Living Nonduality: Enlightenment Teachings of Self-realization
Trailer-Trash Neo-Advaita Vedanta
[My 1-star Amazon review of “Living Nonduality: Enlightenment Teachings of Srlf-realization” by Robert Wolfe.]
I love reading and reviewing neo-Advaita Vedanta texts, because they are such a spiritual joke, they keep me in stitches. And this 480-page tome was good for at least a laugh a page.
At the beginning of the book, the author describes his “awakening.” He had just separated from his wife and was living in a trailer, when he experienced a “sudden shift in perspective” -- and presto! – he was enlightened. Was his sudden Self-realization attributable to years of intense sadhana? Heavens no, for as he avers, “I do not recommend meditation of any sort.” In classic neo-Advaita speak, he simply informs us that “the spiritual quest came to an end.”
In classic neo-Advaita Vedanta fashion, he doesn’t detail his process of awakening, his awakening, or is awakened state. All he says is that his perspective shifted and he realized the “inseparability of all things.” But, of course, this didn’t pertain to his separation from his wife, though he asserts, “There cannot be any separation. Any!”
I repeatedly challenge these neo-Advaita Vedantans who preach absolute oneness and non-separation to practice what they preach by giving me unlimited access to their bank accounts and credit cards. So far, I’ve found no takers. And when I just tried to walk through the wall that separates me from my bedroom, I discovered a hard fact: the wall creates real separation, because unlike Superman, I couldn’t penetrate it.
I could write my own tome deconstructing the neo-Advaita Vedanta nonsense permeating this text, but because this just a review, I’ll just provide a few samples from the text, followed by my comments.
“So what is your purpose in life? To do exactly what you’re doing.”
I’m sure ISIS that will be glad to learn that their purpose in life is to be doing what they’re doing: murdering, raping, and torturing.
“Apart from false appearances, there is nothing.”
In other words, this book is a false appearance, so how can it lead one to Truth?
“The core of [Buddha’s] entire teaching (his 45 years of it) is summarized in that one word: emptiness.”
Emptiness is not the core of what Buddha taught It’s the core of what the fogged-out father of Madhyamika Buddhism, Nagarjuna, taught. Buddha himself made it clear that Nirvana is not emptiness, but the end of becoming, which is Being. The author further bastardizes the Buddha’s teachings when he envisions him saying:
“Samsara and Nirvana are the same thing, in your mind: no experience by the individual, over a period of time. No individual, No experience, No time. No two things. No-thing”
Anyone familiar with the Buddha’s teachings knows this is not what he taught. Moreover, in diametrical opposition to the author, who puts down meditation, the Buddha emphasized it as the core of his teachings. But, of course, the author doesn’t mention this.
“We come from knowing nothing to knowing nothing.”
In addition to this 480-page tome, the author has written several other books. One can only imagine how many books he would have written if he actually knew something.
I wish I could add “no stars” to the author’s “No individual. No experience. No time. No two things. No-thing.” But since I can’t, I’ll exercise the Great Compassion of a Buddha, and generously give this book a star more than it deserves.
[My 1-star Amazon review of “Living Nonduality: Enlightenment Teachings of Srlf-realization” by Robert Wolfe.]
I love reading and reviewing neo-Advaita Vedanta texts, because they are such a spiritual joke, they keep me in stitches. And this 480-page tome was good for at least a laugh a page.
At the beginning of the book, the author describes his “awakening.” He had just separated from his wife and was living in a trailer, when he experienced a “sudden shift in perspective” -- and presto! – he was enlightened. Was his sudden Self-realization attributable to years of intense sadhana? Heavens no, for as he avers, “I do not recommend meditation of any sort.” In classic neo-Advaita speak, he simply informs us that “the spiritual quest came to an end.”
In classic neo-Advaita Vedanta fashion, he doesn’t detail his process of awakening, his awakening, or is awakened state. All he says is that his perspective shifted and he realized the “inseparability of all things.” But, of course, this didn’t pertain to his separation from his wife, though he asserts, “There cannot be any separation. Any!”
I repeatedly challenge these neo-Advaita Vedantans who preach absolute oneness and non-separation to practice what they preach by giving me unlimited access to their bank accounts and credit cards. So far, I’ve found no takers. And when I just tried to walk through the wall that separates me from my bedroom, I discovered a hard fact: the wall creates real separation, because unlike Superman, I couldn’t penetrate it.
I could write my own tome deconstructing the neo-Advaita Vedanta nonsense permeating this text, but because this just a review, I’ll just provide a few samples from the text, followed by my comments.
“So what is your purpose in life? To do exactly what you’re doing.”
I’m sure ISIS that will be glad to learn that their purpose in life is to be doing what they’re doing: murdering, raping, and torturing.
“Apart from false appearances, there is nothing.”
In other words, this book is a false appearance, so how can it lead one to Truth?
“The core of [Buddha’s] entire teaching (his 45 years of it) is summarized in that one word: emptiness.”
Emptiness is not the core of what Buddha taught It’s the core of what the fogged-out father of Madhyamika Buddhism, Nagarjuna, taught. Buddha himself made it clear that Nirvana is not emptiness, but the end of becoming, which is Being. The author further bastardizes the Buddha’s teachings when he envisions him saying:
“Samsara and Nirvana are the same thing, in your mind: no experience by the individual, over a period of time. No individual, No experience, No time. No two things. No-thing”
Anyone familiar with the Buddha’s teachings knows this is not what he taught. Moreover, in diametrical opposition to the author, who puts down meditation, the Buddha emphasized it as the core of his teachings. But, of course, the author doesn’t mention this.
“We come from knowing nothing to knowing nothing.”
In addition to this 480-page tome, the author has written several other books. One can only imagine how many books he would have written if he actually knew something.
I wish I could add “no stars” to the author’s “No individual. No experience. No time. No two things. No-thing.” But since I can’t, I’ll exercise the Great Compassion of a Buddha, and generously give this book a star more than it deserves.
