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Editorial Review Product Description
This philosophical journey builds a bridge between the Chinese philosophy of Taoism and the Native American beliefs of harmony with the surrounding natural world. Modern American life can overemphasize humanity's control of the land, while religion and spirituality often attempt to achieve harmony and balance in an age of increasing social, economic, and ecological violence. The Hopi people believe that this is the "last world" for humans to set things right with nature. Both Eastern and Western traditions are explored, including Zen, the Cabala, hermetic alchemy, Native American paths, and the philosophies of Plato, Jesus, Spinoza, Nietzsche, Gödel, and Merton. ... Read more Customer Reviews (3) 
It's ok
This book is ok to me, it just seem not exciting to read, nor was it easying for me to read and follow since I do not have such high education to make sense of it. The author talks too much of his conflict with his yards and how do deal with it, and uses philosophy to help guide him, yet goes on and on, which I did not get far in reading the book because it was off subject a lot. I do understand what he was trying to teach, but it was not for me. I more get to the point and meditating on philosophy. The author could of just used envirnmental science and physics to solved his problem, than use philosophy a lone. He would been better of digging up his front yard to force the ants to leave, then re-seeded the lawn. And is physics to solve his back yard issue. But others may find this book good to read? It was just not for me.
Not what I was expecting
I bought this book because the title really caught my attention.I love Taoism and would be very interested in reading more about Native American spirituality.I have been drawn to nature recently and have started focusing on the spirituality of nature, seeing how everything is connected and the Universe is a living universe.But....this book wasn't as interesting as it's title.It seemed to be more of a journal and less of a spiritual study.
Overcoming our dualism
The author of this book provides a fine introduction to some non-dualistic philosophies and ways of perceiving the world, and individual philosophies as well. He mostly looks at the similarities between concepts such as the Yin and Yang, rationality, intuition,Empathy, humility, time and space, Metaphysics, and much more.He sort of blends these into one phillosophy.It was like what this man once told me-there's only one story, but there are a thousand ways of telling it, and that's the tricky part.I have read many of these philosophies before but it is only by comparing it to your own life as well as other philosophies and areas of study that you can truly understand it, and that is where this book's strength lies.
He then tries to bring it all to his own life in an ill-fated hope that it will make him become a better gardener.While he does a great job at sorting through these philosophies, he is not such a good writer himself; his style is a little choppy and inconsistent.Though he doesn't seem too "original" (much of this book is just selected quotes from other works), I'll keep it five stars.In truth, I don't think that anybody is "original"; our thoughts are just a product of our genes and our environment.
As it turns out, some of our newest knowledge in fields such as ecology, genetics, and chaos theory, are finally starting to show westerners something that many indigenous cultures seemed to understand innately and knew how to deal with appropriately.I would especially recommend this book to the very scientifically oriented.And if you are already familiar with this subject I would highly recommend the book New World New Mind.New World New Mind and The Last World seem at first contradictory, but they are actually polarities; one's weakness is the other's strength.
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