Review: Rudolf Steiner would Enjoy Reading this Book!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 13, 2012
Having read just about everything that PD Ouspensky wrote, my favorite being, "Tertium Organum" you can just imagine my surprise and delight to find this book by Karl Hollenbach on "Applying Metaphysical Principles" What a treat it was to read how Hollenbach takes the often confusing and extremely complicated principles that Ouspensky and Gurdjieff has exhaustively written on and bring them into a condensed and understandable manner.The issue with Ouspensky and Gurdjieff is it takes forever to explain their thoughts as they cannot be brought into simple terms. Or so I thought. It is remarkable the philosophical depth of the thinking of Hollenbach, in that he, for the first time in my lifetime, can demonstrate these concepts in a form where even I can articulate them into a layman's language.The best example to use from his book is the way Hollenbach illustrates the "Levels of Perceptions" with Melville's "Moby Dick" with the four levels of meaning. I have wrote on and have taught the esoteric meaning of Herman Melville's Moby Dick in the past but never in the manner that Hollenbach lays out. When I read and seen the tables, I was stunned by the simplicity of it. You can bet I'll be using this model from now on.Another "ah" moment came when I read the sections on "Duality" and "Reality and Actuality" Again,  areas that I have studied and wrote on, imagine my amazement to see again, how Hollenbach took these seemly complex concepts and broke them down in a way that just about anyone could understand.Duality along with "Reality and Actuality"  are major aspects in Quantum Physics and in Ancient Eastern Text. Again, Hollenbach is able to give examples that anyone new to the subject can grasp while maintaining the respect from both camps of physics and eastern sages.This book can be many things to many people. To some, it can be a great guide to learning self awareness. To others, a great teaching guide to bring the complex constructs into a simple and easy to  understand manner. To others, the much needed tool to finely understand and grasp the meaning of life's mysteries.For me, it is a little of all the above. It doesn't matter if you started your journey with Emerson, Alcott, Thoreau, Hawthorne, or with Ouspensky, Gurdjieff, Leo Tolstoy, or through the sciences with Planck, Schrodinger, Einstein, or even Osho. What matters is you end up here! The way Hollenbach has brought all these schools of thought under one roof in a manner that is  not only understandable but of great benefit is remarkable beyond measure!Thank you Mr. Hollenbach for an excellent treatise on such deep subject!