Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion

This is an important book in many ways. Perhaps most important because Sam Harris has, for the past several years, been a strong and outspoken critic of organized religion of all stripes. And one thing Harris can do better than almost anyone else, is make his case both clearly and powerfully without any added garbage. If you've watched his many videos on YouTube, you know the man can make an argument and stand his ground without wavering one iota. And the depth of his research is impressive. If Harris kept his message in this same vein, he would stay safe and continue to be accepted as a credible spokesman for the atheist perspective for a long time to come. But did he do that with this book? Not on your life. Harris, makes a whole different argument here, one that many may not be familiar with (but that is on display on his blog posts). Religion may be bunkum, he asserts, but spirituality (which may be the foundation of many religions), is a truly worthy pursuit. No doubt that a great many atheists are not going to like this one little bit. After all, atheists can sometimes be as narrow-minded as believers. For many, spirituality is seen as practically equivalent to religion. But in this book he makes a strong case that nothing could be further from the truth. And he doesn't make his arguments in a detached, completely intellectual way. Some might say that Harris has bought the spiritual kool-aid hook, link and sinker. Harris is a long-time (25+ years) meditator, seeker after wisdom, student of a variety of spiritual practices and disciple of various teachers and gurus in several Eastern traditions. He most closely aligns himself with the school of non-duality or the direct path to awakening. And the stories of his search, his teachers and his realizations, were for me, the most compelling parts of the book. Two of the funniest parts, having to do with burst pipes and a rat in Kathmandu, demonstrate that he can easily poke fun at himself. Now, this is going to go far over the heads of a whole lot of people. This is not simple stuff. It's subtle and deep. And for me, the section on consciousness and the brain wasn't easy reading. Some may have a hard time accepting that his spiritual orientation is nothing but another irrational belief system that he has railed against for so long. So you've got to admit, this guy has guts. First he tears down every organized religion known to man as a bunch of irrational, destructive beliefs that only harm society, and then he takes the position that on the other hand, authentic spirituality is the most worthy pursuit one can possibly engage in. Many people are going to completely misunderstand Harris. (I can't wait to read more of the Amazon reviews as they are posted.) But he's also going to wake up a whole lot of people to a new perspective that they had never even considered seriously for a nanosecond. Some of the most highly regarded non-dualist teachers should be celebrating this book as it lends much credence to their teachings. Teachers and authors such as Rupert Spira (check out his YouTube videos), Greg Goode, and others, speak with clarity and authority about the non-dual perspective and are accessible to western seekers. To say that this book is a watershed moment for spirituality might be hyperbole, but just as Harris made it safer for atheists to come out of the closet, he does the same for those on the path of awakening. I can't wait to see what he writes next!

