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Spiritual Enlightenment: The Damnedest Thing

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Gaaaaaaaaaah. Not only the back cover but the _first ten pages_ of this book are filled with glowing reviews by the representatives of today's Illuminatus Industry, praising Jed McKenna to the skies, carrying on about how marvellously enlightened he is, and crowing about how this book is Just What The World Needs Today. Man, by the time you get done reading those, you'll be ready to toss (a) the book in the trash and (b) your cookies.

Well, don't. In spite of all of the sell-it-to-the-seekers tub-thumping, it's actually a pretty good book. (And you have to wonder why so many of these folks have so heartily endorsed a book that heaps so much well-deserved scorn on the spiritual-fashion industry. Maybe they don't think he meant _them_.)

On the plus side, there's the total absence of crap on the subject of enlightenment itself. This McKenna distinguishes carefully from both religiosity and mystical experience. Neither of these, he says, has squat to do with enlightenment, which is nothing more or less than abiding nondual awareness (a.k.a. "no-self"). His no-nonsense advice on how to get there comes down to this: just keep asking yourself what's true until you know. But it's not for everybody, getting to it is pretty painful, and the cottage industry that has grown up around it is actually selling something else.

Well, that's nice, and his lack of bull-puckey on the subject is refreshing. Heck, enlightenment aside, he's fun to read just to enjoy a little healthy irreverence toward vegetarianism, the practice of mindfulness, and umpteen other brands of Fashion Spirituality.

McKenna also seems to be a pretty decent and interesting guy in his meatspace persona. Much of the narrative really just conveys the flavor of his own life and character, so it's a good thing he turns out to be reasonably pleasant company -- astringent, curmudgeonly, genially cynical, and often funny as hell.

On the minus side, there's the presence of a certain amount of crap on lots of _other_ subjects. For my taste, the hard-boiled lookie-what-an-illusion-busting-realist-I-am tone gets old after about the first ten or twenty pages. The Zen masters of legend are usually content to give somebody a single sharp blow with a stick; this guy goes at you with a meat axe, over and over and over and over. Readers of _Radical Honesty_ (whose author Brad Blanton provides one of the cover endorsements) may enjoy this sort of thing; I don't, and I don't find it either especially radical or especially honest.

And -- much more seriously -- there's _way_ too much chatter about how unreal everybody else looks to somebody in that there state of abiding nondual awareness. McKenna is constantly pointing out that from his view-from-nowhere vantage point, everybody in the world is just a fictional character in a sort of cosmic soap opera. This would be annoying enough even if it were true just as it stands, and it isn't. Sure, there's something to it, and Ramana Maharshi got some good mileage out of the truth underlying this overstatement. But to hear McKenna tell it in his Holden-Caulfield-among-the-illuminati patter, somebody with nondual awareness would be mighty hard to tell from a straight-up sociopath.

Don't let that stop you from reading it; just watch for the stuff that sounds out of balance. Besides, that dramatic-rhetorical stuff (which is all it is) may be just what readers of some temperaments need. Just bear in mind that real nondualism doesn't dismiss actual people as unreal or fictional; this is as much an untruth as the contrary statement that we're simply "real" just as we seem to ourselves. In Hindu terms, folks, maya is Brahma too.

By the way, I'm not altogether sure whether the narrative portions of the book are strictly nonfiction or even whether "Jed McKenna" is a real person (in the usual sense of the words); it's entirely possible that the whole thing is as fictional as its author says all the rest of us are anyway. It doesn't much matter, though.

I read reviews of this book, and they are as paradoxical as the book itself seems to be... at first read.

Jed McKenna, fictional or non-fictional, creator of a work or simply a process that seems to be writing a book, is himself an enigma of epic proportions. If one stops at this layer with the book, the whole point is that there is no point except getting a good dose of irreverent and fun blasting of all the world's religions, new age thought, and science as an alternate religion.

The book, however, defies its surface. Just as U.G. Krishnamurti defies explanation, the author and the book defy the layers of BS in which we shroud true spirituality. What is spirituality other than humankind's search for meaning and purpose in a seemingly purposeless and meaningless world? What is spirituality other than a search for Truth?

