Feedback
If you have reflections on "headlessness" that you would like to share with others, please send them via the form below. If appropriate, we will share your thoughts here since one person's reflection can so often inspire others. Some recent visitors' comments appear below the form on this page.
February/March 2010
Thank you Richard, for helping to re-awaken me. I was introduced to Douglas at his home in Nacton by a neighbour of mine in 1985 and was astonished by the results of that visit. I returned to informal gatherings a number of times over the next couple of years and practised losing my head and finding that peace and stillness where it had been. When my wife and I moved on I seemed to forget. On reflection, it was like returning to sleep. I think I have mostly slept for 25 years, until I found the website. Once again I am awake! Thank you. I will look forward to these Reflections from now on. Charlie.
You have found a key to something of absolute importance, I think - I have been walking around all day feeling a bit like the Cheshire cat, my smile appearing from an invisible space. I find your approach immensely refreshing. Rupert.
Last week, by complete accident (or is anything ever a complete accident?) I found a link to the Headless Way website. It sounded whacky... but being a fairly experiential person, when I read the world 'experiments', and knowing I had some idle moments, I decided to give them a go.
Exercise 1 - the pointing exercise. I point at the walls of my boat, at the table, at my knee, at my hand. I take in the shape and form, the edges and boundaries and the space between. I really look. And then I turn my pointing finger towards myself, towards my eyes. I feel my eyes going cross-eyed, trying to turn my eyeballs backwards to look at myself. Then... WHAM... I'm looking into unbounded space. I am unbounded space. I jot down these notes as I look:
I see... like... amazing... inside me is unbounded space, the universe. Infinity... I am both the person looking and the unbounded space, the looker and the being looked at the same time. Shakti and Shiva. Clear mountain stream clarity, infinite, but not cold, the universe...
I find I can access this unbounded space at will (although it takes some conscious choice to do so, and as yet is difficult to combine with everyday life). It is no longer an either/or - it's an 'AND'. Fantastic! I am me as my body and physical being, AND I am the unbounded space. I do not have to choose, or long for the unbounded space, or regret I am in my body. I can look inwards and see myself as unbounded space, and outwards and there I am in the physical universe. I can move at will between these perspectives. I am full of joy and calm and peace... Yours, in quiet amazement, Carol.
Hi Richard, I just received your 2nd Reflection thru my email at yahoo. I would like to express my sincere gratitude for giving us the opportunity to take your e-course. I happen to see the headless way about a week ago and upon reading the experiments, without a second thought, I immediately take this course without a doubt in my heart that this center, is my true nature, Buddha nature, my original face before my parents were born. Seldom that this kind of teaching is given naked without any icing whatwoever. It's so accessible to anybody to solemnly abide on his/her real self anytime and anywhere of the day amidst the daily struggle in one's own daily life. I just keep looking at my center and thus remember who I really is, go on normally with my daily routine in ease. Best regards, J. (Philippines).
Hi Richard. Thank you for compiling the Reflection newsletter and also for the informative and attractive Headless website. Some time ago you came to give a workshop... I was at the workshop and benefited from the experiments and liked the practical down to earth (or down to nothing) approach. Although I always had the experience in the background of my life and occasionally referred to it, I didn’t persevere on a day to day basis with the experiments and so didn’t receive the full benefit of it. Recently I found some spiritually-based videos in the loft and amongst them found the Douglas Harding interview you did. I watched it again and was totally enthralled by Douglas’s enthusiasm and was inspired to start doing the experiments again, this time daily.
What I am most excited about is that other spiritual teachings I have read now make sense. Having this practical easy way of seeing our true nature has helped me to accept and understand all other ways of realising our true nature, and remarkably quickly. I have been exposed to many teachings: Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadata, Sai Baba, Krishnamurti, etc, as well as more conventional religious movements. While I have appreciated the teachings, often they were too obscure to sink in, or written concepts beyond my intellectual capacities which often left me more confused and spiritually frustrated than before. With this unique practical way of seeing as a reference point, all other teachings now make total sense to me, which has expanded my expanded my experience of living, and loving. The experiments are also helping me to overcome acute self-consciousness, which I have experienced on and off most of my life. Thanks once again, M.
Many times I am looking at your website doing experiments, reading articles etc. And waiting for your Reflections with comments which are very often telling of the same impressions, feelings and reactions I have. For all these excellent work you did and you are still doing I would like to thank you very, very much. It is wonderful to be free and to come home when ever I like to. To become capacity, space for all the world in a headless life.
P.S. I am 74 years old. Many years I practised meditation every morning... In July 2009 I decided to give away most of my books about Buddhism, Spirituality etc. to the library of our city. My daughter and my son in law were very surprised about this. But I told them, I like to become free of all. I don't believe that these books will help me to become enlightened anymore. They accepted. Surprise! Few days later my son in law gaveme a book, translated to German, edited by David Lang. (Face to No-Face). That was it. I could not stop reading. 50 years of searching for this very moment to have a look at the Nothingness, to see Nirvana. From that very moment onwards I did all your experiments on your website. I have changed my daily procedures in the morning to become more and more familiar with two way seeing, spinning the world and other wonderful experiments. G.
Jan 2010
I went for my morning walk today. Birds were singing, I couldn't say exactly where - inside or outside. But that was wonderful! I closed my eyes for a second - there was nothing, yet everything was going on outside. I thought - it's fascinating to KNOW I am nothing and BE everything at the same time. Irina.
I was lying in bed this morning in awe of the nothingness and everythingness. Perceiving thoughts as having "edges." Seeing from that which has no boundaries. Such Peace. Barbara.
Living here on the coast in Southbourne, near Christchurch, UK, I have many amazing things to be capacity for. These include stunning sunsets over the Purbeck hills to the West and equally beautiful panoramas of the sun tinged white cliffs of the Isle of Wight to the East. All magically appearing in this crystal clear wide open space. All the real Me (which could sound selfish to the untrained ear but of course is not at all, really!) Such an amazing miracle. Samuel.
Dec 29, 2009
I want to say THANK YOU for sharing your experiments with us! For years of my spiritual search I was always attracted to simple things and still am. It is amazing how simple things work and do their great effects on changing my understanding of life and who I am.
I've been practicing dervish dancing for months in groups and always felt disappointed - too much movements, to much nausea and so on... and finally I gave up. Yesterday I tried your Movement & Stillness experiment - and that was IT! Simple changing of direction of finger point... and I got IT! Stillness always was right HERE, right NOW! It was me, who desperately tried to find it in wrong place.
Since my spiritual search started I was spending pretty much time among supportive friends, with teachers and on seminars and never realized how important was it before I moved. Now I live in beautiful, peaceful area, among nice people and I really glad I got a chance to meet new friends to share thoughts and headless atmosphere. It is very important to me! Thank you for doing your job on it. I really appreciate it. Irina.
Dec 25, 2009
Thank you, Richard, for coming to Moscow - these were great, emotional, warm and very 'headless' days. Natalia.
Dec 10, 2009
I never thanked you for the CD. It's brilliant. You have such a calm, reassuring voice. I listen to it in my car (I'm careful, you can be sure...) and it's helping to make things clearer to me. Such as riding in the car and having the feeling that the world is moving and I'm not... it's moving through me. It's such a shift in perspective. Dave, Boston.
Dec 9, 2009
I have been exploring the life and teachings of the great Tibetan master, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. During a documentary on his life there is a short video clip of a teaching he gave on compassion and in it he said that compassion is none other than the awakened mind, Buddha Mind. Quick as a flash my mind made the connection between what Rinpoche had just said and the Face-To-No-Face experiment where one experiences the awesome fact of being capacity for the person you are talking to. Being capacity for that person, and the world, is that very same compassion Rinpoche was talking about, which comes from this knowing of one's Transparent Being, this universal no-thingness that we all are. I was filled with deep gratitude for the presence of such profound teaching from Douglas and Rinpoche. Aloka, Buddhist monk.
