No comments about Bless and Be Blessed: How Your Words Can Make a Difference.

No comments about Deje De Coquetear Con La Iglesia/ Stop Dating the Church.

No comments about Gracia y Coraje.

5 comments about Relationships: Gifts of the Spirit.

1. For a Navy guy like me to admit that I read a selp help book is hard enough, but to share how much I loved it with millions of people I think is even harder! My wife forced me to start reading this book "Relationships: Gifts of the Spirit" but after about ten pages she couldn't have taken it away from me if she tried. I started with Chapter eight because it was the chapter on "war". I was expecting the normal war stuff, but instead I got a lesson in something much more important. I have started to learn how to listen to my body through pain and sickness. I never thought back and neck pain were anything more that a nuisance, but the author tells me in her book that they are messages. Maybe that five mile run was too much, maybe fighting with my wife or avoiding phone calls from my mother was not the best course of action and the only way my body knew to tell me was to make me feel pain. I have since recommended this book to all of the guys! It's not what you expect from a book about relationships.



2. I don't think this is the kind of book you come onto if you're not ready. By that, I mean there are concepts that require a certain level of emotional or spiritual development to understand. It would be like a lay-person trying to understand Einstein's concepts of the universe.
   
   The author of this "Gift" presents a viewpoint so different from what we've been taught (that being that everything is always someone else's fault) that I wonder how many people can truly understand the concepts. She doesn't vary from the idea that we are responsible for our own realities, and that the answers are to be found within ourselves. Now that's a concept (though probably one that has been taught by most of the great teachers throughout time).
   
   If you're ready to stop playing out the same old patterns of blame and response in your life, this book is for you. If you want to hold onto your problems (knowing that they were caused by your parents, or teachers, or spouse, or whoever) then you might want to pass this one up and go for one of the 7 easy steps to a happier, richer life course-book. Of course those 7 steps didn't work in the last ten books you almost finished reading, but go ahead, this next one is different.
   
   Try this book if you dare!



3. This is a Heal Thyself book. In a gentle, caring, and lighthearted voice, Ms. Hutslar shines a light on the mysteries of our everyday relationships. To welcome the concept of these relationships as special gifts (especially the challenging ones!) is a miraculous eyeopener! I turned from page to page, as if I was reading a letter written to me personally by my best friend. Once finished with the book myself, I have talked about it and shuttled it lovingly from friend, to family, to co-worker (I have an extra copy I keep safely at home!). This book is a gift you deserve to give yourself.



4. I had a great time reading a text written by an author that has a writing style that feels like a conversation rather than a book. Her issues are to the point and written with an elegant ease that enables a "regular" guy to understand without a dictionary or 10 years of study. Ms. Hutslar perfectly described and explained my relationship with my wife (which is not a simple one). Oddly enough, it is the same relationship she has with her husband. Her explanation of her relationship and the way it manifests and works for her is an excellent blueprint that you can try for yourself.
   
   In summary, it was a great and easy read with many useful insights. I highly recommend it for men and women that are "lost in space" trying to find a practical relationship concept to anchor your mature thinking.



5. It's so great to see people's opinions on this book! Julie Hutslar is my aunt, and I read the book and liked it (esp. the acknowledgments page, where she says that I was the original inspiration for the book) :)
   By the way, did anybody like the poem "The Gift" in the book? My mom wrote it...I think it's amazing!
   ~Maggie

2 comments about Soulution.

1. This is one of the best books I have ever read. It is full of spiritual truths, explained in beautiful, succinct language that is easy to understand. I have read dozens of books in my life related to spiritual themes, but I think this book contains more useful, practical spiritual advice than all the others combined. If you are looking for a book that will give you spiritual direction, purpose, and hope, this is the book you need.



2. Like many of us on a spiritual path, you have probably helped make amazon the succes it is, buying and reading everything you can find that will help you take the next step on your path. THIS book is one that you will never, ever regret buying. It opens doors to new ways of thinking, sheds light on beliefs you might have explored. This book has truly helped change my ways of thinking. I fely myself nodding and agreeing with virtually everything he says! What a wise man!

No comments about Finding Intimacy in a World of Fear.

No comments about Diccionario de los Santos.

No comments about Mind, Mouth, Manifestation: The Process of Creation.

No comments about Viva Iluminación (Espiritualidad De Hoy).

