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The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment
Originally published by the author in 1972, the underground classic Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment teaches how to improve the quality of life, to feel good, and to determine what's real. Golas leads the reader down the path toward enlightenment with simple steps, like memorizing key phrases and incorporating them into daily life and thought. Think of how much better your life might be if you reminded yourself to "love as much as you can from wherever you are" or "love it the way it is." This classic book is full of useful tips on how to live a more conscious life and to be an engaged and aware member of the universal community. "While we have humility and pride enough to act on the knowledge that we exist in an infinite harmony, that we are neither greater nor lesser than any others, we can enjoy exquisite spiritual wealth and pleasures. When you love yourself, you are in truth expanding in love into many other things. And the more loving you are, the more loving the beings within and around you. On all levels we are mutually dependent vibrations. Play a happy tune and happy dancers will join your trip." - From The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment After serving in World War II, author Thaddeus Golas graduated from Columbia College in New York. He later moved to San Francisco, where he became involved in the activism and spiritual quests of the 1960s. He was an editor of Redbook magazine and a book representative for publisher Harper and Row.
91 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1972
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1,239 people want to read
About the author
Thaddeus Golas
14Ìýbooks48ÌýfollowersBorn in 1924 in Paterson, New Jersey, to Polish Catholic parents, Thaddeus Golas was a child of Einstein's Relativity but also of the Great Depression.
He served a long European tour of duty in WWII, and was in Patton's Third Army in Antwerp, but narrowly avoided combat at the Battle of the Bulge. The G.I. Bill helped him earn a BA in General Humanities from New York's Columbia University where he studied under Jacques Barzun, among notable others.
He went on to work as a proofreader for Betty Ballantine, as an editor for The Tatler in Paterson, NJ., a book editor for Redbook, and later, in Oklahoma, as a sales representative for Harper & Row. He saw the rise of the Beat Movement in Manhattan, with its onset of mind-altering substances.
His ideas on human consciousness had gathered over many years of pondering Eastern Mysticism and popular Quantum Science; when he moved to California in the '60s, he was encouraged by Alan Watts, Timothy Leary, and former high school mate Allen Ginsberg to self-publish his Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment.
Thus, it was in the psychedelic maelstrom, in the midst of San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury turmoil at the start of the Seventies, that Thaddeus Golas achieved recognition as a major philosopher. He stood on street corners with his third wife Nancy Monroe, come rain or come shine, selling copies to passersby to make ends meet. The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment caught-on like wild fire, and Golas, the reluctant guru, became a bit of a sensation.
His book remained in print for nearly 30 years.
Often shunned by members of the New Age community for his biting criticism of their manipulations, Thaddeus Golas remained a nomad and led a discreet life, declining to lecture or exploit his readers with seminars.
Twenty years after it was completed, Love and Pain, the second book by Thaddeus Golas, picks up where The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment leaves off. It is a deeper investigation of his metaphysical message; a more modern and more complete look at his metaphysical map -- by some accounts his "masterpiece" !
Similarly, The Cosmic Airdrome, his third book, is a great companion to the Guide.
The Lazy Man's Life is the Biography of Thaddeus Golas.
He served a long European tour of duty in WWII, and was in Patton's Third Army in Antwerp, but narrowly avoided combat at the Battle of the Bulge. The G.I. Bill helped him earn a BA in General Humanities from New York's Columbia University where he studied under Jacques Barzun, among notable others.
He went on to work as a proofreader for Betty Ballantine, as an editor for The Tatler in Paterson, NJ., a book editor for Redbook, and later, in Oklahoma, as a sales representative for Harper & Row. He saw the rise of the Beat Movement in Manhattan, with its onset of mind-altering substances.
His ideas on human consciousness had gathered over many years of pondering Eastern Mysticism and popular Quantum Science; when he moved to California in the '60s, he was encouraged by Alan Watts, Timothy Leary, and former high school mate Allen Ginsberg to self-publish his Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment.
Thus, it was in the psychedelic maelstrom, in the midst of San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury turmoil at the start of the Seventies, that Thaddeus Golas achieved recognition as a major philosopher. He stood on street corners with his third wife Nancy Monroe, come rain or come shine, selling copies to passersby to make ends meet. The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment caught-on like wild fire, and Golas, the reluctant guru, became a bit of a sensation.
His book remained in print for nearly 30 years.
Often shunned by members of the New Age community for his biting criticism of their manipulations, Thaddeus Golas remained a nomad and led a discreet life, declining to lecture or exploit his readers with seminars.
Twenty years after it was completed, Love and Pain, the second book by Thaddeus Golas, picks up where The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment leaves off. It is a deeper investigation of his metaphysical message; a more modern and more complete look at his metaphysical map -- by some accounts his "masterpiece" !
Similarly, The Cosmic Airdrome, his third book, is a great companion to the Guide.
The Lazy Man's Life is the Biography of Thaddeus Golas.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 109 reviews
March 2, 2019
I thought this was some kind of Dummies Guide to Enlightenment. Well, it’s not. Appearantly this is a trip guide. I suppose it means that the lazy man’s path to enlightenment is to meditate while tripping on LSD.
Thanks, but no thanks.
It’s not badly written, and it’s the hippiest book I’ve ever read, but I found nothing of use in it.
Thanks, but no thanks.
It’s not badly written, and it’s the hippiest book I’ve ever read, but I found nothing of use in it.
August 27, 2013
We are equal beings and the universe is our relations with each other. Thaddeus Golas.
There it is! Enlightenment! So, so simple. So profound. Easy, simple. Now relax for the rest of your life and be happy.
There it is! Enlightenment! So, so simple. So profound. Easy, simple. Now relax for the rest of your life and be happy.
April 11, 2013
The 2008 edition is great. Some snippets:
A constantly expanding love...
* The attitude toward any goal: nice if it happens; nice if it doesn’t. It’s OK. You won’t mind letting go of one beautiful experience because love will make the next one just as rewarding.
* Take the example of music, letting go of one note to hear the next, then our pleasure can be constant though the vibrations change.
* If we ‘listen� to the world, and let it act on us without either-or judgements and ideas, then we can comprehend each flash of pleasure as a tone in the infinite harmony. The orchestra of the world plays the familiar melodies again and again...
