Customer Reviews

From Seekers to Finders

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

 

 

This book, quite simply, blew the lid off my life. After many years of looking for the key to the trap door, (and I am not a young woman, mind you) reading "From Finders to Seekers" put the truth in the palm of my hand. Sure, the ground had been prepared, and Nadeen's first book "From Onions to Pearls" cleared away quite a lot of rubble, but this one delivered the experience I had longed for full blown. Illusion after illusion was skillfully removed, revealing the state of consciousness produced by what the author calls "the shift". I cannot recommend this book highly enough. If you are ready for the final blow, step under the sword of an excellent marksman. Heads will roll.

Satyam Nadeen is a self-admitted Type A. He writes like an ad agency account exec. In this book, he still believes that group discussions (satsangs) are valuable and doesn't seem concerned that most degenerate into rants and ho-hum ego trip sessions. (Well, maybe those led by him don't.) He likes the idea (how could he, after being a Rajneeshi! ) of creating a spiritual organization with newsletters, etc. (At least, as of this book, he did.) Nevertheless, if you're not totally in his groove and find his means of expression overly hip for you, he may still have plenty to offer, simply because he doesn't wax ethereal. He is for real and to the point, Poonja-like. He describes the process of enlightenment in a unique and highly candid light from his and his students' own experiences. He has an interesting take on New Age seekers.

On Page 146 he responds to the ancient query of "Why suffering?" in a way most people won't want to hear but that probably is the bottom line on a topic that he says can't be understood by the mind. Yes, his gung-ho-ness might get to you if you're over 25, but there's no denying--if you've read his first book, FROM ONIONS TO PEARLS--that he knows whereof he speaks in regard to what he calls the "Shift." This book is a valuable companion to his first, and a "wake up call" that will ring bells for the open-minded. For tired, chronic do-ers, it is another dandy reminder that fixing life isn't possible at any level.

The author declares that we are in the beginning stages of a monumental "Shift" in human consciousness and awareness. He states that more and more of us are awakening to the supreme beatitude of knowing who/what we really are: the awareness in which all things rise and fall,i.e. consciousness itself! I agree with his thesis that a transformation is apparent and ongoing in the experience of more and more people every day. The ancient knowledge which had to be taken on faith is now just over our individual horizons awaiting our Yes. This book has the feel of authenticity about it, as if it could have been spoken by a modern American Maharshi or Nisargadatta. The language here is very clear and his ideas are easy to follow. If you are at the point in your journey where you've begun to question your true identity, then this book will resonate pleasantly and perhaps take you a step or two further. In this game of awakening there is everything to gain and nothing to lose except your fear and alienation. The book ends with several pages of quotes from the marvelous Ashtavakra Gita...."striving or still the fool never finds peace, but the master finds it just by knowing how things are...the master goes about his business with perfect equanimity...because he knows his own nature, he does what he has to do without feeling ruffled...his sorrows are at an end".

I just can't say enough about the positive impact of this book upon my life and those closest to me.

At last, I know the meaning of life - who I am and why I am here. Not just the mechanical interconnectedness of life's events that so many other books speak of, but the reason and purpose for them.

Satyam makes you laugh and marvel at the glory of "what is, as is".

I remember reading this book a few years ago and just feeling really good afterwards. It is light mind freeing material.

Both this and his first book 'From Onions to Pearls' are fun reads with a nice free feeling of spirtual depth.

Not for everyone, but I liked and would recommend them both.

this is a must - read for all those who are "Tempekai" or "seekers" in native north american indian language.
For all who share that feeling of being on the path, but never did arrive or see the end station anywhere. Just adopt everything you can from this lessons and find a lighter way of living.
I was lucky enough to read it right after a heart attack and, coincidence or not, my life has never been the same again. That is a kind and pretty gift from Satyam to humankind. Namaste!

The best book on enlightenment I've read. It's everyday and practical. Written by a westerner, he gives us a realistic description of living in the 'enlightened' state. (He calls it the Shift.)

Satyam--a committed seeker--experienced his Shift in horrendous jail conditions. But after his Shift he no longer saw through the eyes of the ego mind, all fear vanished, he ceased to be the `doer', and he saw the perfection of everything--yet paradoxically was still his old self.