For someone who had wandered through being raised fundamentalist Christian and subsequently converting to Hinduism, reading extensively in Chaos mathematics and Quantum Physics, searching through quasi-metaphysical works, and studying everything from Kabbalism, Gnosticism, numerology, and astrology to the Bible, Darwinism, and Relativity, this book served one purpose. That purpose... toss it on the fire (it provides valuable fuel) and keep going.

After reading this book, I felt like someone had given me a golden key which unlocked all the goo and rephrased all my study into a brand new context. All of it and none of it points to the Truth of existence. I felt like Arjuna being stunned with the reality of my situation. To paraphrase, I too felt like I was just 'having a bad day at the office when the Universe flashed me.'

Truth burns, and that is what makes this book so valuable. There is only one message in it, "Ask yourself who you are until you know." That is the whole of the book said succinctly and perfectly. Begin this process and never be the same. Blow off the layers of who you think you are until you know what you really are. The complete message of the book only serves to help the reader do one thing, look inward and ask hard questions. Done honestly with great intent, the questioning serves only to remove all the layers of cultural, social, and religious dogma, and what lies underneath is the greatest journey of discovery that one can ever make.

If you truly want to know what the h**l is going on, this book is highly recommended.

This review is for all three of the spiritual books by "Jed Mckenna", because what I have to say here applies to all three of them.

First, I must get a few of the flaws out of the way. As other reviewers have noted, you have to wonder why someone who has so much scorn for the spiritual industry would go so over-the-top in printing glowing reviews from so many teachers from that same industry for several pages in the beginning of his first book. Perhaps selling books isn't so far from the top of Mr. McKenna's list of values and motivations for writing? Don't know.

Which brings up the other up-front flaw: There is little or no evidence that there is a spiritual teacher by the name of Jed Mckenna. He may be a guy who has achieved notable realization and just wants his privacy. But as a disembodied writer with no apparent connection to a flesh and blood human, it becomes difficult to gauge the sincerity of what he has to say, especially because it can be pretty challenging to most spiritual seekers. After all, you can say incredibly inflammatory and deceitful things with ease if you never are held accountable for them, except through emails, letters and book reviews which you can easily dismiss or ignore. Realization is a state of being, and without knowing that being in an in-person, flesh-and-blood manner, one is just left with words. And as a result, those words must be taken with a grain of salt. The same is true for the words in the bible or any other holy book, but one would hope that a contemporary spiritual treatise would come with the benefit of more than just words.

Which brings me to what I like about the books. They are simple, direct, well-written and low on BS. By reducing his teaching to a very clear and uncomplicated directive (truth-seeking), he cuts through the myriad layers of guru-worship, dogma, self-deception, delusion, manipulation and lies that clutter so much of the cultural dialog and accumulated beliefs regarding spirituality and enlightenment. He calls a spade a spade, and I find this incredibly refreshing. Unfortunately, this type of thinking is still taboo and iconoclastic today, especially regarding spirituality. And by encouraging the seeker to be his or her own authority in the search for truth, McKenna undermines hundreds of years of programming that has suggested that the truth is "out there" - in priests, ascended masters, divine avatars and charismatic teachers - rather than being closer to us than our own breath. Even though this isn't a new idea, the commercialization of it (as he discusses in his criticism of most modern Zen) has totally neutered the power of the plain wisdom of this perspective.

So if you are bright and have a low tolerance for BS and want a simple, direct understanding of spirituality, this is well worth your time. Be prepared to perhaps have several cherished and loved ideas regarding spirituality challenged. And if you don't like those types of challenges, then these books aren't for you. But if you want to get to the truth bad enough and are willing to burn up anything that gets in your way, these are your friends. Besides, the third book has the best exploration of a higher perspective on manifestation and it's relation to the awakened state that this well-read reviewer has ever come across.

