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52 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
the end of the road, 4 Jan 2005
By A Customer
This book "did it for me", so to speak. It did it because it was the first book I have come across that communicated the fact that no seeking can take you to enlightenment. There is nothing to seek, nothing to find. There is nothing one can do, no state to find, no state that gives everlasting bliss. In fact, it can be said that enlightenment itself is a myth, and this was the first book to shatter my concepts about enligtenment. The "enlightened state" is one where all concepts, including that of enlightenment, falls away. So how can it exist? If it doesn't exist, how can you seek it? At this very moment, you are probably looking for answers. That's why you are looking around for books that will provide them. And virtually almost every book provides answers. Even when they tell you that there are no answers, no path, they still recommend how you can reach a state where you stop looking for that path, which is a contradiction. In effect, that's like saying, there is no path, but here is the path to find no path. It all very subtly reinforces the concept of enlightenment as a state that frees you from all other states. And so seeking continues, since you feel that with your ever expanding understanding of enlightenment, you are edging closer to that final moment. But it will never come, because what you are looking for does not exist, except as a concept that it exists. It's like chasing the horizon. Can you ever get a single inch closer to the horizon? The horizon obviously is just a concept, something which looks real to the eye, but is an illusion. So it is with enlightenment. Where the horizon is an illusion to the eye, enlightenment is an illusion to the mind. Looking back, this is why other books did not work. Sure, they led me to a great intellectual understanding of enlightenment, but ultimately, that has no relevance or connection with enlightenment itself. "Enlightenment" is beyond all understanding, and only when it is realized that the goal is an illusion, that seeking is the surest way of avoiding liberation, does the possibility of liberation open. Tony Parsons is not as famous as other "gurus" because he does not give any answers when what people want are answers to how they can become enlightened. So his is not a popular way of communicating this whole subject. But for those who have honestly not found what they've been looking for all this time, Tony, in my opinion is the best person to tell you why.
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by Tony Parsons
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