Synopses & Reviews
UK-based Steve Taylor has caught the eye of US and international audiences because of his ability to make enlightenment if not easy, at least accessible. The simple, stirring, and poetic reflections here comfort, inspire, and gently bring readers out of the harried, hectic day-to-day and back to the bedrock of peace, and even joy, of our true, essential, and authentic selves. He shows how this is possible when we direct our awareness out of chaos and into calm. In so doing we learn to access the present moment of any day, as Taylor writes at the book's beginning:
The Only Place
When the future is full of dread
and the past full of regret,
where can you take refuge except the present?
When maelstroms of tormenting thoughts
push back the barricades of your sanity,
the present is the calm center where you can rest.
And slowly, as you rest there
the niggling thoughts and fears dissolve
like shadows shrinking under the midday sun
until you don't need refuge any more.
The present is the only place
where there is no thought-created pain.
The present is the only place.
Review
Praise for Waking from Sleep by Steve Taylor:The most enlightening book about enlightenment I have ever read.”
Ervin Laszlo, author of Science and the Akashic Field
Review
If you open yourself to their transformative power
each piece will work its magic within you.”
from the introduction by Eckhart Tolle, author of The Power of Now and A New Earth
Every now and then a book appears that adds beautiful drops to the stream of ineffable wisdom that has flowed through the ages. The Calm Center is such a book. It opens a path to the authentic self.”
Elizabeth Lesser, author of Broken Open and cofounder of Omega Institute
Transcendent yet grounded, profound yet simple, timeless yet refreshingly new. Steve Taylors book takes flight and lifts us up, up, up beyond ourselves.”
Arjuna Ardagh, author of The Translucent Revolution
The Calm Center calls us back, encourages us on the journey, and reminds us of the joy and ease beneath all the daily trying. These poems help take us home.”
Oriah Mountain Dreamer, author of The Invitation
A beautifully written guide into the fierce, liberating aliveness within the present moment. Steve Taylors intimacy is transforming.”
Michael Bernard Beckwith, author of Life Visioning
A delightful and inspiring collection of teachings spoken from the heart of one who knows.”
Peter Russell, author of From Science to God
Synopsis
These stirring meditations and poetic reflections comfort, inspire, and gently bring readers out of the harried, hectic day-to-day and back to the bedrock of peace, and even joy, of our true, essential, and authentic selves.
The Calm Center is a guide to spiritual awakening, touching into some of the deepest and highest areas of human experience, and showing us the obstacles and landmarks that appear on the journey. All together, these pieces constitute a profound modern spiritual text that has the power to transmit awakening to the reader.
As Taylor writes at the book's beginning:
When the future is full of dread
and the past full of regret,
where can you take refuge except the present?
When maelstroms of tormenting thoughts
push back the barricades of your sanity,
the present is the calm center where you can rest.
And slowly, as you rest there
the niggling thoughts and fears dissolve
like shadows shrinking under the midday sun
until you don't need refuge any more.
The present is the only place
where there is no thought-created pain.
The present is the only place.
Synopsis
Discover the Essence of Who You Really AreThese powerful meditations and poetic reflections will comfort, inspire, and gently bring you out of the hectic day-to-day and back to the bedrock of peace, and even joy, of your true, essential, and authentic self. By encouraging you to see the limitations of your everyday, conditioned personality, Steve Taylor empowers you to step outside of it so you can breathe the fresh air of freedom. His words will guide you on a journey through the landscape of wider awareness, pointing out the obstacles and landmarks along the way to enlightenment. A profound modern spiritual text with the power to transmit awakening, The Calm Center will help you open to the deepest and highest experiences of a life fully lived.
About the Author
Dr. Steve Taylor is the author of several best-selling books on psychology and spirituality, and is a senior lecturer in psychology at Leeds Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom. For the last three years he has been included (this year at no. 31) in
Mind, Body, Spirit magazines list of the "100 most spiritually influential living people." His books, published in the United Kingdom, include
Waking from Sleep, The Fall, Out of the Darkness, Back to Sanity, and
The Meaning. His books have been published in 16 languages, including Dutch, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Italian, French, Japanese, Polish and Spanish.
The Calm Center is the first book by Taylor to be first published in the U.S.
Eckhart Tolle has described his work as "an important contribution to the shift in consciousness which is happening on our planet at present." Andrew Harvey has said of his work, "Its importance for our menacing times and for the transformation being birthed by them cannot be exaggerated."
Taylor has a PhD in Transpersonal Psychology from Liverpool John Moores University. His articles and essays have been published in over 40 academic journals, magazines and newspapers, including The Journal of Humanistic Psychology, The Journal of Consciousness Studies, The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, Psychologies, Natural Health, Kindred Spirit, and Resurgence. He and his poetic reflections have been featured on Eckhart Tolle TV, and his work has been featured widely in the media in the UK, including on BBC Breakfast, BBC World TV, Radio 4 and 5, and in The Guardian, The Independent, and The Daily Mail.
Steve lives in Manchester, England with his wife and three young children. His website is stevenmtaylor.com
Eckhart Tolle is a sought-after speaker and teacher, and the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Power of Now and A New Earth. He lives in Vancouver, Canada.
Table of Contents
Contents
Introduction by Eckhart Tolle
The Only Place
The Challenge
Divine Dissatisfaction (The Opening)
Become the Sky
The Voice inside Your Head
The Core
The Secrets
The Story
The Alchemy of Attention
The Spiritual Teacher
The Shock
The Light (from Different Lamps)
The Mask
When Problems Seem to Lie Ahead
The Struggle
The Pressure to Do
The Fall
The Sea
Space
The Smile
There Is No Need
A Moment without Thought
You Dont Have to Think
Time to Stop Striving
When You Lose Yourself
The Night Is Alive
The Wilderness
The Mellow Glow
The Fortress
The Primal Soul
The Same Substance
Death, the Mysterious Stranger
The Great Dictator
The Gentle Sway of Death
The Off-loading
The Trees
I Am Eternally Grateful
I Am One of the Free
The Play
Can You Be Happy with Nothing?
Step Outside Yourself
The World Is Reborn
The Beginning of the Universe
The Trees (2)
The Unease
The Meaning
The Strangeness
The Force
The Perfect Paradox
The End of Success
The End of Desire
Savor This World, Savor This Life
The Project
Back Home
The Essence
Acknowledgments
Index of First Lines
About the Author