John Astin - It’s Not What You Think It Is: Meditations on the Inconceivable Nature of Reality

Surrender to mystery can lead to bewilderment, which in turn can lead to joy and even transcendent ecstasy. The realization that there is no explanation for existence or awareness of existence is ultimate liberation. John Astins book offers an opportunity for this liberation, if you are ready.

Deepak Chopra , coauthor of You Are the Universe

John Astin is a gift. He points our awareness to insights that could take a lifetime of practice to reach, but can also be apprehended by just the slightest turn of attention. With his rare blend of experience as a seasoned academic, scientist, mystic, poet, and musician, Johns ability to illuminate a path toward realization with a lack of jargon and an elegant economy of words is unparalleled. This book is like walking into uncharted terrain with the kindest of guides pointing out the sublime in every step.

Cassandra Vieten, PhD , president of the Institute of Noetic Sciences

With its miniessays and friendly practices, Johns book examines experience with a vast, nondogmatic openness.

Greg Goode , author of The Direct Path and After Awareness

In his latest book, John Astin offers us a multitude of simple, straightforward, yet elegant practices for welcoming and embracing each moment of life. If you wish to discover methods of inquiry that easily peel away misperceptions of thinking, and which lead to the discovery of a lasting happiness and well-being in the midst of daily circumstances, then this is a book that deserves to be on your reading table for years to come.

Richard Miller , author of iRest Meditation and The iRest Program for Healing PTSD

This Extraordinary Moment is a remarkable book that weaves together years of scholarly investigation and contemplative practice to help us understand the nature of reality. John Astin reminds us that the whole point of spiritual inquiry is to discover the ways in which our fantasies, hopes, beliefs, and ideas could never possibly capture the inconceivable depth and richness of our moment-to-moment experience. This book has the power to transform individual and collective lives.

Shauna Shapiro , professor at Santa Clara University, and coauthor of The Art and Science of Mindfulness

Ive never read a book that goes so deeply into the question, What is experience actually made of? John Astin has created a masterpiece here that draws us into this question in a very thorough and meticulous way. If you take this book deeply, you can begin to see that he is pointing to the fact that concepts cannot pin reality down and that reality is an ever-changing flow of experience that cannot be grasped. This can be the start of a profound recognition of freedom. Highly recommended!

Scott Kiloby , author of Natural Rest for Addiction and The Unfindable Inquiry

John has taken on an impossible taskto communicate the incommunicable, to share the unshareableyet he has written a remarkably accessible, multipronged invitation to the reader to explore their normalcy, and possibly discover for themselves the unrecognized goal of all their aspirations, unsuspectedly hidden in plain sight in the very nature of that normalcy. A lucid, intelligent, and wide-ranging exploration.

Peter Brown , author of Dirty Enlightenment

Live in not knowing is a pointer you hear repeated across non-dual traditions and teachers. In This Extraordinary Moment , John expands this simple pointer into a complete path to awakening. Using a mixture of original metaphors, contemporary cognitive science, inquiry work, and vibrantly alive writing, the book continually invites us beyond the narrow confines of our conceptual mind into the vastness of our real experience. Highly recommended!

Chris McKenna , guiding teacher at Mindful Schools

This wonderful, clear book invites us to drop out of metaphysical speculation and belief, stop our desperate efforts to grasp reality conceptually, and instead tune in to the direct immediacy of present (sensory, energetic) experiencing, just as it is. John offers a simple but immensely rich and subtle exploration of actual experience, revealing the depth of this extraordinary moment that is ever-changing but always here-now. Instead of turning to outside authorities, he suggests listening to experience itself. Instead of urgency and seriousness, he invites approaching this practice in a lighthearted, playful way. Nothing is an obstacle or a problem in this approach. John suggests that the subtlest depths are not found behind, below, or beneath but smack dab in the middle of the so-called gross or surface level of things. This book points you to the vibrant aliveness that is right here in every moment, to be discovered not by transcending what seems ordinary and mundane, but by opening fully to the (sensory, energetic, experiential) actuality of this very moment, however it seems to be.

Joan Tollifson , author of Nothing to Grasp and Awake in the Heartland

This Extraordinary Moment delivers clear, engaging, refreshing, and transformational spiritual teaching. John guides the reader to awaken to the unconditional freedom and well-being that is available in every moment. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in psychospiritual evolution.

Jessica Graham , spiritual teacher, and author of Good Sex

Publishers Note

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering psychological, financial, legal, or other professional services. If expert assistance or counseling is needed, the services of a competent professional should be sought.

Distributed in Canada by Raincoast Books

Copyright 2018 by John Astin

Non-Duality Press

An imprint of New Harbinger Publications, Inc.

5674 Shattuck Avenue

Oakland, CA 94609

www.newharbinger.com

Cover design by Amy Shoup

Acquired by Jennye Garibaldi

Edited by Melanie Bell

All Rights Reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file

To see a World in a Grain of Sand

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand

And Eternity in an hour.

William Blake

There are more things

in heaven and earth, Horatio,

Than are dreamt of

in your philosophy.

Shakespeare

Contents

Foreword

by Adyashanti

Unless we are very careful, and very curious, we may end up living our lives lost in a world of abstraction, a waking dream that seems completely real only because it is based upon a kind of consensus delusion. For all of the amazing wonders of invention and creativity that our ability to think in abstract terms confers upon us, we can also forget that our thoughts are but representations of things and experiences. Thoughts can be useful tools of investigation and expression, but they are not ultimately real in and of themselves. As the old saying goes, the thought is not the thing

This tool of discursive thought is so amazing and useful that we forget that the world of ideas and descriptions is not ultimately real. The thought water will not quench your thirst, nor will the thought love kiss you on the cheek or hold you in its arms. We use our ability to conceptualize for all manner of reasons, but are far more often used by it. Proof in point is the endless narrative running in our heads that we take to be real. But how can it be real? At best its a representation of reality, but more often than not, its nothing but a conditioned generator of alternative realities, a fiction that only exists in our mindsa sort of waking dream.