(From the Introduction) This book revolves around a simple observation. Some people find their way into the joys of mystical or transcendent experiences--the direct experience of God. The elements in human experience that can lead into this direct experience of God are relatively common, and are easily available to the agnostic and atheist as well as the believer. I hope to describe the mystical experience until you begin to understand so many aspects of it that you will be able to recognize it and discover it in your own experience. The experience of God is not rare and difficult to obtain. It is our understanding of it that needs great improvement.
(Foreword, by Steve Andreas) Jean Giono's wonderful story "The Man Who Planted Trees" begins with this statement:
"For a human character to reveal truly exceptional qualities, one must have the good fortune to be able to observe its performance over many years. If this performance is devoid of all egoism, if its guiding motive is unparalleled generosity, if it is absolutely certain that there is no thought of recompense and that, in addition, it has left its visible mark upon the earth, then there can be no mistake." I feel fortunate to have known the author of this book for over thirty years. It is quite extraordinary to be in his presence, because he has no "agenda," no criticism, judgment or wanting you to be different in any way. Instead there is an immense respect and curiosity, and an interest in why God has brought this person into his life and what is to be experienced and learned through this meeting. I have always been interested in the larger questions of ultimate meaning, and have sought out a wide variety of psychological/spiritual teachers over the last half-century. Although I have learned much from many, all too often the teachers I found did not live what they taught: the judgmental teacher of openness and acceptance, the grim teacher of joy, the promiscuous teacher of abstinence, the vegetarian who snuck away from the ashram for a pepperoni pizza, and on and on. Often these teachers not only had feet of clay, but brains of butter--sloppy thinking or dishonest argumentation or evasion, and they often had great difficulty dealing with the practical tasks of day-to-day living. In contrast, the author of this book fully lives what he teaches, his thinking is honest and straightforward, and he is immensely capable in the practical world. All of this makes me much more interested in what he has to say about spiritual realms. He has had a sea career and holds a US license as Second Mate, Oceans unlimited, and under the Panamanian flag, Master, Oceans Unlimited. He taught for many years and now voluntarily teaches Coast Guard officers eleven courses. He also wrote the course and trains candidates for a knighthood. He holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and worked for many years with the most serious cases of mental illness. But his life is not all serious. He is a precision target shooter who reloads his own bullets. In his back yard he has a wild bird sanctuary complete with a bird hospital. He zips around town on a motorcycle. One day a week he can be found putting away books in the county library children's room "like a giant in the Kingdom of Lilliput." Many of his friends don't know he has written seven books and knows something of the experience of God. He is now retired in a small town. His wife is a fiber artist and they enjoy all the arts together. In his late years he has begun to set down the side of his life few even knew existed. Because he had profound mystic experiences as a small child, long before learning about religion and doctrine, his approach to it is fresh, experiential, and undoctrinaire, leaving all the mystification out of mysticism. For him, a mystic is simply someone who sees and feels the larger whole, one who makes wonder, awe, and beauty into the central focus of his life. By treasuring and cultivating these experiences, they come to blossom more fully and more frequently, opening the small ego to more universal experience. In many ways this is a practical book, providing both ways of thinking and ways of doing that can lead us toward the experience of enlightenment. But it is also a meditative book, to be read leisurely, a small portion at a time, and repeatedly, allowing meanings to emerge more fully and sink more deeply into our experience. Like a meaningful prayer or a treasured memory, what is presented here is a gentle reminder of what many of us have forgotten, to be returned to as a sanctuary from the hectic and distracting pace of day-to-day living. Each time I have edited a section of this book, I have felt nourished, quieted, lightened, cleansed, and refreshed. Whenever I have put these ideas into practice, my life has become easier and more interesting and enjoyable in a quiet and fundamental way. Whether or not what is presented here is true, in any ultimate sense, or in a life beyond this short journey we are all on, I have found it to be true in my life, now in the present moment. That is truth enough for me.