* All states of consciousness are available right now. Every possibility in the past and future exists timelessly, it’s always there and you activate your level of reality by your own vibrations.
Whether I am conscious of it or not,
I am one with the cause of all that exists.
Whether I feel it or not, I am one
with all the love in the universe.
* Every state of consciousness is perfect and complete, and does not need to be changed.
* Look at your own vibration level before reacting to what you think is an external reality.
* The more you love, the faster you vibrate, the less need you feel to control anything, and you are not fearful of change and variety. You experience everything deeper and slower and more lovingly.
* No matter what others are doing, you are the only one who is responsible for what happens to you.
* When you learn to love hell, you will be in heaven.
* You are free to be anywhere you want to be in the world that is real to you now. And beyond that, you are capable of being in any time, on any vibration level, in any system, with whomever you like.
* You’re never alone - there are many beings aware of you at all times, loving you, ready to make you feel it whenever you are ready to open up to it, taking care to see that you don’t get in too deep, encouraging you to love yourself.
* The world you see is in truth a reality of convenience - the universe will compassionately arrange itself into anything you need it to be to work out your preferences. You have an infinite choice of worlds to live in
* No resistance. Remember this especially when you are dying
Go beyond reason to love -- it is safe. It is the only safety.
The sin that most needs to be loved and forgiven is the state of mind that sees human beings as sinners.
Give others the freedom to be stupid - the most important and hardest step to take in spiritual progress.
Handle the world with divine love. We are but channels of spiritual joy, and to continue to have it we need only be open channels.
We enjoy exquisite spiritual wealth and pleasure when we know we are all equals.
The jewel you hold is Understanding. You cannot add to its beauty by hiding it and hinting that you have it, nor by wearing it with vanity. Its beauty comes from the consciousness that others have of it. Honor that which gives it beauty.
I am one with all the love in the universe.
A constantly expanding love...
* The attitude toward any goal: nice if it happens; nice if it doesn’t. It’s OK. You won’t mind letting go of one beautiful experience because love will make the next one just as rewarding.
* Take the example of music, letting go of one note to hear the next, then our pleasure can be constant though the vibrations change.
* If we ‘listen� to the world, and let it act on us without either-or judgements and ideas, then we can comprehend each flash of pleasure as a tone in the infinite harmony. The orchestra of the world plays the familiar melodies again and again...
* All states of consciousness are available right now. Every possibility in the past and future exists timelessly, it’s always there and you activate your level of reality by your own vibrations.
Whether I am conscious of it or not,
I am one with the cause of all that exists.
Whether I feel it or not, I am one
with all the love in the universe.
* Every state of consciousness is perfect and complete, and does not need to be changed.
* Look at your own vibration level before reacting to what you think is an external reality.
* The more you love, the faster you vibrate, the less need you feel to control anything, and you are not fearful of change and variety. You experience everything deeper and slower and more lovingly.
* No matter what others are doing, you are the only one who is responsible for what happens to you.
* When you learn to love hell, you will be in heaven.
* You are free to be anywhere you want to be in the world that is real to you now. And beyond that, you are capable of being in any time, on any vibration level, in any system, with whomever you like.
* You’re never alone - there are many beings aware of you at all times, loving you, ready to make you feel it whenever you are ready to open up to it, taking care to see that you don’t get in too deep, encouraging you to love yourself.
* The world you see is in truth a reality of convenience - the universe will compassionately arrange itself into anything you need it to be to work out your preferences. You have an infinite choice of worlds to live in
* No resistance. Remember this especially when you are dying
Go beyond reason to love -- it is safe. It is the only safety.
The sin that most needs to be loved and forgiven is the state of mind that sees human beings as sinners.
Give others the freedom to be stupid - the most important and hardest step to take in spiritual progress.
Handle the world with divine love. We are but channels of spiritual joy, and to continue to have it we need only be open channels.
We enjoy exquisite spiritual wealth and pleasure when we know we are all equals.
The jewel you hold is Understanding. You cannot add to its beauty by hiding it and hinting that you have it, nor by wearing it with vanity. Its beauty comes from the consciousness that others have of it. Honor that which gives it beauty.
I am one with all the love in the universe.
August 24, 2012
For those on the road still trying to thumb a ride, this book will show you how to make it on your own. There is no other way. Being the lazy man’s lazy man, I quickly went to the last pages and back cover to glean the quintessential enlightenment offered in the excerpts. How can I be lazy and accelerate my vibrations to encompass all that wisdom in a flash, you may ask? Chapter 7 answers that If you’re the kind of person caught up in sin, asceticism, rejection of earthly enjoyment, or other evidence of strict virtuous discipline, and are still having trouble being enlightened and in joy, this book is for you. It will shatter all your preconceived ideas about spirituality, If what you are doing isn’t working…love it and leave it. In other words: let go and let God. The Lazy Man’s Guide to Enlightenment lets you know you are already there. So what’s the point of arrival? We exist on many levels simultaneously: from a being of concentrated mass (separateness, individuality), through energy being, to space being (oneness). How come, you may ask, most of us are only aware of the densest physical level? The answer is you can’t be anywhere else until you love yourself where you are now. After all, it’s a world of your own creation. As long as we reject anything we are tied to that one thing. Now that’s karma! The only effective way to be free of anything, is to love. Accept yourself where you’re at. If you hate or despise something, love yourself for despising or hating it. It’s the E=MC2 of the Universe. Be there, then.
R.L.
I AM Magazine, Quebec.
R.L.
I AM Magazine, Quebec.
March 7, 2018
De acuerdo. El secreto de la vida es el amor. Entregarse a los otros. Más o menos lo hemos sabido siempre, es el relato del cristianismo desprendido de la idea de pecado. Esa es la respuesta que proporciona este libro. La respuesta del amor y la elección.
Pero yo me pregunto, al igual que me he preguntado siempre, ¿qué amor?
Quizá esa era una cuestión demasiado complicada para entrar en ella; más allá de la respuesta obtenida, estas son algunas de las preguntas que ha despertado la lectura de este libro:
¿Qué tipo de amor es positivo entregar?