I read "Open to the source" over and over again. It is so rich and inspiring. Pointing directly back to the Source. And I can tell that "my" search is over. Now I can See. Daniel.
Oct. 10, 2009.
I look up at the huge Buddha image and become the capacity for the awakened being the Buddha was and stands for. Buddha face there to no face here. And then I make the aspiration to always be that capacity, to be this transparent being I am, to merge and disappear into pure awareness, the Tathagata, and to strive to be that capacity through every waking moment of the day. Energy ripples flow up through the body with joy and gratitude. Thank you Douglas Harding. Aloka, Buddhist monk.
Oct 6, 2009. Terry
I enrolled in college and started May of this year. Being 52 years of age and not having been in an academic setting for many, many years I was extremely nervous about my being able to do the work. One day as I was walking up the sidewalk to class (I was literally shaking in my shoes) I looked "in" and discovered the Capacity for what was going on and found that Silence that is always there and settled into "it". My focus changed and I "became school" and let go of the "nervous person" that was walking to class. Now when I walk the sidewalk to class I remember - Silence. The classes now fly by with a smile. College is a joy to attend and my grades have been surprisingly good.
Sept 28, 2009. Michael
Thank you, Richard. My spiritual teacher has been trying to have the class perform this exercise for a while now, but in another manner. Mr. Harding's pointing back at yourself exercise is much easier to use. Thank you!
Sept 27, 2009. Michael
Thank you for this website, Richard. I finally "got it" this past spring after studying Tony Parsons and Sailor Bob Adamson. I have been with my teacher for eleven years and could not release the mental concepts of the little self. My journey would have ended quicker if I had found these wonderful teachings by you and Mr. Harding. Thank you!
September 11, 2009, Jim
I want to thank you for your continuing and high level of dedicated enthusiasm for this important work. Douglas Harding's perspectives have been hugely important in helping me arrive at a more balanced view of who I am and we are.
September 11, 2009. Brooks
The Headless Way has been a blessing in my life.
September 9, 2009, James
I've been reading Face To No-Face, and like it very much. I'd spent a long time looking for a way to realise what the mystics and perrenialists talked about, but only this year, when I read On Having No Head, did I really get it. And I mean that, not just to have a feeling, or an idea, of what these amazing people were talking about, but to find that where I really am, I am it. I'm sad that I can't meet Douglas face to no-face, but I'm grateful for all the work he did, and I'm grateful to you for keeping his message out there.
August 25, 2009, Ninette
Dear Mr. Lang, Words cannot express how grateful I am, after years and years of searching and practicing and trusting and so much more... Last night I viewed a long-forgotten DVD, one we had never even opened, that lay hidden in our collection of DVDs, it was one of a workshop of Mr. Harding's in Sweden, back in '92. I'm telling you, today I'm walking around, I have no more head, and I gained the entire world. I am so grateful, this is so beautiful, it takes my breath away. I bow deeply to the grace that was extended. And I thank you too. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
July 31, David
Dear Richard, it has taken me some time to realize how profound the work Douglas and yourself present. I notice little by little how this headlessness is the gateway to freedom. Thank you for your work and passionate expression of this most important re-discovery of naturalism.
July 22, Bob
The most recent Reflection was awesome and it got me through a couple of incidents about the mind sack I carry around sometimes. It brings me back to perspective. Thanks loads.
July 22, 2009 Tony
Richard, Thank you for the gift of your recent visit to Dublin. My sense of the experience nearly two weeks later is that you have demonstrated to me the destination of my spiritual quest and provided me with the tools to access my true self at almost any time and for that I am most grateful.
July 22, 2009 Mike
I just finished The Trial Of The Man Who Said He Was God. Wow! Douglas Harding's books deserve a wider audience! Maybe, in time, they'll get one. At the moment I am really enjoying the fact that I am willing EVERYTHING that happens. Can't go wrong once you realise that, really!
July 15, 2009 Tara
Hello Richard, I would like to say many thanks for the continued Reflections. Whilst I never feel compelled to respond most of the time I just wanted to let you know how valuable they are in my daily life to remind me and bring my awareness back to that which I feel unable or even unnecessary at the moment to describe and talk about.
July 13, 2009 Charon
Richard... THANK YOU ... the teaching is profound and usable. As groundwork for 'openness to oneself' there is no greater gift. Further to this, may you be blessed; I consider myself fortunate to receive these insights.
July 5, 2009 Birgit
It is amazing how the Seeing is stabilizing Itself. It is impossible not to "See". Life goes on but it is smoother and friendlier.
July 5, 2009 Jane
Seeing is a spiritual thing and yet it has such practical implications. It has changed my life utterly. I am an imperfect student as I can only sustain my headlessness for short periods and there are times when it is much harder than others to access. But I can always bring myself back to the awareness when I am driving and walking so IF I remember this, I have daily practice. It still makes me smile when I walk around our village and the screeching swifts burst into the nothingness or when I look down and see that the space just moves towards my feet. And I always know that I am held safely in this nothingness even if I am not at that moment accessing it.
Seeing has enabled me to deal with the death of a loved one and to be a far greater support to friends and family when they have needed it. It was not that I didn't try to do this before but that I wasn't head to no head with them. I still have to fight to keep this perspective though at times, for instance when my daughter has been ill. But I can now bring myself home.
For myself I continue to get frustrated with the third person, she is still shy and tongue-tied at times, or says or does the wrong thing etc but I can now hold her/Jane in the nothingness and forgive. It is an easier relationship.
Throughout this year the Reflections teachings have been invaluable. When I have been lacking focus they have brought me home, when I have struggled they have lifted me up and when I have needed my horizons expanding they have guided me. It is always good to be reminded to keep doing the experiments. I look forward to receiving them each week.
Like so many others I cannot begin to thank you enough for all you do to make us aware of Douglas and his practical way into everlasting wonder. We are all blessed that you have the heart and mind, skill and love to do this. Thank you, Richard.
July 5, 2009 Ingrid
Hello Richard, thank you for sharing what I have found so far to be the simplest and most direct way of experiencing Space, No-Self, Awareness, Capacity, whatever you want to call it. I have investigated many different approaches and find Douglas Harding's pointing to be the most effective and most uncomplicated. Some other approaches, if you will, end up engaging the mind, threatening the mind, observing the mind, trying to still the mind, going beyond the mind etc. etc. etc. and can end up being so full of effort and so complex, with one concept leading to another concept and even so called pointers seem to end up as yet another concept. It requires tremendous work to get beyond all the concepts. I find those approaches can be exhausting. I'm not denying that they can "bear fruit", however with simple pointing I find somehow the mind is not even engaged. There is an immediate experiencing of unlimited space and freedom that is so immediately apparent that somehow mind has no way of getting there first to distort or misinterpret what is occurring. Truly an effortless way. Thank you.
July 4, 2009 Leo
When I was 33 years old I joined the Self Realization Society (Yogananda), and after following the course for about a year, I realized that I was pure awareness and I asked the society if this was what I was after and got no satisfactory answer. So I thought I’d check the local library and almost immediately found the answer in Ouspensky’s “In search of the miraculous”. I learned a great deal following the 4th Way and at the same time was reading Paul Brunton, Shankara, etc. I didn’t want all the religious additions and found Richard Rose and Franklin Merrill Wolff and it was on the Richard Rose website that one of the articles stated that there were 3 enlightened persons in the Western world and one was Douglas Harding, the other two were the aforementioned. So this is how I came across your website. I think the exercises are special, the articles not really anything I hadn’t come across over the years. I’m now 73 and use any tool to keep Awake, and the Reflections do that! Thanks again.
