I'm only now getting around to Sailor Bob Adamson's Presence-Awareness: Just This and Nothing Else ($13.88/http://www.non-dualitybooks.com/). Published in 2004, this gem of a work collects over 40 of Adamson's talks with earnest seekers from around the globe. John Wheeler--Bob's most celebrated "student"--edited and transcribed these talks from a trio of CDs. Bob's clarity and directness are in peak form in this gathering, e.g., "There is no sense trying to grasp it with the mind. That is where you are personalizing it. Realize you don't have to do it. The mind is appearing on that. Sit with it as much as you can...Stay with the subtleties of this, and you will start to sense what is there."
Be sure to check out Bob's excellent Web site Non-Conceptual Self-Knowing Awareness at: http://members.iinet.net.au/~adamson7/.
*****
Charlie Hayes' No Way Out: The Gift of Absolute Freedom (Nonduality Expressions, $16.99) is a splendid collection of 70-plus essays and dialogues, two appendixes, choice quotes, recommended books and Web sites, an autobiographical page, and even an illuminating Coda. Charlie's sentences blasts you with their energy and clarity. And he refuses to indulge any inquirer's wailings about agonizing spiritual journeys and Dark Nights of the Soul. In a word, Charlie's pointing is spot-on. Ponder these potent ABCs:
A) "What gets irritated?? Only a self-center (the false sense of being apart from the whole) can be annoyed or offended."
B) "You will never grasp or own this with the mind! Don't try to analyze pointers; LOOK where they are pointing.
C) "When it dawned that all my knowledge was actually ignorance, this got real clear. Really!...The end game begins in not knowing a thing. Be in unknowing awareness. Just be. Just be. What never changes? Concepts change. Feelings change. Experiences change. Knowledge changes...[But] what does not come and go...and yet IS?"
Go to Charlie's new and marvelous blog--http://beingisknowing.blogspot.com/
--to learn how you can directly order a copy of this book. You can also get it through Amazon, if course.
*****
I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by Charlie for one of his podcasts. You can hear or download it at the following link:
http://charliehayes36.tripod.com/podcast05lknowingthyself.mp3
Below is a text excerpt from the interview, where I'm explaining how I came to nonduality and to knowning John Wheeler:
"...I remember coming across a copy of Osho's Enlightenment: The Only Revolution, which was a commentary on the Ashtavakra Gita,...an ancient Indian treatise which consists of a dialogue between the sage Ashtavakra and his disciple, King Janaka. That book help lead me to nonduality and Nisargadatta. After reading Nisargadatta's I Am That, I sought out more contemporary teachers of nonduality. This led me to Sailor Bob Adamson and his premier student, John Wheeler.
For whatever reason, I immediately resonated with John's writing and style...and especially the in-depth ways in which he answered seekers' questions. Everything about this guy just felt so completely right."
1 comment:
Lovely Rodney, thanks for the "toot" on "No Way Out"
John Greven says,
You don’t Exist – Confused?
If the “I” is just an illusion, with no independent existence, then what can you do towards self-realization? Some “teachers” says there is nothing you can do. If you are a seeker - that is frustrating and just does not seem right. There certainly seems to be a “me” doing things. Others say, to investigate the “I.” Ask the question, “Who am I?” As always, the problem is trying to understand these seemingly conflicting pointers in the mind. What is this non-existent “I” supposed to do? Nothing? Even that is something.
These obviously appear to be two very different approaches. But, neither is intended to be the answer. They are, like everything else, just pointers. Taken literally, it is a hopeless situation. The “teachers” who would say, there is nothing you can do will pass the salt if asked. Seemingly, someone did something.
Ask someone what day it is and the mind responds. In the same way, ask someone to inquire, “Who am I?” and the mind responds. The question is whether or not “someone” responded – or - is it all apart of the natural functioning?
Certainly it seems like someone is doing the thinking, passing the salt, and asking "Who am I?", but under investigation that idea is seen to be false. The realization is that there has never been “anyone” thinking thoughts or doing things. Thoughts, like everything else, come and go according to the influences upon the brain. Just as a drop of water moves around in the river without an independent nature, so thoughts arise and subside without anyone choosing or controlling the activity.
The concept that there is nothing you can do to bring the search to an end is true. Yet, doing is happening all the time isn’t it? The body is hungry and eating happens. The body is tired and sleep happens. The search itself is happening. If it is true that there is no doer, then a lot is still getting done! So, there is no one telling you to inquire, “Who am I?” There is no one to inquire, “Who am I?” Yet, the inquiry still happens. When it is seen that the “I” that believes it is doing the inquiry is just a simple thought with a complex web of concepts supporting it, then no one uncovered the false center of “me.”
(John's website is http://www.onenessjustthat.com.)
Post a Comment