Click here to go to the next issue
Highlights Home Page | Receive the Nonduality Highlights each day
How to submit material to the Highlights
#3104 -
Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
In this issue are three
book reviews I wrote over the last few days. Two are
"neo-advaita" and one gets into tradition and practice.
The latter is by Deepak Chopra, who, by the way, I think
would make a more powerful guest for Oprah than Eckhart
Tolle.
Chopra has written books
on almost every mode of human existence from diet to exercise,
addiction to recreation, to various modes of spirituality
communicated to all levels of understanding.
Chopra's basic grounding
is in a nonduality harder than what Tolle offers, from what I
have read.
The problem for someone
like Oprah is that it would be very challenging to discover and
then to extract the Tolle-like teaching from all of Chopra's
works.
It's up to Chopra to
package himself as a follow-up to Tolle on Oprah's internet show.
I hope he does it.
--Jerry
Beyond Awakening:
The End of the Spiritual Search
by Jeff Foster
http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Awakening-End-Spiritual-Search/dp/0955399971/ref=cm_cr-mr-img
The hallmark of Neo-Advaita, or whatever you want to call this
genre, is confession of what is. The confession falls into itself
leaving nothing.
There is nothing to
confess, therefore there is nothing but confession.
Or as Jeff puts it:
"Everything is empty, and so everything is divine.
Everything is illusion, and so everything matters
absolutely." Living that truth, all you can do is confess it
or claim it to be so, in an infinity of ways.
What's keeping you from
seeing that? You won't know until you see it. You can do things
to come close to that perception, such as meditate, do
self-inquiry, engage body work, do Yoga, surrender to God, take
psycho-active substances. You could have that perception for
days, months, or years.
However, grace descends
on some people - whatever that means -- and they come to see and
know that "Everything is empty, and so everything is
divine." They know it so fully that there is no one to know
it.
Jeff describes this
descent of grace upon him, though I don't know if he would call
it that: "I was walking through the rain on a cold autumn
evening in
If the grace never comes
down on you, you can at least recognize what it means when it
does, and live from that disposition. That is, you can know
non-separation and live out of the intelligence of
non-separation, even if that life is not fully dissolved into the
immediacy of what is arising.
Read Beyond Awakening and
you will come to know what non-separation is like to someone - or
no one - who lives in the recognition of it. Whether the reading
will adjust grace so that it descends upon you, who the heck
knows? Is it even a possibility? Is it an event? Does it happen?
Of course. Of course not.
Beyond Awakening:
The End of the Spiritual Search
by Jeff Foster
http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Awakening-End-Spiritual-Search/dp/0955399971/ref=cm_cr-mr-img
The Great Undoing
by Stuart Schwartz
http://www.amazon.com/Great-Undoing-Stuart-Schwartz/dp/095539998X/ref=cm_cr-mr-img
If you want to "get" nonduality in a 200 page book
containing one short poem per page, this book will do the job.
This book is like bubble
pack, that transparent plastic blister used to package items of
merchandise. Reading each poem is like inviting a certain tension
(pressing down on the bubble) and then experiencing a release
(the pop). Over and over again.
When we forget who we are
we react and fight for our lives
When we remember,
we see that there is no one
to fight and no issue of death
A release or relief
accompanies almost every poem. The idea is that you will one day
find you are always walking in the state of release. Of course,
there is no you, no state of release, and no "one day."
The great undoing is too small and too grand to ever be known. It
therefore makes sense when Stuart says,
The pursuit of happiness
is the cause of suffering
The Great Undoing
by Stuart Schwartz
http://www.amazon.com/Great-Undoing-Stuart-Schwartz/dp/095539998X/ref=cm_cr-mr-img
The Third Jesus: The Christ We Cannot Ignore
by Deepak Chopra
http://www.amazon.com/Third-Jesus-Christ-Cannot-Ignore/dp/0307338312/ref=cm_cr-mr-img
Theme:
In a video promoting this
book, Deepak Chopra says, "I don't know who I am,"
implying that his viewpoint is from God-consciousness rather than
egoic, person-centered consciousness.
According to Chopra, the
meaning of the New Testament is that Jesus and God are not
separate, and is confessed biblically as "The Father and I
are one." This is the meaning of God-consciousness. Chopra
says that anyone is entitled to that realization.
The theme of this book is
separation and how to achieve unity by knowing Jesus as
God-consciousness. The theme is supported by scores of quotations
from the New Testament and the Gospel of Thomas, along with
Chopra's explanations of them in terms of God-consciousness.
Practice:
Chopra claims that the
feeling of separation from God means a mistake has been made in
how we live and see ourselves. Chopra provides fifteen steps to
God-consciousness in order to correct that mistake and bring us
to unity or non-separation.
The chapters on practice
are excellent. Not surprisingly, Jesus is secondary and what is
primary is Chopra's universal teaching of God-consciousness or
enlightenment. It could be said that this whole book is more
about following Deepak Chopra rather than Jesus Christ. I have no
problem with that, as Chopra is a proven and effective world
teacher.
Chopra exposes his
Eastern roots when he urges the reader to start a satsang group.
Satsang refers to a gathering of people devoted to the teaching
of Truth or God-consciousness. Typically, satsang centers around
a rarely found God-conscious or Self-realized sage/teacher.
Chopra is calling for anyone at all to start satsang.
Transformation:
This inner journey is not
casual. It is intense. Chopra writes, "Because he is so
absolute, Jesus doesn't offer a path of devotion that consists of
daily prayer and piety to God. He wants total, unswerving
devotion: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
and with all your soul, and with all your mind."
Yet, realistically,
people tend to unfold through practices of devotion, service, and
contemplation. These are fine as long as they do not become an
avoidance of inner transformation, Chopra notes.
Transformation is an
extreme turning, as this confession by Chopra reveals: "It's
impossible to quantify if you are on a spiritual path or how far
along it you may be. But progress is always marked by
transformation. The path isn't about feeling better. It's not
about knowing who you are, or ending your suffering, or finding
peace, or healing you deepest wounds. It's about a transformation
so profound that illusion is traded for reality. Jesus survives
to this day as a force in the world because he embodied that
truth completely."
Final notes:
Our goal then, Chopra
says, is not to imitate Jesus but to abide in him, to become one
with him. We do that by giving our lives entirely to the
process of turning separation into unity
Social commentary
regarding Christianity and gay rights, abortion, and women's
right, finish the book, but who is listening? The fundamentalist
Christian has long discarded this book.
The index is very good,
with 20% of it devoted to scriptural references. The term
"separation", which is used a dozen or more times in
the book and which arguably is the main theme, is not found
anywhere in the index. In the future, Dr. Chopra might suggest
specific terms for inclusion in the index or even become involved
in selecting or getting to know the index writer.
The Third Jesus:
The Christ We Cannot Ignore
by Deepak Chopra
http://www.amazon.com/Third-Jesus-Christ-Cannot-Ignore/dp/0307338312/ref=cm_cr-mr-img