This Month's Books
Let It Begin With You ; The Voice of Knowledge
Let It Begin With You
Your Personal World Peace Guidebook
In Let It Begin With You Viki Hurst has given us a book filled with hope, discovery and empowerment.
Hurst states, “this book was written to cultivate peace consciousness, a subtle as breath consciuosness and as critical to personal well being.” Tying the book together are her own personal journal entries made from February through April during the Iraqi war of 2003.
These entries contain her inner struggle with the issues of war and peace. I found her questions mirrored my own.
Part Two of the book is the story of Peace Pilgrim, an American woman who was a profound example of how one woman answered her own call to make peace in the world. She walked across this country for nearly thirty years carrying nothing more than a comb, a toothbrush, a pen and her brochures about peace. She relin- quished what interfered with her own inner peace so that she could become peace.
Parts Three and Four are about our own personal discovery process. We are given suggestions and guidelines, but more important, we are given questions to ask ourselves and others. Viki challenges us to take responsibility for the world we live in, for our actions and our thoughts, and to realize that they can and do make a difference.
In the words of Peace Pilgrim, “to have peace we must be peace.”
I found this book to be a catalyst inspiring the critical thinking that may just enable us all to survive as a species.
Viki Hurst is a personal success coach and consultant for one of the world's largest career transition firms. Her past careers have included newspaper reporter and editor, university professor, business owner, and corporate communications manager. She recently earned a Master's degree in Leadership Studies from the University of San Diego . Much of Viki's meditation time is spent PeaceWalking within the beautiful coastal and mountain sites of San Diego County , where she lives.
—Heidi Bonisa
The Voice of Knowledge
To believe Don Miguel Ruiz, author of the best-selling book, The Four Agreements has done it again. The Voice of Knowledge , his fifth and latest book co-authored with Janet Mills, is the book we've all been waiting for. Certain to become another classic, The Voice of Knowledge , (Amber-Allen Publishing, USA $14.00) hits the stands this month with new tools for transformation, and a powerful message about attaining inner peace.
Ruiz wants the reader to realize that all of the drama humans suffer is the result of believing in lies, mainly about ourselves. He tells us that the real conflict in the human mind is between what is truth and what is not truth between the truth and lies. Believing in the truth results in goodness, love, and happiness, while believing in lies and defending those lies leads to injustice and drama. Believing in lies creates all of the violence and abuse, all of the suffering, not only in society, but also in the individual.
Ruiz tells us that, “We are born in truth, but we grow up believing in lies.” Before we learn to speak, our true nature is to love and be happy, to explore and enjoy life. As little children, we are completely authentic. Our actions are guided by instinct and emotions, and we listen to the silent “voice of our integrity.” Once we learn a language, the people around us hook our attention and program us with knowledge. Knowledge goes into our mind and reproduces a structure inside our head. That structure—our belief system—is everything that we know, and that knowledge is contaminated with lies.
With our attention focused on all the knowledge in our head, we no longer perceive the world through the eyes of love; we only perceive what we have learned to believe. The loud “voice of knowledge” what we call thinking, comes alive inside our head, and what is that voice telling us? Mostly lies. That voice never stops talking, judging, gossiping, and abusing us. It constantly sabotages our happiness and keeps us from enjoying a reality of truth and love.
The voice of knowledge can also be called “storyteller” who lives inside our head. We learn to create stories about what we should or shouldn't be, we put our faith in the story, and then the story becomes truth for us. Ruiz says the only way to change our story is to change what we believe about ourselves. By cleaning up the lies we believe about ourselves, the lies we believe about everybody else will change.
Ruiz offers another practical solution for taming the voice inside our head, and that is to stop believing what it tells you. “If you follow two rules— don't believe yourself, and don't believe anybody else— all of the lies you believe won't survive your skepticism and will simply disappear. The truth survives our skepticism, but we cannot say the same about lies. Lies only survive if we believe them. The truth is still the truth, whether or not we believe it. That is the beauty of truth.”
Sharing his wisdom with anecdotal illustrations, Ruiz shows us how to recover the silent voice of our integrity and find inner peace. When the voice of knowledge no longer controls us, our life becomes an expression of our authentic self, just as it was before we learned to speak. Then we return to the truth, we return to love, and we live in happiness again.
Ruiz is known for taking complex human issues and turning them into simple common sense. This talent has earned him millions of fans, international acclaim, and a vote of approval from Oprah Winfrey. The Voice of Knowledge , written in an eloquent style, delivers profound wisdom in a well organized, easily digested format. The “Points to Ponder” at the end of each chapter help us to remember the highlights, and, unlike his other books, this one offers insight into the experiences that helped Don Miguel become who he is today: a man who has obviously recovered his own personal freedom, and devoted his life to helping others write their stories based on love.
The Voice of Knowledge is a magical book with the power to transform your life. It can bring you back to a state of integrity - a natural relationship with your authentic self that is based on love and truth instead of lies. But don't believe me or anybody else. Read it for yourself.
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