Dancing with the Void

By Sunyata

Book Overview

"In this life play I have not been in quest of Guru, God, Truth, Grace, Salvation, nirvana, or power lust. I had no ambition to be different from what I am. Blessedly, I had escaped headucation, and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1884997198
• ISBN13: 9781884997198
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Blue Dove Press
• Length: 334 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Love emanates

One of the best books I have ever read. To connect with Sunyata's LOVE overflow is perhaps one of the most enriching and fulfilling experiences you can live as you realize who you are.

Accept and dissolve

One afternoon 1998, I was walking along Santa Monica Boulevard in Santa Monica and I saw a table set-up on the sidewalk outside a small bookstore. One title featured a color photograph of a man who I'd never seen before, but who I could at once see was a communicator of the nature of reality. That day I picked up a copy of Sunyata: The Life & Sayings of a Rare-born Mystic. The book introduced me to a person who -- how do I describe it? -- who was stress-free. Easy to be with. Quiet. Harbouring nothing. Separate from nothing. Strong in his knowing and presence and in his confessions about what is true; strong in his pointing out of "egojies," but always seeing/knowing/being or "awaring" the Self that is the reality of egojies. Though I know Sunyata only through books and through brief discussions with Betty Camhi, who is the book's editor and who was a friend of Sunyata, I feel close to him, if that's possible. I can understand what editor Betty Camhi says in the Preface to Dancing with the Void: "After listening over a period of several years to ... questions and answers, I found myself becoming less interested in the verbal exchange and more interested in the silence and radiance that was emanating from this 'rare born mystic.' He had a healing presence." But that's not the book I'm reviewing. I'm reviewing Dancing with the Void, which is another book by Sunyata and co-edited by Betty Camhi, who co-edited the first book. This book is longer and better organized, but not necessarily a better or lesser introduction to the nature of Sunyata himself. In this book, as in the first one, you experience the silence of Sunyata. The silence comes through in the photographs (what first draw me to him) and his words. This book includes a biography by one of the editors, and several chapters telling of the people Sunyata personally knew: Tagore, Gandhi, Nehru, Ramana Maharshi, and others. Nearly half the book is biographical or autobiographical. The rest of the book consists of chapters on other people and topics: Albert Schweitzer, Milarepa, Kabir, Carl Jung, Gautama Buddha, Mysticism, Suffering, Awakening. The topics of sex, music, art, and death are covered within various chapters. Throughout this book, on every page, there is the simple utterance of truth. The people and the various topics are very interesting, but secondary. In the spirituality racket it doesn't matter what we talk about because all topics are like the wide end of a funnel, expansive and open to all kinds of discussion, but very soon narrowing to the point at hand, which is the realization of "this." There is a series of such funnels in this book and the topics are certainly there to be enjoyed, studied, contemplated, experienced, savored. Sunyata, Emmanuel Sorensen, was born in Denmark in 1890. He lived most of his life in India, where he felt most at home, and in the 1970's was invited by the Alan Watts Society to live in the United States. The following exchange reveals a

Experience samadi while reading!

Reading the book, "Dancing with the Void" was a rare experience! Although it is clearly written and not over-long, it took me rather a long time to get through the book because reading it allowed me to touch the mind of Sunyata, and I kept going into samadi. Sometimes several times per page. Sunyata, it seems, is truely a "rare-born mystic" and the clear and respectful editing by Camhi and Rai allows one to experience his presence in a most dynamic way.I would encourage anyone interested in the inner life to experience this wonderful book -- and through it the mind of Sunyata.

One of the rare ones

Remarkably pure, this man Sunyata, in his every expression. He's living the essence of what we're all looking for.