… if you live in Canada.
The Science and Nonduality Conference 2009
July 2, 2009
The Science and Nonduality Conference
October 21-25, 2009
San Rafael, California
This is the first ever conference dedicated to nonduality. It’s a great opportunity to experience, learn, and encounter. Meeting face to face is how lifetime bonds are made, forged, and kept up.
Choose your teachers carefully
June 16, 2009Just because a teacher has bad habits doesn’t mean he or she is a bad teacher. However, you get to choose whether you want that teacher as yours.
If you choose a teacher with bad habits, you’re going to be touched by them in some way. At the least you’ll have to deal with them. At worst, you’ll pick up the habits or become a victim of them.
I was recently asked to help a prominent teacher pay off his credit card debt. That he can’t manage money doesn’t mean he’s a bad teacher. It does mean that if he’s your teacher (he’s not mine) you’ll probably feel you have to contribute to paying his debts.
Choose your teachers carefully. Have high expectations of them. If they can’t manage their debt, do you really want that person as your teacher?
The teacher in question needs some hard, practical, specific talk from Suze Orman:
How to settle your credit card debt on your own:
How to Edit, Create, or Write an Anthology
June 9, 2009How to Edit, Create, or Write an Anthology:
A collection of links to articles, with excerpts
Edited by Jerry Katz
Downloadable e-book. 13 pages. $9.95. Pay by PayPal. You will receive a link for an immediate download. The document is in .pdf format. Buy now
The purpose of this publication is to familiarize you with anthology editing and building.
“How do I put together an anthology of writings?”
“Should I create an anthology?”
“What’s involved in putting together an anthology of writings?”
This publication will give you valuable insights.
I did not intend to include articles on editing of the text, writing, acquiring permissions, publication, marketing, or sales. These topics, however, are touched upon in some articles.
This paper is about the heart, soul, and work of the anthologist.
It is intended for people who are thinking about, involved in, or about to edit an anthology.
I guarantee the links are fresh and that my work will save you hours of research time.
Review of The Transparency of Things
June 7, 2009The Transparency of Things: Contemplating the Nature of Experience
by Rupert Spira
On the Lamppost of Consciousness
a review by Jerry Katz
Rupert Spira pole dances on the lamppost of consciousness. This book is smart and sensuous in equal measure.
Some of Rupert’s moves are basic:
“All we have is experience. The mind is simply the experience of the mind. The body is simply the experience of the body. The world is simply the experience of the world.”
Some are intermediate:
“We conceptualize a mind, a body and a world that exist outside, separate and independent of experience, that are considered to exist when they are not being experienced. However, such a mind, body and world have never been experienced. Nor would it be possible to have such an experience because, as soon as it is experienced, it would, by definition, fall within experience and would therefore no longer be outside, separate from or independent of it.”
Some moves are advanced and wondrous:
“Experiencing is the essential ingredient of the mind, the body and the world, and Consciousness is the essential ingredient of experiencing.
“What would the mind, the body and the world look like if experiencing were removed from them?
“And what would experiencing look like if Consciousness was removed from it?”
Rupert breaks down the advanced and wondrous moves into its basic parts, thus clearing and widening the path to self-realization.
METHODS:
Rupert suggests looking “more and more deeply into the nature of ourselves….” He gives experiments for looking into experience, sense perceptions, and consciousness. Throughout certain chapters are peppered questions, some of which are addressed in detail and others which stand as inquiries for the reader’s consideration.
“…take a sound that would normally be conceptualised as taking place at a distance. Refuse any story that the mind tells us about the nature and whereabouts of that sound. Does it not occur in the same place as the thoughts and sensations? Does it not arise within consciousness? Are the sound and Consciousness not one seamless experience? Is the sound at a distance from Consciousness, separated from it? Is there a border or interface between the sound and Consciousness?”
THEMES:
The themes of life are considered:
Deep sleep: “Deep sleep takes the shape of the dreaming and waking states and is their substance….”
