Non duality books are often – visually, at least – somewhat new-agey affairs, whose covers do little to advertise the true worth of the goods inside. It doesn’t really matter, one might think, since these teachings are of an order that seeks to transcend the petty preferences of a dualistic mind, and cut through to that place beyond good or bad. Ha ha.. well I’m not there yet. What a delight, then, to discover this new version of one of the most profound non duality books of recent years: Rupert Spira’s The Transparency of Things. Designed by Rupert himself, this beautiful hardback has a cream coloured textured dust wrapper with the title embossed in red foil over a red cloth hardback binding. It’s a stunning piece of design, and has already become one of my most prized books.

For those not familiar with the teachings of ceramicist Rupert Spira, his particular methodology is to force the individual into very concrete examinations of what we have taken for ‘experience.’ Is it not true, he points out that:

The perception of a sound, the sensation that we call my hand’ and the current thought, all appear free-floating in the same space as Consciousness. Is that not our actual experience?

Is it true that our thoughts are on the inside of this consciousness and that sounds are on the outside?

What is our actual experience of the boundary between what is ‘inside’ myself and what is ‘outside’ myself? There is no experience of such a boundary!

You can’t buy the hardback version of The Transparency of Things from Amazon by the way, but only from Non Duality Press here or at Rupert’s talks.