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Words from Silence: An Invitation to Spiritual Awakening

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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.

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.

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.

* * * * *

In a fast-paced world, full of cares and stress, Words from Silence came to me as a soothing and refreshing dip into a world of quietness and peace. Some pages have only a couple of lines on them, inviting the reader to rest her mind and enjoy nourishment for the soul.

Having been on a spiritual path for many years, most of which is the journey of life itself, I found that Words from Silence was pure and true. Unlike many spiritual books, this book took me to the essence of life, untainted by the author's own particular human experience. It comes from the other side, and then I realized that the other side is this side!

This book is the first in a trilogy of books. Treat yourself to this first invitation into presence, awareness and true consciousness, and you may never be the same again. Words from Silence will probably whet your appetite to read the remaining two books in this series. I recommend getting all three at once.

Halimah Martin

WHat does "spiritual" mean? What is an awakening? Who am I? What is God?

A lot of ink has been spilt in trying to address these questions. The mind likes to lose itself in existential dilemmas and it likes elaborate theologies. Sometimes it is not easy to see whether asking these questions or reading "spiritual books" brings one closer to Being or pushes one farther away. This book is a step in the right direction.

Jacobson strips the spiritual endeavour to its bones. According to him, what matters is to be present and still and to own every aspect of ourselves, no matter how abhorrent it may appear to the ego (mind). We have to learn to surrender patterns of control in our lives, stop believing in our thoughts and beliefs and release the past. The only way to do this is to learn to honor our feelings and to allow the heart to speak once again and to "make sure that there is nothing in our lives which we love more than God".

There is a lot of talk about God in this book. Myself I am not necessarily religious in the old fashioned sense of the word, yet Jacobson's reverence and delicateness impressed me and shifted something. The way Jacobson sees God as related to Presence and Silence and interconnectedness, and yet as unfathomable and mysterious, speaks to me and also reminds me of what I consider to be the best in Buddhist thought.

In any case, you can't miss with this book. It will invite you to just BE over and over again and how can one refuse such an invitation?

There's a saying in the East that a book hasn't been read once until it has been read twelve times. So I haven't read "WORDS FROM SILENCE" once yet. I just finished my third read and find, for the third time, that Leonard's sharing reaches deeply to uncover Truth within me. This book is extraordinary - refreshing in its simplicity, brilliant in its clarity - written not from Leonard's mind to my (your) mind, but from his essence to my (your) essence - from heart to heart, knowing to knowing, Self to Self.

"WORDS FROM SILENCE" is exceedingly recommendable to anyone who has ever contemplated the questions, "Who am I?", "Where am I?", or "What am I doing here?" It is an invitation to come home, a call to awakening, including keys and guidance to accomplish just that: full awakening out of illusion into the truth and reality of this present moment, right here, right now...

"To awaken from mind to Being
is your responsibility.
No one can do it for you.
It is not difficult.
It can be done, provided you know the way.
I can show you the way,
but I cannot walk the path for you." (p. 70)

"The only longing to follow is the
longing to know who you are.
You can long for a woman, or a man.
You can long for material
possessions and success.
All of these longings will
take you further away,
but the longing
to know who you are
will take you home." (p. 218)

This book leads to a homecoming not to be missed.

When I first read this book I stayed up most of the night astounded at its contents. I "knew" everything that was being said on a deeper level than I previously realized. As I reread the book, deeper meanings and greater understanding became apparent. In short, this book has changed my life for the better. Much Better. I have referred many people over the last three years to read the book and have given it as a gift to many friends and relatives. Everyone who has read it has thanked me. If you read it, you won't be sorry. It's excellent.

over my 40+ years of reading material of a heart-felt and heart-driven nature, i stumbled over "words from silence," and am hard pressed to "speak" about its powerful wisdom and gentle reminders to "remember self," and its author's almost mystical proscriptions for healing the past so we don't have to remain addicted to those age-old wounds. saying this may tend to sound like the thousand and one other similar sounding quotes on dust jackets these days-beware-THIS material is explosive and when practiced in everyday life, actually has the ability to CHANGE YOUR INNER WORLD! i am hanging out with this material day and night - it has already been integrated into my life and there is change on all levels. if you dare to challenge your own deep seated beliefs about self, others and cosmos, peruse this material and then ......take the plunge. i don't think you'lll be disappointed.

This author is very poetic and the many of the passages in this book are extremely inspiring. Just reading his writing in incredibly soothing. The author believes that there is a simple way to reach an awakened and enlightened state of mind. Though this sounds appealing to people in our modern fast food/fast everything/instant gratification culture, I feel that this may be a little too optimistic. I think that although we can all experience temporary states of mind like this, this is not the same as the state of mind reached by a person who has reached this state through many years of experiences in life. Toru Sato in his book "The Ever-Transcending Spirit" explains this long and emotional process in a very clear way. I'd highly recommend this book if you are interested in personal growth and happiness.

Leonard issues an invitation (in a very gentle way) to become present and aligned with the world beyond the ego. He not only gives the requirements for reaching an awakened state, but he also leads one to a right relationship to thought and feeling. One of the most worthwhile books I have ever read.