The Voice of Knowledge: A Practical Guide to Inner Peace Author: Don Miguel Ruiz | Language: English | ISBN:
1878424548 | Format: PDF
The Voice of Knowledge: A Practical Guide to Inner Peace Description
Amazon.com Review
As little children we know how to live in the moment and be completely authentic. But then something damaging happens to us, according to author Don Miguel Ruiz: we are given "knowledge" about how to live in the world. Parents tell us how to behave in order to be a "good" boy or girl. Teachers tell us what it takes to be a "winner" or a "successful" adult. This collective "voice of knowledge" is not only false--it is often poisonous, explains Ruiz, bestselling author of
The Four Agreements. It makes us believe that "I am not the way I should be; it is not okay to be me." Drawing upon the story of Adam and Eve, Ruiz refers to the forbidden tree of knowledge and likens the abandonment of the true self to the fall from heaven. What Ruiz calls "the voice of knowledge" others spiritual teachers might call ego--the hidden and carefully defended belief system that prevents us from living and expressing who we really are. "The structure of our knowledge makes us feel safe….When we discover that we are not what we believe we are, the foundation of our entire reality begins to collapse." In the Toltec tradition, Ruiz says every human is an artist, "and the supreme art is the expression of the beauty of our spirit." He explains that there are two kinds of artists: "the ones who create their story without awareness, and the ones who recover awareness and create their story with truth and love." The recovering of awareness is what this fourth book in the
Toltec Wisdom series is all about. This makes for a good bedside spiritual growth book. Each chapter closes with "Points to Ponder"--summary thoughts to sleep upon as you create the more authentic story of your life.
--Gail HudsonFrom Publishers Weekly
With more than 2.7 million copies of his The Four Agreements sold, Ruiz returns to readers with a new volume that presents his latest thoughts on the ways and means of inner knowledge and healing. Written in the first person with frequent apostrophic addresses ("You need to challenge every belief that you use to judge yourself, to reject yourself, to make yourself little"), the book moves gracefully and anecdotally from "Adam and Eve: The Story from a Different Point of View" to "The Tree of Life: The Story Comes Full Circle," with 10 chapters in between, including "The Lie of Our Imperfection," a chapter that covers "emotional pain as a symptom of abuse" and one on "Writing Our Story with Love," with frequent stops for "Points to Ponder." For Ruiz, life can be a matter of storytelling, to ourselves and to others. His reflections on the process of how people tell these stories, and how they can change their narratives, draw on the lore of his native Mexico and feel both centered and earned.
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- Series: Toltec Wisdom
- Paperback: 248 pages
- Publisher: Amber-Allen Publishing; 1ST edition (April 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1878424548
- ISBN-13: 978-1878424549
- Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
- Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Days after finishing the new offering from don Miguel Ruiz and Janet Mills, I found the essence of its meaning reaffirmed time and again, and frequently "heard" the teaching in the middle of daily issues or challenges. Just like the wonderful "Four Agreements", this book presents valuable lessons for practical use with everyday living.
We learn in Chapter One that the "Voice of Knowledge" is not a benevolent one, but the incessant chattering that humans unconsciously perpetuate daily, the "...voice in our head. You can call it thinking. I call it the voice of knowledge." (Ch. 1) Ruiz' descriptions of his grandfather's teachings are an immediate wonderful antidote to the wearying Voice of Knowledge that we so often succumb to. His words are beautiful encouragement to rediscover the wonder of childhood. One of his great lines sticks with me: "Faith is the power of creation that all humans have, and it doesn't have anything to do with religion." He goes on to describe the difference between having faith in one's own goodness versus believing the lies of others who might convince us we're not good enough or smart enough.
The realizations that Ruiz experiences in Chapter 4, A Night in the Desert, are an inspiring description of one mind grasping the Truth of the Ages. His account of experiencing the universe experiencing him is an eloquent and understandable report of an epiphany that's a joy to read. I call page 47 the "truth page". Soon after this exhilarating evening in the desert, we learn about the "Storyteller", the essence of the Voice of Lies that pervades our consciousness all too often. I think "storyteller" is an apt term for that demon we all wrestle with - Little mind, monkeymind, maya, etc. etc.
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