Invitation to Awaken: Embracing Our Natural State of Presence [Paperback]

Tony Parsons (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2004

Invitation to Awaken is a radical call to liberate ourselves from the mistaken belief that we exist as a separate individual.This simple yet profound message, conveyed in a clear and often humorous manner, helps free us from our self-imposed limitations. When we recognize our true nature, we express the freedom that is our natural state and birthright.These new dialogues with Tony Parsons, recorded from talks in Southern California, deepen the exploration that he began in his best-selling book,As It Is. This refreshingly original and timeless message has the power to demystify our long-held concepts about spiritual awakening and cut through the subtle mental obstacles that obscure our natural state of Presence.Rather than adopt an approach that perpetuates our sense of separateness, Parsons urges us to drop all effort to become realized and discover the liberating truth that we already are what we seek.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Tony Parsons is an esteemed teacher who regularly shares the "open secret" of spiritual awakening with people throughout the world. His straightforward and highly effective message of awakening to life "as it is" is delivered with an impersonal authority that emanates from absolute clarity.

Product Details

• Paperback: 131 pages
• Publisher: Inner Directions (January 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 187801921X
• ISBN-13: 978-1878019219
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #608,832 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The Antiduality, August 27, 2007

By 

mole sandwich (usa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Invitation to Awaken: Embracing Our Natural State of Presence (Paperback)

I would wholeheartedly recommend Tony Parsons' books if it were not for his fervor to deny almost all other teachers, whose writings, in his words, "have nothing to do with nonduality." I have the following specific concerns about his credibility:

-The name of his copyrighted "communication" (kind of odd for a guy who rants against practice) --The Open Secret-- is the name of a book written by Wei Wu Wei decades ago. Tony is a former car salesman whose body language reeks of self-restraint, a usual sign of split consciousness. Like most salesmen, his language is NOT original. It may be free from eastern jargon but it is peppered with linguistic constructions borrowed from Alan Watts ("This is oneness tonyparsonsing") and loads of new-agey "nessing" -- if I had a dollar for every time Tony added -ness to a word -!!!- His total denial of methods (oh, except The Open Secret...) has been done before, with more integrity, by UG Krishnamurti. UG never wrote books or charged for meetings! Parsons' insistence that he can take something as free and timeless as nonduality and make it "new and improved" is just a testament to his inability to move beyond the Sales 101 model of oneness. For example, Parsons describes his "Open Secret" as "not only new, but prior to, and at the root of, all esoteric revelation." I can picture it already, Tony whispering in the ear of Siddhartha Gautama...

-Several people have claimed that Parsons is a former Osho sannyasin. If this is true, it puts his premise, that spiritual seeking is useless, in a different light. What else might Tony be holding back from us?

Tony's students include:

-Nathan Gill, a teacher who delivers Advaita in a medium of unintelligibly clear intellectual mumbo-jumbo.
-Jan Kersschot. Kersschot is even more anti-dual than Parsons. He writes a book, This Is It, of interviews with nonduality teachers. Then he claims in an interview that the teachers in the book were mostly NOT nondual and the hidden point of the book was to enable the reader to sort out the REAL nondual teachers from the fakes. He explains in the interview, of course, that the real nondual teachers are himself and Tony Parsons. The fakes: everybody else. We are encouraged by Parsons to discover that the founders of the Advaita tradition are dualistic fakes as well.

-The only teachers that Tony has ever acknowledged as "nondual" are a tiny handful of white European males, half of whom are his personal students! Tony even rejects Ramana Maharshi, the advaitin par excellence, as "speaking from ignorance" (check YouTube). This is tantamount to rejecting the entire Indian understanding of nonduality and, to keep his integrity, Tony should avoid using the word "advaita." He would also have to proclaim himself (oh, sorry, I meant the bodymind called Tony Parsons) the first person in the history of humanity to achieve complete liberation. Judging from the feel of his writing, he certainly wants to do so.

Somehow all this nondual infighting centered around Parsons doesn't feel right. Nevertheless, it does feel very anti-dual, SO antidual that --in Parsons's own words-- it can't have anything to do with nonduality.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Tony Practiced - You Also Need To, January 26, 2009

By 

Gary Weber (Pennsylvania, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Invitation to Awaken: Embracing Our Natural State of Presence (Paperback)

Tony Parson's "Invitation to Awaken: Embracing Our Natural State of Presence" is a collection of dialogues at four of his talks. In the interest of full disclosure, I attended several of his talks, met Tony in person (who stormed away after a question on his practices), and the foreword to his earlier "As It Is" was written by a good friend and fellow advaita teacher and author.

If you want a spiritual teacher who is an atheist and a theist, who jokes about how sexy he is, how much money he's making compared to his previous job as a used car salesman and who considers his understanding superior to Ramana Maharshi's, Tony's your (non)person.

Beyond that, the first talk (which I attended) is about as good as it gets for a summary of what non-dual awakening is in the later stages. A lot of confusion and anxiety can be avoided by understanding this chapter.

One of Tony's, and many other contemporary teachers', key selling points, which is tremendously popular, is that "No effort, path..., process or teaching ... can take us there...". Tony, however, did not take a "no effort" path to his own awakening.

As detailed in his earlier book, Tony did years of practices, including surrendering to his guru, deep meditations, "the latest therapies", an intensive one year residential course on therapies and "Eastern meditation", all the "most recent books", etc. (No effort?)

Tony draws the surprising conclusion that his awakening had nothing to do with those practices, presumably because awakening happened while simply walking across a park in London. (Awakening often occurs in completely random unrelated situations.)

Extensive research in the best neurophysiology labs demonstrates that practicing reshapes the brain and its processes, whether for "spiritual" work, music, sports, arts, etc.; more practice, more change.

Tony's assertion is like an Olympic high-diver saying "it's easy, just jump, twist three times, bend, and straighten." The high-diver wouldn't claim that years of conditioning, low board work, coaching, video watching, etc. were unnecessary because that isn't what she does when she dives and is in "flow".

Ultimately, one does need to drop the "practicer", (as Tony did when he finally surrendered), as that can also be a great trap, but concluding that somehow makes practice unnecessary or a problem is incorrect.

The "no practice" story has sold in many versions over the 35 years I have been around spiritual work. It sells because we want to believe it. Whether it's flatter abs, improved memory, or "enlightenment"; we want it effortless, painless and quick. Dig into the bios; it isn't what happens. It also, surprisingly, makes you dependent on the teacher as you have nothing you can do to awaken yourself except listen to them (and their products).

If it were that easy, wouldn't there be millions of enlightened folk by now?

20 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is true for me, December 25, 2004

By 

Just This (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Invitation to Awaken: Embracing Our Natural State of Presence (Paperback)

If the topic of spiritual enlightment is attractive to you, it probably means you are looking for it at some level. There are many teachers whose writings are similar to Tony's, but unlike many, Tony Parsons stresses that there are no exercises or practices that will bring you to an enlightened state. "Who is doing the practicing?" he would ask. If you don't 'get' this idea, keep looking. Look at what is before you, right now. Really look, without judgement, without categorizing, without thinking; just look as you did as a child. I learned something recently that changed my life forever. Tony Parsons' writings helped lead me to it.