Toni Packer and Joan Tollifson

[monkey]

Hello. I'd like to read something by Toni Packer and by Joan Tollifson but am a bit confused about where to start. Can someone recommend me a book by each which would be a good beginning read for someone trying to get to grips with their style of open awareness please? The Toni Packer ones seem to be collections of talks etc., so I'm not sure which would be good. Thank you.

[JonW]

Two of my favourite writers.
Tollifson's best is Nothing To Grasp. Avoid Bare-Bones Meditation which is more of a scattered autobiography. All Packer's books are magnificent. The Wonder Of Presence is probably my favourite. I wouldn't be put off my the "talks" format she uses. It's a life-changing book.
Have you checked out Jeff Foster?
Cheers,
Jon

[monkey]

Thanks Jon, it's good to have recommendations! No, I haven't heard of Jeff Foster. Will have a google. I have a book by Charlotte Joko Beck but I find it a bit bleak. Toni Packer seems more joyful maybe.

[JonW]

I'll happily recommend books 'til the cows come home, assuredly.
Alan Watts is the name that always trips easily off the tongue.
Do you have a Kindle? There's many, many books I can share.
Good things,
Jon

[monkey]

Hi Jon. Thanks - I will check out Alan Watts. I don't have a kindle, I have a Nook but I don't think the two are on speaking terms. Thank you anyway for your offer of loans. I'm quite good at buying books and not reading them so am trying to be choosy. I did get The Wonder of Presence and am enjoying it. I realise that I find the overtly Buddhist writers quite alienating. I struggle with the whole 'no self' thing, but I wonder if it's something that just emerges through practice and isn't really graspable intellectually. Like the yoga man Jois said: 'yoga is 1% theory, 99% practice'.

[JonW]

Alan Watts' The Book On The Taboo Against Knowing Who You is simply awesome. It's in my list of top books of all time. Or at least the books that have been life-changers for me.
The others are:
The Upanishads
The Bhagavad Gita
The Dhammapada (all Eknath Easwaran translations)
Be As You Are: The Teachings Of Sri Ramana Maharshi
David Carse: Perfect Brilliant Stillness
Nisargadatta: I Am That

Cheers,
Jon, Hove