Awakening for Regular Folks

As I began writing The New Middle Way, I went through countless versions of the book's title. It felt presumptuous to declare that I had come up with a new middle way, as though I think of myself as a new Nagarjuna, the brilliant Buddhist philosopher who lived from 150 to 250 CE.

So I tried variations of "a path between secular and ossified." The more I wrote, the more I was willing to call my ideas at least a stumbling step toward a new middle way for the West. So that became my main head, with the secular/ossified idea as the subhead. But I also wanted a tagline.

The book is intended for people who lack the inclination or resources to travel to remote locales, don traditional robes, or learn new languages. I eventually decided to make the tagline a third element of the title--a sub-subhead.

I wondered whether "regular folks" might be too clunky a term. The book was published before musician Sly Stone died. As I thought about his music, I realized that "everyday people" would have swerved, and the tagline would have been:

Enlightenment for everyday people

"Regular folks" had already caught on with some readers. So much so that I'm using that phrase in my marketing, and I'll make it the title on this new blog. Welcome to:

Awakening for Regular Folks

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