However, there is one major flaw in these books. I am glad it is there though. If you want books to give you the answer or the truth on a platter, you will always be deceived and led astray. But if you want books to stimulate your own thinking so you can better grapple with the questions of life and have a vital, personal inquiry, then the flaws of one seeker can actually help you better understand your own journey, like the grain of sand that transforms from an irritant into a pearl.

Throughout the books, the author repeatedly states that enlightenment is an abiding state of non-dual awareness. Simple enough. Yet throughout all three books, and especially in the last two, he makes it clear that the unawakened state is a scummy, miserable, toxic state to be stuck in and that the awakened or adult state is what we should all be aspiring to, if not achieving. He likens the predominant state of humanity to a sewer that one should try to escape from at all costs. In other words state A (the adult or the awakened state of non-duality) is far far superior to state B (the sleeping, dualistic state that most of humanity is in). This premise is the core of the flaw in Mr. McKenna's teachings because it is duplicitous; this perspective is steeped in duality. To say that anything is superior to something else firmly establishes a dual perspective. And not only does Mr. McKenna set this perspective up firmly throughout all three books, but at times he gets quite nasty about it when dealing with those he deems as asleep (like the book discussion group in book 2). With so much emotional charge around the issue of how unconscious the majority of humanity is and so much rejection of their dualistic and somnolent state, he continues to ingrain the dual perspective both in himself and in his undiscriminating readers. One also has to wonder if the guy has a lot of unresolved emotional issues and is just spiritually bypassing to get to his "enlightened" state. If Mr. McKenna's non-dual realization was as solid as he claims, why would he be so riled up about how most of humanity is asleep? It seems to me that true non-dualism sees the beauty and perfection in everything just the way it is, awake or asleep. This doesn't mean that if one wants to awaken that one shouldn't head in that direction. But to do so out of rejection (or downright scorn) for the unawakened state is just to further mire oneself in duality and sleep. Perhaps Mr. McKenna's state of non-dual awareness is not as abiding as he would like himself and others to believe. And this makes sense since his method is largely intellectual and thus it may not seep deep enough down into one's being, as another reviewer noted in quoting Osho.

I'm not judging him. I'm just pointing out a major flaw in his teaching. But again, I'm glad it's there because contemplation of his teaching has led me to this discrimination and has greatly helped me in my own search. That's what good books do. And by that measure, these books were pretty good for me!

~
Before this review goes any further, please accept this advice: Get this book! As soon as possible and by any means, read Spiritual Enlightenment: The Damnedest Thing. When you've finished reading through the epilogue, you'll either think that it was an interesting and entertaining book, or, if you "get it", it will radically change what you ~think~ is your life! You may be unaffected, you may be altered, but odds are strong that you won't be disappointed.

Writing this review is risky. As the book suggests, what is written as "truth" today will seem silly tomorrow. Notwithstanding that, this review approaches SE:TDT from two very different points of view.

From the usual, everyday perspective, the book is a wonderful experience, worthy of the time spent for anyone who enjoys reading books plucked from the "New Age" section regarding enlightenment, spirituality and various paths available to "seekers." As most reviewers have written, the author's masterful style, candor and wit make the book an enjoyable and provocative read. You'll take offense with the author's blunt condemnation of any practice other than self-autolysis (self-enquiry) only to the degree that you believe in what you've been doing so far. Some readers may find this approach unnerving and caustic, others may find it simply direct and pointed.

The nits that some readers pick regarding the promotional blurbs, the cover image or title, or their disagreement with some of the beliefs and concepts in the text seem to be nothing more than red herrings, evidence of ego-in-action, and a wild miss from the point (or pointing) of the book. Rather, with approximately 30% of the U.S. population ready to make the shift to second-tier consciousness, it seems that Wisefool Press knows exactly how to target-market the book. This book was written for a specific audience, and they did everything they needed to do to get this book into your hands. (And guess what, folks; It's NOT about making money.)

Look again. Read between the lines as well as beyond the concepts. See the recursive (but not paradoxical) nature of this book. If you have a thorn in your foot, you could use another thorn to remove it, then throw both thorns away. Use whatever "concepts" or "beliefs" are in this book as a tool to remove all your current beliefs, and then throw away both the beliefs and the book. Neither will be necessary anymore.

