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Sailor Bob: Bags of Pointers to Nonduality
The Nonduality Spiel has evolved during Bob’s 45 years of (incredibly effective and fruitful) mentoring. It contains many deep and profound descriptions; it is like a bag full of pointers. Just one of these pointers — when deeply heard, seen through, felt and understood — can be enough. Even one simple reminder can take a ripe seeker “beyond the need for further help”, as Bob's teacher and friend Nisargadatta Maharaj would say.
However, this book is not just one more transcript of Bob's brilliant talks, I hope it is more than that. You may find ‘your’ pointer amongst these over 200 key-words — one or a few which ring the bell, feel true in your heart. Here you will also find many experiments and exercises as well as examples of individual stories of people who did see through following Bob's directions. I have changed some of their names on request.
SAILOR BOB acronym s tarts from S for S eeming S eparate S elf or S topping S piritual S earch may be a great reminder for some and may mean nothing to others. Others might feel that S for S ky or S pace — s hifts or ‘ s weeps’ them more. Being so uniquely different, we do not resonate with the same set of tunes. Every bird has a different song as well, but every song is an expression of the same life force.
There are many options under each letter of the structure, so that the acronym can serve as long as required. Feel free to play, unpack and create your own expansion of this (or other) wordplay, so every pointer takes you back home, beyond language.
As you read the pointers over and over, resonance will build up and more of them will open your heart. Bob suggests repeated listening or reading, so that new habits of attention will support the seeming journey. Love for the truth will grow stronger and the readiness to surrender the falseness may emerge.
Yet, no real sacrifice is required. What is to die was never born. The journey has no duration, no destination and right now you may see it end. And right now is the only time it can and it does end. This being said, if you still believe in time, and you have invested a lot of it in seeking — certain undoing may be necessary. Let’s make it light; may it be fun!
At the end (when it is now), you will see through all paradoxes of pointing, you will understand all limitations of words. For now, though, it is enough to say that the map is never the territory and a word is never the thing it represents. The word ‘cat’ is not the cat itself. Even a picture of the cat is not it. So, please read between the lines; look for the feeling rather than reason. Look for innate resonance, not for convincing arguments. After all, you knew it all as a baby, before you learned words, so it is all just re-cognizing (cognizing again), finding what was never lost. After all, it is the Natural State, ever present Ordinary Awareness.
Language will elude us on this apparent journey through attempts to express the inexpressible, so let’s laugh at all the paradoxes, it will make it light.
Sailor Bob approved every one of his many quotes I included; and being my first reader — provided super generous positive feedback. However, being my husband his evaluation is not entirely objective! Please see for yourself if you find it useful. I sincerely hope this book will serve its purpose to inspire and remind of what is being and have eternally been already so.
L eave your concepts come empty. Listen with your heart, not with the head. You know it innately, you are already That.
However, this book is not just one more transcript of Bob's brilliant talks, I hope it is more than that. You may find ‘your’ pointer amongst these over 200 key-words — one or a few which ring the bell, feel true in your heart. Here you will also find many experiments and exercises as well as examples of individual stories of people who did see through following Bob's directions. I have changed some of their names on request.
SAILOR BOB acronym s tarts from S for S eeming S eparate S elf or S topping S piritual S earch may be a great reminder for some and may mean nothing to others. Others might feel that S for S ky or S pace — s hifts or ‘ s weeps’ them more. Being so uniquely different, we do not resonate with the same set of tunes. Every bird has a different song as well, but every song is an expression of the same life force.
There are many options under each letter of the structure, so that the acronym can serve as long as required. Feel free to play, unpack and create your own expansion of this (or other) wordplay, so every pointer takes you back home, beyond language.
As you read the pointers over and over, resonance will build up and more of them will open your heart. Bob suggests repeated listening or reading, so that new habits of attention will support the seeming journey. Love for the truth will grow stronger and the readiness to surrender the falseness may emerge.
Yet, no real sacrifice is required. What is to die was never born. The journey has no duration, no destination and right now you may see it end. And right now is the only time it can and it does end. This being said, if you still believe in time, and you have invested a lot of it in seeking — certain undoing may be necessary. Let’s make it light; may it be fun!
At the end (when it is now), you will see through all paradoxes of pointing, you will understand all limitations of words. For now, though, it is enough to say that the map is never the territory and a word is never the thing it represents. The word ‘cat’ is not the cat itself. Even a picture of the cat is not it. So, please read between the lines; look for the feeling rather than reason. Look for innate resonance, not for convincing arguments. After all, you knew it all as a baby, before you learned words, so it is all just re-cognizing (cognizing again), finding what was never lost. After all, it is the Natural State, ever present Ordinary Awareness.
