Customer Reviews

On Being You: A Simple Guide to Self Enquiry

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Born in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England, Michael Vincent has been a painter and writer all his life.
He established his first studio in Suffolk in 1987. From 1991 until 1993 he lived and worked in New Zealand.
A further period in Suffolk was followed by the move to Somerset in 1998 and the opening of a studio in Walton near Glastonbury. Following the death of his beloved wife Kaisa in 2001 he moved to Glastonbury.

In 2006, with a group of friends and supporters, he established the AshTat Centre for Creative Living, a Centre which focused on developing individual creativity in whatever form in a totally non-judgemental place. He returned to Suffolk in 2008 re-establishing AshTat as a project benefitting worthy causes both locally and in India.

Michael has written articles for local and national newspapers and magazines and published a book in 2001 celebrating the life of his wife Kaisa and her pioneering complementary health care programme for cancer. He has broadcast on local radio and facilitates workshops on visual art and Meditation.

This book is delighfully presented in all aspects. I found the "look and feel" of the book immediately set a relaxed tone. The size and clean layout are easy on the eye, offering the opportunity to focus upon the content without undue distraction.

The text is interspersed with relevant quotations and a selection of images taken from Michael's own extensive porfolio of original artworks created during his lifetime as a painter. Each quotation and each image offers the reader an opportunity to pause and reflect, before continuing.

Sri Ramana Maharshi first offered Self enquiry as a silent satsang. It soon became apparent to him that many of his students were not "getting the message" as they were unable or unprepared to sit with silence. Faced with this fact, verbal communication was started, much of which was written down by his students and later became the basis of texts.
From there, the author explains, there has become an exponential increase in the verbiage, particularly in the west, as Self Enquiry becomes more popular, and as Hindi texts are translated with different ways used to compensate for the lack of equivalent western words. It is the proliforation of differing words and accompanying complexity that Michael seeks to redress.

As readers, invited to work at our own pace, we are led through each section with simple and uncluttered explanations covering:
Some Definitions
On being not you
Conscience, action and behaviour
Unlearning the learned
On Desire
Be in your body
Earth Matters
Look to the Source
On Freedom
On what remains
Epilogue: I am I

At only 80 pages, which includes the images and quotaitions, some recommended reading, and three pages at the end left empty for writing any personal notes, it is clear that Michael has accomplished what he set out to offer.