Depending on No-Thing

In a book that is both wide and deep, Robert has written a book that questions and challenges all that we think we know about ‘spirituality’. Robert writes: “When one is not looking for any escape at all, but finds oneself participating in whatever thoughts, feelings, perceptions, etc. make up the constituents of this very moment, without any hope of things getting "better," including that one will "eventually" be "enlightened," then one is in the moment, and it is only in the moment that anything true, anything real, anything that is not escapism and fantasy, will be found. So whereas most of the "teaching" points elsewhere—points, I mean, to an improved condition that you will attain by following the teaching—I point only to what you are right now in this moment. The one who is reading these words is IT, and there is no other.”Catherine Noyce writes in the foreword: Here’s a classic Robert Saltzman: “How do you ‘try out’ ‘universal consciousness?’ Just declare yourself ‘universally conscious’ and assess how that makes you feel? Oh, please.”Robert is closely related, I believe, to a certain small boy who pointed out that the gorgeously arrayed emperor was actually being driven through the streets stark naked. And yet, at the same time, while ripping apart the defenceless pretensions of a spiritual teacher, he’s disarmingly honest and humble. If it’s possible for a man to be arrogantly humble, then that man’s initials are R.S.This is what I like about Robert’s approach—I hope you do too: “Honesty about not knowing is, in my experience, where equanimity is to be found. What we actually know is precious little, so many of us fill the apparent emptiness by pretending that believing is the same as knowing. When one believes without actually knowing, then there is always lingering doubt to deal with—even if only unconsciously.”