BEING A LIGHT TO YOURSELF – BEING A LIGHT TO THE WORLD: Unfolding the Beauty of Awareness is a book with the notion of “entering into an unadulterated relationship with what is” at its core. Author Konstantin Scheihing is deeply influenced by the works of twentieth-century spiritual figure Jiddu Krishnamurti, whose unique take on Indian philosophy yielded such ideas as choiceless awareness: a state of being in which one is effortlessly aware of the present. Scheihing is an adherent, claiming that “in choiceless awareness lies the bliss of direct understanding, in which the immanent order of truth can unfold within.”
Much of the material here is centered around the nature of consciousness. Scheihing values the quality of “not-knowing,” apprehending it as “an intrinsic aspect of the nature of our mind.” Terminology is at times an obstacle, and readers will benefit from an understanding of ideas and principles associated with Indian philosophical thought. The fundamental interconnectedness of being, for example, looms large in Scheihing’s thinking. Copious use is made of parables (not of the biblical kind) and metaphor. Perhaps the most refreshing aspect of Scheihing’s work is how receptive he is to other epistemologies. He recognizes the intrinsic worth of scientific methods of perceiving the world, but contends that to view the world solely through such a lens is to ignore wider truths.
The book’s principal drawback is that, in its rush to promote “not-knowing,” it seems to clothe itself in language that (if not exactly obscurantist) is difficult to comprehend. When Scheihing writes of “the energy of fear, the intelligence of pure seeing,” it is hard to know precisely what he means—hence the need for considerable pre-reading in the realm of the relevant Eastern philosophies for the uninitiated. Such terms are, by and large, not defined; passages such as “the mind creates nothing—no images, no ideas—but only perceives what is. Then life itself can create in us, act in us and through us” are left for the reader to ponder. This makes BEING A LIGHT TO YOURSELF – BEING A LIGHT TO THE WORLD an interesting and stimulating (but also sometimes frustrating) read.
Though hard to fathom due to a certain looseness with words, Konstantin Scheihing's BEING A LIGHT TO YOURSELF – BEING A LIGHT TO THE WORLD: Unfolding the Beauty of Awareness offers an interesting and thought-provoking take on perception.
~ Craig Jones for IndieReader