Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of Reality

This book came highly recommended by Tim Ferris and a podcast guest, if I remember correctly, but a few chapters in it was just not resonating with me at all, and I've abandoned it. To me it felt outdated, out-of-touch, and cynical. Perhaps I've just read too much other, similar, but better stuff. Perhaps I'm the cynical one. Either way, it didn't grab me, it didn't interest me, and it's not going to waste any more of my time.

There is some wisdom (& entertainment) in here but I was put off by his guru-ness & tendency that goes with this to repeat a statement that sounds true, but without deconstructing it so that it doesn't need to be endlessly repeated.

Amazing book. Audio version suffers from poor recording quality, but still. I don't consider myself spiritual yet this book was very thought provoking. There are a bit of mumbo-jumbo-knows-everything-guru parts but if you can look past that - can not recommend it enough.

Some quotes from the book I enjoyed below. There's lots to think about in this book.

“The religion that makes people good makes people bad, but the religion known as freedom makes all people good, for it destroys the inner conflict that makes people devils.”


“Part of waking up is that you live your life as you see fit. And understand: That is not selfish. The selfish thing is to demand that someone else live their life as YOU see fit. That's selfish. It is not selfish to live your life as you see fit. The selfishness lies in demanding that someone else live their life to suit your tastes, or your pride, or your profit, or your pleasure. That is truly selfish.”