4 out 0f 5 stars
Clear Thinking In Your Goals And Social Connections
Revolution Of the Mind: Caught Between Heaven And Hell is a personal development
book aimed at helping the reader to get his life in order so that he or she is
a success, particularly in the areas of work and relationships. The book has some self-help aspects, that is,
practical suggestions to improve your life; however, it is mainly concerned
with providing a logical, coherent philosophy as a foundation from which
individual decisions can easily be made.
Terry Clark takes the Bible and Christianity as his source of
ideology. This may at first discourage
readers; however, Clark’s ideas usually are what are called ‘common sense’ and
have a much wider application than the Christian Church. This book is in agreement with the notions of
various traditional wisdoms, including Taoism and Buddhism, Western philosophy
and, most importantly, modern psychology.
The book will appeal to a wide variety of readers, ranging from those
who are unhappy with their life, to those interested in New Age belief, and
again to skilled practitioners such as counsellors and even academics.
Put over-simplistically Clark argues that actions
arise from thoughts and feelings. These
mental activities need to be carried out in the light of truth, rather than
ignorance. Wisdom in applying truth to
the particulars of your life is needed.
The words we speak are essential in defining us and connecting us to
others, and need to be chosen carefully.
Actions create the world we live in.
Patience is required to see personal change through. Faith (the use of the imagination to produce
results) is essential in personal change.
Goals and relationships need to be established in the context of love.
The whole process of personal change needs to be managed carefully in order to
maximize energy, otherwise the benefits are lost. The book of course contains much more than
this.
Clark often uses the term “spiritual.” For those who are not religiously inclined it
is important to note exactly what Clark means by this term. The “spiritual” things talked about are all
aspects of the human mind: generally “thoughts” and “feelings”, and more
specifically cognitive actions such as “faith” (holding firmly to an idea),
“love” and “patience”. Looking a little
deeper we see that Clark’s model of consciousness is very similar to that of
the philosopher Rene Descartes.
Descartes believed “that conscious minds exist on a separate,
non-physical level.” He “was a dualist.
He thought that there are separate but interacting realms, the mental and the
material.” The mental realm had “none of
the spatial characteristics of matter – namely, size, shape and motion.” (David
Papineau. Introducing Consciousness:
Icon Books, 2010, p. 26-28) Clark, at
the beginning of his text, says that thought and feeling, which are for him
“spiritual”, are “intangible” and “supernatural”; that is, not of the material
world. If the reader does not agree with
this idea it is easy to simply replace the word ‘spiritual’ with the word
‘psychological’. Clark’s text will not
at all suffer from this ideological shift.
Going deeper it should be pointed out that the
various traditional wisdoms have a certain commonality. For example, Martin Aronson (ed.) in his
Jesus And Lao Tzu: The Parallel Sayings (Seastone, 2000, p.80-81) compares
Jesus’ saying:
“Be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes
his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and
on the unrighteous. Matthew 5 : 45”
to Lao Tzu’s:
“Heaven and earth join
And sweet rain falls
Beyond the command of people
Yet evenly upon all. Tao Te Ching 32”
Similarly, Marcus Borg (ed.) in Jesus And Buddha:
The Parallel Sayings (Ulysses Press, p. 14-15) compares Jesus’ saying:
“Do to others as you would have them do to
you. Luke 6 : 31”
to Buddha’s:
“Consider others as yourself. Dhammapada 10 . 1”
Clark uses both of these Bible texts as part of his
argument. Many other overlaps of
particular texts could of course be quoted.
More broadly, in terms of scriptural principles
Clark writes: “It is easy to use time wisely when you know what is going to
happen next.” This is very similar to
the Buddhist idea of the general path to enlightenment. (Chogyam Trungpa. The Truth Of Suffering And
The Path Of Liberation: Shambhala, 2009, p. 97 – 99) Of course neither ideology is saying that an
exact course in life can be set.
In another place Clark writes:
“Everything that you do and think is of great
importance because what you do in life will echo through eternity, forever
unchanging and shaping the future.”
This is of course basically the same as the
Buddhist idea of Karma. (Chogyam
Trungpa, p. 48-59)
My point in making these comparisons of wisdom
traditions is that Revolution Of The Mind need not be limited solely to a
Christian audience.
Much of Revolution Of The Mind is naturalist
philosophy, with repeated comparisons made between the life cycle of the orchid
and human life. Similarly, much is made
of the metaphor of reaping and harvesting.
This same technique is made in Taoist philosophy. For example in Wen – tzu we read:
“An orchid does not lose its fragrance just because
no one smells it, a boat does not sink just because no one rides in it, and an
exemplary person does not stop practicing the Way just because no one is aware
of it: that is how they are by nature.” (Thomas Cleary, tr., Shambhala, 1992,
p.80)
Once again my point is that Clark’s book should
appeal to an audience wider than just Christians.
This traditional wisdom approach to life could be
dismissed by those of a hard headed scientific approach. It should be noted, however, that Clark’s
whole argument is very much in agreement with cognitive psychology, which is
the most researched and statistically most effective method for initiating
personal change. A basic notion which
cognitive psychology shares with ‘folk psychology’ is that it “explains actions
by referring to mental process”. We say
a person “thought” something, that is, “we are saying that … [they] … had a
certain belief”. We are also saying
that people “want” something, that is, “we are saying that … [they] … had a
certain desire.” (Dylan Evans. Introducing Psychology: Icon Books, 2010, p.
4-5) Clark’s whole book is based on the
idea that we should change our beliefs and desires, that is our thoughts, in
order to achieve happiness and success.
Clark writes:
“Thoughts and feelings generate momentum that
creates action.’
“Actions are important because actions activate a
change in our reality.”
More specifically Clark argues that a change in
thoughts results in a change in our personal system which in turn will “give
birth to a new reality and the new reality will change the life of everyone who
comes into contact with the paradigm shift.”
Further Clark argues:
“It is hard to rationalize with someone who has
fear because fear is not rational.”
This type of statement about feelings is a basic
notion of the particular cognitive psychology school of Rational Emotive
Behavior Therapy. (Albert Ellis & Arthur Lange. How To Keep People From
Pushing Your Buttons: Citadel, c1994, p. 18-20)
Clearly Clark is not talking complete religious
nonsense.
Of course Clark does have his original
contributions to cognitive psychology.
He writes:
“An immature person will take credit for Dreams
that blossom and Relationships that grow and blame other for Nightmares that
destroy and Relationships that wither away.”
Martin E.P. Seligman in the seminal book Learned
Optimism (Random House, 1992, p. 5, 49-52) argues that, while personal
responsibility is very important, an exception should be made in the case of
depressed people, as they are OVERLY self-critical. People who do exactly what Clark is arguing
against are more happy and therefore depressed people should do it. This is a rather large ‘exception’ as:
“It is estimated that by 2020, depression will be
the second greatest contributor to the global disease burden.’ (Paul Huljich. Stress Pandemic: Mwella,
c20012, p. 6, quoting World Health Organization. Suicide Prevention (SUPRE). http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/suicideprevent/en/ Retrieved: July 15, 2011)
Clark’s point is that the danger is that “immature”
people will be created, and of course this will result in unhappiness at some
future point, despite any immediate happiness.
In arguing in this way he is in agreement with existentialist
psychology. Rollo May in Freedom And
Destiny (W.W. Norton, c1981, p,96-101) argues that, at least in the 1970’s, the
U.S. suffered from too much emphasis on freedom and not enough application of
responsibility.
More broadly Clark is often in agreement with
general psychology, especially in the practical field of counselling. While speaking about the necessity of being
careful in choosing relationships, for example, Clark writes about liars:
“Just like the dove when we spot a manipulator we
should fly as far away from them as possible.
