Abiding in Nondual Awareness


Book Description

The condition from which all forms appear is from the timeless and unlimited formless presence. This Absolute condition was existent before your particular form arose and will continue to persist after your material form has dis-integrated. It is the source from which the cosmos arose. Your material form, or organism, is a product of this same source, or Intelligence. Your brain is a product of this source. Hence, your thoughts and actions owe their manifestation to this ultimate actuality. Thus, the teachings instruct, "You are not the Doer." When one recognizes that "all that's being done, is That doing what it does," it becomes clear that (from the ultimate standpoint) all which is unfolding is an unprecedented, spontaneous development of the Omnipresent manifesting as, and through, every immediate occurrence. From the vantage point of the Absolute, it makes no difference what occurs, since there is no confinement to a finite consequence. Regardless how the individual organism may evaluate each occurrence, in the final analysis it makes no difference. This nondual perspective of non-attachment is reminded to us each night, in our deepest sleep. We return to a condition of empty awareness in which the self-perception disappears, all relative interests disappear, the world disappears, the cosmos disappears. In that unperturbed awareness, there is an emptiness which is choiceless and in which nothing really matters. For those who realize the implications of the nondual teachings, the fact that ultimately nothing really matters is carried over into one's waking awareness and daily life. It is also clear that while we are embodied in this material form and continue to function in the relative world, the dualistic perspective (rather than the nondual awareness) is the state of mind which pertains for most persons-who are typically not prepared to hear that their "self" has no meaning in the ultimate sense. It's probably not surprising that such teachings were once kept secret. However, they're not secret anymore, and can lead to a life-changing perspective, or Consciousness. === After my first book, Living Nonduality, was published in 2009, I received dozens of e-mails, in addition to some letters, from people all over the U.S. and abroad. In many instances, particular questions or quandaries concerning the subject of enlightenment were expressed. My publisher set up a blog page on my website (livingnonduality.org) and the more succinct queries were often responded to there. In other instances, I sent my reply by mail. The monographs printed in this volume include such correspondences with people on nonduality and are an expansion on the material published four years ago; a few of the selections are those for which there wasn't room in my previous book; and a few others are akin to journal entries. All of them relate to various aspects of nondual realization. Each, in its own way, is a letter to you.




Living Nonduality


Book Description




The Open Path


Book Description

Interest in non-dual awareness as the essence of spiritual awakening, free from the obligations and cultural references of a particular religion, is rapidly expanding throughout the Western world. Those who have sought out and followed spiritual paths, such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Sufism, Kabbalism, etc., have often found themselves coming up against a kind of ceiling in their longing for spiritual awakening. This can be a result of the religions cultural context or a belief system that may not see awakening as something within the reach of adherents. So, many serious spiritual students have turned to non-sectarian teachers to further their practice. These readers will find The Open Path to be an excellent guide to the realisation of the silent ground of all being and to the expression of that realisation in the diverse conditions of their lives. The book includes very helpful exercises and practices that foster a sense of equanimity and natural insight, as well as methods and teachings from many sources: Sufism, psychology, meditation traditions, and both Eastern and Western non-dual teachers.




The Heart of Centering Prayer


Book Description

The best-selling author of The Wisdom Jesus and The Meaning of Mary Magdalene demystifies the popular Christian meditation method rooted in contemplative prayer Centering Prayer is the path to a wonderful and radical new way of seeing the world. It is not, as is sometimes thought, simply an act of devotional piety, nor is it simply a Christianized form of other meditation methods. Cynthia Bourgeault here cuts through the misconceptions to show that Centering Prayer is in fact a pioneering development within the Christian contemplative tradition. She provides a practical, complete course in the practice and then goes deeper to analyze what actually happens in Centering Prayer: the mind effectively switches to a new operating system that makes possible the perception of nonduality. With this understanding in place, she then takes us on a journey through one of the sources of the practice, the Christian contemplative classic The Cloud of Unknowing, revealing it to be among the earliest Christian explorations of the phenomenology of consciousness. Cynthia Bourgeault’s illumination of the Centering Prayer path provides compelling evidence of how important the practice has become in the half-century since it first arose among American Trappist monks, and of its maturation and refinement over the ensuing years of sincere study and practice. It will resonate with beginners on the Centering Prayer path as well as with seasoned practitioners.




Spiritual Enlightenment:: The Damnedest Thing


Book Description

A MASTERPIECE of illuminative writing, Spiritual Enlightenment: The Damnedest Thing is mandatory reading for anyone following a spiritual path. Part exposé and part how-to manual, this is the first book to explain why failure seems to be the rule in the search for enlightenment, and how the rule can be broken. :: Book One of Jed McKenna's Enlightenment Trilogy. Contains Bonus Material.




Being Aware of Being Aware


Book Description

Everybody is aware, all seven billion of us. We are aware of thoughts, feelings, sensations, and perceptions. All people share the experience of being aware, but relatively few people are aware that they are aware. Most people’s lives consist of a flow of thoughts, images, ideas, feelings, sensations, sights, sounds, and so on. Very few people ask, 'What is it that knows this flow of thoughts, feelings, and perceptions? With what am I aware of my experience?' The knowing of our being—or rather, awareness’s knowing of its own being in us—is our primary, fundamental and most intimate experience. It is in this experience that the peace, happiness and love for which all people long reside. The happiness we have sought so long outside of ourselves, in situations, objects and relationships, turns out to be always present and available in the simple knowing of our own being as it truly is. The knowing of our own being shines in each of us as the experience ‘I am’ or ‘I am aware’, or simply the knowledge ‘I’. This obvious, familiar and intimate experience has no objective qualities and is, therefore, overlooked or ignored by the majority of people. This overlooking of our own being is the ultimate cause of unhappiness. What is the nature of the experience of being aware or awareness itself? The exploration of this question is the subject matter of this book and the essence of the Direct Path to peace and happiness. * * * The Essence of Meditation Series presents meditations on the essential, non-dual understanding that lies at the heart of all the great religious and spiritual traditions, compiled from contemplations led by Rupert Spira at his meetings and retreats. This simple, contemplative approach, which encourages a clear seeing of one’s experience rather than any kind of effort or discipline, leads the reader to an experiential understanding of their own essential being and the peace and fulfillment that are inherent within it. Being Aware of Being Aware is the first and introductory volume in The Essence of Meditation Series.




