Peter Ralston

Over decades of martial arts and meditation practice, Peter Ralston discovered a curious and paradoxical fact: that true awareness arises from a state of not-knowing. Even the most sincere investigation of self and spirit, he says, is often sabotaged by our tendency to grab too quickly for answers and ideas as we retreat to the safety of the known. This "Hitchhiker’s Guide to Awareness" provides helpful guideposts along an experiential journey for those Western minds predisposed to wandering off to old habits, cherished presumptions, and a stubbornly solid sense of self. With ease and clarity Ralston teaches readers how to become aware of the background patterns that they are usually too busy, stressed, or distracted to notice. The Book of Not Knowing points out the ways people get stuck in their lives and offers readers a way to make fresh choices about every aspect of their lives, from a place of awareness instead of autopilot.

Exploring the True Nature of Self, Mind, and Consciousness

The Book of Not Knowing

Laura Ralston

An Enlightened Approach to Physical Skill, Grace, and Power

Zen Body-Being

Every once in a while you find a high impact book. Something that awakens something deep within and lasts forever. This is the one. It is a book that you can pick up time and time again and always gets something new out of it, or something deeper than you. Cheng Hsin is the best introduction for beginners to the internal practice of fighting. It is a seminal work that draws on T'ai Chi Ch'uan, Aikido, and Pa Kua Chang and was written by the first Westerner ever to win the world championship in a full-contact martial arts tournament.

The Principles of Effortless Power

Cheng Hsin

Peter Ralston’s exceptionally lucid trilogy on the nature of human consciousness culminates here in The Genius of Being, a book of deep contemplations on the unseen elements that create our world. The first volume, The Book of Not Knowing, garnered much praise as a comprehensive exploration of the depths of self and consciousness. The second volume, Pursuing Consciousness, clarifies the difference between enlightenment and self-transformation, and then pairs these two goals in a strikingly effective way. This third book is both shorter and more complex, taking us straight to the heart of the origins of our experience. In a progression of illuminating assertions, Ralston shows us how human consciousness carves out distinctions from whatever is absolutely true. This dynamic not only generates both self and reality from nothing, it imbues them with the quality of objective truth. From the time we first distinguish between self and not-self as infants, we begin making a sequence of existential assumptions that result in the illusion that a self is some ethereal “object” within. This universally accepted assumption persists despite the failure of exhaustive investigations to locate this inner self. This book is not for the faint of heart or the casual seeker, but contemplating the assertions here empowers you to personally and experientially grasp what is rarely even glimpsed: a profound consciousness of the genesis of human experience.

Contemplating the Profound Intelligence of Existence

The Genius of Being

Pursuing Consciousnessis an investigation into being and consciousness for those seeking personal growth. Neither a dry discourse on intellectual convictions nor an uplifting excursion to an idealistic fantasy realm, this is a handbook on how to access direct consciousness. This book begins by clarifying enlightenment and transformation, and then guides the reader in creating a "transformation objective" to use as a tool to help ground and deepen consciousness work. By revealing the core and design of one's current experience, the transformative work will help to address the very source of persistent unwanted reactions and internal struggles. You'll learn to make new distinctions in your emotions and perceptions, as well as recognize how much your life-story determines your self-identity. Anyone who desires to go beyond their current experience of self and reality will find this to be a profound and yet down-to-earth guide. This is not a random Q & A format, but a systematic exploration of your own consciousness. The ultimate goal is nothing less than enlightenment, a direct personal encounter with the true nature of Being, as well as opening up the possibility of real personal change. Table of Contents Introduction About Reading This Book That Book This Book Part One- What Are We Dealing With? Chapter One- Consciousness and Change Chapter Two- Self Transformation Chapter Three- What Is and Isn't Enlightenment Part Two- Getting Down to Work Chapter Four- Setting the Stage for Transformation Chapter Five- Freeing Self From Object-Identity Chapter Six- Mechanisms of Experience Chapter Seven- Transforming Your Emotions Chapter Eight- Predicable Pitfalls Chapter Nine- Transcending Your Life Story Chapter Ten- Breaking Free of Assumptions Chapter Eleven- Transforming Part Three- The Absolute and Beyond Chapter Twelve- Enlightenment- Some Nothing From Which to Come Chapter Thirteen- Approaching Absolutes Chapter Fourteen- Persisting and Maturing a In Conclusion

The Book of Enlightenment and Transformation

Pursuing Consciousness

This book provided this beginning tai-chi student with a rich, methodical philosophical "grounding" on some concepts that that are at the core of Eastern martial arts. Ralston helps the reader develop an awareness, quite literally "from the ground up".

The Art of Effortless Power

Cheng Hsin T'ui Shou

Peter Ralston responds to 150 questions about consciousness from a global spectrum of people striving to grasp the nature of their own selves This illuminating collection of 150 questions and responses between Peter Ralston and a global spectrum of seekers provides a rare and nuanced look at the nature of consciousness and the path to understanding our true selves. Ralston is the author of the groundbreaking trilogy on the existential foundations of the human condition—The Book of Not Knowing, Pursuing Consciousness, and The Genius of Being. Here he has selected inquiries from more than two decades of question-and-answer exchanges with students as they work their way through his communications. The mosaic of viewpoints from an astonishing diversity of real people at all levels of consciousness work yields a narrative that is intricate, wide-ranging, intimate, and emotionally honest. These dialogues expand our understanding of consciousness, test our assumptions, and interrogate the very process of inquiry.

Peter Ralston

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