The Gentle Way
of the Heart,
Anders Nilsson, Nordic Light Books, San Carlos, CA, 2014, 169 pp, $14.95.
The
Gentle Way of the Heart
is another guide to spiritual transformation utilizing the method of looking
within oneself to find the divine inner light. The author, Nilsson Anders, has
a Ph.D. in physics and a background rooted in scientific research. Considering
the long history of conflict between scientific fact and faith based belief,
I’m always fascinated by and interested in spiritual journeys that begin at one
end of this dispute and end in the other.
Anders
begins by describing how his scientific background led to his fundamental
belief that everything has a basis in fact. It was a personal spiritual
experience that helped him to discover the voice within himself that is
connected to a larger awareness. From there, he explored ways to access that
voice when his logical mind got in the way. As he states himself, there are
many self-help books available that have been written to do this exact thing. This
book is based on his personal search for an answer.
The
book is broken into chapters relating to areas in our lives that we need to
open up and look at to see how they interfere with connecting to the inner
voice and ways to work through the blocks on a daily basis. Learning to be
still and quiet the clamor of the outside world seems to be key to overcoming
many of the challenges we face. Each chapter ends with a set of exercises
designed to drill into the subject of that section and unfold one’s personal
skill sets and strengths. As with any exercise, you have to continue to do them
faithfully or risk losing the ability to access them. Anders recommends that
the reader work on one section a week and practicing the exercises daily before
moving on. The large amount of information given is meant to be taken in slowly
and meditated on in order to absorb the message being given.
While
I like the way the material is presented in segments and the exercises that are
designed to help, I found one thing very distracting. Anders uses some examples
from real life in each section that relate either to himself or some friends of
his. Every chapter seemed to relate the same experience and then link it to the
subject being discussed. It’s possible that if I had been reading the book as
noted above – a chapter per week – I would not have felt that distraction. However,
each time I ran across the same example and learned how it could be affected by
the awareness of fear or choice, etc., I had the same thought. I would have
much preferred that several case studies be presented prior to starting the
reading process and then referred back to during the discussion. As it was, the
repeated introduction of the same anecdote felt more like filler than actual
information.
Looking
beyond that minor criticism, I think the overall attempt was a good one. If the
reader is interested in finding their true self through some serious
self-examination, the information and exercises should be helpful. More
importantly, I think this book and others like it, when written by someone
deeply invested in the scientific world, is an eye opening way to experience
how both science and the Divine not only exist but are intricately interwoven. There
is no reason to think that anyone needs to subscribe to a belief system that
allows room for only one.
- J. Kaniuk
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