Book review 3

Contents

Endorsements
Preface by Ajahn Sumedho
Foreword.
Note from the author
Introduction -
A reflection -
1 - Birth and self-forgetfulness
2 - The attention and its importance.
3 - The body and self-recollectedness
4 - The aspirant’s attitude when alone
5 - The slavery of wrong personal consideration
6 - Inner work in outer life conditions
7 - Sva-Vani-Sravana-Yoga, Yoga of listening to the sound of one’s voice
8 - Efforts and sincerity
9 - The mysterious role of suffering
10 - Nada-Yoga, Yoga of the inner Sound (part one)
11 - Nada-Yoga, Yoga of the inner Sound (part two)
12 - Nada-Yoga, Yoga of the inner Sound (part three)
13 - Nada-Yoga, Yoga of the inner Sound (part four)
14 - Nada-Yoga, Yoga of the inner Sound (part five)
15 - The practice of concentration while walking outside
16 - Hidden tendencies and the meaning of renunciation
17 - Tapas (self-denials) and their true significance
18 - Earthly existence as indispensable means for transformation
19 - Yoga of the void
20 - Problems in meditation and their equivalent when dying
21 - Hatha-Yoga (part one)
22 - Hatha-Yoga (part two)
23 - Hatha-Yoga (part three)
24 - Time and Eternity
25 - Meditation and the after-death state.
26 - The importance of cyclic recurrence in the Universe
27 - Meditation with slow walking and breathing (part one)
28 - Meditation with slow walking and breathing (part two)
29 - Meditation with slow walking and breathing (part thrce)
30 - Meditation with slow walking and breathing (part four)
31 - The interaction of forces in the Universe and life
32 - The power of hidden influences emanating from beings and things
33 - Actions and their consequences in the world
34 - The trace that thoughts, words and deeds leave
35 - The human being thinks himself into what he is
36 - Accidental forces and their effect on a person’s being
37 - Seeing and hearing
38 - Exercise with the sacred syllable OM
39 - Sadhana and Enlightenment (part one)
40 - Sadhana and Enlightenment (part two)
41 - Sadhana and Enlightenment (part three)
42 - The further understanding of right effort
43 - The price of Enlightenment
44 - Mother and child
45 - Man and woman
46 - Food and the human being
47 - The Spectator and the spectacle
48 - Conclusion and summary (with some final advice and reminders)
Postface
Index
About the author.

Bookreview 3 - for the first edition in England of The Way of Inner Vigilance
Path to the Inner Light and the Realization of One's Divine Nature

' Knowing' God

Salim Michael learnt nothing of value from books; only direct experience, or ‘knowing’ will do. Indeed, in Salim Michael’s case, book‑learning was impossible until he was in his 20s because he was totally illiterate, able neither to read, write nor add up. Thus it is he writes as I would like to imagine all the truly great teachers of the past would have written (if they would have written at all, which must be in some doubt). He is in absolutely no doubt of the existence of the Divine Source, as he calls God, because he has experienced that 'knowing'.

The book is consequently packed with uncompromisingly honest observation, insight and advice I find hard to fault, written in a style that moves as much as it instructs and informs. Thus, in his preface: "I have found that people have a curious tendency that as soon as they can give a thing a 'name' they believe they know all about it and can then, with a clear conscience, leave it aside and forget it. Thus 1 have deliberately avoided calling certain things by their commonly‑used names to stimulate the desire and the feeling in the reader to seek.

Again, in the introduction: “Before the aspirant can ... touch and understand even the fringe of mysticism ... it is neccessary for him to realize, from the innermost depths of himself, that his spiritual efforts may not bring him much profit - and may even remain sterile - if they do not go hand-in-hand with the development of moral integrity.”

And in ‘The attention and its importance’: "(The seeker) must realize that knowingly or unknowingly he will feed and crystallize the particular state he allows his attention to gravitate towards, allowing, it to take root in him and grow.”

Chapters on one's attitude when alone (“he will be greatly deceiving himself if he believes he can conduct himself in his private life in any way that suits him.. . .”), while walking outside ("the imperative need there is to remain in a state of self‑recollectedness in action also.. and not only when quietly meditating behind the walls of a monastery”), seeing and hearing ("he generally looks but does not see, he listens but does not hear") illustrate graphically Salim Michael's total 'knowing' from his own experience.

Strangely, and this is perhaps an example of the ‘something for everyone’ quality that is the mark of this book, the sentence that struck me most was not from the chapters on such 'philosophical' questions as 'Man and woman', 'Mother and child','Food and man' as I would have expected, but the final remark in his passage on 'The trace that thoughts, words and deed leave'.

Summarizing his (by no means original) belief that everything we think, say or do has a ripple effect on a variety of seen and unseen levels, he makes the point that while Divine light, or grace, is hard won ("with so much sweat and silent suffering”) it must then be given back unreservedly to others, "asking for nothing in return". And he concludes: "What the Earth gives it always takes back in some form or another; but what the Sun gives is generously given, and never taken back."

I unashamedly confess a lump came to my throat at that point for I realized that this is precisely what Salim Michael has achieved and what this rare book represents.

• Bookreview 1

• Bookreview 2

• Bookreview 3

• Excerpts chapter 27

• Meeting in Quebec