Tag Archive for THIS IS IT

Your Invitation to ‘This is it’ unwrapped… No fancy dress required…

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….perhaps no clothes at all!

Maybe quarter of a century ago the man I was living with suggested that we take a weeks holiday in a nudist colony in Croatia.

Gulp! Ummm errr? Well OK…. you would like to go… so I will errrrr…give it a go…
I went ahead and booked it.

And having sunshine on the skin, the breezes, blue skies, pines trees and no encasement in a nylon swimming costume was actually delightful…as was – for those with febrile imaginations – reading my way through seven paperbacks!

Year later when James spoke, in an early Macclesfield talk, of ‘how to be naked’…this literal-minded beginner thought ‘well at least that’s something I can already do!’ Duh!!! Ha! Ha! Ha!

You’ll get my drift in a minute…

I wrote a post about ‘This is it‘– Revealing the Great Completion , James’ latest, profound and very beautiful, book back in July.

In August he launched this book at Watkins bookstore where they stock many of his books, and will post them to you.
They recorded this event and uploaded it to their YouTube page so you can watch it here… and see for yourself exactly what kind of ‘artificial clothing’ he was inviting us to abandon, to move freely as the dancer on the cover above…

(hint..it’s not a manmade/womanmade synthetic swimming costume, yet there are parallels in the seemingly obligatory wraps and cover-ups of our disguise, printed with patterns which feel so very, essentially, ‘us’ )

Whether or not you are drawn towards buying the book the overview James gives in the video is, I think, very helpful.

Revealing The Great Completion:

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On the back cover of this book – ‘THIS IS IT’ – you’ll find James has written some explanations.

In the first paragraph he explains how the six distinct parts of the book offer key insights into the Buddhist understanding of how to free ourselves… whilst within the very situations which trap us.

Sounds good?

Then he explains the depth of the resource –
‘It offers diverse resources for study and practice.
Covering detailed analysis of phenomena, tragedies of blind arrogance transformed through tantra, and awakening in the presence of Dzogchen.’

and follows this with two paragraphs of truth to contemplate and realise…each infinitely more valuable than a king’s ransom:

‘The past is gone, the future never comes, and our present is obscured by echoes of our vanished past…
and dreams of our imagined future.
Living in the miasma of our own mental activity we are the pulsations of our thoughts, feelings, sensations and perceptions. We invent what we take to be occurring and then believe that life is what we imagine it to be.

The Buddha dharma offers us many ways to awaken from this delusion and bring us ever closer to the actual.
When we are present in and as our unchanging awareness the mistake of duality vanishes.
Resting in our non-dual presence, every moment is complete in itself and our anxious need to do something, anything, falls away.
No more make-believe, no more illusion, just ease and contentment in the simplicity that: THIS IS IT’

I have been engaging with this book for just a little while but would say, from my own experience, that opening to the variety of teachings therein…
and responding to the images – beautiful, symbolic, striking,
facilitates transformational connections outside of time and space with multiple manifestations of the truth of the buddha-dharma…not essentially different from those around us just now.

My own gratitude is deep, not just for the author’s wisdom but for all those who collaborated in bringing the book to life, applying their unique skills and loving energy…  for our delight and ease-ing.’

* Paragraphs reproduced with James approval.