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Jan passed away recently. I never met him but his writings were transformative for me, and if you use a Chrome browser with automatic translation, you can read a treasure trove of his articles here:
His teacher was Walter Keers, who I see is also on your book pile, and some of whose writings are also at the link above. I highly (re)commend these.
@Jeroen said:
I started reading a little in another Dutch author’s book, it is called Many roads, one home by Jan Van Delden, and I got caught. He is an older man, who was taught by Wolter Keers who was a disciple of Ramana Maharshi, and among other things introduced Nisargadatta and Douglas Harding to the Netherlands.
Anyway, Jan Van Delden is dyslexic and left school at the age of 14 to take care of his mother and his siblings. He had many swings, roundabouts and travails in his life before slowly opening up to a nondual realisation. It then took him 15 years after the death of Wolter Keers in 1985 to fully resolve this, and reach a state where he could just let thoughts come and go.
His book is a series of short talks and lectures. He talks about how Jesus, the Odyssey, Atmananda and A Course in Miracles all bring you to the same home. So far I am enjoying it.
I have enjoyed reading your reactions to various authors on your book pile.
I went to a couple of Tony's meetings 20 years ago here in the UK, having read his other book 'All There Is'. I wanted, and got, confirmation that he and his message were authentic. He's totally uncompromising in his dialogues, which also makes him frustrating to the seeking human being, who wants a conceptual path or map!
Eckhart Tolle is a genuine healer of the human condition, but as Tony points out, his message is essentially dualistic, because it is aimed at the individual person, whereas Tony absolutely denies the illusionary individual right from the get-go (as does Hui-neng - 'originally, not a thing is')
The Power of Now certainly helped me in various dark passages of my life, but eventually it needs to be left behind, and the clue is in its total seductiveness. It is a very seductive solution for the seeking ego who finds deep (but temporary) rest there. However, I think the vast majority of 'seekers' are simply looking for this, and are quite happy to stop here, In a like-minded community of still-individual-egos.
Not sure if there was any wei wu wei on your book pile, but most of his books are available as free PDF downloads via Google. He wrote from a Buddhistic immediate, 'pathless path' intuitive apperception non-perspective, citing Shen Hui - 'a single word is sufficient to reveal the truth'. He is/was a scholar of sanskrit and Buddhism, but emphasised that the whole purpose of awakening was to then tear up all scriptures and live free - the religious, ceremonial and ethical side of all religions being merely playthings to keep mischevious minds occupied and help pass the time.
@Jeroen said:
So just a note to talk about what I have found from my nondual book pile. There were roughly eighty volumes there, sometimes more than one from a given author, and I’ve now paged through nearly all of them, and some I have read in their entirety.
On the whole, a lot of these books didn’t have much of significance to say. There was a lot of patter, a kind of nondual talk that is vaguely similar and where serious criticism is deflected, not engaged with. There were some authors which were worthwhile, such as Darryl Bailey, Wolter Keers, Adyashanti and Jon Bernie, but for every good author there were eight or nine poor ones.
None of them really reach the level of the spiritual classics such as Nisargadatta Maharaj’s I Am That or Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now. Being beyond mind such as is described there is not part of the nonduality lexicon. Honourable mention goes to Tony Parsons for The Open Secret as the best of the patter books, that is probably worth reading if you want to see what it’s all about.
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JeroenNot all those who wander are lostNetherlandsVeteran
@plotinus said:
Not sure if there was any wei wu wei on your book pile
Yes, there was one volume, titled ‘Unworldly Wise’, which I had a quick look at but haven’t really read in depth. I might give it another go, based on your words, because I think in essence it’s right that spiritual literature serves a dual purpose of pointing the way and keeping the spirit tuned to the right frequency as it were.
Interesting what you say about Tony Parsons, certainly from watching a few videos of him I got the impression that he might be for real, but my father had gone to see him when he was speaking in Amsterdam and found him to be unremarkable. It just goes to show, you won’t necessarily know who you will connect with.
Nice that someone enjoyed my literary wandering!
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JeroenNot all those who wander are lostNetherlandsVeteran
I’ve read a good chunk of the Wei Wu Wei book ‘Unworldly Wise’, it is a series of humorous dialogues between an owl, who takes the role of nondual master, and a rabbit, who knows very little. The two become friends as the owl attempts to impart his knowledge.
This book is a good illustration of the limits of my understanding of the type of nonduality expounded by most teachers. I find it hard to set aside the limits of the body — after all we are born as incarnate beings, with our senses focussed around the body. Whenever I hear someone say “there is nobody here” it engages my minds fantasy and projection faculties, to try and imagine what that is like. The result is… perhaps an inkling of understanding.
