Recently I woke up to the reality that we were still without electricity after more then twelve hours. The battery in my iPad, my main source of reading material, had gone dead the previous evening. I was faced with the challenge of somehow filling the hours in the day ahead.

From my bookshelf I pulled a book that had sat unread for many years. The Tao of Elvis by David Rosen had been given to me by a work colleague soon after it it was published in 2002. My wife Pat and I soon headed to our favorite coffee shop with our reading material.

The Tao of Elvis is organized into 42 chapters, one for each year in the life of Elvis Presley. Each chapter has some interesting information about the King of Rock and Roll and quotes from his acquaintances. Each chapter has quotes from Lao Tzu, an ancient Chinese philosopher, Deng Ming-Dao, a modern Chinese American author, and others. Of course I was familiar with the music of Elvis but I did not know much about him and his life. And Taoism has not been part of my personal spiritual journey. Consequently, I learned much from this little book.

David Rosen is a Psychiatrist, a Jungian analyst and a university professor. In his Preface, he explains the impact of Elvis on his own life. What he writes about his book grabs my attention.

The Tao of Elvis is a psychological and philosophical work in that it is about the phenomenon and the experience of Elvis as well as his (and our) pursuit of purpose, spirituality, and wisdom.

In his Introduction Rosen connects his book to each one of us.

The rise and fall of Elvis reflects what has happened or can happen to each and every one of us. We all have a choice. We can follow a healing path of "egocide and transformation."  Or we can choose a self-destructive path, as Elvis did, which ended his life prematurely.

Many quotes in the book strike a cord with me and I will share only a few.

Lao Tzu
Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Lao Tzu
To understand yet not understand is transcendence.
Lao Tzu

Truly, the greatest gift you have to give is that of your own self-transformation.

This book is about both light and darkness, perhaps even more important today then when it was published.

BONO (Lead singer of the band U2) 

Elvis, like America, started out loving, but later turned on himself.

Larry Geller (Spiritual advisor and personal hairstylist to Elvis.)

What drives us crazy about Elvis wasn't necessarily the sexual freedom his critics claimed he was unleashing, but freedom, period. Freedom to be yourself, to express yourself, to wear what you want, to look the way you wanted to look, to have your own style, your own talk.

Deng Ming-Dao 

Which is worse, the madness of following Tao or the madness of an existence without awareness?

Chapter 31 is entitled PAIN and SUFFERING and  Chapter 37 is entitled COMPASSION and FORGIVENESS.

Deng Ming-Dao
Those who are truly compassionate are so not because of theory or ethics, but because they feel the suffering of others as directly as they would their own.

Inside me I hear a voice of caution as I reflect on the above quote. My psychological profile includes being a Highly Sensitive Person and HSPs face an ongoing challenge with being overwhelmed by the suffering of others. Balance is important.

As I read this book, I wondered why my work colleague gave me this book, something which unfortunately we never discussed.  I wondered whether any other SNS members had read it. And I wonder whether this book review will spark any interest in SNS members born after the death of Elvis in 1977.

I wrote the above book report in 2018 and submitted it to the Spiritual Naturalist Society for their consideration for publication on their website. They declined but suggested that I post it on the Spiritual Naturalist Friends facebook group site. I did so but it got very little discussion.