¿Cuándo conoces a alguien maravilloso, y sin necesidad de acordar ningún pacto entre ambos, sabéis mutuamente que no necesitáis nada más, no es siempre el principio del fin?
¿DeberÃa evitarse ese tipo de amor, o serÃa simplemente caer en la facilidad?
¿Cuándo ese amor termina, y uno decide guardar un luto y honrarlo, no está siendo preso de los recuerdos y el sufrimiento?
Y si la otra persona decide empezar a buscar con desesperación las emociones que se han ido en el sexo y emprende relaciones casi forzadas con su entorno, ¿No está siendo esclavo de la necesidad de emociones?
¿No somos todos esclavos de nuestras emociones?
¿Quién o qué determina la graduación que distingue amar de paliar las propias carencias en los otros?
¿Hasta dónde puedes amar a otro sin hacerle pensar con tus actos –aunque te expliques perfectamente- que pretendes algo más de lo que en realidad quieres, dado el pacto social?
¿Dónde está el lÃmite entre la expansión de esa energÃa que mencionas que todos somos, y la perturbación de la energÃa de los otros?
¿Por qué uno necesita expandirse hasta tocar la existencia de los demás? ¿Y por qué habrÃa de necesitar no hacerlo? ¿Qué es exactamente, y para qué sirve entonces, la empatÃa?
¿De qué sirve lanzar preguntas al vacÃo, como botellas con mensajes desde una isla desierta? ¿Existe realmente ese vacÃo, o podrÃa haber alguien dispuesto a recibirlas?
¿Qué es la culpa más que la negación de la realidad humana, no aceptar que la perfección es imposible, o bien que todo es en sà mismo perfección, tanto lo que percibimos como errores como lo que nos parecen aciertos? ¿Existe siempre la necesidad de evaluarlo? ¿Qué es entonces la moral?
¿Quién eras tú, y quién era yo, y que cabÃa esperar de nosotros?
¿DebÃa esperarse algo?
¿Qué importa ahora mismo?
¿Por qué el presente parece siempre más válido que el pasado o el futuro?
¿Qué iluminan los sueños, aunque nos sobrecojan en su aparentemente perfecto diseño? ¿Ni un adarme de futuro, como decÃa Umbral? ¿O son capaces, desde hechos en muchos casos absurdos, de revelarnos el verdadero estado de nuestra conciencia, al que difÃcilmente podemos acceder ensombrecidos por el ruido de lo cotidiano?
¿Sirve de algo darle vueltas a los sueños? ¿Y si no es asÃ, por qué seguimos haciéndolo?
¿No es, como suponÃa Descartes, la vida, bajo su aparente y engañosa reiteración, el mayor de los sueños?
¿Si un sueño es capaz de trastocar todo nuestro presente y nuestra conciencia vital, cómo aceptar que no significan nada y desdeñarlos?
¿Sirve de algo el mundo intelectual, el logos, más allá de para encontrar preguntas sin respuesta?
¿Para qué pensar siempre las palabras más adecuadas para expresar lo que se piensa, o lo que se siente, cuando es tan mutable?
¿Fue antes pensar o hablar?
¿Si las preguntas no tienen respuesta y constituyen senderos trillados, por qué hemos de seguir haciéndonoslas, más que para perpetuar nuestra sensación de que somos animales anómalos?
¿Acaso dan los animales algo más que su amor al mundo, sin culpa ni moral?
¿Qué nos mejora exactamente respecto a un animal si toda nuestra estructura mental, más allá de llevarnos más lejos técnicamente y perpetuarnos, nos hace cada vez más infelices, nos hace sentir cada vez más fuera de lugar?
¿Después de haber leÃdo durante años toda la literatura que cayó en tus manos; a tantos supuestos sabios de la historia humana, eres más feliz? ¿Sabes algo más del mundo?
¿No fue todo en realidad, la vivencia de los sueños de otros?
¿Es simplemente estar en el mundo, mirar una flor y conmoverse, el secreto? ¿Y si asà fuera, por qué a veces resulta tan complicado? ¿Por qué esa flor ha de ser un sÃmbolo que nos remita a otro lugar, a un recuerdo? ¿Cómo erradicar ese sÃmbolo una vez que se ha constituido? ¿Cómo aceptarlo sin erradicarlo, aunque duela?
¿A dónde conduce el sobrecogimiento amoroso, o el éxtasis, cuando su añoranza paraliza o desata una compulsiva búsqueda de lo mismo una y otra vez?
¿No es el amor, sencillamente, la mayor de las drogas, haciéndonos sentir plenos y llevándonos después a un estado de carencia en el que lo que habrÃa de colmarnos sencillamente ya no nos sirve?
¿Es nuestra visión del amor algo puramente sociocultural o está inscrito en nuestro ADN?
¿Es el amor la mayor de las mentiras, perpetuada y enriquecida a través de las exageraciones de la historia hasta convertirla en un monstruo, o siempre fue as�
¿La gente que desdeña el amor romántico, todos aquellos a los que has escuchado renegar de él, no terminaron siendo en un final los más prendados de sus hechizos?
¿Por qué los sentimientos más fuertes y el amor más puro han de conducir como un péndulo a los mayores padecimientos?
¿Hay alguien que verdaderamente pueda pervivir sin sentir esa carencia en su plenitud, rellenando tal hueco con lo esporádico, lo que no colma ni destruye, sus intersticios?
¿Es el secreto estar sólo, el ascetismo? ¿No es una renuncia consciente a nuestra naturaleza?
¿Es la existencia humana en sà misma algo más que una crisis existencial, en el sentido griego de cambio, y en el de Golas de continua expansión y contracción?
¿somos piedras aquejadas de preguntas?
¿Cuál es nuestra naturaleza intrÃnseca, si todo se haya en continuo cambio?
¿Existe una naturaleza intrÃnseca?
Si se trata de aceptar y abrazar, ¿para qué crear?
Pero yo me pregunto, al igual que me he preguntado siempre, ¿qué amor?
Quizá esa era una cuestión demasiado complicada para entrar en ella; más allá de la respuesta obtenida, estas son algunas de las preguntas que ha despertado la lectura de este libro:
¿Qué tipo de amor es positivo entregar?
