The story is fascinating. He didn't understand what had happened to him until several years later after he had read spiritual texts and talked with some spiritual teachers.
He theorized that the intense pressure of his suffering caused his consciousness to withdraw from its identification with the unhappy and fearful self. He writes, "The withdrawal must have been so complete that this false, suffering self immediately collapsed.....What was left then was my true nature as the ever-present I AM: consciousness in its pure state prior to identification with form......Later I also learned to go into that inner timeless and deathless realm that I had originally perceived as a void and remain fully conscious. I dwelt in such indescribable bliss and sacredness that even the original experience....pales in comparison. A time came when, for a while, I was left with nothing on the physical plane. I had no relationships, no job, no home, no socially-defined identity. I spent almost two years sitting on park benches in a state of the most intense joy.
But even the most beautiful experiences come and go."
There is a CD or a tape where he talks about his life during those two years, but I can't remember the title. He left England with almost no money and travelled to Vancouver. There, he wrote "The Power of Now," and a local publisher printed 3000 copies. The book became famous by word of mouth, and eventually it ended up at the top of the NYT bestseller list. I seem to remember him telling an interviewer that after his experience, he lost all interest in his academic job and quit. His needs were almost non-existent after that, so perhaps he lived on whatever money he had left over from his teaching job. If someone else remembers the interview where he talked about that period in his life, perhaps s/he can post a link or recount the details.
He theorized that the intense pressure of his suffering caused his consciousness to withdraw from its identification with the unhappy and fearful self. He writes, "The withdrawal must have been so complete that this false, suffering self immediately collapsed.....What was left then was my true nature as the ever-present I AM: consciousness in its pure state prior to identification with form......Later I also learned to go into that inner timeless and deathless realm that I had originally perceived as a void and remain fully conscious. I dwelt in such indescribable bliss and sacredness that even the original experience....pales in comparison. A time came when, for a while, I was left with nothing on the physical plane. I had no relationships, no job, no home, no socially-defined identity. I spent almost two years sitting on park benches in a state of the most intense joy.
But even the most beautiful experiences come and go."
There is a CD or a tape where he talks about his life during those two years, but I can't remember the title. He left England with almost no money and travelled to Vancouver. There, he wrote "The Power of Now," and a local publisher printed 3000 copies. The book became famous by word of mouth, and eventually it ended up at the top of the NYT bestseller list. I seem to remember him telling an interviewer that after his experience, he lost all interest in his academic job and quit. His needs were almost non-existent after that, so perhaps he lived on whatever money he had left over from his teaching job. If someone else remembers the interview where he talked about that period in his life, perhaps s/he can post a link or recount the details.
