Book Review - Further Along The Road Less Traveled - M. Scott Peck

Sometime a year or two ago, I read the initial offering from M. Scott Peck, M.D. which was simply titled, The Road Less Traveled. At the time, that book was exactly what I needed to further foster my growth and open my eyes to different ways of thinking and progressing. This book, in accordance with it's title is just a trip, Further Along The Road Less Traveled. These books are kind of old, but haven't dated or been passed up for the knowledge they possess. If you ever become stuck, lost or in search of something more, these books are a great resource for helping you along the path of an award winning Psychiatrist's personal growth, as well as stories from his patients growth.

The hard part for me with these kind of books, is that they take me so long to read due to the great knowledge and ideals. I have to re-read pages, journal about topics, take notes on ideas, quotes and thoughts I like. I guess this is kind of a problem with all books I read... But hey, I'm learning and trying to practice what I learn. Nothing wrong with that, right?

The subtitle of this book is, The Unending Journey Towards Spiritual Growth. I think that Is important to note, as Peck really is helping the reader find their personal path through the tough ups and downs of spiritual growth. He goes to great length to bust up myths, beliefs, fallacies, and certain bad practices with a easy to follow discussion. He also doesn't seem to push any one way of thinking on the reader, which is nice, and leaves you the opportunity to analyze yourself, and make your assessment of where you are at, and where would be best to go with only his knowledge, and experience. Although, part of the growth and process that you get to go through in these 2 books is that of Dr. Peck finding his own feelings, thoughts and beliefs in religion... something that you wouldn't have thought possible in the first book, where Peck is as Agnostic as they come. He ends up finding his life is so richly enhanced through the Christian faith, and it's kind of cool to see him grow into that, and all the critical thinking that comes with it.

I'm sure several posts of critical thinking and new, or slightly reinforced ideals will come of this book. But, for this post I will simply list out many of the parts, quotes and ideas I liked from the book for reference purposes. I think it's important for me to have these to revert back to and remember why I was so captivated while reading it. So here's some of what I enjoyed or learned from:


The path this book started me on: The Road must not be seen as the final or definitive word, but merely as the beginning of a difficult and unending journey toward spiritual growth that true pilgrims must take. Each of us must have his own path through life. There are no self help manuals, no formulas, and no easy answers.


Life Steps: 1) Spiritual Journey 2) Growing Up 3) Knowing Yourself 4) In Search Of A Personal God
These steps, to me... are a very simplistic road map for knowing where you are, and where your next step is for growth. I think I'm personally on the fence of number 3 and 4. 


"Appreciate that life is complex - Don't look for the easy answers. Think muti-dimensionaly, enjoy finding your way through the mysteries and paradoxes of life... Trial and error is classic history."


Never Stop Growing: "All of my life I've wondered what I will be when I grow up. Then I realized that we never grow up - growing is an ever on-going process."


Pain and suffering aren't necessarily bad: "Jesus said: Blessed are the poor in spirit. Or, on an intellectual level, Blessed are the confused - and they're blessed because confusion leads to clarification, and with the search for clarification comes a great deal of learning."


"For an old idea to die, and a new, and better idea to take it's place we have to go through such periods of confusion." "It is uncomfortable, sometimes painful to be in such periods. But despite feeling poor in spirit, we're searching for new and better ways, we're open to the new, we're looking, we're growing."


"Those things that hurt, Instruct." - Ben Franklin
I like this quote a lot, because I know from experience that when you hurt, you learn... you're in search.

"Everything that happens to us is designed for our spiritual growth."

You will never really know: "Reality, like god is something we can only approach. Life's about mystery. Some people need to feed their desire for mystery by climbing mountains, some need to explore religion, some need to explore themselves. Religion, Life, Love - All things we can observe and theorize, but we can never know." 


Loving yourself: "Major part of loving yourself is realizing that there is something wrong with you, accepting it, and trying to fix it. Those who claim that nothing is wrong, nothing to be fixed have the problem."

What is most important in life is the Development of Your Own Soul.

"This is courage! - Courage is the capacity to go ahead in spite of the fear or the pain."

"Self love is great, but be sure to avoid a self love that shuts everyone else out. Becoming narcissistic is easy to do. The path away from narcissism is the path toward meaning."

More religious talk:

You're wrong if you think that doctrine, scripture, bible is the absolute truth. If you believe that the Bible is not only the divinely inspired word of god, but the actual transcribed, un-altered word of god you're nuts. These books / doctrines have been and will be altered again and again. Not leaving it open to interpretation and growth is a huge mistake as they're filled with paradoxes and metaphors that can be interpreted in multiple ways. 


"My vision of Hell is distinctly that the gates of Hell are wide open. People can walk right out of hell, and the reason they're in Hell is that they choose not to. I simply cannot accept the view of Hell in which God punishes people without hope, and destroy's souls without a chance for redemption. God wouldn't go to the trouble of creating souls, with all their complexity, just to fry them in the end."

"Religions are different roads converging upon the same point. What does it matter that we take different roads, as long as we reach the same goal?" - Gahndi 

"What is faith worth if it is not translated into action." - Gahndi

How to deal with suffering: 

Based on the premise that I'm shy (and suffering because of it)

1. Ask yourself if your suffering is just or not: I can't ask a question in public to a speaker 
2. Ask yourself Is this way of dealing with my shyness which is holding you back from asking questions enhancing your existence, or limiting it? And as soon as I asked myself that question, It was clear that it was limiting my existence. 
3. Behave the way you normally would: So, I had to ask myself - How would I behave if I wasn't so shy. The answer is clear that I would ask my question with confidence because I want to know. Tell yourself, go ahead and behave that way... Fake it to make it... Act as if you weren't shy. 

"Americans think what characterizes the mentally healthy is an absence of crises. That's not it. What characterizes mental health is the ability to meet our crises early."

"Life should be measured not on how many crises we can avoid, but how early we can meet a crises and get on to the next one - and how many crises we can cram into one lifetime. With each crises you meet, acknowledge, overcome - you grow and learn." 

Stages Of Spiritual Development: 

1. Antisocial / Chaotic / Lawlessness: Like almost everyone's youth...
2. Formal / Institutional: Rigorous adherence to the letter of the law, and attachment to religion. 
3. Skeptic / Individual: Stage of principled behavior, but characterized by religious doubt, or disinterest. Although accompanied by severe inquisitiveness in other areas of life. 
4. Maturity: Stage of living more by the spirit of the law, than the letter of the law. 

The second stage, Formal / Institutional has always been a tough person for me to get along with. These are the hypocrites, and ignorant people who judge others and make me never want to go to church. Dr. Peck goes on to say: "These are people who are dependent upon an institution for their governance." "I compare this stage to prisoners. Some people need the church or prison for their governance. There are millions of inmates who are 'model' inmates. They're so good and get early parole because of it. but as soon as they're released, they go back to their old ways because they're not governed. Then they go back to prison, and go right back to being 'model' inmates. Some people simply need to be governed to organize their being." 

"I became a principled, self governing human being who doesn't need to depend on an institution for my governance."

"I don't believe in god as an eternal being, I think he is inside each and every one of us."

"I have pursued my passion for god and spirituality, but I'm fed up with the simplistic black and white religious faith that claims to have all of the answers, and doesn't deal with the mystery."

"Many of us are never able to adjust to the reality that life is larger than something that is just our show. In this failure to adjust, we fail to learn. But for real learning and growing we have to come to terms with the fact that ... Life is what happens, when you plan for something else."

"Love: Defined as the concern for the spiritual growth of another."