* You are viewing the archive for the ‘Book Reviews’ Category

Abundance is Coming February 21

1. Please watch the following video as soon as you have the time:

2. Pre-order a copy of Abundance that ships from Amazon in book and Kindle forms on February 21st. Here’s a link to the book’s site: Abundancethebook.com

3. Read the book and let everyone in your network who know about it if you feel it is as important as it appears to be. It’s an antidote to the world’s pervasive pessimism and provides real hope based in reality. As an optimist, I feel it’s my duty and privilege to help spread the word and I suspect you may want to as well once you’ve digested it. I will be reviewing Abundance the minute I complete it after its downloaded to my desktop via Kindle for Mac on February 21.

4. While you’re at it, check out singularityu.org, a university co-founded by Abundance author and founder of the X-Prize, Peter Diamandis and his journalist co-author, Steven Kotler

Here are what some of the visionaries of our time have to say about Abundance:

“At a moment when our world faces multiple crises and is awash in pessimism, Abundance redirects the conversation, spotlighting scientific innovators working to improve people’s lives around the world. The result is more than a portrait of brilliant minds – it’s a reminder of the infinite possibilities for doing good when we tap into our own empathy and wisdom.”—Arianna Huffington, CEO, Huffington Post

“This brilliant must-read book provides the key to the coming era of abundance replacing eons of scarcity, a powerful antidote to today’s malaise and pessimism.”—Ray Kurzweil, inventor, author and futurist, author of The Singularity is Near

“Now that human beings communicate so easily, I suspect that nothing can stop the inevitable torrent of new technologies, new ideas and new arrangements that will transform the lives of our children. Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler give us a blinding glimpse of the innovations that are coming our way — and that they are helping to create. This is a vital book.”—Matt Ridley, author of The Rational Optimist

“Comprehensively sampled here are a hell of a lot of the profound innovations going on to improve the human condition. Every breakthrough helps empower others, and so they aggregate into a trend you can count on.”—Stewart Brand, author, Whole Earth Discipline

“Diamandis and Kotler challenge us all to solve humanity’s grand challenges. Innovative small teams are now empowered to accomplish what only governments and large corporations could once achieve. The result is nothing less than the most transformative and thrilling period in human history.”––Timothy Ferriss, #1 NY Times bestselling author of The 4-Hour Workweek

“Today, philanthropists, innovators and passionate entrepreneurs are more empowered than ever before to solve humanity’s grand challenges.Abundance chronicles many of these stories and the emerging tools driving us towards an age of abundance. This is an audacious and powerful read!”—Jeff Skoll

“Diamandis and Kotler do a masterful job of explaining why we are at the start of a new era of radically increasing standards of living throughout the world. Abundance is essential reading for anyone looking for a better tomorrow.”—Elon Musk, CEO, SpaceX, CEO, Tesla Motors, Founder, PayPal

“Abundance provides proof that the proper combination of technology, people and capital can meet any grand challenge.”—Sir Richard Branson, Chairman of the Virgin Group

“This engaging book is a needed corrective, a whirlwind tour of the latest developments in health care, agriculture, energy, and other fields …The authors make a compelling case for optimism over dread as we face the exhilarating unknown. ” –Publisher’s Weekly

“If the future isn’t necessarily bright enough for shades, then, write high-tech pioneer Diamandis and science journalist Kotler think things are going to work out just fine…A nicely optimistic look at a matter that usually brings out the darkest thoughts among prognosticators…” –Kirkus

FacebookShare

A Friend and Self Inquiry Teacher in Need

Robert Rabbin Needs Our Support

My friend, author, and awareness teacher, Robert Rabbin was just told he has stage four lung cancer that has spread to his bones and is seeking treatment alternatives, a place to live and conduct meetings in the San Francisco area and financial support since he has no insurance. As a result, Robert is offering his eighth book, The 5 Principles of Authentic Living and all his other digital books and products free to the world. To access his e-books, please click here. In 5 Principles, Robert shares the distilled essence of what he has experienced about life — after almost 50 years of deep spiritual work, meditation, and self-inquiry.

Please join me in reviewing his offerings and if it feels appropriate, making a donation in any amount. Here is a video Robert just made.

FacebookShare

The Trojan Horse of Love

Susan Davis is a visionary innovator of “conscious sustainability.” Her unique skills have benefited thousands of individuals and numerous communities around the world over the past 35 years. She has been a community activist, serial entrepreneur, banker, venture capitalist and financial innovator. She has served as Founding Organizer for 20 “KINS Innovation Networks” for social investing, solar, organics, women’s financial empowerment, microenterprise and more…all based on love, trust and generosity. Amazingly, her eight social investing networks have all demonstrated that these love-based qualities do result in returns of market rate or above.

In her free book, The Trojan Horse of Love, Susan shares her amazing life story, the ups and down of her catalyzing networks, the rewards and challenges she faced and the methodology each network improved on to create the current innovation model. KINS signifies that “we are all one” and her story includes suggestions for how to find the “kindred spirits” who share you vision and values. Susan believes KINS is now well-proven to be highly cost-effective, faster, with higher impact and more fun than other innovation methods. Her intention is to gift this method to the world through her book and website, CapitalMissions.com.