Ego: “It is Consciousness pretending that its essential nature has the same characteristics as the body/mind in which it seems to appear, and which in fact appears in it.”
Happiness and Desire: “Desire is the form of Happiness. It is the shape that Happiness itself takes when it overlooks its own presence and begins to search for itself elsewhere.”
Experience itself: “We experience ‘one thing,’ a multifaceted object comprising mind, body and world, and this ‘one thing’ refers to the totality of our experience at any moment.”
Art: “[Cezanne] felt that art should lead us to Reality, indicate that which is real, evoke that which is substantial. It should lead us from appearance to Reality.”
Ethics: “…if we truly feel that everything and everyone is an expression of the same one Reality that we ourselves are, we will act accordingly and will quite literally behave towards others as we would behave towards ourselves.”
Practice: “It would be disingenuous to believe that there is nothing to do, that Consciousness is all there is, there is no separate entity, simply because we have heard or read it so many times. Such a belief leaves us worse off than we were in the first place.”
Love, suffering, seeking, memory are other themes addressed.
CONCLUSION:
Spira acknowledges his “friend and teacher” Francis Lucille. Lucille’s teacher was Sri Atmananda (Sri Krishna Menon), who authored two volumes, Atma Darshan and Atma Nirvriti. The works of both teachers are recommended along with Rupert Spira’s as they are intimately interconnected. The Transparency of Things is a significant contribution to the small body of Direct Path literature.
I also note that the publisher, Non-Duality Press, is now no longer publishing books solely in the genre of (so-called) neo-advaita. They still are, and in addition they are publishing Direct Path books. The difference is noted by Dennis Waite: “[Direct path] differs from neo-advaita in that all of its teachings begin from the present evidence of one’s experience, and its statements are backed by rigorous logic. Whereas a neo-advaita teacher might state that ‘This is it’ and expect the seeker to understand what is meant, the direct-path teacher will begin with a simple observation or statement that everyone can agree with.”
The Transparency of Things: Contemplating the Nature of Experience
by Rupert Spira
Further excerpts may be read at
http://nonduality.com/hl3441.htm
http://nonduality.com/hl3483.htm
This book may be ordered through Amazon.com.
or through the publisher, Non-Duality Press, in the U.K.
Latest Twitters
June 3, 2009Here are some of my latest contributions through Twitter:
Swami Abhayananda: http://snipurl.com/j78dl. A long time player in the game; scholar, teacher, author. Free books on request. Good guy.
James Traverse told me about Google Wave: http://wave.google.com/ a new tool for communication/collaboration coming later this year.
@iamsource “yesterday I turned fifty but my soul feels eternal.” When change doesn’t get to you, you must be aligned with the eternal soul.
@yogabytes “RT @maddow: My friend Jill McDonough just won the Pushcart Prize for this: http://is.gd/JfmZ” Awesome.
Atma Darshan & Atma Nivriti, most profound teachings of Sri Atmananda (Krishna Menon), now available online: http://snipurl.com/j0kql
Received a manuscript with this note: “am keen to ‘get this out there’ ASAP, and am not bothered about making any money out of it.
I’m sad Bill East is gone. We exchanged many emails. Many glowing reviews. @aflow played his songs on her show. He occupies a rare niche.
Listen to Bill East at http://cdbaby.com/cd/billeast. CD Baby has some copies for sale, but longer being sold off his website.
Just learned that maverick songwriter/singer/producer Bill East passed away: http://whatamireally.net/
Interview with Greg Goode on Atmananda’s “direct-path” teachings and how they utilize the concept of awareness: http://snipurl.com/iq8se
I didn’t know Kay had a website: http://snipurl.com/iq500.
