The wait is almost over. The new book, "What is Enlightenment?" is almost done
its proof check, and when that happens it will finally be available for sale. I
expect that to happen sometime next week. Why did it take so long to edit this
text? Because it's over 550 pages in length, which is a gigantic book, and the
rare contents are like four or five books in one. The editors agree that this
will probably be an “underground classic” because it finally brings together
various enlightenment and samadhi teachings from various traditions. After
reading it, you WILL KNOW what is and is not spiritual enlightenment. Hopefully
the information will spread like wildfire.
One set of materials within
this book is a new translation of a section of the Surangama Sutra, with
commentary, that should revolutionize people's understanding of the strange
spiritual phenomena that typically appear during spiritual cultivation. No
longer will Christians, Buddhists, Jews, Taoists, Sufis or members of any other
tradition be lost when they encounter strange experiences on the spiritual path
and wonder what they mean. This material is worth the price of the book alone in
clearing away illusions and delusions, and should be studied by members of all
religions because they all go through these strange phenomena and then
mistakenly think they are enlightened.
A second set of materials, which
is also like a book in itself, details the stages of the spiritual path
according to different descriptive schemes from separate spiritual traditions.
It compares all these step-by-step sequences of progress and shows that everyone
is talking about the very same stages of accomplishment but just using different
names. Imagine that! It covers much of the materials in the first lesson of my
Stages course, and therefore links stages of spiritual progress from Buddhism
with those of Christianity (via purgative, via contemplative, via illuminativa),
Judaism (the three stages of Moses meeting God), Taoism (jing, chi, shen
transformations), Islam, Confucianism, Nath Yoga, … It was hard to find and then
link all these schemes! There are also rare timetables for how long it takes to
attain spiritual gong-fu which, all in all, usually amounts to about twelve
years of practice.
You’d have to collect a bunch of rare books from many
traditions to find this material so I brought it all together in one place so it
isn’t lost to future generations. The key is to give you the information so you
can guide yourself. I am tired of expensive Tibetan texts, for instance, that
don’t give me any guidance so the book gives you exactly what you need to know
to guide you regardless of religion or tradition or stage of progress. You will
clearly see they ALL say the same thing and have you attaining the same stages
of progress that produce the same body-mind phenomena, which is what you SHOULD
EXPECT if it were all real, correct?
A third set of materials is the
most interesting to me personally. It collects “first person” enlightenment
stories of individuals from different religious traditions, and after reading
their accounts you will quickly realize that everyone is talking about the same
thing we call enlightenment or self-realization. What is it actually like to be
enlightened? You will now find out! There are the enlightenment accounts from
Rumi, al-Bistami, Meister Eckhart, Adi Shankara, Nisargadatta, Ramana Maharshi,
Padmasambhava, Hui-neng, Pseudo-Dionysis, and many others – the exact words they
used to describe what enlightenment is like. There are a lot of traditions in
just that short list of names there, and yet they (and all the others in the
book) describe the very same awakening.
It would take you years to
collect these rare biographical and autobiographical accounts from
Christianity, Buddhism, Tantra, Taoism, Vedanta, Confucianism, Neo-platonism,
Islam, Zen, … which is why I'm excited to be able to put them in one place.
Furthermore – and this is a biggie - it gives a detailed analysis on the “nature
of God” from the theologies of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and shows
beyond the shadow of a doubt that the God of the West is the same original
nature, or Tao or the East. No one wants to show you this because false
theologies start to crumble.
There is no sectarianism involved with these
comparisons. Once you place everyone's claims of the characteristics of God
side-by-side with one another, you will find that they are all describing the
True Self (sat, chit, ananda) of Hinduism, fundamental nature of Buddhism (True
Self, purity, eternity, bliss), God of Christianity, Allah of Islam, and so
on.
There are also accounts from more than a dozen Christians who
achieved enlightenment and by their words anyone can also see that their
spiritual states of achievement are EXACTLY the same as those in the East.
“Union with God” is actually the stage of initial enlightenment of the East, and
Christians and Jews will finally what this means and entails because of all the
explanations.
Another set of materials contains numerous old Zen stories
that have new translations and interpretations, and stories from other
traditions that reveal what enlightenment is NOT. It especially hammers home the
idea that enlightenment is NOT a samadhi attainment, which many mistakenly take
for self-realization, and yet you need to attain the first dhyana (and open all
your chi channels) before you can possibly become enlightened. I get over a
dozen letters per year from individuals who mistakenly think they are
enlightened, and my teacher got even more. After this material is out, I believe
people will finally be able to correct themselves.
There are many
mistakes of individuals cultivating spiritual practice incorrectly until an
enlightened master comes along to correct them, sometimes leading them to
enlightenment because they had already put in countless hours of meditation
practice and laid a sufficient foundation for the breakthrough. Superpowers are
not the Tao, intellectual understanding is not he Tao, and experience is not
the Tao, … these are just some of the common mistakes individuals
make.
What Else?
*****************************
The Taihu
School: A New Model of Education that Brings Culture and Values Back into
Schools
*****************************
At the same time this book comes
out, I will also be releasing our first book on elementary school education
for children. In this case, we profile the teaching methods and educational
philosophy at the Taihu School in China, run by Principal Sami Kuo, that focuses
on teaching virtue and values to young children in grades one through six.
Sami runs an international boarding school, based on the teachings of
Nan Huai-chin and the best of Chinese and Western cultures, and it has become
known as a miracle school throughout China because of the wonderful changes
often seen in the behavior of children who attend the school. The waiting list
for admissions is a mile long, and there will soon be nearly 400 students at the
school.
If you have young children of elementary school age yourself and
wondering how to teach them values, or an educator interested in the concept of
how to teach virtue in schools, or interested in how to give children a
non-religious foundation for self-cultivation so that they might pick it up
later in life, you might want to see how this unique school combines the works
of the Chinese sages and Chinese culture with the teachings of Nan Huai-chin and
best of Western civilization to produce radical transformations in its students.
It doesn’t just describe the going-ons at the school teaches the correct
way to praise children to bring about behavioral change, how to teach them
respect, why skills training and outdoor nature education is so important, the
benefits of martial arts training over P.E., and also provides various
educational thoughts for policymakers in a number of fields.
Sami
discusses her philosophy of “smoking” or “perfuming” environmental influences
for teaching children, and reveals how she integrates the best Chinese and
Western philosophies at her school (Such as by mixing traditional Chinese
medical concepts with western science ideas on nutrition). If you are interested
in insights on how to teach and manage hundreds of children at a boarding school
and wondering what and how they choose to teach them, this is right for you.
Yes, it is relevant if you have your own young children because you will be sure
to pick up several methods on how to instruct them and guide them to better
pathways in life while laying a foundation of good character and life skills
they can always depend upon as their spiritual core.
And by the way, if
you are interested in teaching at the school for a semester or two, where you
can also learn Chinese language and culture at the same time, you can contact
Sami about a special English speakers program they are creating (contact
information is in the book).
Hope you pick up both books at the
introductory discount price. You should hear of their release in a week or
so.
Regards,
Bill Bodri
TopShape Publishing, LLC
1135
Terminal Way Reno, NV 89502
