Publisher's Synopsis
This book is about a search for happiness that goes back to the dawn of human time. At various times and in various places, a solution has been found. A path to happiness has been established. In every case, it has been the same path. But each culture has used their own pictures and words to describe it. Each culture has developed the Path into a different "religion," or formal set of beliefs and rituals. The result is that most people believe there are many paths, many religions. There is only one. This book compares fourteen sources: thirteen accounts from thirteen different cultural environments, plus the author's own raw spiritual experience as his Kundalini awakened. All fourteen sources, without influencing one another historically, have arrived at the same conclusions. There are seven specific ways in which we prevent ourselves from finding happiness by the way we describe the world to ourselves (and each other). There are also seven specific practices that change these seven injurious ways of thinking. Almost assuredly you have encountered these seven practices, in some form, in the religion or spiritual practice with which you are most familiar. But you may not have recognized them as the core steps of the path to happiness because of the rash of commentary that surrounds and obscures them, as a lady's beautiful gown may be dabbled with mud at the hem so its beauty is hidden. This book cleans away the culturally specific details to reveal the same Path at the heart of thirteen different traditions. It matches the seven steps of this Path up with the author's own dramatic spiritual experiences after he fell in love with God, which have spontaneously followed that same Path. It is the road to God's house, and anyone who has the courage may walk it at any time. The rest may wait outside the door, like the poor petitioner in Kafka's "The Doorkeeper" -- forever waiting to be given permission to enter at a door which, in the end, was only open for them. This book gives you permission, in the combined voice of saints and sages from all over the world -- and the whisper of the Holy Spirit in the author's ear. You may enter. As rich as it is, this book is intended as a quick overview that can be easily read and understood. Read it in that spirit -- the copious footnotes will lead you to more detail if you wish it.