2 new books from Non-Duality Press. The Light That I Am. … and … You Are No Thing. http://snipurl.com/im7cm
Nonduality Satsang, May 2, 2009
May 20, 2009Nonduality Satsang, May 2, 2009, at 1313 Hollis St., Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Organizers and Contacts: James Traverse, Dustin LindenSmith, Jerry Katz
Venue providers: Susan Hunter and John Siemans
Volunteers: Elizabeth van Dreunen (in charge of many details), Susan Zurawski (video taping), Janet Monckton (poster distribution)
Speakers, Artists: James Traverse, Dustin LindenSmith, Jody Myers, Maryse Thuot and Pierre Jutras, Joanna Bull.
MC: Jerry Katz
Summary of talks and events:
With about 40 people attending, Jerry Katz opened by welcoming all in attendance and thanking the venue providers and volunteers.
Jerry then described the structure of the gathering, which was as follows:
- Introduction to the gathering, by Jerry Katz.
- James Traverse speaks and engages “human knot” experiential activity.
- Dustin LindenSmith speaks and performs on the tenor sax.
- Chanting by three different people/groups in the following order: Jody Myers, Maryce Thuot and Pierre Jutras, Joanna Bull.
- Concluding words by Jerry Katz.
- Socialization and “snacksang.”
Introduction by Jerry Katz
I considered three questions: How does this group compare to other spiritual offerings in the area? What is satsang? What is nonduality?
I said that this group, this nonduality satsang, is not founded in any single tradition. Although we are not Buddhists, we are Buddhist friendly, and Christian friendly, Yoga friendly and friendly towards all wisdom traditions.
It was stated that nonduality satsang presents nonduality wherever it is found, whether in Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, Noetics Institute, Art of Living, the New Earth Institute, Deepak Chopra, science, surfing, psychology, or many other fields and traditions. We are an open group whose purpose is to bring nonduality to all people.
Satsang was described as the company of truth. In the West that means that people come into the company of others to consider their true nature or natural self. Typically there is a teacher who leads Western satsang, but many may serve that function and those people are not regarded as revered gurus to be placed on a pedestal. Besides considering your true nature, satsang means valuing that consideration and pursuing it through whatever methods and practices make sense to you.
Nonduality was said to mean non-separation, although most people understand nonduality to mean oneness and interconnectedness. The “truth” part of “company of truth” is known as nondual. Although many defnitions of nonduality could be given, nonduality is experiential; it has to be known, not merely defined. The purpose of this nonduality satsang is to provide several ways of experiencing nonduality.
James Traverse
My presentation was about functioning.
I began with the story of a homeowner who was having problems with his furnace during a very cold winter; the furnace was working somewhat yet he couldn’t get it to work properly – he called a furnace repair person who fixed the problem in 5 minutes and said that the cost for his services was $1000 – the homeowner asked for an itemized bill that the repairman presented… it read ‘adjusted screw on furnace – $1… knowing which screw to adjust $999′… the point of the story is that knowledge of functioning as ‘what works’ has its place…
- I followed this story with two other illustrations of functioning; one is the classic story of a person who is terrified of snakes who steps on a rope while crossing a tall grassy meadow in dim light – the person mistakes the rope for a snake and has a panic attack/heart attack… the point of this story is the question ‘what is functioning in this case?’ (I presented this as the question ‘How do you know what you know?’ )… obviously what is functioning in this case is thinking and the person’s actions, the functioning, is not based on the truth that what was encountered was a rope – rather what was function was thinking based on past memories, knowledge and experience – thus the story is an example of re-action rather than action (as example of action would be a child who knows nothing about snakes encountering the rope under the same circumstances – what functions in this case is ‘not knowing’ or the innocent Awareness of the child).
– the next illustration I offered was an optical illusion where I showed folks two objects that I held side-by-side and asked folks if they were the same… (the illusion is that one appears to be bigger than the other)… then I exchanged the places of the objects so that the one that was in my right hand was now in my left and vice versa; this switch also reversed the apparent relationship of the objects as the one that had appeared to be smaller before now seemed to be bigger… I pointed out that this was obviously an optical illusion which means that there was an illusion in the functioning; then I demonstrated that the two objects are actually the same size by placing one overtop the other – this made the illusion very clear and the answer to ‘How do you know what you know?’ in this latter case is Awareness as taking a closer look at the objects and comparing them by overlapping them (this illustration also demonstrated that one cannot trust the functioning of one’s brain and sense doors and mental conclusions based on deluded perceptions – it reveals that the only thing that can be trusted is innocent Awareness).
