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The Path to No-Self: Life at the Center

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The Path to No-Self, by Bernadette Roberts, is truly cutting edge and breaks new ground. The author, of whom we are told very little, has obviously known God, and - unlike the testimonies of many saints who describe the approach to enlightenment and than enlightenment itself, takes that as only the FIRST goal on the path. She speaks of the life AFTER enlightenment, and describes states of being I have not encountered in any other spiritual literature. Where Teresa of Avila ends (in writing) she begins - a daring concept indeed. I DO NOT THINK she is mentally ill. What she describes, I feel, is sound. But it must be remembered (a) that all paths are unique and (b) that the higher levels of communion with God, while on the earth, are NOT easy - in fact, they can be the opposite, in every sense of the word. (CAN be...aren't necessarily so). Ms. Roberts speaks masterfully of the collision of two strong opposing forces - the overwhelming desire to have an outlet for this tremendous energy and power of God one is carrying, to share, convert, be received, understood, to create - and the world's reception to this - rejection, non understanding, persecution, refusal to give outlets, smothering. How can one AT ONCE be a vehicle for what is so powerful and so strong that it DEMANDS expression, while the world refuses to accept this? This, Ms. Roberts explains, is no accident. (ONE way to view this). It is God's way of mortifying, refining and purifying the person of all last vestiges of self (ambition, concern with obvious results, etc.) until the person is so empty that it is GOD and no longer the person who operates. (Even to the point of losing awareness of the enlightened Self within). Given the magnitude of the suffering these two collisions cause, this is, according to her, what happens. Likewise, she masterfully describes "layers of God" - being able, when in prayer, to sink through more and more "doors" (layers) to go ever deeper within, to drop, progressively more of the outer, excited self, and experience God at ever more deep levels. It is like passing through trap doors, or breaking through to new levels of consciousness. These are two examples of how she is at once courageous, daring, bold, risky, and - I feel - accurate.

Whether coming from a Christian deistic or a Buddhist non-deistic background, Roberts speaks to the moment when God and the self disappear in a kind of intimate togetherness. God is gone as an object of our search/worship/longing...And the self is gone with God, so there is no one remaining who would search/worship/long in the first place. This is unlike the mystics Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross, for whom only God remains as the self is taken up within God. And it is unlike the existentialists, for whom only the self remains after God is removed to Nothingness. We are simply left with life as it is...a kind of blend of Heidegger's non-self Dasein and Zen's everyday mind. That is, one can arrive (or find oneself there) by other means. So what is interesting about Roberts' book is not so much the path that is described as it is the place that the path leads to. The no-self is full of grace but without a heavenly source of it. The no-self has returned to its pre-spiritual essence, which is actually the non-objectified spiritual reality in which there is no difference between the spiritual and the non-spiritual. But Bernadette Roberts describes it much better than these words of mine.

This lucid and unfailingly honest account of the process of coming to terms with the loss of "self" is simply a grace for those with ears to hear. Ms. Roberts, a former nun, has walked the contemplative path to the point where it disappears into nowhere and then, remarkably enough, kept walking. Her personal experiences and reflections on the journey are invaluable to those traveling a similar route; along with the writings of St. John of the Cross, her books (I include "The Experience of No-Self" as well) are simply the most nourishing of mana for those lost in the desert of God, as well as for those who have lived in the desert and are being called at last back to the city. The straightforwardness of her writing and her contemporary reality are a blessing. No one tells it like it is about the dark night of the soul better than Bernadette Roberts, and her books have been sustaining companions to me for almost twenty years. They were all I could read, at many points. These are not books for scholars; these are books for those in the grip of the real thing.

More profound, authentic Christianity is to be found in ten paragraphs of this book than in the complete texts of ten wise books on Christian spirituality. To read Roberts' works is to be immediately transported into the radiance of absolute Truth. The Christ presented in this book is the One your soul has longed to discover!
Joseph Conti, Ph.D.
Instructor, Dept of Comparative Religion
California State University, Fullerton

I stumbled upon this little book when I was a teenager. It catapulted me into a very profound and healing journey. I base my way of living on it still, fifteen years later. This book, it would seem, can take on elements of an Eastern philosophy, but is based in Roberts' experience as a catholic nun. This book paints a completed picture of what our souls' journey requires of us on its path to selflesness. It is an important insight to unexplored territory.

