Noumenon: A Review

[Guest guest]

A Review

~~~

The Noumenon Journal: Nondual Perspectives on

Transformation, is published and edited by Dr. Kriben

Pillay, in Wandsbeck, South Africa. (Ordering

information below, for those who wish to support

Pillay's work.)

The Summer 2001/2002 issue marks the 17th issue in 7

years. Website addresses relevant to each article are

given, making this publication easily expandable across

the internet.

The feature inquiry in the Summer 2001/2002 issue

concerns Transformation in the Workplace. Spiritual

teachers were presented the following question and

invited to respond:

"How do you perceive the practical role of spirituality

in the workplace, where such a spirituality would be a

radical transformation of the way we work, relate to

each other, and care for the environment?"

The following are selections from a few of the

responses:

Let Davidson: "Today's democratisation of consciousness

makes the workplace a legitimate -- and necessary --

domain of this awakening, and an opportunity to share

this experience with others."

David Deida: "To offer your most valuable presence to

others, discover your deepest purpose for being alive.

Know your reason for being in the room with your

colleagues. Stay in touch with your deep purpose as you

open without limits. Open and feel the earth below and

the sky above. Open and feel to your left and right and

front and back. Actually open your body as if you were

embracing the space around you as your lover. Feel all

others as if you were feeling into the caring heart of

your lover. Feel their deep heart from your deep

heart."

Jim Dreaver: "Presence is learned through heightened

mind/body awareness. As we breathe slowly and

consciously, relax our muscles, and bring our attention

out of our head, into our body, into an awareness of our

immediate environment, we find ourselves naturally more

alert and at ease in the present. Presence itself

becomes the source of our physical energy, charisma,

and confidence. It is the foundation upon which the

other skills stand. It is the key to seeing the facts of

any situation with clarity, to making the best

decisions, and to taking the right action."

Barry Long: "No can do. The question to me is

meaningless. Meaningless means intellectual.

Intellectual means entertaining the mind weed. A

'spiritual' question with 'we' in it is an avoidance of

the only truth. The only truth begins with 'I'. Before

any real enduring transformation of the outer can take

place, 'I' must address rightly, and dissolve rightly ,

the mental clutter and emotional clamor in my self. I

do this with intelligence. It is not intelligent in

living or endeavouring to live the divine life to be

concerned about we. I, once purified of the notion of

self -- self-will, self-doubt, self-certainty,

self-love, self-consideration -- disappears into an

intelligence beyond the understanding and comprehension

of those concerned with we."

Rob Rabbin: "Searching for new techniques and strategies

to run our businesses more profitably is too narrow a

focus. Expanding our focus to take in the world, we

need instead to become more fully human. Then, with our

humanity leading the way, we will know how to act

properly and avoid disaster -- both in the world and in

our business."

Krishnamurti is quoted: "Now, what is it that makes us

dull? Is it the work itself? Or is it our resistance to

work, or our avoidance of other impacts upon us?" ...

....does action, work, make the mind dull? Or is the mind

made dull by avoidance, by conflict, by resistance that

dulls the mind? If you have no resistance and accept

work, what happens?"

~~~

Jan Kersschot introduces his book, Coming Home,

interviews with eight spiritual teachers. Part of the

interview with Douglas Harding is included.

Sample: Kersschot asks, "Is discovering this seeing more

about becoming ordinary instead of being special?"

Harding replies: "It makes you more ordinary than

special. You don't feel special. I think this is very

important because this seeing has nothing to do with a

guru and disciples. I do not behave like that because I

don't feel like that. When you really see who you

really are, you see you are No-thing, and so you are not

superior. The fact that you wish to celebrate it, and

share it with friends, that is your privilege. But it

doesn't mean that other people aren't there; they are

all in a certain sense enlightened. They are just

ignorant about their own enlightenment. So you can't

feel superior. It is very democratic, this vision."

~~~

The War on Paper is psychotherapist Patricia A. Burke's

telling of a workshop encounter with Byron Katie: "So

there it is, my own violence toward me, toward this

thing on my eyelid I call 'not me'. And it is my

violence toward the whole world. Good reason to give it

up, so I turn it around. It's my thinking that is ugly,

grotesque, terrible. I feel the suffering of my

attachment to this story. Can I meet it with

understanding? ... Who would I be if I never had the

thought that this white fatty deposit is ugly,

separate, terrible and I'm supposed to get rid of it? Am

I the Nazi, the Palestinian terrorist, the Israeli man

in the audience, a woman with a blemish on her face?

Without the story, I am all of these and none of these.

I am simply peace sitting in this chair."

~~~

Dialogue with Stanley Sobottka, is an e-mail interview

by Ivan Frimmel about Sobottka's Course in

Consciousness. Frimmel asks a number of in-depth,

lengthy questions that come from a thinking, conceptual

space, to which Sobattka would appear to be replying

from the disposition of direct seeing. Following one

such lengthy question taking 30 lines of text, Sobattka

simply replies, "As I said above, the best answer is to

'see' that you are pure Awareness and that this is

unchanging."

Sobottka is often, but not always, so spare in his use

of words in this interview, nor is he trying to avoid

answering. He responds generously throughout this

interview. As well, he says, "I am always open to

questions about the course from my readers, and will

respond promptly." This reviewer can confirm that.

Access The Course in Consciousness at

<http://faculty.virginia.edu/consciousness/>. New

material is added frequently and it has been updated in

the last few days with a section on meditation. This

interview in Noumenon could be considered supplemental

to the Course.

~~~

The final article is What is Enlightenment?, by Dr.

Nitin Trasi, M.D. It is a presentation from the book,

The Science of Enlightenment, given structure by an

abstract, an introduction, a list of main points which

are elaborated, a results section, a conclusion, and

notes and references. An excerpt:

"To be precise, Enlightenment is the loss of the

delusion of the 'me', not the 'me' itself. Let us be

clear about this. The 'me' is an appearance -- like the

circle produced by a whirling torch. It is not entirely

an illusion (like a hallucination) because the

appearance does exist. But it is a relative reality --

transient and ever-changing. The delusion consists in

believing it to be more real than it is -- believing it

to be an entity by itself, a homunculus, or even a

'soul' inhabiting the body -- and identifying with it."

Between the opening story of Paul Brunton's encounter

with Ramana, and a closing quote from a John Lennon

lyric, Dr. Trasi considers what enlightenment is, as

thoroughly as seven pages of text would allow.

~~~

The last part of this issue of Noumenon is dedicated to

a dozen book reviews. Shirley Bell's review of Ken

Wilber's Integral Psychology: Consciousness, Spirit,

Psychology, Therapy, occupies ten pages of text and

provides a number of handles for the reader seeking to

grasp facet's of Wilber's thought.

Also in the book review section are generous excerpts

from two books which are introductions to emerging

teachers in the West: Dialogues With Emerging Spiritual

Teachers, by John W. Parker, and The Awakening West:

Evidence of a Spreading Enlightenment, by Lynn Marie

Lumiere and John Lumiere-Wins.

~~~

The full edition of Noumenon is available only in hard

copy at $10 U.S. per year. Along with Meditation Society

of America's Inner Traveler and Andrew Cohen's What

Is

Enlightenment?, it makes up the Big Three English

language hard copy publications grounded in a nondual

perspective and embracing a variety of backgrounds, of

which I am aware.

You may order Noumenon at the following web page:

<http://users.iafrica.com/n/no/noumenon/page6.html>,

where there are links to past issues. Or email Kriben

Pillay at <noumenon (AT) iafrica (DOT) com>.

--Jerry Katz

jerry (AT) nonduality (DOT) com