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Albert Chiwara grew up in Harare, Zimbabwe. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied Statistics, Actuarial Science and Mathematics. From an early age, Albert was drawn to spiritual matters. After a lifetime of deep spiritual searching, he attained inner peace and bliss during his late twenties. His writing on spiritual philosophy is founded on direct spiritual experience and has the purpose of explaining self-liberation or the attainment of eternal, infinite and indestructible bliss.
Albert is well-versed with Advaita Vedanta, Christianity, Yoga, Zen Buddhism, Kashmir Shaivism and Western Philosophy. His worldview affirms all compassionate religious, spiritual and secular paths as correct. He is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Michigan. Being driven by his love for all humanity and a passion for social justice, Albert is on a quest to help inspire the creation of new organizational forms that are a positive force for societal good and that uplift the human spirit. Albert is the author of "On the Meaning of Everything", a spiritual book that explains the unity of all of the world's great religions and that elaborates the method for attaining eternal spiritual liberation.
Reviewed by Sylvia Heslin for Readers' Favorite
"On the Meaning of Everything" by author Albert Chiwara is a memoir of his life growing up in Zimbabwe and his influences in the Christian faith, as well as his personal journey to discover the meaning of life. After experiencing some personal hardships and struggles, the author finally comes to the realization that what he was searching for was the unconditional love of God. The author says that the meaning of life is in the promise of God’s love and is the reason for all of mankind’s existence. He goes on to explains how an individual’s ego is usually the main source of their discontentment, and thereby leads us to have the desire and the need to want to possess external things. He also touches on the noble truths of Buddhism and the wisdom of Buddha that states that the cause of suffering is desire. This ultimately leads to attachment, which usually leads us to suffering of the ego and the soul and causes the individual to live a life of unhappiness and sorrow.
I enjoyed reading this book, but I felt that the level of complexity was in some places beyond the capacity of the casual reader. In order to get the most out of this book the reader must have some basic knowledge of the different religious faiths that author Albert Chiwara discusses to fully understand this book. I did come to the conclusion that a lot of what he thinks does make a lot of sense. And even though I don’t totally agree with all of his theological views, I found myself still intrigued with his theories and was glad that I had the chance to read his particular thoughts on what he believed is the basis for the meaning of life.
