The Law of Attention: Nada Yoga and the Way of Inner Vigilance Paperback - 2010

From the rear cover

MEDITATION / SELF-TRANSFORMATION ." . . presents a strong call for the total dedication of one's life in the quest of supreme enlightenment. I would recommend all serious aspirants to read this book again and again." --Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, founder of Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery and author of Reflections on a Mountain Lake "The clearest and most comprehensive description of Nada Yoga available in the English language . . . a powerful and liberating spiritual discipline that I have used for more than 25 years, to great benefit." --Ajahn Amaro, co-abbot of Abhayagiri Monastery This book--at once simple and powerful--stands as a monument to the lifelong spiritual struggles of Edward Salim Michael, struggles that he heroically surmounted on his path to enlightenment. Due to the circumstances of his birth, Michael had no education, no mother tongue, and no book learning when he was drafted at the age of 19 into the British Royal Air Force during World War II. After learning to read and write he became an accomplished classical composer in France. In 1949, after seeing a statue of a Buddha for the first time, he experienced a powerful awakening of his innate Buddha Nature, which inspired him to begin a sustained and extremely disciplined meditation practice. Michael abandoned his career as a composer and went to India, the home of his maternal grandmother, where he lived for seven years fully focused on his spiritual awakening. Michael's spiritual teachings reveal techniques of yoga and meditation that can open the door to one's higher nature and to directly experience the after-death state. Nada yoga (meditation on the inner sound) is one of the core techniques for this realization. There is a vast luminous consciousness already within us, but it is obscured by the clouds of our incessant thoughts. With sincerity, moral integrity, and inner vigilance, which, when embodied, implies that we have internalized the basic tenets of the law of attention, we can move beyond the promptings of our lower nature and break through the clouds of our ordinary mind to realize our own divine nature. Emphasizing inner attention and an awareness of attitude, Michael's practices can help aspirants make direct contact with the divine source each of us unknowingly carries deep within. EDWARD SALIM MICHAEL (1921-2006) began transmitting the fruits of his inner experiences and mystical understandings to his pupils in 1974. In addition to The Law of Attention, first published in 1983, he has written seven other books in French.