In philosophy courses and textbooks, Spinoza is classified as a seventeenth-century rationalist philosopher, sandwiched between Descartes, who lived in the genera-tion before Spinoza, and Leibniz, who lived in the generation after. Spinoza, however, has more in common with Eastern thought generally, and with Buddhism in particular, than he does with either of the two aforementioned philosophers. Those familiar with Eastern philosophy will recognize in Spinoza an uncompromising monist (only God is real), a pantheist (the world, including ourselves, is a part of God), and a mystic (God can be known through direct experience). Moreover, Spinoza's analysis of the human condition is remarkably similar to Buddhism's. We suffer because we desire things that are impermanent, and because we are in bondage to what the Dalai Lama has referred to as the afflictive emotions (greed, guilt, ambition, anxiety, anger, fear, shame, depression, envy, hatred, blame, etc.).

This book presents Spinoza as a spiritual psychotherapist. Spiritual, because the goal of Spinoza's philosophical system is union with God; psychotherapist, because the path to this goal lies through an understanding and ultimate transcendence of our afflictive emotions. It is possible, Spinoza maintains, to live a life free from bondage to our afflic-tive emotions and repetitive behaviors. Spinoza is no mere metaphysician, lost in remote abstractions, but a very practical spiri-tual teacher whose aim, as he explicitly states, is to "lead us, by the hand, as it were, to a knowledge of the human mind and its highest happiness." His entire system of philosophy is dedicated to liberating us from this bond-age, and to teaching us how to live in such a way that we may "enjoy continuous, supreme, and unending happiness." Spinoza's system of thought is as emotionally healing as it is intellectually satisfying.

However, as Huston Smith observes in his foreword to this book, the manner in which Spinoza expresses his philosophy-more appropriate to a seventeenth-century audience than to a modern one-renders it virtually impenetrable to contemporary readers. Healing the Mind makes Spinoza's system of thought accessible and available to general readers, and provides important and novel insights for those already somewhat familiar with Spinoza's philosophy. It is written as a sort of intellectual self-help book, self-contained, free from footnotes, and as much as possible free from jargon. A series of reflective exercises, integrated into the text, aid the reader in applying Spinoza's philosophy to day-to-day life experiences. It is only by applying Spinoza's thought to our personal lives, through consistent practice, that we may free ourselves from bondage to our lower emotions and habitual behaviors, and begin to enjoy the "continuous, supreme, and unending happiness" which Spinoza promises awaits us.