July 3, 2009 Mike
Dear Richard, I have recently returned to reading Douglas' books (gone thru 3) and must say his profundity was lost on me before. As I have pursued his words in depth (as well as the experiments) I find him to be a remarkable teacher. I am almost through "Face to No-Face" and some of his thoughts have to be taken in small doses they are so pointed. As an old meditator I have heard many of these teachings but Douglas has a way of piercing to the very kernel. Thank you for pursuing the teachings of this fantastic seer.
July 1, 2009 Sheila
I tend to be a very 'concrete' thinker. I have been working on this via
teachers such as Tolle, Byron Katie, etc. I have trouble even doing
guided meditations because I can't SEE what they are telling me to see
such as white light, etc. While doing the experiments on the web site I
find I can't get past this statement, "you are capacity for the world".
I can't grasp it's meaning. I also have problems with the no-thing
concept. Does anyone know of a way to explain this better?
OH MY GOD! I got IT! Nevermind! I don't need anything explained. The 'closed eye' experiment was the one that did it. WOW!
26 June 09 Simone
I am following your course and I find it interesting. I did some of the experiments and I got some insight of the void. But I prefer to be prudent and let some time pass before saying that I have got true insight. It happened to me a few times in the past to get excited about a certain teaching only to switch to an other one later. But this time I have the feeling that I am getting closer. I am also reading the teaching of Ramana Maharshi and, in my opinion, the two complement each other. Thank you for your work.
26 June 09 Hilde
Thank you again for all your headless work! This Reflection (#170) on being the sole authority is 'one of my favourites'. Douglas, as you and his Seeing friends are doing as well, are pointing out to us all our childlike tendency to listen to anything, anybody outside ourselves, rather than looking and listening in ourselves. (0 cm distance). For me it is so much easier and comforting, to keep my attention only on what's 'outside'. It needs my constant being alert: who is the only authority right here and now? It is an awesome experience. Free to get (what a blessing, these days!) and always available if i dare to look in the right direction.
25 June 09 Maria Teresa
I appreciate very much the lessons I've received. I've found a real help for the search I'm carrying on. I'm thankful for having given me the opportunity to come in touch with such useful tools (so easy and yet so powerful!)
25 June 09 Samantha
When one looks back to see what is looking it becomes clear that we're the light of the world and not a finite individual. Wow!
25 June 09 Angelina
I thought I would take the time to reply to you today to say thanks for all you do. I have read Douglas's books and helped out proof reading some of his old papers a few months back. I'm still an amateur on all this though, even though I do practice the headless way on a regular basis. I do find it a shame not many people can see and understand this beautiful way of opening up and seeing. (They just look at me like I am crazy!)
25 June 09 Elena
I discovered the Headless way by “accident”. I was watching a youtube broadcast about Ramana Maharashi´s life and part of it were short segments of an interview done to Douglas about this wonderful man. I really liked him at that very instant, so cheerful, so honest!!! I decided to “google” him and I found the web site. Immediately I began reading the info in the Headless.org, and let me tell you it was life changing. I have been walking down the path of spiritual search for some time now, reading different philosophers, doing yoga, meditating, and honestly working very hard towards that connection with the divine self that gives us everything. In that pathway I had short and beautiful experiences of awareness, but I fell rapidly again in the day to day mental vortex. When I found Harding’s philosophy, everything that I had studied before was clearer and easier to grasp. Everything made sense and I was able to keep in focus my connection with whom I really am. Life is marvelous, and I really need to thank Harding and You for helping me live this daily. The reflection emails, and experiments are a perfect way to keep me on track.
24 June 09 Samantha
While sitting on the deck I am constantly reminded of Sam Blight's picture of the Headless Way. Though the view is different the open space is clearly the same clear view without obstruction. The view here is looking out at the desert from open space. When the focus returns to what is looking all is perfect, completely free, and with it the experience of instantaneous peace. (The peace is constant, just overlooked with the busy-ness of looking outward.)
24 June 09 Aloka
I recently attended an Insight Dialogue retreat in Ireland. There were several opportunities to practice the Headless Way with other retreatants. One woman from Sweden got the "pointlessness" of the face-to-no-face experiment so well that we pretty much sustained our insight dialogue from this vantage point for nearly three hours!
24 June 09 Steve
Since discovering the Headless Way some 5 years ago now, I have continued to enjoy seeing into the vastness that I am - the Self and all it's contents. This is likely the clearest proof of Advaita Vedanta teachings that there is. Years of 'enquiry' are swept away by the direct clarity of this perfect seeing of the timeless void, manifesting AS IS in the here and now. One thing about headlessness that I particularly enjoy is that this is either seen or it isn't; it's not a question of philosophical debate, the being or becoming discussion. On present evidence, I have no head. Indeed, where once there was a head, now there is only ALL.
Thank you for the great work you do in maintaining this vital teaching and keeping it alive in the world.
24 June 09 Anne
Hi Richard, It's so great to continue receiving updates from you as well as additional headless lessons. I loved the Sam Blight interview! I keep rereading all my books on the headless way and am remembering more and more often to drop back into that space of openness for everything.
24 June 09 Ronna
Hi Richard, I am continuing to remember my own headlessness and recognize the headlessness of others. While walking yesterday I found myself caught up in the stresses of life and "remembered" that I was headless and the shift to the expansiveness was dramatic and so welcomed! Forgetting leaves me in a such a fearful, lonely, tiny and very stressful space and the remembering is blissful and reassuring that "it" is always there I just need to remember to notice.
22 June 09 David
I just watched the Still Point video--it is beautifully done, and I really enjoyed it--easy to follow, professional quality, and right on target. Well done.
21 June 09 Trish
Thank you so much for this site!
17 June 09 Mary-Anne
Thank you again and again, Richard! I have just received Reflection 38 and feel such overflowing appreciation for what you do. Blessings back to you, Mary-Anne.
11 June 09 Mauricio
Finding Home
The endless beauty of an Ash’s bark
mirrors in silence my true face.
I bow in gratitude to the setting sun.
A pair of tired walking boots
finally call it a day by the embers.
It was indeed a strange dream:
He thought himself astray;
but known he was
and his true name was home
10 June 09 MY
Like many others, I have been deep into so-called spirituality since I was 16
years old and it has been more than 20 years since then. For the last couple of years I have had several mystical experiences (I thought I finally got there) but trying to get back to those impermanent states (and apparently not being able to do so most of the time) made me very confused and unstable. Divine and myself were kept separate. I just kept looking outwardly most of the times even after my arrival in the UK. By reading numerous books I knew the importance of looking within but just did not know how to do it (it sounds ridiculous that I have tried so many things such as Ramana's self-inquiry, straight forward zen, Byron Katie's Work, doing mantra, focusing my mind solely on God as Ramakrishna recommended, various breathing method, Dzogchen's pointing instruction, etc., and none of which worked for me).
Early last month I became desperate with my rather rough transition in my UK surroundings (different working environment and language issues in particular). At the same time I came to the conclusion that I would never be enlightened and it is arrogant to even think that I could be enlightened. After all those years of spiritual struggle, I decided to almost give up practicing all those spiritual stuff. One day while I was net surfing without any particular aim, I happened to come across to your website. Reading your Japanese site simultaneously, I did the Pointing Here Experiment without expecting anything (assuming it would not work for me like any other methods), and with my amazement, I found that, by doing the experiment, even I could do "the turning of attention through an angle of precisely 180 degrees". Now what I need to do is to keep "looking at what I'm looking at" whenever I could (am I correct, Richard?).
Thank you and Douglas Harding very much for revealing very practical methods to the public which enable us to "look in two-directions" and I must say I am the lucky one to come across to your website to happen to know these methods. I was not so sure why I happened to come to the UK but it seems like I came here to have a face to no-face encounter through your method which is very convincing to me.
