NIRMALA’S BOOKS A TREASURE TROVE
OF ADVAITA WISDOM
I came to Nirmala’s books as a lifelong mystic and spiritual explorer who served as an ordained minister for 22 years. The mystics of the East and the West have inspired me for decades. After reading the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, Shankara, many Buddhist teachers, and the Yoga Vasistha, I wanted to explore the Advaita tradition in more depth. I stumbled onto Nirmala’s books after an on-line search. I only planned to read his book Nothing Personal: Seeing Beyond the Illusion of a Personal Self as a way of answering some questions about the Buddhist concept of No-Self. But after reading this book I was so delighted with what I found in its pages that I went on to read three more of his books, Meeting the Mystery: Exploring the Aware Presence at the Heart of All life; Living from the Heart; and That is That: Essays About True Nature.
What Nirmala (AKA Daniel Erway of Sedona, Arizona) does in these books is nothing short of remarkable. T.S. Eliot once wrote that the job of the poet is to make the most difficult truths of philosophy and religion as immanent as the fragrance of a rose. Nirmala has taken some of the most difficult truths of Eastern religion and philosophy, distilled them, and expressed them in clear, concise form. What might be called the metaphysics and ethics of Advaita non-dual thought have been clearly and simply expressed in Nirmala’s books in ways that make them applicable to everyday life.
As he does this, Nirmala injects wry humor and amusing examples with which we can easily identify. He also shares a few snapshots of his own life and struggles, which bring these ideas to life for us. His approach is wonderfully refreshing especially after wading through the hundreds of repetitious pages of the Yoga Vasistha!
In addition to restating clearly the main ideas of Advaita non-dual thought, Nirmala adds many practical suggestions for applying these ideas to our lives. I found Nirmala’s books treasure troves of wonderful insights and suggestions. Following are a few of his ideas that I found most helpful:
1. The real me is not this body or my ego but Awareness. This basic conscious awareness was never born and will never die. Knowing this gives one a cosmic perspective on everyday problems. When you know that you are Awareness you don’t need to be a seeker anymore. You know that you already are what you wished to become. So just Be! (Here he echoes one of his sources Ramana Maharshi.)
2. When everyday problems besiege us it is wise to give them space and blast off from them up into the cosmic Awareness that we really are.
3. Wisdom and Truth expand the heart and quiet the mind. We can actually feel our hearts expand in the presence of truth and contract in the presence of lesser truth. If we put our hands over our heart and open our heart we can actually feel the flow of Being. This provides a powerful guide for living.
4. Judgment cuts us off from the flow of being as we close our hearts to what is. Accepting what is rather then engaging in denial or attack leads to insight and growth.
5. We learn and grow from all of our choices in life, both the bad ones and the good ones. Being just enjoys watching us explore and learn -- so you might say it’s all good.
6. Everything is alive and aware, even a stone. It’s all the dream of the one primal Awareness Being that we all are at different levels of awareness.
7. Hold all ideas lightly knowing that change is the norm.
8. Surrender to what is and explore it knowing that desire for what is not is what brings about suffering. Be grateful for whatever is, knowing that in the cosmic perspective all is well.
9. Be aware that Being is always working for our highest good, but also knowing that it gives us the freedom to choose lesser goods until we learn (the hard way!) to flow with the highest will of Being. The Wise man or woman aligns his or her will with the highest good of Being.
Well, I could go on and on listing the powerful insights in these books. But one last observation about Nirmala’s work – something I found most refreshing. He’s humble about this work. He does not claim to be the divine revealer and he does not want us to accept him as our savior or guru -- or write him a check! He shares his ideas, but tells us to find our own way to our own truth. The only truth he seems to find non-negotiable is the Advaita truth that there is only the One Thing and we are all It. I am not exaggerating when I say that Nirmala’s books have been enlightening and life changing for me. I hope they find wide readership. This is the kind of thought that our fragmented world needs desperately at this point in history.
Gratefully, Dwight L Zavitz, Jr.
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I loved the process described for living from the heart. It is a book that I will use daily to help guide my spiritual journey through life. A well written, thought provoking book.
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- Tushy14Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 18, 2012
An end to the search, for those who want to listen
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