“Probably you believe you are a person reading these very words right now. Maybe you also see yourself as a spiritual seeker. You've been to sacred places, followed yoga or meditation, maybe you've been involved in a group of seekers with similar interests. Probably you've invested a lot in this search for the ultimate truth. Maybe you feel you have been close to finding your true nature, and still ... something is lacking. What if this search leads you nowhere because the seeker who wants to achieve ‘it’ is itself a concept? Have you ever investigated the existence of the investigator you believe you are? The seeker you believe yourself to be will not like this book. Seekers do not want to learn that that their search for enlightenment is just a game of their ego. They don't like to see that their spiritual enquiry is endless and that their goal of finding their ‘true nature’ is a myth.” Jan Kersschot graduated in medicine from Antwerp University, Belgium. His lifelong quest for the ultimate truth was characterized by his interest in a wisdom which does not exclude anything or anyone. Blending the core of Eastern wisdom with a contemporary Western lifestyle, Jan shows in this collection of extraordinary dialogues how the popular myths about self inquiry and enlightenment can be unmasked. He is the author of the books, Coming Home, Nobody Home and This Is It.
Collection of papers that resulted from a symposium held at Victoria University in 2002 to promote research undertaken by postgraduate students which in one way or another could be seen as both scholarly and courageous for the risks taken in terms of subject focus and the sometimes audacious methodology.
Are you ready to cross the threshold? Michael J. Vincent uses his life story to illustrate how experience, no matter how trivial or intense and life-changing, becomes a deep well of learning for us to draw upon in our search for truth. Exploring his journey through life, Michael demonstrates how the Practice of Self Enquiry can quieten the mind-driven anxieties, doubts and fears that grow along the way, moving us to a place of peace, fulfilment and positive action. No doctrine; no belief system; not a crutch, mask or sticking plaster; Self Enquiry is a profound, radical and powerful Practice with one clear message: Believe in yourself.
Experience is a great teacher . . . except when it isn't. In this groundbreaking guide, learn how the past can deceive and limit us -- and how healthy skepticism can build a better world. Our personal experience is key to who we are and what we do. We judge others by their experience and are judged by ours. Society venerates experience. From doctors to teachers to managers to presidents, the more experience the better. It's not surprising then, that we often fall back on experience when making decisions, an easy way to make judgements about the future, a constant teacher that provides clear lessons. Yet, this intuitive reliance on experience is misplaced. In The Myth of Experience, behavioral scientists Emre Soyer and Robin Hogarth take a transformative look at experience and the many ways it deceives and misleads us. From distorting the past to limiting creativity to reducing happiness, experience can cause misperceptions and then reinforce them without our awareness. Instead, the authors argue for a nuanced approach, where a healthy skepticism toward the lessons of experience results in more reliable decisions and sustainable growth. Soyer and Hogarth illustrate the flaws of experience -- with real-life examples from bloodletting to personal computers to pandemics -- and distill cutting-edge research as a guide to decision-making, as well as provide the remedies needed to improve our judgments and choices in the workplace and beyond.
This book deals both with the need for self-inquiry in daily life. Everybody needs sleep for his survival. If a man does not have sleep adequately he will go insane and his life will be in disorder. Similarly everybody needs meditation in the waking state, otherwise his mind and life will be in disorder. This disorder is quite obvious both inside the mind and so outside in the present world where the majority of humanity has no understanding or time to do meditation. Meditation is to go beyond thought and establish ourselves in being. But we cannot go beyond thought with the mechanics of the workings of the "me" which is an isolating and destructive factor. At present thought is dominating and directing our way of life. Thought is a reaction of past memories and experiences and with these it faces the challenge in the present which is always new, it encounters it partially which results in conflict.So thought as our master of life brings disaster and ego is nothing but thought.Thought subsides when the activity of the "me" subsides which is the result of the understanding born out of awareness, watchfulness in a state of observation in which there is not a trace of condemnation or justification of what is being observed. In that passive alertness we listen to the noise of the "me" with relaxed attention beyond the noise of words without intervening with the screen of thoughts, conclusions and prejudices. The search for truth is individual and is not possible in religious congregations. It is possible in self-inquiry where we go beyond thought and establish in being. In that way, we respond to the challenge of the present in a holistic way instead of getting lost in imagination, day dreaming and we relax totally in being with full awareness.What is it that is to be investigated in self-Inquiry? We have to investigate whether there is such an entity as the “thinker”, the “me” as noun apart from thought. If we remove all thoughts from the thinker does an entity, as “thinker” remain? So thought is the thinker. One part of the mind assumes the role of thinker and it feels it is separate from other thoughts. Is the thinker separate from thought? We have to investigate. As the “I-am-the-body” idea is the root of all thoughts we have to investigate whether identity with the body through “I-am-the-body” idea is existential or not. This is an important investigation. Once we start investigating we bring awareness into the investigation and in the presence of awareness thought flow is reduced and finally comes to a standstill. Then we develop the capacity to hold on to “I-am-the-body” idea. Pure “I-am-the-body” idea is filled with pure awareness. It is not an obstruction to the revelation of self-knowledge. We can hold on to pure “I-am-the-body” idea in the interval between the transition of mind from one mode to another or in the interval between two thoughts. Then investigation becomes a piece of cake because there is no clouding of consciousness by thoughts in that interval. Till then we fall back into unawareness due to strong mental habits which are called tendencies even while doing self-inquiry. So uninterrupted Self-awareness (sada apramada) is needed for self inquiry. The practice of Self-Enquiry. The reason why the scriptures begin by teaching that the five sheaths are not "I”, is that in order to practice Self-Enquiry, it is useful for an aspirant to understand intellectually that the "I" which is to be attended to is not the body or any other adjuncts which are now felt by him to be mixed with the feeling of "I”. But since Bhagawan does not want us to fall a prey to the misunderstanding that pondering intellectually over the truth that five sheaths are not” I", is itself the method of negating the five sheaths. He has carefully taught us the method of practicing Self-Enquiry before revealing tous the revelation that the five sheaths are not "I".
The instant New York Times bestseller By the acclaimed author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, a groundbreaking investigation into the causes of illness, a bracing critique of how our society breeds disease, and a pathway to health and healing. In this revolutionary book, renowned physician Gabor Maté eloquently dissects how in Western countries that pride themselves on their healthcare systems, chronic illness and general ill health are on the rise. Nearly 70 percent of Americans are on at least one prescription drug; more than half take two. In Canada, every fifth person has high blood pressure. In Europe, hypertension is diagnosed in more than 30 percent of the population. And everywhere, adolescent mental illness is on the rise. So what is really “normal” when it comes to health? Over four decades of clinical experience, Maté has come to recognize the prevailing understanding of “normal” as false, neglecting the roles that trauma and stress, and the pressures of modern-day living, exert on our bodies and our minds at the expense of good health. For all our expertise and technological sophistication, Western medicine often fails to treat the whole person, ignoring how today’s culture stresses the body, burdens the immune system, and undermines emotional balance. Now Maté brings his perspective to the great untangling of common myths about what makes us sick, connects the dots between the maladies of individuals and the declining soundness of society—and offers a compassionate guide for health and healing. Cowritten with his son Daniel, The Myth Of Normal is Maté’s most ambitious and urgent book yet.
The instant New York Times bestseller By the acclaimed author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, a groundbreaking investigation into the causes of illness, a bracing critique of how our society breeds disease, and a pathway to health and healing. In this revolutionary book, renowned physician Gabor Maté eloquently dissects how in Western countries that pride themselves on their healthcare systems, chronic illness and general ill health are on the rise. Nearly 70 percent of Americans are on at least one prescription drug; more than half take two. In Canada, every fifth person has high blood pressure. In Europe, hypertension is diagnosed in more than 30 percent of the population. And everywhere, adolescent mental illness is on the rise. So what is really “normal” when it comes to health? Over four decades of clinical experience, Maté has come to recognize the prevailing understanding of “normal” as false, neglecting the roles that trauma and stress, and the pressures of modern-day living, exert on our bodies and our minds at the expense of good health. For all our expertise and technological sophistication, Western medicine often fails to treat the whole person, ignoring how today’s culture stresses the body, burdens the immune system, and undermines emotional balance. Now Maté brings his perspective to the great untangling of common myths about what makes us sick, connects the dots between the maladies of individuals and the declining soundness of society—and offers a compassionate guide for health and healing. Cowritten with his son Daniel, The Myth Of Normal is Maté’s most ambitious and urgent book yet.
