Desert Wisdom: Sacred Middle Eastern Writings from the Goddess Through the Sufis
This book tries to invent an overarching Middle Eastern spirituality using 3000 years of religious history and a dozen widely disparate cultures-something that cannot be done. There is no more a single coherent spirituality of the Middle East than of the West (which Douglas-Klotz deplores) or of Native Americans (which he applauds). Indeed, beliefs as divergent as those of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom and the Mandeans can only be compared. The author frequently uses "expanded translation," a lengthy commentary in verse, to explicate much shorter selections of ancient poetry. But often these expansions err, e.g., ancient spirituality cannot be understood in terms of modern physics ("wave and particle") or New Age thought ("vibration"). If Desert Wisdom has little to commend it in theoretical terms, it has less as a work of popular spirituality, offering meditations consisting mainly of mantras, centering methods, guided imaginings, and breathing exercises-useful practices but already more thoroughly treated elsewhere. Not recommended.James F. DeRoche, Alexandria, Va.Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to thePaperbackedition.