Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion

Sam Harris covers a lot of ground in this book. At times, I was nodding along; at others, I was absorbing new ideas; and a few times, I was completely lost.

I enjoyed the thesis - that being aware of our present and taking steps to be better at being aware of our present is objectively good for us. Most of the book seems to strongly support this thesis. This is especially true of the beginning of the book and parts where Sam discusses research.

I disagree with what appears to be an antagonism towards religion. While I see the many harms from dogma, I also know and see people who benefit themselves and those around them by their religious faith. I do not see religious faith as antithetical to good life. Not a religious person myself, I am not making this claim of my view from a defensive posture.

While I did not altogether follow the discussion of different spiritual teachers and their successes and failures, I did enjoy the very personal aspect that Sam brings to those narratives - having met and seen some of the people, he has a different perspective than I could get elsewhere. On that same topic, I appreciated his cautionary words about how difficult it is to identify a real guru/teacher on spiritual matters. In addition to the caution, he gives specific examples of things that are probably red flags.