Wisdom in unusual abundance and simplicity

Over the past seven years, hundreds of authors have accompanied me on my morning and evening walks. Many have wowed me with amazing insights. Still, as each book draws to a close, I recognise that my world has changed only incrementally. Not so with Philip Sherherd's Radical Wholeness.

Radical Wholeness is a thesis on the origins of wisdom. No - make that Wisdom. No - make that WISDOM.

Shepherd delivers a beautiful, simple conceptual framework. Being delivered in words, it can only be conceptual. Yet it is the most compelling exposition I have encountered for how to outgrow the constraints of living a conceptualised life. Love to escape your current frustrations and step into a world of ineffable beauty? A world to which you belong? Long to address a gnawing sense of incompleteness within your being? Need a radically new approach to avoiding wider ecological disaster? Or finding more meaning in your relationships with anyone and everyone? Shepherd's approach is relevant to all Life's challenges. And it is simple.

Shepherd delivers a compassionate, gentle manifesto. The lyrical beauty of his expression may make the hairs on your forearms stand to attention. Or that may be a side effect of the incisive simplicity of his gentle message. Or those hairs may have lost their enthusiasm and responsiveness to intrinsic beauty. But I would challenge anyone to read this book and not be profoundly altered by its beautiful insights into Life and what it means to be fully human.

14 people found this helpful

Everything about this book was extraordinary!

I enjoyed every minute of listening to Phillips’s voice. His care and concern for us and this subject is evident in all of the varied aspects of ‘voice’.

And the message: That we’re thinking with a portion of our beings rather than thinking with our entire beings.

Philip begins with an examination of what is modern day culture for many of us: “presently consumer based, patrifocal, reductionistic, technologically driven, information-obsessed, and individualistic.”

How our culture effects us: “of all the lessons we learn in the public school system, the primary one is to subdue the energies of the body and maximize the facility of the head for manipulating verbal and symbolic information”

And a great deal of research of several native peoples who possess more than ‘5’ senses and think from a place deep within their bodies.

I’ll listen again. Philip included exercises and meditations for bringing our entire being into our thought processes, a gift I will always appreciate!

5 people found this helpful

fantastic guide to spirituality

I loved everything about this book. I said meditating for maybe 8 years but this book took me to a deeper level

4 people found this helpful

Brilliant thesis, beautifully read!

This book vividly identifies a huge blind spot in our modern, Western culture: we are stuck in our heads and it is at the root of own self-destruction. Luckily, the author provides a route back to our wholeness. And the author's naration is both engaging and soothing.

4 people found this helpful

WHAT NOW PHILIP??

Can you believe I stumbled on this book in my sleep?? My first time leaving my audiobook on and falling asleep so it automatically played another book included in the membership that was in the same category of books I read. So when I woke up I was LEGIT NERVOUS because I couldn’t believe my mind was being stimulated as I slept. So that day I decided to see what my mind was up to all night. Radical wholeness has been quite an experience. I find myself thinking about getting more reading done and there is an uneasiness that I battle with. ‘WHAT NOW PHILIP??’ best describes the guilt that comes over me from having an intimately understanding of the many ways we disconnect and contribute to it. But by the time he brings me full circle into the present my guilt transforms into gratitude. I am grateful for this work and it’s wisdom. I have the universe to thank for delivering it to me personally.

3 people found this helpful

Excellent approach to life

I had the pleasure of taking a workshop with Philip almost exactly two years ago. Finding this book has been so helpful for reintegrating the teachings learned at the workshop. I am so grateful for this work, and feel them even stronger now after reading this.
The philosophy in here is much like the way that I started thinking about life from a young age, and it fulfills that piece of me.
My critique on the presentation of the valuable material, is that it is from the perspective of an able-bodied middle-aged cis white man, that has gone slightly unchecked. There are a few moments where I recognized that a little more thought could go into it. Those specifically being racist, gender binaried, and ableist perspectives. I do not fault Philip for he knows not of the entirety of the soup we swim in. Those of us with privilege have a much harder time seeing it, but I hope that we all continue to grow towards recognizing our privilege and how it can be ostracizing for those who are neglected or addressed inappropriately.
Well worth the listen, but being mindful of that perspective is helpful, so that we may integrate greater wholeness into all of our beings.

2 people found this helpful

Balanced, grounded and informative

Loved the content. Good examples from both science, culture and experience. Occasionally I got lost with too much detail and felt like I needed to relisten to fully grasp.

2 people found this helpful

Nothing Compares

This is the perfect book for our time; a guide to discovering our way through it.

2 people found this helpful

Clip and note sharing

The book is amazing, the audio application has a glaring lack.
When notes and clips are stored, the sharing feature has been removed.
Poor choice from the developer.

1 person found this helpful

Lost me half way through

I like the initial concepts of this book and how it challenges the listener to entertain non-western ways of thought. However, about half way through the narrative becomes unnecessarily long-winded and obtuse which detracts from the concepts of paying attention to the messages from your body.