For Those with Little Dust: Pointers on the Teachings of Ramana Maharshi

Rating:
Summary: A must read!
Review: All too often we find ourselves caught up in the "path" (practice, dogma, doctrine, etc.) to enlightenment rather than the awakening itself. This book cuts through all that and gives a "simple" (it is possible to awaken but not probable - no pill yet!) formula for attaining the awakening.
One of my favorite quotes from the book is, "All is merely pure thought, nothingness, a little of one's own thought wearing the mask of reality."
What of the "path?" - There is no "path!"

For a more "complete" discussion of this type of "path", I highly recommend "I Am That: Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj." ...

Rating:
Summary: Radical Book, Radical Man
Review: I devoured this book. I believe Stephen Jourdain to be truly enlightened ; this word seems so cheap sometimes and so many books claim to come from enlightened beings. What truly fascinated me is how personable and passionately alive SJ is. Great masters have explained that when you renounce (or lose) your individuality you truly find what makes you unique. This is what this book will reveal to you : the intensity of love, the delightful pleasure of living together with the knowledge and awareness. This book will make enlightenment closer to your heart I believe. And very funny too.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: I loved this book. I wish SJ would write another one. Call it...Radical Awakening II.

Mr. Jourdain was born with his entire body/mind already wired to awaken. It was only a matter of time and it just so happened at the age of 16 for him. The book doesn't teach you how to awaken but you can surely get glimpes of "how to" for yourself just from just from reading it.

I don't totally understand why Mr Jourdain smokes 3 packs of cigs a day, because it is sort of stupid to do so. They say that he is in excellent health, but from his picture on the back of the book, it sure doesn't look like he's in excellent health, i.e, his skin and all.

A little difficult to read a first, but ever so interesting and enlightening!

Highly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: I loved this book. I wish SJ would write another one. Call it...Radical Awakening II.

Mr. Jourdain was born with his entire body/mind already wired to awaken. It was only a matter of time and it just so happened at the age of 16 for him. The book doesn't teach you how to awaken but you can surely get glimpes of "how to" for yourself just from just from reading it.

I don't totally understand why Mr Jourdain smokes 3 packs of cigs a day, because it is sort of stupid to do so. They say that he is in excellent health, but from his picture on the back of the book, it sure doesn't look like he's in excellent health, i.e, his skin and all.

A little difficult to read a first, but ever so interesting and enlightening!

Highly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: not clear enough
Review: If you are looking for a story of a man who got what you don't seem to have, you may more or less enjoy this book. It will keep Liberation at a safe distance: only for the few "awakened ones" and not (yet) for you, the reader.
If you really want to know what true awakening is, you'd better read Tony Parson's book "As It Is". Or a book from Steven Harrison, Chuck Hillig, Nathan Gill or Douglas Harding.
I liked the title "my name is nobody" on page 151, but I am disappointed the whole enlightenment issue is personalised. For example, he claims to be awakened (p.65). A lot of readers may be confused about that. Liberation has nothing to do with a person, and even less with perfection or holiness (as is suggested in a lot of books from the East). Although I am sure meeting Stephen is very interesting, inspiring and maybe exiting, keep your head clear about this.
Remember: awakening has nothing to do with me or Stephen or Tony or Douglas, it is about That which we all share. If you can keep that in mind, it is OK to read Stephen Jourdain's book. Or to go and see him.

Jan Kersschot, author of "Nobody Home"

Rating:
Summary: enjoyable but...
Review: mr jourdain is another of that rare breed who see beyond what the rest of us are capable of seeing. awake! he sees beyond the poor shadows and ego games we take as real life and a real world. he knows how to be still and know I AM. this is an interesting book of conversations with a very rare bird indeed. in my humble judgement i rate jourdain with the likes of david hawkins and jed mckenna, but probably still short of ramana maharshi and nisargadatta maharaj and a few, very few, others. i notice these great ones generally tell us seeking is futile, there's no "place" we should go and there's nothing we need "do." they hold rank on me and i can't argue but i always notice that they themselves were extremely driven "seekers" before the great awakening came. things that make you say, "hmmm"...a very interesting read this book is, about a very interesting fellow. for myself, though, i think i'll just keep right on knocking to open, asking to be given, seeking to find.....

Rating:
Summary: No thoughts
Review: Steven Jourdain is so unique that nothing he says in this book can possibly help you. He is not on the same mental plane as we are. Not one atom of thought subsists in this man; therefore his intelligence, is unimaginable.

At best this book is very interesting interview between two people, one of which is awakened. There are no how-to's or 'hints' on how-to awaken.

Reading this book will only make you wish you were him!

