Ramadan Reading event includes book review

The Reading through Life site offers a review of Talking to God: Portrait of a World at Prayer as a feature of a 2010 Ramadan Reading event.

Carina, the Toronto blogger shares, "I originally bought this book because of the gorgeous pictures – a variety of photographs of people praying around the world. While I still enjoyed the photographs during my actual reading of the essays, I found myself drawn in even more by what the contributors had to say... This book is definitely an interesting read for anyone who is interested in religion in pretty much any form. It includes photos from a variety of religions and places – including, but not limited to, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam – and text that will resonate no matter your belief system."

Thomas Moore writes an essay in this book. Other contributors include Mohandas K. Gandhi, Thich Nhat Hanh, Jack Kornfield, Thomas Merton, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, and Kathleen Norris.

Talking to God: Portrait of a World at Prayer
Editors: John Gattuso, Huston Smith, Phyllis Tickle
Hardcover: 176 pages
Publisher: Stone Creek Publications
Year: 2006
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0965633837
ISBN-13: 978-0965633833

Education journalist recommends A Life at Work

Professional writer and education journalist, George Lorenzo, recommends Thomas Moore's book about right livelihood on his site, Educational Pathways. In February, 2010 Lorenzo writes:

"Another book worth noting is A Life at Work by another one of my favorite nonfiction authors, Thomas Moore. This is an uplifting book that was written for people who are seekers, always on the lookout for how to make their lives more autonomous, masterful and purposeful, in line with their true ambitions and spiritual selves. It’s a short 180 pages, and I read it whenever I need a lift because it is a simple affirmation of what life is really all about. You can, indeed, become the person you were meant to be, and there will always be obstacles along that pathway that you need to experience in order to discover your purpose. That’s how I now look at the recent corporate experience I had – it was merely a learning-based obstacle along the educational pathway of what I really want to do with my life and work.

Moore explains how many people are working in jobs that he refers to as small in scope and so insignificant that they do not allow them to engage in their higher ideals. He says that staying in such a job freezes your spirit; you become stagnant, and you wind up retrogressing and unengaged in the visionary aspects of living."

Moore's book, A Life at Work: The Joy of Discovering What You were Born to Do is published by Broadway Books, 2008.

Thomas Moore's book lights the dark nights

Jess writes about reading Thomas Moore's Dark Nights of the Soul: A Guide to Finding Your Way Through Life’s Ordeals in her blog entry "With No Other Light or Guide than the One That Burned in my Heart" on the blog, A 40-Something Fool's Journey. She shares:

"My name is Jess, and I am a food addict. I have closed my eyes in the darkness before, using the drug of food to avoid the fear and pain and suffering. I have caused myself more fear and pain and suffering being unwilling to face the things I fear most. And as they hide in the recesses of my self, rarely jumping out at me (because they are part of my fear-driven self, unwilling to face the potential eternal flame that guides my way), I do not confront them – either gently or with courage."

Earlier in the blog post, Jess suggests, "The introduction to St. John of the Cross’s poem and its subsequent analysis by Mirabai Starr years ago gave me the understanding I needed when I reached Dr. Viktor Frankl’s book. With logotherapy in hand, I was able to finally approach Dr. Thomas Moore’s book with an open mind; because of Mirabai Starr’s book, I recognized the name and that alone drew me to pull it from the library shelf so I could read it. And, today, I am finding that to walk through the darkness with no more than the light inside myself to guide me is about the most compassionate thing I can do for myself. I am the person who was given the least compassion in my own life. I am the person who was made to suffer the most. I get why I worry I cannot love, because I have not shown love to the one person I cannot walk away from – myself."

Our families offer opportunities to generate soul

"Take heart when it comes to family dysfunction" incorporates Thomas Moore's observations about families in Care of the Soul. For The Joy of Life blog, Gene Meyers considers family occasions that escalate in tension :

"On the reality of family Moore writes: "It always has its shadow, no matter how much we wish otherwise. If we don't grasp this mystery, the soulfulness that family has to offer each of us will be spirited away in hygienic notions of what a family should be."

Moore seemed to be saying that if you are constantly trying to fix your family, you'll miss what it has to offer. I'm always trying to fix things and smooth over rough patches. Leaving them alone? It was a notion that would have never crossed my mind."

Myers includes Moore's view, "But care of the soul doesn't require fixing the family or becoming free of it or interpreting its pathology. We may need simply to recover soul by reflecting deeply on the soul events that have taken place in the crucible of the family."