Customer Reviews:
Great for first year teachers.......2007-10-06
This book is great. It is a honest, no BS accounting of what we do in the classroom and how to make your life smoother when dealing with difficult students. I have recommended it to many friends who are also teachers. I can not say enough good things.
Excellent for teachers.......2007-08-12
I've purchased multiple copies of this book multiple times for professional development classes with teachers. It helps teachers positively manage classroom behavior in a respectful way.
Outstanding & very practical! .......2007-07-26
Excellent resource. I read this book after my first year teaching and it changed the way I handled discipline from that moment on. I now use this book when I mentor new teachers, in a book study, and then model these strategies when I am working with teachers in the classroom. I am a trainer of teachers now and everyone I suggest it to, loves it. The book maps out scenarios that every teacher has experienced, whether you are new or a veteran and then gives solutions. New teachers especially develop a self-awareness of what they are doing and why it's NOT working, after reading this book. Truly one of the BEST books on classroom management ever! I highly recommend it.
Setting Limits.......2007-07-11
I was extremely impressed by the approach advocated in this book. I've read three other books on management and discipline recently, and this is by far the best. The approach sounds positive and practical. I am going to implement this plan in my classroom and I'm buying a second copy to give to the individual who will be student teaching in my room this fall. I'm trying the techniques at home, too! It makes so much more sense to me--and is easier to manage--than stickers, pulling cards, and so on. I'm anxious to try the techniques when school starts. Based on my understanding, I think it will work, and I highly recommend the book.
a must for new teachers.......2006-09-21
I struggled with classroom management as I switched tracks from pre-school/K to 4th and 5th grade. My first year of teaching was rough because i did not set enough expecations in the beginning of the year. by april they were wearing me out after only an hour!
this year, determined to start fresh, i used many of the techiniques in this book. mostly i love that you don't have to "trick" the kids into acting appropriately. i was so resistant to gold stars and the like. really stating what you mean, being clear, and having an clearly-stated consequence has worked well so far this year. even kids coming into my room from another class know that i mean business. (without being mean)
i higly recommend this book for anyone who needs to get the kids to stop walking all over you!
Book Description
In Wild Men, Wild Alaska professional hunting and fishing guide and outfitter Rocky McElveen tells the stories of his own adventures as well as those of some of his well-known clients. The book takes readers directly into the Alaskan bush, and shares the intense challenges of a majestic wilderness that pushes a man to his limits.
Customer Reviews:
Outstanding adventure / hunting book.......2007-10-17
Absolutely first-rate--hard to put down once I started it. Very well written, thoroughly entertaining. Rocky brings out the excitement of each hunt--each experience in a riveting fashion. Simply one of the best books I've read on experiencing the wilds of Alaska. Highly recommended!!!
poorly written book about some amazing adventures.......2007-10-13
My father gave me this book for my birthday. He absolutely loved it. I found it to be a weakly written account of some pretty amazing adventures. There is no doubt that Rocky Mcelveen has lived incredible stories and has had some very authentic faith experiences. His "rough-around-the-edges" approach seems to appeal to many but its not my favorite writing style. I found that he reinforces the stereotype of an exploitive, narrow-minded, bragging Christian male.
I was bothered by his comments on women and his sense of their place in the world. I disliked his perspectives on the animals he hunts and encounters on his trips. He very much sees them as trophies (or nusances that frustrate his hunting and fishing) and something that is meant to be hung on a wall and measured for the Boone and Crocket record book . I got the sense that he does not respect them as living, breathing creatures whose lives he and his clients end when they pull the trigger. As a trained Fish and Wildlife Technician, I felt that his facts about wildlife could have done with more in-depth research prior to publishing. Many of them are exaggerated or simply false.
Worst of all, his perspectives on faith (re: comments about tithing; calling God names like "the Big Pilot"; comments about some people having an "in" with God; etc) reinforced for me the worst aspects of North American Christian faith. I am a follower of Christ but, most of his comments do not represent my own thoughts on what it means to be "Christian." Overall, his attitude and world-view could use more thoughtful reflection.
As for writing style, one of the things that frustrated me were the many times Rocky writes jokes as incidents that he has experienced. While it adds some humor I began wondering at the beginning of a new story if it were true or just another joke. It doesn't quite work as well in a book as it does with body language and the inevitable laughs when told in person.
Despite all the things that urked me, Rocky does come up with some good insights on life. I think if I had read his book 20 years ago I would have enjoyed it. I was really into sport hunting and fishing then. Today, however, I have become more connected to nature, more astonished by it and more aware of different ways of thinking about it. Rocky generally seems to see his experiences in the wilds as conquests. I'd say that my current nature experiences are more about harmony, respect and enjoying its mystery. This book simply doesn't connect with where I'm at.
My recommendation is that you put your money towards Dangerous River by R.M. Patterson or any of Sigurd Olson's books. These two authors, for me, bring a more thoughtful approach to the topics of spirituality and outdoor living. They tell the stories of adventures just as amazing as Rocky's without the annoying parts.
What every man (and wife) needs to know about themselves.......2007-09-02
This book does not just provide great stories of adventure in Alaska's outdoors, it provides insight into every man's life - especially married men. Wives should read this book to get a peek into the "animal" they are married to.
"Into the Wild with McElveen".......2007-08-01
This book is an adrenaline filled adventure that almost everybody would enjoy reading. The author has a gift of inserting the reader into the story as it is told; I felt that I vicariously hunted through McElveen. A real life adventure as described in the book, can cost in the ten thousands & up, therefore the story is the closest I'll ever be to Alaska with my budget. McElveen has exceeded expectations of our former President, George Bush, Sr, in the wild as I would suspect meet yours. Enjoy the Wild Outdoors!
