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The Road Less Travelled by M. Scott PeckA New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth |
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"Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult - once we truly understand and accept it - then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters." These thought-provoking words open "The Road Less Travelled" written almost 25 years ago by Scott Peck - then an unknown psychiatrist. It has gone on to become the second best-selling nonfiction book of all time after The Bible. It uniquely makes a connection between the science of psychiatry and the more elusive concept of spirituality. It is a remarkable book that has inspired millions. I discovered the book over 10 years ago when I was living in America and my marriage was starting to break up. This book along with Stephen Covey's The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People - helped change the way I saw the world and my understanding of it. The two books together had a huge impact on me and today I am not quite the same person I once was. Take a look at the Amazon reviews of the book on amazon.com or amazon.co.uk And don't be put off by the reviewers that don't like the author's views on religion. What ever your religous beliefs - this book is well worth reading - take what has meaning for you and push the remainder aside. Book  A World Waiting to be Born by M. Scott PeckThe Search for Civility People of the Lie by M. Scott PeckThe Hope for Healing Human Evil The Different Drum by M. Scott PeckCommunity Making and Peace The Road Less Travelled by M. Scott PeckA New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth Link  The Stages of Spiritual Growth  Article by M.Scott Peck Person  M. Scott Peck Psychiatrist & authorQuotation  On being open by M. Scott Peck Psychiatrist & author On community by M. Scott Peck Psychiatrist & author On dedication to the truth by M. Scott Peck Psychiatrist & author On evil by M. Scott Peck Psychiatrist & author On life being difficult by M. Scott Peck Psychiatrist & author On the defintion of love by M. Scott Peck Psychiatrist & authorQuotations from The Road Less Travelled:  By their openness, people dedicated to the truth live in the open, and through the exercise of their courage to live in the open, they become free from fear.M. Scott Peck, Psychiatrist & author A life of total dedication to the truth also means a life of willingness to be personally challenged.M. Scott Peck, Psychiatrist & author There really are people and institutions made up of people, who respond with hatred in the presence of goodness and would destroy the good insofar as it is in their power to do so. They do this not with conscious malice but blindly, lacking awareness of their own evil -- indeed, seeking to avoid any such awareness. As has been described of the devil in religious literature, they hate the light and instinctively will do anything to avoid it, including attempting to extinguish it. They will destroy the light in their own children and in all other beings subject to their power. Evil people hate the light because it reveals themselves to themselves. They hate goodness because it reveals their badness; they hate love because it reveals their laziness. They will destroy the light, the goodness, the love in order to avoid the pain of such self-awareness. My second conclusion, then, is that evil is laziness carried to its ultimate, extraordinary extreme. As I have defined it, love is the antithesis of laziness. Ordinary laziness is a passive failure to love. Some ordinarily lazy people may not lift a finger to extend themselves unless they are compelled to do so. Their being is a manifestation of nonlove; still, they are not evil. Truly evil people, on the other hand, actively rather than passively avoid extending themselves. They will take any action in their power to protect their own laziness, to preserve the integrity of their sick self. Rather than nurturing others, they will actually destroy others in this cause. If necessary, they will even kill to escape the pain of their own spiritual growth. As the integrity of their sick self is threatened by the spiritual health of those around them, they will seek by all manner of means to crush and demolish the spiritual health that may exist near them. I define evil, then, as the exercise of political power -- that is, the imposition of one’s will upon others by overt or covert coercion -- in order to avoid extending one’s self for the purpose of nurturing spiritual growth. Ordinary laziness is nonlove; evil is antilove. M. Scott Peck, Psychiatrist & author Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult - once we truly understand and accept it - then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.M. Scott Peck, Psychiatrist & author I define love thus: "The will to extend one's self for the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth.M. Scott Peck, Psychiatrist & author
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