Great overview of Nisargadatta's teachings, systematised by one of his translators, and interspersed with anecdotes along the way. The language he uses is very different from that of Nisargadatta and he frequently refers to terns such as noumenon and phenomenon. The book could also be read as a partial summary of Vedanta's highest teachings.
Some excerpts:
"The interesting point about this process of objectivization is that it does necessarily take place in consciousness, which is the source of all conceptualizing, and, therefore, in effect, the so-termed cognizer-subject and cognized-object are both objects phenomenalized in consciousness like dream-figures. But, that cognizer-object (which cognizes the cognized-object) assumes the identity of the subject as a separate entity -- a 'self' -- and gives the cognized object an identity as the 'other'. Thus is born the concept of the 'individual' through illusion, the power of the Maya, or whatever."
"The important point is that both these cognizer-subject and the cognized-object are interdependent objects and can only exist in the consciousness in which the manifestation process occurs, and which consciousness indeed is what we are!"
"Do we need it all again, briefly? Here it is:
(1) Manifested existence is phenomenal, and phenomena being appearance sensorially cognizable and time-bound is a vision, a dream, a hallucination and therefore untrue. Unmanifested existence is Absolute, intemporal, spaceless, not aware of existing, sensorially not cognizable, eternal, therefore true. Who says this? Consciousness, of course, trying to cognize itself and not succeeding because cognizing (there is no cognizer as such) cannot cognize that which itself is cognizing: An eye can not see itself although it sees everything else. The seeker is the sought: This is the basic all-important truth.
(2) I, unmanifested, am the total potentiality, the absolute absence of the known and the knowable, the absolute presence of the unknown and the unknowable. I, manifest, am the totality of all phenomena, totality of the known in the inconceivability of the unmanifested unknown. (3) There can be only I -- the eternal I -- totally unconditioned, without the slightest touch of any attribute, pure subjectivity. The mere thought of 'me' is immediate and spontaneous (but illusory) bondage: Let the me disappear and, immediately and spontaneously, you are I.
(4) Phenomenally, 'me' (and 'you' and 'he') is only an appearance in consciousness: How can an appearance be in bondage? Noumenally, how can I -- pure subjectivity -- need any liberation? Liberation is only being rid of the idea that there is any 'one' who needs liberation.
(5) How is one to know if one is making 'progress' spiritually? Could it be that the surest sign of 'progress' is a lack of concern about progress and an absence of anxiety about liberation in the wake of clear apprehension? An instant apperception of the total 'functioning' of Nisarga (nature) in which there is no place for an autonomous entity."