¿Cuándo conoces a alguien maravilloso, y sin necesidad de acordar ningún pacto entre ambos, sabéis mutuamente que no necesitáis nada más, no es siempre el principio del fin?
¿DeberÃa evitarse ese tipo de amor, o serÃa simplemente caer en la facilidad?
¿Cuándo ese amor termina, y uno decide guardar un luto y honrarlo, no está siendo preso de los recuerdos y el sufrimiento?
Y si la otra persona decide empezar a buscar con desesperación las emociones que se han ido en el sexo y emprende relaciones casi forzadas con su entorno, ¿No está siendo esclavo de la necesidad de emociones?
¿No somos todos esclavos de nuestras emociones?
¿Quién o qué determina la graduación que distingue amar de paliar las propias carencias en los otros?
¿Hasta dónde puedes amar a otro sin hacerle pensar con tus actos –aunque te expliques perfectamente- que pretendes algo más de lo que en realidad quieres, dado el pacto social?
¿Dónde está el lÃmite entre la expansión de esa energÃa que mencionas que todos somos, y la perturbación de la energÃa de los otros?
¿Por qué uno necesita expandirse hasta tocar la existencia de los demás? ¿Y por qué habrÃa de necesitar no hacerlo? ¿Qué es exactamente, y para qué sirve entonces, la empatÃa?
¿De qué sirve lanzar preguntas al vacÃo, como botellas con mensajes desde una isla desierta? ¿Existe realmente ese vacÃo, o podrÃa haber alguien dispuesto a recibirlas?
¿Qué es la culpa más que la negación de la realidad humana, no aceptar que la perfección es imposible, o bien que todo es en sà mismo perfección, tanto lo que percibimos como errores como lo que nos parecen aciertos? ¿Existe siempre la necesidad de evaluarlo? ¿Qué es entonces la moral?
¿Quién eras tú, y quién era yo, y que cabÃa esperar de nosotros?
¿DebÃa esperarse algo?
¿Qué importa ahora mismo?
¿Por qué el presente parece siempre más válido que el pasado o el futuro?
¿Qué iluminan los sueños, aunque nos sobrecojan en su aparentemente perfecto diseño? ¿Ni un adarme de futuro, como decÃa Umbral? ¿O son capaces, desde hechos en muchos casos absurdos, de revelarnos el verdadero estado de nuestra conciencia, al que difÃcilmente podemos acceder ensombrecidos por el ruido de lo cotidiano?
¿Sirve de algo darle vueltas a los sueños? ¿Y si no es asÃ, por qué seguimos haciéndolo?
¿No es, como suponÃa Descartes, la vida, bajo su aparente y engañosa reiteración, el mayor de los sueños?
¿Si un sueño es capaz de trastocar todo nuestro presente y nuestra conciencia vital, cómo aceptar que no significan nada y desdeñarlos?
¿Sirve de algo el mundo intelectual, el logos, más allá de para encontrar preguntas sin respuesta?
¿Para qué pensar siempre las palabras más adecuadas para expresar lo que se piensa, o lo que se siente, cuando es tan mutable?
¿Fue antes pensar o hablar?
¿Si las preguntas no tienen respuesta y constituyen senderos trillados, por qué hemos de seguir haciéndonoslas, más que para perpetuar nuestra sensación de que somos animales anómalos?
¿Acaso dan los animales algo más que su amor al mundo, sin culpa ni moral?
¿Qué nos mejora exactamente respecto a un animal si toda nuestra estructura mental, más allá de llevarnos más lejos técnicamente y perpetuarnos, nos hace cada vez más infelices, nos hace sentir cada vez más fuera de lugar?
¿Después de haber leÃdo durante años toda la literatura que cayó en tus manos; a tantos supuestos sabios de la historia humana, eres más feliz? ¿Sabes algo más del mundo?
¿No fue todo en realidad, la vivencia de los sueños de otros?
¿Es simplemente estar en el mundo, mirar una flor y conmoverse, el secreto? ¿Y si asà fuera, por qué a veces resulta tan complicado? ¿Por qué esa flor ha de ser un sÃmbolo que nos remita a otro lugar, a un recuerdo? ¿Cómo erradicar ese sÃmbolo una vez que se ha constituido? ¿Cómo aceptarlo sin erradicarlo, aunque duela?
¿A dónde conduce el sobrecogimiento amoroso, o el éxtasis, cuando su añoranza paraliza o desata una compulsiva búsqueda de lo mismo una y otra vez?
¿No es el amor, sencillamente, la mayor de las drogas, haciéndonos sentir plenos y llevándonos después a un estado de carencia en el que lo que habrÃa de colmarnos sencillamente ya no nos sirve?
¿Es nuestra visión del amor algo puramente sociocultural o está inscrito en nuestro ADN?
¿Es el amor la mayor de las mentiras, perpetuada y enriquecida a través de las exageraciones de la historia hasta convertirla en un monstruo, o siempre fue as�
¿La gente que desdeña el amor romántico, todos aquellos a los que has escuchado renegar de él, no terminaron siendo en un final los más prendados de sus hechizos?
¿Por qué los sentimientos más fuertes y el amor más puro han de conducir como un péndulo a los mayores padecimientos?
¿Hay alguien que verdaderamente pueda pervivir sin sentir esa carencia en su plenitud, rellenando tal hueco con lo esporádico, lo que no colma ni destruye, sus intersticios?
¿Es el secreto estar sólo, el ascetismo? ¿No es una renuncia consciente a nuestra naturaleza?
¿Es la existencia humana en sà misma algo más que una crisis existencial, en el sentido griego de cambio, y en el de Golas de continua expansión y contracción?
¿somos piedras aquejadas de preguntas?
¿Cuál es nuestra naturaleza intrÃnseca, si todo se haya en continuo cambio?
¿Existe una naturaleza intrÃnseca?
Si se trata de aceptar y abrazar, ¿para qué crear?
August 25, 2008
my bible.
