Accepting what is isn't always quite as simple--or as easy--as it may seem. This book, by American Wayne Liquorman, says it as plainly as he can, with both compassion and humor. Written as a transcription of talks given in his home in the question and answer back-and-forth that he typically uses, it is an excellent book for novices. ( )

This is only the second time I have ever reviewed a book. But sometimes the connection I've made with an author through following the trail left by his thoughts on paper has created such a change in my life that I'm left ever after with the desire to somehow repay the benefit he gave me. That is the motivation behind both these words and the other review I attempted.

Wayne Liquorman has many qualities that I find attractive :

[1] He is alive, (unlike many other spiritual teachers). Therefore you can go to his talks in person, question him, watch his videos... see where he is coming from with your own eyes.

[2] He is a Westerner - part of our own culture. So he both knows exactly where we're coming from, and his familiarity with our ways of thinking and living allows him to shed some light on the pitfalls lining a Westerner's quest for awakening,... from the inside. Otherwise, in a field which is heavily skewed with Eastern masters, the inescapable impression is that the only practitioners who ever truly attain the goals they seek come from India, Tibet, pre-communist China, or Japan.

[3] He has an absolutely outrageous 'wit' which somehow manages to be, at the same time, both breath-takingly funny and as precise as a surgeon's scalpel. The term 'sense of humour' is far too ordinary to even begin to describe the preposterous stories and analogies he spins in this, the first published story of his life experiences.

[4] And finally,... he was an alcoholic and drug user for the 19 years of his life immediately preceding the highly unusual beginning of his spiritual transformation. For me, once again, this helped remove the idea that somehow only "saintly people" had the remotest chance of winning the spiritual lottery. As a fellow 'child of the sixties' and a participant in all the varied experiences that came along with those times, it helped me feel a shared life-connection with him rather than feeling I was only able to sit child-like at the feet of some 'remote-but-wise' Eastern guru.

I won't write anything more about his book here. In the spirit of what Wayne himself wrote on its back cover, (the place traditionally reserved for publishers to print praise from the popular press, and extol how long it has been on the 'Best Sellers List'), I'll leave you with his personal suggestion on the matter :

"Read the book and form your own godamned opinion !"

Personally, I don't think you will regret the experience. ( )