It seems to be playing with language and fantasy to try and gain some understanding, but it’s not much more than a stab in the dark. I find it hard to arrive at a meaningful vision of wharf it is about.
0
JeroenNot all those who wander are lostNetherlandsVeteran
@Plotinus said:
Not sure if there was any wei wu wei on your book pile, but most of his books are available as free PDF downloads via Google. He wrote from a Buddhistic immediate, 'pathless path' intuitive apperception non-perspective, citing Shen Hui - 'a single word is sufficient to reveal the truth'. He is/was a scholar of sanskrit and Buddhism, but emphasised that the whole purpose of awakening was to then tear up all scriptures and live free - the religious, ceremonial and ethical side of all religions being merely playthings
It’s interesting, today I reached a point where I started questioning whether further reading of spiritual books made any sense. It seems to me that I am not helped, but rather I am tranquilised by the books. The quote above seems apt.
Stack the books, place a cushion on top, and use them as a meditation seat. In this way, a vast array of wisdom quite literally supports your practice.
Comments
Jan passed away recently. I never met him but his writings were transformative for me, and if you use a Chrome browser with automatic translation, you can read a treasure trove of his articles here:
https://www.janvandelden.org/artikelen/
His teacher was Walter Keers, who I see is also on your book pile, and some of whose writings are also at the link above. I highly (re)commend these.
I have enjoyed reading your reactions to various authors on your book pile.
I went to a couple of Tony's meetings 20 years ago here in the UK, having read his other book 'All There Is'. I wanted, and got, confirmation that he and his message were authentic. He's totally uncompromising in his dialogues, which also makes him frustrating to the seeking human being, who wants a conceptual path or map!
Eckhart Tolle is a genuine healer of the human condition, but as Tony points out, his message is essentially dualistic, because it is aimed at the individual person, whereas Tony absolutely denies the illusionary individual right from the get-go (as does Hui-neng - 'originally, not a thing is')
The Power of Now certainly helped me in various dark passages of my life, but eventually it needs to be left behind, and the clue is in its total seductiveness. It is a very seductive solution for the seeking ego who finds deep (but temporary) rest there. However, I think the vast majority of 'seekers' are simply looking for this, and are quite happy to stop here, In a like-minded community of still-individual-egos.
Not sure if there was any wei wu wei on your book pile, but most of his books are available as free PDF downloads via Google. He wrote from a Buddhistic immediate, 'pathless path' intuitive apperception non-perspective, citing Shen Hui - 'a single word is sufficient to reveal the truth'. He is/was a scholar of sanskrit and Buddhism, but emphasised that the whole purpose of awakening was to then tear up all scriptures and live free - the religious, ceremonial and ethical side of all religions being merely playthings to keep mischevious minds occupied and help pass the time.
Yes, there was one volume, titled ‘Unworldly Wise’, which I had a quick look at but haven’t really read in depth. I might give it another go, based on your words, because I think in essence it’s right that spiritual literature serves a dual purpose of pointing the way and keeping the spirit tuned to the right frequency as it were.
Interesting what you say about Tony Parsons, certainly from watching a few videos of him I got the impression that he might be for real, but my father had gone to see him when he was speaking in Amsterdam and found him to be unremarkable. It just goes to show, you won’t necessarily know who you will connect with.
Nice that someone enjoyed my literary wandering!
I’ve read a good chunk of the Wei Wu Wei book ‘Unworldly Wise’, it is a series of humorous dialogues between an owl, who takes the role of nondual master, and a rabbit, who knows very little. The two become friends as the owl attempts to impart his knowledge.
This book is a good illustration of the limits of my understanding of the type of nonduality expounded by most teachers. I find it hard to set aside the limits of the body — after all we are born as incarnate beings, with our senses focussed around the body. Whenever I hear someone say “there is nobody here” it engages my minds fantasy and projection faculties, to try and imagine what that is like. The result is… perhaps an inkling of understanding.
It seems to be playing with language and fantasy to try and gain some understanding, but it’s not much more than a stab in the dark. I find it hard to arrive at a meaningful vision of wharf it is about.
It’s interesting, today I reached a point where I started questioning whether further reading of spiritual books made any sense. It seems to me that I am not helped, but rather I am tranquilised by the books. The quote above seems apt.
Stack the books, place a cushion on top, and use them as a meditation seat. In this way, a vast array of wisdom quite literally supports your practice.