"Self-realization, or spiritual awakening, is a recognition of ourselves in all things and all things in ourselves."

Author Phillips has drawn from the wisdom of numerous philosophers, gurus, rabbis, and saints, as well as from her own rich storehouse of spiritual exploration and discovery, offering readers a weekly calendar of contemplations reminiscent of the medieval Book of Hours. This calendar is intended to encourage a constant remembrance of truth. The central theme is a movement away from thinking that God is an entity outside oneself who commands and punishes, toward an understanding that God is present within everyone and everything eternally. Phillips urges readers to relinquish religions that teach that God is "up there." As her work continually stresses, God is everywhere and in all.

Each weekday is here designated as a quality that can be absorbed and utilized for greater understanding of the "finding" process referenced in the book's title. These qualities open with Sunday's contemplative "Stillness," and work toward Saturday's more active outreach, "Building Community." Each day, beginning at midnight, offers hour-based material for Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline. Each segment opens with a quotation from a wide variety of serious thinkers and devout actors, including Kabir, Francis of Assisi, Deepak Chopra, and Elie Wiesel. Underpinning these declarations, Phillips has deftly, often delightfully, composed accompaniments both poetic and pragmatic. Further, each of the segments is accompanied by poignant, thought-evoking photographs taken by the author in her global travels.

Woven within this evocative collection of philosophy, pictures, and pragmatic suggestions are some autobiographical vignettes revealing that Phillips, whose realization early in life that she is gay. caused initial trauma, including being expelled from her studies to become a nun. Recovering from these rejections, her evolutionary perceptions and acceptances gradually came to light, leading to her declaration that she is not a seeker—"there's nothing to be found." Thus evolved a wish to share her findings by boldly fashioning strategies to lessen the burdens of her fellow human beings. She reminds her audience that they, too, can forge a unique path, gaining independence, deriving from her elucidating texts the subjective tools to help others do likewise.

Phillips, who has composed eleven award-winning books and had articles widely published in distinguished journals and newspapers, has extended her pathway through teaching and facilitation of workshops, focusing on her faith in spiritual evolution and prophecy. She crossed the US by motorcycle and made an independent worldwide tour as a self-styled peace pilgrim. This latest volume of her etheric ideations, presented in prose, poetry, and picture, reaches out to readers at every phase of divine discovery, verifying that anyone can benefit themselves and others through unique, individual practice. This attractive, gift-worthy "handbook to spiritual autonomy" with its highly well-organized study structure will attract and assist serious spiritual aspirants. With empathy and a wide scope of depictions of truth, Phillips envisions and imparts a fresh design that readers can adapt and practice. Her thought-provoking and panoramic perceptions have the potential to expand readers' thought processes and, in turn, prepare them to share the author's values with an ever-expanding audience.

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