Customer Reviews

I Hope You Die Soon

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This isn't a bad book. I personally like to hear stories and accounts of realisation. But......Listen up! Down through history many have
experienced enlightenment and many have given very luminous pointers to that which is realised. It is a great mistake however, to act as an authority and say that there is nothing you can do that is conducive to awakening. The author has tried different paths and gurus etc... and none of these had anything to do with his realisation. This is understood. There are very simple methods, however that have been taught for thousands of years that are conducive to awakening. These "Advaita" teachers would do good to study Nisargadatta a little more. The realisation of nonduality is as old as recorded history of enlightenment itself. There is no one to know this. There is no one to read this. Its ok to point at this to give people a little sign in the right direction. The way it is constantly repeated over and over is just lame and redundant. It is of no help to anyone. It is actually quite aggravating. If your going to communicate with those who are still thinking in terms of dualism, then think back to when you yourself were a seeker and what might have pointed you in the right direction. Well that's all no one has to say about nothing. P.S. I recommend Eckhart Tolle.

There's nowhere in this easy-to-read book that allows even the tiniest space for the "persn" to go to hide out or even take a moment's rest. The author is relentless. Clearly, consistently and funnily driving home again and again the point that there is no real person. Let's all join the land of the living dead! Enough wasting time with all these high-maintenance "personalities"--let's die soon.

This is the first book review I have ever written. What pushed me to take, (what for me is such a large step), was this extraordinary gem of a book with the unlikely title of, "I Hope You Die Soon". I'm sure that on first encounter most people would find the title more than a bit unsettling, since it seems to be expressing a thought that few of us would be happy to hear another person greet us with.

Nevertheless, I bought the book, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, found that its contents had even more power to stop me in my usual complacent tracks than the title did. For more than a year now, each time I finished it I would lay it down on the pile beside my favourite reading chair,....then irresistibly, a week or two later, I would find myself drawn back to it. I would pick it up,... and once again I was off. Slipping gratefully back into that strangely compelling dream.

Seeing the world through the lens of Richard's experiences truly stretches all my accepted ideas of what I used to so confidently call 'reality'.

If you have any attraction to, or curiosity about, Non-Duality teachings, I highly recommend that you try for yourself, via his book, this extraordinary transposition into the world Richard Sylvester is describing. For true bibliophiles, this book and its companion edition, (comprising transcripts of talks he has given), in my opinion, are undeniably the clearest 'descriptions of the indescribable' that one is ever likely to find by any contemporary writer in modern English.

The acid test for such books is the degree to which they achieve and maintain clarity in their pointing, since pointing is really their only purpose. And since what is pointed to is beyond language and experience, there is the danger of lapsing into confusing, misguided expression.

This book is very much on target however. It always keeps in good proximity to the bullseye and does not stray into conjecture or arguable notions. It's a pared down expression containing only what needs to be said to make the point. The character Richard Sylvester appears from what video clips are available of him, to be by nature not given to hyperbole or verbosity, and these traits would seem to serve very well in writing of what is outside the realm of words and thought.

This being said, an individual seeking to get what books typically yield, i.e. a new strategy, an encouraging story for the merit-hungry ego, a ray of hope in support of self directed striving, etc., may be disappointed, as must be the case where there is seeking for what is not offered nor intended to be offered. Hence it is, the cumulative rating of such a book is not of much use except as indication of the extent to which its subject is recognized or unrecognized by those venturing to comment on it.

This is a solid effort, true and direct in its aim, without excess or equivocation. I recommend it very highly.

Perhaps the clearest, and certainly the most succinct, piece of writing on the transformation of human life known as "liberation" or "enlightenment". This reader was glad to learn that awakening does
not require a "momentous split second event" but that it is possible to "slide into this seeing almost without noticing it" (page 96). Perfection!

I have read numerous books on non-duality, and I find that this book by Richard Sylvester useful to be used as a revision book on non-duality. This book reminds me that there never was an "I". On page 19, it is stated that "Oneness is writing these words and oneness is reading them". How true this statement is. I have read this book three times already and I shall continue reading it.

I think this book either speaks to you, or misses you completely.
A year ago this book would have missed me completely, but at the time I found it, it was what I was looking for.
I have thrown away most of my old spirituality books, and purchased some of the "different" sort of enlightenment books. Of course it is completely useless anyways, but whatever. I like the way he explains things, it worked for me, well as best it could :)
I also like Jed Mckenna's books, but they are of a slightly different perspective.
"I hope you Die Soon" is one of the best books about nothing that I have come across, but hey, it is all relative.

"Richard's description of what has been seen in liberation is both eloquent and down to earth. His direct, uncluttered and concise expression can be readily identified with and speaks directly to that knowing which is beyond seeking."

Tony Parsons - author of `The Open Secret'

it is excellent work, it can help very much everybory interested for liberation. Thank you for delivering it!

WOW, this review of Satori sounds eerily similar to the description in Zen and the Brain about the same experience, and oh wow, its just a coincidence that they both took place on an ''empty''train platform in england......Someone here is flat out lying and DOES NOT KNOW ANY TRUTH!!! To all readers, experience the SELF for yourselves and be original...Dont use other people's descriptions and slightly change the words around and think others wont notice your little sneaky bit of authorship....What a joke!!!!!