My poor English would not enable me to describe to you the excitement that I feel for your methods. My past experiences indicate that reading would get you nowhere but I feel yours and Douglas' writing are the exception.
10 June 09 Lynne-Marie
I enjoy all of these Reflections and note that no matter the twists and turns that my life story takes or the emotional state I seem to be in when I open them, the message has a constancy that takes me back to that space. Consequently I really enjoy opening the emails in order to be reminded and thus at ease.
10 June 09 J.
Sometimes there is so much happening that I think i just can't take it anymore. Then I remember no-thing, and the tensions drift away. Just space for everything happening is relieving. There may be a lot happening, but the no-thing ain't one of them!
9 June 09 Mabel
I am very grateful for the opportunity to attend your workshop. The experience of oneness was outstanding. Living from zero distance is more and more available to me.
29 May 09 Jennifer
In the early eighties I did a workshop with Douglas Harding in Belfast, N.I. He chose me to look into the tube with him. I remember feeling somewhat embarrassed and didn't quite "get it". Now, aged 72 with many years of Yoga and Zen under my belt, at last I am now walking the Headless Way! Better late than never!
25 May 09 Joni
Thank you, dear Richard, for the beautiful Reflections that you send out. I love them all, but # 82 is now speaking to me. A ceaseless Spin-Off!! The flow of Creation, coming from the Creator and the realization that I AM That! This heart is soooo wide open. Blessings to "you" and all that "you" do to remind us.
12 May 09
I came come across the website many months ago, had saved it in my favorites, but my rational mind completely dismissed the experiments as silly. A few days ago I was again drawn to it, did the experiments and it blew my mind away. I have been meditating daily since the mid 1970s, studying Advaita Vedanta teachings for about 3 years now, and just by doing a few of the experiments, I was finally able to see the spaciousness, the clear Emptiness of the Awareness That I AM. What an incredibly simple, fast and effective method! GL.
1 May 09 Rohini
I would like to echo the words of Nelson, below, and say that discovering this headlessness which is always with me, is definitely one of the most meaningful things in my life and always pulls me back to my true self if my mind ever starts to get all ego on me!
Thank you for keeping Douglas Harding's great work alive in such a wonderful and accessible way.
29 April 09 Ian
Thank you so much for providing an extraordinarily interesting and helpful website.
29 April 09 Bachan
Dear Richard, A million thanks to you. I have received todate Reflection #44. It's beautiful. I would like to share my experience. On 28th April I drove my family to see their family friends. They told me to wait for them as they will be back shortly. I was waiting in the car while they were having a chat. As I was looking at the house, I could see the house clearly. It look as though my head area was being replaced by the house. I realize that I had no head and the view of the house, together with my body, was in my awareness. It was fantastic. It was exactly as explained in the works of Douglas Harding. Now, I have made the book, "On Having No Head" my companion. Thank you.
25 April 09 Nelson
Hello Richard, Thank you for your enquiry. Didn't know if it was appropriate or not to send a reflection in return. How is headlessness working out in my life? It is the most meaningful thing in my entire life. I have the deepest gratitude to Douglas Harding's expression of the way and to the continued work you are doing. Your reflections have been wonderful reminders and have clarified a number of things for me.
I read 'On Having No Head' the first time about ten years ago. At that time I was fanatically committed to sitting Zazen at the Zen center, not only daily, but at every sesshin possible. I was trying to find..... I have no idea what I was struggling to find, but I sure was committed to struggling. I was so committed to being a Zen Nazi (as we were affectionately labeled) that I completely poo pooed Douglas Harding's book. Didn't even attempt the experiments. About a year ago, I was leafing through books at the the bookstore and casually picked up a copy of 'The Little Book of Life and Death'. I don't recall the particular phrase I was reading, but in one timeless moment, the world turned on its axis and I found myself staring down at this little book from a completely clear, awake, headless void. Douglas Harding simply pointed out what was here all along. For some reason I was willing to simply look. Ever since, this headlessness is immediately available upon looking. I continuously uncover new aspects of it's implications in daily life. I look forward to reading your reflections which have highlighted some of my own discoveries and clarified others.
I would like to mention/ask about two points. The first is that I still sit in Zazen, but instead of whatever it was I used to do in that posture I simply enjoy resting in this vast, open, silent, spaciousness. I have no particular sitting routine anymore, as this emptiness is available at any time. However I do find that this sitting still, does for some reason, help keep the "flavor" of headlessness with me during daily activities.
Also, I appreciated so much your reflections concerning your parents. When I see my friends (and family) get tied in terrible knots over some small aspect of the passing show, I want so much to offer some kind of wake up call. My experience, especially with family, is that I create the opposite effect. I really appreciate your comments on recognizing where it is that we are not separated at all, as well as Douglas Harding's reminder that we cannot talk someone's head off... only love it off.
24 April 09 Avalon
The other day I was talking to a friend and I said, "Well, when it happens it will happen", and he said "This is happening" and I knew that he meant it. This is always happening, nothing else. Love and Peace from Portland, Oregon.
16 April 09 Samantha
I was having dinner recently with a friend when I became aware that "nothing" was looking. It was like a wide open window or blank screen without boundaries seeing Mary across the table talking, eating. A blank screen for Mary. This openness was in the foreground while voice and other sensations were in the background. Wow! A sense of awe registered. I can remember thinking, this is completely different when there is awareness of emptiness looking. Although, I know, it is never not looking, the appearance of "being aware" of this totally open view makes me say wow... This is too kewl!
16 April 09 Brett
A little something I use to remind me and that is to ask, "Am I big enough to hold all this?" If the answer is "No" then I know that I have forgotten my true state.
10 April 09 Kyle
There is no one out here any more than there is a head on your shoulders. So why the emphasis on what "you" are doing?
18 Jan 09 MJ
This shows you who you really are. Not just thinking thoughts, and imagining what we are. Great site. Peace MJ.
17 Jan 09 Robert
Hello Richard, I don’t think we’ve met, face to no-face, but I was introduced to Douglas Harding in Montreal, Canada. I stumbled on a flyer about some “teacher” that was going to share with me a “story” about “who I really am”. The meeting was held in a beautiful old Catholic church and “I got it”. I walked around “in a daze” for at least a week after that first workshop, looking, marveling! at my hands and my feet, wondering “why” everything was “going on” with “no one” here doing anything? How I got in my car, “turned the Universe on” and had it, other cars, pedestrians and houses, trees and dogs, whiz by me as I “sat still” in my car. I felt like I had been dropped on this planet and was entranced by all that I now saw and felt and yet, nothing “special” was going on….just another day in eternity. Of course, that “peak” experience faded away, as they all do, and I have attempted through these years to “get it back” (and of course, failed to do so). That was like riding a small row boat on a “tsunami” wave that dissipates into a nice, even, peaceful lake… All was just as it was before the “tsunami ride” but now you’re looking at things from a “water level” that is 20 feet higher - all looks the same and yet different! …The analogies don’t “cut it” but what the heck. Just wanted to share how much I appreciated Douglas, how fond I was of him. The man was a giant and yet so humble and warm… like a sweet ol’ grandpa, with a twinkle in his eye and such playful exuberance in his teachings. Thank you for carrying on his “way”.
16 Jan 09 Tony
I vaguely remember encountering the headless way over 10 years. But I did not pay much attention to it, nor did I understand it. I only perceived it as the observation "One can not actually see his face directly". Now it can be interpreted as "That is how one experiences nothingness, or void as a reality". With the way of negation, one can experience the stillness of the centre. One can also think that these sudden rush of understandings are gifts from Divinity, the Source and Destiny of our own voidness.
Gloria in Excelsis Deo!
15 Jan 09 Tony
The void is so wonderfully helpful after a long time of searching for truth. The 'I am' has been helping me all along. Very paradoxically humorous.
