Eckhart Tolle needs no introduction. His bestselling books include A New Earth and The Power of Now.

Byron Katie is a popular teacher and writer. Her books include A Thousand Names for Joy (Harmony, 2008), and Loving What Is (Harmony 2006).

Michele Penn is an award-winning photographer. She lives in Florida.

Tenzin Gyatos, His Holines the XIV Dalai Lama, is the exiled spiritual leader of the Tibetan people. He is widely rrecognized as an advocate of world peace and has received many honors, including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.

Gary Quinn is a life coach and author who has helped thousands of people around the world awaken and access their true power within. He is the founder of Our Living Center—Touchstone For Life Coaching Center in Los Angeles, CA.

Part One

How to Get to the Spiritual Zone

Waking Up Your Awareness

Just as you would have started planning your fantasy Italian vacation months in advance, so too have you been planning for this adventure into the Spiritual Zone—for your whole life. Everything you have been and done has brought you exactly to this point. Every thought, feeling and experience you have had has contributed to the whole of you that you are right now—appreciate them all with gratitude that they have brought you to a tremendous spiritual opportunity on this very page at this very moment. Regrets? Sure, you've had a few—you might have awoken and got here a few months or years or even decades earlier—but remember, please, that all mistakes are learning opportunities: once bitten, twice shy. So even your mistakes have directed you to this very moment—refining your path to your point of departure.

Consider that when you were born you were in a pretty sleepy state; in fact, you spent much more than half of each day sleeping. As you have matured you have grown more and more awake; your body probably only sleeps now eight or fewer hours a day—only a third each day. You have matured from a child concerned only with survival to a self-conscious adult concerned now with how to awaken even more consciousness in yourself. Instead of questing for food and shelter and love and sex and comforts as you have done during previous developmental stages in your life, now you are setting out on your quest for spiritual meaning—and all the magic that comes with it.

You are not alone on this journey. In fact, you travel in royal company. Preceding you on the quest have been the great mystics and philosophers and initiates, for this quest had once been reserved for the spiritual elite. Times have changed. Consider the changes to physical life during the past 200 years. Even in the most prosperous countries, human beings were living very simple lives in 1800: plowing by mule, reading by candlelight, writing with quills and sending letters by horseback. Yet even these recent ancestors were well on their way to the sweeping materialism that has captivated Western and world society today. Forget plowing and planting: we now buy our factory-farmed food ripe, picked, washed, irradiated, seasoned, preserved, pre-cooked, packaged and ready for the microwave. We watch movies and listen to books on tape; we communicate by e-mail at the speed of light.

The pull of materialism brings with it inherent dissatisfactions: we have lost touch, literally, with the earth. Think about this: how often does your skin touch soil? Except for our humanized house pets, we have also lost contact with the animal kingdom. Your great-great-great-grandfather's partnership with his mule as they walked together through fields was one of the most important cooperative ventures of his life. The pause to dip his quill into his inkwell enforced frequent thoughtful moments. I imagine there was a built-in connectedness to other beings 200 years ago that sustained the spiritual lives of our great-grandparents' grandparents.

Today, we feign a connectedness to the whole of life, trying to pretend that our broadband hook-up to the World Wide Web is in itself meaningful. Yes, we can e-mail friends and strangers anywhere in the world within a matter of seconds. Sure, this is a fantastic tool—but how many times, honestly, has it enriched your spiritual life?

I believe that the descent into materialism brings with it its balancing opposite: the quest for spiritual experience. This is the very quest that drives you and me to be here together now. No doubt this hunger for spiritual experience is widely present and growing. Look at book sales statistics: self-help books are the biggest growing sector of publishing. Look how the aerobics and workout craze of the eighties has been eclipsed now by yoga studios on every block; this is a perfect demonstration of how in a very short period we have grown from being (somewhat self-indulgently) focused on our physical selves to now demanding that our workout time feeds our spiritual as well as our bodily needs.

This is all to say that you are not alone on this journey to the Spiritual Zone. Human beings are traveling to the Zone in far greater numbers than ever before. Just as you can travel to Italy by air, land or sea, people access the Zone through a multitude of means—including study of books like this, lectures, meditation, numerous spiritual practices, yoga and prayer.

All of these include the requirement of self-study. Getting to know who you are better and why you are who you are will accelerate your readiness for our departure. This will be the focus of this chapter as we wake up our consciousness in light of our three primary human components: our bodies, our minds and our hearts.

