When you love, you can at times feel that there is nothing wrong with the world because your awareness is so focused on the present. In "Rising in Love" Love itself becomes our home, it is who we are, it is what we are climbing towards. In fact, Love does make you feel that you are living on a higher plane of existence, so instead of saying you are "falling into love," Alan presents the idea that you are "Rising in Love."

Alan Cohen's books are peaceful, calming journeys and I feel comforted by the style in which he writes and his observations about life are always amusing. There is a very intimate feeling while reading this particular book. Alan's books also tend to be signposts to awaken me to various aspects I should be paying attention to in my own life. I find it interesting that Alan was talking about a movie that I had literally just found and was about to watch. Of course, I will be paying very close attention to what that movie has to teach me.

I'm not sure why I think Alan Cohen's humor is so hilarious, I just imagine him in the situations he describes and I get lost in laughter. There is a deep richness to his experiences and his books present a setting of intellectual intimacy in which his thoughts intertwine with the reader's own inner knowledge. I have at times found myself writing poetry after reading chapters in this book.

Rising in Love is divided into five main sections:

The Awakening - Alan remembers when he first fell in love and how he learned to love life itself. At times I wasn't sure if Alan was writing a moment of comedy on page 5 or was truly describing how he felt. Either way, I was amused. If you wanted to know some of the details of Alan's life, this is the book to start with and Alan freely explores his life experiences in order to encourage understanding and an awareness of your own experience with synchronicity.

Who We Are - Alan draws on ideas from movies to explore the ideas of how we are spiritual beings experiencing a material existence. He explores the idea of being born in innocence. If we are born into innocence why do we need to be rescued from the abyss? Alan only touches on a few spiritual principles here and it will probably make readers want to find out more on the subject of the original state of mankind. Are we naturally good or naturally prone to selfish desires? This section of the book is interspersed with quotes and interesting principles in a bold type.

Growing Into Greatness - The story of the "Butterfly" is a powerful statement about how you can expect greatness from others and how they will rise to the occasion and meet the challenge. I actually like how Alan uses the word "God" instead of "Universal Consciousness" because it makes this book more personal. This section of the book explores how you can go through a period of "emptiness" in order to reach a stage where your life becomes richer. I loved Alan's ideas about how we throw rocks into the water and then wonder why we can't escape the waves and this is an interesting way of explaining karma. He explains "tough love" as "what is required to break a habit that is working against our highest interest." The Mustang GT story is rather amusing. It is quite amazing how Alan can draw spiritual wisdom out of the most negative or hopeless situations.

Living in Light - Alan explores the idea of getting what you want by knowing what you want and declaring your intention. Then, you accept opportunities and work with responsibility and confidence. Instead of just saying we should declare our intention, he does recognize human effort and in this way we as humans are not completely helpless in the Divine plan. There is a picture of how our thoughts create our experience and the contrast of negatives vs. positive thinking is rather stark. Does negative thinking block blessings?

Coming Home - This section starts with a quote by Albert Einstein that leads into a discussion about the sacredness of the words: "I love you." Alan shows how he found greater freedom in being more open in love and changed from loving only those who loved him to loving even those who were not lovable.

Rising in Love is a boost to your self-confidence all while making you feel humble and more willing to try to love unconditionally. All I can say is "falling in love" seems much easier than "Rising in Love." Although after reading this book, I'm starting to think that the difficulties in our life stem from blocking the flow of love. Perhaps living "as" love is really the goal. When you start listening to the signs and moving in various loving directions, there are invisible forces that start to work together for the good of those you help or encourage.

~TheRebeccaReview.com