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Non-Duality Chapters start-13 15/2/11 10:04 Page 1 Conversations on Non-Duality Non-Duality Chapters start-13 15/2/11 10:04 Page 2 ‘Conversations on Non-Duality: Twenty Six Awakenings’ first published in Great Britain in 2011 by Cherry Red Books (a division of Cherry Red Records Ltd), Power Road Studios, 114 Power Road, Chiswick, London W4 5PY Copyright © Conscious TV 2011 ISBN: 978 1 901447 67 5 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. Design by Dave Johnson Cover by Errol Fuller Printed in the UK. Non-Duality Chapters start-13 15/2/11 10:04 Page 3 Conversations on Non-Duality TWENTY-SIX AWAKENINGS Edited by Eleonora Gilbert CHERRY RED BOOKS Non-Duality Chapters start-13 15/2/11 10:04 Page 4 Table of Contents INTRODUCTIONS BY: Iain McNay . 6 Eleonora Gilbert . 8 Conscious.tv – the idea . 9 INTERVIEWS: Richard Sylvester I Hope You Die Soon . 13 Jeff Foster Life Without A Centre . 27 Roger Linden The Elusive Obvious . 41 Rupert Spira The Transparency of Things, Parts 1 & 2 . 53 Halina Pytlasinska Non-Duality . 70 Catherine Noyce The Experience of Non-Duality . 82 Tony Parsons The Open Secret . 94 Richard Lang Seeing Who You Really Are . 110 David Bingham Non-Dual Pointing, Parts 1 & 2 . 125 Genpo Roshi Path of the Human Being . 153 Mandi Solk The Joy of No Self . 171 Pamela Wilson Loving Mystery . 184 Florian Schlosser Meeting Truth . 198 Mooji Before I Am . 219 Non-Duality Chapters start-13 15/2/11 10:04 Page 5 Daniel Brown The Great Way . 234 Francis Lucille The Art of Not Expecting . 250 Gangaji The End of the Story . 261 Bernie Prior Spiritual Human Evolution . 276 Steve Ford An Invitation To Being . 290 Peter Fenner Awakening Unconditioned Awareness . 302 Wayne Liquorman Never Mind . 314 Katie Davis Awake Joy . 328 Sundance Burke Free Spirit . 341 Jac O’Keeffe Born To Be Free . 353 Suzanne Foxton No Body In Particular . 370 James Swartz How To Attain Enlightenment . 385 Useful websites . 402 Audio downloads . 403 Non-Duality Chapters start-13 15/2/11 10:04 Page 6 Introduction by Iain McNay I am sure that virtually everyone drawn to this book can remember the first time they realised that life was not quite what it seemed: that reality didn’t actually appear to be the way it was presented by everyone else. For some of us this will have been a gradual process; for others a significant event or an experience, or a realisation that challenged what we had been taught to believe. This can be exciting, but it can also be frightening, even quite terrifying. Structures fall away, beliefs are no longer credible and life is experienced in a radically different way. This book is made up of a series of interviews on Non-Duality made for Conscious.TV over a two year period between 2007 and 2009. They are presented in the order in which they were conducted. Either I or my wife Renate did all the interviews, and it was a quite fascinating process for both for us. We started with Jeff Foster and Richard Sylvester one Wednesday afternoon, and were not necessarily planning any more on this subject. But then we begun to receive some very positive feedback: there was obviously a hunger for more of the same and as we were also very interested in Non- Duality, we gradually added to the category. During the course of these interviews we have met some fascinating people and have learnt and experienced a lot. The idea of a book came up subsequently, and our friend and fellow Conscious.TV volunteer Eleonora has developed the idea to this, its final realisation. Many thanks to her for her sterling work, this book would never have happened without her. Renate and I were always interested in making the most of the interviews. We wanted to get to know the interviewees as people, as much as possible, as well as finding out about the state they were living in. We weren’t really interested in theories and always tried to steer away from that wherever possible. We were primarily interested in how they experienced their life, what it was like to be them, and then in conveying that as accessibly as possible for others to hear. Everyone has a ‘story’ which, though part of the picture, isn’t fundamentally who they are, and we didn’t want to ignore either perspective. Conscious.TV is an ongoing adventure for Renate, Eleonora and myself. Maybe there will be another volume of transcripts in the future; we will have to see the response to this one first. Meanwhile, may you enjoy the book! We got so much out of doing these interviews, and we hope you will too in reading them. Iain McNay Oxfordshire, UK 2011 6 Non-Duality Chapters start-13 15/2/11 10:04 Page 7 Renate and Iain Non-Duality Chapters start-13 15/2/11 10:04 Page 8 A word from the editor, Eleonora Gilbert In Stephen Levine’s book Embracing the Beloved he writes: “The only service you can do for anyone is remind them of their true heart.” The interviews set out in this book are very much about this service. Reminding us all of what our true heart is, of what we truly are and helping us to know intimately that That, which is reading these words, is what we have been searching for. The process of putting this book together, reading the manuscript many times over and absorbing the gems present in each chapter, has demystified the many ideas I have collected along my spiritual path about what enlightenment is. It has taken me deeper into the understanding of the nature of all things and has left me in awe of this constant, unstoppable, dynamic and creative force manifesting through everything. Enlightenment is not the end point, and the realisation of this enables me to live not in hope for a better ‘me’, one-day-when-I-will-be-enlightened, but to fully embrace what arises right here, right now, moment by moment and most of all just to own my ‘humanity’. The production of this book is a true labour of love. It has taken the skills, love and personal interest of many people. I particularly want to thank the transcribers Craig Hindmarsh, Frances Phillips, Kate Crosby and Lisa Morgan- Davies. Many thanks to Rose Youd for her proofreading and expert advice which went beyond the call of duty and also to Errol Fuller and Nick Owen for all the help freely offered throughout this project. Eleonora Gilbert Buckinghamshire, UK 2011 8 Non-Duality Chapters start-13 15/2/11 10:04 Page 9 Conscious.tv – the idea It was approaching midnight on the 31st December 2006. My wife Renate and I were celebrating New Year’s Eve on the island of La Gomera, in the Canary Islands. As usual, she was drinking champagne and I was sipping my glass of mineral water. I had recently reached my 60th birthday and we were having a lively discussion about the things that we hadn’t yet done in our lives that we would still like to do. “It would be great to have a TV station,” I pronounced. “I could combine all my interests: consciousness, football, music, hiking, make some new programmes and broadcast some existing ones. We can get literally hundreds of channels on our TV at home and they are nearly all rubbish. I am sure I can do much better than that,” I declared. It was of course true that I had no experience in television at all but on the other hand I had built a successful record label and music publishing company and I had never known anything about music. I couldn’t play any musical instruments and certainly couldn't read music. But I knew what I liked and trusted my instincts. I had hired good people to work for me. I had learnt that if I couldn’t do something then I had to find someone good who could complement me. “It can’t be that hard to make decent, interesting television programmes” I added. I thought about it some more. “I could easily come up with plenty of programmes. I could start a satellite channel in the UK, I am sure people would watch it.” The mineral water was beginning to talk enthusiastically. The next day we hiked into the hills behind the hotel where we were staying. Something was definitely brewing in me. The more I thought about the idea, the more I liked it. Soon after we arrived back in England I made some enquires and discovered that to start a proper Satellite channel was going to cost getting on for £500,000 a year and that was just to rent the satellite space and the programme listing space. It didn't include the cost of making any programme, or the overhead costs.