“The Great Work Of Your Life – A Guide for the Journey to Your True Calling” – By Stephen Cope
As I mentioned in one of my previous posts Eight Limbs of Yoga – Yoga is intended to be a way of living, so that we can eventually understand the true purpose of our life. This book in some way revolves around the same idea. I therefore wanted to write a personal review on this book.
If you wish to skip the introductions, then scroll right down to the “My Review” section 🙂
[bctt tweet=”If you’re feeling lost in your own life’s journey, The Great Work of Your Life may help you to find and to embrace your true calling.” username=”SweetDemise16″]
ABOUT THE AUTHOR (2018)
Stephen Cope is the Senior Scholar-in-Residence at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. He is a Western-trained psychotherapist who writes and teaches about the relationship between Western psychological paradigms and the Eastern contemplative traditions, and is the bestselling author of The Great Work of Your Life and Yoga and the Quest for the True Self. In its 25th anniversary edition, Yoga Journal named him one of the most important innovators in the developing field of American yoga.
WHAT THIS BOOK CLAIMS TO OFFER…
An inspiring guide to finding your life’s purpose—what spiritual teachers call dharma—through mindfulness and self-exploration.
Stephen Cope says that in order to have a fulfilling life you must discover the deep purpose hidden at the very core of yourself. The secret to unlocking this mystery, he asserts, can be found in the pages of a two-thousand-year-old spiritual classic called the Bhagavad Gita—an ancient allegory about the path to dharma, told through a timeless dialogue between the fabled archer, Arjuna, and his divine mentor, Krishna.
If you’re feeling lost in your own life’s journey, The Great Work of Your Life may help you to find and to embrace your true calling.
[bctt tweet=”You will not walk away from this book feeling like you had wasted your time. You will definitely gain something from it. It just won’t be what you thought it would be!” username=”SweetDemise16″]
MY REVIEW
You will definitely GAIN & BENEFIT from this book!!! It just won’t be in a way you expected to…
WHAT I LOVE ABOUT THE BOOK…
Stephen Cope clearly has a lot of wisdom to share. I found this book to be very inspiring and motivating. It will definitely bring out (in it’s readers) the inner urge to want to do better, and to live life to its full potential. Most of us get so wound-up in our every day “busy” routine, that we forget to question our true purpose in life. It’s as if we run on auto pilot. This book will for sure make you rethink your own life. In other words, it will make you wonder about what your true calling/dharma may be, and will make you want to work towards it.
WHAT I WISH IT HAD MORE OF…
This book is a great read and an eye opener! But I wish this book focused more on “how” the recognition of “ones true calling” can be possible for “everyday people”, who encompass majority of the population. The author has used numerous individuals as examples in this book to explain to us what their true calling/vocation was, how they identified with it, and how they worked towards it. However, none of these examples are of everyday people (like most of us), who have work obligations, family obligations, financial obligations, time constraints etc. How can individuals like us find and pursue our dharma, and yet survive in todays world?
CONCLUSION
Stephen Cope’s examples include individuals born with a natural gifts, or writer/poets who had years to spend in solitude simply composing and writing, or individuals whose family members helped them identify their dharma at a young age and supported them in their pursuit towards it. Most of us do not have such luxury. Most of us don’t even know what our dharma may be.
So although this book has been wonderfully written, it doesn’t fully deliver what it says it will. But inspite of that, you will still walk away from it feeling inspired and wanting to do better for yourself. And if not that, you will have at least felt like you read a summary of the Bhagavad Gita. Somehow, Stephen Cope has very beautifully laid out in this book, highlights of the teachings of the ancient Hindu scripture – Bhagavad Gita.
You will not walk away from this book feeling like you had wasted your time. You will definitely gain something from it. It just won’t be what you thought it would be!
[bctt tweet=”If not more, then you will have at least felt like you read a summary of the Bhagavad Gita. Somehow Stephen Cope has very beautifully highlighted in this book the teachings of the ancient Hindu scripture – Bhagavad Gita.” username=”SweetDemise16″]