14 Jan 09 Mabel
I have been exploring with the headless exercises for sometime now and find them very simple and effective. The pointing to no-face has somehow incorporated into my daily life. I find the headless exercises to be very useful and a shortcut in seeing that there is no holder of a story as a separate entity called me. The exercises miraculously shift perception.
28-Dec-08 Eimear
I'm really enjoying the emails and the simplicity of the 'Headless' way. I sometimes lie in bed with my eyes closed and ask myself on present evidence only - what parts of my 'body' exist? I've discovered I'm often relatively legless as well as headless!
18-Dec-08 Robert
I’ve done a ton of reading and this that is being presented connects more than anything I’ve been exposed to, to date.
17-Dec-08 Tara
Many many thanks for the course in seeing this year. Much comfort has been had by it. You will be interested to know that during this year all depression and concepts of the way things should be have fallen away and in its place there is this beautiful peaceful space in which everything happens.
17-Dec-08 Wilson
I just read Lesson #5. I can't believe we're on #5 already (where did four go :). Anyway, as #5 states, I haven't done all the exercises either, just the pointing and the two way pointing. I have done some others in the past. In the past, they meant something to me, but not as much. I'm not in a hurry to do any more experiments at this time. But something I read on your website after first getting re-aquainted with this teaching (from the Never Not Here TV show/on-line videos) that Douglas said about being decapitated by everything has been very helpful and meaningful for me - it tunes me into the prior awareness and gets me out of the I am the body feeling/trance. Its such an easy and effective way to feel free. You have a lovely teaching and a lovely website. Thank you for everything.
17-Dec-08 Ronne
Lovely! The I that is I, acknowledges the Love that is 'you'.
12-Dec-08 Malet
After reading the concept of being headless and the experience of the glasses on your website, it has secured the way my conscious is evolving. Since 20 years, I practice martial arts and Yoga with the experience of intensive practices in extreme situations. In such time it felt the need to be complete. Your way to explain and your will to share your knowledge, reconnected me to these moments. We are more than what we think. I wish your efforts on making this truth to be known to the maximum of people, a complete success as it is a need for our time.
12-Dec-08 Charon
Hello Richard …. I happen to be one of those people that hasn’t done the experiments yet!!! Today’s Reflection is instrumental in showing me that I embodied a fear of-looking … the actual act of looking. This has changed my whole approach to life. Thank you again.
12-Dec-08 Ronna
Hi Richard, I just wanted to let you know that I am continuing to practice what I have discovered seeing. I think what impacted me the most was the day I was walking and really saw that there was no "inside me" and "outside there". This has really changed how I think and perceive. I have also learned from reading material on non-dualism. The combination of physically seeing and mentally understanding and then just letting go of all of that and just sensing without describing, labeling is very helpful. I think I went a little overboard with information and I am just allowing it all to settle in. I am still experiencing a sense of inner peace and joy and that is most important to me. It is difficult to remember at times but that is the practice!
11-Dec-08 Bruce
Hi Richard, I first experienced headlessness in the summer of 1991. I was 24 at the time and had been studying different spiritual paths intensely. I was actually reading a book called "20th Century Mystics and Sages" which had some of Douglas' experiments in it. I tried one after a hard day at work. I was sitting by the river and started to pay attention to my face and it happened. I fully recognized that I was awareness itself. It was now all so obvious. Awareness itself has never had a head. This body has, but awareness hasn't. It has always been empty awareness. That's what I have always been. I think I had some kind of samadhi and I went in and out of that blissful state for up to 6 months. After that I could never recapture that intensity again. Something just clicked the first time and I could focus completely on my facelessness. I could effortlessly observe all of my thoughts, feelings, sensations, perceptions, etc, while knowing that I was the space in which all of those events occured. There was no separation between the objects of consciousness and the subjective awareness within which they all existed. I identified with the space rather than the objects within the space, yet the space was the objects. The only way I could define myself - the space that I now was - was by the objects within that space. You know what I mean. After 6 months that was all gone and I've chased after it ever since. Almost 20 years now.
I was watching you the other day on Conscious TV. I loved the interview, even though it was funny how Ian McNay didn't get it. The other one with Richard Miller was better though. He seemed to get it. I thoroughly enjoyed your lucid and humble descriptions of being headless. Especially when you got on the topic of allowing a self to be there. Although, when I was headless, it was obviously fine that all that I considered to be my self was allowed to be there, but as time went on I started to wonder why my self wasn't disappearing and this selflessness wasn't taking over more completely. After watching your interviews I think I see where I went wrong all those years ago. I believed the spiritual and erroneous concept that the self shouldn't be there. Your description of allowing the self to be there while still being aware of what's on top of my shoulders brought back glimpses of that intimate spacious wholeness. I also liked your comments on the "wow" factor. I see where I went wrong. Hey, I was young and the glamour of romanticised spiritual experiences impressed me. So, I'm slowly getting back to paying attention to my no-head. I love it actually.
23-Nov-08 Jill
Hello Richard, I just want to thank you for offering the free Reflections course over the internet. I realize the time and effort involved in any project like this. I also appreciate your dedication to the ideas you are sharing with us. And finally, thank you for sharing your time, energy and thoughts with us. The fact that you are doing this to reach as many people as possible, free of charge, is a credit to your wonderful connectedness to the world. Thank you. Jill
17-Nov-2008 Ralph
Hi Richard, I want to thank Douglas Harding and you, Richard Lang for "Pointing" me to where I've always been. Thank you for enabling one's awareness of the PRESENT MOMENT, "NOW", to be so easy. I, like countless others, have spent years, and many, many dollars, feasting on the self-improvement/self-actualizing buffet, ie, TM, Sedona Method, Silva, PsychoDrama, psychotherapy…,etc. The offerings of the buffet whet the appetite, but never satiate. Why? The why can best be explained by the following; An (for example) obsessive compulsive person, who endeavors to modify his or her obsessive compulsive tendencies, will pursue this goal (regardless of the strategy du jour) in an obsessive compulsive manner. Hence, the self-improvement business will always have repeat customers. Until, of course, said repeat customer becomes HEADLESS. I am 59 nine years old. I have a master’s degree in clinical social work. I have been a student of spiritual writings… Now, for the first time in my life, all my readings make sense. Better stated, makes experience. How exhilarating to experience space, consciousness, the exquisite void, TO BE. Heck, I can't explain it. It just is. Point the finger, and it all just is. Nothing matters in this realm of what is. Problems, concerns, judgement, cease to be, cease to matter in this finger pointing headless moment. WOW! Thank you, Ralph
1-Nov-2008 Ronna
Thank you for what you are doing! I just happened to find your site while checking out other links. I "got it" right away!!! I have done some of the exercises and got my husband to do some as well because I was so amazed! I watched the two interviews you had with Richard Miller and was again amazed and humoured! I am looking forward to the changes I can see coming, this is quite amazing and I really can't believe that I didn't know about this sooner. I am 54 years old and have been "seeking" since a small child going to a Brethren Sunday School in Victoria BC Canada. I recently read some of Eckhart Tolle books and this led me to Nisargatta, U.G. Krishnamurti and now to here! Well I am sure you have had many emails and letters like mine, thank-you again for putting this information on the web. I have already asked some of my family members to watch the interviews and check out the website. Ronna.
I just got back from a walk in the woods and was practicing "one eye". Before I left I listened to some of the audio tapes on the website and was doing some of the exercises again. As I was walking I was amazed at the the hugeness of the space inside me and that I had never really looked at this space in the way I was doing in this moment. I also was aware that what was "outside" was just as huge and that there was no difference between "outside" and "inside"! I was also amazed at how the "thought" of who and what I was is so utterly different than what I am seeing "myself" to be now! I can see this vast nothingness that contains everything! That old "version" of myself is so small, so isolated, utterly separated. I am in awe! I had a strange feeling first thing this morning and it was fear, fear that this is just another "ah ha" moment that is only in my "mind" and I will lose it or it will just fade away or be replaced by something else or even that this is too simple that it can't be true. As you can see as the day went on I was able to see past this negative thought and I really don't think I could ever doubt what is so clear, and real as this. Thank you again for doing what you do! Ronna.
