How to Attain Enlightenment: The Vision of Non-Duality (Spirituality Religious Experie) [Paperback]

 

 

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This book is a rare gem. Whether you have spent years trying to figure it all out or are new to the search for enlightenment, this book will explain all the essentials.

Have you spent years meditating and wondered why you are still not enlightened? Or do you know people who have practised a path for ages, and whilst they have received benefits, enlightenment has not been one of them? If you are not just interested in feeling a temporary sense of peace, and want to go further then this book has been written for you.

For me, the most useful teaching of Swartz was that enlightenment is not an experience. All experiences come and go, and so-called spiritual experiences are no different. Swartz first tells us and then shows us that Enlightenment is an understanding, or knowledge. This understanding paradoxically occurs in the mind, but points to the directly observable fact that we are not the body or mind and that we are in fact ever-free awareness. Based on direct observation we see that we are already whole and that no matter what happens we will be OK.

Of course, what you will discover upon reading this book is that 'you' cannot really attain enlightenment, as the body-mind is seen not to be an independent entity that can be enlightened. The idea of being an individual disappears for it was never true to begin with - it's just now we understand/know this to be the case.

Swartz teaches in line with Advaita Vedanta, and this book is the clearest and most accessible summary of Advaita Vedanta I have come across. Before reading this book I really thought that Vedanta was more intellectual philosophy than a practical guide. He uses Sanskrit terms only where required, and clearly explains what they mean. The author also tackles the current 'Advaita scene' and dispels with false ideas of what enlightenment is.

The only negative is that the book could do with some editing, but by no means let that put you off. If you are considering purchasing this, I would wholeheartedly recommend it!

This book is a gem as it will set forth any ardent aspiring seeker on the right spiritual path thus avoiding years or decades of floundering in the quagmire of the world of cults, belief systems, pseudo-gurus/ teachers and self proclaimed masters of Enlightenment.
Imagine what Columbus would have given to have a more accurate map of the world when he set forth on his Journey to discover the East.
Well for a start the Na-Dene' people would not have been branded as Red Indians and the central Islands between North and South America as West Indies.
All this was product of Ignorance.
Similarly when we set forth on the Voyage of Self discovery, we do so without understanding our fundamental problem which is that of Ignorance of our intrinsic/true nature. We therefore erroneously identify ourselves with the body-mind complex and thus end up with the commensurate by-products i.e. need for security, fulfilment, happiness, leading to likes and dislikes, desires, fear, anger, greed , jealousy, addiction, fanaticism etc.
We thus look upon ourselves as a miserable insignificant little individual with the need to look for a God outside and Enlightenment/ mystical experiences via yoga/meditation/Samadhi as an achievement and a passport to merger with that external God as some future event.
This book embodies the essence of Vedantic teaching with profound clarity. It will reveal that we do not lack any experience of the SELF. That duality is experienced during our waking and dream state and non-duality (advaitam) during our deep sleep state and that the ultimate quest is to recognise the unchanging substratum i.e the witness consciousness in and through all these 3 states of mind. When the mind is extroverted we enjoy the wakerhood status, when it is introverted we enjoy the dreamerhood status and when the mind is resolved we have the sleeperhood status.
Thus we claim, I am the Waker or Dreamer or Sleeper. The seeker has to undertake an inquiry into these states of mind and recognise their transient nature and realise that what is constant and unchanging is nothing else but that immanent and at the same time transcendant consciousness 'I' which has been ever existent.

However it is vehemently pointed out that this does not mean we have to set about destroying all our thoughts or ego or sit around in meditation, or keep chanting and claiming since everything is consciousness nothing else exists or ever happened. A seeker may temporarily feel high during meditation or satsangs and weekend retreats with a guru but inevitably disillusionment will set in when facing the real world. The Self does not require any new experience of Enlightenment or awakening, it is always self evident and self effulgent.
As our fundamental problem is that of Ignorance of real nature whose locus is the
mind, there cannot be multipath approach for its removal. To remove darkness there is only one path i.e. Bring Light. This is not fanaticism but statement of fact.
Hence what is required to remove ignorance of the Self is a valid means of knowledge. This knowledge is regarding the SELF (Atman) but it takes place in the mind only. The normal means of knowledge (perception, inference etc) are geared towards investigation of the external objects or the mind but not the Self i.e the subject.
Fortunately there is a guiding map, a Valid means of Self Knowledge-Vedanta. The path is
well trodden, verified over thousands of years by great sages and most importantly verifiable by every individual. But for that what is required is genuine desire and effort on the part of the seeker. There are no shortcuts and crash courses. Any crash course on this path will crash. Everybody acknowledge the fact that to aspire for a degree in Science, Engineering or Medicine, right qualifications have to be acquired through various stages of school, college, university etc. over a number of years.
This book will without a shadow of doubt whet the appetite of an aspiring seeker to undertake such a journey of right preparation of the mind before exposure to vedantic teaching and subsequently immerse in 'consistent and systematic study for a length of time under the guidance of a competent teacher' until it will finally dawn that what we were seeking was always with us.
That is Enlightenment.

A truly enlightening book which not only explains the path for spiritual seekers, but most importantly and unlike the neo-advaita teachings, actually gives a sensible methodology on how to tread this path. We have all heard teachers tell us that there actually is no path, but this, in my experience, is unhelpful. As a yoga teacher I found the description of karma yoga and manipulating the gunas the best that I have read. For those who have realised the self and don't know where to go with this, How to Attain Enlightenment is really supportive. This is a clear, well written book using the science of Vedanta, a tried and tested methodolgy that has worked for thousands of years. How to Attain Enlightenment shows that Awarness is our nature and that we are not our body or mind. If we are qualified, and James Swartz explains these qualifications clearly, then Enlightenment is possible.

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