Preparing Your Body for the Spiritual Zone

Our bodies are the temples of our spirits. If we don't feed the right things to our bodies, we won't be in alignment to stay tuned and receive the messages and guidance we need. We also won't have the energy and stamina to do the work we are here to do.

I know good health—diet and exercise—is critically important for me to keep clearly tuned in to my feelings and my guidance. As we have begun to awaken as a people, we have become more aware of the importance of healthy diet. We are told we will live longer and better lives. You know what? We will also live truer lives. We must feed our bodies appropriately so that they may serve our spiritual selves effectively.

What (and how much) we take into our bodies has a profound effect on our vibrations—the rate at which our nervous systems and cellular structure harmonize with the frequencies of the Universe. If we are dulled by alcohol or overeating, our sluggish vibration can contain only heavy energy. If we are wired on caffeine or sugar, our frenetic vibration channels only scattered energy. If we are poisoned by animal antibiotics and excess hormones, our bodies will be incapable of settling into the harmonious silence where our guidance is waiting. Remember my experience in Notre-Dame in Paris? I had been meditating quietly for three weeks.

Our appetites and cravings are established by our past mistakes (which set up metabolic, as well as psychological, expectations) and by tremendous commercial and cultural influences. Simple, detoxifying diets can purify us of these influences and expectations, clearing the opportunity for truth to let us know what our bodies need in order to house and accommodate our spiritual missions more effectively.

Rather than making us slimmer, sexier, more beautiful, popular or successful—as our media-driven consumer culture would have us believe—the real need for a healthy diet is to become awake and truly available to our spiritual purpose. Once we have taken a decisive step in this direction, our bodies will act in joyful service of our spiritual intentions—and we'll find old cravings and attractions will have lost their powerful appeal. There is an old saying: 'You are what you eat.' Well, truly, you are what you think, but how you think is greatly affected by what you eat. So let's start with diet.

Eating for True Health in the Spiritual Zone

The word 'diet' is loaded with associations of overweight people wanting to slim down, hoping that depriving themselves of some kind of food indulgence will make them trimmer, happier and more loveable. Diet books, too, are constantly making their way onto the bestseller lists. Yet obesity continues to plague the Western world. Why is this? What are people so hungry for that they continually and obsessively overeat?

I believe that the vast majority of overweight people are feeding themselves to numb the pain of their alienated lives. Our consumer culture has led not-so-awake people to think that the more and better material things they possess, the more fulfilled they will feel. Yet this is not the case. Many people eat to fill the spiritual void in their lives. Some of you who are reading this book with me now are overweight. Some of you have been eating to comfort the anxiety and alienation that are inherent in a culture that has made consumerism its idol. To you, my friends, I say welcome home.

In the Spiritual Zone you will experience a connectedness with and
a belonging to the unity of all of life. Your loneliness will evaporate as you learn to forgive your mistaken (and unconscious) beliefs about separation. Food will become true pleasure and sustenance instead of ­compulsion. In the Spiritual Zone you will recognize your deepest hunger as spiritual longing, and you will know that this longing is already satisfied.

If you were planning to spend your summer exploring the hill towns of Italy, you'd want to make certain that your body was prepared for the local challenges—the steep cobblestone streets, the world's best pasta and gelato on every street corner. You might do very well to eat healthfully for the few months prior to your departure, knowing that you are more likely to enjoy the trip if your body can keep up with your interests. Preparing for your Italian vacation is an opportunity to bring more consciousness to your diet. Italy pervades your thoughts; it's easier to pass up that second serving of chocolate decadence because you know by doing so you'll feel and look better by the pool. Planning for your trip has made you more awake to your actions. It has brought more consciousness into your day-to-day decisions. The anticipation of your trip is already impacting your life.

So what should you eat/not eat in preparation for the Spiritual Zone? There is going to be a different answer for each of you. Our bodily needs are different, but what we can each immediately do in preparation for the journey is to wake up to our eating practices. Make eating a conscious practice. This way, you will be more likely to eat only what you truly want. This heightened awareness can be applied to whole meal...

The time when we walk in the shadow of death is, ironically, a time when we feel illuminated by life's true meaning. Poet and philosopher Mark Nepo has firsthand experience with this mystery--he had cancer. During his arduous recovery, he sought inspiration and guidance that would reflect his growing appreciation of life. Although this daybook is exactly what Nepo longed for as he struggled with a difficult disease, , it can be appreciated by all readers.

This collection of essays, one for every day from January 1 through December 30, offers a poet's sensibility and sensuality and gives the reader Nepo's well-harvested wisdom. "Water reflects everything it encounters," Nepo writes in a May 5 essay. "This is so commonplace that we think water is blue, when in fact it has no color.... But the water, the glorious water everywhere, has taught me that we are more than what we reflect or love. This is the work of compassion: to embrace everything clearly without imposing who we are and without losing who we are." After each entry, Nepo offers a short list of suggestions or questions to help carry the essay into the day. There are many inspirational daybooks out there. What sets this one apart is the mature poet's voice rising from a seasoned soul. --Gail Hudson

"A year's supply of inspiration every day and the perfect gift for yourself and your friends." -Oprah Winfrey

We've all been there: We know we must confront a coworker, store clerk, or friend about some especially sticky situation--and we know the encounter will be uncomfortable. So we repeatedly mull it over until we can no longer put it off, and then finally stumble through the confrontation. Difficult Conversations, by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen, offers advice for handling these unpleasant exchanges in a manner that accomplishes their objective and diminishes the possibility that anyone will be needlessly hurt. The authors, associated with Harvard Law School and the Harvard Project on Negotiation, show how such dialogues actually comprise three separate components: the "what happened" conversation (verbalizing what we believe really was said and done), the "feelings" conversation (communicating and acknowledging each party's emotional impact), and the "identity" conversation (expressing the situation's underlying personal meaning). The explanations and suggested improvements are, admittedly, somewhat complicated. And they certainly don't guarantee positive results. But if you honestly are interested in elevating your communication skills, this book will walk you through both mistakes and remedies in a way that will boost your confidence when such unavoidable clashes arise. --Howard Rothman --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Bringing together the insights of such diverse disciplines as law, organizational behavior, cognitive, family and social psychology and "dialogue" studies, Stone, Patton and Heen, who teach at Harvard Law School and the Harvard Negotiation Project, illustrate how to handle the challenges involved in effectively resolving "difficult conversations," whether in an interpersonal, business or political context. While many of their points are simplisticAdon't ignore your feelings, consider the other person's intentions, take a break from the situationAthey're often overlooked in stressful moments. Most useful are the strategies for disarming the impulse to lay blame and for exploring one's own contribution to a tense situation. Also of value are specific recommendations for bringing emotions directly into a difficult discussion by talking about them and paying attention to the way they can subtly inform judgments and accusations. If these recommendations aren't followed, the authors contend, emotions will seep into the discussion in other, usually damaging, ways. Stone, Patton and Heen illustrate their points with anecdotes, scripted conversations and familiar examples in a clear, easy-to-browse format. While "difficult conversations" may not have the intrinsic appeal of the Harvard Negotiation Project's previous bestseller, Getting to Yes, this book is a cogent resource for those who see the sense in preparing for tough talks in advance. Agent, Esther Newberg. Ad/promo; author tour. (Apr.) FYI: Patton is the co-author of Getting to Yes.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Ernest Shurtleff Holmes (1887-1960) was the founder of a movement known as Religious Science, also known as "Science of Mind," a part of the New Thought Movement. He is well known as the author of "The Science of Mind" and numerous other metaphysical books, and as the founder of Science of Mind magazine, in continuous publication since 1927. His books, radio broadcasts and recordings continue to reach an audience of thousands of people world-wide, and the principles he taught as his Science of Mind have inspired and influenced many generations of metaphysical students and teachers. Ernest Holmes was born the youngest of nine boys on January 21, 1887 on a small farm near Lincoln, Maine. He received his education in rural schools, first in Lincoln, and later at Gould's Academy in Bethel, Maine. He said: "I quit school when I was about 15 and didn't go back except to study public speaking." From 1908 to 1910, working in a store to pay his way, he attended the Leland Powers School of Expression, an acting and public speaking academy in Boston, MA. --This text refers to an alternate edition.

Ernest Holmes was an internationally recognized authority on religious psychology and the founder of the Religious Science movement, which has hundreds of centers nationwide and around the world. His inspirational books include the renowned classic The Science of Mind, This Thing Called You, Love and Law, The Art of Life, 365 Science of Mind, The Hidden Power of the Bible, and Creative Mind and Success.

