Thank you Adyashanti, and Publisher Tami Simon from Sounds True. I've found many books of information on how to get there, but only one or two, on what to do once one arrives.
During what turned out to be a lifelong search for my true Self, I began a formal study of shamanism in 2004 with Alberto Villoldo. I finished this study in 2006 and experienced a non-abiding awakening in May of 2007. I use the word awakening for want of a better word. By the end of that summer, the awakening and the deep joy I experienced began to slowly disappear until it had dried up like an old river bed. The experience was profound and I felt that there would be a time in the future, when I might be able to re-experience it. Re-experience what? That became the question, as I had no idea what had happened to me in the first place. During that time, I seemed to understand myself and the world around me with a new clarity that contained none of the misery or confusion I saw in those around me. A deep state of joy, peace, contentment and an almost strange silence permeated the experience.
In December of 2013, I discovered Advaita Vedanta and began to study non-duality. The first book I purchased was I Am That by Nisargadatta Maharaj. At some point, and along with more than 60 other books and videos, I purchased this book by Adyashanti. Shaman are taught to avoid any collusion with those we work with, so in an effort to avoid any collusion between my experience and experiences recounted in this book, I put it on the bookshelf without even opening it. I intended to use it as a guidebook, just in case I was able to re-experience the awakened state again. On April 13th, after spending three days of almost nonstop study of books, audios and videos, something shifted, and I was awake again.
I immediately began to experience a deeply disconcerting feeling of disorientation. I remembered that I had this book, and opened it to the table of contents. There it was on page 15, an entire chapter on the disorientation associated with awakening, and how to best deal with it. A feeling of relief and comfort came over me as I fully read the table of contents. I held in my hands the one thing I didn't have the first time around. A guidebook to that which cannot be fully described.
The information in this book isn't only for people who find themselves operation from, or close to some type of awakened state, but also for anyone who's making an effort to experience this state of self realization. The book deals extensively with how to remain in the awakened state. It appears that once you re-enter this original state of being, the seeking may be over, but there is still a lot to understand, and plenty of work to do in order to maintain the state. I believe most of the things one needs to tend to, are the exact things one needs to focus on to experience whatever this is in the first place. This book is a wonderful resource and provides many deep insights into having a normal life, while operating in this most natural of states, while avoiding the many pitfalls that might hamper your forward momentum into this new beginning. I say new beginning because I believe this to be the beginning of an expansion, not the end product.
To the hardcore non-dualists who read this review. I get it, honestly I do. There is no here or there, up or down, us or them and nothing really exists in the first place. To those who don't get this book and have been hypercritical of it, I'm sure it reads very differently depending on how conscious you are, what your previous conditioning is and what kind of agenda you hold to. I don't believe majoring in the minor is a path that leads anywhere other than to a lifetime of disappointment, as the act itself is probably an indication of great resistance.
To those who see the importance of this book, keep plugging away. Go to Buddha at the Gaspump and watch interviews. Read Ramana Maharshi, Robert Wolfe, Eckhart Tolle, Jean Klein, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Atmananda Krishna Menon and Francis Lucille and more Adyashanti. There are many great contemporary teachers of non-duality. Commit yourself to knowing the "truth" of who and what you are, and don't stop. Reading anything of this nature with a totally open mind will always pay off. The concept of "Awareness watching Awareness" was a huge key for me, along with watching James Swartz explain that "there is no joy in the object", Robert Wolfe talking about dismissing the practice and Natalie Gray on YouTube talking about "Nondual Awareness, Nothing Changes".
Thank you to all the teachers.
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Top reviews from other countries
- GelyaReviewed in Germany on April 22, 2024
One of the best spiritual books I’ve read
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MaximeReviewed in France on May 26, 2017
Quand le pragmatisme se mêle à la Spiritualité... ca donne ce livre.
