Product Description

This work embarks on a journey of discovery into the heart of the post-modern world - a hungry, homeless world that suffers from a deep sense of isolation and fragmentation. This stems from the need to belong, the most basic of human desires.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28311 in Books
• Published on: 2000-11-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
John O'Donohue (Anam Cara), a Celtic poet, scholar and philosopher with an Irish brogue, speaks to the deepest calling of our soul: the longing to belong. "To be human is to belong", he explains. "Belonging is a circle that embraces everything; if we reject it, we damage our nature. The word 'belonging' holds together the two fundamental aspects of life: Being and Longing, the longing of our Being and the being of our Longing". Although this may sound like an elaborate Celtic circle knot, O'Donohue has nevertheless woven a solid and easy-to-grasp book that speaks to the soul's constant yearning. Every passage is a delight for the senses, as O'Donohue shares his lilting poetic language, his Celtic imagery and stories and his fireside-chat wisdom. This is a broad-reaching yet highly focused book that dares to explore the realm of legitimate angels, the meaning of suffering and, most poignantly, how life on earth may never quench the soul's thirst for belonging. --Gail Hudson

From the Publisher
An illuminating, profoundly inspirational work which explores that most basic human desire – the desire to belong.

From the Back Cover
There is a divine restlessness in the human heart today, an eternal echo of longing that lives deep within us and never lets us settle for what we have or where we are. Now, in this exquisitely crafted, inspirational book, Irish poet and scholar John O'Donohue explores that most basic of human desires - the desire to belong.

In Eternal Echoes we embark upon a journey of discovery into the heart of our post-modern world - a hungry, homeless world that suffers from a deep sense of isolation and fragmentation. With the thousand-year-old shelter of divine belonging now shattered, we seem to have lost our way in this magical, wondrous universe.

Here, as we gain insight from a range of ancient beliefs and practices, we draw inspiration from Ireland's rich spiritual heritage of Celtic thought and imagination. It is a heritage of profound, mystical wisdom that will open pathways to peace and lead us to live with creativity and compassion the one life that has been given to us.

Customer Reviews

Easy to read, but I'm sure I'll want to re-read many times
This is written in such an easy, gentle style, I couldn't stop reading, just had to keep turning the pages. I was reading a 'thriller' at the same time and O'Donohue's book beat it hands down. Although such an easy read, there are depths which are often avoided by other books which are more difficult. O'Donohue's sub-title is 'Exploring our hunger to belong' and this he does admirably. Although it will generally be catalogued under a Spiritual heading, take spiritual in its broadest sense - but definitely not the modern consumerist sense. The book is divided into six main topics and each of these subdidvided into small manageable chunks. Reading this as I was in hospital, the chapter on Suffering, perhaps sounded the most chords for me at present, but each of the other chapters - Awakening in the World, Presence, Prisons we chose to live in, Prayer and Absence brought to mind other phases of my life and also a skteched outline of future growth. Now that I have read the book through it will stay by my bed for frequent dipping into, re-reading (many times, I'm sure) and further assimiiation.

Beautiful
After O'Donohue's Anam Cara this is a natural progression. His ideas float over the pages at you unlike so many books about the human experince that shout advice at every corner. I tended to read a page, think for 20 minutes and it took me 6 months to read it! It is so thought provoking in a gentle, unpretentious way.It leaves you with such a gentle feeling of calm and does not make your mind go into overdrive like so many other books of this genre. it might even change your life! If you only read 3 books along with Anam Cara and The Prophet this is the one. Just beautiful.

Better than I expected
I drew quite a lot of inspiration from Anam Cara, and so when this book appeared I was both excited and cynical. Excited, because the atmophere of O'Donohue's prose is very accomodating; cynical, because I asked what else could be said: what Anam Cara showed was that entering into a twilit solicitude with the soul was enough. Was this the beginning of a loss of atmophere, the start of a long franchise career in authoring spiritual texts in which the silent candlelit vigil of the soul became covered up all over again?

Thankfully, my excitement was answered and my cynicism fell away as I entered this book. Nothing is lost, in fact, (ironically, even, in terms of my suspicion) the book deals with loss, the "gain" of hunger, the tension of longing/belonging that is native to the spiritual relationship.

There was plenty to be said. O'Donohue, in his own lyrical style, says some of it. And his words are haunted by a melody that says far more than the pages of any book. Inspirational.