These illustrations were followed by two questions, first ‘Can your physical eye see itself?’ I allowed a time for the audience to ponder this and given the earlier question of ‘How do you know what you know?’ it was clear that this may not be a great question to explore… the second question ‘Can Awareness be aware of itself?’ evoked a comment from one audience member who spoke about subject-object relationship… my response was to clarify that if ‘I’ (a doer) am attempting to be aware and asking the question from this perspective, then yes there is the subject-object relationship, yet what I asked was ‘Can Awareness be aware of itself?’… and the experiential answer is that yes it can as it is self-evident… in this way Awareness is it’s own knowing – this is a tremendous understanding because this is what is called ‘enlightenment’…
My presentation finished with having folks explore an activity called a ‘human knot’ where folks join hands in a knotted way and then the task is to explore cooperation and interconnectivity as they untie the knot (only some folks were able to untie the knot yet everyone enjoyed the exploration and were able to experience the interconnectivity, cooperation and ‘not knowing’ involved).
In summary, my presentation was that there is a functioning that works (and other ways that do not) – the illustrations and demonstrations that I presented made it self-evident that ‘Standing as Awareness’ or ‘Remaining as Awareness’ is a way of functioning that sees things as they are (rather than seeing things through the lens of thought, memory, experience or any illusion-delusion) and that Awareness itself is such that ’seeing is doing’ (there is no doer – there is only awareness and its simultaneous action).
Dustin LindenSmith
Mostly what I said was how jazz was a music entrenched in the present moment by virtue of its focus on improvisation, on creating the music as you go, in the given moment. Whatever music is played by jazz musicians isn’t mapped out ahead of time, it’s always created in the moment, on the spur of the moment.
Re Coltrane, I gave his date of death as 1967 and explained how he was on a very intense spiritual quest with his music in the latter years of his life, playing completely free, avant-garde, non-traditional music which ached with self-exploration and newness. Nothing like it had been played before, and he was explicitly trying to attain self-realization by reaching for the farthest possible limits of the saxophone and of the traditional jazz music forms.
The selection I played was from one of his latest recordings before undertaking this quest in a way that was noticeable on his albums: this tune was called Lonnie’s Lament, and it was recorded in 1961, I believe. I followed that piece with a short saxophone interpretation of the gayatri mantra as I remember it sung by the local yoga teacher, Duncan Baine.
Chanting
Chanting was led by the following people in the order of their presentation: Jody Myers, Maryse Thuot and Pierre Jutras, Joanna Bull. Not much can be put into words other than to say that the hour of chanting was intimate and moving and communicated nonduality.
Conclusion
Following the chanting, Jerry Katz came forth and it was clear that there was nothing else to say. We rested in silence as the answer to any questions anyone might have. It seemed appropriate to express gratitude. A few words were spoken about how gratitude is a great practice, gratitude for everything, gratitude for forgetting to give gratitude, for everything, not just for one’s perceived blessings in life.
Several people in the audience were introduced and they spoke of their involvement in the spirituality/arts community. If you attended, and would like your contact information included, let us know. People who came forth were
Joanna Bull: artoflivinghfx@accesscable.net Friday evening chanting.
