THE GLORIOUS AND PAINFUL TRUTH
If you enjoy my work, but find it a little chewy; if you’d like to offer the distilled essence of it to someone who doesn’t read such things1; if you are looking for a book that presents the depths of human knowledge in a monkeynut shell, then I have something for you; a light handbook for the free at heart, The Fire Sermon.
The Fire Sermon is a straightforward guide to the human condition, to the insane world we live in, and to how to free yourself from both. It presents, briefly and directly, the cause of your suffering, the reason nobody is happy, and how to overcome both by facing loss, death and that most appealing catastrophe, love.
The Fire Sermon is the culmination of my work over the last fifteen years. It is easy to swallow (but hard to digest); effortless to understand (but terrible to grasp); a kind of agony and a kind of ecstasy; a gift that only the oldest gods can give. The glorious, painful, unacceptable and unbelievable truth.
You can get a copy of The Fire Sermon from my online bookshop, or you can order more cheaply from the usual places. There’s a digital version, for tablets and such, but I recommend buying the physical book, because it’s more beautiful and because it contains sound effects…
Hark! Behold!
The Fire Sermon explains the nature of happiness, and how it is different from mere pleasure, the real reason why fakery is rewarded in the world and the vital difference between selfless feeling and selfish emotion. It also clears up the problem of evil, the mystery of free-will and the hell of indecision, if you’ll let it.
In just a few pages you’ll find a radical, but easy to grasp anatomy of your entire life, from infancy to death, and be taken on a subversive satirical trip through your entire world, from the left to the right, from the top to the bottom, from the anarchic, prehistorical beginning, to the apocalyptic, post-historical end.
Reviews…
A complete and concise philosophy of life told with humour and charm, a summary of all your other work but with fresh insights. I can’t really praise it any more highly than to say I’m being changed by it.
‘M.F.’ (Reader Email)
A scathing indictments of the modern world… Utterly condemns the miserable condition of contemporary society, while at the same time insisting on metaphysical truth that puts that sorry state of affairs into context.
Paul Cudenec (read his review here)
Once I’d got halfway through I realised that half of me had disappeared. The rest of my self feels a little anxiety about going on…
William Barker (lives down the road).
Gets under your skin to the point where things break down and you come away truly truly realizing how important it is to just be…
James de Llis of the Hermitix podcast (from a review on his YouTube channel)
Unexpectedly moving… So simple yet so profound.
SN (Reader email)
Beautiful and deep… easy to approach, yet satisfyingly complex; pleasantly disturbing and thought provoking in a way that inspires reflection.
JH (Reader email)
A short and entertaining book packed with deep and timeless wisdom… I loved it so much that I bought copies and gifted them to other people.
Peter Milligan (Amazon Review)
Two Sample Chapters…
GET THE FIRE SERMON FROM MY SHOP
(or from an online bookshop; bricks and mortar shops should be able to get hold of a copy too)
Young people for example. Originally I intended this book to be an update of an old piece of mine, Words of Truth for Young People, which I was unsatisfied with, but in the end I rewrote the whole thing for everyone — or for everyone who can bear it.