The Myth of Self-Enquiry [Paperback]

Jan Kersschot (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0955399963 | ISBN-13: 978-0955399961 | Publication Date: July 6, 2007

"Probably you believe you are a person reading these very words right now. Maybe you also see yourself as a spiritual seeker. You've been to sacred places, followed yoga or meditation, maybe you've been involved in a group of seekers with similar interests. Probably you've invested a lot in this search for the ultimate truth. Maybe you feel you have been close to finding your true nature, and still ... something is lacking. What if this search leads you nowhere because the seeker who wants to achieve "it" is itself a concept? Have you ever investigated the existence of the investigator you believe you are? The seeker you believe yourself to be will not like this book. Seekers do not want to learn that that their search for enlightenment is just a game of their ego. They don't like to see that their spiritual enquiry is endless and that their goal of finding their "true nature" is a myth." Jan Kersschot graduated in medicine from Antwerp University, Belgium. His lifelong quest for the ultimate truth was characterised by his interest in a wisdom which does not exclude anything or anyone. Blending the core of Eastern wisdom with a contemporary Western lifestyle, Jan shows in this collection of extraordinary dialogues how the popular myths about self inquiry and enlightenment can be unmasked. He is the author of the books, Coming Home, Nobody Home and This Is It.

Product Details

• Paperback: 120 pages
• Publisher: Non-Duality Press (July 6, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0955399963
• ISBN-13: 978-0955399961
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,738,774 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Everything is an illusion... including this book., September 8, 2007

By 

Charles L. Rackers (Jefferson City, MO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Myth of Self-Enquiry (Paperback)

I bought this book on the basis of the subject matter and another reader's review. However, I was quite disappointed in the book. I can sum up the book in a few simple statements:

1. You won't like what you read here.
2. The author discussed all this in his other books.
3. Everything is an illusion and chemical reactions in your brain.
4. If you don't like what you read here, your ego is playing games.
5. Your ego is an illusion so there is nothing you can do about it.

Although theoretically I understand what the author is trying to say (the concepts are not new) he could have called the book, "Paris Hilton's Guide to Enlightenment: We're Already Enlightened, So Let's Go Shopping."

He also says no one has a choice in life, since there is 'no one to choose'. There is no free will, and pain is only what we see on our 'plasma screen'. Yet at the same time, people can 'choose' to believe in what they want to believe, and do what they want to do.

There is one point of the book I do like very much. The question of what or why we are seeking anything at all is indeed a very important and pertinent question, and one that any true 'seeker' should ask themselves now and then.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb Dialogues on the Philosophy of Oneness, February 2, 2008

By 

Rodney Stevens (South Carolina) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Myth of Self-Enquiry (Paperback)

Belgium physician Jan Kersschot has assembled a sterling collection of dialogues. Each of the 17 pithy chapters is a luminous mini-lesson on some varying aspect of nonduality. As Tony Parsons rightly notes in his fine Foreword, Kersschot obviously has a "clear understanding" of our essential Oneness.

Kersschot raises a host of significant questions early on. In his Introduction, for example, he queries "What if time is a mind construct? What if a person is just another thought?...What if spiritual liberation is just a myth?" Throughout the remainder of the book, he details how there are no actual paths to liberation. For we are Freedom itself.

The author has gift for reducing abstruse concepts into easily understood terms. Here is the good doctor explaining how the so-called "linear time axis" is just another thought: "Even when you think about yesterday, that particularly thought is appearing presently...You can think about the past, but such a thought doesn't appear in the past."

And on our supposed individuality and its presumed relationship to God/ Brahman/Awareness, Kersschot writes: "I am not talking about `me'--as the character Jan--identifying with Beingness. That would be ridiculous. It's the `real me' that is Oneness. It's not you as a person who will reach this." He goes on to make it even clearer, noting, "You have to disappear first--so to speak--before the understanding appears that you are Beingness." Excellent point!

Kersschot is the author of, among other books, This Is It and Nobody Home, which has just been re-issued by Non-Duality Press.

10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Conversations on Beingness, July 17, 2007

By 

Jerry Katz "Nonduality.com" (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Myth of Self-Enquiry (Paperback)

About the author: "Jan Kersschot graduated in medicine from Antwerp University, Belgium. His lifelong quest for the ultimate truth was characterised by his interest in a wisdom which does not exclude anything or anyone." Jan is also the author of Coming Home, Nobody Home, and This Is It, all well-received books on the teaching of nonduality or Oneness.

The first thing I liked about this book is the compact size. It only has about 97 pages and is narrow enough to fit into my back pocket, so I took it with me on a walk and sat in the park and read it.

The theme is that liberation is a myth as there is only awareness, oneness, God, or Beingness. The theme is developed through as series of brief, pointed conversations on a number of topics: the body, the soul, the shadow side, intelligent design v. Darwinism, blasphemy, life after understanding, belief, religion, ego, control, hope, and more.

Prior to the conversations is Kersschot's introduction to the book. It is important because it easily enables the reader new to nonduality and Advaita to comprehend the prison walls of the mind and to see that they are made of thin air.

Something else I like about this book is that Jan is addressing questions that might be posed by any beginning investigator of Advaita or of Beingness. Such questions as, "If I am not my body, then I am a soul that has chosen this body to live in?" "What I eat, how much I pray, it's not essential? Is that what you're saying?" "Is there nothing we can do to change the world for the better?"

The responses are brief and lead to conversations consisting of further concise responses back and forth.

There is a freshness to this book that is illustrated in how Jan describes his offerings. The questioner asks, "Are you like the Zen masters, who say that the finger pointing to the moon is not the moon?" Jan responds, "I would rather say I try to point to the sun instead of the moon. And the sun stands here for the one and only source of light of everything. Of all beings."

This book of conversations is a concise and fresh guide to Advaita that considers a variety of worldly topics. This book will be extremely useful to people first investigating Advaita and to anyone who still has questions or doubts.

Jerry Katz