15-Oct-2008 Sam
Dear Richard, the Gathering on Saturday [Fremantle, Western Australia] went extremely well. 16 people again (though not all the same ones) and many of them really getting it and making brilliant contributions. Craig did a great job as "presenter". Next time it's Nav's turn. Nav was saying this morning on the way to work how the monthly Gathering is making Seeing much more accessible for her in everyday life, and that somehow sharing it with others in this way makes it more "real". No need to tell you this of course... (For more information on this monthly gathering, contact Sam.)
15-Oct-2008 Marie
I've had a more in-depth exploration of the Headless website, looking particularly at the transcripts of the Sydney and London workshops, the Hierarchy pages and the interviews with Douglas. His expression of headlessness is simply profound and profoundly simple.
15-Oct-2008 Ken
Richard, I finally saw the two videos of you and Richard in Chicago. Almost like attending a workshop I suppose. Excellent meditation and especially crucial now that our economies are going down the drain. It's crazy out there, but in here it's calm as always. I haven't been in the tunnel for a while so got mine out, the centerfold of Science of the First Person. Emptiness is full of that face in the mirror and the whole world.
Before I encountered headlessness my heart was closest to Ramana Maharshi -- and now also with Nisargadatta -- but while they take me to the edge of the cliff there was always something missing. I could never quite get it. Until I met Douglas Harding and you. So simple. Just point. No head. Amazing.
I don't live headless 24/7. However, I now know the way home, I have the ultimate escape route from the growing madness out there. I have a pretty good idea of what meditation means -- finally!
Thanks from a rainy and cool Kyoto.
15-Oct-2008 Dan
In Buddhism everything is impermanent, yet "no mind" or this "emptiness" seems unaffected by emotions, thoughts, feelings, sensations. So is this emptiness permanent and unchanging? How then do I grow and learn? Why can I not remember my past manifestations? This all is so transformative. I know "I" am full potential and therefore empty-I am.
15-Oct-2008 Berend
Dear Richard,
I'd like to share with you how I am doing since I do the experiments.
I feel totally at ease and very quiet most of the time. It is as if the mirror has been wiped clear, or better said: a lot of old dust just evaporated. The 'eye of God' is just looking. Sometimes a well-known old thought pops up: how long will it last? I then am afraid that I can't hold it. But I know now I don't need to hold anything what is always there; I just then need to refocus, to point at my no-face, and there I am again! So simple.
On my daily life it has a great impact:
- more clarity,
- I just do what has to be done, without resistance,
- my wife can relax more with me now that I live from this peaceful space,
- I respond in stead of react to others and situations; I am the capacity for everything happening,
- I immediately see when a movie is starting up, before unfolding his full potential, I am the witness of rise and fall of emotions and thoughts,
- my mind is much clearer now
- very special: I looked at lots of video- and audiotapes from enlightened men and women. I didn't really understand what they pointed at. Now I see from which space they are talking and I really understand what they mean. ONE HEART.
As a small boy, eight years old, I drew in the wardrobe behind the clothes on the wall, a big Buddha-like eye as you see in temples in India. I never understood the meaning of this. It was my secret. Now I suddenly understand the meaning. This is the third eye, the eye of God which looks through every being. There is just one consciousness. Amazing.
Osho gave me the name Bodhi Surdham - conscious paradise. From the unconscious hell into the conscious paradise, it was so near but I didn't see, until I saw your video with Richard Miller.
Thanks a lot!
Berend, Germany
9-Oct-2008 Samantha
I enjoy your site tremendously... I stumbled on it while looking at something else on YouTube... I love the pointing exercises and see that pointing back at my no-face there is spaciousness... no-thingness... exciting to see it... or, rather not see what is expected!
I was reminded this morning (or, shall I say, a thought appeared in the awareness) of while in Occupational Therapy school an instructor said that children have to be taught who/what they are... that’s your nose, ear, eyes, etc... and, while looking in a mirror they do not connect that is who they are... it is learned...
I touched my nose, eyes, and ears this morning as if a child who is being told that’s your nose, ears, eyes, etc... so, a child learns the sensation of pressure in the middle of the no-face is "their" nose... fascinating!
I love all the videos on time, spinning, pointing... and was able to see to what was pointed... this nothingness does not move while spinning for example... I have however not experienced being stationary while walking... there is definitely a sensation of walking and perhaps walking in place... though it definitely appears I am getting closer to what appears further out... I look back at no face but it appears I am getting closer... could be the conditioned mind... any suggestions...
I have been studying non-duality/Advaita for about 7 years and find the pointing exercises can expedite recognizing the openness/spaciousness that we all are (as if a person...ha)... and, I love the suggestion to look back at that spaciousness when making decisions/doing... (though who is really doing the doing?)
5-Oct-2008 Berend
I feel very blessed having seen your video. Hearing, seeing, so many satsang teachers in the past, I always had the feeling, 'some chain is still missing for me'. I am aware since a long time of this inner space, and I always doubted: is it this what I am looking for? Since I saw your videotalk this morning, I know now: I am this immense space in which everything comes and goes, including my own body, feeling, thoughts, the others... This will surely start a new way of walking through life for me. I am looking forward to what's going to pop up (no pop up blocker installed!) in this space for me. A great adventure! Thanks a lot! Blessed are those who are able and willing to lead other people to who they really are. You are one of them! Many greetings from a grateful heart. Berend, Germany.
2-Oct-2008 Sam
This is a response to Peter, 29 Sep 08: I think it's fair to say that while the first person may be said to have a head, it's nothing like what it looks like to others. To make it like the opaque object I see on another's shoulders requires an act of imagination (admittedly a useful and necessary one). For me it's not a question of looking at the world as if I have no head but Seeing it from the head I do have, which, from the experience given quite concretely here, is boundless capacity containing the entire world, including any sensations I might map onto the imaginary construct of a head as seen from somewhere else (but not HERE). It's actually the shift from "as if" to "as is" that does the trick isn't it?
2-Oct-2008 Heike
Hi Richard, the interview with the Never-Not-Here man is really, really helpful! Thank you so much for all your effort! Love here for you here, Heike.
29-Sep-2008 Peter
I have just read Reflection #17, looking at the common objection to headlessness: "I can't see my head, but I can touch it ..." In the reflection Douglas Harding goes to a lot of trouble redefining the experience of touching one's head as "touching the void" etc., and I can sort of see what he's saying - restating how the experience of touching one's head actually IS from a first person perspective ... BUT ... I can't really see why he goes to so much trouble to defend the literal concept of having no head - to me the whole wonderful thing about headlessness is not as a biological fact, but simply as a shift in seeing and experiencing, and when, as often happens, friends bring up such objections, I say it's not really that we have no head, but that we can have a new rich experience or insight if we look at the world AS IF we had no head, and this seems to work better than trying to defend literal headlessness.
21-Sep-2008 Celestino
Thanks, Richard, for the Course, reminding me of the place I often leave.
19-Sep-2008 Hilde
Wonderful how it works for all of us who are built open to see. Yesterday I passed a child walking down the street. She was about 4 years old and said out loud: "My legs are walking, I am not, it's just my legs walking !" It touched me how bright the girl was. And reminded me of seeing what is right in front of me and of the Seeing experiments. Thank you Richard Lang, for this possibility of sharing on your site, love from Amsterdam.
15-Sep-2008 TP
I tried it with ‘listening to myself’ instead of ‘looking at myself’ – seems to work.