Almost exactly what i was looking for.......2007-03-30
A great book about adventures in the Alaska wild. I live in Alaska and found this book to be right on the money. The only thing that i didnt like about it was Rocky's (the author) constant reference to God. Every page he talked about him at least 2 or 3 times. Now whether you are religous or not, most people who purchase an adventure book want an adventure book, not a book that is half adventure and the other half feels like you are reading a bible. I am Catholic and even I found it sad that this guy gave God all the credit for his amzazing accomplishments when really most of it was because of his own extremely hard work and dedication that allowed him to become very successful. But all in all it was a great book, it decribed alaska better than any other book out there, thats why i gave it 5 stars.
Book Description
No more exhaustive attempts at reasoning, persuasion, or threats.
Power struggles, lack of motivation, disruptive students, and Attention Deficit Disorder—hardly how we'd like to describe classrooms of the nineties. But, more and more adults agree that children are pushing them to the limits. For this reason, thousands of teachers, child care providers, and parents are turning to the solutions presented in
Setting Limits in the Classroom. This book provides alternatives to the ineffective extremes of punishment and permissiveness, and outlines methods for setting clear, firm limits supported by words and actions. This step-by-step guide shows you how to:
create structure that works stop power struggles motivate students solve homework problems
Tested and used all over the country by adults working with children, the Setting Limits program can mean the difference between disruptive educational environments and satisfying, cooperative teacher-student relationships.
Customer Reviews:
Good book, but not the only one you need.......2005-10-11
It is a good book; it really explains natural consequences with great detail and senarios. But it's not a system or program, if that is what you are in need of.
This book summed up the course I just took.......2004-01-13
I just took a class in classroom management. The teacher assigned texts in adolescent psychology and development, but relied on the lectures to give us the management portion. This book describes a very similar style of classroom management, giving me a much better tool than the notes I took in class.
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I especially like the scenarios in the book. In class, we got a lot of information on what was legal, and on extreme situations. This book gives much more detail on how to defuse a developing situation. In addition, the chapters on how to set the classroom management system up at the beginning of the year covered material that our teacher mostly omitted.
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I will be using this book! I read it through during my winter vacation, when I thought I would be sick of education materials. It was so interesting I found myself reading "just one more chapter" before going to sleep.
A Good Start, But Not A Comprehensive Guide.......2003-05-28
In Setting Limits in the Classroom, MacKenzie does a good job of explaining the importance of setting clear rules with clear consequences. If you would like clarification of what it means to have clear rules and consequences, then this is an excellent book. However, it is important to note that this book barely addresses the needs of secondary teachers. The examples almost exclusively deal with elementary school teachers. For a better treatment of secondary school classroom management, I heavily recommend Discipline in the Secondary Classroom: A Problem-By-Problem Survival Guide by Randall Spirick.
A Good Start, But Not A Comprehensive Guide.......2003-05-28
In Setting Limits in the Classroom, MacKenzie does a good job of explaining the importance of setting clear rules with clear consequences. If you would like clarification of what it means to have clear rules and consequences, then this is an excellent book. However, it is important to note that this book barely addresses the needs of secondary teachers. The examples almost exclusively deal with elementary school teachers. For a better treatment of secondary school classroom management, I heavily recommend Discipline in the Secondary Classroom: A Problem-By-Problem Survival Guide by Randall Spirick.
Every teacher should read this book!.......2002-11-19
As a teacher who works in an inner city school, how I wish I had read this book eight years ago, when I first began teaching! It would have saved me much grief, frustration, and energy. I have recommended this book to all of my teacher friends and we all agree...it works! If you want real solutions to the real problems that teachers face in today's schools look no further. Mackenzie's system is easy to understand, easy to use, and very effective.
Customer Reviews:
Interesting read.......2004-03-19
This is well written and informative book. One of the best things about it - is that the authors make a concerted effort to make their views and information understandable to the average person. I am not an economist, and not much of an intellectual at all but this book grabbed me, like a steven king novel, and I stayed up all night reading. Pretty amazing for a nonfiction book about economics! Like the afore mentioned novel, the book has a heartwrenching climax - and no clean and easy happy ending. (neither does King...) But how can you expect easy answers to complex problems?
What gives?.......2001-08-31
So, these guys write this book in 1972 telling us how the sky is falling and it's all going to end in probably 20 years because we're all a bunch of greedy capitalist pigs.
So, they're wrong about their predictions and they come back about 30 years later to try to scare people again?
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
A brilliant, accessible analysis of our ecological plight.......1999-10-01
This book contains more common sense, wisdom and compassion than any I've read in many years. It challenges the prevailing paradigm of our society with a perfect balance of head and heart. I borrowed a copy from a friend and I've now come to Amazon to buy my own copy, which I will urge all my friends to read. Another reviewer from Virginia seems to think the book should have been more technical. I think s/he is completely missing the point. This is a book for lay people, which it should be, because if it was full of equations only a handful of geeks would read it and it wouldn't change anything. As it is it's written in beautifully clear prose and you don't need any technical training to follow it.
An Important and Very Readable Book.......1999-06-29
This book is a must read for anyone seriously interested in global sustainability. It is clearly written and is easily accessible to non-technical readers. Although based on a sophisticated computer model, the authors avoid presenting a dry, scientific explanation of the simulation -- equations and mathematical formulations are deemphasized. Instead, the authors refer the technically-minded to an earlier book (Dynamics of Growth in a Finite World, available at www.pegasuscom.com) that contains every equation used in the model. Moreover, Prof. Meadows makes the model itself available to anyone interested (for a nominal fee).
So read this book. Then, if you want more detail, get the model and technical book.
