Awakening to the Dream

A wonderfully clear exposition of non-duality in Western words and practice. As a metaphysical/intellectual hair-splitter of the first order I can attest that "Awakening to the Dream", as geese leave no tracks in the air, leaves no hairs to split. What the author says is exactly what Sri Nisaragadatta and Ramana both said, and I would suggest that the One that spoke in and through them now speaks through the pages of "Awakening to the Dream." After 35 years and several thousand books, this one is definitely on my top ten list. I give it my highest endorsement.

This is one of those rare books that invites the reader to see awakening not as a process that can be attained by spiritual practice, but simply as Being. It is that which is realised by a shift in perception - the letting go of all beliefs and preconceptions of how life should or might be and instead merely accepting what is.

This is the clearest book yet by a `Westerner' on advaita / the non-dual perspective, a subject about which so much confusion exists. I really enjoyed the very patient & amazingly comprehensive approach taken by the author, Leo Hartong. Chapter by chapter, he looks at just about every aspect of non-dualism, gently exposing both the obvious & less obvious misunderstandings along the way.

The book is written more as a beautiful sharing than from any position of authority... as Leo writes, "These words are nothing but a gentle reminder from yourself to yourself that you are the awakened one".

There is also a great forum at http://www.awakeningtothedream.com/ .

Do, dear reader, the following experiment, one Leo Hartong's non-teacher Tony Parsons often has his hearers do during his workshops (but definitely isn't a form of self-inquiry a la Ramana Maharshi): close your eyes and stare into the dark and still void behind your ocular globes and ask yourself who is there...

This is IT! This is what Tony and Leo want you to discover and which has apparently eluded countless generations of spiritual seekers throughtout the ages and under all latitudes because of their absurd desire for more and the "fireworks" of salvation or illumination. This is what you are, this is the Ultimate Mystery, hidden for long centuries of dark ignorance and now revealed jargon-free (but not free of charge!) by the non-teachers of what is nowadays called neo-advaita, a Macdonalized Anglo-Saxon version of the age-old Hindu advaita doctrine that denies the existence of real diversity in the Universe.

Isn't that void within your skull perfectly still and indifferent? Isn't that void perfectly non-judgmental and impersonal? By Jove, it is! Therefore, you too are invited to drop all notions of right and wrong, all ideas of perfection and striving to become a mirror image of that perfect Nothingness devoid of any Will: the Divine Puppet. Since the space inside your head has apparently no Will and makes no judgments, this is what God and you as God must become and in fact already are. Constant change in a complex universe is occurring out there? Moral questions and choices are assailing you in the world? Urgent change and action to avert ecological disaster and cultural degeneration seem required? This is all an Illusion. The Dream. Awaken: ONLY this quiet thing within your skull is real.

Now do another, somewhat longer experiment: like Leo's "master" and "personal" friend Tony Parsons or their archrival Eckhart Tolle, go to a park slowly (Tolle-like) but spontaneously (Tony-like) and sit there on a bench for a while. Stare with a blank mind at anything you like while repeating to yourself the imperishable verities of the School: "I am nobody", "there is nothing there", "there is nowhere to go", "there is only this!" If you do that persistently, chances are that you will soon experience yourself as an ex-orbitated non-presence watching a three-dimensional film. If you continue this non-practice (neo-advaita claims to be devoid of any spiritual practice!) and keep reading Leo's book every day "to remind yourself of your true nature", go to lectures by him or his friends, this state of not being there and of seeing life as a gigantic movie theater may become a more or less permanent fixture of your mental apparatus. Then you will be Cyclops All-Eye Nobody or already perfect Mr/Mrs.Oneness. In this state, there is apparently minimal friction and very little misery. And one, obviously, needn't do anything special or change anything: life is nothing more than a dream peopled with unreal characters. The only thing that is real is the detached seeing of the Cosmic Joke.

This quiet and at times amused aloofness, coupled with a childish and irresponsible enjoyment of the glossy appearance of things is what is being offered here. There is nothing more to neo-advaita than living a cinemascope life of sanctified routine.

As should be clear by now and also appears from the picture on the cover of this book, this is from beginning to end an optical illusion, an inflation of the eye, a Cyclopic form of myopia, one that was bound to arise in a culture which has become totally obsessed with pictures, screens and the sense of sight and has lost touch with the other senses, and more importantly, with intelligent reasoning.

