The Mirage and the Mirror
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Swami Chidbhasananda on, The Lamp of the Turiya, from Because of Atma. 'It is really a masterpiece coming from the bottom of your experience, and there is no artificial make-up in your composition. Our additional thanks and gratitude to your Kindself.'
Swami Bhaskarananda, author of The Essentials of Hinduism, on Measuring Sky Without Ground: 'People are victims of their conditioning. That is the reason why people of the East and people of the West sometimes think differently. Richard Chambers Prescott has grown up in the West. He has had Western conditioning. Yet his inquiring mind has taken him to the shores of Eastern knowledge - particularly the knowledge of Hindu philosophy and religion. He is one of the few Western friends I know who have tried to explore the wealth of Hindu wisdom with the mind of an ardent and admiring student, and not that of a chance traveler or a supercilious surface-taster. The articles contained in this book clearly reflect his open-mindedness, impartial self-examination, and mental enrichment attained through the exploration of both Eastern and Western wisdom. Rudyard Kipling once said, 'Oh, East is East, and West is West, and ne're the twain shall meet.' Mr. Prescott has proved him wrong. In him the wisdom of the East and the wisdom of the West seem to have blended together in perfect harmony.' And, 'Your writings are very precise and clear, and therefore, they will help readers to understand some of the Vedantic ideas more easily. Please keep up the good work!'
Swami Muktirupananda, Advaita Ashrama, the Himalayas: Editor for Prabuddha Bharata: 'I have gone through all of your review articles, they are very good and reveal the depth of the writer. Please try to share your mature thoughts with the reader of this spiritual journal.' 'So many books have been coming out from your facile pen and rich brain. I will keep the copies of your books in our Advaita Library. You have rightly pointed out that Turiya is the state of pure beingness. It is eternal existence without any name and form. It is the ego with the sense of 'I am this' and 'I am that', that thinks it undergoes changes. This information we have gathered in our heads about ourselves gives us the idea that we are limited, powerless. But, these definitions that one is American, or Christian, or husband, or wife, rich or poor, are added to one's pure beingness. These are external descriptions gathered in the course of time. We believe we are these definitions and suffer. Behind all these external decorations there is One who existed prior to all these. To see thoughts appearing in the mind, there must be somebody to see. So he must be in existence before there was any thought. 'You' as pure being exist prior to all thoughts. This pure being cannot be defined, because of it, everything else arises. It is prior to all. Spiritual practice is to throw out all we have accumulated from the external world. When all that rubbish stuff is thrown out, when the mind is cleaned what remains is Reality, beyond all words.'
Dr. Kenneth Ring, Author of Life After Death and Heading Toward Omega : 'I very much respect the learning you so easily express concerning the nature of death and the state of consciousness it engenders. And I am glad you are continuing to be one of those authors of the modern book of the dead and thereby helping to bring the ancient wisdom to a new generation of beings.' 'I am happy to know that you continue to be a prolific writer and weaver of story-magic.'
Linda Johnsen, author of Daughters of the Goddess: The Women Saints of India: 'Reading over the expressions of your soul, I also felt an intense poignancy. In this culture who is there to be inspired by words such as yours, by visions such as Hers? We live in such a wasteland, Richard. And at the same time this spiritual desert is a heaven world Mother has created for us so that we can do sadhana (spiritual practice) well fed in heated homes. I accept Her blessing of contemporary American life with gratitude and despair. The Divine One will never let us go. May we never let go of Her! Bowing to the Goddess in you.' & 'I certainly wish I was as continuously inspired as you and could keep producing books at such a prodigious rate! And all for the glory of Mother.' 'Thanks so much for Measuring Sky Without Ground. What a wonderful title! I especially appreciated your point that, 'Mother is not a lesser form that needs destroying.' When Ramakrishna attacked the form of Kali with the sword of discrimination, it was Kali's own sword he was using, jnana sakti.'
Penny Slinger, artist and author of numerous books, The Path of the Mystic Lover being but one of her titles: 'No one can write as you do without it being forged in the bliss of Her divine fire, no one comes to Her knowledge without being prepared to offer themselves in the flames... only they know the passion of this surrender! Beautiful poet, I salute you, for you are doing the work, the great work of preparing the vessel so She may flow through.. oh how I too ardently long for there to be nothing left of me but the Goddess! I honor you for honoring Her.' & 'I appreciated Dragon Sight deeply... I have absorbed it and pay homage to you for not only attempting but actually executing such a work. Thank goodness, thank Goddess, for beings like you.'