A computer model of future ecological troubles.......1998-09-23
Reading the Meadows, Meadows and Randers book, "Beyond the Limits", on the possibility of impending global collapse in the aftermath of continued violation of physical planetary limits was a disappointing experience. The withholding of important material, whether deliberate or by oversight, while overloading the text with ecological trivia was more than this reviewer could quietly accept. If we agree at the start that the simulation trial results of the Meadows et al. computer model, "World3/91", is supposed to be the book's main attraction, it then follows that the reader deserves to know with appropriate detail, using commonly accepted language and terminology, the structure of that dynamic model and the means by which the investigators obtained their results. The book provides only a cursory description of the World3 model and the methods by which it was implemented on their computer. In the experience of this reader, such models are usually first represented by a set of differential equations, later transformed into a set of difference equations which are then encoded using any of several (Fortran, Pascal, Basic, C++, FoxPro, . . .) suitable programming languages. If the object system operates in discrete time rather than continuous time, then the differential equations structure is omitted and construction of the simpler difference equations is immediate. Meadows, et al. show no set of system equations, either continuous time or discrete time. In fact, the entire book has not a single mathematical expression in its nearly three hundred pages. The fact that a book which focuses on a dynamic systems model, implemented on a digital computer, can be completely devoid of mathematics seems a bit odd. How is it that Meadows et al. will not, as an explanatory aid, write down a simple one-line differential / difference equation for a single variable system such as figure 4-3? This kind of judgment requires explanation, but the text provides none.
In the body and appendix are subsystem block diagrams (also known as influence diagrams, directed graphs, signal flow charts) showing interconnections between parameters and variables. However, several of the symbols are undefined and no help is provided as to how to interpret the diagrams. Readers who have seen similar diagrams before can likely guess symbol significance, e.g. the circles are summing nodes where all inputs are added to produce a single output. Of course such guesses can be wrong, e.g. node inputs can be combined in some other operation more complex than simple addition. At minimum, the authors should have explained in sufficient detail, using commonly accepted scientific language and terminology, abbreviated parts of their system. A few other omissions deserve mention.
On page 15, under a section titled "The Mathematics of Exponential Growth" the process of sequentially folding a sheet of standard office paper in half, such that the height is increased at each step, is introduced as a lead into the subject of exponential growth. This familiar process presents a fine opportunity to introduce the lay reader as to how a real process can be represented by a simple - the simplest - difference equation which has a correspondingly simple solution, namely an exponential function. However, these authors present no representative equation, but immediately assert - with no justification - that the height of the folded paper would, after forty foldings, reach from the earth to the moon. Since the proof of their assertion could be done within the space of one page - using mathematics not beyond that of freshman college algebra - why did the authors not make the minuscule effort to show their reasoning? It is absurd for a section titled "The Mathematics of Exponential Growth" to contain no mathematics!
A wordy extended discussion on a plethora of ecological topics spanning birth-death rates in Sweden, pollution in the Rhine river, grain production in china, deforestation in Costa Rica and on and on. . . fill up the middle or so hundred pages. This textual overload was a bit much for this reader to digest especially since its connection to the construction of World3/91 is not addressed. Some editorial pruning would have helped.
The latter and most interesting parts of the book are the time course graphs, outputs of thirteen simulation trials of World3/91 conducted under different initial conditions and parameter values (scenarios). System variables displayed in the graphs show some interesting time course behaviors that merit serious attention; accompanying explanations for the various behaviors are clear and intuitively reasonable. In the final pages of the text are some new age musings on political action, networking, visioning and loving. In spite of the disjointedness and questionable value of the preceding material the contents of the latter parts of the book make it worthy of purchase. For those wishing to read further, an extensive list of books along with several peer reviewed professional journal articles is provided. Several books in the list were written by Meadows et al. but their names do not appear as authors for any of the professional journal articles.
Book Description
The Simplest Path, Step One: Free Your Mind delineates, in one slim volume, a complete system for achieving personal spiritual awakening, along with a straightforward, no-nonsense plan individuals and groups so enlightened can follow to awaken Humanity en masse and positively transform the world. This book contains keys to awakening. Awakening from our personal dream shatters the solid "box" of limitation memes have built around our lives, and frees us to fluidly craft our personalities, environments, relationships, careers, etc. as an artist paints a landscape or a sculptor teases form from formless clay. All of us awakening together from the shared dream of the planet will mark the birth of our species out of our current global nightmare of decline into a limitless future literally beyond our present ability to imagine, even in our "wildest dreams," indeed.
Customer Reviews:
Way Beyond "Socrates Revisited".......2007-08-22
After reading the commentary attached to the one star rating given by the young man from Texas, I feel compelled to step forward in defense of this very fine book. With only one exception, every point made in that negative review is simply wrong. Just not factually correct. The reviewer identifies himself as a young man (... "to my young mind"), and since all of his other Amazon reviews are of TV episodes on DVD, video games and rock music CDs I take him at his word. Well, I am an "old man," closing in on my sixty-third birthday, and I came to Mr. Casspriano's book after six decades of life experience, the last three of those decades a zealous practitioner of Zen Buddhism. I say this not to "brag," but simply to qualify myself as a reviewer before beginning.
I'll start where the one star reviewer closed his argument, with his statement that the simplest path reduces to two Socratic concepts: "Admit that you don't know anything" and "know yourself."
The first part is nominally true (the exception). Like Zen Buddhism, a central tenet of the simplest path is working to release the false notion we all hold that we know ourselves, other people, the world around us. But identifying and releasing our attachments to our illusions is a life's work, not some brash "I don't know nothin'!" as the young Texan seems to imply. Under normal circumstances, we go about our daily lives with no idea we are deluded about anything, as Maya (the illusion of the phenomenal world around and even inside us) is so convincing that most of us never even think to question its validity. Casspriano did not invent the notion of human beings being trapped in illusion, as this truth was known to the timeless authors of the Hindu Vedas and is central to all schools of Buddhism (not just Zen). But his scientific/spiritual exploration of the mechanism by which Maya ensnares our minds and can, with effort, be overcome is among the best "plain English" explanations of this process I have read. There is no "inscrutable mystery" in the simplest path (a criticism that has been accurately leveled toward Zen Buddhism, as a lot of Eastern thought truly does come off as "inscrutable" when translated into English and/or the metaphors of Western culture). Casspriano lays out in no-nonsense American English exactly what our brains are doing when they create the illusion we mistake for reality, then shows the reader in the same clear terms how to train his or her brain to break free of illusion and taste reality as-it-is. In just 216 pages, that is no mean feat. After thirty years of Zen practice and numerous kensho experiences (of varying depths and intensities), I can say from personal experience that Casspriano is correct. Enlightenment comes as the fruit of a long, incremental process of retraining the mind to touch reality in a new way, and the process described in the simplest path is the same as that followed in Zen practice, especially Rienzi Zen koan study (I'll have more to say about this in a later paragraph). Casspriano's approach and language is very different from traditional Zen (more "scientific," and no sitting meditation is required), which I think would appeal to Americans and other Westerners seeking to experience "awakening" without necessarily committing themselves to a religion like Buddhism, but the internal mental/spiritual process and final destination are the same.