Humanity is in a dark state of Self-ignorance. Ego is a product of this Self-ignorant dark state and it creates god, religion, poetry, art and painting as an outcome of this darkness.The culture of human society, its education, family system, beliefs, dogmas all add to this metaphysical sleep which keeps the human in darkness causing a lot of misery to him. Because the ego state is a dark one, we have to bring in the light of "awareness" to learn how the ego works and causes suffering to humanity. For this purpose self-inquiry is the direct method and this book deals with that study of the self (ego).
Self-inquiry is the process of uncovering the reality which is clouded by thoughts.We cannot investigate into the Self.Self is oneness and a unitary whole.The ignorant mind cannot investigate into the Self.It is enough if we set aside theignorant mind so that Self is uncovered, Self-inquiry is not a search for truth.The search for truth is merely a fulfillment ofbelief.Self-inquiry is the process of understanding how thought works and nature of thinker.It explores what the thinker isand his thoughts.Without understanding this self isolation process which we commonly call the "thinker or ego".Merely caught to be in a dogma is not the uncovering beauty of Self which is life, existence, truth.
Radically open dialectical behavior therapy (RO DBT) is a groundbreaking, transdiagnostic treatment model for clients with difficult-to-treat overcontrol (OC) disorders, such as anorexia nervosa, chronic depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Written by the founder of RO DBT, Thomas Lynch, this is the first and only session-by-session training manual to help you implement this evidence-based therapy in your practice. As a clinician, you’re familiar with dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) and its success in treating clients with emotion dysregulation disorders. But what about clients with overcontrol disorders? OC has been linked to social isolation, aloof and distant relationships, cognitive rigidity, risk aversion, a strong need for structure, inhibited emotional expression, and hyper-perfectionism. And yet—perhaps due to the high value our society places on the capacity to delay gratification and inhibit public displays of destructive emotions and impulses—problems linked with OC have received little attention or been misunderstood. Indeed, people with OC are often considered highly successful by others, even as they suffer silently and alone. RO DBT is based on the premise that psychological well-being involves the confluence of three factors: receptivity, flexibility, and social-connectedness. RO DBT addresses each of these important factors, and is the first treatment in the world to prioritize social-signaling as the primary mechanism of change based on a transdiagnostic, neuroregulatory model linking the communicative function of human emotions to the establishment of social connectedness and well-being. As such, RO DBT is an invaluable resource for treating an array of disorders that center around overcontrol and a lack of social connectedness—such as anorexia nervosa, chronic depression, postpartum depression, treatment-resistant anxiety disorders, autism spectrum disorders, as well as personality disorders such as avoidant, dependent, obsessive-compulsive, and paranoid personality disorder. In this training manual, you’ll find an outline of RO DBT, including history, research, and how it differs from traditional DBT. You’ll also find a session-by-session RO DBT outpatient treatment protocol, with sections that outline the weekly, one-hour individual therapy sessions and weekly two-and-a-half hour skills training classes that occur over a period of approximately thirty weeks. This includes instructor guidelines and user-friendly worksheets. The feasibility, acceptability, and efficacy of RO DBT is evidence-based and informed by over twenty years of translational treatment development research. This important manual—along with its companion book, Radically Open Dialectical Behavior Therapy (available separately), distills the essential components of RO DBT into a workable program you can start using right away to improve treatment outcomes for clients suffering with OC.
