From the age of 13 Ken Mellor travelled a spiritual path of awakening. Urban Mystic: Discovering the transcendent through everyday life takes the reader on that journey. His travels take you from Australia to other parts of the world, including to India. This was the birthplace of three Indian Masters with whom he and his wife Elizabeth trained for many years. During this time, he found his spiritual self, which later enabled him to help others to do the same. While also travelling extensively through the United States, England, Switzerland and Germany, Ken experiences aspects of life that most may not contemplate and did so in an era during which spirituality was not as generally accepted as it is today.
Urban Mystic is a book that needs to be read with an open mind, a mind that is willing to experience journeys it may not normally take, journeys that have one considering one’s own life path and the part spirituality is playing in it. The book recounts how Ken became the man he is today, a man who has helped many find themselves and a place of peace within their lives.
While not offering instruction or direction, this book is a biography of one man and how he is reborn and becomes at one with himself and his life. It is an intimate journey into Ken's life, into his mind and his soul. After his early religious upbringing, his dissatisfaction with this learning prompted a decision “to go it alone” in the 60's, a “radically different” approach from what many of his peers were doing. In 1978, Ken met his first Eastern Guru when he attended a workshop in Melbourne titled “The Guru”. This was the start of years of meditating, learning and finding spirituality.
Written in the first person Ken prompts readers to discover themselves and to learn how all of their life experiences are part of themselves. He challenges them to find awakening within their own hopes, dreams, successes and mistakes.
In Urban Mystic, Ken talks of spiritual awakening as the unfolding of our consciousness going through four births: physical birth, an emotional birth, a cognitive birth and a spiritual birth. As people go through these births, not necessarily in the order given, they learn about their bodies, their feeling self, their cognitive self, and finally, during the fourth birth, they get direct experience of their spiritual self. Reflecting this sequence, the book is divided into four books (or sections), each representing one of the four births. In Book IV, The Fourth Birth, Ken speaks of his life screaming out “Pay attention, Ken! Or you will die.” At that time he was living through a series of near misses and accidents that soon ended in a “catastrophic” illness; a sequence that contained a message which rang true within my own life, as I am sure it will in the lives of many others. He also asserts that grounding and centering are fundamental to personal wellbeing; while paying attention to the messages that life, and our bodies, are giving us is of uttermost importance for our own wellbeing and health, and in our interactions with others.
What I liked most about Urban Mystic was the truthfulness of its content. At no time does Ken hold back on speaking of his spiritual experiences, belief's and findings. Some may seem outrageous to others, even bizarre, but they are what has made Ken the man he is today. Ken takes you on his journey with honesty and keeps you, the reader, intrigued, yet relaxed and comfortable feeling as though you are floating along behind him, hovering as a fly on the wall, experiencing, feeling and growing with him.
At first glance I was impressed with the uplifting cover that invoked thoughts of transcending to a place where all ones worries are lifted. At a thickness of 470 pages I felt a little overwhelmed but within the first few chapters was eager to continue my journey and find out how this man became a spiritual mentor and master, co-founded a non-profit organization with members and associates in more than 30 countries and published works in journals, magazines and online—not to mention the many parenting books he has co-written with his wife Elizabeth.
In the prologue Ken writes, “In sharing my story with you, I hope you will find encouragement to keep going when you face challenges, that you will realize how everyday people have the talent to fulfill extraordinary potential, and whatever your current state of personal and spiritual development, that you'll go on to realize completely your inherent nature. I also hope that, just as I've found encouragement, insight, and support from other people's experiences, mine may be useful to you.”
I certainly enjoyed my journey with Ken and feel that within me Ken achieved his goal of encouragement and spiritual development. By the time I had finished reading Urban Mystic, I was listening intently to the messages it contained and relating them to situations within my everyday life. Was I listening to myself? Did I truly feel comfortable with who I was and the path I was taking? Was I happily in control with my life and future path?
Ken Mellor is a true inspiration. His book offers a message of enlightenment, hope and spirituality. He life of meditation produces love and fulfillment. He is a man who has not been afraid to stand with what he believes in order to be at one with himself. A man with a life that is lived to its fullest and contains many messages for all to listen to, messages of believing in one’s self, listening to one’s mind and body and embracing life.
Urban Mystic, Discovering the tanscendent through everyday life, was selected as a finalist in the spirituality category of the 2010 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. This placed the book in the top five of that category. Written with a sense of humour and optimism that carries the reader through, this award selection is well deserved. Ken writes with flare and reflection and at no time did I feel bogged down, confused or bored. With each page he held my attention with ease. Urban Mystic is a book that is easy to follow and flow's beautifully.
ISBN: 978-0-646-53006-2
Available online: www.awakeningnetwork.net
Review by Jennifer Deaves
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