My original plan for 2023 was to complete my “Buddhist Trilogy” by writing “Mindfulness for Smarties” (a Pali Buddhism and meditation text), but after devoting so much time and energy to “Buddhist Book Reviews for Smarties,” Zen Mind, Thinker’s Mind,” and “Radical Dzogchen,” all published in 2023, I realized that I needed a break from writing on Buddhism.
With this in mind, I’ve already started work on my next book “Nonduality and Mind-Only through the Prism of Reality,” which I will then follow with a ground-breaking book on Kabbalah (wherein I get to exercise my expertise in astro-occultism). After completing these two books, I’ll then write “Mindfulness for Smarties.”
I’ve watched videos and read books by many authors who write on nonduality, including Rupert Spira, Jay Michaelson, David Loy, Marshall Davis, Donald Hoffman, and uber-popular Bernardo Kastrup. My view is that none of these guys are in my league as a spiritual exegete and thinker, so I decided to write a book on the subject that considers it in an esoteric context beyond their ken. If all goes well, I’ll complete this book in 2023, and publish it along with “The Power of Now Meditation Guide,” which I completed a couple of years ago, but haven’t got around to preparing for publication. Then it will be on to writing my Kabbalah book.
Perhaps most importantly, I plan to start a YouTube channel in 2024, and actively seek interviews with other YouTubers. This will be a lot of fun and agony (because, as a big-mouth pontificating critic, I’ll doubtless get a lot of grief for ripping icons that millions worship).
In short, barring unforeseen circumstances, the next couple of years should be productive and interesting ones for me.
My Plans for 2023-2024
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Congratulations, Ron.
Those of us who follow your work and thoughts are pleased to be able to read and listen to you. Of your last two books published, which one would you recommend I start with?
I would like to ask you several different questions:
1. What is your opinion about the traditionalist philosopher Julius Evola? Do you recommend his books?
2. Do you know the current spiritual teacher Shunyamurti? He leads an ashram and wisdom school in Costa Rica y publish
3. Lastly, you could write an article on the interrelationship between late capitalism, ecological crisis, and the spiritual decline of our postmodern society. In my opinion, we are experiencing a time of falling consciousness that manifests itself on many levels (art, thought, loss of contact with the spiritual world as if traditional societies had). The idea and possibility of the Metaverse is the epitome of the technological calf that we worship blindly and lacking in wisdom. Technological totems are the new icons of the current divinity.
I wish you the best for your future projects.
From Spain, cordially
Federico
Thank you, Federico.
Start with “Zen Mind, Thinker’s Mind.” I’ve read four Evola books, and one of them, “The Doctrine of Awakening: The Attainment of Self-Mastery According to the Earliest Buddhist Texts,” is on my Spiritual Reading List. The other three Evola books I’ve read are “Revolt Against the Modern World,” The Hermetic Tradition,” and “The Yoga of Power,” and none of these especially impressed me. I’ve watched a number of Shunyamurti videos. He a smart, articulate guy, as one would expect from a Jewish attorney. And he’s entertaining, into being a comedian to a degree; but his Dharma teachings and sociopolitical takes don’t cut the mustard with me.
The article you are requesting from me would involve a lot of work. I’ve played with the idea of heavily writing and talking about sociopolitics (and I did devote a chapter, Buddhist Politics 501, to the subject in “Zen Mind, Thinker’s Mind”), but a serious commitment to sociopolitics on top of spirituality would be too much of a burden on me at this time. So for now, my writing will continue to focus mainly on spiritual philosophy.
Hi Ron,
Sorry for my english, i’m french. I am reading your books reviews and i am enjoying it, i agree with almost all your opinions, wich is a rare thing for me!^^ I’m surprise that there is nothing about Paul Brunton’s work… neither in good or bad. It should be interesting to have your opinion on him and his work (not “the secret path” because he said himself, in the notes left after his death, that there was a lot of mistakes in it, he was too young when he wrote it )! Wish you a good day Ron!
Hi Guillaume,
I read Paul Brunton early in my spiritual journey, but I don’t remember specifics about his work. But I remember that when I began reading Ramana Maharshi around the same time, I no longer had an interest in reading Brunton.
Dear Mr Gardner,
Sometimes, when I sit to meditate, and I am able to get quite deep with my meditation, the breath gets extremely shallow and refined, and sometimes, isn’t even there. Sometimes, when this happens, all of a sudden, I feel a pressure at the top of my head. It feels almost like the blood is draining out of the brain. The pressure is in the top region of the head. Then, all of a sudden, as this happens, my vision becomes very bright (my eyes are closed), almost like a bright white light. And as this happens, all of the boundaries of consciousness expand imensely, like they are destroyed, and the usual chains that hold together my usual sense self are also destroyed or heavily attenuated. Is this Shakti?
Usually, after this happens, I am able to abide in a deep and profound Samadhi, which feels almost cosmic
Can you please help me understand what is happening?
warm regards
As you stated, you are experiencing a profound samadhi. The “pressure” you experience is from Shakti, the force of Consciousness.
Mr. Ron, this all sounds great, and I look forward to it and wish you the best. And thank you for your work. By the way, by “David” Hoffman, I wonder if you meant to write “Donald” Hoffman? Agreed that you are in another league from those guys anyway. For instance, I can pose the following question to you, but not to any of them I don’t think. Or anyone else alive that I can think of actually.
Lately, I have been thinking about the fact that Adi Shankara and Hui Hai appear to have walked this earth at the same time. We know the former to have said “brahma satyam,” usually translated as “Brahman is absolute reality” or something similar. I suspect you believe that Hui Hai, alive at the same time (probably, I know it’s not a certainty), was delivering the same fundamental message, although obviously in a different language and cultural/religious context. My question is this: Presumably, Hui Hai would have said something like “Hsin” is the absolute reality, right? If not, please let me know what you think he would have said, and, more importantly, how you believe the “concept” (for lack of a better word) would best be expressed in English. Is this the “Mind” that you have written about before? “Consciousness”?
Thanks!
Yep, I meant Donald Hoffman. I’ll correct it. Hsin (or Xin) means Heart, the same Heart, or Self, or Consciousness, or Mind that Ramana Maharshi emphasizes. It is also a synonym for freed Citta (often translated as Heart-Mind). And when Citta is freed, it is Cit, immanent transcendental Consciousness.
Dear Ron,
I wish you a long and healthy life to accomplish all of these projects and more. You are the only one that i saw in the so called spiritual crowd, who knows the real esoteric spirituality and define it very clearly and skillfully.
Do you know Gareth Duningham and Forrest Knutson? Gareth has many experiences about Shaktipat ( Grace ) and he claimed that, he is fully enlightened.
Forrest is a Kriya Yoga guy but he is a very different approach to meditation. He has analyzed samadhi with neuro-science and he created a simple formula which cause always at least a deep meditation and at best consistent samadhies…
Hi Kerem,
Thank you for your kind wishes. I haven’t heard of either one of these guys, but I’ll Google their names and see what I can find on them.
Kerem, I checked them both out, and neither of them especially impresses me. After TM, I took SRF lessons (as directed to by my first spiritual teacher, John R. Logan) and attended many SRF sermons/satsangs in San Diego. But once I began reading Ramana Maharshi, Huang Po, and Mahamudra teachings, I was done with SRF. I have no interest in Yogananda, Babaji, or “Kriya Yoga” teachings. Kriya yoga is described in the Yoga Sutras. And, as Knutson points out, there are numerous versions of Kriya Yoga. Knutson thinks the medulla oblongata is where one finds God-realization. I don’t. I don’t resonate at all with Gareth Duignam’s ideas/teachings regarding Shaktipat. He’s clearly not fully Enlightened.