Wilber's "Religion of Tomorrow" or "Sex, Ecology, and Spirituality"?

[Matt23]

Can anyone give me first-hand comparisons and reviews of these two books?

What's different about them?

Which book is good/bad for understanding what subjects?

Would you recommend a book in particular over another one?

Pros/cons?

Would you recommend reading one over the other, or any of them at all, if the person is still struggling with the basics?

 

I think I'm looking for a book that doesn't focus too much on the spirituality side (though, I may be), but is sort of all-encompassing.  I dunno... something that is like good fora  lot of people.  though, having said that, maybe spirituality is a thing I'm interested in pursuing and even making a living at.

I hesitate to read too much detailed spirituality since I feel I still need to cover a lot of the basics (mental health, job/career/LP, relationships).  I definitely have my share of suffering, and feel that the rest of my life isn't really "handled".  So I hesitate to buy books that might not be what I need right now.  On the other hand, I am kind of interested in this stuff, and probably could benefit from it.  And spirituality might be somewhat of a career path for me... so I dunno.

Cheers

[Leo Gura]

Both of these are serious books which you don't seem suited for right now.

When you are dealing with a serious subject matter like understanding reality, the question of "How can this immediately benefit me?" is not suitable.

What you're interested in is more along the lines of Tony Robbins self-help.

Wilber's work is for serious intellectuals.

[Hello from Russia]

Bro, just read them both, what the heck. I've read like 300 books in last couple of  years, I think you're being lazy here

It sounds, though, that you could benefit a lot from other Ken Wilber's book which is called "Integral Life Practice" in which he helps you to sort of create an integral life systems of habits for yourself, integrating all kinds of spiritual and non-spiritual knowledge that you have, building on top of it and going beyond. He has stuff like incorporating physical exercise with spiritual techniques and so forth so you not only develop yourself physically on a gross level (muscles, etc), but also develop a very tuned mind-body connection that is more on a spiritual level, which gives you all kinds of other benefits.

Edited September 26, 2020 by Hello from Russia

[Matt23]

@Leo Gura Could you recommend any books from your list or other resources that more relate to like severe depression n mental health and dealing with that?  I've heard you say you don't really specialize in that, I guess I'm looking for another route for resources.  

Or maybe a better question is, would you even recommend reading or studying any of the books on your list, even the emotional mastery ones (i.e., they may help people with general emotional mastery but not severe mental health/trauma issues), for people with serious mental health issues? 

@Hello from Russia I think it's less about being lazy, as I do like studying this stuff.  I think A) I get stingy about spending money, so I hesitate with that, and B) I think I maybe also subtly use studying these higher level things (maybe) as a distraction from the work I really need to be doing...  I mean, in some ways maybe it's true, but studying this stuff might also help me and give me inspiration.  Not too clear on that last one.  C) I'm also trying to just be more strategic in buying and consuming resources.  These are long books, and I just don't want to waste my time studying stuff that isn't most relevant to me right now (like big ol' mental health issues and relationship issues, etc.  the basics).  But that "Integral Life Practice" seems a bit more practical and up my alley though.  Cheers.

[Matt23]

Also, it seems like self-help Tony Robbins style isn't exactly deep enough for my issues... can that type of stuff work for the deeper/stronger issues?