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Ashton asks his readers to be “skeptical but receptive” and to open their minds “to new avenues of thought” as he shares his accumulated life wisdom and positive spiritual bent in this brief but compelling exploration of Infinite Wisdom and “our position in creation as creators of our own destinies.” Ashton explains that this path through life’s chaos begins with paying more attention to personal intuition and natural law than to following the herd with religious dogma and prescriptions. However, Ashton respects all spiritual paths but cautions against any facet of religion that motivates followers with fear or those who cannot answer simple but natural questions about spirituality. Western society tends to reinforce attributes that hold seekers back from understanding their true nature as happy, interconnected beings for the viewpoint of humans as competitive, ego-based individuals. Ashton’s personal experiences as a surgeon and a human being struggling with self-awareness give him ample examples of the chaotic and false thought processes people are often taught to embrace, even when raised in the most loving families: “We have been taught our whole lives that we are imperfect and undeserving of contentment.”
According to Ashton, the good news is that it is never too late to correct the course of life’s journey. Ashton’s techniques for expanding personal awareness are drawn from many perspectives and philosophies. Readers will enjoy wisdom quotations and advice from many scholars and spiritual leaders that support the author's assertions, such as the familiar contemporary voices of Deepak Chopra, John Gray, Esther and Jerry Hicks, Nicholas Perricone, Helen Shucman, Eckart Tolle, Neal Donald Walsch (among many others) and the wisdom of highly practiced spiritual leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi and the Dalai Lama. The volume contains a helpful bibliography that will lead readers on a path of self-discovery to include many other worthy, relevant books not mentioned in this volume.
Ashton speaks to the reader clearly and practically, as a friend and neighbor, and not from a lofty pedestal of self-aggrandizement, spiritual snobbery, or through overly esoteric, hard-to-grasp concepts. He eagerly shares his struggles and failings, always encouraging others to grow beyond the pitfalls he encountered in his life by following simple, clear steps outlined in several chapters. The physician’s passion for lending a hand to others shines throughout the volume, and his real-world expertise in his long surgical career lends another layer of credibility and authority to his spiritual assertions. Ashton writes, “I have compiled information from many different sources. In some cases, I cannot accurately define these sources or even defend all the decisions I have made along the way. Yet in awareness, I understand one thing. All these sources and decisions point in the same direction—Love governs all and love is the supreme law of life.” Ultimately, this self-love and love of life glimmer through this practical guidebook's lines.
Whether a reader is spiritually adept or a beginner on the path, there is much insightful food for thought to inspire and uplift even the most knowledgeable, unknowledgeable, or soul-weary traveler. It is liberating to know that, ultimately, humans are truly in control of their thoughts and their destinies and can, with practice, rise above the chaos of this nerve-wracking world.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review