Willis H. Kinnear was renowned for his work as editor of Science of Mind magazine, as well as for his coauthorship of several books with Dr. Holmes.

Ernest Holmes (1887-1960) was an internationally recognized authority on religious psychology and the founder of the Religious Science movement. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Ernest Holmes was an internationally recognized authority on religious psychology and the founder of the Religious Science movement, which has hundreds of centers nationwide and around the world. His inspirational books include the renowned classic The Science of Mind, This Thing Called You, Love and Law, The Art of Life, 365 Science of Mind, The Hidden Power of the Bible, and Creative Mind and Success.

Willis H. Kinnear was renowned for his work as editor of Science of Mind magazine, as well as for his coauthorship of several books with Dr. Holmes.

Martin Mellish has been studying and teaching Tai Chi for over thirty years. He is a certified hypnotherapist and Yoga teacher and teaches Tai Chi in Seattle, USA. He holds a Master's degree in Mathematics from Cambridge University, and has published articles with both 'Qi' Magazine and 'Tai Chi' Magazine. In addition to his Tai Chi practice, Martin Mellish is a technical rock climber, dancer and martial artist. He has travelled extensively in China to practice Tai Chi, and to explore the sacred mountains and minority cultures of Western China and Tibet.

Stephen Hawking on The Grand Design

How can we understand the world in which we find ourselves? Over twenty years ago I wrote , to try to explain where the universe came from, and where it is going. But that book left some important questions unanswered. Why is there a universe--why is there something rather than nothing? Why do we exist? Why are the laws of nature what they are? Did the universe need a designer and creator?

It was Einstein’s dream to discover the grand design of the universe, a single theory that explains everything. However, physicists in Einstein’s day hadn’t made enough progress in understanding the forces of nature for that to be a realistic goal. And by the time I had begun writing A Brief History of Time, there were still several key advances that had not yet been made that would prevent us from fulfilling Einstein’s dream. But in recent years the development of M-theory, the top-down approach to cosmology, and new observations such as those made by satellites like NASA’s COBE and WMAP, have brought us closer than ever to that single theory, and to being able to answer those deepest of questions. And so Leonard Mlodinow and I set out to write a sequel to A Brief History of Time to attempt to answer the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. The result is The Grand Design, the product of our four-year effort.

In The Grand Design we explain why, according to quantum theory, the cosmos does not have just a single existence, or history, but rather that every possible history of the universe exists simultaneously. We question the conventional concept of reality, posing instead a "model-dependent" theory of reality. We discuss how the laws of our particular universe are extraordinarily finely tuned so as to allow for our existence, and show why quantum theory predicts the multiverse--the idea that ours is just one of many universes that appeared spontaneously out of nothing, each with different laws of nature. And we assess M-Theory, an explanation of the laws governing the multiverse, and the only viable candidate for a complete "theory of everything." As we promise in our opening chapter, unlike the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life given in the , the answer we provide in The Grand Design is not, simply, "42."

(Photo © Philip Waterson, LBIPP, LRPS)

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Starred Review. The three central questions of philosophy and science: Why is there something rather than nothing? Why do we exist? Why this particular set of laws and not some other? No one can make a discussion of such matters as compulsively readable as the celebrated University of Cambridge cosmologist Hawking (A Brief History of Time). Along with Caltech physicist Mlodinow (The Drunkard's Walk), Hawking deftly mixes cutting-edge physics to answer those key questions. For instance, why do we exist? Earth occupies a "Goldilocks Zone" in space: just the perfect distance from a not-too-hot star, with just the right elements to allow life to evolve. On a larger scale, in order to explain the universe, the authors write, "we need to know not only how the universe behaves, but why." While no single theory exists yet, scientists are approaching that goal with what is called "M-theory," a collection of overlapping theories (including string theory) that fill in many (but not all) the blank spots in quantum physics; this collection is known as the "Grand Unified Field Theories." This may all finally explain the mystery of the universe's creation without recourse to a divine creator. This is an amazingly concise, clear, and intriguing overview of where we stand when it comes to divining the secrets of the universe. 41 color illus. throughout, 7 b&w cartoons.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Susanne F. Fincher, MA, is a Jungian-oriented psychotherapist, a Licensed Professional Counselor, a Board Certified Art Therapist, and an internationally known expert using mandala-making for self-exploration. Through her workshops on creativity, people are able to engage their inner resources for insight, healing, and self-expression. Visit her web site at www.creatingmandalas.com.