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Finding God in the Body: A Spiritual Path for the Modern West
Finding God in the Body turns inward to examine the human condition, meeting personal suffering with heartfelt insight and transformative practice. It steers clear of the wishful thinking, unfounded beliefs, and cynicism that define much of the spirituality genre.
Ben Riggs leaves no stone unturned, addressing each stage of the journey as he explores the space between fundamentalism and atheism to uncover a spirituality that resonates with the modern, Western mind. Then he binds that view to an actionable path of self-analysis, prayer, and meditation, which introduce the reader to the God of the body.
This book is a much-needed addition to the corpus of spiritual literature, and a must-read for all modern seekers.
Ben Riggs leaves no stone unturned, addressing each stage of the journey as he explores the space between fundamentalism and atheism to uncover a spirituality that resonates with the modern, Western mind. Then he binds that view to an actionable path of self-analysis, prayer, and meditation, which introduce the reader to the God of the body.
This book is a much-needed addition to the corpus of spiritual literature, and a must-read for all modern seekers.
- GenresSpiritualityNonfiction
216 pages, Paperback
Published January 2, 2017
69 people are currently reading
413 people want to read
About the author
Benjamin Riggs
2 books23 followersAuthor of Finding God in the Body: A Spiritual Path for the Modern West and director of the Refuge Meditation Group in Shreveport, LA.
Ben also writes extensively about Buddhism, Christianity, and politics for Elephant Journal.
Ben also writes extensively about Buddhism, Christianity, and politics for Elephant Journal.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 15, 2016
Finding God in the Body recasts the teachings of Jesus in a contemplative light, outlining a path for Western Buddhists to do the work that Thich Nhat Hanh has implored us to do; that of reconciling with our root tradition. Drawing lines between bodhicitta and prayer, meditation and contemplation, Mr. Riggs reminds us that Christian spirituality does indeed provide a practice-based approach to the God within each of us. He does us all a great service in showing us that there is no place like home.
May 26, 2017
Ditched, walked away from, bored to tears of...Christianity? Fed up with religion? Welcome to the Western world's dilemma: hungry for meaning, but wary of pseudo-science and sales pitches about the hereafter.
"Spirituality in the West is at a crossroads... We are looking for a down to earth approach -- a practical path that embraces our humanity, rather than trying to transform us into other-worldly creatures." ~Riggs
Imagine finding something you would trade everything to keep? Finding God in the Body: A Spiritual Path for the Modern West (2017) will redefine your world. The author, Benjamin Riggs nails it when he discusses the woeful inadequacy of the purveyors of spirituality, mainly Christian* in the West. Riggs dissects the problem and offers solutions to an age-old problem: the hollowing out of rich spiritual truths into mere bald beliefs over time.
The author touches on many familiar Christian (yawn) dichotomies: false self vs. true self, "God within us" vs. a distant deity, fundamentalism vs. atheism, duty vs. passion, good vs. evil, etc. Noting the mystical Eastern roots of Jesus, Riggs asserts the insult to Jesus of the man-made religion born out of his life and message. Westerners are weary of empty dogma about a Jew who lived and died two thousand years ago and hunger for a more common sense approach to spiritual truths as they apply to modern life.
"Westerners are in search of a pragmatic spirituality that enables them to live more meaningful and authentic lives." ~Riggs
Like the Great Reversal of Jesus' message, Riggs, reverses a number of accepted understandings. For example, the human body has always been understood as having a soul. The author turns it around: We are souls with a body! Mind-boggling and a very relevant distinction. As souls traveling through this world, our value becomes infinite. In other words, we are spiritual beings having a human experience.
Once in a lifetime you find a book that echoes every thought in your head. This is THAT book. Riggs has grasped the essence of the way through the current Western desert sand storm. I seldom tell readers to buy a book, but I will make an exception. Finding God in the Body: A Spiritual Path for the Modern West is one of the most ground-breaking books I have ever read. Fundamentalists and atheists will be threatened by it. It offers hope to anyone who despairs in our grotesquely material world.
More from Finding God in the Body...:
On Perfection
"...the goal is not trying to be perfect, but perfectly Being..."
On Christ
"'Christ' was not Jesus' last name, but assigned by his followers...In fact, he would have been called, 'Son of Joseph'"
On the Kingdom of God
"...isn't a place or principality, but dwells within each of us as image bearers of God."
On Religion
"...religion isn't the goal of church, but reintegrating the body and mind."
*Jesus never proposed a religion called Christianity.