"Know yourself," on the other hand, is not in this book at all, at least not in the way the young reviewer, or Socrates for that matter, uses the phrase. As in Buddhism, Casspriano takes pains to demonstrate that "self" is as much of an illusion as our misapprehension of the phenomenal world, and is a byproduct of exactly the same mind process that creates outer Maya. A core teaching of Buddhism is that our "self," our personality/ego, is nothing more than an aggregation of outside influences that cluster together in our minds like shiny stones gathered into a pile, and which we mistake not only for something "real," but tragically, for our essential selves. Yet this "pile" has nothing really to do with who we are at all. Buddhism teaches "no-self." Belief in the illusion of a unique and independent "self" is our greatest obstacle to enlightenment. Wasting time and energy getting to "know yourself" in the Western sense is foreign to Eastern thought. Casspriano again does a great job of translating the Buddhist concept of "no-self" into Western scientific/spiritual terminology. He shows the process by which our ego/personality aggregate "piles up," as well as how to take the pile down, stone by stone. Enlightenment is what the pile was covering up, and so it naturally appears as soon as the pile is removed - but oh how we cling to our personal pile of stones! "Self" is what we must trade for enlightenment, what must be surrendered, and Casspriano returns to this truth many times in the simplest path. My point is that the one star reviewer's reduction of the simplest path to "know yourself" has no basis at all in the actual book.
As to the book being "gimmicky": Yes, the words "The Simplest Path" recur frequently throughout the book, but not in reference to the book itself (at least that's not how I took it), but rather to the system of understanding the mind and working toward "awakening" Casspriano is describing - and it is a complete system that deserves to be considered as a whole, on its own. At times the repetition does have a feel of "branding" in the commercial sense, so I understand where the reviewer may have taken his impression. But the simplest path, while resonant with Zen Buddhism (and apparently, according to Casspriano, with the Toltec philosophy espoused by Carlos Castaneda, of which I have no personal knowledge, so I'll have to take the author's word for that) is far enough different that it needs its own "name" to set it apart from other schools of similar but not identical thought. The reviewer's criticism is like saying that every use of the term "Zen" in a book called "Zen Buddhism" should be taken as a reference to the book, and not to the larger practice of Zen Buddhism as a spiritual discipline that the book is describing. Casspriano's point in repeatedly linking The Simplest Path, Zen Buddhism and Toltec Shamanism throughout the book, at least as I understood it, is to highlight these three spiritual practices as related reliable paths through a dark forest of illusion, a forest in which many apparent (and more popular) paths, including most (all?) religious beliefs, actively vie to mislead travelers toward deeper ensnarement in the dream, rather than leading them toward "awakening."
I want to say a word about koan study in Rienzi Zen and how it relates to the simplest path. Koans are those quirky Zen sayings and stories like "what is the sound of one hand clapping?" or "what was your original face before you (or your parents) were born?" that have no rational answer, and which Zen students turn and turn in their minds like the tumblers of a combination lock until their imprisoned psyches "explode" in a "super-rational" experience of reality beyond the illusion ("irrational" would be the wrong term, as that implies "nonsense"). That "super-rational" vision of reality is called "kensho." I have experienced it myself, more than once in my lifetime. I have come to think of Casspriano's "Key Questions" in the second half of the simplest path, especially the later seven of the ten, as "cultural koans" designed to trigger "collective kensho" for the whole human race at once. Like "what is the sound of one hand clapping?", unflinching consideration of the value of human life, of how our beliefs about the future shape the present, of the true origin and destiny of life on Earth, etc., especially as seen through the lens of Casspriano's "Key Question Technique," reveals that none of these questions have rational answers, yet all require our active and immediate response. Successful resolution of these larger riddles that impact everyone will require us all to eventually "explode" into reality, together, in a "super-rational" way. We'll have to break through the illusion and wake up together, as one (which has been the goal of Mahayana Buddhism, of which Zen is a sect, since around 200 BCE). That is the "Planetary Awakening" addressed in this book, and I believe Casspriano's "Key Questions" are a concrete step in that direction. I'm glad I spent my fifteen dollars.
This is my "old man" take on the simplest path, having encountered it after 30 years of Zen Buddhist practice (I'm not veering off my chosen path here, just bowing respectfully in passing toward Casspriano's). From a Buddhist perspective, the simplest path is true Dharma, though I do not get the impression from reading his book that Vincent Casspriano is himself a Buddhist or a follower of any religion. That to my mind makes his book all the more interesting.
True, but gimmicky.......2007-08-09
Casspriano's book is scientifically and philosophically sound as best as my young mind can tell, but I don't recommend this book. Its scattered with numerous pages of advertising about how his "program" works and how it compares to other religions and spiritual movements. Why must this author physically write out "The Simplest Path" in reference to his book every other page, and talk about his second volume? Perhaps because he's not out for pure truth, but for our money.
All this book comes down to after you strip away the nonsense is two things. First, admit that you don't truly know anything. Second, know yourself. Do those two things (they essentially both mean to question EVERYTHING), and you'll have Casspriano's "Planetary Awakening," with 15 bucks still in your pocket. And you'll be following the fundamental truths already said by Socrates.. so do yourself a favor and pick up Plato's "Apology" and read up on the Socratic dialogue on how to live a good life. And don't stop there, because you can't be sure he's right.