The book is well written and in a simple style, which always helps in such endeavors. (for a better experience buy the audio with whispersync narrated by Sam Harris himself) I also liked the way in which the author portrays the notion of spirituality. Although I would not have used the term "spiritual" to describe this phenomenon, I do understand his reasons for doing that, and for lack of a better name, he uses it with the necessary caveats (it does not imply, for example, a believe in the afterlife or the supernatural). He always make clear that spirituality is practice completely separable from the religious domain. He also points to the fact that it has always existed in many forms and shapes, and that it is a very distinct phenomenon from superstitious beliefs. He disentangles it from any mythological obscurantism. Not only in New Era religiosity, but especially within the many Indian traditions that came to symbolize it in the West. He is also honest enough to recognize the ample variety of scams and barefaced gurus that swirl around many “spiritually minded people” and warns readers against it. Lastly, he takes great pains in distinguishing meditative or mystical states from neurological diseases and conditions. Experiences of spirituality, understood as a practice of concentration and awareness, are backed by neuroscientific studies of neuroimaging and fMri that show a very distinct pattern from Schizophrenia, Temporal Lobe paralysis and other brain diseases. It is also distinct from self delusion. Here the evidence comes not from neuro imaging, but from the clinical picture that emanates from their own descriptions of their symptoms. These clearly differentiate “out-of-body experiences” and other clinical hallucinations from meditation practices and their first-person reports of it. (Although he doesn’t mention it, there is also fMRI evidence backing this assertion) There are various chapters dedicated exclusively to understand consciousness according to the most recent studies of the brain’s inner workings, the neurons and known cases of people with exotic conditions. Those are probably the most interesting chapters for anyone not regularly accustomed to neuroscience. For example: How many selfs are there? or is there even something real in the belief of a self? This is, actually, a “delusion” that he devotes a great deal of the book to unravel. It is the so called “illusion of the self”. Buddhist teachings explain that the best way to attain the “Nirvana” or supreme state of well-being is to understand the illusion of the self. Although Harris explains in detail his own understanding of this concept and its consequences (all of them backed or reasonably informed by neuro-scientific studies), he considers that even more important than understanding or attaining this realization is to reap its benefits. In order to do that, he offers some basic exercises sprinkled with stories and anecdotes of his own experiences while learning and practicing them. All of it makes the book, not just an interesting reading, but also a learning experience, and a very entertaining one. There are, however, some parts towards the end of the book, that I found rather disappointing. Specifically his relatively benign treatment of the topic of psychedelic drugs and “enlightenment”. He warns that he does not recommend their use to everyone, but considers that they may “open the doors” to it, as they did for him. Although he doesn’t use them anymore, he still considers them a “uniquely potent means of altering consciousness”. He is talking specifically of his experiences with Hallucinogens such as psilocybin and LSD. I find it disappointing for many reasons. Not the least, that one of those “experiences” could well have taken his life or deeply affected his mental health, as he himself recognizes, or that some of the worst uses of the term “spiritual” have been precisely related to nothing more than poor excuses to the use and abuse of controlled substances. The main reason why I find this disappointing is because his discussion on this topic demonstrates a very poor understanding of the nature of meditation and its relationship with the other so called altered mental states. It is as if Harris was saying that both, deep meditation practices and the use of hallucinogenic or psychedelic drugs, were simply two different, but equally valid and effective paths to self-transcendence. This is not just misleading, but quite untrue, as it contradicts well established scientific results on the topic as well as the intuitions of many dedicated practitioners of passive and active meditation. For a better discussion of this topic I refer the reader to the book Why God Won’t Go Away. It presents an outstanding conceptual and scientific discussion offered by Andrew Newberg and other researchers where they discuss the first fMRIs study of meditative Buddhist monks and contemplative nuns. I recommend specifically the discussion about “mystical” and “cuasi-mystical” experiences and their corresponding differences in the search of what they called the Absolute Unitary State. It is a much richer and profound discussion both in neurological and philosophical terms.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is a starting guide to know our spiritual consciousness without religious dogma. The author is very harsh against religious thought (and many people may not like that), but he is compassionate towards the vulnerable people, where it counts.

Great book summarising eastern spirituality through rationalist lens

Sam Harris ofrece una via para llegar a un estado en el que se reconoce la no existencia del ego tal y como se hace en las filosofías orientales, pero sin que sea necesario creer en entes sobrenaturales, dioses, etc... y sin sacar conclusiones cosmológicas

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If I ever resonated with any author's point of view on the same topics the most, this is Sam Harris. Sometimes I feel I am at an echo chamber of sorts when reading Sam Harris' work or listening to his podcasts or the Waking Up app. I had never read his work prior to my interactions with his podcasts and app. Waking Up (the book) is the first of his books I pick up and it has been an amazing experience so far. Apart from resonating with most of what I've thought about so far on the topics of consciousness and mindfulness, his explanations and examples, as well as his erudition on these things is a fresh view for me. It makes you re-think many concepts you probably had before, as well as make you critically think on others not before thought about. Highly recommended for inquisitive minds interested on consciousness, on how to consider mindfulness as not a mere life-hack tool for a facet of your life, but as an invitation to a contemplative life that can change your views on many things, if not all (in a good way). Mind you, the length of this book is not meant to give you all the knowledge you need on this topic, but is a good introduction to it especially if you have some certain knowledge on mindfulness (especially on its Buddhist roots).