Radiant Mind: Awakening Unconditioned Awareness

by Peter Fenner

Whether it is called enlightenment, pure presence, or "unconditioned awareness," there exists an awakened state of true liberation that is at the heart of every contemplative tradition. Yet according to Peter Fenner, this experience of boundless consciousness does not have to exist separately from your day-to-day "conditioned" existence. Rather, you can learn to live as a unique individual at the same time as you rest in a unified expanse of oneness with all existence―in a state he calls "Radiant Mind." Students in the West often feel frustrated in trying to follow the Eastern path to awakening, confused by seemingly vague or counterintuitive teachings. Peter Fenner created the Radiant Mind practice to help you break through the obstacles that are often challenging for practitioners in our culture. Drawing upon his background in both Eastern spirituality and Western psychology, Fenner brings you a precise, step-by-step approach to nondual practice that

Genres: Spirituality, Buddhism, Meditation, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Religion, Audiobook

286 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2007

About the author

Peter is a leader in the adaption and transmission of Asian nondual wisdom worldwide. He is a pioneer in the development of nondual therapy and creator of the 9 month Radiant Mind Course® and the Natural Awakening: Advanced Nondual Training. He was a celibate monk in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition for 9 years and has a Ph.D. in the philosophical psychology of Mahayana Buddhism. Over a period of 40 years Peter has distilled the essence of traditions like Zen, Dzogchen and the Buddhist Middle Way, and adapted them to suit our post-modern culture.

Reviews

[Morgan Blackledge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very solid.

Very user friendly audio course on non-dual practice.

Totally worth your time.

5/5 ⭐️

[Bradoicich · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a year to read this book at the suggestion of the yoga instructor who recommended it. Peter Fenner is trying to help our high energy, high stress western culture understand how to pause and live in the present moment of our existence. This is challenging but a worthwhile endeavor.

[Paul LaFontaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

The settling of the Self into the awakened state occurs over the course of a thousand small returns to the present from a state of mind.

This is a clear, plain English language explanation of the process described by Eastern approaches. I like the author's pragmatic approach and got a lot from this book.

[Dean Paradiso · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a review of both the book "Radiant Mind", and the audio version of the book narrated by Peter Fenner. Both of these items were released around 2009 or so, and were popular at that time with both nondual and Mahayana Buddhist communities, and have since become less popular and/or dormant.

The Radiant Mind 'course', which was offered around 10 years back by PF seems not to be offered anymore, and the author mainly does guest lectures at various Buddhist related colleges, and does some one-on-one coaching on the side.

Both the course, and the books have quite mixed reviews and experiences.. there's not a lot in between- participants and readers either love it or hate it. It seems a number of participants in the live course back when it was available did take exception to the cost of the course (being in the thousands) vs what they received which was essentially a review of the book/CD course and some clarifications by PF. I've taken notes and reviewed from my experience only and discarded what has been written on various sites, looking at the content and approach from scratch.

For those who are familiar with contemporary awareness teachings, then most of this material won't be new. In fact, there's quite a few exercises that are repeated very closely by other 'awareness' / advaita teachers. The unique part with this course and recording though is the delivery in how PF speaks and walks the reader/listener through the exercises in a very slow but effective way. There's also the added benefit of having received the 'just sitting' practice early on, which does very quietly enable one to accumulate some sort of familiarity with beingness and awareness while just sitting and not engaged in any activity purposefully.

Side note- the audio course (CD or Audible) is actually different to the written text/book, which is deeper in content than the audio course. The audio course is great for repeatedly getting down the practice contemplations and practical side, while the book itself is better for some more psychological context and theory around nondual awareness and some comparisons with Mahayana Buddhist pointers.


The Book:

In terms of practices, 3 main practice areas are given, although the bulk of the practical exercises happens around the last chapter in the course/book:

1. "Just sitting"

This is a rather unique style of meditative sitting practice, not really the same as "shikantaza" in Zen, nor the same as resting in awareness in approaches such as Mahamudra or even Dzogchen, although it is probably most similar to these approaches, and the author's background in this work comes from these traditions. This practice pretty much involves being secluded, undisturbed, awake and seated in a spot for around 20 minutes, and "just doing what you're doing".. ie. sitting and doing nothing, but not making any effort to do something or focus, or even become aware of the process, but rather to just have a very relax, almost non-existent knowing that one is sitting and various phenomena are occurring. It's also similar to the 'do-nothing' approaches of teachers such as Shinzen Young, Angelo Dilulo and others. There's various "Do nothing" meditation sessions available on YT, each with their own take on how this is done.


2. Relaxation meditation

The idea of relaxation and non-effort runs through most of the exercises and a specific exercises/practice is given in the final chapter of the audio course that takes around 20 minutes, and is a relaxing 'nothing to do' type of release meditation. This is in contrast to the bulk of mediations out there that work through body relaxation or breathing relaxation. So in this respect, PF has kept on track with his overall themes of nondoing and relaxing effort or concentration.


