The Shadow That Seeks the Sun

Book excerpt: An uplifting story of enlightenment that reveals simple yet profound truths about our true nature, set amidst the atmospheric banks of the River Ganges that will appeal to both the self-help, non-duality, and "Eat, Pray, Love" travel markets. "No effort is necessary, Ray, no new knowledge required or acquired. No transcendental experience or higher consciousness needs to be achieved. When the recognition of what you are is seen - nothing at all happens. Why would it? You simply find yourself as you already are." It is widely thought that finding peace, happiness and freedom requires tremendous effort - that in order to achieve a state of contentment and harmony in life, a journey must be taken, or someone or something must be awakened or overcome. After a chance encounter with an Anglo-Indian holy man on the ghats of the sacred River Ganges, Ray Brooks discovers through the course of nine conversations that his quest for wholeness has been futile: no such journey was necessary, and, just like a shadow that seeks the sun, he had been searching for a self that had never been lost in the first place. After acknowledging that simple yet profound truth - that the seeker and that which is sought are one in the same - the search for "oneness" is complete. This book offers no systems of belief or promises. Instead, it clearly points to that which is ever-present yet completely overlooked: the ordinariness and beauty of our true nature.