One: Essential Writings on Nonduality [Paperback]

Jerry Katz (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 29, 2007

This is the first book on nonduality intended for a mainstream audience. Nonduality means not two or One without a second. That One has many names-God, consciousness, truth, the Self-and the writings in this collection turn the reader toward this nondual reality. This is done through the practice of inquiry, in which questions about the source of one's action or thought lead one to see the fact of non-separation, and through expressions of nonduality in art, music, scriptures, and diverse areas of ordinary life. In gaining an understanding of the nondual nature of life, one can live with greater integrity and joy, because the truth of existence is seen and lived.

Often called Advaita in the East, nonduality describes the singular wholeness of existence that suggests that the personal self is an illusion. Nonduality is the basis of much of ancient Eastern thought, and there is a growing interest in it among Western spiritual seekers. The book covers religious and cultural expressions of nonduality, nondual spiritual practices, and the philosophical underpinnings of the nondual perspective. This very lively and diverse collection includes readings from Ramana Maharshi, Ibn 'Arabi, the Tao Te Ching, Ohiyesa, the Diamond Sutra, the Avadhuta Gita, Bernadette Roberts, Kabbalah, nondual psychotherapy (John Prendergast), education (Steven Harrison), art (Jerry Wennstrom), and the movie The Matrix (Pradheep Chhalliyil). It's a sourcebook for understanding this profound perspective and how it relates to our lives.

One conveys what nonduality itself is, in a nonacademic style that draws heavily on modern, popular writing on the subject. Included are lively passages from major traditions-Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. This new take on an ancient philosophy makes it relevant for modern lives.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Edited by nonduality instructor Jerry Katz, One: Essential Writings on Nonduality is a sourcebook anthology of writings crucial to the spiritual perspective of universal reality, and the mystical integration of the self within the universal. Exploring nonduality as understood within Sufism, Judaism, Taoism, Christianity, Buddhism, Native American traditions, and the Advaita Vedanta, One, as well as nonduality as experienced in psychotherapy, education, art, and even the pop culture movie "The Matrix", One is an integral primer to a powerfully transcendent concept. "The practical expression of the spiritual realization that life is interconnected is expressed in the forms we create, the work in progress of that understanding. Even a learning center that embodies freedom and responsibility is not complete until it seamlessly interfaces with the community of families, businesses, and institutions that surround it, as well as the world at large. Learning may finally be deinstitutionalized and returned to its natural state: curiosity-driven, lifelong, and incorporating every dimension of the human being." Highly recommended for religious and spiritual philosophy shelves.

--Midwest Book Review


A translation of the first verse of the Avadhuta Gita, a Hindu scripture, reads: "Through the Grace of God alone, the desire for nonduality arises in wise people to save them from great fear." Katz attributes the appearance of this desire to know our true nature as an outgrowth of the desire for spiritual development, which ultimately shows itself to be another wish for something to possess. Mystical experiences, inner peace, and even wisdom eventually leave us unsatisfied. Something lies beyond these: the realization, rather than the acquisition, of our ultimate identity beyond our dualistic world. In One, Katz presents various perspectives--including writings from Sufism, Judaism, Christianity, Taoism, Buddhism, and Native American tradition as well as the essential teachings of Ramana Maharshi and a discussion of The Matrix Trilogy--to guide us toward recognition of the essential oneness of reality, the truth of our Self.

--Shift: At the Frontiers of Consciousness



By carefully combining a wide range of nondual texts, both ancient and modern, Jerry Katz has made a significant contribution to the growing library of nondualist writings. The author creates a very readable overview of the subject and shows that what it’s pointing to is relevant today. Above all, he reminds the reader that the cross-cultural perennial philosophy that lies at the core of all of the great religions has been this same realization of the absolute unity of all things. True freedom arises through the discovery that separation is an illusion and that everything is, quintessentially, only One. This book can be an opening. Very well done and highly recommended.
--Chuck Hillig, author, Enlightenment for Beginners



One is a clear and concise guide to the most universal truth of all: that the world between our ears that we call "me, myself, and my story" does not actually exist. When we see this, when we actually realize our true, nondual nature, conflict and suffering leave us, and peace and joy prevail.
--Jim Dreaver, author, The Way of Harmony



Thanks for adding this stellar effort to the great body of nondualist literature which is now blossoming in our time. The few pages of excerpts you included from Advadhut Gita are well worth the price of your book all by themselves and yet they are only one small part of an amazing smorgasbord. This is the kind of book I expect to refer back to over the years regularly. It is also the kind of book I'll need extra copies of to give to folks I encounter who show even some small sign of being worthy. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
--Orva Schrock, author, Grandpa's Notebooks: The Evolution of an Amish Soul



My kind of book. I know I will enjoy having it for years to come. Leave it to Jerry Katz to show the pluralism of the unitive experience. I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for the best reference guide to nonduality on the market today. A must have for serious seekers for its breadth of perspectives.
--Paul Cohen, Publisher/Editor, Monkfish Book Publishing Company

From the Author

This book weaves the desire for nonduality, the teachings of Ramana Maharshi, self-realization confessions from major traditions, and the nondual perspectives of psychotherapy, education, art, and the movie The Matrix, to present a sweeping introduction to the teaching of nonduality. Diverse, sparkling, classic writings make-up this compilation, which might serve as a foundation to a collection of nonduality books.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 212 pages
• Publisher: Sentient Publications (January 29, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591810531
• ISBN-13: 978-1591810537
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 0.6 x 6.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #257,399 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

68 of 73 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Grace arises from truth! April 9, 2007

By Alice A. Chestnut

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Jerry Katz had me from the first sentence when he defined nonduality as "the experience of our true nature, the taste of being" -- what a clear, concise definition. Direct seeing itself is the experience -- you can call the experience itself Self, or if you choose, God -- and in this direct seeing one becomes whole. This is the experience of becoming a participant in the natural bliss of plants and flowers and trees, and it is one's death as well as rebirth. As soon as we drop the mind [ego] that is the source of all fear, this new world unfolds. In it, we become one with nature. Nothing is separate, nothing is different, and everything begins to throb in harmonious peace, which is our true nature.

