IS IT POSSIBLE TO TOUCH, TO SENSE, THE UNFORMED?

John Alexandra's second book is a manual for doing just that. It leads the seeker progressively from utter rationality to the arcane. Here is a review by D. S. Mills:

This book is as practical as it is profound. An uncompromising investigation of the world and our inner selves. It begins with an exposition of contemporary thought — scientific, philosophical and spiritual. And demonstrates that these three ways of knowledge are fundamentally flawed.

Then it examines the perceiver. And deconstructs everything we believe about ourselves. It demonstrates that objectively, we don't exist. That all our thoughts, opinions, convictions, passions, regrets, recriminations, the whole panorama of what we call our personalities is simply a series of conditioned reactions based on fear. And that, unless we realize that we are nonentities, nothing more is possible.

To quote from the introduction: "Many so-called gurus declare that we are already everything — God. This assertion is as mindless as saying that we don't exist at all. Yet both are true. And false. Because reality is with us always and we are attempting to find what always was, and always will, exist.

What you and the cosmos consist of can eventually be sensed — but at a level of perception that mind, body and emotions can't grasp. The problem is to make these parts passive while remaining acutely alert.
Simple and extraordinarily difficult as all profundities are.
It requires total attention.
To remain in the space before thought.
To be aware of yourself.
To be."

The second half of the book opens the frontiers of insight, assisted by copious quotes from gurus and spiritual masters. There is no compromising here. The doors of perception, the text explains, only open after the entire psychology has been abandoned, and only physiological life remains. The aspirant must die too himself, totally and completely. The book even shows how to do this. But the path is steep and I suspect that few seekers will have courage enough to tread it. Because it requires total sincerity and utter self-negation.

This is a serious study suitable only for those sincere enough to risk everything in the quest - a practical manual on approaching Reality. Its triumph is that it makes sense, and reconciles, both outer and inner worlds.

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