August 24, 2012
For those on the road still trying to thumb a ride, this book will show you how to make it on your own. There is no other way. Being the lazy man’s lazy man, I quickly went to the last pages and back cover to glean the quintessential enlightenment offered in the excerpts. How can I be lazy and accelerate my vibrations to encompass all that wisdom in a flash, you may ask? Chapter 7 answers that If you’re the kind of person caught up in sin, asceticism, rejection of earthly enjoyment, or other evidence of strict virtuous discipline, and are still having trouble being enlightened and in joy, this book is for you. It will shatter all your preconceived ideas about spirituality, If what you are doing isn’t working…love it and leave it. In other words: let go and let God. The Lazy Man’s Guide to Enlightenment lets you know you are already there. So what’s the point of arrival? We exist on many levels simultaneously: from a being of concentrated mass (separateness, individuality), through energy being, to space being (oneness). How come, you may ask, most of us are only aware of the densest physical level? The answer is you can’t be anywhere else until you love yourself where you are now. After all, it’s a world of your own creation. As long as we reject anything we are tied to that one thing. Now that’s karma! The only effective way to be free of anything, is to love. Accept yourself where you’re at. If you hate or despise something, love yourself for despising or hating it. It’s the E=MC2 of the Universe. Be there, then.
R.L.
I AM Magazine, Quebec.
R.L.
I AM Magazine, Quebec.
October 24, 2010
I have an ambivalent reaction to this book. It gave me no new understanding, but I like that Golas aligned himself with Chuang Tzu and like Taoists who argue against straining and struggling to take actions or achieve understanding.
It is likely at a more challenging level to spiritual/philosophical ideas than an introduction, but will be unnecessary for people who have been seriously struggling with the spiritual/philosophical meanings of life for any length of time.
I like his blunt way of stating the obvious truths we delude ourselves into not seeing. As such I keep thinking that it deserves more than 3 stars, but I cannot bring myself to move my rating to 4. Perhaps my concern about it is that like many spiritual guides, it emphasizes the role of mind and attitude in achieving so-called enlightenment at the expense of respecting one's somatic reality, and perhaps physical well-being. As a society we are completely beholden to products of the mind, be it agri-business justified land, water and animal abuse, the poisoning of our food products with -icides or business practices with Harvard Business Schooled flow charted MBA-itis.
A good read and more than an introduction to Taoist philosophical ideas.
For further notes about this book, see
It is likely at a more challenging level to spiritual/philosophical ideas than an introduction, but will be unnecessary for people who have been seriously struggling with the spiritual/philosophical meanings of life for any length of time.
I like his blunt way of stating the obvious truths we delude ourselves into not seeing. As such I keep thinking that it deserves more than 3 stars, but I cannot bring myself to move my rating to 4. Perhaps my concern about it is that like many spiritual guides, it emphasizes the role of mind and attitude in achieving so-called enlightenment at the expense of respecting one's somatic reality, and perhaps physical well-being. As a society we are completely beholden to products of the mind, be it agri-business justified land, water and animal abuse, the poisoning of our food products with -icides or business practices with Harvard Business Schooled flow charted MBA-itis.
A good read and more than an introduction to Taoist philosophical ideas.
For further notes about this book, see
February 22, 2019
Short book that has been popular for decades, and it is clear to see why. It is very honest and accessible. It is also a strange place to find enlightenment, as the author clearly states between the pages that he wrote it for acid heads.
Reading this got me to thinking, and ultimately agreeing, with the author that enlightenment does not care how you reach it. You can be guided there by scripture or by the words of a Sufi Imam, or the lines written by an unlikely acid head guru like Thaddeus Golas.
I like some of his ideas and his attempt to link them to quantum physics and science, but what truly spoke to me is the way he summed up the findings of his spiritual search, the non-discriminatory approach to enlightenment, the idea that you can find it anywhere, and also what he spoke about love in the first part of the book, not the last part which was a bit confusing.
Very short book that could be read or re-read to absorb some new age spirituality.
Reading this got me to thinking, and ultimately agreeing, with the author that enlightenment does not care how you reach it. You can be guided there by scripture or by the words of a Sufi Imam, or the lines written by an unlikely acid head guru like Thaddeus Golas.
I like some of his ideas and his attempt to link them to quantum physics and science, but what truly spoke to me is the way he summed up the findings of his spiritual search, the non-discriminatory approach to enlightenment, the idea that you can find it anywhere, and also what he spoke about love in the first part of the book, not the last part which was a bit confusing.
Very short book that could be read or re-read to absorb some new age spirituality.
June 10, 2015
I bought this book a million years ago. I found it on my shelf and read it in a sitting (it is very short). I guess I'm not very enlightened because I kept finding my attention distracted by all of the mentions of LSD. Published in 1972, it shows that it was published in 1972. I guess I have to work towards the enlightenment that lets me read it without focusing on all of the off-hand references to LSD and other drugs.
January 4, 2010
Possibly the thinnest most entertaining essay on enlightenment ever written. 80 pages of purely great stuff!
July 25, 2011
highly recommended
July 7, 2017
Amazing, clear, punctual, funny book!
January 12, 2016
The grain of salt that you need to take this with is this book can be considered a spiritual primer as much as it could pocket guide to paranoid schizophrenia. The talk of vibrations and the control exerted thereby, changing states of matter, and our casual interconnectivity are all common delusional tropes. That out of the way, it's an excellent read. I'm not about to drop everything and convert, but the way he looks at the world straddles this line between 60s hippie mystic and shouting half-naked dude in a tinfoil hat, and it's fascinating.
It was heavy on Taoism: nonjudgmental acceptance of life and people, total nonresistance to the stream of fate, equality with all other beings. Serenity and humility, you know this old dance. The advice he kept coming back to was the indiscriminate outpouring of love into the universe. Love yourself, your surroundings, all the terrible stuff that happens to you, and eventually you'll vibrate at such a frequency that everything'll be cool.
Sounds bonkers, right? It did in the book, too, but good-naturedly bonkers. I liked it.
It was heavy on Taoism: nonjudgmental acceptance of life and people, total nonresistance to the stream of fate, equality with all other beings. Serenity and humility, you know this old dance. The advice he kept coming back to was the indiscriminate outpouring of love into the universe. Love yourself, your surroundings, all the terrible stuff that happens to you, and eventually you'll vibrate at such a frequency that everything'll be cool.
