Back Cover Blurb for The Way of Integrity: Finding Your Path to Your True Self by Martha Beck:
In The Way of Integrity, Beck presents a four-stage process that anyone can use to find integrity, and with it, a sense of purpose, emotional healing, and a life free of mental suffering. Much of what plagues us – people pleasing, staying in stale relationships, negative habits – all point to what happens when we are out of touch with what truly makes us feel whole.
1. “Is it true? (Yes or no. If no, move to question 3.)
2. Can I absolutely know that it’s true? (Yes or no.)
3. How do I react, what happens, when I believe that thought? Is it helpful? Who or what would I be without the thought?”
― Martha Beck, The Way of Integrity: Finding the Path to Your True Self
I am charmed by Martha Beck. I think she is kind of crazy as a loon, and brave for being so open for things people have long been thought to experience, but shy away from discussing in public lest they be considered crazy, like mystical experiences. I like that I do not always agree with her and yet I still feel that I learn a lot from her. It’s quite a journey from Mormon preacher’s kid to lesbian self-help guru, including a year of not lying at all, not lying by staying silent, not even white lies. I’m sure it is instructive, but I’m also glad not to live with her.
I first found her work about a decade ago with Finding Your North Star, where I read the most in depth analysis of Hero’s Journey up to that point in my life. Here, she does something similar with Dante’s Devine Comedy. But also, she just renames or retranslates different parts of his story if she likes a different framing better. It is way more interesting than the literary analysis I remember from high school, especially when she claims Dante might be being literal in places that common wisdom agrees is allegorical.
This book is categorized as self help and it veers into the mystical, but I never find it preachy. It does suggest things like, “I am meant to live in peace,” but for me the focus on questions rather than answers keeps it from slipping too far into the new age. Every chapter contains a series of questions you can ask yourself, if you want to. Otherwise, you can enjoy the journey down into the depths of the Inferno and back out the other side.
One reply on “The Way of Integrity: Book Review”
Have you changed any of your habits based on reading this book?
This checklist reminds me a bit of the THINK paradigm for talking, but taking it to the area of thinking is even one step farther. Examining our own thoughts seems like it might be part of the path to enlightenment. It also sounds time-consuming and difficult, but maybe it is worth it.