An Extraordinary Absence: Liberation in the Midst of a Very Ordinary Life

Although words cannot touch the awesome mystery that is life itself this book comes as close as any book I know to describing the indescribable. It manages to avoid those tedious non-dual cliches which annoy the hell out of me such as 'there is no self', 'nothing exists' or 'there is nothing to do' and it stays away from glib one-size-fits-all answers to life such as "be present!" or "get rid of your self!" which to me sound just like marketing gimmicks. Reading An Extraordinary Absence you get down to see what it really means to live a full, open,, compassionate life without seeking and without getting bogged down in 'the story of me'. The depth of clarity and compassion and the balanced nature of the writing compared to many Advaita texts left me with a deep and all-encompassing appreciation of life and a taste of real unconditional love, something I have tasted frequently but rarely been able to communicate. I especially appreciated the final chapters; Jeff seems to be able to balance the personal and impersonal in quite a striking way. Something deep inside me was touched although of course I know there is no 'deep' and no 'me', but still, as we are constantly reminded 'it's not about the words'. Indeed, if we are to follow Jeff's advice, we should read the book and then burn it! - presumably to remind ourselves not to get too attached to any words about the unknowable. I will burn this book - but not yet - I'm not quite ready! - it is too dear to me at present. One small concern: however much I love this book, I do wonder whether one should attempt to talk about non-duality at all? But I suppose this is just the old mind asking questions again. Perhaps as Jeff says, the answer is 'why not'. Maybe it is all perfectly fine as it is.

Brilliantly written with an unassuming and sensitive rhythm; this beautiful expression is one of the most profound and insightful books ever written! The author is obviously gifted with a radiant intellect, yet instead of shoving that in your face, he consistently sets it aside allowing it to be outshined by the shimmering humility and happiness of authentically liberated life. Freedom, freedom, freedom! Freedom from wrestling with the entanglement of concepts! Freedom from the taxing demands and driving force of becoming! Freedom from the images of so-called "enlightened ones" who would betray our trust and bleed our happiness so they could pretend to be special! Life is Alive!

This is Foster's third book and perhaps my favorite. The writing is clear and the pointing is direct. It is divided into some Q & A (a most popular format for writers of Advaita) as well as other forms(short essays, etc.). It is not that there is anything "new" to discover, it's been said one way or another for a thousand years, but sometimes a different expressions of this can illuminate differently. Enjoy.

Jeff Foster is a young and gifted confessor or sharer of what is. Jeff's words are full of space. This book is incredibly effective in getting "you" to see there has never been a "you." There's only this. I like the writing styles: Question and answer; confessions of what is; some writing structured as poems; and a fourth kind of writing that is set off by its own font, a courier typewriter style font, that gives a sense of "happening now." This fourth kind of writing appears throughout the book under the heading "this"; here's an example: "Silence. I have no answer for her. This is empty of questions and answers. I am a child, I know nothing about nonduality. All I know is car horns, the whiff of aftershaves, the blowing of noses and aching of feet. This is where I live. Right here, not in some other dimension. The mouth opens to speak, even though I have no idea what to say." An Extraordinary Absence is a book of beauty but it's not pretty. Jeff talks about pain, including his own extreme physical and emotional pain. He writes about the spectrum of humanity from "A little red-faced toddler in blue dungarees" to a man with terminal cancer: "He is losing control of his bowels ... I don't tell him there's no suffering, I don't say `I'm enlightened and you're not,' I don't even mention nonduality, [...] The Foreword by Kriben Pillay and the Introduction by Philip Pegler are themselves worthwhile documents on nonduality. Especially Kriben, a writer, observer, researcher, and publisher of nondualia since the mid-90s, makes strong statements: "Much of the current nondual scene is ... engaged in layered deceptions..." It is essential that nonduality constantly check and undo itself. If the worldly construction of nonduality -- as it is known in books, websites, forums, gatherings, conferences, satsangs, all media -- if it can't stand up to its decimation, what good is it? Something else I like about this book is the quotations. They balance the book. By around page 90 came the insight that I was reading a classic, even a potential screenplay with Jeff starring and doing the voiceover. I also like how Jeff brings in Zen, Advaita, and Christianity. The emphasis on Christianity and crucifixion convey that Jeff knows Jesus the man, and resonates with the pain and the utter humanity exposed in this book, and yields this confession: "Waking up from the dream of separation, there is a death, and that death, as Jesus said, is the only salvation. You have to lose your life to save it. And so when there is no-one, there isn't an empty void, a lonely and joyless black space devoid of all qualities, no, no, no. That void is full, it is bursting with life. ... And in that, all the concepts in the world dissolve." Read An Extraordinay Absence and watch how you become comfortable with wonder.

I got it around a week ago and it is one of my favorites of the growing list of advaita books. Cuts right to the core, simple, readable, and enjoyable! the end of seeking, just be He uses examples from his own life and tells of his "awakening" and how he saw things differently, like seeing his father for the first time not as "his" but as just another character in the play. Enjoy!!