Natural Awakening


Book Description

"When crystallized identities enter a nondual field of awareness and begin to interact with a being embodying that state, suffering can't be sustained. It dissolves into a space where there is neither suffering nor its absence. Nondual awareness creates a transformational field or vortex that gently or abruptly, but irrevocably moves people into radiant awareness.... This is the paradoxical state that bodhisattvas play in for eternity." This Guide goes behind the curtains of Dr. Peter Fenner's highly distinctive nondual teachings. It reveals in great detail and clarity the subtle and sometimes mysterious skillful methods he uses in his workshops, trainings, public presentations and coaching to swiftly awaken people to the liberating freedom of nondual, panoramic awareness. Peter has a unique ability to reflect on the deep processes involved in his nondual transmission, especially the nuances of language, deep feelings and silence. He is well known for the rigor, precision and organic flow of his unfindability dialogs. The skills he reveals in this Guide are many of the very same methods used by Dzogchen masters, Zen roshis and Advaita sages in "pointing out events" and "mind-to-mind transmission." Peter's teaching has been described by others as "free-form, continuous pointing to awareness." In Buddhism nondual awareness is often called the "ultimate medicine" because no higher evolutionary accomplishment is possible for any conscious being, living anywhere, at any time. When we see everything as the seamlessly changing fabric of immutable, unfindable awareness it's impossible to be negatively touched by any environmental circumstance or inner perturbance. We move into the realm of embodied transcendence beyond disturbances and conditioned forms of peace. In this Guide Peter often shares at the "result, or fruition level." He shows us how comprehensive awakening is our natural state, that infuses and embraces the totality of existence whenever we let go of personal striving, ambition, fantasies, hopes, fears and self-judgment. At this level our familiar preoccupations transform into a blissful and exquisite mandala that's completely free of the narrow concerns of a self-absorbed life. The neurotic energies and paranoiac projections that shape samsaric existence self-liberate into a panoramic clearing that supports evolutionary transformation throughout the universe. In this Guide Peter's outlines everything he has discovered in 42 years of teaching. The Guide is especially useful for facilitators, therapists and coaches as it powerfully accelerates the integration on the nondual in a form that lends itself to the public sharing of pure awareness. Part One is a virtual manual for spiritual teachers, therapists and coaches in how to introduce groups and clients to the ultimate state of healing and being-pure, pristine, timeless awareness. Part Two traces Peter's contemporary expression of nonduality, and more especially his well-known Radiant Mind course, through to its Asian origins.




The Ego and the Dynamic Ground


Book Description

This book presents a transpersonal theory of human development. Using a broad range of both Western and Eastern sources, Washburn answers the challenge of Carl Jung. He shows how modern humans can integrate themselves and attain self-realization rather than self-destruction.




How to Attain Enlightenment


Book Description

This complete guide to enlightenment presents the wisdom of the ancient science of self-inquiry, a time-tested means for achieving spiritual freedom. The author convincingly refutes the popular view that enlightenment is a unique state of consciousness and debunks a host of other myths. In his straightforward style he reveals proven methods for purifying the mind, and takes the reader from the beginning to the end of the spiritual path, patiently unfolding the logic of self-inquiry.




Ending Stress


Book Description

Do you want to eliminate stress in your life?This manual shows you the way! This highly practical guide shows you clearly and directly how to remove stress, anger, fear and worry by becoming more realistic, using 2,500 year old meditation and therapy tools and inspired by masters of nondual and Buddhist wisdom traditions including Dzogchen, Mahamudra, Zen, Madhyamika, Advaita and Tao. Jonathan Harrison teaches nondual and Buddhist meditation and psychology. The guide explains how mental stress is created and how to remove it from your life in all its forms including anger, anxiety, disappointment, discontent, dissatisfaction, dread, envy, fear, frustration, guilt, humiliation, impatience, insult, misery, mistrust, regret, tension and worry. Jonathan Harrison shows how, in order to see how stress is created, you need to understand three things: - The way you think about things: You see the world as structured, split into separate parts which may be in conflict. Your particular mental structures consisting of your personal opinions and concepts is the result of many factors including your genetic makeup, parental upbringing, social and cultural environments and the way you have perceived, internalized and acted on your experiences. These mental structures develop and change throughout your life. The world as you see it is largely a reflection of your mental history. What you think is an original creation of your mind. - The way things really are: Reality, the world as it is, is neither inherently split (dualistic), nor unified, neither structured nor unstructured. It just is. This is so simple that most people do not understand it. - Ending stress It is enough to grasp deeply how things really work. The past has gone, is unalterable, the future is non-existent except as your present expectations, and "now" is already here. Within this realization, true rest occurs naturally. This is non-meditation, natural meditation or "resting in natural awareness" as Longchen Rabjam, the renowned Tibetan yogi and Dzogchen meditation master, put it. By recognizing the nature of reality you are able to live, love and benefit yourself and others more easily, as you no longer experience the frustration of trying to grasp at imagined parts of your experience or trying to remove them. Scroll up and grab a copy today.