For "No. Belief. Is. True." Including this one.

So, from another perspective: This book does not exist. Without doubt, as several reviewers have speculated, a "Jed McKenna" does not exist. "You" do not exist and "I" do not exist. This review does not exist. Everything you think you are is illusory, and every belief you have is false...without exception. "Nothing that says two, not one, survives."

With that understanding and the insight that "there's only one of us here", who wrote this book? (Pronouns fail miserably, here.) Read the following out loud, using "I" as a pointer to the indescribable, impersonal, boundless "I" that is Truth, and not the "i" you sense as a separate, ego-bound body-mind organism:

"~I~ wrote this book, in order that ~I~ might wake myself up and find my way back home. In the depths of my 15 billion years of sleep, I'm whispering to myself, "Wake up, and see who ~I~ really am.""

What an outstanding piece of work!

I'll admit, Jed McKenna's book is an unexpected source of lessons about enlightenment, coming as it does from someone who sounds pretty ordinary and claims to live in a farmhouse in rural Iowa. We don't learn anything about Jed's actual background or how he pays the bills at the farmhouse, but we get lots of dialog between Jed and would-be disciples who want to "wake up" and be enlightened like Jed, who gather at his house hoping to get on a track to enlightenment. Jed has no spiritual goodies to dispense, no feel-good peak experiences to lead us to, he just hammers home that enlightenment is a state of being which, once achieved, does not go away. Enlightened persons cannot go back. They exist in a condition of "nonduality" that means they are no longer stuck in a role like the rest of us. They have discarded the character they used to be.

I found his use of the expression "awake" (enlightened persons are "awake" and the rest of us are "asleep") interesting since it is the same expression used by Gurdjieff and expounded in the works based on his teachings by P.D. Ouspensky. I read Ouspensky's book In Search of the Miraculous and was quickly lost in a maze of obscure concepts. But I was intrigued by the idea that most of us go through life "asleep" and that there are ways to "wake up." I once found a copy of Ouspenky's The Fourth Way at a used book sale and brought it home thinking I'd persevere through it and get some illumination on how to wake up. A short time with the book revealed it to be even more obscure than my first attempt at understanding Gurdjieff. So the book went into the bin to be resold on Amazon. Someone else bought it and is probably now scratching their head at the difficult ideas within.

But you won't find any difficult ideas in Jed's book. At least not in the same way as with Gurdjieff. Jed lays it all out in a series of conversations, many involving analogies that you can follow quite easily. The hard part is actually becoming enlightened and Jed is not encouraging about the prospects for success. Getting there is painful, as we see as one of Jed's seekers gets to the First Step at the end of the book. By showing us a cast of characters trying to learn from him, Jed leads us gently through what enlightenment is not and guides those who want to go there to what it is. After reading this book, I'm not sure I want to go there, even though I'd like to "wake up." Jed's explanations are simple, but what he expects you to do to achieve enlightenment is not.

This book about one man's experience of enlightenment and his life teaching others about it at a small Iowa ashram is a fantastic exercise in critical thinking. Well-written and entertaining to read, it offers a valuable perspective on the difference between the kind of yummy, mystical unity experience that most people assume is enlightenment, and what McKenna refers to as actual truth realization, the rather less comfortable process of losing complete identification with your sense of self.

The book is so enjoyable to read, it took me a while to notice the numerous contradictions within it. The author spends a lot of time making absolute statements based in the authority of his self-proclaimed enlightenment, while at the same time warning readers to be wary of listening to people like him. In addition, I couldn't quite shake questions about whether or not the book is the true memoir it presents itself to be, or if it is instead the creative product of some Iowa Writer's Workshop student who got waylaid in Fairfield for a time. While many of his insights feel spot on, I could find no other information on this teacher or his supposed Iowa ashram anywhere. I find it hard to believe that a teacher so skilled could remain completely under the radar if, he is, in fact a real person. Some may feel that the information within it is so valuable that it doesn't matter, but I find the idea that a book that claims to be about essential truth might in fact be based on a fundamental falsehood more than a little ironic.

