Customer Reviews

Face to No-Face: Rediscovering Our Original Nature

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Having read more spiritual books than I can remember it comes as a great shock to read one that stopped me cold in my tracks. Harding has found a way to stop the world. His solution is to "look for yourself" into the nature of being - no techniques, no gurus, no formulas, just look for yourself, and if you actually do look in the way that he suggests, you will learn to "see". This book is a revelation.

This book is a wonderful presentation of Douglas Harding's teachings, experiments, etc. In his writings and his workshops Harding has, for the past several decades, provided a way of looking (literally) at life itself that can bring one to understand what mystics from all ages and cultures have been talking about. What he encourages readers to do is marvellously simple and profound. This book includes the contents of two of his workshops and several interviews with him. This brings out a side of Harding that has not always been accessible in his other books. He is an excellent writer but the spontaneity and liveliness he shows in person really comes across here. He also addresses many questions that people have when encountering his work. I think this book would serve equally well as an introduction to Harding's work or as an expansion on it for those already familiar with it. It is a welcome addition to what is already, in my experience, a life-changing body of work.

I am 68 and have spent many of my years looking for something this book points out in the very first chapter. The "exercises" discussed are designed to redirect ones attention to the most obvious but consistantly overlooked aspect of our being. I doubt that any thing I have to say about it would convey my deep appreciation and enthusiasim for the teaching that is presented here. As the author says, try it for your self, it works.

Re-cognizing your Original Face is perhaps the simplest ONE thing a human can SEE. This book is about totally "seeing", not reflecting,interpreting, or doing something so called,"SPIRITUAL". Following patiently the Authors insructions to experiment with the contents of this book,ones true Nature is experienced through seeing the simpleness of being.Becoming as a child,innocent,trusting, and open to the present moment, temporarily leaving the intellect(reasoning mind) behind, one can't deny the re-discovery of who you really really are rather than who you think you are. This rediscovery is in plain view. Open, transparent, and absolutely obvious, you'll shift most naturally to what you've always already been.I give this book five stars because it pointed to something ordinary to me that I saw on my own, that was always already there and ANYONE can see it, even YOU, if you dare LOOK!

I really liked this book because of its strong practical outlook. It could be titled : Some useful tricks to remember your true nature. However I would have liked some more insights. I hope I am not unfair to Douglas Harding but, reading it, I sometimes got the feeling the teaching was based on hearsay. The book is based on conversations and on workshops that he conducts and it has this kind of workshop marketing flavour sometimes. I do not agree with the assumptions that this is even shorter Short Cut. The "tricks" are helpful to remember who we are but they do not form a true teaching> It might be a shortcut but how far do you really want to go ??

Ramana Marharshi famously said that to see who and what you really are is easier than it is to see a gooseberry in the palm of your hand. We tend to hear that but continue to act as if we are missing something. Douglass Harding's great contribution to western spirituality is that he showed us in a very concrete way exactly where to look. He simply observed that from a completely subjective, first person perspective, we don't have heads. Where others see a head, our experience is of clear space. This seeing is fun and, if you allow yourself, quite beneficial.

I've read several of his books but I like this one, which is a series of talks, the best. His original mind and lively enthusiasm that stayed with him till his death at 97 is a testament to the efficacy of his work. His voice is refreshingly free of any hint of sanctimony of dogmatism. I recommend this book most highly.

This book is delicious~ it is a down-to-earth, experiential guide to coming home to the truth that is so obvious and easily applied to ones life that one might have the urge to discount it as too practical so as not to be considered for a spiritual life practice~DO NOT! It literally directs one to the quintessential actuality behind life itself...

The seller was particularly quick and generous to work with... I will continue to use this seller

This book edited by David Lang, is one of the most accesible books of Douglas Harding. It may bring you from hear - say to look - see. Highly recommanded.
Douglas and Catherine have visited me in my house here in Belgium, and they are wonderful people, indeed. I hope you can meet them one day.
You can read the preface Douglas wrote for my first book on my website, []

Jan Kersschot, author of "nobody home"

Of course, this book and all others like it are only good as long as you can "do" for yourself (make enough money to live on). The question is: Will a book like this empower you to make money?