Transformations: Awakening to the Sacred in Ourselves

For many spiritual seekers, the search for the sacred is regulated by a set of prescriptions that determine the relative success or failure of the spiritual journey. Journey to just the right sacred shrine, or read just the right sacred text at precisely the right moment, and you may experience spiritual transformation. While freelance writers Cochran and Zaleski acknowledge the value of such undertakings, they argue convincingly that clogging the road to finding the sacred in the extraordinary often blinds us to the moments of transformation we may experience on our everyday paths through work, love and play. Cochran opens the volume with a dramatic retelling of her own awakening to the spiritual as she was being mugged one night on the streets of Hell's Kitchen. The authors recount their own and others' stories of the experience of the sacred in moments marked by death's pain and loss, love's powerful intimacy and the ecstatic visions of artistic creativity. The most interesting stories are those that probe the connection between cyber-space, science and spirituality. Finally, a collection of ``transforming moments'' provides a historical grounding for the book by recording the awakening experiences of figures as diverse as Wordsworth, Augustine, Ram Dass and Petaga, a Sioux medicine man. In lyrical and evocative prose, the authors remind us that an openness to the sacred within ourselves is the key to the experience of spiritual transformation in our everyday worlds. A nice companion piece to Dan Wakefield's Expect a Miracle. First serial to New Age Journal; QPB and BOMC/One Spirit selections; author tour. (Oct.)