"Spirituality in the West is at a crossroads... We are looking for a down to earth approach -- a practical path that embraces our humanity, rather than trying to transform us into other-worldly creatures." ~Riggs
Imagine finding something you would trade everything to keep? Finding God in the Body: A Spiritual Path for the Modern West (2017) will redefine your world. The author, Benjamin Riggs nails it when he discusses the woeful inadequacy of the purveyors of spirituality, mainly Christian* in the West. Riggs dissects the problem and offers solutions to an age-old problem: the hollowing out of rich spiritual truths into mere bald beliefs over time.
The author touches on many familiar Christian (yawn) dichotomies: false self vs. true self, "God within us" vs. a distant deity, fundamentalism vs. atheism, duty vs. passion, good vs. evil, etc. Noting the mystical Eastern roots of Jesus, Riggs asserts the insult to Jesus of the man-made religion born out of his life and message. Westerners are weary of empty dogma about a Jew who lived and died two thousand years ago and hunger for a more common sense approach to spiritual truths as they apply to modern life.
"Westerners are in search of a pragmatic spirituality that enables them to live more meaningful and authentic lives." ~Riggs
Like the Great Reversal of Jesus' message, Riggs, reverses a number of accepted understandings. For example, the human body has always been understood as having a soul. The author turns it around: We are souls with a body! Mind-boggling and a very relevant distinction. As souls traveling through this world, our value becomes infinite. In other words, we are spiritual beings having a human experience.
Once in a lifetime you find a book that echoes every thought in your head. This is THAT book. Riggs has grasped the essence of the way through the current Western desert sand storm. I seldom tell readers to buy a book, but I will make an exception. Finding God in the Body: A Spiritual Path for the Modern West is one of the most ground-breaking books I have ever read. Fundamentalists and atheists will be threatened by it. It offers hope to anyone who despairs in our grotesquely material world.
More from Finding God in the Body...:
On Perfection
"...the goal is not trying to be perfect, but perfectly Being..."
On Christ
"'Christ' was not Jesus' last name, but assigned by his followers...In fact, he would have been called, 'Son of Joseph'"
On the Kingdom of God
"...isn't a place or principality, but dwells within each of us as image bearers of God."
On Religion
"...religion isn't the goal of church, but reintegrating the body and mind."
*Jesus never proposed a religion called Christianity.
April 11, 2017
"Life cannot be earned or accomplished; it is a gift."
"Without space there is no room for growth"
"Literalism is just another word for idolatry."
"In the Gospels heaven is not a celestial abode. It is our inner life."
"It is the Power of Being that saves."
"The realization of wholeness is called salvation."
It is quotes such as these that give moments to pause in Benjamin Rigg's "Finding God in the Body." He writes with clarity and thought- and obviously a great deal of research. But the moments that touched me most were his personal anecdotes..his experiences, often told with humor, that turned his personal "a-ha" moments into experiences that his readers can see and use within their own lives.
"Without space there is no room for growth"
"Literalism is just another word for idolatry."
"In the Gospels heaven is not a celestial abode. It is our inner life."
"It is the Power of Being that saves."
"The realization of wholeness is called salvation."
It is quotes such as these that give moments to pause in Benjamin Rigg's "Finding God in the Body." He writes with clarity and thought- and obviously a great deal of research. But the moments that touched me most were his personal anecdotes..his experiences, often told with humor, that turned his personal "a-ha" moments into experiences that his readers can see and use within their own lives.
February 11, 2017
Fans of Thomas Merton, Richard Rohr, Joseph Campbell, Chogyam Trungpa might like this new book that is a succinct distillation of Eastern and Western spiritual traditions into one cohesive guide. Key word is guide. This isn't an academic text. It is a Westerner's reconciliation of his own Judeo-Christian background with the Buddhist / Eastern philosophy and how both can live side by side in daily spiritual practice.
If Heaven is a state of mind, then spiritual curiosity seekers can skip the rotational grazing that tends to happen when exploring other religions. This books helps strip away the smells and bells and show not only some fundamentals these religions have in common but that you don't have to abandon one for the other in your quest for spiritual balance.
If Heaven is a state of mind, then spiritual curiosity seekers can skip the rotational grazing that tends to happen when exploring other religions. This books helps strip away the smells and bells and show not only some fundamentals these religions have in common but that you don't have to abandon one for the other in your quest for spiritual balance.
May 23, 2017
Only read this book if you have an open mind, it is a wonderful work!
March 2, 2017
Many of my friends and I consider ourselves “spiritual, not religious,” having been turned off by the organized religions we grew up with. But how does one follow a spiritual path with no guidance? Yes, we meditate and do yoga and try to be good people, but what else?