Language will elude us on this apparent journey through attempts to express the inexpressible, so let’s laugh at all the paradoxes, it will make it light.
Sailor Bob approved every one of his many quotes I included; and being my first reader — provided super generous positive feedback. However, being my husband his evaluation is not entirely objective! Please see for yourself if you find it useful. I sincerely hope this book will serve its purpose to inspire and remind of what is being and have eternally been already so.
L eave your concepts come empty. Listen with your heart, not with the head. You know it innately, you are already That.
366 pages, Paperback
Published September 11, 2021
123 people are currently reading
17 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 11, 2025
I volunteered to be a reader for a pre-publication draft of this book. There are many books on Nonduality out there to choose from. Many of those books are powerful, and they all, by their subject matter, tend to say the same thing.
But Bob and Kat's book ranks among the best of those books in terms of clarity and power of its pointers. Bob sat at the feet of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, and the potency of Nisargadatta's teaching shines through these pages but Kat's writing and expansion on Bob's pointers results in a much more easily accessible text, generally free of spiritual jargon.
If this is your first book on the subject on nonduality, it may well be your last. If you have read several others already, give this one a read anyway. The best thing to do is to speak with Bob himself, but this book is a close second to that.
In either case, whether this book "ends" your search or plants the seeds of clarity that may need time to grow before it dawns on you what is being pointed to, this book will almost certainly be a benefit if you find it popping up in your life.
But Bob and Kat's book ranks among the best of those books in terms of clarity and power of its pointers. Bob sat at the feet of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, and the potency of Nisargadatta's teaching shines through these pages but Kat's writing and expansion on Bob's pointers results in a much more easily accessible text, generally free of spiritual jargon.
If this is your first book on the subject on nonduality, it may well be your last. If you have read several others already, give this one a read anyway. The best thing to do is to speak with Bob himself, but this book is a close second to that.
In either case, whether this book "ends" your search or plants the seeds of clarity that may need time to grow before it dawns on you what is being pointed to, this book will almost certainly be a benefit if you find it popping up in your life.
January 14, 2026
THE best book I’ve ever read
This is THE best book I’ve ever read. Most energetically impactful book I’ve read since The Power of Now several years ago. Seems to transmit the non-dual better than anything I’ve ever come across. Really really really hit home that “I am not the image I see in the mirror” while reading this one.
Gratitude is not a feeling I would say I explicitly feel that often but I am overwhelmed with gratitude to Kat Adamson for putting this out there. I just stumbled across it on my kindle unlimited suggestions having never heard of Kat or Bob Adamson before. I feel like they should be much wider known.
Ordinary Awareness is the pointer that really did it for me.
Thank you!
Brett Berceau
This is THE best book I’ve ever read. Most energetically impactful book I’ve read since The Power of Now several years ago. Seems to transmit the non-dual better than anything I’ve ever come across. Really really really hit home that “I am not the image I see in the mirror” while reading this one.
Gratitude is not a feeling I would say I explicitly feel that often but I am overwhelmed with gratitude to Kat Adamson for putting this out there. I just stumbled across it on my kindle unlimited suggestions having never heard of Kat or Bob Adamson before. I feel like they should be much wider known.
Ordinary Awareness is the pointer that really did it for me.
Thank you!
Brett Berceau
June 21, 2022
A very important book to savor
This is a book that can be enjoyed now with lots of pleasure. And to be read again 10 years later with much greater pleasure.
This is a book that will mean more as time goes by
This is a book that can be enjoyed now with lots of pleasure. And to be read again 10 years later with much greater pleasure.
This is a book that will mean more as time goes by
November 20, 2023
Same Old...
Same old non-dual blather dressed up in a sailor suit. Non-duality cannot be taught, only experienced. If you believe you have not experienced non-duality it is only because you have forgotten.
Same old non-dual blather dressed up in a sailor suit. Non-duality cannot be taught, only experienced. If you believe you have not experienced non-duality it is only because you have forgotten.
November 7, 2024
Amalgamation of all faiths!
This is the Bible and The Gita and everything combined. The book is to be read like scriptures or mantra everyday as a reminder that I AM THAT!!!
This is the Bible and The Gita and everything combined. The book is to be read like scriptures or mantra everyday as a reminder that I AM THAT!!!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews