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Back To The Truth: 5000 Years of Advaita
A systematic treatment of Advaita which demystifies it, differentiating between approaches and teachers, enabling you to decide which approach is most suitable for you.
641 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 25, 2007
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154 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
February 21, 2019
After a second reading, I'm still giving this book five stars. I'll no doubt read it again. Thoughtful, thorough, insightful, and irons out many misconceptions around the subject. A pleasure to read and definitely transformative if the content can be taken to heart—an ongoing but essential process. It's difficult to imagine that anyone's mental landscape would not be radically impacted by a close and attentive reading of this book.
May 15, 2013
If you're interested in spirituality, enlightenment, Hinduism, non-duality - look no further. This 500 page epic pulls upon the Upanishads bringing clarity to the confusion that is usually found when diving into the topic of non-duality. How Waite does this is he pulls multiple gurus together in this book critically comparing their teachings, classifying them as Traditional Advaita, Direct Path and Neo-Advaita. He attempts to be as comprehensive as possible pulling quotes from as many teachers as possible, from Ramana Maharshi to Greg Goode to Tony Parsons and compares them all. Clarity such as this book is rare within the subject of non-duality.
Within his comparisons he shows you where they differ, such as the newer neo-advaita teachers claim that there is no work to do to reach enlightenment as you are already unknowingly enlightened. The traditional teachers say work is indeed needed by preparing the mind through meditation, learning the knowledge that will cure you of your ignorance that's blocking you to see your inherent enlightenment, and to find a good guru to help you with your own self inquiry. The direct path teachers claim self inquiry is all that is needed.
It now all becomes clear that as the neo-advaita teachers say that there is nothing for you to do to achieve enlightenment, it's not going to happen by chance. Preparation is needed. Waite pulled upon the example of Einstein where his ideas wouldn't have come to him if he did not prepare the mind for the ideas in the first place.
One of the cons of this book though is that in the attempt to be as comprehensive as possible, some parts of the book become slow and difficult to get through. I only encountered this twice whereas the rest of the book was a joy to read.
Another con is that he uses a lot of Sanskrit so wrapping your head around new words becomes a chore and is usually skipped.
Here's its table of contents/topics:
1) Discovering who we are not
2) Action, Karma and Free Will
3) Meaning, Purpose and Happiness
4) Knowledge and Ignorance
5) Spiritual Paths and Practises
6) Who I really am
7) The Nature of Reality
8) Teaching Methods
Definitely highly recommended to those faced with confusion in the area of enlightenment.
P.s. A helpful tip to avoid confusion when reading this book, is that in the subject of non-duality, authors use the words Self and self a lot. Self means the total, impersonal, larger self of oneness. Lower case self means the little me that we mostly believe us to currently be.
Within his comparisons he shows you where they differ, such as the newer neo-advaita teachers claim that there is no work to do to reach enlightenment as you are already unknowingly enlightened. The traditional teachers say work is indeed needed by preparing the mind through meditation, learning the knowledge that will cure you of your ignorance that's blocking you to see your inherent enlightenment, and to find a good guru to help you with your own self inquiry. The direct path teachers claim self inquiry is all that is needed.
It now all becomes clear that as the neo-advaita teachers say that there is nothing for you to do to achieve enlightenment, it's not going to happen by chance. Preparation is needed. Waite pulled upon the example of Einstein where his ideas wouldn't have come to him if he did not prepare the mind for the ideas in the first place.
One of the cons of this book though is that in the attempt to be as comprehensive as possible, some parts of the book become slow and difficult to get through. I only encountered this twice whereas the rest of the book was a joy to read.
Another con is that he uses a lot of Sanskrit so wrapping your head around new words becomes a chore and is usually skipped.
Here's its table of contents/topics:
1) Discovering who we are not
2) Action, Karma and Free Will
3) Meaning, Purpose and Happiness
4) Knowledge and Ignorance
5) Spiritual Paths and Practises
6) Who I really am
7) The Nature of Reality
8) Teaching Methods
Definitely highly recommended to those faced with confusion in the area of enlightenment.
P.s. A helpful tip to avoid confusion when reading this book, is that in the subject of non-duality, authors use the words Self and self a lot. Self means the total, impersonal, larger self of oneness. Lower case self means the little me that we mostly believe us to currently be.
June 9, 2013
After many years of reading books on advaita, listening to teachers of various shades of advaita, participating in the labyrinthine discussions with other advaitins....Back to the Truth snapped into place so many missing, or misplaced, pieces of the puzzle for me. I read it cover to cover, which I believe is recommended by Waite. I recommend it highly as a clarifying aerial view of the complex Advaita Vedanta landscape.
March 1, 2025
Took me an 8-month deep dive and it was worth every second. Still have to read appendix clarifying Sanskrit terms but finished the bulk of the text this morning. Waite is probably the closest I can imagine to my platonic ideal of a teacher tbh, strictly yet accessibly guiding me through the material and never sacrifices being funny and personable when it's necessary, a great voice to lead me through and clarify much of this very difficult philosophical material. Full of useful and memorable quotes from scripture and modern teacher alike. Waite is an Advaitan traditionalist and constructively critical of modern Neo-Advaita teachings, especially insofar as extrapolating that neo teachers more or less abandon the throughline to eastern tradition and inadvertently end up preaching a kind of western materialist "shortcut" to the truth, which in reality cannot have shortcuts. Clarified a lot of the issues I have with western non-duality communities and a lot of their frankly [to the individual body-mind] unhelpful focus on rhetoric. Extremely absorptive and worthy read, I think at this point I am going to go straight for the Vedas and other scriptures. Probably pick up the Bhagavad Gita w/ commentary then work my way up to the Upanishads. Anyone interested in eastern philosophy should get their hands on this encyclopedia especially if you're still on a search for a structured path.
April 16, 2012
The book that essentially started the destruction of my life. What can I say? Brilliant, but reader beware.
October 29, 2012
Encyclopedic exposition of Advaita Vedanta. I learned a lot from this book and recommend it highly to all students of Advaita. The author goes into great detail, the book is well organized and thorough, and provides a critical comparison of Traditional, Direct Path and "Neo-Advaita."
March 14, 2013
Having read many a Advaitic literature in the past, I would rate this as one of the best books ever written. very succinctly written without any holier than though airs. Must read for serious seekers.
June 18, 2014
Life-changing. Worth reading and rereading.
May 30, 2025
At my first contact with non-duality, I had a ‘yes, this is it’ feeling. It seemed to align with my own discoveries. But when I continued to read, and to listen, it soon became ‘Hey, wait a minute.’ 😉
It turned out non-duality wasn’t all that clear. Even worse, it seemed there were many different views and disagreements within the non-duality community, with some claiming to be a real non-dualist, pointing out others that were not. Consequently, I dropped it altogether and decided to move on from it.
Later, I encountered this book, which provided significant insights. What Dennis accomplished here is simply incredible. He effectively demonstrated that there is no single concept of ‘non-duality’. Similar to various religious groups interpreting the Bible in different ways, non-duality also has multiple factions and perspectives.
Dennis offers a comprehensive overview of these different viewpoints. And if you are following some of the popular advaita-gurus on YouTube, you will be able to find out their lineage here as well.
Will this book bring you to the Truth? I don’t believe it will. It might bring you to a truth that resonates with you personally. But I wouldn’t call that Truth. For that, I would highly recommend another book 😉
Still, If you are into non-dualism (or you think you are), this book is absolutely a must read.
It turned out non-duality wasn’t all that clear. Even worse, it seemed there were many different views and disagreements within the non-duality community, with some claiming to be a real non-dualist, pointing out others that were not. Consequently, I dropped it altogether and decided to move on from it.
Later, I encountered this book, which provided significant insights. What Dennis accomplished here is simply incredible. He effectively demonstrated that there is no single concept of ‘non-duality’. Similar to various religious groups interpreting the Bible in different ways, non-duality also has multiple factions and perspectives.
Dennis offers a comprehensive overview of these different viewpoints. And if you are following some of the popular advaita-gurus on YouTube, you will be able to find out their lineage here as well.
Will this book bring you to the Truth? I don’t believe it will. It might bring you to a truth that resonates with you personally. But I wouldn’t call that Truth. For that, I would highly recommend another book 😉
Still, If you are into non-dualism (or you think you are), this book is absolutely a must read.
July 26, 2020
This book changed my entire life Dennis Waite is one of my favorite authors .... I have read the book of one also and now I’m reading his new book he just put out in 2020 ...I love his writing style and I recommend his books to everyone !
July 2, 2013
It is a very good book on advaita. Whether advaita as a truth philosophy is actually correct is another matter.
March 6, 2013
A mammoth read, not for the faint hearted
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews