Clear Mind Press
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Dynamic Writing - a course in memoir writing for women
Robert Saltzman
The Ten Thousand Things
Depending on No-Thing
The Ten Thousand Things
"You do not have to believe anything in order to be alive. Like the stars in the sky, this aliveness is present whether noticed or not, and when the contraction called "myself" relaxes sufficiently, the aliveness feels obvious and indisputable. That relaxation of the clenched "myself" feels like having been roused from a dream to find oneself alive and aware ... What is, simply is, and cannot become anything. Each moment feels fresh, different from any other, and entirely unspeakable. The future never arrives. Enlightenment is a non-issue - not worth thinking about. One simply experiences what living human beings experience from moment to moment, and that's it. And that is sufficient. "
Depending on No Thing
Robert has written a book, both wide and deep, that questions and challenges all that we think we know about ‘spirituality’.
Robert writes: “When one is not looking for any escape at all, but finds oneself participating in whatever thoughts, feelings, perceptions, etc. make up the constituents of this very moment, without any hope of things getting "better," including that one will "eventually" be "enlightened," then one is in the moment, and it is only in the moment that anything true, anything real, anything that is not escapism and fantasy, will be found.
So whereas most of the "teaching" points elsewhere—points, I mean, to an improved condition that you will attain by following the teaching—I point only to what you are right now in this moment. The one who is reading these words is IT, and there is no other.”
Robert Saltzman
Dr. Robert Saltzman, Ph.D. is a depth psychologist and psychotherapist, now retired, and a life-long artist. He was part of the New York underground film movement of the 1960s and his photographic works from the 1970s to present day have been exhibited and published widely.
Translations
The English originals were published by New Sarum Press in 2018 and 2019.
The Ten Thousand Things was translated into Dutch as De tienduizend dingen. It was published by Samsara in October 2023. Translation: Ton Haarmans, John Devitt and Suzanne Visser (Clear Mind Press).
Suzanne Visser (Clear Mind Press) ais now working on the Dutch translation of Depending on No-Thing, Van niets afhankelijk.
The Ten Thousand Things is available in both Spanish and German translation.
The Spanish edition is available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Las-diez-mil-cosas-Palabras-ebook/dp/B077RJ9ZGZ/
The German version is available at: https://www.amazon.com/Zehntausend-Dinge.../dp/3750400164
and at:https://www.prummer.space/die-zehntausend-dinge/
Photos: Robert Saltzman
