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#4144- Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - Editor: Jerry Katz
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
Download a free copy of the eBook, Wisdom's Soft Whisper and other free spiritual eBooks at: http://www.thewizardllc.com/wizards-free-library
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BOOK REVIEW OF WISDOM'S SOFT WHISPER:
Words may be able to truly reflect knowledge, but not wisdom. Wisdom dawns suddenly and results in awareness that renders redundant all words. Rather than any statement, it is a ‘state’ that builds its own vocabulary and expressions. This state leads to true understanding.This is when a person becomes a sage. Not the one who gives up every thing and heads to the hills and forests, but one who has an unusually practical approach to Reality. Such sages may appear out-of-touch with the real world; they are always wide awake, totally alert, and very aware. Not that they have broken away from samsara. They Are Wizards.
These sages, saints and seers are not magicians or tricksters. They are aptly depicted as wizards of whatever tradition. Thus, Moses, Jesus, Lao-Tzu, Buddha and other ancients were wizards and sages who dropped pearls of wisdom in their own time and way. Wizards understand that insight is essential in revealing who we are.
In Wisdom’s Soft Whisper, a modern day sage, Wizard Baldour, lays out the roadmap to the land of the wise. Extracting wisdom from knowledge, the Wizard provides a path to enlightenment. His way of introspection reveals the inherent peace of one’s true Self.The Wizard delves into the usually mistaken ideas associated with wisdom and those dwelling in that state. For instance, the commonly interchanged terms-- wisdom and knowledge. Knowledge is not wisdom, for it is of the mind, while wisdom is prior to the mind.
In Two Parts
Wisdom’s Soft Whisper is set in two parts. The first is here and now --a vertical paradigm, as it were. It is deep and paradoxical. It assumes and affirms the reader’s awakening from the mortal storyline. The second part is the Wizard’s own horizontal growing to be Wizard Baldour. Tending towards the mysterious, Wisdom’s Soft Whisper says with words that which is beyond the word; pure wisdom, after all, transcends the capacity of language, concepts and the mind even. Softly, but firmly, whispers challenge long-held beliefs and everything else that a person has grown accustomed to as being real. The Wizard urges the reader to open his mind to the very foundation of his own being and thus realise wisdom. Baldour, along with other Wizards, believes that this wisdom is the key to peace.
John’s Transformation
The second part that constitutes John Troy’s storyline is more a shifting paradigm, and written appropriately enough in the third person. In the haze can be traced John’s transformation into the sage, Wizard Baldour. The realisation, when it came, was spontaneous and rapid--what the Hindu philosophy calls Nirvikalpa Samadhi. But John terms it quite simply “turned inside out”. For John, the full-fledged yogic experience came with initiation by Swami Muktananda, though that did not stop him from pioneering a natural and organic food business. Then came an introduction to Sri Ramana’s teachings, and soon a vision of the sage too. From there to meeting V. Ganesan, who had grown up in the presence of the Maharshi, was but destined. And the pilgrim progressed…
Each page of Wisdom’s Soft Whisper demands time to reflect and ponder, and not be just read. For, the Wizard does not want to just pass on knowledge as much as he wants the reader to pursue and attain Wisdom. Depending on one’s state of awareness, the words may make sense, or they may not. Non-understanding should be no cause for frustration, but a challenge to open one’s mind to the wisdom behind what one knows now. The true seeker rejoices in the ‘now’ of the reality of ‘movement-lessness’.
In response to a prevalent longing for peace and wisdom, the folk wizard of North Carolina offers a means of discovering our inherent wisdom.
~J. Srinivasan, Recognized Book Critic for Tattvaloka Spiritual Magazine, India~