Finding God in the Body by Benjamin Riggs offers “A Spiritual Path for the Modern West.” For those of us with Western sensibilities but an affinity toward the practices of Buddhism or other Eastern religions, Riggs offers a path that looks with fresh eyes at the Judeo-Christian texts and combines their spiritual teachings with practices, such as meditation, of the East.
“The spiritual path is the mind’s return to the naked awareness of the body…. It is about dropping the narrative, relaxing the tension, and taking refuge in our True Life.”
Author Benjamin Riggs spent years studying the contemplative core of Christianity where he found a mythos of God within, more concerned with daily life than the hereafter. He explains the Bible and Judeo-Christian writings in a very enlightening way, following the Jewish tradition of storytelling to understand the Bible’s message in today’s world.
The author references the most important teachings of Jewish, Christian and Buddhist teachers such as Dr. Reginald Ray, Thomas Merton, Joseph Campbell, Fr. Thomas Keating, Thomas Aquinas, Rabbi David Cooper and M. Scott Peck, who wrote: “If you desire wisdom greater than your own, you can find it inside of you…. To put it plainly, our unconscious is God. God within us…”
Finding God in the Body offers instruction in a spiritual practice that helps embody the mystery of God that lives within our body… both through contemplative prayer to bring us into the body, the God of the body, and through meditation to discover the underlying emptiness of the mind.
In the end, Riggs offers a way to develop a personal relationship with God, living in the Will of God: “Undoubtedly this will have a great effect on our quality of life, how we treat others, and the world in which we live. It will transform the world.”
What more could the spiritual seeker ask?
Finding God in the Body by Benjamin Riggs offers “A Spiritual Path for the Modern West.” For those of us with Western sensibilities but an affinity toward the practices of Buddhism or other Eastern religions, Riggs offers a path that looks with fresh eyes at the Judeo-Christian texts and combines their spiritual teachings with practices, such as meditation, of the East.
“The spiritual path is the mind’s return to the naked awareness of the body…. It is about dropping the narrative, relaxing the tension, and taking refuge in our True Life.”
Author Benjamin Riggs spent years studying the contemplative core of Christianity where he found a mythos of God within, more concerned with daily life than the hereafter. He explains the Bible and Judeo-Christian writings in a very enlightening way, following the Jewish tradition of storytelling to understand the Bible’s message in today’s world.
The author references the most important teachings of Jewish, Christian and Buddhist teachers such as Dr. Reginald Ray, Thomas Merton, Joseph Campbell, Fr. Thomas Keating, Thomas Aquinas, Rabbi David Cooper and M. Scott Peck, who wrote: “If you desire wisdom greater than your own, you can find it inside of you…. To put it plainly, our unconscious is God. God within us…”
Finding God in the Body offers instruction in a spiritual practice that helps embody the mystery of God that lives within our body… both through contemplative prayer to bring us into the body, the God of the body, and through meditation to discover the underlying emptiness of the mind.
In the end, Riggs offers a way to develop a personal relationship with God, living in the Will of God: “Undoubtedly this will have a great effect on our quality of life, how we treat others, and the world in which we live. It will transform the world.”
What more could the spiritual seeker ask?
July 2, 2020
I liked this book a lot. Riggs is sharp, eloquent, and provided a number of resources for those interested in the subject.
This book is dense - and to be honest I'll probably have to revisit to properly soak it in, but that's ok. I was happily surprised to realize this was a philosophical read (I really had no idea what to expect), although he does include practical excercise as well.
But if nothing else, Finding God In The Body shone in singlehandedly made the case for me to start a daily meditation practice. His description of the experience of meditation throughout the book illuminated why stillness is so important - a message I've been hearing for years but was unable to grasp onto until now.
I didn't agree with all of his points, his liberal use of the word "insanity," or the fact that this was not a trauma-informed book, but I'm still giving it 4 stars because I felt like I walked away with a different understanding of what belief and faith can mean.
This book is dense - and to be honest I'll probably have to revisit to properly soak it in, but that's ok. I was happily surprised to realize this was a philosophical read (I really had no idea what to expect), although he does include practical excercise as well.
But if nothing else, Finding God In The Body shone in singlehandedly made the case for me to start a daily meditation practice. His description of the experience of meditation throughout the book illuminated why stillness is so important - a message I've been hearing for years but was unable to grasp onto until now.
I didn't agree with all of his points, his liberal use of the word "insanity," or the fact that this was not a trauma-informed book, but I'm still giving it 4 stars because I felt like I walked away with a different understanding of what belief and faith can mean.
July 28, 2024
I enjoyed this.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews