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nonduality
Leo Hartong, Part 1
I'm reading for the first time a classic text of modern-day nonduality from 2001 called Awakening to the Dream: The Gift of Lucid Living by Leo Hartong. I'm not completely sure exactly where he fits into the nonduality family tree with folks like John Wheeler, Tony Parsons, Nathan Gill, Bob Adamson, and Wayne Liquorman, but he's in there somewhere. Our friend Jerry Katz reviewed the book early in its life and predicted it to become a classic. It's so incredibly well-written and easy to understand that it's easy to see why he thought that. (Incidentally, Gilbert Schultz's podcast Urban Guru Café has an episode featuring Leo here.)
I thought I might post a number of what I think are the most lucid excerpts from the book as I go through it. Here's the first one, from an early chapter on page 28:Instead of directly seeing what is, the seeker continues to wait for a future event of enlightenment, not admitting that he's already - and always has been - home. He often tries to anticipate what it would be like to reach a total and final understanding in which God and the universe reveal their secrets. In doing so he overlooks the fact that his mind is both part of and appearing in this universe and, thus, is not qualified to comprehend it.
The preceding forms a key part of Hartong's thesis for the book, and I find it to be a pretty fundamental tenet of basic advaita and nonduality. It expresses that there is but one. All is one, and whatever we perceive as the separate personality in ourselves that needs to become enlightened is, in fact, still part of the same "one." So to "think" that there's "someone" requiring "enlightenment" is in fact a false proposition. He continues:Giving up one's expectations in favor of a willingness to simply accept what is may create a vacuum filled with surprising alternatives. For instance, it might be recognized that finding does not come from seeking, but that it may be revealed through giving up the search; that it is not something to see, but the seeing itself; that cherished beliefs might be unmasked as conceptual obstacles, and spiritual practices may turn out to be a way of avoiding a direct seeing into the heart of the matter.
Whoa!!! Hello! Way to knock us off our self-aggrandized perches as "spiritual aspirants," Leo! He moves towards wrapping up this sentiment as follows:This direct seeing exposes the illusion of a separate seeker who can arrive at 'destination enlightenment' somewhere in the future. Consequently, the seeking and the seeker are both annihilated in the realization that he is already home.
To the exhausted seeker I would like to say, 'Drop the search and drop your concepts. Stop looking for your ass. Just sit down and relax.' Letting go of your preconceived notions could suddenly shift your attention from the far-off horizon at which you gaze in anticipation of a grand and extraordinary event and reveal the wonder that exists right in front of, behind, and in your own eyes.
Nice wrap up to some good old, present-moment mindfulness right there. The book continues to go deeper from there. I'll post some more excerpts from it as I go along. I'd also love to hear if this resonates with anybody, and/or if it frames nonduality in a clearer way for you than you might have heard in the past. I just find Hartong so clear and easy to understand when I read him, it drastically simplifies the whole notion of nonduality for me.
I thought I might post a number of what I think are the most lucid excerpts from the book as I go through it. Here's the first one, from an early chapter on page 28:Instead of directly seeing what is, the seeker continues to wait for a future event of enlightenment, not admitting that he's already - and always has been - home. He often tries to anticipate what it would be like to reach a total and final understanding in which God and the universe reveal their secrets. In doing so he overlooks the fact that his mind is both part of and appearing in this universe and, thus, is not qualified to comprehend it.
The preceding forms a key part of Hartong's thesis for the book, and I find it to be a pretty fundamental tenet of basic advaita and nonduality. It expresses that there is but one. All is one, and whatever we perceive as the separate personality in ourselves that needs to become enlightened is, in fact, still part of the same "one." So to "think" that there's "someone" requiring "enlightenment" is in fact a false proposition. He continues:Giving up one's expectations in favor of a willingness to simply accept what is may create a vacuum filled with surprising alternatives. For instance, it might be recognized that finding does not come from seeking, but that it may be revealed through giving up the search; that it is not something to see, but the seeing itself; that cherished beliefs might be unmasked as conceptual obstacles, and spiritual practices may turn out to be a way of avoiding a direct seeing into the heart of the matter.
Whoa!!! Hello! Way to knock us off our self-aggrandized perches as "spiritual aspirants," Leo! He moves towards wrapping up this sentiment as follows:This direct seeing exposes the illusion of a separate seeker who can arrive at 'destination enlightenment' somewhere in the future. Consequently, the seeking and the seeker are both annihilated in the realization that he is already home.
To the exhausted seeker I would like to say, 'Drop the search and drop your concepts. Stop looking for your ass. Just sit down and relax.' Letting go of your preconceived notions could suddenly shift your attention from the far-off horizon at which you gaze in anticipation of a grand and extraordinary event and reveal the wonder that exists right in front of, behind, and in your own eyes.
Nice wrap up to some good old, present-moment mindfulness right there. The book continues to go deeper from there. I'll post some more excerpts from it as I go along. I'd also love to hear if this resonates with anybody, and/or if it frames nonduality in a clearer way for you than you might have heard in the past. I just find Hartong so clear and easy to understand when I read him, it drastically simplifies the whole notion of nonduality for me.