “a part of us,” not “apart from us.” Many mystics of all traditions and many scientists, especially quantum physicists, see the world this way, too.
The first half of the book examines Christian orthodoxy, which is largely derived from Augustine and Aquinas, not Jesus or God. The Way accepts Jesus and his teachings but rejects some human proclamations and theories about Jesus. This deconstruction is not angry or judgmental.
The second half of the book integrates a modern spirituality, based on the Eastern religions, the mystics, and the scientists. This reconstruction is not preachy or speculative.
The Way contrasts the Western worldview of a created Universe and a personal God with the Eastern worldview of an eternal Universe and an impersonal God. The book considers concepts like consciousness, free will, self, and soul in Eastern and Western terms. The book is spiritual reporting, more than essay or memoir.
The book chronicles the author’s journey, reporting his findings, based on a life of experiences and exploration. It also describes his transformation from a single-minded investment banker to an open-hearted and open-minded seeker, reflecting on his service to others and on his spiritual experiences.
The Way reveals a new spirituality of gratitude and wonder that is more experiential and less doctrinal, more metaphorical and less literal, and more open-minded and less fundamental. The book asks good questions, clearly and fairly, and it leaves room for those with different beliefs or no beliefs.