Words from Silence: An Invitation to Spiritual Awakening [Paperback]

Leonard Jacobson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1997

This powerful book reveals the basic tenets of Leonard Jacobson's approach to spiritual awakening and enlightenment. Each page is a lyrically beautiful expression of an essential truth. Zen-like in its simplicity, it communicates directly with the heart and soul of the reader, gently inviting a response from the deepest levels of Being. This book is best read cover to cover, and then picked up again from time to time, choosing passages at random. Each reading will elicit different responses from the reader, sometimes challenging, sometimes provocative, sometimes deeply reassuring and affirming. This book is suitable for newcomers as well as experienced seekers on the spiritual path.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Leonard Jacobson is a modern mystic and spiritual teacher who is deeply committed to guiding and supporting others in their journey towards wholeness. He was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1944. He was educated at the University of Melbourne, graduating in law in 1969. He practiced law until 1975, and then set off on a long journey of spiritual discovery which took him all over the world, from the United States to the Middle East, India and Japan. In 1981, he experienced the first of a series of spontaneous mystical awakenings that profoundly altered his perception of life, truth and reality. Each of these experiences took him to deeper and deeper levels of consciousness. He has been running workshops and seminars for the past 16 years, offering inspiration and guidance to those on the path of awakening. His teachings and his Presence are a powerful reminder that the source of life and truth is within each one of us. He now lives in the USA and offers workshops and seminars in various locations around the country.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Conscious Living Publications; 2nd edition (January 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1890580007
• ISBN-13: 978-1890580001
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #247,623 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not a book about awakening, but an experience in awakening, December 16, 2000

By 

Brother Harold Harris (Bay St. Louis, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Words from Silence: An Invitation to Spiritual Awakening (Paperback)

When, as a Western Catholic, I first started reading this book, I found the lack of "teaching" and "concrete material" a bit dicomforting. It was not long afterwards, though, that the genius of this approach opened in my depths, my soul. This book touched the amorphous, mysterious dimension of every person's being, inaccesible through concepts in which peace, acceptance, love, and spirit lie.

I have been profoundly touched and changed by this book and would recommend it to anyone, especially those who, like myself, have wondered why their faith never made much sense nor satisfied our deepest longings. The obsessive pursuit of rational sense and the desire to have longing fulfilled are exposed in this beautifully written masterpiece as whisps, impostors, and not a problem to be solved but an obstacle to be dismissed through pure awarness, groundedness in the present, and leting go of the bitterness of the past and the uncertaintly and anxiety of the future. This is done not though a series of sermonettes, but rather by guiding the reader through a quasi "stream of consciousness" approach which is simultaneously disarming and porfoundly enlightening and expanding. THE BOOK HAS CHANGED ME FOR THE BETTER. I am more patient, more tolerant, more sensible, more peeaceful, and most of all, more loving than I was before I read this inspired work of art. And I more often SEE things now, not just listening, and EXPERIENCE things now, not just having things happen to me.

Do yourself a favor. Read this with an open mind and soul and come home, a star-crossed prodigal son or daughter, to your real home which is you.

Lest you think that this is some text which will shake your faith to its foundations, fear not. The writer of this review is a member of a Catholic religions community known as the Brothers of the Sacred Heart. Brothers are the male equivalent of famale nuns.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Presence perfected, December 13, 1999

By 

Leslie Caronia (Long Island, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Words from Silence: An Invitation to Spiritual Awakening (Paperback)

I recently read Words From Silence written by Leonard Jacobson. A friend who had attended a seminar with the author said that her life was transformed by his work. I found this book to be powerful, clear and true. The words spoke directly to my heart. The guidlines provided in the book are wonderful tools to help us stay present and living life at the level of being, rather than living in the illusion created by our minds. I often pick this book up and open to a random page for some insight, the message never fails to deliver me directly into the silence within my being. I recommend this book to anyone who is traveling the path of self discovery, it is an invaluble tool for waking up and living life in Presence.

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Play of unconscious mind in life and keys to awake, March 11, 2005

By 

Srikrishna Ghadiyaram (Palo Alto, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Words from Silence: An Invitation to Spiritual Awakening (Paperback)

This book is a definite help to understand the play of unconscious mind in life. The smooth flowing poetry like sentences run around the themes of man's reality perceived through conditioned mind, childhood experiences and formation of unconscious mind, passing reference to collective unconscious mind, man's fear of the unknown, relationships Vs relating, looking for unconditional love and acceptance, fear of rejection, fear of failure, unconscious beliefs, emotional pain etc.

Author's definitions on the three levels of consciousness viz. level of mind, level of Being (Christ Consciousness), and level of Eternal (God consciousness), and five keys to awakening provide the beginning lessons for a seeker interested in specific instruction.

References to words and phrases, on pages 5, 72, 161, 229, 249, listed at the end of this review, such as 'God and my Being', soul, past incarnations, future lifetimes, 'moments of transcendence', 'offer yourself to God' etc go against the only ultimate Truth of 'Only God Is'. This contributes its own confusion. This is more so because the author does not make himself clear about 'God Consciousness' in comparison to 'Being Consciousness'.

The author's note on Page 8 recognizes its purpose as:

The words in the book are powerful.
They can inspire you towards your own
awakening or they can act as a guide
for those already on the path.
Some of the words
need to be meditated upon.

Comments on Christianity and its psyche built on the past, on page 93, is a very interesting observation:

Christianity is a major obstacle to the
awakening of human consciousness.
There is a very simple reason for this.
To awaken, it is necessary to let go
of attachments from the past and
move into the present moment.
The present moment is the
doorway to God and the Eternal.
Christians are focused on the past.
On Jesus.
It is time to take Jesus
down from the cross.

Please read a few other helpful sentences from this book, below:

Page 55

I think.
Therefore I am not.
I think not.
Therefore I am.

Page 58

The present moment
is never involved in thinking.
Whenever you think,
you must be thinking of something
from the past
or something in the future.

Page 61

If you give up the dream,
you also give up the nightmare.

Three levels of consciousness:

Level of mind (Page 68)

At the level of mind, the focus is on the past
and the future, which are constantly projected
onto the present moment.
The reality of the present moment is never truly
experienced and the illusions projected
by the mind are mistaken for reality.

Level of Being (Page 69)

You are focused in the here and now,
experiencing the reality
of the present moment.
You are free from the bondage of the past.
You have no anxiety about the future.
Life is lived in freedom and joy.
You have become grounded in silence.

Level of Eternal (Page 69)

Very little can be said about this level.
It cannot be described or even imagined.
It is what Jesus refers to
as the Kingdom of Heaven.
There is no time.
Everything is in perfect harmony.
It is the realm of Gods.
God. Silence. Eternity. Oneness. Union.

Page 92

God consciousness is the final
stage of the journey.
Christ consciousness indicates that
you are almost there.

Meditation:

Page 75

The aim of meditation is to bring
the whole play of mind to consciousness.
If you really understand the nature of the mind
and if you see clearly what it is doing,
you open the way to transcend it.

Enlightenment:

Page 79

Enlightenment is an ongoing process of allowing
everything up from the darkness of the
unconscious mind into the light of consciousness,
until one day, the darkness has disappeared
completely. You are fully enlightened.

Helping:

Page 85

Be very wary of allowing your ego
to become involved in helping others.
The ego always has a hidden agenda.
It is subtly trying to place itself
above the ones being helped.

Page 105

Repentance is not true repentance
if there is any sense of
spiritual reward.

A Bird's Eye view of the Mind:

Page 128

The beliefs which were formed in early childhood
about yourself, others and life are programmed
into your mind, at an unconscious level,
and define you and determine
your experience of life.

. . . .

Page 129

The more you are watchful in a spirit
of unconditional love and acceptance,
the more you will become awakened.

Keys to awakening:

Page 142

The most important key to awakening is to be
unconditionally loving and accepting
of yourself at the level of mind,
which includes all those things
you would like to change about yourself.

Page 143

The second key to awakening
is to allow your emotions full expression.

Page 144

The third key to awakening is confession.
If you confess these qualities to some one
who is absolutely non-judgmental,
and who is fully present,
it helps you to own the quality
to which you are confessing.

Page 145

The fourth key to awakening is to accept
full responsibility for yourself.
This will release you from the world of
expectation, resentment, blame and guilt.
It will lead you into total freedom.

Page 145

The fifth key to awakening is to let go.
Dance.
Lose control.

Looking back:

Page 232

If you must look back into the past,
then look back with understanding
and compassion.

. . .

Your parents didn't know anything about
unconditional love and acceptance
because they had never
received it from their parents.
And their parents had never received it.
So you can see that
no one is to blame.

Page 233

It just happened, because of the degree of
unconsciousness at a collective level.
All that can be done now is that you take
responsibility for your own awakening
and the chain of unconsciousness
will be broken, at least for you.

Page 234

Whenever you are lost in the mind,
don't try to sort it out.
Don't try to fix yourself up.
Just ask yourself,
"How do I return to Being?"

Page 235

When you are caught up in
something at the level of mind,
the way back to Being is simple.
First clearly identify what it is
that you are caught in.
Is it jealousy, fear, unworthiness
or something else?
Identify it. Feel it. Own it.
Express it. Confess it.

Confusing statements that confirm reality of Individuality:

Page 5

God was an allowing God who filled my whole Being with an overwhelming sense of unconditional love and acceptance.

Page 72

And it is not just the child
who is walking behind you.
All the identities from past incarnations
are still with you.
The seeker. The pirate.
The highwayman. The sage.

Page 161

Repentance must be true repentance.
It must be felt in your heart.
It must occur at the level of soul.

. . .

The rest of your life will have to be a living
demonstration of the truth of your repentance.
It must continue into future lifetimes.

Page 229

In moments of transcendence,
I disappear and only God remains.
In those sacred moments,
I know that God is and that I am
and that God and I are One.

Page 249

The highest form of prayer
is to offer yourself to God.

* * * * *