Life Without a Centre: Awakening from the Dream of Separation

by Jeff Foster

We try to escape from the play of life and the suffering that being "a person in the world" entails. Our efforts to find spiritual enlightenment have the opposite effect and reinforce an underlying feeling of lack, of separation. In Life Without a Centre, Jeff Foster suggests that there is only ever the present appearance of life, with no individual at its core who could ever escape even if they wanted to. The entire spiritual search is nothing more than a game we play with ourselves, the cosmic entertainment. Jeff cuts through the confusion and frustration surrounding the search for escape through spiritual enlightenment, by pointing to the utterly obvious: This moment, and everything that arises in it, is already the liberation that is sought. Life, just as it is, is already what we've been searching for our entire lives. Jeff Foster graduated in astrophysics from Cambridge University. Soon after graduation, life events propelled him onto an intense two-year spiritual search, culminating in the realisation that there was never anything to find in the first place. He currently writes and talks on what some people have called "non-duality," but which he just refers to as "the utterly, utterly obvious."

Genres: Spirituality, Nonfiction

145 pages, Paperback

First published December 12, 2006

About the author

Jeff Foster graduated in Astrophysics from Cambridge University in 2001. Several years after graduation, following a period of severe depression and illness, he became addicted to the idea of "spiritual enlightenment", and embarked on an intensive spiritual search which lasted for several years.

The spiritual search came to an absolute end with the clear seeing that there is only ever Oneness. In the clarity of this seeing, life became what it always was: spontaneous, clear, joyful and fully alive, and Jeff began to write and talk about "nonduality" (which he often calls "the utterly, utterly obvious").

He holds meetings and retreats in the UK and Europe, clearly and directly pointing to the frustrations surrounding the spiritual search, to the nature of mind, and to the Clarity at the heart of everything. His uncompromising approach, full of humor and compassion, shatters the mind's hopes for a future awakening, revealing the awakening that is always already present, right in the midst of life.

"

Reviews

[☘Misericordia☘ ⚡ϟ⚡⛈⚡☁ ❇️❤❣ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have no idea what it was about this book that was so irritating. But it was extremely so.

I do love my fair share of obscure reads (as well as shallow ones and stupid ones and pretty much any ones) but this one felt like some exercise in sophistry penned under heavy hallucinogenic influence. I almost felt the thinker's need to pen something, anything that would stun anyone setting eyes upon this volume into intellectual submission. Maybe there was an axe-wielding publisher approaching along with the deadline and maybe there were pills or ayahuasca or maybe magic mushrooms all around and all of it got used to stimulate the author's creativity... But I felt there was a lot of questionable or incorrect stuff with some truisms and popular wisdom along with some religious romanticism thrown in for good measure. After all, there might have been that maniac publishing deadline approaching... 

On a number of statements I just didn't feel like agreeing with the author:
Q: 
... these thoughts just arise, and the secret is that they may always arise. There will always be thought. (c) Actually, not necessarily. And not necessarily this one.
Q:
To see without the seer, without the delusion - that's the miracle.
But even to speak of the miracle, even that is part of the delusion. For the speaking of the miracle implies a speaker and that which is spoken of - the very duality which the miracle is the ending of. (c) Their might be many miracles. And it is definitely possible to be at the same point a singularity of both the subject and object: these don't need to be separate entities at all times. So, what's new about it? Nothing. 

A lot of stuff was off linguistically:
Q:
... a sense if 'okayness' (c) I'm sure this could have been expressed better.

There are many truisms:
Q:
That's the divine paradox: there is nothing, and apparently there is something. There is nothing, but there are things. (c) Come on... Was this such an important thought? 

And the author feels that he has discovered something important and comes across gloating about it:
Q:
Nope. Still confused. Don't get it at all.
Well, this is the simplest of messages. (c) Gosh. There wasn't any worthwhile or unobvious message there, frankly. Just as there was no need to make the hypothetical reader as humble as this interaction seems to suggest.

[Fatima · Rating 4 out of 5]

کتاب زندگی بدون مرکز از جف فوستر به زبان فارسی ترجمه شده و نسخه ی الکترونیک آن موجود است، خوشبختانه نویسنده مثل سایر نویسندگان معنوی سعی در یاد دادن چیزی به ما ندارد فقط تجربه ی بی ذهنی خودش را برایمان توصیف میکنم و سعی میکند خواننده ی آگاهش را در فضایی ببرد که بی ذهنی و رهایی از طریق کلماتش لمس شود و به خواننده بفهماند خود جستجو و تلاش برای روشن ضمیری و تلاش برای پایان دادن به جست و جوی روشن ضمیری هردو ذهنی اند و باید به ورای این دو رفت...

[Kev · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book, once read, made me clear my shelves of my Buddhist collection (except one!)
It's written by Jeff Foster, an Astro Physicist and former 'searcher' who came to the conclusion that there is no enlightenment to find and all of this, now, is it - all of it. There is no 'duality'.
You are everything and looking outside of yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.
A perfect read for those with rooms full of spiritual books

[Alicia St Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jeff Foster, eloquently, dispells the myth of attaining enlightenment through his wide-eyed, bubbling excitement for this moment. Simply pointing out you cannot attain what you already have, what you already are.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

a modern Dao Te Ching in my eyes

[Hamidreza · Rating 3 out of 5]

اگه این کتاب رو پنج سال پیش می خوندم قطعا امتیاز بیشتری داشت
ولی با وجود افکار فعلی نمی تونم این طرز تفکر رو قبول کنم

[Tyler · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't finish this entire book, but I'm glad to have discovered the term "non-duality" as it is much better than "atheism," which is a word I never chose to describe my belief system. I ended up giving this book to a guy who was almost quoting verbatim lots of the reflections Jeff Foster shares in this decently-written book. The guy I gave it to may not read it, but I am kind of glad to have a book to remove from my "currently-reading" shelf.

[Marina · Rating 5 out of 5]

non pensare, né discriminare, è sufficiente esistere.

[Aida Bash · Rating 2 out of 5]

To me it was hard to understanding , I felt so uncomfortable with this book . During I was reading book seemed no dream , no hope and a deep sadness in my heart.

[Thomas Strauser · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing!

[William Crouch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jeff Foster's earliest publication. It is a great place to start if you are interested in following Foster's spiritual transformation.

[Mahmoud · Rating 3 out of 5]

If this book does its job, it'll be the last spiritual book you read. I stopped at 3 stars because the book's 165 pages could have been much more digestible as a single short essay.