Extending boundaries – Empowering individuals
Extending boundaries – Empowering individuals
by Benjamin Cherry
Hardback limited edition, sewn binding, individually wrapped
ISBN 978-1-915594-04-4, 400 pages, colour illustrations, £34.99
Paperback, ISBN 978-1-915594-05-1, 400 pages, colour illustrations, £20.99
“It is one of the purposes of this book to demonstrate that we carry the the greatest capacity for healing of any life form on earth yet at the same time the greatest propensity for destruction. This is because within us is not only an intelligent animal or bio-chemical machine, but a living power of spirit that can be a force both for good and evil.” Ben Cherry
In Search of the Heart’s Sense of Truth is the fruit of a lifetime. It is a depiction of ways forward through the mighty trials that are racing towards us, so long as we have the courage and mental clarity to recognize what we are, in fullness, as human beings.
At the essence of the huge challenges we are facing today as a global civilization is the question of who we are and what we are being called upon to develop. As is clearly shown in this extraordinarily wide-ranging book, one’s self-image influences how one perceives reality. If we see ourselves simply as advanced animals or pre-programmed robots, the will for self-change and autonomous action is weakened. But if we are willing to extend our rationality and imagination to encompass not only the bodily levels of existence, but those of soul and spirit, everything changes. For this extension of scientific method can awaken new levels of strength and compassion in this time of enormous suffering. Such is the ‘sacred mountain’ around which readers are invited to journey during the first three parts of the book. Such too is the ‘lake of self-reflection’ at which, in the fourth part, we attempt to recognize the capacities we have gained through this mighty paradigm, to pioneer new ways through all that is threatening us from the future.
This book is dedicated to those many people
who care deeply about the world’s future and are willing
to put energy into creating new ways forward.
Ben Cherry was born and brought up in the UK, with a master’s degree in law from Cambridge University and a Diploma of Education from NSW Australia, Ben Cherry has lived, worked and travelled through five continents and has given courses in schools on all of them. His search for peace and for answers to the huge social, cultural and environmental issues he encountered as a young man, especially through his experience as a teacher and journalist in Vietnam during the war, led him more than five decades ago through many spiritual streams to the work of Rudolf Steiner.
For twenty-five years he worked as a class teacher and upper school teacher at a Waldorf school in Australia, of which he was a co-founder, and he was privileged to be one of the founders of this education in Mainland China, supporting its growth until the onset of the lockdowns in 2020. For the past two decades he has additionally been mentoring and giving courses in schools throughout the broader Asia Pacific region.
Benjamin is the co-author of the book Of Pandas and Wandering Geese, which is based on the long journey he and his small family made through Mainland China and the Tibetan Plateau in 1994, which laid the ground not only for his subsequent work there but also for this book. In all his journeying, both outwardly and within, his deepest quest has been for Truth. During the past years he has been writing regularly for various journals and magazines about what is happening in the world today and how we might be able to transform it. He now lives in Taiwan.
This book, In Search of the Heart’s Sense of Truth – A Life Journey, is the fruit of a lifetime. It is a depiction of ways forward through the mighty trials that are racing towards us, so long as we have the courage and mental clarity to recognize what we are, in fullness, as human beings.
