Douglas Edison Harding

Originally published: The Buddhist Society, 1961.

On Having No Head

Selected articles by Douglas Harding, author of On Having No Head

As I See It

With an introduction by C.S. Lewis, "The Hierarchy of Heaven and Earth" provides a close look at the nature of man, and man's relationship with the entire created order and with the Creator. (Philosophy)

A New Diagram of Man in the Universe

The Hierarchy of Heaven and Earth

Zen and the Re-discovery of the Obvious

Visible Gods is an imaginary dialogue between Socrates and four fictitious modern-day characters. Socrates' worldview is of a living cosmos with man only half-way up the hierarchy of all beings; above him reign suprahuman beings of great majesty and power - the visible gods. The moderns with whom Socrates converses disdain his ancient Greek cosmos as primitive and false. Yet as Socrates questions them in typically ironic fashion about the discoveries of science, it's not at all clear that the scientists' view of "a dead universe populated here and there with rare accidents of life" is right. Indeed, the more the moderns argue their case, the more Socrates shows they are arguing his... Douglas Harding completed Visible Gods in 1955. But the 'living universe' does not go out of date! Join this conversation and discover - rediscover - the brilliant, shining, truly majestic life that is within you and without you. Put aside modern preconceptions and see the world with fresh, innocent, truthful eyes, and be amazed!

Visible Gods

This wide-ranging selection of essays by the author of On Having No Head points directly back to you, the Reader. It is a heartfelt challenge to awaken to your True Identity which, as Harding demonstrates, is more wonderful than any of us can imagine, easier to see than anything in the world, and the paradigm of sanity and health. These essays show you exactly how and where to look to find this Treasure, and indicate the immense personal and global implications of this Awakening. Harding's work represents a breakthrough in communicating the experience and meaning of our True Identity. Combining insight and humour in his characteristic fashion, Harding leads us Home in a manner that is always fresh and authentic.

Look For Yourself

The Hidden Gospel presents an exciting new interpretation of the teachings of Jesus. In this workshop manual Douglas Harding invites you to do his breakthrough experiments and experience, directly, the Reality that Jesus was talking about. In the Hidden Gospel Harding shows how the teachings of Jesus make sense in scientific terms - including some teachings that sound plainly untrue, or at best metaphorical. When Jesus spoke about having a 'single eye' and of his body being 'full of light', what did he mean? Anyone looking at him would have seen he had two eyes and his body was not made of light. But carry out Harding's 'single eye' experiment and within a few moments all is clarified, not through debate but by seeing - seeing that your eye is single, that your body is made of light. Now the words of Jesus make sense. The Hidden Gospel, completed in 1974 but published now for the first time in paperback, is for anyone, from whatever tradition, who wishes to find out what Jesus really meant, not by debating his teachings but by experiencing for themselves the boundless core of their own being, and then seeing how clearly and beautifully Jesus described this experience, this Reality. This book does not appeal to Jesus as a religious authority who tells you what to believe but as a fellow traveller who found 'the pearl of great price' and, with great courage, did his best to share it with others.

Games for the Kingdom

The Hidden Gospel

Harding saw who he really was in 1943. In The Hierarchy of Heaven & Earth (1952) Harding explored how the discovery of our central Reality changes our understanding of our place in the universe. In The Face Game Harding extended that exploration further in terms of how consciously being the Self transforms our personal lives.

The Face Game

This book is about the heart of religious experience, namely Enlightenment (which is finding the truth concerning oneself), and about science (which is finding the truth concerning other things), and about the relationship between them. It claims that Enlightenment is more truly scientific than science itself; and that, without Enlightenment, science is only half the story and therefore full of contradictions, of insoluble problems both theoretical and practical. It shows how, when at last one turns one's attention round and ceases to overlook the Looker--the 1st Person at the near end of one's microscope or telescope or spectacles--these contradictions are resolved. Some 37 examples are given, taken from such diverse fields as physics, mathematics, semantics, epistemology, and psychotherapy, to show how nothing less than Enlightenment makes sense and works out. The Reader will find that Enlightenment is not, after all, an unattainable mystery, but perfectly natural and instantly accessible to anyone who carries out the simple test--the basic experiment of the Science of the 1st Person-- which this book describes. Of Harding's numerous works, the most comprehensive is The Hierarchy of Heaven and Earth: A New Diagram of Man in the Universe, the best-known is On Having No Head: The Rediscovery of the Obvious, and the most thorough and rigorous is The Science of the 1st Person: Its Principles, Practice and Potential.

Its Principles, Practice and Potential

The Science of the 1st Person

Taking the form of a court case in the year 2003 AD in which a man is tried for blasphemy, the book dramatises Harding's highly original techniques for Seeing Who We Are.

The Trial of the Man Who Said He was God

This book begins with the question 'Who am I?' and immediately sets off in an astonishingly original direction. Why didn't anyone before Harding think of responding to this question like this? It's so obvious, once you see it. Harding presents a new vision of our place in the universe that uses the scientific method of looking to see what is true. It turns out that the truth about ourselves is not only true but also very good, and breathtakingly beautiful. We live in a sacred, many-layered, living universe - or rather it lives in us. Though it was completed in 1950, this book is still ahead of its time. One day it will surely be widely recognised for its greatness: its all-encompassing vision, its originality and freshness, its depth of insight, its wide-ranging knowledge, the clarity and poetry of its language, its humanity. It is a world-view not dependent on local culture or religion, but on universally verifiable facts. It is also a world-view that respects our manifest differences whilst celebrating our underlying unity - the unity not just of oneself with other people but with all of life, indeed with the whole universe. Harding died in 2007 aged 97, leaving behind him an impressive body of work. He was a highly creative person who was passionate about - he was in love with - this living universe and the immortal treasure that abides at its centre - at our centre. "A work of the highest genius." C. S. Lewis.

In this book the author of On Having No Head investigates the most poignant problem our life poses - what lies at the end of it. He asks us to check four things. First, that to discover whether we are perishable, we must first discover what we are. Second, that outsiders are in no position to tell us this: they can only tell us what we look like at a distance. Third, that what we are is obvious as soon as we dare to look. And fourth, that we turn out to be in all respects the opposite of what we had been told. This revolutionary conclusion is arrived at by doing the nine "tests for Immortality" that form the backbone of the book. Then, our identity and immortality having been firmly established, we apply this knowledge to the fact of ageing and of dying itself, thus realizing their infinite potential for joy. Finally, the book explores in detail the true resurrection life - life lived in a Heaven which is none other than this earthly scene perceived as it is. 'The "open secret" is no longer secret. Douglas Harding's Little Book of Life nd Death makes the insights of the sages accessible to all. Courageous, personal and inspiring, this book asks the most difficult questions about life and death, and to our - and apparently even the author's - amazemnt, answers them. Like Harding's classic book On Having No Head, this work is written in a down-home, heartfelt syle. Read this book. Do the "experiments" which are Harding's unique and powerful contribution to what might be called the technology of enlightenment. Get ready to die, and to live anew.' Rober W. Fuller. Former president, Oberlin College. 'The literature on dying will never be the same again.' Ram Dass

Douglas Edison Harding

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