Rating:
Summary: Remember, you pretend to believe.
Review: This is a very useful book. I found the dialog with Stephen Jourdain authentic. I had an experience about a year ago that left me on one hand profoundly and ultimately changed, but on the other hand utterly the same. Hearing Stephen speak about what it is like to see the world from his awakened perspective gives clarity to many of the things I have been perceiving since then. I know that his descriptions are true not from an intellectual standpoint but from an experiential one. The most important thing Stephen said in the whole book (see pages 95 & 96) and the thing that helped me most to return to the world was this- "But--watch out--he pretends to believe because if he doesn't, reading becomes impossible." I had begun to forget how to read, Steve's warning helped me to return to the stage, but with a bucket of ice water poised carefully above my head just in case I get drowsy.
Thanks Steve.

Rating:
Summary: worthwhile reading
Review: This is a well structured conversation with Stephen Jourdain. Probably, the original conversation took place in French and then later translated into English. The translator used words which are not very common in American English conversations which forced me to use the dictionary. I had difficulty understanding what Stephen really intended at some very important places because of lack of clarity in translation or punctuation or correctness of expression or some other fault.

Nevertheless it is a special book. It is different from `As It Is' by Tony parsons or similar books which talk of pure Presence etc. Because the author does not have an established framework and vocabulary, the explanations are difficult to grasp completely. However there are brilliant presentations of awakening which may work as hints on how a seeker can approach to understand it.

However, the book lacks in establishing either the cause, preparation or a clear-cut path to this realization. There are some discrete ideas which are helpful. But, they may not form a complete guidance for a seeker.

Stephen has not given any Yes or No answers to Reincarnation, who will get this enlightenment, a path and other questions. We have to live with this ambiguity. At times the answers are contradictory.

Page 37:

SJ: "There is certainly a union of the subject and the object but they do not "Fuse", they do not disappear in some kind of undistinguishable magma. What's miraculous in these experiences is that, without in the least losing my identity, in legitimately remaining who I am, I become the table, the stove, or the mountain, or the entire landscape, which in turn, remains integrally itself." . . . . . ..

. . . . "The extraordinary thing is that two completely different things can be truly joined while each, at the same time, maintains its original nature."

The nature of an awakened is explained quite forcefully through out the book. The essays on `The Powers', `Practical Work' are very important and highly forceful. These present the nature of illusion and the solution in a very direct way. The thoughts are very profound (but at some places unclear) and one needs to read the essays in completion. I am quoting a few thoughts here.

Page 55 and 56:

SJ: " . . . . . . I'm talking about certain qualities of discernment that do not exist in the normal conscious state and which are the properties of the awakening. When the awakening presents itself, they take their place in the same way that the faculty of attention, the faculty of reasoning, etc., return automatically and instantly upon awakening in the morning."

GF: What are these faculties ?

SJ: "First and foremost, the discernment of a primordial thought springing forth directly from the spiritual essence. Therefore, it does not concern the thought that emanates from the usual psychological subject, but from the original thought preceding that. This thought does not gush from the faucet but from the spring itself which, as everyone knows, is the ultimate source of the faucet. This discernment is immensely important because it is what brings about the "disidentification". Following that is the conscious discernment of this combination called my "spirit" or my "inner life" as an image. The usual state of consciousness proceeds from the postulate that if I can create a mental image of my mother or of a tree, they're like little paintings hung in a room, yet the room is not an image, no more, infact, than I who produce all that. But the awakening brings the recognition of a primordial, mental imagery issuing directly from the source. In other words, the picture my own spirit has of itself is a presentation of nature full of images. There is not, of course, any kind of awareness of this in the state of normal sleep. The extraordinary thing is that doing away with that means doing away with "my spirit". Finally, I'll mention the discernment of the me as originally conceived, which can be declared as the mortal enemy of me in its integrity. The usual state of consciousness is "me degrading into a thought of me"."

Page 171:

"In order to reabsorb the hallucination, bring back what is only thought to the source of thought in such a way that it appears in its true mental nature, that is to say as nothingness, a first method would consist of making an attack at the very heart of the dream. The central rivet of the hallucination is nothing other than the absolute belief in myself in the act of producing a thought, of dreaming of this or that. Whether my thoughts are happy or sad, it would appear that I can't place the objective reality of the situation into doubt: I am there and I secrete an inner world, yet my mood swings, and I question myself about the existence of the awakening, about my chances of getting there or, quite simply, of boring myself silly; all that has no real existence. There's a paradox here: having no power over your own inner states, you endure them. You'd prefer not to worry anything while, at the same time, establishing that the generative thoughts of worry resist you. You can't easily chase them. Yet, that means that, while having the intuition that what you are is not reducible to your thoughts ("I worry" necessarily supposes the existence of an "I"), you confer on the latter the fact that they resist you, an objective status. In other words, the usual state of consciousness has the characteristic of an extraordinary madness: having the presentiment that at the center of myself there is only myself while at the same time, being certain of the presence at the center of myself of a not-me - as a matter of fact, if the worry wasn't from the not-me, I would be able to reabsorb it and not endure it. The most interesting way to accomplish this is to question the reality of what happens within me now, immediately, right away."

Some people may complain that Stephen sounds very egotic in referring to his personal privileged gifts which opened the awakening for him. Some may even get discouraged that it is not for them. We only have to accept what he is saying whether we like it or not. After all he is very un-conventional through out the book. Whatever may be our feelings, the book has profound explanations of awakening and has clues into the mind of a man who lives by it.

It is worthwhile reading it.

Rating:
Summary: worthwhile reading
Review: This is a well structured conversation with Stephen Jourdain. Probably, the original conversation took place in French and then later translated into English. The translator used words which are not very common in American English conversations which forced me to use the dictionary. I had difficulty understanding what Stephen really intended at some very important places because of lack of clarity in translation or punctuation or correctness of expression or some other fault.

Nevertheless it is a special book. It is different from 'As It Is' by Tony parsons or similar books which talk of pure Presence etc. Because the author does not have an established framework and vocabulary, the explanations are difficult to grasp completely. However there are brilliant presentations of awakening which may work as hints on how a seeker can approach to understand it.

However, the book lacks in establishing either the cause, preparation or a clear-cut path to this realization. There are some discrete ideas which are helpful. But, they may not form a complete guidance for a seeker.

Stephen has not given any Yes or No answers to Reincarnation, who will get this enlightenment, a path and other questions. We have to live with this ambiguity. At times the answers are contradictory.

Page 37:

SJ: "There is certainly a union of the subject and the object but they do not "Fuse", they do not disappear in some kind of undistinguishable magma. What's miraculous in these experiences is that, without in the least losing my identity, in legitimately remaining who I am, I become the table, the stove, or the mountain, or the entire landscape, which in turn, remains integrally itself." . . . . . ..

. . . . "The extraordinary thing is that two completely different things can be truly joined while each, at the same time, maintains its original nature."

The nature of an awakened is explained quite forcefully through out the book. The essays on 'The Powers', 'Practical Work' are very important and highly forceful. These present the nature of illusion and the solution in a very direct way. The thoughts are very profound (but at some places unclear) and one needs to read the essays in completion. I am quoting a few thoughts here.

Page 55 and 56:

SJ: " . . . . . . I'm talking about certain qualities of discernment that do not exist in the normal conscious state and which are the properties of the awakening. When the awakening presents itself, they take their place in the same way that the faculty of attention, the faculty of reasoning, etc., return automatically and instantly upon awakening in the morning."

GF: What are these faculties ?

SJ: "First and foremost, the discernment of a primordial thought springing forth directly from the spiritual essence. Therefore, it does not concern the thought that emanates from the usual psychological subject, but from the original thought preceding that. This thought does not gush from the faucet but from the spring itself which, as everyone knows, is the ultimate source of the faucet. This discernment is immensely important because it is what brings about the "disidentification". Following that is the conscious discernment of this combination called my "spirit" or my "inner life" as an image. The usual state of consciousness proceeds from the postulate that if I can create a mental image of my mother or of a tree, they're like little paintings hung in a room, yet the room is not an image, no more, infact, than I who produce all that. But the awakening brings the recognition of a primordial, mental imagery issuing directly from the source. In other words, the picture my own spirit has of itself is a presentation of nature full of images. There is not, of course, any kind of awareness of this in the state of normal sleep. The extraordinary thing is that doing away with that means doing away with "my spirit". Finally, I'll mention the discernment of the me as originally conceived, which can be declared as the mortal enemy of me in its integrity. The usual state of consciousness is "me degrading into a thought of me"."

Page 171:

"In order to reabsorb the hallucination, bring back what is only thought to the source of thought in such a way that it appears in its true mental nature, that is to say as nothingness, a first method would consist of making an attack at the very heart of the dream. The central rivet of the hallucination is nothing other than the absolute belief in myself in the act of producing a thought, of dreaming of this or that. Whether my thoughts are happy or sad, it would appear that I can't place the objective reality of the situation into doubt: I am there and I secrete an inner world, yet my mood swings, and I question myself about the existence of the awakening, about my chances of getting there or, quite simply, of boring myself silly; all that has no real existence. There's a paradox here: having no power over your own inner states, you endure them. You'd prefer not to worry anything while, at the same time, establishing that the generative thoughts of worry resist you. You can't easily chase them. Yet, that means that, while having the intuition that what you are is not reducible to your thoughts ("I worry" necessarily supposes the existence of an "I"), you confer on the latter the fact that they resist you, an objective status. In other words, the usual state of consciousness has the characteristic of an extraordinary madness: having the presentiment that at the center of myself there is only myself while at the same time, being certain of the presence at the center of myself of a not-me - as a matter of fact, if the worry wasn't from the not-me, I would be able to reabsorb it and not endure it. The most interesting way to accomplish this is to question the reality of what happens within me now, immediately, right away."

Some people may complain that Stephen sounds very egotic in referring to his personal privileged gifts which opened the awakening for him. Some may even get discouraged that it is not for them. We only have to accept what he is saying whether we like it or not. After all he is very un-conventional through out the book. Whatever may be our feelings, the book has profound explanations of awakening and has clues into the mind of a man who lives by it.

It is worthwhile reading it.