When The Eye is Unobstructed (Mindfulness Stories for Awakening)

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When the Eye is Unobstructed is a radical call to wake up from the sleep of unawareness. It is an invitation to open our eyes to all that is. The wise ones call this 'seeing with attention'.... seeing that is untrammelled by our judgements.

Great teachers and mystics love using stories and parables to point to the Truth since stories speak to you at a beyond the mind, without trying to change you or preach to you. They may bypass your resistance by not engaging the thinking mind and bring about a transformation that may open your eyes to see.

To see this way is to be transformed. And in order to see, there is nothing one needs to do except, as the 4th Century BC Chinese sage Chuang Tzu wrote, to remove the obstacles to seeing.

Anyone interested in mindfulness practice will find in these stories an understanding and perspective that is practical, rooted in life and, therefore, invaluable.,

Dr. Francis Vallor is an author and international speaker. His life long quest brought him in contact with many wonderful spiritual teachers, friends and several masters and sages such as Anthony de Mello. It was he who set him on the path of Awareness. After de Mello's death, Francis worked as the director of Sadhana Institute in Lonavla, India for fourteen years before spending two years as a visiting scholar at the University of Notre Dame. Currently he lives in Dublen, Ireland where he works as a Clinical Psychologist in practise and conducts Awareness workshops and retreats. He is the author of A Dewdrop in the Ocean –Wisdom Stories for Turbulent Times (2009) and The Ocean in the Dewdrop – Awakening the Sage Within (2010).

The author, after several decades of familiarity with mindfulness, to be seen, not as a tool or technique for symptomatic relief or a calming spiritual practice, but a way of living life with eyes and hearts. In books he seeks to clarify the concept of mindfulness. He is convinced it is of value only to the extent it is embodied and grounded in life.

The simplest way to describe Awareness may be to liken it to seeing. To be aware is to be present so that your eyes are open and you can see. This way of seeing requires that we are present without judgements, that we see what is there, nothing else and nothing less.

This does not call for any training or practice. All that is asked of us, if we wish to see, is to remove the obstacles to seeing. Mystics and sages are men and women who see, and are able to show those who wish to see, how they remove the obstacles before them.

The sage in these stories is not single individual butt someone who gives expression to the wisdom of the ages, men and women of East and West, of the past and the present. They are from different cultures and traditions such as the Hindu, Budhist, Taoist, Christian, Sufi, and so on. You will hear in these stories the echoes of the Buddha, Ramana Maharshi, Anthony de Mello, Ramesh Balsekar. J. Krishnamurti, Meister Eckhart, Vernon Howard and many others.

The stories in this book as well as its companion volumes are based on various aspects of the single theme of Awareness/Mindfuless. The ideas and insights contained here originate from humanity's great treasure of wisdom as well as the many teachers and experience along my own life journey. All that I have done is to fashion these awareness stories in the way that I have done is to fashion these awareness stories in the way they are being presented, not unlike a craftsman who summons out of wood or metal some form for use or beauty.

These stories may inspire or infuriate, challenge or comfort, provoke or amuse. The purpose of parables and teaching stories is not to entertain or inform but to awaken and transform.

The message of Awareness is best learned through stories rather than rational discourse. Stories speak to you at a level beyond the mind without trying to change you or preach to you. They may bypass your resistance by not engaging the thinking mind and bring about a transformation that may open eyes to see.