As we all know, the mind is always judging and resisting, which is what causes suffering. According to Satyam, when you move from the 3rd dimension (most of us) to the 4th dimension (shifted), the mind still kicks in--but only for a moment. Then Source, or witness, takes over, and you see the truth. Then you know that everything is sacred, everything is perfect. And remember, in prison he constantly witnessed terrible violence, yet this was his experience after shifting. So although you continue to live a human existence, still have problems (he calls them contractions), and have the same personality and foibles, you are no longer in resistance, so the suffering ends.

As soon as he left prison he started on the seminar circuit, where he runs weekends for seekers. He has found that unlike himself, most people's Shift is gradual, so those at his weekends are at various degrees along their journey. All are hungry for feedback on the process and to know what it's really like on 'the other side'.

Satyam devotes many chapters to debunking myths about enlightenment. e.g. you don't go into bliss. You can have periods of it, but you can't function like that, so Samadhi is an occasional dip. One of my favourites is where he says that far from people wanting to touch your feet once you're enlightened, 'your wife and kids might not even notice'!

I won't explain that, but this and other chapters give so much wonderful information about the process and what it's like being there (one foot in the 3rd dimension and one in the 4th, as he puts it) that I didn't want the book to end. I felt like my own consciousness was being raised just by reading it.

One last thing--he says that no amount of spiritual growth work will speed up your transition. When it's your time it's your time. Controversial--sure, but he talks about that too.

A must read for serious seekers and those who are already partly finders.

The best minds of humanity have puzzled over the meaning of consciousness and the change of consciousness we call enlightenment. It is true there are hundreds of explanations, and some theories are confusing if you have no frame of reference either in philosophy, theology, or psychology. My thought is the question: what if all these references were true, but simply evolving at different levels?
Some of you may have guessed that in the back of my mind is Ken Wilbur's "Spectrum of Consciousness." Specifically, for you Virgos (all others ignore): page 143, figure 3. Wilbur states there is no merging with the Center. We are always merged with the Center (the Source, One Taste). "It is rather an understanding of this eternal union Now and not the manufacture of it tomorrow." As Nadeem's "Source" comes up in an individual's experience, it is made objective, no longer confused with the Real Subject until, he says, there is only the Real Subject.
Satyam Nadeem is one real tough cookie. He views life nakedly, without any lenses to blur or distort his perspective. Similar in function to the Erhard Seminars Training (est), he takes a hard look at our state of (un)consciousness, and like the blow to the head a Rishi uses to awaken his students, so Nadeem uses the shock value of his words. I agree with him that there is an enormous increase of energy ("Shift," he calls it)towards a previously unknowable level of consciousness opening to the modern person.
There are, however, many who are unable to handle this energy and who will not make the Shift. These are neither good nor bad souls, merely those who were not ready. This matter of readiness is where I disagree with Nadeem. We have free will and we can choose to work towards and be prepared for the change. It is a beautiful work like the dreamworld or an art work available to any human willing to make this their own artwork.
The problem I feel with the New Age concept is that they see only bliss, joy, happiness, but no work! Sorry. That's not true. Humans are designed to work and to face challenges, and also to cease work, to relax and find the silence.
As a shocker, I rate this four stars.

Satyam Nadeem philisophy of awakening is in the line of Nisargadatta Maharaj and Ramesh Balsekar. However to compare him to Nisargatta is to compare a pea shooter to an atom bomb. I struggled through from onions to pearls and got as far as page 31 in seeker to finder, I just couldnt continue after he came up with the conversation he overheard source having with itself. I would imagine the author is a very intelligent extremely well read man who decided to use the knowledge he gained through years of self confessed seeking to enlighten his bank balance. As mr. Nadeen feels free to use Occams philosophy to validate his opinionated writings prehaps I too could use Occams theory (the simplest explanation of a phenomenon is virtually always correct )to sum up his books. Zero stars. the myth lives on at the expense of reality. Leonard Jacobson talks of the same stuff in an almost holy manner. Maybe if you are serious about conciousness and not chasing after the next fad you could give his excellent books a try or just stick with Nisargadatta Maharaj.(if you can understand him which I can't)