Terry Choyce: spiritualseekers.ca
Mandee Labelle: yogaheart.ca Yogaheart Radio airs on Wednesdays between 1:30 and 3:30 pm on CKDU 88.1 fm
Jody Myers – Atlantic Yoga Teacher Training www.aytt.ca/
Navjeet: 108yoga.ca Kirtan for new yoga studio: 108 Yoga in the lower atrium Brewery Market – Friday, May 8, between 7and 9 PM
Maryse Thuot and Pierre Jutras – Yogic Transformation www.yogictranceformation.net
Elizabeth van Dreunen: InnerAlchemyStudio.com
As well, the organizers mentioned their offerings:
James Traverse: beingyoga.com
Dustin LindenSmith: Plays with the group 2×2, and its next performance is Sat May 23rd at the Cole Harbour Library at 2 PM. Following that, we’ll be at the Jazz Festival, date and location TBA. lindensmith.com/music and jazzeast.com
Jerry Katz: nonduality.ca and nonduality.com.
Snacksang
We then spent an hour enjoying snacks, juice, and each other’s company.
Our Next Event
We are planning another Nonduality Satsang on July 25, 2009, however it still has to be confirmed. Let us know if you’ll be in Halifax!
“If nonduality is so wonderful, why do I still feel pain?”
May 12, 2009How is nonduality going to help you if you are tied down and being tortured?
That was asked by someone who has read scores of nonduality books.
The question is another stressful thought. If you don’t understand what stressful thought is, then what good were all the books you read about nonduality?
Notes on a Talk by Ani Pema Chodron
May 5, 2009I saw Pema Chodron speak the other night. It was a fund raising event for Gampo Abbey. Here are notes I took.
The following description is from www.pemachodronfoundation.org/gampo-abbey/
“Gampo Abbey is a Western Buddhist Monastery in the Shambhala Tradition, Nova Scotia, Canada. Founded by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche in 1984, it is an affiliate of the Vajradhatu Buddhist Church of Canada and Shambhala International. Under the spiritual direction of the Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, the spiritual head of Shambhala International, Gampo Abbey is guided by our abbot the Venerable Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche and our principal teacher Acharya Pema Chödrön.”
Cultivating wakefulness, fearlessness and gentleness: Monasticism in the 21st century: a public talk with Ani Pema Chödrön given in Halifax, Nova Scotia, May 1, 2009.
Notes on the talk, by Jerry Katz
Video Slideshow
Before Pema Chodron came onto the stage there was a ten minute slideshow narrated by her. It may be watched here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID5GSnmCNOA
Here are quotations from the slideshow:
“One could ask, ‘Why would someone choose to live at Gampo Abbey?’ It is a popular notion that people choose to live in a monastery to escape or hide from the world. In reality, the intensity and simplicity of Abbey life demand that we become more intimately involved with life, a life not driven by personal concerns and habitual patterns. The intensity of community life lived passionately and courageously in accordance with the precepts, demands that we wake up. At first, life at the Abbey seems rather idyllic, but when you make the commitment to stay for six months or when you decide that this is your life’s journey, then all those places within yourself that you don’t want to surrender become highlighted. One might want to relate to those areas in a habitual way and complain about a lot of things, but it is like complaining in a house of mirrors.”
“All who live at the Abbey live by the five Buddhist precepts: Refraining from taking life, refraining from stealing, refraining from sexual activity, refraining from lying, and refraining from intoxicants, and in general using all that arises in our lives as the path of awakening.”
“In the words of one of the nuns, ‘Abbey life has a certain simplicity and unclutteredness that makes one’s personal resistance all the more apparent and therefore all the more workable.’”
“If you become a monk or a nun you put the desire to wake up at the center of your mandala. Everything else, whatever it may be, stands in relation to that and becomes a vehicle for opening up further. Thus monastic life is actually an opportunity to make full use of your precious human birth… .”
Pema Chodron’s Introduction
We were instructed to stand up when a gong rang, and in such a way we greeted Pema Chodron as she took the stage. We all stood.
The introducer said suffering is clinging to self. Cessation is possible with insight into who and what we are. Ignorance of these truths is avoidance of liberation. He said the purpose of Buddhism is to face the questions, What causes suffering? and What causes freedom? He said Pema Chodron is a great teacher of the truths of Buddhism, known for her humility, and that he was in awe of her, upon which she gave a funny smile which got people laughing.
