The tag line says, “A guide to Answering Life’s Toughest Questions”. Well, I did have some tough questions when I picked it up .I read it for the second time in order to understand and grasp it enough to write a review. Yet I would say that so much is contained in just 225 pages that it is difficult to comprehend it all in one or two readings.
Robin Norwood is the bestselling author of “Women who love too much”. The striking difference between the two books is essentially the approach to life of a university trained Psychologist and that of a Spiritually advanced Universal being trained by the hardships of life. This book can be a powerful companion to anyone who is bogged down by the intricacies of a human life.
Starting with the three questions Why me? Why this? Why now? The author focuses on the essential presence of wound and pain in every human life. However she introduces the concept of healing from an esoteric perspective as she says, “spiritual development and healing are essentially the same thing”
The central concept is the need to understand our human incarnation as one stage in the long journey of the soul. The soul that is born has a clear purpose to reach its enlightenment and Nirvana by learning a series of lessons. In between incarnations, the soul takes an overview of the earlier birth and plans its next incarnation based on the lessons it needs to take next. Thus our sufferings here are planned opportunities for learning and enhancement.
She elaborates this concept, “We mistakenly believe that happiness, comfort, ease, security and status are our goals, but he soul has another agenda altogether. It cares nothing for the personality’s suffering, only that there be the refinement, the strengthening and the purification so that the personality is rendered worthy to serve the souls purpose”
Though the subject is complicated, the author has made the understanding simpler by quoting many a real life examples. She has beautifully used the example of AIDS to exemplify the concept of wound and healing. This example furthers the next concept that, “ the healing of the individual affects the healing of the entire body of humanity, the healing of the body of humanity affects the healing of the entire planet”
Another important source of our learning is our relationships. The author goes on to explain that before every incarnation, the soul plans its relationships to effect its advancement in learning. She states, “…Their (Relationship’s) true purpose Is not to make us happy, not to meet our needs, not to define our niche in the society, not to keep us safe…but to cause us to grow towards the light.
Norwood has quite imaginatively used the example of a typical fairy tale to demonstrate the journey of the soul which in fact facilitates the understanding of the otherwise difficult concept.
She puts the obvious question for us- why must all the healing and learning come through suffering and why not through Joy? And then she sums it up for us: “Joy and suffering are not so much opposites …Anguish leads to understanding, understanding leads to Joy and Joy leads to healing. Thus we might say that enlightenment comes through adversity, while healing comes through joy”
Finally: “healing is redefined here as a vast process that overrides the boundaries of life and death and makes use of every experience to advance the understanding and every occasion of adversity to restore balance”.
My recommendations? A Bible for every individual with a quest for life.
Robin Norwood is the bestselling author of “Women who love too much”. The striking difference between the two books is essentially the approach to life of a university trained Psychologist and that of a Spiritually advanced Universal being trained by the hardships of life. This book can be a powerful companion to anyone who is bogged down by the intricacies of a human life.
Starting with the three questions Why me? Why this? Why now? The author focuses on the essential presence of wound and pain in every human life. However she introduces the concept of healing from an esoteric perspective as she says, “spiritual development and healing are essentially the same thing”
The central concept is the need to understand our human incarnation as one stage in the long journey of the soul. The soul that is born has a clear purpose to reach its enlightenment and Nirvana by learning a series of lessons. In between incarnations, the soul takes an overview of the earlier birth and plans its next incarnation based on the lessons it needs to take next. Thus our sufferings here are planned opportunities for learning and enhancement.
She elaborates this concept, “We mistakenly believe that happiness, comfort, ease, security and status are our goals, but he soul has another agenda altogether. It cares nothing for the personality’s suffering, only that there be the refinement, the strengthening and the purification so that the personality is rendered worthy to serve the souls purpose”
Though the subject is complicated, the author has made the understanding simpler by quoting many a real life examples. She has beautifully used the example of AIDS to exemplify the concept of wound and healing. This example furthers the next concept that, “ the healing of the individual affects the healing of the entire body of humanity, the healing of the body of humanity affects the healing of the entire planet”
Another important source of our learning is our relationships. The author goes on to explain that before every incarnation, the soul plans its relationships to effect its advancement in learning. She states, “…Their (Relationship’s) true purpose Is not to make us happy, not to meet our needs, not to define our niche in the society, not to keep us safe…but to cause us to grow towards the light.
Norwood has quite imaginatively used the example of a typical fairy tale to demonstrate the journey of the soul which in fact facilitates the understanding of the otherwise difficult concept.
She puts the obvious question for us- why must all the healing and learning come through suffering and why not through Joy? And then she sums it up for us: “Joy and suffering are not so much opposites …Anguish leads to understanding, understanding leads to Joy and Joy leads to healing. Thus we might say that enlightenment comes through adversity, while healing comes through joy”
Finally: “healing is redefined here as a vast process that overrides the boundaries of life and death and makes use of every experience to advance the understanding and every occasion of adversity to restore balance”.
My recommendations? A Bible for every individual with a quest for life.
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