Review by Claudia A. Dudley on Amazon.com
The Little Green Book on Awakening is quietly revolutionary. On the one hand it is an urgent, 11th-hour plea for the health of the earth. But more than this, is a call to spiritual awakening on both a personal and global scale. At its core is the possibility of hope, because it invites us to open our eyes and hearts to real help.
Jim George, now 91, is considered by many to be one of the world's most spiritually and politically cosmopolitan citizens. A former ambassador to India, Iran and Greece, he has known hundreds of key figures in the political, cultural and spiritual arenas of the past century. But his book is surprisingly modest. His essays range over such varied topics as the ecological crisis, off-planet cultures, the "Akashic field" of quantum physics, the evolutionary power of love, the call to conscience. Jim George himself has been a longtime student of the teachings of G.I.Gurdjieff, and worked with Mme. Jeanne de Salzmann, Gurdjieff's closest pupil. He also has a close connection to Tibetan Buddhism, having been instrumental in relocating Tibetan refugees to Canada from India in the early 1960s. It is clear that the breadth of his vision has emerged from a spiritual practice that is truly comprehensive.
Bringing together the political, ecological, scientific and spiritual worlds -- seeing their interrelation -- Jim George raises the radical possibility of many more people, especially in the West, opening to a spiritual dimension. This he feels could well alter the course of the earth. Many rich questions also arise around this. Is there an Intelligence reaching out to us, each and all, relative to every life situation? What is being offered (in addition to what is needed) in these dangerous times? Is our responsibility external, internal, or both, and what would this mean? Are we called, and to what? What could help individual and collective conscience to have an action?
Few people in the world could have written a book like this. From Jim George's long life and wide experience, he offers a vantage point that has influence in many quarters. Particularly moved, one hopes, will be those who have already devoted themselves to public service -- the anonymous Al Gores of the world -- and who may be seeking to inculcate a deeper spiritual practice into their lives. Jim George leaves us with the unusual sense that perhaps not all is lost for us, that spiritual and political/social power can meet, might even provide a critical mass of help at this moment in time. In his sensitive hands, we are invited toward the most natural thing in the world: to turn with love and intelligence toward each other and the earth itself.
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