Just when you think you know it all spiritually, it is good to read a book like this. This book had me so entertained and intrigued that I read it way faster than I normally read books. Funny how some reviewers seem to think they know what truth is, and whether Jed knows. How can anyone possible know what truth is? One valuable consideration (among many) that I got from this book is that just when you think you know what is true -- if you really take a look -- it doesn't take long before you realize it isn't. This alone can help people get off the spiritual seeking and belief system treadmills.

This book is challenging to anyone with a belief system, especially those who wrap themselves up a bit too tightly in the cosmic-consciousness spirituality scene and their current set of beliefs. It helps us to see how silly we can be, especially when we take any spiritual belief seriously.

This book is hilarious while it challenges us and broadens our perspectives regarding spiritual practices and whether they are really worthwhile, or if they are taking us on a merry-go-round.

I had a great time with this book. Jed has a wonderful, casual style that made me feel like he was having a conversation with me. He repeats concepts often through the book, like the stripping away of false ideas until you get at truth, but that repetition proved to be useful for me. Enlightenment is a notoriously squirmy subject, and sometimes it takes repetition to pin it as far down as you're going to without actually going through the work.

One of the best focus points in the book is the description of the actual work that's required to become enlightened, assuming that's your goal. Whether or not you'd want to become enlightened is another topic in the book. Seriously, what's in it for you? Jed points out that if it's bliss you're looking for, there's easier ways to get it, and permanent bliss isn't the end result of becoming enlightened.

Other than an entertaining foray into a sky diving experience, Jed McKenna stays close to the ground and gives a personal and engaging view of what it's like to be enlightened, to teach others, and to be surrounded by a culture of vegetarian seekers of pure love and generous spirituality. He never suggests that these people are in any way pathetic or misguided, but suggests that they may want to be careful of what they think they wish for.

If you're heavily involved in the New Age movement or some religions, I guess it's possible that you may find some of the material indirectly offensive. If you have a fixed idea about what enlightenment is supposed to be, well, it may be a waste of time--stick with what you're comfortable with. Also, if you need a god-like authority figure to bow to (and the folks who recommend him in the first part of the book aren't enough recommendation for you to get you over the whole 'who does he think he is!' reaction) you can move along. Otherwise, recommended to anyone who wants to see one guy's take on the fuss is about, and if the fuss is worth it!

Jed McKenna is enlightened.

There, that's the essense of the book.

Don't expect to find the answer to the question "so what is this 'enlightenment' thing?" The answer is, whatever the heck it is, whether "non-dual awareness" or "discovery of truth" or "being awakened", Jed McKenna is it.

And don't confuse him with other spiritual gurus, either. They are not the real thing. He is. They may be having a "mystic union" experience. Or whatever. Their's is different. In fact, whatever their experience, he has been there, done it. But his is better. You see, he is "enlightened".

But you can't blame Jed McKenna for being vague about it. After all, this "enlightnement" is not something that anybody else can really understand. Everybody else is like a caterpillar, whereas he is like a butterfly. How can a caterpillar know what it is like to fly?

Or everybody else is like a human, whereas he is like a vampire. How can a human understand what it is like to be a vampire?

Which brings up the interesting question, when he became enlightened, how did he know his other state-of-being was to be called "enlightenment". And not, for instance, "satori", "nirvana", "at-one-ness", "super-acidity", what have you? The original words from which the word "enlightenment" was created: "nirvana" or "nibbana" and "satori" etc have been lost for thousands of years, so how did McKenna arrive at this state and said "Ah, this is the state of 'enlightenment'". How did he know it was not a state of permanent foobarisment? In fact, he makes such strong and fine distinctions, that one wonders if there is a hidden school somewhere that maintains the old traditions: "That was spiritual awakening, not non-dualism, McKenna. Drop down and give me twenty! Now let's work on mystical one-ness for the next hour."

Anyway, beyond the question how he knows it was "enlightenment" and not one of a multitude of other words, the more interesting part is "so what next?"

