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Life Without a Centre: Awakening from the Dream of Separation By Jeff Foster ( Non-Duality Press )
Release Date: 2006-12-12
Average Customer Rating:
List Price: $13.95
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Product Description
We try to escape from the play of life and the suffering that being "a person in the world" entails. Our efforts to find spiritual enlightenment have the opposite effect and reinforce an underlying feeling of lack, of separation. In Life Without a Centre, Jeff Foster suggests that there is only ever the present appearance of life, with no individual at its core who could ever escape even if they wanted to. The entire spiritual search is nothing more than a game we play with ourselves, the cosmic entertainment. Jeff cuts through the confusion and frustration surrounding the search for escape through spiritual enlightenment, by pointing to the utterly obvious: This moment, and everything that arises in it, is already the liberation that is sought. Life, just as it is, is already what we've been searching for our entire lives. Jeff Foster graduated in astrophysics from Cambridge University. Soon after graduation, life events propelled him onto an intense two-year spiritual search, culminating in the realisation that there was never anything to find in the first place. He currently writes and talks on what some people have called "non-duality", but which he just refers to as "the utterly, utterly obvious".
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 Wonder if he's really awake?
I bought this book based on some of the reviews I read and I was mostly disappointed. It is awkwardly written and while the author has the ability and grasp of non-duality concepts and words, it did not resonate with me. I live with "someone" who is "awake" and this book did not strike me as written by someone who has truly broken with the illusion or dream. I felt like he was writing to convince himself and others. It seems like he is writing about it, not from it. If you are looking to engage more seriously on this topic, I would strongly recommend other authors such as, Leo Hartong (Awaking in the Dream) or Tony Parsons (The Open Secret) or if you like more edge, Jed McKenna (Spiritual Enlightenment, the Damndest Thing).
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Don't waste your time or money! ( booksherenow )
I found this to be utterly worthless, unmoving, an obvious (and poorly written) copy of other texts that have come before and said it better. Nothing is really added to the field.
There was no connection, no interest and I can't really say for sure that he is "the real deal" and not just parroting what he has read or gleaned from a few insights.
Save your time and money - if interested - required (and much better) reading on this topic is:
Franklin Merrill Wolf''s books, Awakening to the Dream, I Am That, Anything by Tony Parsons, jed McKenna.
As one who (apparently) has undergone the transformation he alludes to, I wrote lots of stuff like this early on after "I awoke", I had the good sense to not try and publish it - realizing that it has been done better by others.
Save your time and money. If you've read all the suggested references and are still a seeker - maybe you should take some time off from reading about other's experiences and go have some of your own.
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 Exquisite, clear expression of nonduality ( jez_1975 )
I love this book- it's taken up permanent residence on my bedside table! The book is a crystal clear expression of That which cannot be expressed. The writing is playful and honest, but also deeply beautiful and shining with clarity and presence, and the author shows a solid grasp of the nondual way without any sort of superiority or arrogance whatsoever, as another reviewer commented. There's a human quality to it which I love; it leaves me with such peace and balance when I read it.
I can't believe those reviewers who say this is badly written. Its style is playful and fun, and the author is really trying to use words to point beyond words. I can see how this frustrates some readers who WANT something from the book. This book gives you NOTHING! But as the author says, it's in that no-thing that absolute freedom is found. I guess a lot of readers come to these books with the idea that the book will ADD something to their lives, and certainly this book is to be avoided for those people who dislike paradox and uncertainty! Yes- this book is truly nondual - Jeff Foster never attempts to give you anything - because it's in the ''seeing-through'' of ''you'' where the freedom lies, as he demonstrates so clearly.
This is a clear, accessible book on nonduality, devoid of pretence or the ''I'm enlightened and you're not!'' attitude (found in many so called spiritual books) which is so hypocritical. A beautiful, beautiful book, but not for anyone whose ego is hungry for more content!!
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 Sophmoric ( jsiemion )
I'm not sure why there are such rave reviews of this book. To me, it comes across as amateurish and, like someone else wrote, poorly written.
With the slew of nonduality titles out there, I'd recommend starting somewhere else (John Wheeler, Nisargadatta, Tony Parsons, Ramesh Balsekar). In fact, this is one of the worst books I've read on this subject.
I feel like the author hasn't really steeped into this stuff long enough (He's 26 or 27 yrs old.) Indeed, he searched for two or three years, then "got it" and the first thing he apparently did is write a book -- this book.
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A cup of tea
This book is not for beginners or those unfamiliar with non-duality. This book will be highly appreciated by those who have read the works of Ramana and Nisargadatta to name a few well known masters on non-duality.
In Part Three of the book, "A cup of tea", coincidentally, I have been practicing it before using the chinese tea set and the writings of Jeff Foster has actually reinforced my practice. It actually expedited the 'disappearance' of 'my' ego.
Quoted from the book,"I do not drink the tea, for there is no tea and no 'I' who can drink. And I, if I am anything, am the silent observer behind all of this, the space in which it all happens".
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Addiction
