ON THE MYSTERY OF BEING

I had the pleasure of meeting the editors who are also the founders of SAND (Science and Non-duality) when presenting in Italy last summer (my presentation is on their YouTube channel, along with an interview). I share the view expressed by Fritjof Capra in endorsing this book: "Human civilisation will only survive if we are able to create communities whose members do not find happiness in excessive material consumption, but in relationships among each other and with the entire community of life. This book of many voices shows beautifully that Maurizio and Zaya have created such a community." It was just this sense of community that I briefly experienced at Titignano and I would recommend the community online gatherings on a Saturday evening European time (www.scienceandnonduality.com).

The book consists of seven parts and nearly fifty short pieces on contemporary spirituality, metaphysics, consciousness, nature, the body, intimacy, the shadow, and doorways to heaven. In his foreword, Deepak Chopra already draws out the importance of understanding and experiencing that "I am That", awakening to choiceless awareness and returning our allegiance to the source. Given the format, readers are provided with many glimpses of insight that can be further followed up in books or practices. The editors remark that 'There is no ultimate truth. No teacher, no scientist will give us all the answers. Let us simply bow to the intelligence of our hearts, drop into not knowing, keep our minds open, cherish the questions, and let answers arise and evolve, all the while celebrating this mystery called life.' (p. 3) The spirit of enquiry pervades the contributions where our very questions are necessarily 'rooted in the structure of consciousness' as Adyashanti observes. Some of the essays in the first part can be used as a point of departure for self-enquiry, such as those from Jeff Foster, Rupert Spira and Dorothy Hunt, who quotes Ramana Maharshi as saying 'The Self is only one. If limited it is the ego, if unlimited, it is Infinite, and it is the Reality.' This says it all….

Mauro Bergonzi makes the subtle observation that 'the thinking mind can grasp only concepts, but not the awareness that perceives it as an object. The "water of awareness" can never be detected by the net of the thinking mind.' (p. 28) A number of contributors relate this to the limitations of a purely objective approach to a science of consciousness. Pete Russell suggests that we need to question our basic assumptions in this respect and takes the view that the brain 'merely determines what appears in consciousness' – a similar thought is expressed by Donald Hoffman in his discussion of how we have evolved a user interface where three-dimensional space is our desktop: 'Space-time is not a fundamental reality. It's a data structure that we evolved. We are living in the matrix of our data structure' and in a world where consciousness is fundamental - this is a realisation that increasing numbers of people are now coming to. Bernardo Kastrup also characterises the brain as the localisation of consciousness.

Charles Eisenstein writes about the ecological initiation, which we are also experiencing in terms of the reset that is likely to come about following lockdown. Many have interpreted the virus as a message from the Earth and a reminder that we need to treat all life as sacred and not simply as a resource to be exploited for our benefit. Many books on science and spirituality would not address the body as teacher, the heart of intimacy and exploring the shadows. However, all these are important dimensions of our humanness while constituting elements of our interconnectedness. Gabor Mate warns that we neglect our fundamental unity at our peril, observing that our current capitalist system is based on separate and competing individuals and a corresponding materialistic medical philosophy. We need to extend its evidence base and remember his message - so poignant at this time - of the human need for contact, connection and communion: what Thich Nhat Hanh calls inter-being.

Those in intimate relationships will find much nourishment in this section that can help us go deeper, seeing beyond the separate self and even discovering that our true nature is love. Eric Baret comes straight to the point when he writes that 'the ego cannot love, people project onto you the answer to an expectation… The nature of things is love.. Love isn't exclusive, it's inclusive.' We are now being presented with some aspects of our individual and collective shadows, and this may even generate a sufficient energy of outrage to shift the whole system if enough of us become informed, waking up to our deep identity and inherent freedom, aligning our intentions and actions (see also my review below referring to the fierce feminine in Anaiya Sophia). No reader will draw the same insights from such a wide-ranging book, but there are many gems to be mined and I would also encourage you to engage in the SAND community.