Sounds bonkers, right? It did in the book, too, but good-naturedly bonkers. I liked it.
April 22, 2013
If you want the secret to life succinctly boiled down to eighty small pages, this is the book for you! Golas sets down the basic principles of life in quick order: We are all equal. The universe is nothing but live beings, each controlling their own destiny. Nothing needs to be corrected. We are free to experience the world as we desire. Our choice at any given moment is simply whether to expand or contract our awareness. Therefore, our experiences are in accord with our state of consciousness. There is nothing we need to do first in order to be enlightened. Or, as another writer once said, if man's concept of himself were different, everything in his world would be different. His concept of himself being what it is, everything in his world has to be as it is.
March 9, 2010
Even though it's short, it's quite heavy and there were more than a few important lessons. It's really impossible to make a proper review of this book, because it is really for someone who is 'on the path to enlightenment.' You've got to have at least read a few self-help books for this to be of any use to you at all, otherwise it just won't make any sense at all. However, if you've journeyed a little bit, there are a couple of ideas (no resistance, love that you hate it, vibration levels) that are really important and good to have vocalised by someone. Thaddeus Golas has quite an authoritative tone, and I believe he knows what he's talking about.
August 11, 2018
This book might actually have something to say if the author could avoid the hyper psychedelic language that very obviously resulted from too much LSD tripping. It's so far out there, that no sane person could take it seriously. I read this book when I was 19 years old. Re-reading it now, I'm amazed at the impact I thought it had on me then.
Read
April 3, 2018This shall be my first review where I do not want to give stars to a book. On the one hand, it contains probably every idea about enlightenment, the states of consciousness, the emphasis on love, all the good ideas and practices, while on the other hand, it's extremely difficult to understand those words completely unless it comes from myself too. But some did, and that's why I would want to keep reading it from time to time.
Lines from the book to which I can connect:
* We are equal beings and the universe is our relations with each other. What am I doing on a level of consciousness where this is real?
* No resistance. (In mind not in body)
** Love as much as you can from wherever you are.
* Whether I am conscious of it or not, I am one with the cause of all that exists. Whether I feel it or not, I am one with all the love in the universe.
* Go beyond reason to love: it is safe. It is the only safety.
* All states of consciousness are available right now.
** Enlightenment doesn't care how you get there.
* Whatever you are doing, love yourself for doing it.
* When you learn to love hell, you will be in heaven.
Lines from the book to which I can connect:
* We are equal beings and the universe is our relations with each other. What am I doing on a level of consciousness where this is real?
* No resistance. (In mind not in body)
** Love as much as you can from wherever you are.
* Whether I am conscious of it or not, I am one with the cause of all that exists. Whether I feel it or not, I am one with all the love in the universe.
* Go beyond reason to love: it is safe. It is the only safety.
* All states of consciousness are available right now.
** Enlightenment doesn't care how you get there.
* Whatever you are doing, love yourself for doing it.
* When you learn to love hell, you will be in heaven.
February 20, 2021
"Perhaps many of us do not like it where we are in the Universe right now, but we can all be certain that we got where we are by our own decisions to expand in love or withdraw from it."
A very pleasant, light read with notes of fundamental truths. Today, I am thankful for kindness.
A very pleasant, light read with notes of fundamental truths. Today, I am thankful for kindness.
April 11, 2018
pura pscicodelia
August 21, 2023
I should have bailed in the intro when the author explained the book was a compilation of the revelations he had during his LSD trips. And yet, I have such a hard time bailing on a book. I believe that if I work I can get something (if not a lot) out of every book. I found an exception. I am clearly not the target market.
May 18, 2014
I remember about twenty-five years ago, at a time in my life that I needed something to help me live, standing in a Waldenbooks store in a mall, facing a huge wall of books, maybe a hundred and fifty. Instantly my eyes were drawn to this tiny book called The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment. I plucked if off the shelf. It must be a joke with a title like that, right? I thought. But I was intrigued by what I perused. I bought the book, took it home and spent hours reading and digesting it.
Then about ten years ago I realized I'd lost the book (it is tiny) and I was determined to get another copy, but it wasn't easy. The book had only been printed sporadically, but I persisted. What I found was the same book but with a new introduction, a new introduction that essentially nullified what was in the original book. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
The original book hit me as being substantially the truth about how the world worked. We, as human being "entities," have interior workings that radiate and broadcast, so to speak, our frequencies to the world, and the key feature that determines our level of frequency is how loving we are. People with low frequencies are "mass." People with high frequencies are "space." People with alternating high and low frequencies are "energy."
Golas catalogs how the different frequency levels impact each other and how to rise or fall on the frequency level. And he tells us that our frequency levels determine what happen to us and who we will associate with.
Great.
But then in the new version of the book (isbn 0-87905-698-3) love gets superseded by consciousness as the lynchpin that holds everything together. And Golas is convincing in his argument.
Consciousness, or more specifically prolonged consciousness, Golas postulates, is our way out of this material reality (our way to become "space."). I know, it sounds new-agey, goofy, but again, Golas' thoughts just have a way of ringing substantially true.
Here is a little summation of his shift from love to consciousness. (Remember what I said about "mass," "energy" and "space.") He writes:
"The oneness of space is not a mystically difficult state to achieve. All an entity needs to do is cease vibrating: to will to be continuously conscious. Energy imagines a mysterious power that knows all and controls all. But space has no interest in the information that energy wants, and has no desire to engage in manipulating others. Is love the power? No. Consciousness is the power. But it is not the power to do anything specific. It is the power to push away from itself all unconsciousness, to remove itself from all energy and mass entities. Consciousness is not the power to control the material world: it is the absolute power to be free of it."
Golas makes you think. And how many people even have a rudimentary sense of how the world works? Golas takes that bull by the horns and enlightens us enough to at least make us wonder about whether what he says is true.
The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment is new age in character, but it is also rot-gut honest. Its ideas will leave you shaking your head, but then after a while those selfsame ideas may find you smiling.
