Mingtong Gu’s COMING HOME TO EMBODIED AWAKENING is an interesting work that touches on themes of self-help and spiritual growth. Gu is a practitioner of the ancient Chinese meditative practice Qigong, and powerfully advocates for its applicability to the modern malaise.
Subtitled “Reclaim Your Body, Power, and Purpose in an Age of AI,” the book is acutely aware of the issues facing humankind today. Gu writes compellingly on what he calls “the epidemic of exile,” the modern situation that causes us to feel exiled in our own bodies by our physiological responses to stress. He is apt in the emphasis he places on burnout in a hypercompetitive world, pointing out the ubiquity of the sort of mental archetype that leads executives to pull sixteen-hour days, mothers to give everything to their children at the expense of their own basic physiological needs, or athletes to train to exhaustion and physical breakdown. In his view (which is hard to disagree with), an increased emphasis on mindfulness obviates these problems: “The teaching and practice of Qigong and meditation give you a map and path to discover and rediscover: What is this body and who are you?” Chapters include instructions for readers wishing to pursue meditative practices themselves, while the book’s structure is straightforward and sound.
To be sure, there are many points here that make intuitive sense. For example, Gu wisely advocates for an approach to today’s AI that recognizes its usefulness as a tool, but stops short of outsourcing creative and other types of higher thinking to it. He also fiercely criticizes the contemporary fashion of conceiving the body as though it were a machine or a “rental vehicle" to be utilized, rather than in a more holistic way that considers the overall wellbeing of the individual. The practice of meditation as a way of relaxing and becoming more mindful seldom (if ever) does anyone harm.
It is only the grandiloquent and loosey-goosey language here, particularly in relation to the concept of “energy,” that presents problems. When Gu states that one’s body is energy, or that “Emotions are subtle energy of the organ systems,” it's difficult to assign meaning to his statements. Exhortations to connect with “earth energy” or to be cognizant of one’s “energy field" undermine the book's credence. But much here will be of use to the curious reader who desires to reconnect with a less stressful existence.
Mingtong Gu’s COMING HOME TO EMBODIED AWAKENING: Reclaim Your Body, Power, and Purpose in an Age of AI offers a meditation-influenced riposte to the mental difficulties with which the inhabitants of today's technologized society are so frequently presented.
~ Craig Jones for IndieReader