For intelligence will easily expose this fraud: reality isn't ALREADY perfect, which would make it static and purposeless, but constantly moving in a direction. What direction? In my opinion, it is moving toward Oneness. It is imperfect Love striving after perfect Love. And even after one has apparently attained Love and Oneness, one doesn't remain like a perfect, self-satisfied pool of limpid but stagnant water, but one keeps moving. Towards what? Moved by what? Moved by Love (not by egotic desire!)towards greater Love and Oneness, for Oneness is inexhaustible. Nobody, not even the most popular neo-advaitist teachers, possesses the whole of Oneness or Life, nobody is the whole truth, nobody is the whole path, for Path, Truth and Life are living and infinite.

Rather than this unnameably mediocre stuff read Alan Watt's books on Taoism and Zen Buddhism. Better still, dig into his "Behold the Spirit", the most illuminating book I've ever read on the vexing question of the relationship between the One and the Many, the crucial question neo-advaita hasn't been able to solve. For those who have a strong philosophical bend, I recommend reading Leibniz and Spinoza. You may also take a look at Arthur Koestler's concept of "holon" in "The Ghost in the Machine" and "Beyond Reductionism", or read Morris Berman's masterful "Reenchantment of the World" on the cultural history of the ego sense. For Christians, I recommend the books of Jean-Pierre de Caussade and Brother Lawrence about the practice of "presence to God".

For people who don't belong to any creed and are not looking for one, I recommend J. Krishnamurti, an author most neo-avaita teachers seem to have heavily borrowed from, without ever citing him. Not that Krishnaji shares with neo-advaitists their core doctrine of "everything is already perfect". K. has no such dogma. Start with "The First and Last Freedom", continue with his delightful and profound "Commentaries on Living" and, if you can find it, read his austere mystical "Journal". I also love "Beginnings of Learning" and "Think about these Things". Listening to his conversations with American physicist David Bohm, the theorist of the "Implicit Order", or Religious Studies professor Allan W. Anderson may also prove enlightening.

The shallowness of this thoroughly cerebral neo-advaita thing is stunning, but there is no question that it is highly seductive for people who are already highly cerebral and eye-oriented because of their cultural background and are consciously or unconsciously looking for a sanctified way of escape. The attractiveness of neo-advaita stems from its containing a great truth, which it unfortunately pursues without regard for the WHOLE truth, namely the (partial) truth of the Immanence of God. No false teaching can be attractive unless it contain some reflection of the truth, the whole truth being that the Source is both transcendent and immanent. Here and not here. In Love the tension is resolved, which leads to Compassionate Wisdom.

Send food and tents to Africa. Or go there, preferably without your ego. Let your heart bleed. Don't just have a beer at the local pub while making easy intellectual jokes with your buddies about the "Cosmic Dream".

This has to be one of the better written books about non-duality/Pure Awareness available "out there". I especially like the plentiful analogies he gives which serve to really clarify all the points he's trying to get across.

But just a couple of things I'd take issue with(and both admittedly pretty minor):

He's rather critical of meditation and even with my long term practice of it, I'd agree by and large, esp. the notion that the practitioner might unwittingly get caught up in a hope/belief that the practice would at some unforeseen time result in Enlightenment or Self realization. However, in only one paragraph in that same section, he pays lip service to Self Inquiry, yet another spiritual practice, when he presumably acknowledges its value but the one paragraph he assigns to this isn't really sufficient at all. For instance, since he quoted the great sages Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj, all the moreso he would benefit the reader by expanding on the value of the Self Inquiry. Moreover, Maharaj himself was a staunch advocate of persistent practice and quite often stated that his own unserving commitment over three years culminated in an Enlightenment.

The second point is his reference to Suzanne Seagall who experienced the complete loss of self as she wrote about in a book he cites. But unless I'm mistaken, he states that her having a brain tumor(which later proved fatal)was associated with this personal loss of self but this was in fact never proven to be the case. Actually(and again different from his account)she was a practitioner of TM for some time before this happened and that along with personal events in her life might have triggered it.

But all in all, it's still worth a read.

Finally, a book that is able to bridge the gap between Eastern and Western thought. Some Eastern "concepts" seem so esoteric to the Western mind, but Mr. Hartong is able to guide you through these and into the realization of what is the ultimate. I would highly suggust this book to readers who find themselves continually searching, but not necessarilly understanding many books of Eastern Philosophy. Thank You Leo.

Awakening to the dream is a very clear, approachable overview of the often confusing and rarefied philosophy of Advaita Vedanta, also known as non-dualism. Essentially, this is a book about you. It points to and from the source of your true identity. The clear seeing that it refers to is neither complex nor simple. It is not something exclusive for intellectual or spiritual elite, nor is it remote or hiding in the future. It is all inclusive, pure presence, closer than your breath. It is the heart of hearts, your birthright and innermost self. This is your invitation to remember what was never really forgotten.