11-Sep-2008 Heike
This website is really awesome, Richard. Thank you so much!
9-Sep-2008 Petra
Dear Richard, I just wanted to say THANK YOU! I cannot tell you how – but it works! Much love, Petra.
27-Aug-2008 Gary
The experiments & teachings of Douglas' are true gifts to the world that reveal the Gift that we really are. Your work on the website, continuing workshops, & general promotion of this Nothing-Everything is also a gift to the world, Richard, from No-thing to Everything to No-thing!
26-Aug-2008 Joni
I have read several of Douglas' books several times. I loved them and did the practices. I could get to a certain point, and then nothing. Today is my second day on your website, which I really love. Thank you. I was just having a lunch break and doing some "pointing" when I realized what I really looked like. I drew a picture of a body with no head and I "saw" how I am open to everything/nothing and that the "me" that I have been calling myself could stand for "Mind Empty." It was a lovely experience. I like walking around like this. It is especially fun dealing with people and seeing how open I am for them. Thank you so very much for all your endeavors in bringing this to people.
25-Aug-2008 Robin
I had just been showing someone the card experiment - which I have done a lot - when there was only the emptiness of the hole. Then (Reflections 53) there was something about the mind being out there. Another INSIGHT into a familiar truth.
24-Aug-2008
A friend, Brian, sent this short poem. It's by Ibn 'Arabi (1165-1240). It reminds me of our single Eye. This English version is by Reynold A. Nicholson.
When my Beloved appears,
With what eye do I see Him?
With His eye, not with mine,
For none sees Him except Himself.
23-Aug-2008 Stephen Kelly
Hi Richard and friends. Thank you for this wonderful website. I started Headless Seeing in 1975 in San Francisco. I have found it compelling, easy and difficult. I especially find "The Science of the 1st Person” inspiring and practical. It has helped me out of very challenging situations for the last 32 years, including depression and "group re-focusing" whose cycle was over. (eg. 7 years of Paul Lowe Groups). For the past year in Bangkok and Singapore I have included and "expanded" Seeing into a playshop called "Awareness Ecology Art Playshops". The first hour is primarily Headless No-thing Experiments and then an hour of "everything" ecology and then a silent fun time to draw, write and perhaps show and tell what inspired you about Nothing/everything. I would like to include this listing on this website. I have a poster and some Douglas Harding art inspiration there. My website is www.ecovillage510.org (see stephen kelly/mr.fun link). I am now doing these in the San Francisco Bay Area (California) and plan to return to Asia in Dec. or Jan. Any feedback welcome. Thanks. Love Fun Stephen
21-Aug-2008 George
Thank you, Richard, for whatever your mind has done to cooperate with All-That-Is in maintaining this beautiful ongoing reminder to wandering minds everywhere. We are one in love. George in Ashland, Oregon, USA
20-Aug-2008 Graham
Thank you so very much for your Reflections course, please keep it coming! It cuts through so much of the fog. Words so often get in the way whilst 2 way looking cuts like a knife to the core. Ouch! :)
19-Aug-2008 Fredrik Stahlfors
I love the power and simplicity of the headless way! It helped
tremendously in facilitating the shift from body-mind identification to
the re-cognition of what I truly am. It made the No-thing and Emptiness
of Zen teaching jump out of a dusty closet of mere ideas to an alive
experiential knowing - a direct knowing.
04-Aug-2008 03:07 PM Jane Moss
Reading today Reflection 6 I was reminded of a recent unexpected, and potentially very upsetting and stressful situation that came my way. As I started to feel distressed I suddenly remembered and did the pointing experiment. I found the stillness and not only was I then at peace but was able to attend to the situation and bring about what has turned out to be a very positive and rewarding resolution. What a blessing it is to See.
02-Aug-2008 09:34 PM Brian Aertker
I AM grateful!
02-Aug-2008 01:58 AM Kit Baker
Thank you for being you and keeping this site going. I'm no longer 'alone' in my headlessness.
30-July-2008 Trevor
What a simple beautiful approach to Reality.
22-Jul-2008 10:58 AM Partha
I still haven't "seen" it, despite two weeks' of trying (off and on). I find everyone's comments here inspiring, including Tom's below: I do believe, but what good is that unless one actually "sees"? I hope to be able to add a positive "yes I've done it too" comment here not too long from now (fingers crossed!)
20-Jul-2008 12:16 AM Tom
I read Douglas Harding's book and practiced all the experiments. I read all your weekly reflections, all 58 of them, and I was intrigued but I just did not get it. Then in your reflection number 59 you talked about two voices in the silence, in consciousness. It just opened up my consciousness. My consciousness just kept expanding until I saw everything inside my consciousness. What an experience. Thank you so much help, your website and weekly reflections.
08-Jul-2008 07:41 AM Partha
There is a catch to these experiments, as I found out right on day one. If you try this out for the first time, the basic pointing experiment, with your glasses on (as I did), then you don’t see your no-face. You see the outline of your glasses, and can effortlessly, from that, rebuild your face. For me that kind of dispersed the magic of the process before it could really begin. I can intellectually follow the experiment, although I haven’t yet actually experienced it myself. What I will do is wait for a few days, then start again, this time without my glasses. I though I’d share this with you, perhaps you could advise those who are just starting out, if they use spectacles, to keep aside their glasses before they start the experiments?
08-Jul-2008 01:32 AM Maria
Wham! I am nothing but space for myself. Reflection 13 says it so eloquently! :)
07-Jul-2008 10:31 AM Jacob Syed
Magnificent. I never even knew it was a science. I thought that I was the only one who can do this. I support fully this.
07-Jul-2008 06:12 AM Partha
Sounds intriguing. I've gone through the website (bits of it), am going through your newsletter as it comes in, and have (although rather perfunctorily and without any ego-shattering consequences) tried out the basic pointing experiment as well. I've dabbled just a bit (not too seriously) in other more traditional forms of meditation as well. I'm sure you have yourself actually done this pointing process fairly deeply for some period of time. I would be grateful if you could tell me, not theoretically but from a practitioner's perspective, a bit about what tangible effect/benefit one can get from prolonged practice. And can you comment on how this compares with traditional Mantra, Breathing or Insight meditation? Thanks
03-Jul-2008 07:23 AM Tim G.
Really enjoyed this site, although I'm 'burning out' altogether on reading about awakening and such. "End of the road" here occurred in January of this year, things are still settling out following the rug being yanked out from under shortly 'after'.
30-Jun-2008 10:46 AM Heike
I just read the comment : Clarifies Scriptures, and must say that I had the experience the other way around. If I would not know Nisargadatta, I would not have understood what is the seeing all about ! Heike
25-Jun-2008 11:26 PM Tina
I really enjoyed your talk tonight in Chelmsford - a very powerful and thought provoking message!
11-Jun-2008 02:49 PM Jeremy
I was so sorry to hear of Douglas' passing. He changed my life when I discovered I had no head 20 years ago. It made me quit my job in Accountancy to follow my passion of whisky (www.quityourjobanddrinkforaliving.com). I have included a page on Being Headless in my own self-help website. With sadness for your loss. Jeremy Bell
11-Jun-2008 12:27 PM Mark Evans
Headlessness is the experience of the hubless centre to which all spokes point. And to know you have always been home, always are home, and always will be home. There's nowhere else! So simple and so much joy. And vindication of all those childhood wonderings which elicited baffled glances and responses from adults. This site is a wonderful resource. Thank you Richard.
09-Jun-2008 04:51 PM Sara
Just wanted to share about a TV commercial that appeared shortly after discovering this website. The scene is a mountain lake with rocks protruding in what may be the shallow end of the lake (maybe not). The scene is moving over the rocks to reveal a body, revealed from toes to torso, with arms extending holding an iced drink. What if Madison Avenue truly did go headless?