Does McKenna have a philosophy he is going to teach? Absolutely. You see, it goes like this. All the world is a dream. It's like a movie. But the people acting in it are also watching it (or something... the distinction between acting and watching is so confused in McKenna's mind that only a butterfly or a vampire can possibly understand it apparently.) So basically McKenna would like to wake up all the other watchers in the theatre, so they can stop acting in the movie, and go on with their lives of acting in the movie. Or watching it. Whatever...

But wait, that confused rambling of McKenna's (apparently based upon everything from "Row, row, row your boat... Life is just a dream" to Plato's caves to the Hindu concept of Maya) is not the only philosophy he has. You see, he also has more serious philosophies and purpose. The purpose of his life is to "Kill time, until it kills me". There, enlightened enough for you?

Don't get me wrong. McKenna has clearly had some sort of a spiritual experience. But it is also obvious he chose not to derive any meaning from it. Or rather he chose to derive one of the shallowest of meanings: fixation on a particular word.

McKenna says life has no meaning. Yes, life has no meaning. And it has all the meaning. Life balances, and the opposite of zero is infinity. Life can have absolutely all the meaning you choose to ascribe to it. No less. And no more either. McKenna wonders about why "enlightenment" (or whatever) is supposed to be connected to euphoria and escatsy (he seems to thinks it's all a fake.) The real answer is simple. If you could really glimpse all the rides that life is (a metaphor he employs and actually even seems to vaguely grasp), why would you _not_ choose to take a brief and quick trip on the one-time-only ride labelled as "the pleasure-overload", before you get down to more serious and sustaining ones?

McKenna also seems to be good at getting lots of people to say his work is very good. Why not, it's a nice little bargain! He is defending his "enlightenment" strongly. So other spiritually-confused people can get a self-image boost at his coat-tails. It strongly enhances their self image to say the book is so good, because it validates their erudition to themselves; it convinces them that they are clearly "getting it", that they are close to being "enlightened" if not really fully so!

McKenna can defend his shtick of claiming rights to a particular word, very powerfully indeed. Yet all the powerful defending will not make it any more than what it is - a word, and a shtick.

A new genre in enlightenment literature is especially welcomed.

Jed writes like a zen cowboy, serving up spirituality with beef steaks and beans. Whilst that may not be to the liking of your common-all-garden peace-loving vegetarian buddhist, it does create a mean iconoclastic novelette.

But while one is performing Mckenna's practice of "Spiritual Autolysis", and finding oneself being digested by one's own religious juices, what is one going to do when one starts freaking out, as the false identity break ups?

Jed is all in favor of toughing it out but when it gets too tough, or when one gets stuck, who are you gonna call?

Not Jed! Because Jed is out of reach. This is one Buddha on the road that needn't be killed because this Buddha doesn't exist. For all we know Jed Mckenna is just a playwright kicking up daisies in Iowa, or Idaho or even NYC.

So, do we really need another dead, inaccessible writer-teachers to follow in the footsteps of Tuesday Lobsang Rampa or Wu Wei Wu (Terence Gray) who sow their conceptual seed and disappear back into the anonymity of the modern crowd (or mountains in the case of Lao Tzu)?

Is Jed real? Several well-known names in the non-dual field gave McKenna glowing pre-publication reports. While Jed may be a good writer he may not be even a mediocre teacher, i.e. someone who will sit with a student day and night, through the highs, lows and freak-outs until they breakthrough the illusory veils.

It is easy to talk, to appear to be a teacher, behind the comfort of a carefully crafted work of fiction but what happens when the writer appears in the daylight? Then their real test and challenge begins.

I welcome the new breed of teachers who are prepared to break spiritual molds like Brad Blanton, comment intelligently on the contemporary Advaita scene like Satyam Nadeen, be unique like John de Ruiter and obtain incredible results like Dave Oshana which challenge the laziness inherent in non-dualism.

And I welcome Jed McKenna to join the field instead of kicking up daisies in Iowa or writing plays in NYC.