An Extraordinary Absence: Liberation in the Midst of a Very Ordinary Life [Paperback]

This is a specialised subject.

This is book that lets you be an observer sitting inside the mind of one who has had an awakening.

What I was hoping to get from this book was the journaling of the journey afterwards. Awakening can happen to anyone. Its what happens next that determines the full experience and embracing of the moment.

The book refers to non-duality, ie not separate beings. Non duality goes further to suggest that there isn't actually a someone inside us. We live in a dreamworld that hints strongly that this life is totally real, but through observation and to a degree logic, non-duality refers to the absence of someone.

Jeff Foster explains that non-duality teachings are just pointers. One should not get hung up on the exact code of the language. Once awakening has been achieved, perhaps use the teaching to find the correct mind-setting and then let it go.

Jeff's mind-setting is that he expresses that there really is no real Jeff. Jeff is part of the dream, the play. Jeff responds to calls, to conversations, pain, joy but is certainly not separate from the connection of everything.

He walks us through his life. He reveals his torture as a human being and the extreme unhappiness he experienced. He then gets the 'spiritual search for the meaning of life' flame. He devours many books, shuts himself off completely, physically and mentally. Eventually he arrives at a point of complete void. He feels nothing.

He then passes through this phase and 'matures' into connecting with everything as an observer. He feels everything. Nothing is excluded from the love that passes through him.

I guess I found a resonance with Jeff's observations. I could see the logic to let go and stop pushing out. Trying to fire up thoughts that perhaps aren't ripe yet. To let life run through you. Its an old cliche but really it can be like this. I think one evolves into this state. Awakening is the first step. Ego could very well be the next step and then you'll be bringing the veil back over your eyes once again. So having a bit of background information like Zen, Non-duality you can perhaps try a few different settings. What helps greatly is no huge attachment to who you think you are and your own importance in the world.

But its up to each awakener to have their own experience. There's no right or wrong. Each personality plays a different tune. Personality doesn't mean that there is someone, its just the personality of the instrument.

This is the first book on this subject I've managed to finish. Perhaps I was 'ripe'. Or perhaps its not trying too hard to give all these steps to becoming awakened. It lacks this big ego in it. I think thats what I realise. Some of the others I sense the ego and it feels a bit evangelical, in that we are all fools until we really get 'this'.

Jeff is not hiding in solitude to protect his ego from those who will condemn his book. He lays it out. He had a surge of energy that wished to write the book, it felt right to do so.

I'm glad he did. I really think I will be able to move closer now to having some guidelines of letting go. Just dissolving.

The book is written in a style that breaks up the communication with the reader. He walks us zen-diary style through a day. He has a section on an interview. He takes us into the past. He expresses what he sees now and how he relates to that. He tackles the paradox of non-duality language. He invites the reader not to think too hard.

I guess if the reader surrenders to the writing it will connect directly to the silent experiencer within.

This is going to be two firsts for me, writing a review and reading a book on non-duality.
For a while now I have been the typical spiritual seeker that Jeff addresses in this book but I have never found enlightenment.
I have been drawn to the title of this book for a while and last week made the decision to buy it, and I'm eternally glad that I did!
This is not a book about finding enlightenment, it is just a realisation that life and everything in it is amazing. A fresh perspective that is difficult to describe in words.
Jeff Foster is also great in the sense that he is not a teacher, he encourages you to realise that he is not a guru of any sort, but just a normal guy reminding us of something we already know.
I read the whole book in two days (I couldn't put it down!)
My fear of death has dissolved and a whole new appreciation for life has been ignited.
If you do anything today, BUY THIS BOOK!

A beautiful book about nothing... and, well, everything. Strips non-duality of all its intellectual fluff and gets right to the heartbreaking-ly bittersweet core of it all. I loved the real-life examples. Life is truly a miracle.