After a very extended labour, midwifed by Stephen, Mary and the printers in Auckland, I’m delighted to announce that the final version of This Nectar of Naturalness is now now available in a beautifully bound and laid out, limited edition paperback version. Copies can be can purchased from this site for $20 NZ plus postage. To order, contact Mary.

For those that prefer to read on screen devices, the free PDF version that many people have been using since last November has now been replaced with this updated final version. Click here to download this most recent PDF.

The following is a very brief excerpt to hopefully whet your appetite – plus a glimpse of the book’s over all contents..

“Now might be a good time for another pause in your reading. Let’s go outside under the wide open sky and sit together upon the earth.

Opening in sensitivity; every cell responding, feeling the breeze, smelling the world, listening to the multilayered conversations of beings all around.

Sometimes there is just smiling and we melt into mystery . . .
Sometimes there is just breathing, heart to heart with everyone and everything; rhythmic attunement, a music of satisfaction . . .
Sometimes all that’s needed, is to remember ‘presence’, and we are blessed . . .
Sometimes appreciating parses the universe and marvels at the self-organising miracle . . .
Sometimes everything surrenders and we sink into the matrix of earth, returning to the ground of becoming. What further offering is there to give?

Again and again, deepening into mystery, utterly beyond words and understanding. And we begin to find our way home, abiding seamlessly and wondrously, this nectar of naturalness suffusing all in love.”

Chapter 1 – Entering: A Cycle of Samatha – – – 8
In this chapter we learn to cultivate a natural flow of easeful presence ‘samatha’; calm abiding in the midst of whatever is occurring. Five words are introduced to support this work: smiling, breathing, present, appreciating and offering.

Chapter 2 – Deepening: A Cycle of Vipassana – – – 36
In this chapter, we deepen our understanding of the five supports while emphasising the ‘vipassana’ aspect of experience; an increased capacity for actively probing and investigating the nature and detail of what is immediately occurring.

Chapter 3 – Seamless Abiding: A Cycle of Samatha~Vipassana – – – 104
In this chapter ‘samatha~vipassana’ carries the meditator ever more deeply into the flowing mystery of life; a knowing, being and utterly complete functioning of profound wholeness. This is the true nectar of naturalness.

Chapter 4 – Action: Continuous Attunement – – – 131
Given the seemingly transcendent nature of ‘abiding where there is no abiding’, and given the immense social and ecological challenges facing us throughout the world, how should we act?

Endnotes – – – 150