Falling Upward: A Spirituality For The Two Halves Of Life

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I'm not sure how much this book will be appreciated by those who have not read some of Rohr's earlier work. This may be true, but it seems a bit overdone to me; as if to invite his readers to consider themselves, along with the author, to be more enlightened than most for seeing themselves in the book or for, at least, being inclined to read it.

Although such structures may be of value for the integrity of the institutions themselves, and for younger teachers who are establishing their identities within it, they are of little use to those who are in the second half of life (and even less so, I suspect, for those in the last quarter of their lives, like me). There are numerous other texts, both sacred and secular, written in a similar vein, by people who’d either undergone the transition from life’s first half to its second, or were in the process of going through it. Christians are usually sincere and well-intentioned people until you get to any real issues of ego, control power, money, pleasure, and security. Then during the second half of life, the second mountain, we release it so that we might refill it with God and spirituality. All the books of the Bible seem to agree," notes Rohr, "that somehow God is with us and we are not alone.It will sound an awful lot like the voices of risk, of trust, of surrender, of soul, of 'common sense,' of destiny, of love, of an intimate stranger, of your deepest self. The "second half of life" is spent discovering what that container holds and finding that God enlarges the container with His grace. There are many ways to experience the thrill of a free fall – you could, for example, jump with a parachute or try bungee jumping! Images of Ma Yaun's "Two Sages …Under a Plum Tree" and "Self-Portrait" by Shen Chou came into my mind quickly and quietly as I read.

The author’s gloss on this passage from Mark (3:21) is that Jesus in his maturity was in touch with his soul and was not following the “expected and mainline script for his culture or his religion. One wishes that an editor had picked up the red pen at these moments, because they are jarring—at odds with the generosity and capaciousness that generally characterize the book. If you try to perform an experiment, you'll notice that, in reality, the brick falls to the ground first. This new personal freedom with its deepening consciousness can place us at odds with the familiar, including institutions (the church perhaps), and even family. On THE DIVINE DANCE]: Finding the sweet spot where contemporary science meets ancient mysticism, and theology meets poetry, The Divine Dance sketches a beautiful choreography for a life well-lived.The book establishes this idea of the two mountains, though Richard refers to them as the two tasks. I've been reading this book slowly--about a chapter every week, for the past several months--partly because I loved and wanted to savor it, partly because it's so rich that I couldn't take in too much at once. If you drop a feather and a brick, they will hit the ground at the same time… Or at least that's what science says! If you never deal with this shadow self, then you'll endure a miserable old age, always blaming others for not treating you well. Rohr also pretends that Jesus never mentioned hell, although he did so more than any other person in the New Testament.

The second half, then focuses on the contents of life, the becoming of a unique person who knows how to draw from all these structures and yet go beyond them.Now that I've finished I feel I could happily start this book again from the beginning and still get so much out of it.

Similarly, I wonder if the path from building the self to hearing the intimate stranger, the path from ego to spiritual spaciousness, is always linear. Drawing on the wisdom from time-honoured myths, heroic poems, great thinkers, and sacred religious texts, the author explores the two halves of life to show that those who have fallen, failed, or 'gone down' are the only ones who understand 'up'. Or his own "I do not think you should get rid of your sin until you have learned what it has to teach you. He even takes us through the typical pattern of the heroic journey and compares them to our stages of life. Father Rohr points out, again and again, that there is a path here, through the later years of life, as age and the slings and arrows of existence take their toll, if we pay attention long enough to find the path.

It does not matter if you are in the first half of life or the second, this book will speak to you and help you understand why you are where you are at this precise moment in your journey. He’s written over 20 books, and traveled the world as a speaker, teaching on themes such as spirituality, scripture, nature and Earth care. This important companion to Falling Upward is an excellent tool for exploring the counterintuitive messages of how we grow spiritually.