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The Wonder of Being: Awakening to an Intimacy Beyond Words
A combined and fully revised edition of Jeff Foster's first two books Life Without a Centre and Beyond Awakening.
What if life is infinitely simpler than you ever imagined?
We spend our lives seeking wealth, success, love, fulfilment, and even "spiritual enlightenment" in the future. Yet right at the heart of life there is an intimacy, a simplicity, a wholeness that is totally beyond words—and which cannot be reached through any kind of effort. In our attempts to change, to improve ourselves, or become "enlightened," we end up ignoring this wordless intimacy which is our birthright and our true home.
The Wonder of Being points to the eternal freedom which exists beyond the seeker and the sought, and shows us the hidden assumptions that underlie our seeking activities. With great humour, compassion and clarity, Jeff Foster reminds us of something we have always known—that life, as it is, is a miracle... and beyond our thoughts, we are already free.
What if life is infinitely simpler than you ever imagined?
We spend our lives seeking wealth, success, love, fulfilment, and even "spiritual enlightenment" in the future. Yet right at the heart of life there is an intimacy, a simplicity, a wholeness that is totally beyond words—and which cannot be reached through any kind of effort. In our attempts to change, to improve ourselves, or become "enlightened," we end up ignoring this wordless intimacy which is our birthright and our true home.
The Wonder of Being points to the eternal freedom which exists beyond the seeker and the sought, and shows us the hidden assumptions that underlie our seeking activities. With great humour, compassion and clarity, Jeff Foster reminds us of something we have always known—that life, as it is, is a miracle... and beyond our thoughts, we are already free.
- GenresSpiritualityNonfiction
238 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 30, 2010
71 people are currently reading
190 people want to read
About the author
Jeff Foster
63 books262 followersJeff Foster graduated in Astrophysics from Cambridge University in 2001. Several years after graduation, following a period of severe depression and illness, he became addicted to the idea of "spiritual enlightenment", and embarked on an intensive spiritual search which lasted for several years.
The spiritual search came to an absolute end with the clear seeing that there is only ever Oneness. In the clarity of this seeing, life became what it always was: spontaneous, clear, joyful and fully alive, and Jeff began to write and talk about "nonduality" (which he often calls "the utterly, utterly obvious").
He holds meetings and retreats in the UK and Europe, clearly and directly pointing to the frustrations surrounding the spiritual search, to the nature of mind, and to the Clarity at the heart of everything. His uncompromising approach, full of humor and compassion, shatters the mind's hopes for a future awakening, revealing the awakening that is always already present, right in the midst of life.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 29, 2010
"I don't consider myself to be a teacher. You see, I don't have anything to give you. I don't have anything that you don't. I simply don't have anything to teach, but perhaps, just perhaps, I have something to share."
And Jeff has much to share here. In this amazing book(A combined and revised edition of Foster's first books "Life Without a Centre" and "Beyond Awakening") Jeff delivers a Nonduality/Avaita message that is truly mind-blowing. There is so much clarity and space in and around his words(I could also say the words create a space in my mind which brings clarity. Always a welcome thing!). It's as his words carry a fragrance from...I don't know, from some place deeper than the endlessly repetitive, stale mind. So fresh and alive with spiritual power.
He speaks about Oneness not in any abstract or intellectual sense but in very intimate, simple terms. So simple you really wonder how you never saw it before. He talks about the ordinary and after a while you start to catch a glimpse of where he is coming from and you see and sense: In life: The beauty and depth in simplicity....the sacredness in the ordinary. In yourself: Glimpses of something other than you've taken yourself to be all your life...and a calm, overflowing presence in the absence of those views/ideas.
He states that spirituality isn't separate from life and that who you truly are doesn't stand apart from anything...everything is the path, there is no other life somewhere else, it is all life, and it's right here:
"And so what does all of that mean? To where is it all pointing? Where does it leave us? Here, right here. Radically so:
Breathing happening.
The heart beating.
A bird singing.
Feelings in the body happening.
The refrigerator buzzing."
The chapter called "A Walk In The Rain" describes an insight that comes to him when he was walking during a cold, rainy evening in Oxford. This chapter is worth the price of the book alone.
This book is simple. No dogmas, no preaching, no someone asking you to believe something or take their 7 step course to find enlightenment. This is simply a book of one dude sharing his insights and it's up to the reader to check those ideas out for him or herself to see if anything(or nothing at all) rings true, and if something does, be grateful for the insight, then let it go.
