This is a book about spiritual enlightenment-what it is, how it happened for me, and how you might live in such a way that it could happen for you. Few undertakings are more pretentious than writing about Absolute Truth and the ‘path’ to it. For starters, positioning oneself as an authority on the subject is obscenely audacious, and takes a lot of chutzpah. Second, words cannot touch it, so no matter how well you might be able to choose and order yours, the end result will fall so far short of the mark it may as well be an outright lie. And yet, to have something informed to say about Truth and not speak it is almost impossible. To have True Nature reveal Itself to Itself in ‘your’ presence is the greatest gift anyone could ever receive, and leaves you wishing that gift be given to everyone. In the memoir portion of this book, I’ve tried to focus on stories and life passages I feel in some way may have contributed to my Realization, or to my perspective now, sixteen years later. The last chapters are pretty much straight up ’teachings’ aimed at helping seekers on their own paths to Realization, and are the raison d’etre for this book at all. The memoir portion mainly serves as a way to get to know who you’re listening to if you make it to the latter part, but hopefully it also provides an entertaining read.The things I say about spiritual matters are not intended to inform your mind and bring understanding. They are Trojan horses aimed at destroying all that. I’m not interested in saying things satisfying to the intellect. I’m interested in saying things that might weaken your fascination with a false reality, that might put your mind on shaky ground, that might make you vulnerable to Grace.My actual purpose is to arrange my words in such a way as to cause your mind to collapse in on itself, and there are numerous phrases and passages within this book capable of doing that. Your life, too, is filled with myriad invitations to ‘Know Thyself.’ When you are ready-when you have the capacity to receive-the thought that stops the mind will happen and transmission will occur. This is my deepest wish for you, but only if you wish it for yourself.