Then, one page later, when Katz said that the need for knowing nonduality is grace, and that grace is a profound gift arising from truth, my heart nearly exploded. He went on to say that allowing the desire for nonduality to unfold saves us from fear -- the fear that we're missing what is real [true] and the "great fear" that we do not exist [we just "are" -- "being," as opposed to "being this" or "being that"]. This was all said in the first three pages and is where this review probably needs to end, even though the following 190 treasure-filled pages are as plenary as these three.

The essence of the remaining pages is that we cannot transcend a duality by choosing only one of its sides. It is the choosing itself that is the mistake. The nondual path is where there is no extreme, no duality, no choice to make. Instead, we are to move into the consciousness that chooses, into the state of knowing that perceives the duality. This movement is true wisdom, and it is this wisdom that is the door to light. All actions, perceived as good or bad, happen against a background of "being" that is unaffected. Ultimately, neither good nor bad has any real existence. Reality is beyond dualities. Consciousness -- which is all there is -- supports all, without involvement. "Good" actions are those that point one back towards the truth, towards knowledge of Self. "Bad" actions entrench one further in the depths of illusion, taking one further away from Self. And, there is no reaching Self because You are Self -- you are already That. This is nonduality, where there is no separation from Self or truth.

Still, I am compelled to comment on Jerry Wennstrom's chapter of "becoming nothing" in the nondual perspectives section. A film has been made about the life of Whidbey Island artist, Jerry Wennstrom. Beginning in 1979, Wennstrom destroyed all the art he had created, gave everything he owned away, and began a new life. He sensed an inner and outer world in perfect order and became a willing participant in that order -- he leaped into the void, the ultimate creative act. In reading this chapter, I tasted the "great freedom that nothing is ours to hold or identify with...and that the only territories consistently worth exploring are the badlands of limitation and fear. When we release the personal identity, then our gifts will be sanctified and returned. The attempt to do anything significant in the world before we have been deeply changed ourselves is a way to avoid real change. Good intention counts for very little...doing our own work first leads to our true and unique participation in the world we wish to serve." Jerry Wennstrom and I met in the Heart as I read this chapter, three times in a row. The Heart is the only possible place to meet, to join -- no separation from truth is there. And, I'll end this review with a quote from Wennstrom: "A mature creative life, which has discovered its source, finds it is linked to everything."

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The best introduction to a nondual understanding of Reality June 29, 2007

By James M. Corrigan

Format:Paperback

The editor of "One: Essential Writings on Nonduality", Jerry Katz, exhibits an intuitive grasp of the universality of a nondual understanding of reality through his selection of the broadly ranging texts included in this volume. He succeeds both in presenting the essential features of Nonduality through his selection of the succinct teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi which are formatted in a clear question and answer format, and also in ensuring that his readers do not stray from the important point that Nonduality is not a particular school of thought or system of any one person or culture, but rather lies at the heart of a broad range of writings in many fields, including education, art, and cinema, as well as in mystical writings from all major religions. This is the fruit of this book.

There are many ways to talk about Reality, but none of them adequately encompass the wholeness of Reality. Language focuses on descriptions of the world around us, but necessarily loses focus when we attempt to turn it onto the essential nature of Wholeness. Lacking a basis upon which to distinguish non-dual Reality, each speaker must necessarily create his or her own language for describing the nature of that which they have come to realize in their heart. By placing many of these descriptions, each couched in its own subjective terms, side by side in this volume, Jerry Katz had made it possible for us to find the nuggets of gold buried, sometimes deeply, other times lying close to the surface, in each contribution and thus to see their common nature. As he points out in his introduction to the selection of texts he calls "Nondual Confessions": "It is important to grasp that self-realized people are speaking from an understanding about reality very different from the understanding of most others."

"One" is probably the best introductory text for gaining access to this understanding of Reality. Finding this book is a grace, spending the time to understand its' meaning is worth every moment.

James Corrigan
An Introduction to Awareness

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Fascinating Journey into Nonduality February 19, 2007

By A. Walker

Format:Paperback

One: Essential Writings on Nonduality, edited by Jerry Katz, is a well chosen collection of ideas and writings discussing the captivating concept of nonduality. The thoughts and expressions presented to a curious reader are not based in a sole tradition or philosophy. Instead, Katz has brilliantly drawn on lively passages from major traditions such as Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. This unique selection of writings paints a vivid picture of nonduality for the reader; bringing an ancient philosophy into the modern world with striking relevance.

Nonduality is a hard concept to grasp at first because the mind is trained to make distinctions in the world and nondualism is the rejection of distinction. Not to say that all differences are eliminated, merely transformed into relationships. Presented with an in-depth and captivating explanation of the notion of nonduality in the first chapter, the reader is eager to delve into the rest of the book. Further exploration is like a journey toward the understanding of truth and the desire for nonduality. Conclusions and explanations are drawn from every walk of life. There is something for everyone in the journey including beliefs from Judaism, the Native American tradition and Buddhism. If these discussions are not enough to fascinate, One also includes discussions of psychotherapy, art and even the cinematic phenomenon The Matrix.

Each writer's work featured in this complete collection is an exciting and intelligent commentary about Nonduality. Jerry Katz has ceased to become an editor and has transformed into an inspired guide into the world of nondualism and the search for truth. Any reader interested in finding the enlightenment that links us all together would greatly enjoy this book. It is a fascinating read from beginning to end and every step along the way.