Book Review - Journey Into Now

I spend a lot of time reading books about spirituality, higher consciousness and healing. There are tons of them. Most are crap, some are mediocre and a few are superb. Usually I can find in any of them a gem or tidbit of truth to add to my bag of spiritual healing. However, on occasion, I’ll come across a book written by an author who REALLY knows what he’s talking about. One of those books that gets you nodding your head as you read and Mmm-Hmmming from page to page.

Journey Into Now by Leonard Jacobsen is one of those books. The Amazon book review is right on – here it is:

Product Description - With perfect precision, the author guides the reader along a path of awakening which leads to liberation from the pain and limitations of the past into the joyful and unlimited world of Now. This book reveals, in the simplest way, how to still the mind and become fully present and awake in the truth of life. Perhaps the most important aspect of this book is the author's unique insight into the nature of the mind and ego. He describes in detail how the ego's resistance to Presence is the primary obstacle to awakening and how we can overcome that resistance in a simple and effective way. Each page of this book reveals a part of the mystery. There are hidden keys to awakening on every page. It is like a road map home.

About the Author - Leonard Jacobson is a modern mystic and spiritual teacher who is deeply committed to guiding and supporting others in their journey towards wholeness. He has been running workshops and seminars for the past 20 years throughout the U.S., Europe and Australia. He is the founder of the Conscious Living Foundation and in 2005 he was awarded the Peace Prize by Religious Science International.

One of the things I really like about Jacobsen’s book is the elegance of his prose. So many self-help books are crammed full of technical explanations and use words understood only by Ph.Ds. and their sesquipedalian authors. I’ve always heard that Truth is beautiful and simple – and that’s how this book reads.

I’m not suggesting that the path to spirituallity is simple or that following Jacobsen's lessons and recommendations will be easy for anyone (he explains in the book why this is). But if you want a beautiful roadmap home, this book is easy to read and understand and, more importantly, I think Jacobsen is dead on correct with everything he says. I love this book.

A Question of Birds

The temple walls they crumble bricks
Surround me like prayers gone awry
And rice once scattered strewn on steps
Cannot attract the birds who fly

And blade their wings against the air
Their song through motion silently
In search of sweeter bread and sky
With no regard for gravity

But tied to Earth I am with questions
Born of need to know you so
My hands reach skyward for the birds
And helplessly I watch them go

And then in time a child to
A man I’ve turned and hope to find
A truth beneath it all which flows
Like love to which I have been blind

Enough years are assembled now
And sweeter things I’ve come to know
The light it falls upon the bricks
And through the cracks I start to grow

Forgiveness love and gratitude
I’ve gathered up each grain of rice
Consumed them hungrily like food
Now beats a heart once made of ice

And through my veins sweet water flows
Like love and all these things I’ve found
I’m ever closer to the birds
My feet no longer touch the ground

My heart sings pure a song heard only
By the birds who blade the air
In search of sweeter bread and sky
With questions few and love to share

by dennis tkon - copyright 2007

The Space Between

When it comes upon me when
The skies are open like balloons
And songs spill from the ends of birds
And carry soft and then and soon

I try and hard as it might be
To embrace this philosophy
And failing fast though I may try
There’s always time enough to cry

So sing the song of broken hearts
A desperate beating in my chest
And cast off hurtful memories and when
I’m done forget the rest

And build a column to the sky
Till time folds in upon itself
Then rest my head upon the earth
Till blue commands and nothing else

If eyes could see the shadow world
A topsy arch all golden love
And blessings spilled like seeds unsown
Into an earth I’ve never known

Then wishes fall into my cup
A toast to you my thankfulness
And joy unbridled drink it up
Consumed but there is never less

Upon me now it has arrived
The sky and earth they touch just so
And in the space between I’m loved
Much more than I will ever know

By Dennis Tkon - Copyright 2007