5 comments about Radical Awakening: Cutting through the Conditioned Mind.

1. If you are looking for a story of a man who got what you don't seem to have, you may more or less enjoy this book. It will keep Liberation at a safe distance: only for the few "awakened ones" and not (yet) for you, the reader.
   If you really want to know what true awakening is, you'd better read Tony Parson's book "As It Is". Or a book from Steven Harrison, Chuck Hillig, Nathan Gill or Douglas Harding.
   I liked the title "my name is nobody" on page 151, but I am disappointed the whole enlightenment issue is personalised. For example, he claims to be awakened (p.65). A lot of readers may be confused about that. Liberation has nothing to do with a person, and even less with perfection or holiness (as is suggested in a lot of books from the East). Although I am sure meeting Stephen is very interesting, inspiring and maybe exiting, keep your head clear about this.
   Remember: awakening has nothing to do with me or Stephen or Tony or Douglas, it is about That which we all share. If you can keep that in mind, it is OK to read Stephen Jourdain's book. Or to go and see him.

   Jan Kersschot, author of "Nobody Home"




2. mr jourdain is another of that rare breed who see beyond what the rest of us are capable of seeing. awake! he sees beyond the poor shadows and ego games we take as real life and a real world. he knows how to be still and know I AM. this is an interesting book of conversations with a very rare bird indeed. in my humble judgement i rate jourdain with the likes of david hawkins and jed mckenna, but probably still short of ramana maharshi and nisargadatta maharaj and a few, very few, others. i notice these great ones generally tell us seeking is futile, there's no "place" we should go and there's nothing we need "do." they hold rank on me and i can't argue but i always notice that they themselves were extremely driven "seekers" before the great awakening came. things that make you say, "hmmm"...a very interesting read this book is, about a very interesting fellow. for myself, though, i think i'll just keep right on knocking to open, asking to be given, seeking to find.....



3. Definately a Frenchman in his consumate appreciation of language. If I didn't know any better, I'd say I was reading someone with the playful rollercoaster verbosity of a Gilles Deleuze only with a more metaphysical slant. Unfortunately the book comes across more as an ego trip than an ego transcendance but who's to be the judge in these matters? How do you critically evaluate a mystic, when you are not awakened? Instict, intuition? Perhaps. Jourdain speaks about the ineffable with an admixture of nihilism, dizzy poetic baroque language and literary vigor. The only evident thing here is the man can talk! Don't expect anything else -It's HOPELESS!!



4. This is a well structured conversation with Stephen Jourdain. Probably, the original conversation took place in French and then later translated into English. The translator used words which are not very common in American English conversations which forced me to use the dictionary. I had difficulty understanding what Stephen really intended at some very important places because of lack of clarity in translation or punctuation or correctness of expression or some other fault.

   Nevertheless it is a special book. It is different from `As It Is' by Tony parsons or similar books which talk of pure Presence etc. Because the author does not have an established framework and vocabulary, the explanations are difficult to grasp completely. However there are brilliant presentations of awakening which may work as hints on how a seeker can approach to understand it.

   However, the book lacks in establishing either the cause, preparation or a clear-cut path to this realization. There are some discrete ideas which are helpful. But, they may not form a complete guidance for a seeker.

   Stephen has not given any Yes or No answers to Reincarnation, who will get this enlightenment, a path and other questions. We have to live with this ambiguity. At times the answers are contradictory.

   Page 37:

   SJ: "There is certainly a union of the subject and the object but they do not "Fuse", they do not disappear in some kind of undistinguishable magma. What's miraculous in these experiences is that, without in the least losing my identity, in legitimately remaining who I am, I become the table, the stove, or the mountain, or the entire landscape, which in turn, remains integrally itself." . . . . . ..

   . . . . "The extraordinary thing is that two completely different things can be truly joined while each, at the same time, maintains its original nature."

   The nature of an awakened is explained quite forcefully through out the book. The essays on `The Powers', `Practical Work' are very important and highly forceful. These present the nature of illusion and the solution in a very direct way. The thoughts are very profound (but at some places unclear) and one needs to read the essays in completion. I am quoting a few thoughts here.

