Noumenon is published and edited by Dr. Kriben Pillay, in Wandsbeck, South Africa. You may order Noumenon at the following web page:
http://users.iafrica.com/n/no/noumenon/page6.html , where there are links to past issues. Or email Kriben Pillay at noumenon@iafrica.com.

The Summer 2001/2002 issue marks the 17th issue in 7
years. Website addresses relevant to each article are
given, making this publication easily expandable across
the internet.

The feature inquiry in the Summer 2001/2002 issue
concerns Transformation in the Workplace. Spiritual
teachers were presented the following question and
invited to respond:

"How do you perceive the practical role of spirituality
in the workplace, where such a spirituality would be a
radical transformation of the way we work, relate to
each other, and care for the environment?"

The following are selections from a few of the
responses:

Let Davidson: "Today's democratisation of consciousness
makes the workplace a legitimate -- and necessary --
domain of this awakening, and an opportunity to share
this experience with others."

David Deida: "To offer your most valuable presence to
others, discover your deepest purpose for being alive.
Know your reason for being in the room with your
colleagues. Stay in touch with your deep purpose as you
open without limits. Open and feel the earth below and
the sky above. Open and feel to your left and right and
front and back. Actually open your body as if you were
embracing the space around you as your lover. Feel all
others as if you were feeling into the caring heart of
your lover. Feel their deep heart from your deep
heart."

Jim Dreaver: "Presence is learned through heightened
mind/body awareness. As we breathe slowly and
consciously, relax our muscles, and bring our attention
out of our head, into our body, into an awareness of our
immediate environment, we find ourselves naturally more
alert and at ease in the present. Presence itself
becomes the source of our physical energy, charisma,
and confidence. It is the foundation upon which the
other skills stand. It is the key to seeing the facts of
any situation with clarity, to making the best
decisions, and to taking the right action."

Barry Long: "No can do. The question to me is
meaningless. Meaningless means intellectual.
Intellectual means entertaining the mind weed. A
'spiritual' question with 'we' in it is an avoidance of
the only truth. The only truth begins with 'I'. Before
any real enduring transformation of the outer can take
place, 'I' must address rightly, and dissolve rightly ,
the mental clutter and emotional clamor in my self. I
do this with intelligence. It is not intelligent in
living or endeavouring to live the divine life to be
concerned about we. I, once purified of the notion of
self -- self-will, self-doubt, self-certainty,
self-love, self-consideration -- disappears into an
intelligence beyond the understanding and comprehension
of those concerned with we."

Rob Rabbin: "Searching for new techniques and strategies
to run our businesses more profitably is too narrow a
focus. Expanding our focus to take in the world, we
need instead to become more fully human. Then, with our
humanity leading the way, we will know how to act
properly and avoid disaster -- both in the world and in
our business."

Krishnamurti is quoted: "Now, what is it that makes us
dull? Is it the work itself? Or is it our resistance to
work, or our avoidance of other impacts upon us?" ...
...does action, work, make the mind dull? Or is the mind
made dull by avoidance, by conflict, by resistance that
dulls the mind? If you have no resistance and accept
work, what happens?"

~~~

Jan Kersschot introduces his book, Coming Home,
interviews with eight spiritual teachers. Part of the
interview with Douglas Harding is included.

Sample: Kersschot asks, "Is discovering this seeing more
about becoming ordinary instead of being special?"

Harding replies: "It makes you more ordinary than
special. You don't feel special. I think this is very
important because this seeing has nothing to do with a
guru and disciples. I do not behave like that because I
don't feel like that. When you really see who you
really are, you see you are No-thing, and so you are not
superior. The fact that you wish to celebrate it, and
share it with friends, that is your privilege. But it
doesn't mean that other people aren't there; they are
all in a certain sense enlightened. They are just
ignorant about their own enlightenment. So you can't
feel superior. It is very democratic, this vision."

~~~

The War on Paper is psychotherapist Patricia A. Burke's
telling of a workshop encounter with Byron Katie: "So
there it is, my own violence toward me, toward this
thing on my eyelid I call 'not me'. And it is my
violence toward the whole world. Good reason to give it
up, so I turn it around. It's my thinking that is ugly,
grotesque, terrible. I feel the suffering of my
attachment to this story. Can I meet it with
understanding? ... Who would I be if I never had the
thought that this white fatty deposit is ugly,
separate, terrible and I'm supposed to get rid of it? Am
I the Nazi, the Palestinian terrorist, the Israeli man
in the audience, a woman with a blemish on her face?
Without the story, I am all of these and none of these.
I am simply peace sitting in this chair."

~~~

Dialogue with Stanley Sobottka, is an e-mail interview
by Ivan Frimmel about Sobottka's Course in
Consciousness. Frimmel asks a number of in-depth,
lengthy questions that come from a thinking, conceptual
space, to which Sobattka would appear to be replying
from the disposition of direct seeing. Following one
such lengthy question taking 30 lines of text, Sobattka
simply replies, "As I said above, the best answer is to
'see' that you are pure Awareness and that this is
unchanging."

Sobottka is often, but not always, so spare in his use
of words in this interview, nor is he trying to avoid
answering. He responds generously throughout this
interview. As well, he says, "I am always open to
questions about the course from my readers, and will
respond promptly." This reviewer can confirm that.
Access The Course in Consciousness at
http://faculty.virginia.edu/consciousness/. New
material is added frequently. This interview in Noumenon could be considered supplemental to the Course.

~~~

The final article is What is Enlightenment?, by Dr.
Nitin Trasi, M.D. It is a presentation from the book,
The Science of Enlightenment, given structure by an
abstract, an introduction, a list of main points which
are elaborated, a results section, a conclusion, and
notes and references. An excerpt:

"To be precise, Enlightenment is the loss of the
delusion of the 'me', not the 'me' itself. Let us be
clear about this. The 'me' is an appearance -- like the
circle produced by a whirling torch. It is not entirely
an illusion (like a hallucination) because the
appearance does exist. But it is a relative reality --
transient and ever-changing. The delusion consists in
believing it to be more real than it is -- believing it
to be an entity by itself, a homunculus, or even a
'soul' inhabiting the body -- and identifying with it."

Between the opening story of Paul Brunton's encounter
with Ramana, and a closing quote from a John Lennon
lyric, Dr. Trasi considers what enlightenment is, as
thoroughly as seven pages of text would allow.

~~~

The last part of this issue of Noumenon is dedicated to
a dozen book reviews. Shirley Bell's review of Ken
Wilber's Integral Psychology: Consciousness, Spirit,
Psychology, Therapy, occupies ten pages of text and
provides a number of handles for the reader seeking to
grasp facet's of Wilber's thought.

Also in the book review section are generous excerpts
from two books which are introductions to emerging
teachers in the West: Dialogues With Emerging Spiritual
Teachers, by John W. Parker, and The Awakening West:
Evidence of a Spreading Enlightenment, by Lynn Marie
Lumiere and John Lumiere-Wins.

~~~

The full edition of Noumenon is available only in hard copy at $10 U.S. per year, as of this writing. Along with Meditation Society of America's Inner Traveler, Andrew Cohen's What Is Enlightenment?, and the journal of Inner Directions, it makes up the Big Four English language hard copy publications grounded in a nondual perspective and embracing a variety of backgrounds, of which I am aware.

You may order Noumenon at the following web page:
http://users.iafrica.com/n/no/noumenon/page6.html ,
where there are links to past issues. Or email Kriben
Pillay at noumenon@iafrica.com.

--Jerry Katz
Jerry@nonduality.com

top of page