On Having No Head: Zen and the Rediscovery of the Obvious

Rating:
Summary: awareness of awareness
Review: Harding wants to convince us, literally, that we do not have a head. It sounds preposterous but he is rather insistent and, incredibly, it starts to dawn on us that somehow he has a point. The phrase "I have no head" says something new not about the word "head" but about the word "I". Actually what Harding should have written is that "I am not a head": our experience of the world is something much more basic and elemental, and only later do we learn about our head. This becomes clearer when one finds that Harding also claims that we don't have a body. In fact, even after reading the book I shall continue to talk about my head as something I have - it sounds more natural.

I think that Harding is talking about one of the most intriguing philosophical problems of today, which is consciousness. He wants us to become aware of our awareness, and to show how this experience fundamentally changes the way we see everything else.

To my mind, his connection to Zen Buddhism is strenuous. He mentions many passages from Zen Buddhism (and also from some Christian mystics) to make his point. Zen Buddhism is about rational thought being an obstruction of truth, but thinking about awareness is a very rational enterprise. I am not convinced that when the Zen masters talked about the disappearance of the self they meant the same as headlessness. Anyway the connection with Zen adds little to the main idea of the book, which I think can very well stand on its own.

All in all, I think this book touches on something that is really very important, even fundamental. My only criticism is that the book contains much that I thought peripheral and even unnecessarily opaque.

Rating:
Summary: Decapitation made easy
Review: Is the world you experience "inside" your mind or "outside" it?

Puzzle over that little question while you read this underground spiritual classic. Douglas Harding is dead serious (though far from solemn): he wants to show you that you have no head.

You see, he noticed one day while wandering in the Himalayas -- where this sort of thing is apt to happen -- that _he_ didn't have a head. And, in reflecting on the experience afterwards, he worked out a way to bring other people to the same awareness with no need for either abstruse scholarly appartus or esoteric meditation techniques.

All you have to do is turn around the arrow of attention, and try to look back to see who -- or Who -- is looking _out_ from wherever it is you're looking out from. Go ahead. Try it right now.

See?

Well, if you did, you don't technically need the book any more. But Harding is still a lot of fun to read: he has a light touch, a subtle sense of humor, and the ability to compress the keenest of insights into the simplest of prose, so you'll enjoy him even if you've already gotten his point.

And if you _haven't_ gotten it yet, he'll help you to do so. It's really the same point Alan Watts wanted to put across in _The Book: On The Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are_ (which, for my money, is his best work on the subject). Watts wants you to see that the world is your body; Harding wants you to see that the world is your mind; and they're both right.

This is just a charming book all around, and it will grow on you over the years without ever getting old. Buy a copy and keep it; when it wears out, buy another. Pass it out to your friends. Force it on your enemies (and thereby turn them into your friends). I've gone through at least a couple copies of it myself.

Of course, if you're one of those people who thinks spirituality isn't _supposed_ to be fun, and that anything this simple is somehow unworthy of God, you should probably stay away from it for a while. Read Raymond Smullyan's _The Tao Is Silent_ first and (chuckle) lighten up.

Is the world you experience "inside" your mind or "outside" it? Read Harding, and then _you_ tell _me_.

Rating:
Summary: Dee-lightful!
Review: This is yet another wonderful book on enlightenment. It teaches us that when we truly look at who we are, there is really no "self". The "self" is a concept made up in our head and it can be whatever you identify your "self" to be. I recently came across a wonderful book on how this pertains to relationships and our own development. It is called "The Ever-Transcending Spirit" by Toru Sato. It is a spectacular book that helps us appreciate the process of our spirit unfolding throughout life. I'd highly recommend these books if you are interested in understanding your true "self".

Rating:
Summary: try it, you'll like it!
Review: this little book can be read in an hour. its effects on the reader could well last a lifetime. the author will lead you thru a few simple exercises and ideas with a result that may surprise you. if and when you "get it", i.e. his point, its much more than a philosophical concept. there is an actual dawning in the mind of the world and life and conciousness being something more and other than we first thought. you can see and feel that indeed all things manifest in that clear light space above your shoulders, between your ears, behind your nose. when i first read it, the result was a feeling of freedom and lightness that was unexpected but quite joyful. if you have trouble wading thru the maze of modern books on zen and "spiritual experience", give this little book an hour of your undivided attention. it has the power to enlighten and at the very least its an entertaining direct experience of conciousness. "headlessness" has been an ongoing and true aid in my own spiritual journey. try it, you'll like it.