Caught in the Act: Reflections on Being, Knowing, and Doing

Rating:
Summary: Honest, deep, unpretentious
Review: I sat down to read just a chapter of this book, and simply couldn't put it down until I'd read almost the whole book. Reading it was like spending time with a good friend--the best kind of friend: one who levels with you, thinks deeply, cares about the spiritual path, and is unusually honest and direct in discussing core issues. The author talks about her own struggles with meditation, for example, and the difficulties that we all have with remaining really present. Topics include surrender, dealing with hard times, and learning how to just *be*, instead of self-defining by *doing*.

Rating:
Summary: A favorite...
Review: This book gave me the refreshing feeling of having a deep conversation with a kindred soul. When finished, I had numerous pages marked to reread, as profound thoughts are interspersed between interesting anecdotes from the author's own life...much in the same way that we all experience our everyday lives with unexpected moments of insight and clarity. For those who haven't read it, I also heartily recommend the author's earlier book "Nothing Left Over: A Plain and Simple Life."

Rating:
Summary: ELEGANT, INTIMATE, AND THOUGHT-PROVOKING
Review: This book takes me straight to the heart of my current preoccupation, how to live more fully in the present. Many spiritual teachers address this subject, but rarely is the experience captured with the intimacy of Toinette Lippe's reflections. Reading Caught in the Act is like being inside her mind-which is astonishingly like being in my own. In the practice of entering ever more fully into each moment, the aspirations and the obstacles encountered are largely common to all of us. I was touched and inspired and also greatly entertained by reading such candid accounts of another person's path toward deeper awareness of moment to moment "being, knowing, and doing."

My favorite parts of the book concern the author's painting lessons. Her description of a Chinese calligraphy workshop makes almost palpable the sensations of moving an ink-laden brush across paper-so vivid, in fact, that I felt an intense yearning to have the same experience myself. The writing in this section is like a thick ribbon of silk drawing us through each sensuous step in the act of painting to the unexpected culmination: folding the sheet of paper and putting it aside, relinquishing the work of one moment, surrendering to the next, acknowledging impermanence. "Where the paint meets the paper," the author writes, "there is discovery."

In addition to the elegant writing and thoughtful examination of many fascinating subjects, I enjoyed smaller elements of the book, like the clever chapter titles. "Watch This Space," for example, is followed by an epigraph from Ovid: "Let your hook always be cast; in the stream where you least expect it, there will be a fish." The illustrations at the head of each chapter are another nice touch-the author's own paintings, offering a lovely link to her descriptions of her art classes.




Rating:
Summary: More than a handshake
Review: We have to hope Toinette Lippe keeps writing since she does it with such grace, and it is clearly addictive. Her observations are profound, but they require only a receptive mind to be understood and accepted. The spiritual books she has edited over the years offer clues to her intellectual integrity and serene spirit. For those who are inspired by clear and imaginative thinking, she has become one of America's most endearing writers. She writes about how we feel and what we would say if we were poets. For readers unaccustomed to contemplative writing, their first encounter with Ms. Lippe's ideas will feel like reaching to shake a new friend's hand and being pulled into a full embrace: surprising, delightful, and comforting.