Susan is currently working on a new book that will bring the methodology into sharper focus but The Trojan Horse of Love is a great primer for anyone wanting to implement or study a more conscious method of innovation than is currently the norm.

To download Susan’s complimentary book, please visit

http://thetrojanhorseoflove.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/thol_easter_2011.pdf

FacebookShare

Truth Aches, Nervous Breakthroughs Soulitude, & More…

Thanks to my friend Michael Fleck, I just discovered Jeff Brown, the author of Soul Shaping, http://www.soulshaping.com and the producer of his upcoming film, Karmageddon.

At the heart of the SOULSHAPING philosophy is the belief that every individual came into this life with divine purpose, however humble it may outwardly appear. We are not random concentrations of stardust, nor are we accidental tourists. We are divinely inspired, purposeful, and essential to the dance of sacred imagination that is this life. Satisfying our purpose is entirely dependent on our ability to recognize and honor our soul-scriptures for this lifetime. Our soul-scriptures are the unique combination of experiences, callings and archetypal pathways that live at the heart of our transformation. They are the lessons we came here to learn, the soulshape we are here to grow into. When we embody our scriptures, we expand our soul one step closer to wholeness.

We made it through because we are needed here. We are each here to participate in this sacred dance, stepping on each other’s toes and turning each other toward God one clumsy step after another. Although the ultimate romance is with your own soul, it is our experiences together that give birth to the essential lessons. Every soul-scripture is a buried treasure, essential to the advancement of the collective soul. If we get off the dance floor, we postpone others’ lessons too.

Through this lens, we endeavour to make the presumption of essence in those we encounter. We look beyond the disguises and defenses, and honor the precious being living at the core. Rather than judging our seeming differences, we celebrate them as archetypal way-stations, unique and essential learning posts on the path to wholeness. There is a place for everyone on the trailways of transformation, in every soulshape, at every stage of karmic expansion.

Standing in our way are many factors that blind us to who we really are. They include our adaptations and disguises, unresolved emotions, misguided self-concepts, patterns of self-distraction. They also include external influences: an over-stimulating culture, economic reality, others’ opinions, the weight of the world. There can be a lot in the way. We have to be realistic about this, otherwise our spirituality will be ungrounded and our moments of ascension soon followed by a harsh thud on Mother Earth. We need to ascend with both feet on the ground, with one eye on the sky and another on the earth. From sole to soul.

It is my mission to help others identify and clear the obstructions in their way. It is my mission to remind others of their inherent magnificence and encourage them in the direction of their true-path. It is my mission to invite others to trust their truth-aches, excavate their soul-scriptures, answer the soulular phone whenever it rings. It is my mission to use my gifts as fodder for the mill of human expansion, to provide karmic nourishment to those who have momentarily forgotten their significance.

If my time at the School of Heart Knocks (the school of life) has taught me one thing, it is that we are so much more than we know. How small we sometimes imagine ourselves, how quickly we hide our light under a bushel of shame. Yet beyond the echo of our egoic distortions lives a bounty of wonder. We are each so brilliant, so gifted, libraries of unlimited possibility, soul-scriptures waiting for us on every inner shelf. Our divine purpose may be hidden from view, it may be covered in dust, but its’ still in there, sparkling with infinite possibility. We may have to work hard to bring it to light (divine perspiration!), but we must never lose faith in our brilliance, no matter what the world sends our way. When you are ready, look inside and your magnificence will rise to the surface on the wings of the inner dove. I tell you, it’s that close…

After years spent traveling on the pathways of self-avoidance, I am delighted to be embodying and humanifesting my divine purpose. If my work can help to remind you of your own, then I have lived well. I am grateful for the opportunity.

FacebookShare

The Shift From Post Modern to Integral

Worldwide Tipping Point has just posted an historic interview with Ken Wilber. The interview provides a glimpse into Kin’s brilliant mind and the stages of cultural development with an exploration of the emergent integral worldview we are presently entering.  Ken offers the best concise description of the sixth great shift we are living through I have heard. You can listen here.

And, Seth Godin’s new book, We Are All Weird, describes this same shift through the lens of a celebration of choice, of treating different people differently and of embracing the notion that everyone deserves the dignity and respect that comes from being heard. The book calls for end of mass and for the beginning of offering people more choices, more interests and giving them more authority to operate in ways that reflect their own unique values. For generations, marketers, industrialists and politicians have tried to force us into little boxes, complying with their idea of what we should buy, use or want. And in an industrial, mass-market driven world, this was efficient and it worked. But what we learned in this new era is that mass limits our choice because it succeeds on conformity. As Godin has identified, a new era of weirdness is upon us. People with more choices, more interests and the power to do something about it are stepping forward and insisting that the world work in a different way. By enabling choice we allow people to survive and thrive.

FacebookShare