Bernadette shows that her love for God has given her the courage to 'go into the market place' and to be brave enough to let it all fall away. It also shows how narrow this path is and how easily one can fall for the fear of being left alone with nothing in the whole universe to hang on to. Though her approach is different from my own, it makes crystal clear the miracle of the 'other' being there. And if not all trust is handed over without any reserve, however dangerous it looks, you will get stuck somewhere on this path. It is very revealing and clarifying to see this path from another tradition than my own. I want to thank Bernadette from the bottom of my heart for showing me her way. She is a tribute to her tradition and to mankind as a whole.

I like this book. As a student of A Course in Miracles, I was interested in seeing any similarities between ACIM and a Monastic Journey to God. They are indeed similar. I have learned that the key back to God is to abandon the ego. Ms Roberts learned it too. However, she seemed not to get past the fact that she is NOT a body and could not see thru this illusion. But she eventually did it. I believe she is enlightened. This book helped me a lot.

I happened upon a moldering copy of THE PATH TO NO-SELF about 15 years ago at the local library. At the time, I was floundering in my so-called "faith", looking for anything to fill the existential void, or at least give me something substantial to read. Well, after reading PATH several times through, I finally got tired of checking it out and bought it. Ms. Roberts has a way of explaining the inexplicable, making even a thick-head like me "get it". Years of reading books like THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING, COLLECTED WORKS OF ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS, BROTHER LAWRENCE, and MEISTER ECKHART had left me bewildered, but aware that there was definitely something in it all that drew me along. PATH was the first such book that ever made complete sense to me. It's as though Bernadette Roberts took everything I'd ever read about contemplation, mysticism, etc., and synthesized it into a simple language I could understand. I've lost count of how many times I've read this book (as well as EXPERIENCE OF NO-SELF, and WHAT IS SELF?), but I keep going back to it every few months or years. This is the highest recommendation I can give to any book...

Great book. The Noself state is indeed controversial, but not new, at least in India where the benefitiary of such condition is called a Jivanmukti (liberated while alive). For centuries there detractors said it was not possible, that at Mukta (liberation), the Jiva (man) automatically becomes a Videhamukta, dies and merges with the Father. But Ramana Maharshi, short of calling himself a Jivanmukti, often and clearly defined the characteristics of that state, and said it existed. It is clearly a state of Noself, without the sense of "I". To the eyes of the world this person appears to engage in activity, but does nothing, thus creating no new Karma with absence of doership. The unfathomable state of the Jnani (pronounced Guiani in Sanskrit). Mukta or liberation is indeed dissolution of the self (ego). This Ramana also defined as Sahaja Stithi, or state of constant Samadhi. Samadhi, the saint of Arunachala said, was our normal condition. Wisely, Ms. Roberts defines experiences of Nirvikalpa Samadhi, like the one sustained by Henry Suso and quoted in her book as temporary glimpses, marvelous! She adds they are a real awakening to our real nature. Ramana said Nirvikalpa Samadhi was like a bucket temporarily submersed in a well, the Self, which resumed its activity (the little self) when retrieved from the well. Take heart, this state of Noself is certainly not to be feared, and it seems to be unavoidable. However, Paul Brunton was critical of the possibility of living with total absence of "I", How, Brunton asked, the body functions without this sense?.

This book is an indispensable guide for all those on a spiritual path. Although the author is a former Carmelite nun and practicing Catholic and committed to the Christian path, I would not let this deter anyone from reading the book. She is a life long contemplative and her descriptions of the spiritual experiences encompassed by the unitive state of consciousness are precise, clear, and definitely a life saver if you find yourself feeling lost. She does not hold back in any way in describing those experiences. The book is extremely helpful for anyone seriously living the spiritual life. Her other two books are also invaluable; "The Experience of No-Self" is simply powerful and another life saver. Bernadette Roberts is a fully awakened soul and I am grateful that she has written these books.