Have a little spare time? I've free flash fiction (all stories under 1K) at my website greggbell.net
Then about ten years ago I realized I'd lost the book (it is tiny) and I was determined to get another copy, but it wasn't easy. The book had only been printed sporadically, but I persisted. What I found was the same book but with a new introduction, a new introduction that essentially nullified what was in the original book. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
The original book hit me as being substantially the truth about how the world worked. We, as human being "entities," have interior workings that radiate and broadcast, so to speak, our frequencies to the world, and the key feature that determines our level of frequency is how loving we are. People with low frequencies are "mass." People with high frequencies are "space." People with alternating high and low frequencies are "energy."
Golas catalogs how the different frequency levels impact each other and how to rise or fall on the frequency level. And he tells us that our frequency levels determine what happen to us and who we will associate with.
Great.
But then in the new version of the book (isbn 0-87905-698-3) love gets superseded by consciousness as the lynchpin that holds everything together. And Golas is convincing in his argument.
Consciousness, or more specifically prolonged consciousness, Golas postulates, is our way out of this material reality (our way to become "space."). I know, it sounds new-agey, goofy, but again, Golas' thoughts just have a way of ringing substantially true.
Here is a little summation of his shift from love to consciousness. (Remember what I said about "mass," "energy" and "space.") He writes:
"The oneness of space is not a mystically difficult state to achieve. All an entity needs to do is cease vibrating: to will to be continuously conscious. Energy imagines a mysterious power that knows all and controls all. But space has no interest in the information that energy wants, and has no desire to engage in manipulating others. Is love the power? No. Consciousness is the power. But it is not the power to do anything specific. It is the power to push away from itself all unconsciousness, to remove itself from all energy and mass entities. Consciousness is not the power to control the material world: it is the absolute power to be free of it."
Golas makes you think. And how many people even have a rudimentary sense of how the world works? Golas takes that bull by the horns and enlightens us enough to at least make us wonder about whether what he says is true.
The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment is new age in character, but it is also rot-gut honest. Its ideas will leave you shaking your head, but then after a while those selfsame ideas may find you smiling.
Have a little spare time? I've free flash fiction (all stories under 1K) at my website greggbell.net
May 5, 2020
The title of this very slender book has always appealed to me: I am a lazy man, which acknowledgment I’ve long maintained signals a glimmer of self-enlightenment�
I remember in the late 80s or early 90s attempting to read Golas� book, but I bogged down in the first two chapters, where Golas explicates the composition/nature of things with his first principle: “We are equal beings and the universe is our relations with each other. The universe is made of one kind of entity: each one is alive, each determines the course of his own existence.�
I didn’t have the wisdom at that first reading to simply go with the flow and allow Mr. Golas to lead me through the tangle of assumptions bound up in that first principle. There is this business of contracting and expanding, of occupying mutual space with other expanded beings, and there is the energy that is generated from both expanding and contracting. There is a flow and there are vibrations, and I gave up on the idea that I was dealing with anything logically, rationally sound.
It’s in the nature of the history of those bestowing enlightenment that the messenger is never understood literally, that instead the message/words are to be taken as metaphors, as signs and referents to something “beyond� the words that cannot itself be named. In some instances, the philosopher or guru will resort to neologisms to describe activities of being/knowing/sensing that have no down-to-earth correlates, and you begin to wonder�
In the current reading, I was taken with Golas� use of terms such as “flow� and “vibration� (“vibes�), as they are the cornerstone of the true hippie argot, when early hippies identified as counter-culture, alternative life-style beings. Now, that language is considered little more than doper talk, the excrescence of stoner babble. Golas, however, uses the terms as coherent aspects of a cosmogony that entails the relations between entities/beings, where the highest state is found in the expansiveness of love. Also notable is the assumption of altered states of mind (ie, as with the use of marijuana or LSD) as a reference for understanding the mind states around contraction and expansion.
Golas ends by presenting a list of what appear to be commandments, though he shows sufficient humility/diffidence to better terms these “reminders.� The similarity of these injunctions and precepts to easily-lampooned swami talk is extremely high, and it takes patience and mental daring to let down your guard in order to respect a use of language that expands the meanings of “love� and “consciousness� and being (“where you’re at�) in ways that can be adverted to concrete instances.
In sum, I think this earnest book promotes a positive way of conducting one’s life, where logical comprehension takes a back seat to an open-armed receptivity to experience and to sensations that create harmony and well-being. One of the book’s chief virtues is its length: just long enough to make it ponderous, and just short enough to encourage multiple readings.
I remember in the late 80s or early 90s attempting to read Golas� book, but I bogged down in the first two chapters, where Golas explicates the composition/nature of things with his first principle: “We are equal beings and the universe is our relations with each other. The universe is made of one kind of entity: each one is alive, each determines the course of his own existence.�
I didn’t have the wisdom at that first reading to simply go with the flow and allow Mr. Golas to lead me through the tangle of assumptions bound up in that first principle. There is this business of contracting and expanding, of occupying mutual space with other expanded beings, and there is the energy that is generated from both expanding and contracting. There is a flow and there are vibrations, and I gave up on the idea that I was dealing with anything logically, rationally sound.
It’s in the nature of the history of those bestowing enlightenment that the messenger is never understood literally, that instead the message/words are to be taken as metaphors, as signs and referents to something “beyond� the words that cannot itself be named. In some instances, the philosopher or guru will resort to neologisms to describe activities of being/knowing/sensing that have no down-to-earth correlates, and you begin to wonder�
In the current reading, I was taken with Golas� use of terms such as “flow� and “vibration� (“vibes�), as they are the cornerstone of the true hippie argot, when early hippies identified as counter-culture, alternative life-style beings. Now, that language is considered little more than doper talk, the excrescence of stoner babble. Golas, however, uses the terms as coherent aspects of a cosmogony that entails the relations between entities/beings, where the highest state is found in the expansiveness of love. Also notable is the assumption of altered states of mind (ie, as with the use of marijuana or LSD) as a reference for understanding the mind states around contraction and expansion.
Golas ends by presenting a list of what appear to be commandments, though he shows sufficient humility/diffidence to better terms these “reminders.� The similarity of these injunctions and precepts to easily-lampooned swami talk is extremely high, and it takes patience and mental daring to let down your guard in order to respect a use of language that expands the meanings of “love� and “consciousness� and being (“where you’re at�) in ways that can be adverted to concrete instances.
