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#3022 - Thursday, December 20, 2007 - Editor: Jerry Katz
Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights Submissions: http://nonduality.com/submissions.htm
Please read the book inspired by the Highlights, One: Essential Writings on Nonduality: http://snipurl.com/1rycd
Check availability at your local Borders Store: http://www.bordersstores.com/locator/locator.jsp?tt=gn
Dear Jerry, My name is Jean-Pierre Piché and I am the producer and director of the film Sadhana - Back to the Source: http://www.sadhanafilm.com
This feature documentary film depicts the
odyssey of a young Westerner who follows the call of his soul to
India - the land of ancient and spiritual Wisdom of the East.
During the next months, he travels from the hotlands
of Southern India (Mount Arunachala) to the source
of the Ganges river in the Himalayas. Along the way, he
meets holymen and spiritual teachers (Father Bede
Griffiths of the Shantivanam Ashram, Swami
Premananda, Swami Shyam), travels and learns the discipline
of detachment with the sadhu Bhairav Muni and attends
India's most sacred religious festival, the Kumbha Mela.
American and Canadian public and film reviewers loved this enchanting personalyzed documentary feature film (80 minutes) that was screened in more than a hundred cinema theatres throughout Canada and USA. According to reviewers, Sadhana is a "must-see for all spiritual seekers and anyone interested in India's spiritual legacy". Critics compared it in scope and impact to such films as Siddhartha and Meetings With Remarkable Men. They pointed out its "stunning visuals and unforgettable music". (See Website www.sadhanafilm.com for excerpts of film reviews)
The film was also presented on Canadian telivision in its English original version on the Vision TV channel and in French on CBC Radio-Canada as a three half hour series (Second-Regard) and in its full length (Horizon documentary program).
At the time of its preparation, the project had received support from among others, Dr. David Miller of Concordia University, R.W. Stevenson of McGill University and Professor John Rossner of Concordia University.
To help promotion of the film, I recently published
an official Website of the film at the following address: http://www.sadhanafilm.com
Visiting this site you will be able to see a promotion trailer of the film, read a brief description, some of the reviews and a history of the film since its release in North American film theatres, and purchase the DVD (personal use) through its online store.
If you want more information don’t
hesitate to contact me.
Kind Regards,
Jean-Pierre Piché
From the Preface to The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are, by Alan Watts
This book explores an unrecognized but mighty taboo--our tacit conspiracy to ignore who, or what, we really are. Briefly, the thesis is that the prevalent sensation of oneself as a separate ego enclosed in a bag of skin is a hallucination which accords neither with Western science nor with the experimental philosophy religions of the East--in particular the central and germinal Vedanta philosophy of Hinduism. This hallucination underlies the misuse of technology for the violent subjugation of man's natural environment and, consequently, its eventual destruction.
We are therefore in urgent need of a sense of our own existence
which is in accord with the physical facts and which overcomes
our feeling of alienation from the universe. For this purpose I
have drawn on the insights of Vedanta, stating them, however, in
a completely modern and Western style--so that this volume makes
no attempt to be a textbook on or introduction to Vedanta in the
ordinary sense. It is rather a cross-fertilization of Western
science with an Eastern intuition.
Particular thanks are due to my wife, Mary Jane, for her careful
editorial work and her comments on the manuscript. Gratitude is
also due to the Bollingen Foundation for its support of a project
which included the writing of this book.
Alan Watts, Sausalito, California, January, 1966
Amazon.com link: http://www.amazon.com/Book-Taboo-Against-Knowing-Who/dp/0679723005/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198202894&sr=1-1
Beyond Freedom
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
http://www.yogiimpressions.com/bookdetail.asp?id=4966&a=2578289&b=41642&c=15646&p=
Experience afresh, the true
essence of his teaching
Recently, some long-forgotten tapes of Nisargadatta Maharaj’s
talks were unearthed from the archives of S. K. Mullarpattan,
Maharaj’s interpreter for the longest time. These tapes
contained recordings of some of Maharaj’s talks with
seekers, held during the last two years of his life.
They capture afresh the essence and flavour of the teachings of
this world-renowned Master of Advaita - the Hindu philosophy of
Non-duality. These dialogues find a new relevance for our times.
For, in one of these talks, Maharaj made a special reference to
his earlier book 'I Am That' and said, “That book and
whatever was expounded at that time was only relevant for that
period. I am speaking differently today. As a matter of fact,
this should also have been recorded and published as it is in
greater detail, and is emphasizing different aspects.”
More than 25 years later, that wish of Nisargadatta Maharaj is
being fulfilled with the publication of these talks in 'Beyond
Freedom.' This is a book all devotees of Maharaj will want to
read with ardent fervour and enthusiasm.