16-May-2008 11:37 AM Richard and Maria Maguire
Hi Richard and all I have enjoyed the newsletters, but haven't visited the site for a while. What a beautiful job you are doing, in all respects, the texts, the pointing pictures, the overall design, etc, etc. Douglas, now only present as who he really, really is, must be as delighted as we are. Richard and Maria
30-Apr-2008 06:39 PM Rob Inglis
Wonderful site. I have been reading and practicing no headness for decades. The drawings are priceless. Thanx
23-Apr-2008 05:45 PM Marga Dhun
Interestingly enough just the glimpses of egoless awareness are happening and now I find further exercises to help me keep it this way. Thanx
09-Apr-2008 05:55 PM Berit Schumann
Whose consciousness is this that contains both of us? It is...consciousness. Thanks for Reflection 42, Richard
02-Apr-2008 04:20 PM Joe
Thanks so much for your website and periodic emails. I have been on the "journey" for decades and have seen Douglas Harding's name in passing a few times before. It has become time to "look" deeply into what has been presented. It makes all the sense in the world now. It didn't before. I obtained and are reading many of Harding's books. They are simple to understand... now, after an awful lot of previous work. "When the student is ready...The teacher appears". Thanks, again.
27-Mar-2008 03:42 PM David Lawson
I met Douglas many years ago, when he was the guest at a Meeting of an all Faiths group in Leicester. I was one of the participants from the local Tibetan Center, Karma Ling, which is no longer there. Douglas inspired us all and certainly united the faiths. I remember that evening with great affection and was sorry to hear of his passing. "One light, light that is one though the lamps be many." Something I had come across in a smokey room years before also came to fruition. So this is that Douglas Harding.
25-Mar-2008 04:17 PM Del Martinis
Richard, Did you write that beautiful inspiring story on Daffodils? I was transfixed, and pulled me into the entire feel of what you were meaning! Thanks.
23-Mar-2008 Ken
Just a note of appreciation for your most inspiring website. I am blind and depend upon text to voice software and this software finds your website very accessible and easy to negotiate. What is most important, needless to say, is the spirit that is communicated by the beautiful poetry and testimonials of those blessed if only in terms of a glimpse, into the majesty of our shared journey. With robust and heartfelt appreciation.
10-Mar-2008 07:48 PM Maura Schley
Very good website, are there any more workshops coming to London
08-Mar-2008 Bo Hodiak
What a magnificent site! I have a book coming out in Ukraine in two weeks called "The Unknown Christ" and I plan a revised edition in 2010 and in my chapter "Who Are You?" I will mention you site. Blessings to Doug Harding
07-Mar-2008 Lisa Vallon
Thank you for this website! I have been reading E. Tolle of late which I think is a lot like Zen. However, the experiments of the headless way are really practical and have helped me experience (if only a little) the still, alert, spaciousness I AM;-)
7-Mar-2008 Paul
I'm glad that you are carrying on Mr. Harding's work and "vision." His books and experiements have had a profound impact on my life and will always be grateful for the Headless Way.
02-Mar-2008 Jim Driscoll
Richard, I am very much enjoying the seeing experience. Do you have a poster size picture of a pointing finger? I would love to hang this is my office as a reminder. Also, just looking at that image does wonders for me!
16-Feb-2008 Berit Schumann
How incredibly true, I can't lose who I really am, thank you Richard. It's always good to be reminded to see for oneself.
13-Feb-2008 Rich
Where does "lost in thought" fit into the scheme of "seeing"? Is there a doingness related to moving attention away from thought toward something else? I think that headlessness awakens you to the space in which thought happens. So you are not lost in thought, you are found as the space in which thought happens. Which is the space in which everything happens. (Richard)
13-Feb Berit Schumann
I've never met Douglas in person. But regardless of that I've found the way home through his terrific experiments... Thank you so much. Berit.
12-Feb-2008 Berit Schumann
Yes it is so important to deepen the habit of attending h e r e . And once at home this space remains clear and unaffected, never is tired, angry or anything else. Thank you for keeping sending reflections.
21-Jan-2008 Jim Driscoll
Great site, many thanks!! Its interesting that when I point to myself I feel an incredible release. My breathing slows, my shoulders relax, I feel more open. I guess that is what happens when you touch base with who you really are - you feel better immediately!
17-Jan-2008 M
I find much of this interesting as I found I had no head a long time ago. I have a problem, however, with references to a supernatural beings, or god(s) found within the practices here. I do not that anything of that description is needed although I do think we as human beings do need each other and ourselves to be wholesome and moral. What morality means is behaving in a healthful way towards oneself and others for whatever that might mean.
09-Jan-2008 Richard
Hi, it's fairly recent that I started questioning on the subject of our true Self, and i found my self, naturally, battling with my ego and digging myself into some emotional ruts. After reading Douglas' book "on being headless", i now have a greater handle on these self-conscious commentaries. It's a wonderful thing what you're doing.
07-Jan-2008 Rich
Thank you, Richard, for the energy that is flowing into this website. I appreciate it.
04-Jan-2008 Geetha
Dear Richard, I have been receiving your email and I enjoy them. I should say that it wasn't hard for me to realize the space that considered my face. from time to time I remind myself and look from the space and take in the person or the scene in front of me. However it's not clear to me how this could be considered one is enlightened. For example if you consider the description of the moment of enlightenment described by Ramana Maharshi or the Buddha and even Douglas Harding it seems to me that there is more to it than even experiencing space and emptiness ( one experience all this when one meditates ). So please tell me what am I missing? When teachers say, in the stillness ' truth will reveal itself" I am not sure what that means. perhaps not knowing is ok, and I can continue to see from space. But surely there is more to seeing than seeing one does not perceive one's own head when looking out. What's your advice from here on? I sure don't feel enlightened. Do I sit in silence holding the space?
27-Dec-2007 William H Phillips
Happy New Year, Richard and All. Douglas is more influential than ever. Changing form hasn't slowed him down at all!
19-Dec-2007 Berit Schumann
Dear Richard I'm so glad to receive Reflections. Yes I've done the experiments even before with a friend. The simplicity is the strength in them. And I can see who I am really anytime especially when things are difficult. Reflections keep me on track, so I don't forget, since I'm not yet established in ever present headlessness.
18-Dec-2007 Vidya Devi
Love the web site. Well done.
05-Dec-2007 Kathryn Scott
Love the new site. Great job and a tall order pulling so much into an ordered, user-friendly space. You did a really terrific job. Thank you for taking the time to keep this going. Love, Kathryn Scott
02-Dec-2007 Richard Lang
Here is some feedback I've received today and yesterday. Best wishes, Richard----- Thanks for the URL link to the "new" version of the website. Looks great! :-))---- What a site - so much on it! Congratulations.---- Very nice site, well done.---- The new website is really super!---- I simple love your website and e-reflections. The new look is exciting----so much food for the soul. This little particle of light in the cosmos is blinking with thanksgiving! Thank you, Richard , your website is indeed a precious gift.---- Thank you and congratulations for the super new Web site that I will discover more and more with gratitude, on the headless journey.---- The Web site really looks (and reads) great, Richard--a tremendous resource. Thank you for all your work on it. ----- Site looks great. The best version yet I think, a nice mix of graphics and photo...----
01-Dec-2007 Robert Svitek
thanks for the 'reflections'. I copy them and read them on the bus or other times I have to wait.
26-Nov-2007 Candace
I just want to let you know how much I've appreciated these lessons that appear in my inbox every few days. I've been doing Vipassana and other spiritual practices for several years and have benefited a lot from them, but it was Seeing that suddenly made everything that the sages have taught seem perfectly clear. It's been about six months since I first discovered headless seeing and, while the initial novelty is wearing off, it keeps offering startling new insights. And it's something I can practice any time and any where.
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