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Enlightenment: What's It Good For
Librarian Note: Alternate Cover Edition for B008BWV0US.
Follow a young reporter as he goes over the edge in pursuit of the story of the times and his own enlightenment. The far-out journey of adventure and discovery begins. True, urban adventure stories of the fifties and sixties. A fun, Zen romp. What is enlightenment? How does one attain it, and why would anyone want to? These age-old questions erupted in human consciousness in the sixties with tremendous power that rocked a generation. Insightful and humorous, Stiriss reveals personal enlightening experiences on his path—a “gypsy good time” encountering psychedelics, a 1957 trip to Greenwich Village with a high school buddy, who grew up to be movie actor, narrator, Zen priest—Peter Coyote.
“On a wall I read—
What is truth?
A bird sings.
Zen!
That Village bar was frequented by beats Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and D.T. Suzuki, and I think one or all three of those cats wrote that intoxicated koan. It rang bells in my soul, that still continue to ring today, and I am happy to include the message and energy in this book.”
Melvyn attended the University of Richmond; worked as a reporter for UPI news service; covered the Grateful Dead and Vietnam War demonstrations and worked a stint as a Madison Avenue publicist, where he found himself in the throes of a gut-wrenching, spiritual/identity crises and subsequent soul search and rescue mission for his own soul. This is the story of a journey out of the box and what it led to.
Being a prequel, this book leads to another—Voluntary Peasants—inside story of perhaps America's greatest commune—a daring social experiment in sharing and living together—The Farm. At its peak in the seventies, The Farm was home to 1,500 people living collectively on land twice the size of NY’s Central Park. The author was a founder and 13-year resident member. Share the energy and lessons as idealistic city greenhorns attempt to build a town and model society in the backwoods of Tennessee, with the FBI, KKK, and local farmers watching. The Farm began as a benign cult with a charismatic spiritual guru, and changed over time to “community as teacher.”
Enlightenment—What’s it Good For
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Gypsy Good Time
Chapter 2 Sold American
Chapter 3 Before Cell Phones and Psychedelics
Chapter 4 Zen Joy Ride with Peter Coyote
Chapter 5 Career in a Nutshell
Chapter 6 Soul Search and Rescue
Prologue to Voluntary Peasants: A Glimpse of Paradise
Follow a young reporter as he goes over the edge in pursuit of the story of the times and his own enlightenment. The far-out journey of adventure and discovery begins. True, urban adventure stories of the fifties and sixties. A fun, Zen romp. What is enlightenment? How does one attain it, and why would anyone want to? These age-old questions erupted in human consciousness in the sixties with tremendous power that rocked a generation. Insightful and humorous, Stiriss reveals personal enlightening experiences on his path—a “gypsy good time” encountering psychedelics, a 1957 trip to Greenwich Village with a high school buddy, who grew up to be movie actor, narrator, Zen priest—Peter Coyote.
“On a wall I read—
What is truth?
A bird sings.
Zen!
That Village bar was frequented by beats Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and D.T. Suzuki, and I think one or all three of those cats wrote that intoxicated koan. It rang bells in my soul, that still continue to ring today, and I am happy to include the message and energy in this book.”
Melvyn attended the University of Richmond; worked as a reporter for UPI news service; covered the Grateful Dead and Vietnam War demonstrations and worked a stint as a Madison Avenue publicist, where he found himself in the throes of a gut-wrenching, spiritual/identity crises and subsequent soul search and rescue mission for his own soul. This is the story of a journey out of the box and what it led to.
Being a prequel, this book leads to another—Voluntary Peasants—inside story of perhaps America's greatest commune—a daring social experiment in sharing and living together—The Farm. At its peak in the seventies, The Farm was home to 1,500 people living collectively on land twice the size of NY’s Central Park. The author was a founder and 13-year resident member. Share the energy and lessons as idealistic city greenhorns attempt to build a town and model society in the backwoods of Tennessee, with the FBI, KKK, and local farmers watching. The Farm began as a benign cult with a charismatic spiritual guru, and changed over time to “community as teacher.”
Enlightenment—What’s it Good For
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Gypsy Good Time
Chapter 2 Sold American
Chapter 3 Before Cell Phones and Psychedelics
Chapter 4 Zen Joy Ride with Peter Coyote
Chapter 5 Career in a Nutshell
Chapter 6 Soul Search and Rescue
Prologue to Voluntary Peasants: A Glimpse of Paradise
87 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 16, 2010
2 people are currently reading
25 people want to read
About the author
Melvyn Stiriss
15 books2 followersA UPI reporter, Melvyn followed the 60s over the edge to live the story, seek enlightenment and build the country's biggest commune, The Farm in Tennessee. Melvyn reports behind the scenes into the 1,400-member collective, including a guru relationship with Stephen Gaskin.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 3, 2021
First rate synopsis of a life well chosen by one who passed before the last sunset.
Melvyn and I worked shoulder to shoulder as flour millers, then block and concrete slab masons, then bakers. This is his setting of the context for that time, with the concise art of a skilled reporter.
Melvyn and I worked shoulder to shoulder as flour millers, then block and concrete slab masons, then bakers. This is his setting of the context for that time, with the concise art of a skilled reporter.
August 6, 2013
Part one of an autobiography, written in a somewhat pedestrian style. I won't be looking for part two.
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May 25, 2013Now I have some idea what it is like to be a dopehead.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews