I was introduced to this book via a counsellor that works with Mrs. Freedom after her spiritual advisor recommended it to her. It has proven to be extremely thought provoking and challenging for me.
Written by David Deida the full title is – The Way of the Superior Man: A Spiritual Guide to Mastering the Challenges of Women, Work, and Sexual Desire. Sounds like an awfully strong claim to master these complex and varied topics. The author has a secret that ties it all together and it emanates from knowing and living your true purpose. When you live from this place of truth and love, all aspects of your life are now experienced in a superior way as you carry yourself as a superior man.
Make your life an ongoing process of being who you are, at your deepest, most easeful levels of being.Everything other than this process is secondary. Your job, your children, your wife, yours money, your artistic creations, your pleasures – they are all superficial and empty, if they are not floating in the deep sea of your conscious loving.
The strong, confident tone of the book is both alluring and repelling in the same moment for me. There are aspects that feel so intuitively true for me while others challenge my belief system about myself, my personal relationships, and my relationship with the very culture I exist in.
It should be mentioned that the author does explain that when he speaks of ‘man’ he is really referring to masculine energy which is present in varying degrees in individuals that were born or identify as any gender. In this same way all people regardless of gender contain a certain level of feminine energy that also varies significantly by individual. It is only more likely to be more prevalent in women.
The essential masculine ecstasy is in the moment of release from constraint into freedom.” David Deida
The sections related to the masculine desire for freedom touched a nerve for me. Duh, makes sense doesn’t it? Perhaps my deep desire to explore freedom in various aspects of my life is really my masculine nature roaring to be heard and to discover my true purpose. If nothing else this book alone has provoked a new interest in my lifelong pursuit to understand the main reason I am meant to exist. What is the gift that I most need to share with those closest to me and by association, the world?
For me this book makes an excellent companion to The Power of Now in how it ties spirituality to understanding being someone with a primarily masculine nature (again, non-gender dependent) and how to use that energy and presence to share your gift and live to your full potential. Deida at times uses harsh, direct language combined with concepts that have been highly though provoking for both myself and Mrs. Freedom for the parts I have shared with her. It has intrigued her enough that she’s listening to the audio book version too.
A highly recommended read for anyone that’s ever wanted to understand the inner working of themselves or the people they know and love.