Every
day, the explosion of noise from the alarm clock ricochets around the walls of
millions of bedrooms and the sleeper is violently hauled from their deep
slumber and dream-world into everyday reality. Weary hands reach out to stop the noise and
sleepy bodies begin the routine and habits that characterise the day.
Life
in the 21st century is dominated by work, cluttered, hectic and
complicated and daily living seems like a monotonous tread-mill. Many people
feel that something vital is missing and this is often heard in the cry, “there’s
got to be more to life”.
We
try to convince others that we live happy, fulfilled lives and although we may
succeed in this, we cannot fool ourselves, not indefinitely anyway. For in quiet moments, the little voice inside
whispers that all is not well with us.
Why are we are unhappy? What are
we to do? How can we make things better
for ourselves? Why hasn’t it
worked? Where did we go wrong? Why are so many people unhappy? Daunted by the fact there seems to be more
questions than answers, we cover our ears, pull ourselves together, resign
ourselves to the situation and resume business as usual and continue to “lead lives
of quiet desperation.” But is such
resignation necessary? Are we so constrained that we cannot break free and have
the life we want? No, is the resounding
answer given by John Cowper Powys.
For
years, my own disillusionment led me to a barren land of despair and
hopelessness. I knew what I needed but was unable to see how it could be
achieved. In the quest for a solution I began reading widely, frantically
searching for inspiration and it was at this time that I came upon John Cowper
Powys. No writer previously has had such an effect on my life. I have gained much pleasure, knowledge and
insight from books but the philosophical works of John Cowper Powys are the
only ones that have affected my life so profoundly. He took me on a journey of self discovery that
has been life-changing in more ways than I could have believed possible.
Powys was concerned with
the ordinary person and viewed his philosophical books as manuals for living to
help people in practical ways. He identifies and understands the struggles of
living and provides the reader with methods and strategies to improve the
quality of their life. This man, you
feel, knows and understands day to day life, its trials and tribulations, what it
is to be human. There is so much insight, wisdom and practical guidance within
the pages of his books, so much in his life-philosophy, that has the potential
to transform the lives of many people.
In a world filled with so
much unhappiness, pain and suffering, it is time to re-discover John Cowper
Powys. He helps us to understand the source of our unhappiness and suffering and goes on to show us how to create lives that are worth living, helps us to re-discover the joy of life.
"It is a
sickening and shocking sight to set eyes upon the great majority of the people
in our large modern cities who go to and fro along the pavements. What
automatic avidity! What callous indifference! What benumbed and distracted
preoccupation! The stark, bleak brutality of country-life has in comparison a
certain tragic grandeur, a certain earth-bound dignity, born of direct Contact
with Nature. But the human race, in these modern commercial times, has got it
caught in a relentless machine that turns living, sensitive people into pallid,
galvanised automatons…"
(John Cowper Powys, In Defence of Sensuality)
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