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About the Book
Kalee Bhava: The Goddess and Her Moods was born out of torment and love crashing together like lightning hitting the Earth to ignite life into existence. It is nothing but passion for the spiritual. This book was the work of Healing Sakti in my life. I began to heal what has seemed to be a never-ending torrent of wounds, everything from the wounds of Jesus, to the wounds of inability to attain Advaita (non-dual transcendence) permanently. The distorted imprint of this world leaves us with many delusions, scars, and schisms: sexual, psychological, and religious. My healing began as I began to embrace the Image of Kali as my Ishta Sakti, the Chosen Ideal of Spiritual Power.
Because of Atma: Essays on Self and Empathy was the work of Vedanta Sakti coming back to me. It is my inquiry into the Pure Atma; true self as What is Behind and yet Within the Curtain of Enchantment. But I must confess my own non-originality. If Ashtavakra describes the Atma as 'glory' and thousands of years later Swami Abhedananda describes Atma as 'glory' and then perhaps a decade or two after that someone else uses the very same word, well, who is then original? No one person is the holder of Truth; it is Truth that is the Holder of every individual. The Lamp of the Turiya was translated into Dutch and republished in the journal Vedanta. Spiritual Solutions to Psychological Equations was republished in The New Times. Bursting the Sharp Midpoint of the World Mind Cultus was republished in Prabuddha Bharata and The New Times.
The Skills of Kalee came later as a process of autonomous self-arrival. As it is with almost all writing and poetic efforts, some of it is a scholarly construct and some is spontaneous creativity. As it is, I think the feeling within each sentence speaks for itself. This manuscript was the work of Loving Sakti in my life. The text is an exercise in the practice and application of learning to love and to use my own mind as an instrument for loving the Goddess.
Measuring Sky Without Ground: Essays on the Goddess Kali, Sri Ramakrishna and Human Potential came out of thinking upon Turiya Sakti, that is Mother's Advaita returned from the waking, dreaming, and deep sleep states back into the fourth state (turiya), at least, in a cerebral perspective, but expressed with powerful feeling. For me it was like the dawn of spiritual life inside my heart. The title essay, Measuring Sky Without Ground: A Pragmatic Psychology of Non-Duality was republished in The New Times.
Kalee: The Allayer of Sorrows is a return address to some important historical and spiritual subjects that for me are a salute to Tantra Sakti and how She has expressed Herself in my life. From this text, The Radical View of Kali: A Study in Religious Distortion was republished in the journal Matriarch's Way. The Guru Problem: Spiritual Trauma and Abuse in the Causal Dynamic of the Guru Dilemma was republished in The New Times.
The Goddess and the God Man: An Explorative Study of the Intimate Relationship of the Goddess Kali with Sri Ramakrishna of Dakshineswar was my greatest pleasure and joyful labor, being in itself a work on pure Kali Sakti. It is a probing search, and an unworthy attempt to fathom the depth of his spiritual experience, written at the borderline where the absolute transcendent Goddess expressed Herself in the person of Sri Ramakrishna of Dakshineswar (1836-1886).
Living Sakti: Attempting Quick Knowing in Perpetual Perception and Continuous Becoming, I prayed, was to be my culmination, after thirty years of writing, perhaps that I now might live in Peace. To enjoy what has been discovered in Sakti and to live what Sakti has uncovered.
But Mother would not let me rest and just live in Her Sakti. She once again forced me to continue writing and so the eighth text was born from my mind womb wherein She could not resist impregnating me with more thoughts on Her. So The Mirage and the Mirror was born. It was written from the Perspective of the Witness Consciousness (The Mirror). All else is the Mirage. As to whether or not, in the Final Conclusion, the anomalies within the Mirage are considered to be real or unreal, is up to you, as both the Tantric and Vedantic views are given. Either view, is still only a consideration within that Consciousness, the Mirror. It is the work of Clear and Lucid Advaita Sakti.
These eight texts are what I see as eight parts/stages of one book that is the embodiment of my devotion to the Goddess. The overall title of these eight book/stages is Advaita Sakti: A Poet's Journey To The Goddess. Advaita, of course, is Non-Duality. Sakti is the Immeasurable Power or Energy of the Divine Mother as Pure Consciousness and Pure Love.
I am simply a poet who loves the Goddess. I am just one seeker of Truth who has written down his thoughts as so many of us have done. I am no one special and knowing that this is so, is one of the most healing emotions I have ever experienced. The emotions we entertain become the moods we live in and for me, the Sweet Current of Love is the mood in which I would wish to spend as much time as may be. While working on these texts, Advaita Sakti, the most excellent thing that I learned in the process, is that it is for the Sake of Her, not I. You may taste these thoughts, you may swallow these words, or, as you choose, you may spit them out. I lay no claim to these works. Ego is a massive cloud that consumes the body idea, the content of feelings, and the mind's addressing of one's life, so with that I try not to identify. May She protect and inspire the emerging of the Love that is within you.
About the Author
Richard Chambers Prescott is a writer and publisher of twenty books of poetry. He has had five plays published by Aran Press in Kentucky and over seventy essays and articles published from the U. S. A. to India. His essay, The Lamp of the Turiya, has been translated into Dutch and published in the Amsterdam journal, Vedanta. Over the last several years, some articles and essays have been printed in Prabuddha Bharata and The New Times. The intent of his writing is to join the spiritual and psychological aspects of human nature. He has donated to the publication of a text on the woman saint, Gauri Ma. Grascott Publishing has published two books of humor by Swami Bhaskarananda, The Danger of Walking on Water and One Eyed Vision. Some of his collected essays have been published in the texts, such as, Because of Atma: Essays on Self and Empathy and the work entitled Measuring Sky Without Ground: On the Goddess Kali, Sri Ramakrishna and Human Potential. His manuscript, The Goddess and The God Man: An Explorative Study of the Intimate Relationship of the Goddess Kali with Sri Ramakrishna of Dakshineswar came later and is perhaps the crown of those creations. Then, The Mirage and the Mirror was born out of continuous pondering on the Goddess. His most recent text is Inherent Solutions To Spiritual Obscurations which is a comparison of Tibetan Dzogchen and Indian Advaita in three parts, The Wonder of The Dakini Mind, Letting Go and Soaring On and Resolution in Pure Mind.
His early seven books of poetry, The Sage, Moonstar, Neuf Songes, The Carouse of Soma, Lions and Kings, Allah Wake Up, and Night Reaper, are on the passionate emergence, the coming forth of spiritual desire, Neuf Songes (Nine Dreams), being the crest wave of that time. Kings and Sages is a poetic sojourn through discoveries in East Indian doctrines. Three Waves is a poetic text on the transformation of tragedy into the love of life, that then becomes spirituality. The Imperishable is a collection of Tantric and Vedantic essays. The Dark Deitess is a sensitive text on the enigmatic stages of Goddess worship. Years of Wonder is a recounting of time spent in searching for the spiritual. Dream Appearances is a one-fourth of a century study and examination of the spiritual connection within the dream state. Remembrance Recognition and Return is a record of personal spiritual return to the Goddess. The seven Dragon books: Tales, Dreams, Prayers, Songs, Maker, Thoughts, and Dragon Sight: A Cremation Poem are an evolution of the creative mind culminating with the poetic affection for non-dualism and the composition of his own cremation poem. Kalee Bhava: The Goddess and Her Moods, The Skills of Kalee, Kalee: The Allayer of Sorrows and Living Sakti: Attempting Quick Knowing in Perpetual Perception and Continuous Becoming are purely expressions for the Goddess, conveying states, emotions, methods, techniques, direct insights, fresh discoveries, and a few personal spiritual ideas. Disturbing Delights: Waves of the Great Goddess are twenty-one journal volumes which are written, illustrated, and published by Mr. Prescott. Tales of Recognition is seven stories of spiritual journeys through the past and the future, death consciousness and return. Spare Advice is a short novel on the tragic comedy of two souls searching for truth. Racopa and the Rooms of Light is a play taking place in the after death condition. Hanging Baskets is a comedy about psychiatry. Writer's Block and Other Gray Matters, written with his marriage companion, S. Elisabeth Grace, is a collection of comedy drama one acts. The Resurrection of Quantum Joe is a comedy on physics. The Horse and The Carriage is a comedy on disparagement. Mr. Prescott has been published side by side with other journalists, some professors, and renunciate women and men in the text Eternal Platform by the Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama in Ramharipur, India. He has also been published in the journal text Matriarch's Way and Vitals Signs: The International Association for Near Death Studies. He has just recently had an essay entitled Sri Ramakrishna As Personal Companion published in Global Vedanta. His works are in some libraries, universities and spiritual sanctuaries in the U.S.A., Europe, Russia, South America, and India. Writing has been his spiritual practice for thirty years. Including all volumes, he has over eighty published manuscripts, most of which are privately distributed. His works, of over twenty years, are now mentioned in the International Poet's Encyclopaedia, Cambridge, England. As of 1998, he is forty-six years old and has been married for seventeen years.