There is no sense in trying to reason with a manipulator, we must remember
they are the masters of deception.”
Martha Stout in her book The Sociopath Next Door
(Broadway Books, 2005, p 39-49) makes clear that sociopaths are THE master
liars and manipulators. Her expert
advice, as both a successful academic and counsellor with a thriving practice,
is exactly the same as Clark’s:
“The best way to protect yourself from a sociopath
is to avoid him, to refuse any kind of contact or communication.” (p. 160)
As we have already noted Revolution Of The Mind is
chiefly about ideology, and so Clark tries to outline the ‘best’ way of
thinking. It is therefore no surprise
that, beyond psychology, the book can also be read in terms of its philosophic
implications. Of course this is not a
boring, weighty philosophic tome, but the influence of that discipline can be
found if you care to look. A Seed Of
Faith is one chapter with very clear philosophic connotations. Here Clark connects faith and the imagination. Clark writes:
“Faith begins in our imagination with a tiny
thought and it is through our imagination that faith seeks to travel from the
supernatural to the natural world.”
And elsewhere:
“The human mind is a very complex organism from
which all our God like ability comes from.
It is in the human mind where we will find the power and explosive
imagination and despite the vastness of the imagination, the human mind has the
ability to hold our consciousness, reasoning and logic. The mind is far greater than any of the
world’s greatest wonders.”
Clark argues that through our imagination we have
the ability to change our words and actions, and thus change our outer
reality. Clark here is expressing a
view similar to the Romantic philosophers, particularly Friedrich von
Schelling. Schelling believed that:
“… man could only understand his place in the
universe through an imaginative involvement with it… Man is able to parallel
the action of God in his own creative insights.
Man shares with nature the urge to create, to be self-aware. Creativity in man is faithful to the act of
creation in the divine spirit.” (Duncan
Heath. Introducing Romanticism: Icon
Books, 2010, p.67)
The similarities are I think obvious. As I have said, I don’t mean to imply that
Clark’s book is heavily philosophic, but the material is there if you want to
go searching. The reader can certainly
enjoy Revolution Of The Mind without any knowledge of philosophy.
One point of criticism is that, despite Clark’s
common sense approach, he at times takes an absolute view of things. This can be most clearly seen in the chapter A Seed Of Love. Here we read
statements like:
“Love has never lost a battle and love is perfect
and blameless. We can do all things
through love that strengthens us and gives us courage to overcome obstacles.”
Many would say that, while love is a very powerful
motivating force, and a strong catalyst of action, it is not “perfect” and it
certainly can lose battles.
Interestingly later in the chapter Clark qualifies his own statements by
noting that some relationships are at best non-productive and at their worst
downright destructive. These
relationships, according to Clark, should be actively avoided as they are a
waste of energy or even devastating.
Clearly, despite Clark’s earlier absolute statements, there are
pragmatic limits to what love can do.
Revolution Of The Mind has a number of useful
teaching aids. There are numerous colour
pictures with significant captions to help the reader remember the main points.
These illustrations are particularly beautiful.
There are three different web resources: Clark’s webpage, a Facebook
page and a Twitter link. All three Web
resources contain extra teaching material.
As a kind of metaphoric learning activity the reader is also asked to
purchase and tend a phalaenopsis orchid. The reader then keeps a journal of the
things he or she learns while carrying out the orchid activity. Finally, at the end of the book there is the
section “The Connection Scriptures” where all the quoted Biblical verses are
listed for easy reference.
Terry Clark’s Revolution Of The Mind is in the most
part a very common sense, practical book.
In general Clark is quite successful in achieving his aim of providing
the readers with a system of thought which can help them flourish in life. Although the book uses the Bible as its
reference point, a wide a variety of people can profit from reading it. It only takes a few minor adjustments for non-Christian
readers to benefit. Revolution Of The
Mind is well worth the price and I am happy to award it 4 out of 5 stars.
No comments:
Post a Comment