Pema Chodron’s talk
Listen to the teaching with the intention that you’ll hear something that will benefit you in benefitting others.
[I have not included much that was repetition of the quotations above taken from the slideshow of Gampo Abbey.]
Aspirants at the monastery are to create a mini enlightened society. Life there is like a container with reminders of sanity. If we can’t create enlightened society here at the monastery, how can we judge governments and other groups that go astray? The kick in the butt aspirants give each other is based on that demand.
There is a program for young people at the monastery which sets “a beautiful tone” for their lives.
Wakefulness: commitment to yourself to connect with your Buddha nature. Buddha nature is being awake. Opening your mind and heart to everything you encounter, even that which is unpleasant and stressful, and not faking that opening up. Be open to the experience without the story line coming into play. Opening your mind means you don’t close your mind. Keep your mind and heart open to the beauty and pain of the day. Wakefulness is learning what it means to keep open. You discover the potential for openness and bravery, and you also discover how entrapment works. Practice involves being as present as possible with rawness and harshness and letting it be without feeding it a story line.
Entrapment starts with the arising of a feeling, then a habitual pattern starts and that’s when you’ve bitten the hook and you become more entrapped.
We can choose wakefulness or habit. Wakefulness is not about rejecting one part of experience and accepting another. It is about staying present with rawness longer than before.
Try to stay present. She told the story (originally told by Tara Brach in one of her books) of a tiger in a small cage. It took many years to get funding to build a large space for the tiger’s housing. When the large space was completed, the tiger was released into it, however it would confine it’s place to the same dimensions as the small cage. We, too, are constricted by habit when around us is vast space and capacity. Due to our hurts we remain confined and fearful to move. Eventually the tiger did explore it’s new surroundings.
The movie the Truman Show is similar in that it shows how we can walk beyond the boundaries of our habitual patterns.
Commit to becoming intimate to your wakeful nature.
As you leave Halifax and go north toward the monastery, everything gets more spread, vast, and in that way, like the vast space given to the tiger, wakefulness is encouraged.
Connect with the vastness of heart and mind. It is always accessible.
Fearlessness: Open to fear itself. Stay with anger and fear and find the tenderness of sadness. You don’t that by discarding fear. Fear is the gateway to fearlessness. Stay open to all strong emotions and find the tenderness. It hurts. You need role models and encouragement. “Turn towards that which hurts.” It is not a matter of wallowing in misery. It gives birth to love, smiles, listening, tenderness, and the realization that everyone has this capacity. “What you do that bothers me is what I do that bothers you.” Train to keep yourself open even a minute longer than before.
Gentleness: Place the fearful mind in the cradle of loving kindness. She spoke of the monastery again. The material you work with is what comes up every day. At the monastery, everyone is working to promote and cultivate sanity. They’re always developing deep training for everyone. It is an ongoing process and doesn’t stop.
On wearing Buddhist robes: The robes make you feel self-conscious. You have to be genuine. You have to live up to the robes through wakefulness, fearlessness, and gentleness. “It is a powerful and wonderful path.”
This is a pep talk for people with a gap in their life, of all ages.
Questions and Answers
A question by someone in the audience had to do with having confidence in the permanent. Pema Chodron said the permanent is not some thing. It is the capacity to be awake. Think of it as awakening or as something you know. For example, you get mad and then you calm down. The calming down is the wakefulness. When you wake up from a habitual pattern, there it is. It’s like the sky. It’s not yours. What’s yours is the bubble, the pacing of the tiger in the confined area, the strategies of living. All that is illusion and a gateway to discovery of wakefulness.
A question was asked about doing service in a disadvantage part of the world versus meditating at the monastery. The questioner thought it would be more valuable to do service in the world helping people. The response from Pema Chodron was that if you work on wakefulness, fearlessness, and gentleness, it will help you help others. You can stay right here and face the suffering. If you go away to help others and aren’t awake yourself, you won’t be able to benefit the others. She said people would rather travel around the world to face suffering rather than stay at home with their families.
