NEW REVIEW by Shirley Roe at Allbookreviews

If you are looking for the purpose of being and the way to the heart of your true nature then you will find this book of limitless benefit.

Naked Being is not a self-help book. It is not a guide. It is a collection of wonderfully illuminating quips and insights that will change your life. This book is not to be read in an afternoon and then shelved. Life changes take time and so does reading Naked Being. Readers must read the insights one at a time, taking time to absorb and reflect on each one. I was particularly impressed by the formatting of the book; each insight is separated from the next by the symbol of “Oneness”, inviting a pause, a reflection. I found that I often reflected for days before returning, and other times, minutes of reflection would suffice. The well- written, yet easy to understand, teachings will reach to the depth of your soul.
Totalling 450, each insight brings the reader closer to self- realization, to enlightenment, to Naked Being. Each reader will find that the insights speak personally to him or her. Whether a new spiritual seeker or a more advanced enlightened being, this book has something for everyone.
Naked Being is remembering “Who” we are. It is discovering the limitless potential in each and every one of us. Naked Being is simply being all that we can be.
I guarantee you will pick it up again and again, each time seeking and finding answers to the purpose of life, your purpose. Discover your Naked Being today.

Author: Highly Recommended by Reviewer: Shirley Roe, Allbooks Review. www.allbookreviews.com


Title: Naked Being
Author: J. M. Harrison
Publisher: O Books
Pages: 136
ISBN: 978-1-84694-303-4

May 2010

Review by Priest and Author Simon Small

"I shall give you what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, what no hand has touched, what has not arisen in the human heart".

These words of Jesus from the Gospel of Thomas would not stop repeating themselves in my mind as I read Naked Being. They point to the nameless, pure, unborn presence that we all are, before we become.

It can never be seen, heard or touched because it is what we truly are. It is who we are before anything was. The saying suggests that our deepest identity is like a source of light that can never shine on itself, but illumines everything on which it rests its gaze. And too easily it can become confused, believing itself to be that which it only really sees.

It is when this timeless essence remembers itself that what Jonathan Harrison calls "naked being" arises. It is what is revealed, as Jesus explains elsewhere in Thomas, "when you take your clothes and put them under your feet like little children, then you will see the child of the living one and you will not be afraid".

There are many great teachings from the past, like the Gospel of Thomas, that seek to evoke this awakening. But they come from a different time and another culture and can struggle to fully connect with modern twenty-first century minds. So we need such teachings for our own time and Naked Being is such a contribution.

Like all authentic teachings of awakening it does not offer yet another doctrine or philosophy, yet more information to fill our already overloaded minds. Instead, it seeks to evoke in the reader a taste of that to which it points. It uses short, penetrating sayings that work away in the mind, gently dismantling the false, intensely personal thought world in which most of us live, most of the time. The passages are not statements on which one takes a position, agreeing or disagreeing, but are given for deep reflection - a journey that can take us to an experience far beyond their literal meaning.

All minds are wonderfully different, so a great variety of teachings are necessary. For many, Naked Being will be a powerful and true mirror.

Simon Small

www.simonsmall.info

NEW ENDORSEMENT - Annamaria Hemingway

Throughout the pilgrimage of life, we are always searching for a deeper sense of identity and purpose, which is often hampered through identification with a false ego-based consciousness. In Naked Being, Jonathan Harrison compiles a collection of inspirational and powerful texts that evoke a deep remembrance of our essential "true" nature and sacred sense of "home'.

Annamaria Hemingway, Ph.D. Author of Practicing Conscious Living and Dying and Myths of the Afterlife

NEW ENDORSEMENT by David.F.Vennells

Lovely book, a great opportunity to deepen your understanding and personal experience of the spiritual path, many special insights and wise words to help the reader develop their inner qualities and move towards a better understanding of themselves and their place in the world.

David F Vennells, award winning author of 5 books including 'Reiki Mastery'.

Endorsement by Amazon best-selling author Mick Quinn

This great book teaches us that our amazing ordinariness is not found by accumulating as much material wealth, status, and power as we possibly can, nor through the recognition of the mystifying emptiness discovered beyond self-identity, but shares insights through which our true Naked Being can manifest in the present moment, leaving us aligned with the process of life itself. # Mick Quinn, Irish-born author of the Amazon Bestseller - The Uncommon Path

APEX REVIEWS - review by Dominique Sessons

“Man did not weave the web of life - he is merely a strand in it.
Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.” This enlightening quote from Native American chief Seattle not only leads off Naked Being, it also sets the tone for what readers should expect within the tome. Throughout the pages of his profound new volume, author J.M. Harrison shares invaluable insights and eye-opening truths, all in an effort to promote higher thought and foster a greater awareness of our individual and collective significance in the universe. In so doing, he invites the reader to “un-learn” years of misleading preconceptions and flawed logic that continue to entrap us under myriad layers of misguided effort and false expectations.

Broken down in more than 450 separate parcels of wisdom, the topics of Naked Being cover the full spectrum of human emotion and experience, spanning everything from love to pain to meditation to death. As one may infer from the title, the purpose of Harrison’s opus is to strip the reader of any lingering facades, eventually shifting his/her focus to the common, essential core that lies within us all. By helping to undo the damage of personal and societal conditioning, Naked Being opens the mind and heart to a world of promising new possibilities, providing an all-important first step on the journey to ultimate Self-realization.

More than just a typical, garden variety self-help book, Naked Being is a crucial guide to emotional and spiritual well-being. Kudos to Harrison for crafting such a much-needed tool for the betterment of his fellow man.

Official Apex Review Rating: *****

New endorsement - Liz Hill

"As a writer interested in spiritual topics, my hat is off to any author who attempts at the outset of his book to define terms like true self, pure consciousness, and joy of being. But it makes so much sense to do that, before launching into a work that is meant to guide the reader into “naked being” or pure-minded nature. Harrison has chosen to guide us in small, logical, manageable bites, numbered from 1 to 450. Though short, they are meaty enough for reflection or discussion. After reading it end to end, you may want to keep this one on a bedside table to flip open before bedtime or upon awakening. If you are familiar with mystical or enlightenment teachings, the ideas expressed in this book won’t be “new” to you. But then, these ideas are as ancient as creation itself, and every attempt at bringing them into the world is to be applauded."

Liz Hill - (www.singingmeditation.com) co-author of 'Singing Meditation: Together in Sound & Silence'

New endorsement - Unmani Liza Hyde

"Naked Being is like a strip-tease, slowly undressing all the beliefs and concepts that appear to conceal our natural naked being. Each layer of clothing is an insight which strips away yet another spiritual concept or idea of limitation, leaving nothing but the Freedom that is our true nature. Jonathan writes with very simple clarity to reveal the nakedness that we are beyond all ideas."

Unmani Liza Hyde (www.not-knowing.com) author of 'I am Life itself' and 'Die to Love'

MEGO AND IDENTITY

These days there is a growing sense of awakening. Many more people are having experiences which cannot be logically explained via logical patterns of mental analysis. Unfortunately this provides a consciousness 'trap' for anyone to fall into. A self inflicted trap which pulls us back from growth, and leaves us stagnating in the mire of mis-identification. This comes about when we 'become' or identify with our thoughts, emotions and experiences. But we are not our thoughts, emotions or experiences. Neither are we the conditioned mind or senses which translate them. All these appear in front of and to us, for in essence we are the background awareness or pure consciousness which sees and experiences all such occurrences.

Periods of stagnation and non-growth arise when we become carried away with the Mego's desperate need and desire to assume some identity or to 'become' somebody. You cannot become what YOU are.

It's predictable for the Mego to become entangled with any phenomena. One of the characteristics of the Mego is attachment to ideas. In the act of having a vision one's Mego identifies with the idea of being a visionary. Thinking oneself to be intelligent, one identifies with intellect. Thinking oneself to be unhappy, one identifies oneself with unhappiness. The truth is that all these are experiences and notions which the Mego becomes absorbed by to such an extent that they 'appear' to be inseparable from the truth of who we are. And yet they are not what the Self is. They are simply covers which camouflage the ONE essence we are.

You cannot think or imagine the essence of what YOU are, you can only BE it.

New Endorsement - David Bingham

"As Consciousness reveals Itself with increasing clarity and simplicity, 'Naked Being' will prove to be an invaluable resource to all those wishing to enjoy the amazing adventure of Self Realisation."

David Bingham www.nonconceptualawareness.com