Publisher Description

A personal account of searching for spiritual understanding initially outside Christian teaching, this book takes the position that there are as many ways to God as there are paths up a mountain. Interpreting his own spiritual breakthroughs, the author describes them as "windows of realization" and likens them to the sensation of being made whole. The book describes his journey from Eastern mantra-style meditation to the Orthodox "prayer of the heart" and details how a love of nature and a desire to do good played an important part in his spiritual unfoldment.

Author Biography

After an unhappy start at university and then in the City, John Butler went out to South America to 'make the world a better place'. It wasn't so easy. Alone on a mountainside one day, an inner voice said, 'To make whole, be whole'. This was a turning point in his life. He realised that, before being able to help others, he first had to work on himself. Once back in England, he found a method of meditation which opened up a whole new way of seeing.

Review

He has a beautiful, vulnerable style of writing about his life's experience, which I find most absorbing - almost captivating. But the whole purpose behind the book is to share the insights he has received over the many years he has been struggling to learn at least something about true prayer.' From the Foreword of the Very Reverend Daniel Joseph of the Russian Orthodox Church This book is naive in the best sense of the word. Essentially it is the reflections of an elderly man on a very full life lived in quest of God; the life itself interspersed with meditations which take the reader deeper into the doubts and illuminations which he experiences along the way. It is told with a beautiful simplicity, yet almost every page will bear re-reading.A" The Watkins Review, Summer 2009 'This is an extraordinary book by an extraordinary man, who happens to be a member of my parish in Nottingham. I have been reading it slowly since the moment when it became available, marvelling at the life experience, wisdom, and spiritual teaching that John offers us here. I highly recommend this book for its fascinating, unusual, and deeply spiritual teaching. Composed from notes, poems, and vivid insights that have been collected over the years by a remarkable man, this is a book which, with huge generosity and honesty, offers these insights to all of its readers.' Mary Cunningham, lecturer in patristic theology at Nottingham University, Published in The Messenger - journal of the Orthodox Church of Russian Origin, in England

Review Quote

This is an extraordinary book by an extraordinary man, who happens to be a member of my parish in Nottingham. I have been reading it slowly since the moment when it became available, marvelling at the life experience, wisdom, and spiritual teaching that John offers us here. I highly recommend this book for its fascinating, unusual, and deeply spiritual teaching. Composed from notes, poems, and vivid insights that have been collected over the years by a remarkable man, this is a book which, with huge generosity and honesty, offers these insights to all of its readers.

Details