There was a question about receiving criticism at work. Pema Chodron asked what the questioner’s habitual response was to criticism. She said anger, getting upset, gossiping. PC said that for one day do not express anger. In that way you learn to communicate from the heart. This is Buddha nature. You come to see the soft spot in another person’s cruelty.
How do you know when you’re ready for the monastery? You apply and are screened. Apply and see where the process goes. There has to be the right fit.
One: Essential Writings in Nonduality – a review
April 29, 2009
This review is reprinted from ChristianNonduality.com.
It has been a little more than a decade since my life was graced with two new friends, Thomas and Cynthia Lynch, who were introduced to me through the courtesy of Leonard Swidler, co-founder of the Journal of Ecumenical Studies. The Lynches came bearing a book that has been instrumental in forming my ecumenical outlook, The Word of the Light (Hara Publishing: 1998). This book gifts us all with a scientific, scholarly treatment that uses the Gospel of Thomas as a hermeneutical lens (a clean lens that is unblemished by religious or secular politics) through which to interpret the Light found in the fundamental writings of all of the great traditions, the wisdom that is indubitably common to Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam.
Mohandus Ghandi’s grandson, Arun, wrote: “Dr. Thomas D. and Cynthia E. Lynch have endeavored to show humankind the oneness of all religions of the world. I know this scholarship will not be wasted. It will takes us a step nearer the realization that faith, like the sun, enlightens and enriches everyone equally.”
Now, certainly, The Word of the Light was not the only scholarly vehicle around for engaging such ecumenical impulses. The reason it still stands out is that it was structured in such a way that holistically engaged its reader — empirically, logically, practically and interrelationally, which is to suggest that it not only engaged the head but also the heart, that it not only invited one’s assent but also initiated the willing into the unitive experience, meditatively. Thus the book was friendly, accessible, practical and an awakening experience — an awakening to our solidarity that compassion might naturally ensue.
Books like The Word of the Light do not come along very often, but, a decade later, humankind has been gifted again by Jerry Katz of the Nonduality Salon (an Internet community), also in the form of an eminently accessible and practical book, One: Essential Writings on Nonduality (Sentient Publications: 2007). It, too, orients one to an awakening to our radical solidarity and an experience of profound compassion. The book, as a paragon of the way anyone might approach nonduality, which is to say without either a rigid metaphysical or religious dogmatism but with an eminently eclectic perspective regarding both its cultural manifestations and practical applications, leaves one with the initial impression that it is just a tasty morsel suggestive of what could be a bountiful banquet if only Katz and similar-minded authors would keep writing and writing and writing. He makes clear that it is a brief, even if comprehensive survey. If one pays careful attention, though, the more lingering impression Katz would leave us with is how bountiful the harvest of compassion could truly be if each of us would only set out on the path of desire for nondual realization.
From lurking at Nonduality Salon and reading One, I have gathered the clear impression that nonduality is being approached with great circumspection, which is to say, with both appropriate epistemic imprecision and ontological vagueness, as necessarily inheres in the matter at hand. That’s the first clue that one will not be engaging a facile treatment, superficial apologetic or hidden agenda, much less any type of hermeneutical axe to grind. Rather, the book seems to invite the reader’s engagement on the same terms as any good poem, which is to say, as a gift to be opened by the reader, herself.
This review should be easy enough in that I have inked up so many of its pages, paragraph by paragraph. However, to overread my own interpretation into these writings would, in some sense, equate to a taking of the gift that it can be for you. What I would like to do, instead, is to provide a hermeneutical framework for the Christians, who might engage this book, and maybe for Westerners, in general, also.
