Everything Mind: What I've Learned About Hard Knocks, Spiritual Awakening, and the Mind-Blowing Truth of It All

by Chris Grosso

I’m not a yogi from the Himalayas, a preacher from the pulpit, or a guru with dollar signs in my eyes," says Chris Grosso. "The truth is, as a result of years of heavy drug and alcohol addiction, I’ve been to some extremely dark places that resulted in a literal life-or-death search for something more." With Everything Mind, this emerging voice of the spiritual counterculture presents a riveting and insightful book about meditation, the search for deeper meaning, and the life-changing (and life-saving) process of waking up.

"Everything Mind" means it’s all part of the path―dark and light, sacred and profane, serious and goofy, tragic and joyous. Each experience is unique, each has something profound to teach us if we open ourselves and let it in. Sharing hard-won wisdom and the spiritual practices that helped him through his darkest times, Chris invites you to

• Spirituality―how something that doesn’t fix your problems or change who you are can still revolutionize your life
• Why well-worn ideas like "love everyone" and "anything is possible" are much more than just wishful bullshit
• The perils of railing at fundamentalism―how to put down the pitchfork and practice compassionate spiritual discernment
• The mystery of "interbeing"―convincing your head, heart, and gut that you’re actually connected to everything
• Expressing your truth through service, meditation, sports, relationships, punk rock, skateboarding―or just about anything done with love

Finding our own spirituality is both liberating and terrifying. Liberating because we no longer have to be tied down by dogma or march off to war just because a guy in a fancy hat says so. Terrifying because it’s now totally on us to find out what’s true, what’s holy, what really matters to each of us. "Cultivating a spiritual lifestyle may be the most challenging undertaking you’ll ever face," says Chris Grosso. "But if you stick with it, you can learn to meet all of life with an open heart―which, when you get down to it, is pretty fucking amazing.

Genres: Spirituality, Nonfiction, Memoir, Buddhism

264 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2015

About the author

Chris Grosso is an independent culturist, freelance writer, spiritual aspirant, recovering addict, and musician. He serves as spiritual director of the interfaith center The Sanctuary at Shepardfields, writes for Huffington Post, Rebelle Society, Intent blog and is a correspondent for the Where Is My Guru radio show. He created the popular hub for all things alternative, independent, and spiritual with TheIndieSpiritualist.com and continues the exploration with his debut book titled Indie Spiritualist (Beyond Words/Atria Books, February 2014). A self-taught musician, Chris has been writing, recording, and touring since the mid-1990s.

Reviews

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book, for free, in exchange for an honest review.

This book is an introduction to Buddhism similar to Brad Warner' Hardcore Zen series or The Dude and the Zen Master . It doesn't go too deep (it's chapters all seem to be a handful of pages long, making it hard to go too deep into any topic) but it has some very novel/useful exercises that make it worth keeping around.

I found Grosso's voice to be engaging,. warm and nonjudgmental. Grosso's background as a recovering addict will definitely help some of his readers. In the beginning his recovery anecdotes were a little tiring, but after the first few chapters I sunk into the rhythm and found this book to be one of the most enjoyable books on Buddhism I read.

I found this book to be both enjoyable and revealatory and highly recommend it.

[Brennan Dignan]

I didn't find myself connecting with the author's voice, which is interesting because he is very self deprecating and irreverent, two of my favorite qualities in a human being. However, there are some good nuggets of wisdom in there for those who like his style of writing.

[Whitney Schroeder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic. I really related to this book and the author. I loved the history of his spirituality and the many different viewpoints he took throughout his life. Well done.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Focused and more refined, Grosso's second book creates strong connection to spirituality into a concept that unites us all in Everything Mind. More assured in his voice yet still fun and irreverent, Grosso brings in his ideas of spirituality supported a vast group of some of the best spiritualists and some people less spiritual (but he makes his case) and shows us into his own spiritual practice in the process. Grosso is a humble voice in the spiritual works and as he is able to admit, not the most usual person with tattoos, piercings and a past of addiction and low of the lows that would scare most, but what he does offer is a way to see the world and find our true selves all at the same time.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Everything Mind (God, Spirit, Being, Isness) by Chris Gross who recommends highly The Last Night of Earth Poems by Charles Bukowski.

To learn more about this independent spiritual teacher, take a look at the site: http://theindiespiritualist.com/about/

What I admire most about this book are the well-crafted spiritual practicums. The Centering Prayer from the work of Father Thomas Keating is one I am doing.