""Rumi wrote: 'Love came and became like blood in my body.'
Love came to Vincent Parmentola and became words on
these pages. Diary of a Holy Fool is a great series of spiritual
journeys filled with Love, Light, Poetry, the deepest Wisdom,
and a map to the best states to live in: Fulfillment and
Nirvana. Read and Reap.
- Michael Modzelewski, author of INSIDE PASSAGES and ANGELES CREST"

In" Diary of a Holy Fool," author Vincent Parmentola expresses his spiritual insights in a language rich in prose and poetry designed to capture the profound meaning of his phenomenal adventures while on the path of self-discovery. Inspired by the words of Jalaluddin Rumi, the great Persian poet (1207-1273), Parmentola traces his journey to find spiritual perfection and closeness to God. The path of enlightenment is a journey of the spirit and of discovering one's true self, the authentic being that abides at the very center of our consciousness and attempts to answer the eternal questions: Who am I? What is the purpose in my being here?

This is a journey of wonder and surprises consisting of peaks, valleys, and the occasional plateau, when nothing seems to be happening, at least to the conscious mind. Parmentola recalls a time when outward success as a fashion designer was a distracting camouflage for the discontent rumbling-a rumbling that led to his discovery of Rumi and the beginning of his journey of self-discovery.

By sharing his exciting personal experiences and thoughts in "Diary of a Holy Fool," Parmentola hopes to enliven, motivate, and encourage those with the desire to undertake their own journey of spiritual awakening.

"Much of what I have written about derives from my own personal experience with meditation and other activities associated with spiritual states. A hallmark of understanding the workings of meditation is the experiential aspect. One cannot truly understand it just through the intellect. One must experience it directly to comprehend fully. The authors of the recently published book Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression, all seasoned psychologists, wrote about this issue. In attempting to incorporate Jon Kabat-Zinn's time-tested Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Program into their own cognitive approaches in treating depression, they realized that hearing and thinking about the methods were not enough. They needed to be deeply engaged in the Mindfulness practices themselves before they had a true comprehension. They also realized in order to effectively treat depressed people with this technique, during teaching, they needed to remain in a mindful state themselves for the students to gain maximal understanding. When one has a direct experience, it can have powerful effects on belief. Such was my own as it pertains to spirituality and might explain why, as a scientist, I felt the need to search for clearer understanding of it."