And I have 10 bucks that says these other couple of reviews were written by the book publisher. In any case, ignore the hype.
A Unique and Inspiring Wake-up Call.......2007-05-15
This is one of the most clear-headed books I've read in years on the subject of real, nitty gritty, get your hands dirty spiritual development (as opposed to the fru fru New Age variety). So much of what passes for "spirituality" in our time amounts to some author, celebrity, priest, philosopher or self-appointed guru telling us what to "believe," sight unseen, if we want to reach heaven, attain enlightenment, achieve "ascension," etc. Casspriano takes an at times startling opposite approach. For Casspriano, such unquestioned/unquestionable beliefs are not only NOT the path to spiritual awakening, they represent the chief obstacle blocking our realization of higher consciousness. And it's not just religious beliefs ("faith") he's talking about, but all our beliefs about reality, especially those that enclose our thinking in "boxes" that limit our freedom to find solutions to real-world threats like Peak Oil, overpopulation, Global Warming, etc. Though much of the book focuses on individual enlightenment, for Casspriano, these larger planetary issues are "spiritual," as well. Whether the issue is our personal inability to find happiness or Humanity's collective rush toward physical extinction, the cause is the same - our wrong-headed beliefs about what's real. The solution is the same, as well - continuous, deep questioning. Using Richard Dawkins' concept of "memes" as a central metaphor, Casspriano first breaks down the basic process of belief, showing the mechanism in our brains by which beliefs misdirect and control our psyches, then he walks the reader through an exploration of a series of ten "anti-meme questions" aimed at breaking down the walls of our mental "boxes" and setting our minds free. With each question, he supplies an exercise designed to allow the reader to attain a personal taste of reality "beyond the box," especially as flavored by that chapter's "Key Question." For the most part, this formula works very well (with a few rare moments of over-exuberance on the author's part, as already described in other reviews, though as a card carrying vegan environmentalist, I can't say I particularly minded), delivering a cumulative series of death-blows to some of the most basic "pillars" of our present human consensus reality. Beyond the walls those pillars supported lies real reality, where we are all interconnected and interdependent, and, in Casspriano's view, mutually destined for greatness, if we can just wake up and grab the reins of our runaway culture in time. This is not a book for spiritual "feel gooders" seeking soft assurances that they're perfect just they way they are and everything's going to be all right, no matter what. This is a wake up call, a tool kit and a concrete action plan for becoming individually enlightened and collectively saving the world, all rolled up into one. That, I think, is a cause well-worthy of exuberance.
Challenge Consensus Reality!.......2007-05-10
This is a thoughtful book that addresses how we may go about developing a process to question our everyday consensus reality. I suppose if I have learned anything in 49 years of life, it is that all personal and social problems stem from our fundamental views on the nature of reality itself. Vincent Casspriano uses the concept of a "meme" as a fundamental unit of ideas, assumptions, etc. that often block our understanding of reality itself. One such meme, for example, may be that we have to "fight for our freedom" or the world's a "fearful" place and hence, we have to be ready to kill to protect ourselves. I suppose you could also use the word "paradigm" here as well, but the essential point of this book is that we "unconsciously" function in our life with many limited points of view that block our ability to solve problems on both a personal and a social basis.
While Vince Casspriano is to be congradulated for producing a book that presents both a methodology and a motivation for personal transformation, there are a few pitfalls here that the potential reader should be aware of before tackling this material. The author has some rather strong views on fossil fuel consumption, meet consumption, and the role of humans in the cycle of procreation. While I generally agree with his analysis on fossil fuel consumtion and meat consumption (as I have viewed large tracks of deforrested grazing land in developing countries), these viewpoints can distract the reader from the essential point here which is to rigourously question consensus reality. Since I am single, and have no motivation to have children, I definitely disagree with his views on the necessity of human procreation on this planet, but here again, it is important to extract the essential meaning rather than get caught in the specific political/social debates that these issues may spawn.
If you are serious about personal transformation with the potential for changing our global consciousness, than this book can be an invaluable tool. I do agree with the Author that a world population of "high functioning" people can resolve every planetary problem we face today. As we systematically question our consensus reality, we will see our problems in new ways, and with this new perspective, problems can often be quickly resolved or transcended.
A Simple Cure For What's "Eating Us".......2006-11-13
I considered titling this review, "Stop Whining, Wake Up and Get Busy Saving the World," but decided "Eating Us" would be more attention-grabbing - which matters because I believe Vincent Casspriano, Jr.'s "The Simplest Path, Step One: FREE YOUR MIND" is an important book, and I want to do whatever I can to draw your attention to it. Pick the title you like best. Both very fittingly describe what you will find within the pages of this remarkable new release from New Paradigm Press.
I have selected three short quotations to explore in this review that I think best summarize Casspriano's overall message:
From Chapter One, "The Boxes We Dream In":
"Right now, this very moment, you are asleep... Even if you are reading these words in broad daylight - sitting at your desk or beside the kitchen table, your feet firmly planted on the floor, eyes open, senses alert, feeling the weight of this book in your hands as sounds of life rise and fall rhythmically around you - you are deeply asleep, and dreaming furiously"
Now, the idea that Humans are sleeping, and must therefore "awaken," is by no means unique to Casspriano's "Simplest Path" spiritual system, being the root observation underlying pretty much all Eastern religion, and a lot of Western Occultism and New Age metaphysics, as well. In fairness, Casspriano makes no claim to this as an original insight, openly supporting his assessment of the human predicament with quotations taken from Animism, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Islam. He then flows seamlessly into a list of complementary illustrations from the secular realms of Quantum Physics, brain/consciousness research, and most to-the-point, the study of memes and memetics, ala Evolutionary Biologist and world's best-known cheerleader for scientific atheism, Richard Dawkins.
If you've never heard of memes or memetics, a quick Google of those terms will reveal hundreds of serious, information-rich websites devoted to this now thirty-year old science. In a nutshell, a "meme" is a sort of contagious thought-form that spreads between people by way of imitation. Obvious memes in our environment include advertising jingles, fads and fashions, etc. Casspriano somewhat radically extends the concept to include just about everything that makes up the contents of our individual brains and shared human culture. While he resists redefining the word "meme" wholesale, he decidedly expands its definition to make memes and "memeplexes" (what you get when a number of memes band together into an organic, relational unit, like a religion or cultural or political movement) the basic, fundamental building blocks of everything we habitually label "real..."
And then he demonstrates, in at times excruciating detail, the complete emptiness of the "apparent-reality" that is a byproduct of memetic activity in our brains. What we call "real" is not real at all. It's an illusion spun up by our memes. And our memes are not original to us. They are "viral invaders" assailing our minds from without. Worse - and, while even this thought is not wholly unique to Casspriano, he certainly gives it his own very effective spin - memes are by no means mere passive beliefs or simple "harmless ideas." They are, Casspriano believes, actively predatory psychic parasites whose survival depends on our buying into the illusions they create in our minds. Think of illusion (Samsara, Maya, etc.) as a web we're caught in. Memes are the spider. We are the fly. Gotcha.
One thing I like very much about Casspriano's book is that he never asks us to take anything on faith, least of all this rather ugly depiction of the human psychic/spiritual condition. He not only challenges readers to test his hypothesis firsthand in order to experience what is real and true for ourselves, he spends a large chunk of the book outlining specific exercises anyone can do to escape memetic interference and personally experience reality as-it-is. The exercises in Part II of the book are powerful medicine... But this is a digression, so let me return to the point.
Memes are the spider, and we are the fly. A better metaphor might be that memes are the farmer, and we are the cow. Domesticated and docile, we allow memes to milk us daily, to extract from our minds the potent human psychic energy which, if reclaimed by us and put to proper human use, would quickly and positively transform our lives and our world. This transformation is awakening, ascension, enlightenment, metanoia, the Buddha-like change of consciousness most religions and spiritual systems on Earth hint at, but few ever actually deliver to followers. In this analysis, Casspriano's "Simplest Path" is very much in line with Gurdjieff's "Fourth Way," Carlos Castaneda's Toltec sorcery, and a few other well known spiritual practices inhabiting a somewhat darker, though perhaps more realistic corner of the New Age. But unlike most of those other systems, Casspriano's prescription for escaping illusion and awakening to reality is remarkably, well... simple.
From Chapter Three, "Waking Up":
"The simple truth is that we are sleeping because we lack sufficient energy to wake up."
And later in the same chapter:
"The real work that brings about awakening, rather than merely granting the external appearance of "being spiritual," while actually embroiling us ever more deeply in the dream, is a rigorous, daily commitment to the identification and elimination of every self-serving belief from which our personal dream-lives are constructed."
For "belief" in the quotation above, read "meme/memeplex." Casspriano certainly does, treating the terms as largely interchangeable. In the end, this genuinely simple - at least in the sense of being uncomplicated and pragmatic - spiritual practice amounts to discovering reality as-it-actually-is less by searching for a glimpse beyond the illusion, than by systematically withdrawing our participation in, and identification with, the dream. When we disentangle our psyches from memetic illusion, only reality remains. We don't have to chase it; to a meme-free mind, reality just appears. This is "Satori" in Zen Buddhism. This is "stopping the world" in the Toltec sorcery of Castaneda and others. Casspriano's genius lies in his talent for exposing the core mechanism behind such complex and often inscrutable spiritual systems, and for putting into plain language clear instructions for unraveling the dream and achieving personal awakening. The virus-like process by which memes take over and control our human minds, as described by Casspriano is, to my mind, very complicated (but well worth struggling through). What is genuinely simple about "The Simplest Path," however, is Casspriano's prescription for breaking those bonds, once you've made the effort to understand how they are created and maintained. For Casspriano, remaining a victim of spiritual sleep and energetic exploitation by memes is a complex activity in which we unconsciously invest enormous amounts of psychic energy every day of our lives. Awakening is the product of a simple act of withdrawing that investment, which automatically re-energizes of our minds and lives. Or as Casspriano cleverly phrases it when closing Chapter Three, "Waking Up":
"Unweave the tapestry of the dream, and awakening happens."
Anyone can do this. Spiritual awakening, in Casspriano's view, may be hard work, but it is not complicated work. The path to enlightenment is really rather shockingly simple. Fall out of love with the dream. Reclaim your psychic energy. Wake up to reality.
The ten "Key Questions" Casspriano explores in the second section of the book are designed to put the theory laid out in Part I to practical and immediate use. Essentially, I think Casspriano sees these ten issues - why we treat enlightenment as an "airy-fairy" ideal instead of a measurable transformation of brain functioning, the excuses we make for avoiding personal responsibility and integrity along the lines of Castaneda's "impeccability," the fallacy of belief in a "separate self," etc. - as pillars of both our personal and collective human dreams. They are by no means an exhaustive listing of the memes twisting our minds. But they are primary keystones on which layers upon layers of the grand illusion are built. Topple these ten baseline pillars and the larger structure crumbles.
Casspriano explores some "Keys" more successfully than others. One downside to the book is that, especially in the "Keys," Casspriano's own memetic prejudices shine at times rather glaringly through, as when, in his discussion of the American "What Would Jesus Do?" religious fad, he characterizes the Evangelical Christian purveyors of WWJD as, "ultra-conservative, right wing ideologues." Even should the reader personally agree with such pronouncements, its hard to resist thinking, "Hey Vince! Your memes are showing!" But where he nails his point, Casspriano's prose can be downright inspiring, as with the "Key" cosmological study "Is Earth the Center of the Universe?," which explores the gap between what we know, scientifically, about the Universe and what our daily choices and behavior says we really believe, about the cosmos and about ourselves. His closing "Key" "Are We Alone?" so poetically frames the true stakes of our global human predicament - species survival VS extinction - that its hard to imagine anyone keeping their gaze glued squarely to their own self-involved navel in the wake of reading it. Of course we are not alone. There are six and a half billion of us on Planet Earth, and whether we awaken to what's best in us or follow our darkest drives over History's cliff into oblivion, we do so as one. One planet, one fate.