In sum, I think this earnest book promotes a positive way of conducting one’s life, where logical comprehension takes a back seat to an open-armed receptivity to experience and to sensations that create harmony and well-being. One of the book’s chief virtues is its length: just long enough to make it ponderous, and just short enough to encourage multiple readings.
June 22, 2023
It is a nice, compact book, if you want to go the easiest way, he summarised it as "all you need is love". Of course he didn't tell you how to do it :) At most, there are suggestions such as everything is one, take care of yourself, accept what is as it is. The most striking sentence in the book is a Zen saying: If you can't find it where you stand, where will you look for it?
Güzel, derli toplu bir kitap, en kolayından gitmek istiyorsan eğer "all you need is love" olarak özetlemiş. Bunu nasıl yapacağını söylememiş tabi :) en fazla her şey bir, kendinle ilgilen, en güzeli olanı kabul et gibi öneriler var. Kitaptaki en çarpıcı cümle bir Zen sözü: Eğer onu durduğun yerde bulamıyorsan, nerede arayacaksın?
Güzel, derli toplu bir kitap, en kolayından gitmek istiyorsan eğer "all you need is love" olarak özetlemiş. Bunu nasıl yapacağını söylememiş tabi :) en fazla her şey bir, kendinle ilgilen, en güzeli olanı kabul et gibi öneriler var. Kitaptaki en çarpıcı cümle bir Zen sözü: Eğer onu durduğun yerde bulamıyorsan, nerede arayacaksın?
October 13, 2019
The universe is our relations with each other. We are all one energy. Freedom is through equality. There is nothing on earth more important than the love which conscious beings feel toward each other, whether or not it is ever expressed. Don't resist; transcend instead. All of life is an exchange. Love absorbs all. Witness it all go by. Let go of goals. As soon as we are completely willing to create a condition, it changes into something else if our minds are blocked to alternatives. Contracting awareness leads to compulsory behavior. We are mirrors of words and actions to others of oneself. Love of oneself is love to and through others. Conceptual denial manifests physically. Accept everything openly. Structure is between two points of tension. Go back to where you started and learn to love it more. Whether I am conscious of it or not, I am one with the cause of all that exists. Whether I feel it or not, I am one with all the love in the universe. The more you love, the faster you vibrate, then the less need you feel to control anything, and you are not fearful of change and variety. Keep your mind open and unresisting to any possibility. All relationships are persistent to the degree that the beings involved have the same expansion. Ignore the sin, love the sinner. Facts are limited truths, delusions are denials of truth. We are always guilty of what we condemn in others. What we see is always ourselves. Let my intentions not attempt to contradict the necessary laws of our relations as equal beings. Love is the perfect means to enlightenment.
October 10, 2012
This is the book that I've given away to at least 100 individuals over the last 20 years. Of the countless books I've read on the subject of enlightenment/higher consciousness (ok, so I'm a slow learner), this little book captures all of the essentials without obfuscation, in a scant 80 pages. There was a time when I read it cover-to-cover each and every day, and I've never been so clear, expanded, loving and happy (so why did I stop, you ask? What fun is life on Earth if we can't be dense and contracted from time-to-time? ). I corresponded with Thaddeus for awhile back in the early '70s, and I was very impressed by his no-B/S attitude to personal growth, and the fact that he eschewed followers and self-agrandizement.
The Guide is perhaps the most honest book I've ever read and a great and loving gift to us all. Get past the '60s lingo and you have a trusted--and tested--companion for life.
The Guide is perhaps the most honest book I've ever read and a great and loving gift to us all. Get past the '60s lingo and you have a trusted--and tested--companion for life.
October 16, 2015
Some nice bullshit about vibrations and everything being one. The book has some nice elaboration on Alan Watts' analogy of life and music though, but other than this part, it's not worth reading:
"Music shows us how to maintain pleasure and ecstasy. Normally we tend to think of a moment of euphoric realization as unbearable and impossible to continue. It slips away and then we pursue it again. It does so because we are unwilling to let it go, we are unwilling to conceive of being away from it. But if we take the example of music, letting go of one note to hear the next, then our pleasure can be constant though the vibrations change."
"Music shows us how to maintain pleasure and ecstasy. Normally we tend to think of a moment of euphoric realization as unbearable and impossible to continue. It slips away and then we pursue it again. It does so because we are unwilling to let it go, we are unwilling to conceive of being away from it. But if we take the example of music, letting go of one note to hear the next, then our pleasure can be constant though the vibrations change."
July 2, 2019
I received a copy of this book when I was in college (the first time) as a young seeker. The story of this book and the bits of wisdom it contains resonated with me in a hazy, skeptical time in my life. Many years later I have re-read it and found that many of the points Golas shares with us seem just as real and true now as they did then. Better than most wines, it has aged very well. The lessons are not for everyone, but they work for the hippy inside of my middle-aged self. They do not seem to conflict with the Christian pluralism that speaks to me today, in fact they seem to reinforce these beliefs.
June 19, 2016
This is a short book full of one man's view on enlightenment. It's not tied to any religion, and there was a rotating reference to vibrations and other religious imagery. He touched on the use of psychedelics, but did not by any means insinuate that they were necessary on the path of enlightenment.
Really, the focus was on love. Loving each other, yourself, and your current situation. At the very end, there is a brief cliff-notes style summary of the already short book, keeping true to "Lazy Man's Guide".
I thought it was cute and worth the time spend whipping through it.
Really, the focus was on love. Loving each other, yourself, and your current situation. At the very end, there is a brief cliff-notes style summary of the already short book, keeping true to "Lazy Man's Guide".
I thought it was cute and worth the time spend whipping through it.
May 17, 2020
This is an amazing little book which I first read about 37 years ago. I didn't have the courage or the insight at the time to assimilate the profundity of the message given here, which to me is, in a really original presentation, identical to the message of the Christ, the Buddha and the Book of the Law, but stripped of scary, ascetical or mystifying ancillary imagery and atmospheres which have accreted to those sources thanks to the predispositions of the cultures which received them and the zealotry of their adherents. I'm so glad this book crossed my path again.
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