3. Direct contemplations and approaches with awareness

Another group of exercises relates to directly attempting to experience awareness or have some insight into the nature of ever-present unconditioned awareness. There are various pointers that are given, and various entry-points that one can take to directly experience or know awareness as it is. e.g. listening to silence, non-thought or 'not-knowing' mind, awareness as bliss, paradoxical pointers and enquiries similar to koans etc.

Some of the guided contemplations also focus on different aspects of unconditioned awareness, such as the bliss/peace aspect (although noted this is not a sensation or conditioned experience). Other contemplations focus on the all-embracing nature of unconditioned awareness as not excluding the unmanifest or the manfiest experience.


4. Present moment awareness

A final theme that runs throughout the book and course is the idea of present moment awareness, or the now-ness of one's being here and now. There is one particular mediation that works on deconstructing the past and future as concepts that are not present here and now apart from thought.


There are many practical psychological exercises and explorations in the book. The first few chapters focus on exploring one's pre-conceived ideas about awareness, and also obstacles that may be present (or unexplored) that can lead to issues with resting in unconditioned awareness.


Some things I really like about Peter Fenner's approach:

+ I love how Peter Fenner presents his material in easy to understand, plain English, without cultural or technical terms and ideas. This makes it accessible for a wide audience without a background in Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, and eastern philosophy, but who are interested in nonduality.

+ Peter narrates his material, particularly the Radiant Mind course (Sounds True) in a calm, clear and conductive manner matching what he's trying to get across. The whole recording not only acts as an information source, but also an experiential journey and meditation itself into the field of nonduality and unconditioned awareness.

+ The exercises in the book and the audio course are beneficial in uncovering assumptions and beliefs we have about nonduality, awareness, and spirituality in general. This is helpful in uncovering hidden obstables that we all carry with us into the path.

+ The Radiant Mind course is complete in that it can be undertaken in a self-directed manner, either long-term or on a shorter-term time frame. Originally designed to be 9 months, it can be shorted to several months, or even shorter depending on how much the participant/listener wants to get from it. I completed the audio course several times, and received some new insights/material on each listening. Likewise, the suggested "Just Sitting" practice deepens and grows over time to reveal an approach to nonduality that is ever-fresh and changing.. versus some of the more fixed philosophical positions that some teaches offer.

+ PF offers support services, counselling and some other courses (such as a teaching course) for those further interested in pursuing this approach to nonduality-- which is a rather unique approach, given the author's background, context, and way of working with nonduality and phenomenal reality in a balanced and mature way.

Overally, I feel this is a great introduction to nondual awareness with an emptiness flavour and some Mahayana Buddhism mixed in, but in a way that doesn't require much background experience or prior knowledge. The audio course is narrated very well, and easy to listen to and follow along both casually and also as a complete meditation in itself. One should come away from this course (and book) with some balanced ideas about nonduality, emptiness and various approaches to gently coming to know what nonconceptual awareness is (and its nature). Highly recommended.

[Elise Ravenclaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this in audiobook format, and it is a very good companion, specially if you want to de-stress while going for a walk.

[Jane Botten · Rating 3 out of 5]

Radiant Mind had me thinking deeply. I will be rereading this book in future. I embraced joyfully a lot of what I read but some is beyond me at this point in my spiritual life. I'm not discarding this, but shelving it until I am ready to relate to it. Well worth reading.

[Lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too much psychobabble.Blah.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommend the audiobook version read by the author. I could feel the transmission. His website has a helpful table of contents and a short study guide.

[Simon Vigneault · Rating 5 out of 5]

This comes from the point of view I most identify with when it comes to nondual teaching - that of having thoroughly digested these teachings on their own ground, but presenting them from a standpoint of complete generosity, dispensing with limiting dogmas (similar to Rudolph (Rudy) and Sharon Bauer).

[Adam Zuwerink · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mr. Fenner is attempting to present Eastern philosophical traditions of nondual awareness through a Western-style "talk therapy" workshop, complete with weeks-long exercises to complete at the end of each chapter. I have no issue with either tradition of contemplation, but the way the author tries to combine the two fell flat to me.

[Satvik Tripathi · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Awakening unconditioned awareness"— the title couldn't be any more apt!

[Maria Hrickova · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.7

[Brian King · Rating 5 out of 5]

Consumed as Audiobook read by author. It's always nice to have the author reading instead of someone else guessing at the meaning.

[Sten Hougaard · Rating 5 out of 5]

An inspiring read, which brings some interesting ideas about. I will need to listen to it again, which is not unusual for me when listening to deep spiritual or scientific books. I can recommend it.