Freedom from the Known Paperback – March 10, 2009

The book was clean and intact. Haven't read it yet.

A great book to be read and re-read for a lifetime, to be given as a gift often.

I don't have any idea how many of K's books I have bought and given away. They are probably not given more than a cursory glance and I doubt that a skim read will change anything. I read all the time and I retain very little of what I have read. K was an occultist from age 14 until his early 30's and that is what I read about and since the occult is interwoven with practically everything it is a very wide subject. My question is "how did he go from that", not from that to that. From that implies a beginning but, to that, is the end, the conclusion. Once you have reached a conclusion then all investigation has ended. There is no answer to the question, that is opinion and opinions are not facts which is contrary to what we have been told, and taught in schools. Therefore school has nothing to do with education, it is programing. Why do you think it is mandatory? The door is open, but due to our conditioning we cannot even see the opening. There is no how to? All we have to do is see the open door but I doubt reading one, two or three of K's books will change anything. This is a fundamental and total change, a total rejection of everything we have been told. Authority is the most destructive thing! When I read those 6 words a wave of excitement and relief came over me. It is such an obvious fact and somewhere inside my head I knew it to be true since I was a child, but the conditioning, the whitewash prevented me from seeing this fact. If you want to really investigate this total revolution then Google JKonline, and every day you will be emailed one of his quotes. It will be 5 or 10 lines. Read K every day not to achieve anything not as a means to an end, just as an experiment and buy this book too, it is my favorite, very short and concise. The other one to get is The Book of Life. This book has 365 quotes, one for every day of the year. Put it by your bed and read a quote every day. I have to read my emails every day but plenty of people do not so JKonline may not work for you..

K answers many of life's questions in a way that is careful and engaging. After I read this title, I went out and bought a few copies and lent them out to friends. Many of them didn't get around to reading it, and after a year or so, I casually began asking them what they thought. Most said they had read some of it, found it uninteresting or offensive, and then had put down.At first, I thought K's book was an earth-shattering title that everyone should read. I began reading many books on Buddhism, and practicing meditation. A few years later, I came back to FFTK with a different view. K is a man who reached enlightenment, but when he puts his ideas into words, much is lost in translation. He feels that he can't explain enlightenment, so he explains what it isn't. He even points this out in his book. He says can't point to the right way, because that's up to the listener, he can only point out the wrong ways. Unfortunately, this makes his views come across as negative or nihilistic.What's important in reading K or any book on Buddhism is to try and understand the experience of the writer. If one day, you read this title and go around quoting K, trying to prove others wrong because you've read K and he hasn't read K, then you're defeating the purpose of reading the book altogether. You have to see beyond the words and ask yourself: what kind of person says something like K says? What drives these words, these ideas? What understanding has he come to that brings him to this point?That said, I don't know how effective K is at helping one learn "the Way", "Zen", or whatever you'd like to call it. The important thing is he doesn't give it a name. FFTK is a an engaging read which encourages new viewpoints, and if you are ready to ask yourself many questions when you read it, then you can learn many things. If you read it like a pulp novel, then you'll get little out of it. If you're reading it to compare and contrast with your own viewpoints, then K will become very vicious and you'll probably put it down. The way you read this book will probably be the way you approach many things in your life, so watch carefully.Transformation and Healing: Sutra on the Four Establishments of MindfulnessZen Mind, Beginner's Mind (Shambhala Library)Zen Flesh Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen WritingsEssays in Zen Buddhism, First Series

This read is a riddle. It goes up and down. It gives joy and sorrow, sweet and sour. I read the book twice, some parts more. Best to say, when the author asks you a question it is best to say “I don’t know”.