There is a real tendency for Western minds, in general, Christian minds, in particular, to engage the thought of the East from an ontological or metaphysical perspective. Now, I’m not going to deny that there might even be some heavy metaphysical lifting going on in much of Eastern thought, for that denial, in and of itself, would entail falling into the trap that I am trying to help you avoid. So, just imagine, if you will, when you read the wisdom gathered on the pages of One, that it is not so much trying to gift you with another way of interpreting or processing reality as it is trying to invite you to another way of seeing or experiencing reality.
Put another way, it is not so much an exercise in discursive analysis as it is a cultivation of a more authentic awareness. It does not promote cognitive insight as much as it promotes conceptual clarity with a concomitant affective cleansing, which will result from ensuing detachments (broadly conceived). To the extent you do encounter a passage that is metaphysically jarring, let me suggest that you just gently substitute images of interrelatedness and intimacy whenever you encounter something that otherwise implies an unnuanced identity. Let me also point out that there is WAY more nuance to be enjoyed than many might otherwise be able to see from any cursory reading that is immersed in an habitual dualistic mindset.
Let me suggest, now, in more philosophically rigorous language, receive what seem to be metaphysical assertions as epistemic stances or what seem to be ontological descriptions as more so a relating of phenomenal experiences. After all, there is no room to presume that folks — who, self-described, would kill the Buddha — are returning from ineffable experiences only to clearly effable about reality, or that they are telling us tales about, what they claim to hold in-principle as, untellable stories. Something else is going on, which is an invitation into an experience and not an initiation into a philosophical system.
In One, you will encounter real people with profound existential longings (comparing favorably to your own) and authentic phenomenal experiences that point to a deep interconnectedness of all Reality. This interrelatedness is ineluctably unobstrusive, which is why so few see it, but utterly efficacious, which is why all experience it, even unawares. Because we are dealing with phenomenal experiences and existential realizations and not, rather, philosophical arguments, category errors and confusion will abound for any critic who chooses to engage these writings through dualistic Cartesian lenses rather than, instead, engaging the wisdom that is there to be had, even in, maybe especially in, paradox and uncertainty. As Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM observes regarding so much of Buddhism, we are being gifted with practices and not conclusions. I would add that we are being gifted with stories of experiences of unitary reality and not ontologies.
One recurring theme, for example, is the triadic movement from 1) phenomenal appearances (illusions) through 2) interpretive critique (broadly conceived, such as lingustically, psychologically, etc) and back to 3) a new awareness (often an awareness of self and other that is so conventional and common sensical as to, ironically, be unconventional and uncommon, given so many of us succumb to the fogging of our lenses, save for occasional contemplative glimpses).
My favorite surprise was the story of Ohiyesa, a Native American known by the Anglicized name of Charles Alexander Eastman. Every tradition was enthralling and every personality engaging as Katz also surveyed nondual “confessions” from Advaita Vedanta, Sufism, Judaism, Taoism, Christianity and Buddhism, as well as perspectives from psychotherapy, education, art and cinema. There are comprehensive notes and citations.
In reflecting on the writings of Bernadette Roberts as were presented in the book, which might be of special interest to those in my particular orbit, my only caveat is that one might best employ the same type of interpretive lenses for her account as I recommended for the other traditions. After significant reflection, my most generous interpretation would be that her experiences might correspond, generally, to what theologians have distinguished as primary and secondary objects of our beatific visions and further distinguished as essential (both subjective and objective) and accidental beatitudes, all which I would receive as epistemic stances and phenomenal experiences and not in terms of ontological conclusions. Absent a metaphysical glossary, these writings do not invite philosophical parsing, so one might otherwise more safely presume that they are a very generous gift in the form of a very depthful personal sharing that is some of the most poignantly beautiful (the pain was so very palpable and the Eucharistic oblation so very sincere) and poetic story-telling of one of the most profound nondual experiences (of tremendous existential import) ever to be related (quite courageously) within our modern Christian tradition.
Do yourself a favor and unwrap the gifts that are uniquely yours in One: Essential Writings on Nonduality.
Reprinted from ChristianNonduality.com.
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