Foreword writer Adyashanti is an American-born spiritual teacher devoted to serving the awakening of all beings. His teachings are an open invitation to stop, inquire, and recognize what is true and liberating at the core of all existence. Adyashanti is author of The Way of Liberation, Falling into Grace, Emptiness Dancing, True Meditation, and The End of Your World. Based in California, he lives with his wife, Mukti, and teaches throughout North America and Europe, offering satsangs, weekend intensives, silent retreats, and a live Internet radio broadcast.
"This Extraordinary Moment is a remarkable book that weaves
together years of scholarly investigation and contemplative
practice to help us understand the nature of reality. John Astin
reminds us that the whole point of spiritual inquiry is to discover
the ways in which our fantasies, hopes, beliefs, and ideas could
never possibly capture the inconceivable depth and richness of our
moment-to-moment experience. This book has the power to transform
individual and collective lives."
--Shauna Shapiro, professor at Santa Clara University, and
coauthor of The Art and Science of Mindfulness--Shauna
Shapiro
"This Extraordinary Moment delivers clear, engaging,
refreshing, and transformational spiritual teaching. John guides
the reader to awaken to the unconditional freedom and well-being
that is available in every moment. This book is a must-read for
anyone interested in psychospiritual evolution."
--Jessica Graham, spiritual teacher, and author of Good
Sex--Jessica Graham
"'Live in not knowing' is a pointer you hear repeated across
non-dual traditions and teachers. In This Extraordinary
Moment, John expands this simple pointer into a complete path
to awakening. Using a mixture of original metaphors, contemporary
cognitive science, inquiry work, and vibrantly alive writing, the
book continually invites us beyond the narrow confines of our
conceptual mind into the vastness of our real experience. Highly
recommended!"
--Chris McKenna, guiding teacher at Mindful Schools--Chris
McKenna
"I've never read a book that goes so deeply into the question,
'What is experience actually made of?' John Astin has created a
masterpiece here that draws us into this question in a very
thorough and meticulous way. If you take this book deeply, you can
begin to see that he is pointing to the fact that concepts cannot
pin reality down and that reality is an ever-changing flow of
experience that cannot be grasped. This can be the start of a
profound recognition of freedom. Highly recommended!"
--Scott Kiloby, author of Natural Rest for Addiction
and The Unfindable Inquiry--Scott Kiloby
"In his latest book, John Astin offers us a multitude of simple,
straightforward, yet elegant practices for welcoming and embracing
each moment of life. If you wish to discover methods of inquiry
that easily peel away misperceptions of thinking, and which lead to
the discovery of a lasting happiness and well-being in the midst of
daily circumstances, then this is a book that deserves to be on
your reading table for years to come."
--Richard Miller, author of iRest Meditation and
The iRest Program for Healing PTSD--Richard Miller
"John has taken on an impossible task--to communicate the
incommunicable, to share the unshareable--yet he has written a
remarkably accessible, multipronged invitation to the reader to
explore their normalcy, and possibly discover for themselves the
unrecognized goal of all their aspirations, unsuspectedly hidden in
plain sight in the very nature of that 'normalcy.' A lucid,
intelligent, and wide-ranging exploration."
--Peter Brown, author of Dirty Enlightenment--Peter
Brown
"John Astin is a gift. He points our awareness to insights that
could take a lifetime of practice to reach, but can also be
apprehended by just the slightest turn of attention. With his rare
blend of experience as a seasoned academic scientist, mystic, poet,
and musician, John's ability to illuminate a path toward
realization with a lack of jargon and an elegant economy of words
is unparalleled. This book is like walking into uncharted terrain
with the kindest of guides pointing out the sublime in every
step."
--Cassandra Vieten, PhD, president of the Institute of
Noetic Sciences--Cassandra Vieten, PhD
"Surrender to mystery can lead to bewilderment, which in turn can
lead to joy and even transcendent ecstasy. The realization that
there is no explanation for existence or awareness of existence is
ultimate liberation. John Astin's book offers an opportunity for
this liberation, if you are ready."
--Deepak Chopra, coauthor of You Are the
Universe--Deepak Chopra
"This wonderful, clear book invites us to drop out of metaphysical
speculation and belief, stop our desperate efforts to grasp reality
conceptually, and instead, tune in to the direct immediacy of
present (sensory, energetic) experiencing, just as it is. John
offers a simple but immensely rich and subtle exploration of actual
experience, revealing the depth of this extraordinary moment that
is ever-changing but always here-now. Instead of turning to outside
authorities, he suggests listening to experience itself. Instead of
urgency and seriousness, he invites approaching this practice in a
lighthearted, playful way. Nothing is an obstacle or a problem in
this approach. John suggests that, 'The subtlest depths are not
found behind, below, or beneath but smack dab in the middle of the
so-called gross or surface level of things.' This book points you
to the vibrant aliveness that is right here in every moment, to be
discovered not by transcending what seems ordinary and mundane, but
by opening fully to the (sensory, energetic, experiential)
actuality of this very moment, however it seems to be."
--Joan Tollifson, author of Nothing to Grasp and
Awake in the Heartland--Joan Tollifson
"With its mini essays and friendly practices, John's book examines
experience with a vast, nondogmatic openness."
--Greg Goode, author of The Direct Path and After
Awareness--Greg Goode
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