This notion of "oneness" and of a common, intertwined human spiritual and biological destiny is a core theme in The Simplest Path, Step One: FREE YOUR MIND that sets it apart from any spiritual book in recent memory. My final quotation from the book returns us to the opening lines of Chapter One, "The Boxes We Dream In":
"We are all aware of the challenges facing us as we enter together into the 21st Century:
· World oil supplies are running out.
· Global warming is transforming the Earth into a steamy greenhouse.
· Even as our technology connects the world, ideological extremism, terrorism and militarism divide us as never before.
· Headlines bombard us with news of war, famine, pestilence and death until we feel overwhelmed and unable to respond.
· Time is running out..."
Vincent Casspriano, Jr.'s "The Simplest Path to Personal and Planetary Transformation, Step One: FREE YOUR MIND" does not offer easy escape from these very pressing real-world human ills, but rather, a down to Earth, workable prescription for their cure. Yes, we must awaken as individuals, and, rest assured, "The Simplest Path" shows spiritual seekers exactly how to do that. But a prime message of "The Simplest Path" is that, for personal awakening to have meaning, it must occur within the context of a complete re-visioning of global culture, and a mass wrenching away of the wheel of History from the control of viral memes, that we might create a common cosmic human destiny worthy of our highest potential as a species.
Now that's a meme worth feeding.
Book Description
Graham Priest presents a new, expanded edition of his highly original exploration of the nature and limits of thought. Drawing on recent developments in the field of logic, Priest shows that the description of such limits leads to contradiction, and argues that these contradictions are in fact true. Beginning with an analysis of the way in which these limits arise in pre-Kantian philosophy, Priest goes on to illustrate how the nature of these limits was theorized by Kant and Hegel. He offers new interpretations of Berkeley's master argument for idealism and Kant on the antinomies. He explores the paradoxes of self-reference, and provides a unified account of the structure of such paradoxes. The book goes on to trace the theme of the limits of thought in modern philosophy of language, including discussions of the ideas of Wittgenstein and Derrida. The second edition includes new chapters on Heidegger and Nagarjuna, as well as reflections on reactions to the first edition. This clear, provocative, and systematic work offers a radically different approach to philosophy and logic.
Customer Reviews:
The One and the Many.......2004-02-19
This is a fascinating and clearly written book of philosophy that deals with the problems that arise when we try to characterize the inherent limitations of human thought. Priest's position ("dialethism") is that in doing so, we inevitably contradict ourselves, and hence that the law of non-contradiction should be rejected.
Priest's argument here depends upon the crucial claim that a wide variety of apparent paradoxes in set theory, semantics, philosophical psychology and metaphysics exhibit a common structure, and hence require a "uniform solution." To the extent that his very wide-ranging and often insightful discussion of how these paradoxes have arisen in the writings of philosophers throughout history convinces one of this, dialethism does start to look awfully difficult to avoid. But in trying to describe this structure (which Priest refers to as the "inclosure schema," and finds identified most explicitly in the work of Georg Cantor), he ascends to such a high level of generality and abstraction that I found it difficult to swallow his demand for "uniformity." The crude system of classification that he uses to group together most other philosophers' attempts to resolve the relevant paradoxes without giving up on the law of non-contradiction reinforces this impression. He accuses so many different writers of using the supposedly lame strategy of "parametrization" that I simply have no idea what this word is supposed to refer to by the end of the book.
Nonetheless, Priest's work makes for exciting reading for anyone who thinks that analytic philosophy has been in the doldrums since the glory days of Quine and Davidson. Priest has a genuinely novel way of looking at the world. And his synthesis of logical rigor and historical sensitivity in the treatment of an extraordinarily diverse range of texts is rare indeed.
Book Description
Reports are key to a successful software application. It doesn't matter how efficiently the users enter data, how much information the system can store, or how many complicated calculations the system can process if there's no way to see the final outcome. In this reference, software developers are shown how to use every nook and cranny of report writers. Included are fundamentals of using the VFP Report Writer correctly such as starting the report wizard, invoking the report designer, and report bands. Advanced tips are provided as well, including nesting data groups and creating variables and calculations.
Customer Reviews:
Visual FoxPro Report Writer.......2007-08-10
Very well written. It showed me exactly what I needed to know to make the Report Writer work for me.
Very helpful.......2007-03-15
Wonderful book for its stated purpose. If you need help with specific problems it is a great source.
Average customer rating:
- Big difference between an idea that sounds good
- Zero space defines a cutting-edge management model...
- Zero Space rates "Zero"
- Zero Space Nearly Zero Value
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Zero Space: Moving Beyond Organizational Limits
Frank Lekanne Deprez , and
Rene Tissen
Manufacturer: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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General
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Management
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ASIN: 1576751821 |
Amazon.com
Zero Space, by Frank Lekanne Deprez and René Tissen, is both a thought-provoking argument for truly open organizations--occupying the ephemeral region of their title--and a practical manual for developing them. Lekanne Deprez and Tissen, Amsterdam-based consultants who have separately and together written five previous books, are certainly not the first to suggest that intangibles like knowledge are far more relevant today than tangibles like machinery in the creation of corporate value. They do, though, give fresh insight into the type of company that successfully incorporates these 21st-century assets, and they propose a feasible framework others can use to tear away from traditional, but counterproductive, thinking and create the "all brain, no body" organization that truly meets ongoing challenges. In part 1, the authors discuss why their defining concept of "zero-mindedness" has become so critical. In part 2, they examine it in contexts that corporations will actually confront, such as time (dealing with sped-up consumer demands and business relationships), technology (making it so ubiquitous it is taken for granted), and alliances (forging the proper ones with customers, suppliers, and even competitors). In the final part, Lekanne Deprez and Tissen leave the theorizing behind to offer concrete suggestions for utilizing their ideas in the real world. --Howard Rothman
Book Description
Zero Space defines a business model in which an organization achieves success without owning assets or needing management, by being, in the authors' words, "all brains and no body." In a zero space organization, knowledge is the only true currency, and people are the business's assets and its investors in future success.
Through eight new organizational principles the authors illustrate how "zero-mindedness" is essential for the new economy. Just as organizations will have to exist in less tangible, less prescribed forms, so will thinking have to become less departmentalized, less closely guarded. This new open-mindedness or "zero mind-set" targets knowledge so that an organization applies it when and where it is really needed.
Customer Reviews:
Big difference between an idea that sounds good.......2004-03-27
and a good "sound" idea.
A book built on platitudes not repeatable results.
Zero space defines a cutting-edge management model..........2002-10-09
A very impressive book! Zero Space defines a cutting-edge management model that is relevant to both managers and consultants alike. I see this theory as a natural extension and integration of the research on high-speed management and virtual organizations. John Jones, Ph.D., Author, "The Virtual Entrepreneur"
Zero Space rates "Zero".......2002-09-10
I rate the book as "Zero." In "Zero Space" that is the highest rating!
Authors address organizational change in a knowledge-based economy. Their short stories and analogies make the book fun to read. Examples include the comparison of Zero-thinking companies to a maneuverable and highly adaptable "Tugboat" rather than a large ship. They talk of the value of communication and value of sharing information with the concise sentence "Two friends meet for a drink." The knowledge sharing, over a drink, leaves both men richer and no man poorer. This is an excellent story and representative of the superb readability of the book.
Easy and fun to read does not translate into "Easy to understand." This reader needed two passes to begin to appreciate the "Zero Space" concept and. Some of the concepts are abstract and require the reader to think in unconventional terms. Fortunately the authors offer Eight Key Features" associated with the "Zero" thinking. For example, "Zero Learning Lag" talks about training in today's businesses. The chapter is less abstract than others and presents a very good case for integration of learning with job activity in which the two become indistinguishable.
Lastly, the authors quote much of modern business literature thus offering the reader additional ways to explore the "Zero" concepts or merely to link to alternative ideas.
Zero Space Nearly Zero Value.......2002-08-08
How does one summarize a book that is impossible to understand? Simply stated, this frustrating read crumbles under the weight of its own foolishness. For example:
The reader is is advised not to share knowledge indiscriminately. But to get to "zero space" (whatever that is) one is encouraged to do just that. But, later, we are told it's OK to share all knowledge because competitive advantage is only gained by someone acting on that knowledge. Are they overlooking the fact that in order to act on something, one must first have that knowledge? Whoops.
The authors arrogantly state, "Human resource management is out and people relationship is in." This is cute but not substantiated.
The trend toward operational standardization is well appreciated, but then to leap to the assumption that this means the knowledge worker is a myth is dubious. And, again, unsubstantiated.
The first "concrete" step we are to take on this voyage to zero space is to become zero-minded, to empty our minds of preconceptions, and to allow it to move freely where it may never have gone before. The authors have evidently followed their own advice.
Average customer rating:
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Chris Burden: Beyond The Limits
Donald Kuspit , and
Chris Burden
Manufacturer: Cantz
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Sculpture
| Arts & Photography
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ASIN: 3893228357
Release Date: 1996-07-02 |
Book Description
The first comprehensive catalogue of Chris Burden's work. Over the past twenty-five years, Burden has used technology to subert the hegemony of the machine in the industrial age.
Book Description
In a career spanning more than 30 years, Sir Ranulph Fiennes has circumnavigated the globe, broken numerous records, and experienced triumph and disaster. The high points are many, but there are low points too—the failed expedition to Antarctica in 1996, when painful kidney stones forced him to turn back; and the solo and unsupported attempt to reach the North Pole in 2000, which ended in horrendous frostbite and near death. In Beyond the Limits, Fiennes looks back over a lifetime of extraordinary adventures and talks about the lessons he has taken away from each one, from the importance of preparation and leadership to the value of persistence.
Customer Reviews:
A Testament to the Human Spirit.......2005-03-04
Ranulph Fiennes is a remarkable person who set out to achieve what most considered impossible. From circumnavigating the Earth's polar axis to discovering a lost ancient city in Arabia to gut-wrenching unsupported polar treks, Fiennes shares the ups and downs of a life lived in full.
Here are the finely-distilled lessons learned of an intrepid spirit, told through captivating stories of adventure and magnificent photographs.
This book provides hard-earned, sage advice for people from all walks of life. Recommended.
Ranulph Fiennes's lifetime of adventures is documented .......2004-09-13
Sir Randolph Fiennes has been called the 'world's greatest living explorer': he's spent thirty years circumnavigating the globe, broken many exploration records, and has had both high and low moments in the process, so it's little surprise BEYOND THE LIMITS provides such a fascinating memoir and examination of these points. Ranulph Fiennes's lifetime of adventures is documented in a vivid series of lessons: add color photos and you have an outstanding achievement.
Books:
- Simple Gifts : Four Heartwarming Christmas Stories : Just Curious / Miracles / Change of Heart / Double Exposure
- Smart Talk for Achieving Your Potential: 5 Steps to Get You from Here to There
- Stranger in a Strange Land
- The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution
- The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream
- The Beck Diet Solution : Lose Weight with Confidence, Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Person
- The Buried Mirror: Reflections on Spain and the New World
- The Cancer Treatment Revolution: How Smart Drugs and Other New Therapies are Renewing Our Hope and Changing the Face of Medicine
- The Dream Giver
- The Eternal Summer: Palmer, Nicklaus, and Hogan in 1960, Golf's Golden Year
Books Index
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Reluctant Disciplinarian: Advice on Classroom Management From a Softy who Became (Eventually) a Successful Teacher
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