Soul without Shame
A Guide to Liberating Yourself from the Judge Within
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3.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Liberate yourself from the limitations and judgments imposed by your inner critic, and develop “soul qualities” to experience freedom and vitality
Whether we call it the inner critic or the superego, most of us have a judge within who nags us and is constantly on our case. Byron Brown provides a comprehensive guide to understanding how the inner critic works as well as practical, positive suggestions for breaking free of it. Using straightforward language and everyday examples, you’ll explore:
• Where the inner judge came from
• How it operates
• Why it trips us up
• Why we believe we need it
• How to develop awareness of it
• How to disengage from it
• The "soul qualities" we can develop to weaken its influence
Each chapter begins with an episode of the story of Frank and Sue to illustrate the insidious nature of the inner critic inside all of us. A simple exercise is also included at the end of each chapter, designed to help readers move along the path of self-discovery.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Brown, a disciple of the Diamond Way Approach, a "modern spiritual path based on self-understanding," encourages readers to rediscover their life spirit by silencing their inner critics in this dense and rather ponderous guidebook. Chapters alternately muse on soul characteristics such as compassion and explain how the self-defeating superego, which the author calls "the judge," can be identified, understood and finally disengaged. Inexplicably, Brown never refers to the many classic and contemporary thinkers who have written brilliantly on these topics (a bibliography lists only eight books, four by Diamond Approach founder A.H. Almaas, who also provides the book's foreword). Reading this book is thus a little like sitting at the Indy 500 and watching someone try to reinvent the wheel. Painstaking explications of commonly understood concepts, frequent restatement and a hectoring tone ("The fact is, you do not recognize yourself as soul. You do not know the source of your own aliveness") make for laborious reading. Some of Brown's insights--particularly about the ways bodily awareness can both signal and halt the self-judgment cycle--are helpful, but fuzzy generalities far outnumber practical suggestions, while stories that might ground the book in actual experience are often unintentionally funny: "Frank observed the hairs sticking out of his nostrils and wished his fingers didn't enjoy scraping the inside of his nose so much."