   Page 55 and 56:

   SJ: " . . . . . . I'm talking about certain qualities of discernment that do not exist in the normal conscious state and which are the properties of the awakening. When the awakening presents itself, they take their place in the same way that the faculty of attention, the faculty of reasoning, etc., return automatically and instantly upon awakening in the morning."

   GF: What are these faculties ?

   SJ: "First and foremost, the discernment of a primordial thought springing forth directly from the spiritual essence. Therefore, it does not concern the thought that emanates from the usual psychological subject, but from the original thought preceding that. This thought does not gush from the faucet but from the spring itself which, as everyone knows, is the ultimate source of the faucet. This discernment is immensely important because it is what brings about the "disidentification". Following that is the conscious discernment of this combination called my "spirit" or my "inner life" as an image. The usual state of consciousness proceeds from the postulate that if I can create a mental image of my mother or of a tree, they're like little paintings hung in a room, yet the room is not an image, no more, infact, than I who produce all that. But the awakening brings the recognition of a primordial, mental imagery issuing directly from the source. In other words, the picture my own spirit has of itself is a presentation of nature full of images. There is not, of course, any kind of awareness of this in the state of normal sleep. The extraordinary thing is that doing away with that means doing away with "my spirit". Finally, I'll mention the discernment of the me as originally conceived, which can be declared as the mortal enemy of me in its integrity. The usual state of consciousness is "me degrading into a thought of me"."

   Page 171:

   "In order to reabsorb the hallucination, bring back what is only thought to the source of thought in such a way that it appears in its true mental nature, that is to say as nothingness, a first method would consist of making an attack at the very heart of the dream. The central rivet of the hallucination is nothing other than the absolute belief in myself in the act of producing a thought, of dreaming of this or that. Whether my thoughts are happy or sad, it would appear that I can't place the objective reality of the situation into doubt: I am there and I secrete an inner world, yet my mood swings, and I question myself about the existence of the awakening, about my chances of getting there or, quite simply, of boring myself silly; all that has no real existence. There's a paradox here: having no power over your own inner states, you endure them. You'd prefer not to worry anything while, at the same time, establishing that the generative thoughts of worry resist you. You can't easily chase them. Yet, that means that, while having the intuition that what you are is not reducible to your thoughts ("I worry" necessarily supposes the existence of an "I"), you confer on the latter the fact that they resist you, an objective status. In other words, the usual state of consciousness has the characteristic of an extraordinary madness: having the presentiment that at the center of myself there is only myself while at the same time, being certain of the presence at the center of myself of a not-me - as a matter of fact, if the worry wasn't from the not-me, I would be able to reabsorb it and not endure it. The most interesting way to accomplish this is to question the reality of what happens within me now, immediately, right away."

   Some people may complain that Stephen sounds very egotic in referring to his personal privileged gifts which opened the awakening for him. Some may even get discouraged that it is not for them. We only have to accept what he is saying whether we like it or not. After all he is very un-conventional through out the book. Whatever may be our feelings, the book has profound explanations of awakening and has clues into the mind of a man who lives by it.

   It is worthwhile reading it.




5. These conversations with our man Stephen Jourdain should be read as dispassionately as possible. To be fully engrossed in his words, one must forget what is usually taken to be the signs of a rambling personality on fire. This is not that. This is something much more, and it should become clear to anyone who is really interested that the words explain much about the state Steve is experiencing.
   
   Therefore, it might help to read it more than once and even try to puzzle over the words and find out what it might have been like to be Steve. Overall, I give this 4 stars because I like the man and have never come across anyone who speaks about this experience so clearly; that is, almost exclusively concentrated on personal experience and in the language of a European. Even my personal favorite teacher Nisargadatta Maharaj speaks in the language of Hinduism: tamas, rajas, sattva, the five elements, etc. However, it does not warrant 5 stars because it is just a set of conversations, there is nothing complete about it. I imagine his written books go into much more detail but they are not widely circulated here in the States; never read any of them.
   
   This is not a method-based expression of the awakening, it is mostly a personal recollection. Steve is not a teacher of any technique or school of thought or religion. Above all, remember to forget these words, because they are not to be taken absolutely at all. For any "westerner" interested in "liberation from the false" this is quite a good introduction to what that could mean. Be careful not to let your ego sting too much with it, it is hard to read it without worrying over one's own worth. To be sure, we are all headed in this direction, however far along we may appear to be. Don't believe me? Well read it, read it again, and then forget it.