And Jeff has much to share here. In this amazing book(A combined and revised edition of Foster's first books "Life Without a Centre" and "Beyond Awakening") Jeff delivers a Nonduality/Avaita message that is truly mind-blowing. There is so much clarity and space in and around his words(I could also say the words create a space in my mind which brings clarity. Always a welcome thing!). It's as his words carry a fragrance from...I don't know, from some place deeper than the endlessly repetitive, stale mind. So fresh and alive with spiritual power.
He speaks about Oneness not in any abstract or intellectual sense but in very intimate, simple terms. So simple you really wonder how you never saw it before. He talks about the ordinary and after a while you start to catch a glimpse of where he is coming from and you see and sense: In life: The beauty and depth in simplicity....the sacredness in the ordinary. In yourself: Glimpses of something other than you've taken yourself to be all your life...and a calm, overflowing presence in the absence of those views/ideas.
He states that spirituality isn't separate from life and that who you truly are doesn't stand apart from anything...everything is the path, there is no other life somewhere else, it is all life, and it's right here:
"And so what does all of that mean? To where is it all pointing? Where does it leave us? Here, right here. Radically so:
Breathing happening.
The heart beating.
A bird singing.
Feelings in the body happening.
The refrigerator buzzing."
The chapter called "A Walk In The Rain" describes an insight that comes to him when he was walking during a cold, rainy evening in Oxford. This chapter is worth the price of the book alone.
This book is simple. No dogmas, no preaching, no someone asking you to believe something or take their 7 step course to find enlightenment. This is simply a book of one dude sharing his insights and it's up to the reader to check those ideas out for him or herself to see if anything(or nothing at all) rings true, and if something does, be grateful for the insight, then let it go.
September 3, 2024
Jeff Foster has basically made a career of trying to say the same thing in as many different ways as possible, driven by a need to articulate the ineffable and describe that which is beyond all words, narrative, and mental constructs, a philosophy which embraces all contradictions, even the duality apparent within non-duality itself. A pretty difficult feat which sometimes lands and sometimes doesn’t. Some of his writings here were not as accessible as others, but still, there are many gems to be found, particularly on love.
June 24, 2022
"It is nighttime, and I find myself back here, in my bed, where the world first appeared this morning. Perhaps a world will appear tomorrow. I don’t know. For now, just this is enough. Just this is the miracle."
This was a decent read overall, but doesn't belong to the best ones I read about non-duality. The concepts presented here feel a bit disjointed, and it seems obvious to me, that Jeff took a lot from other books/talks of that nature. I'm not sure, how it compares to later books from him, but here I was sometimes missing his own way of delivering this message.
There are some good bits in here, but I felt the book is too long and repetitive for what it wants to transmit (it's just THIS, why do we need 200+ pages for THIS? :D). Furthermore, there were a lot of consciousness/awareness sentences, that I find too lofty, and I'm no longer fond of.
Still, it might be worth a recommendation if you haven't read a lot about non-duality yet and/or are looking for a (mostly) easy and calming read.
This was a decent read overall, but doesn't belong to the best ones I read about non-duality. The concepts presented here feel a bit disjointed, and it seems obvious to me, that Jeff took a lot from other books/talks of that nature. I'm not sure, how it compares to later books from him, but here I was sometimes missing his own way of delivering this message.
There are some good bits in here, but I felt the book is too long and repetitive for what it wants to transmit (it's just THIS, why do we need 200+ pages for THIS? :D). Furthermore, there were a lot of consciousness/awareness sentences, that I find too lofty, and I'm no longer fond of.
Still, it might be worth a recommendation if you haven't read a lot about non-duality yet and/or are looking for a (mostly) easy and calming read.
October 21, 2019
Being Wonderful
Once I stopped arguing with what he wrote and just entered into the stream of words I was taken for a wonderful ride.
Once I stopped arguing with what he wrote and just entered into the stream of words I was taken for a wonderful ride.
May 9, 2021
Brings you to this moment
Words point you back to the simplicity of this moment. Was very comforting during this pandemic. Must read for all
Words point you back to the simplicity of this moment. Was very comforting during this pandemic. Must read for all
August 21, 2012
great!
February 16, 2013
Got better as it concluded. This is a good book but his other book, The Deepest Acceptance, is better.
August 4, 2012
A great reminder of the present moment and the wonder of the ordinary.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews