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No trace of Truth in a human face
Only the Love that fills all space

No ‘me’ over here
No ‘you’ over there
No person who can ‘be aware’
Liberation is here right now
No-one can possibly teach you how

To the restless mind this will never be clear
It’s beyond the reach of mortal ear
Being is found in the still, quiet space
Bearing witness of itself in every place
Yet there’s nowhere that it cannot be found
It’s both the silence and the sound.

It has many names, like ‘God’ or ‘Being’
Talked about in ‘glimpses’ and ‘seeing’
But all the while there’s no-thing to ‘see’
It’s simply found where there’s no-one to BE

by Mandi Solk

If you would like to see more of Mandi's writings, please scroll down this page and there is also more on the Writings page.

The video below is from an interview with Renate McNay for Conscious.tv

NEW - Listen to a 10-minute MP3 audio file of Mandi talking about Non-Duality - Download mandi.mp3

THE JOY OF NO SELF

RETREAT IN GREECE with MANDI SOLK

10-17 September 2010

COST: £350 / €450
(This includes meals and accomodation)

Located close to the Aegean sea in mainland Greece, the Kalikalos centre is situated in the beautiful village of Kissos, in the lush Pilion Mountains, where, according to ancient Greek mythology, dwelled the fabulous Centaur, half-man half-horse…. Close to exquisite beaches and stunning villages, this will be the setting for a week to remember….

“All there is is Oneness and everything is it—and included in IT. There is nothing and no-one that can possibly be excluded from Being—from what they are. Liberation is already the case. When it is seen that things are just happening and no-one’s doing it, and that all actions or feelings don’t belong to a ‘someone’, then there can be peace and a relaxation into seeing, and seeking may naturally drop away.” – Mandi Solk

A £100 / €150 euro DEPOSIT (refundable, less an 8% service charge, up to 30 days prior to your workshop) reserves your place.

For booking a place and more information on the retreat, click the link to read more about the holistc centre

in Greece where my 10-17th September Joy of No Self retreat will be held or book it with a credit card.

or contact : Jock Millenson: info@kalikalos.com

Tel. +44 208 816 8533

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NOW AVAILABLE:

Love Talks: A Conversation on Non-Duality - AUDIO CD by Mandi Solk

In this CD, Mandi answers questions about non-duality and the nature of Being. (Length 55 min.)

COST: £10 (inc. p&p )

If you would like to purchase this CD, please click on

the PayPal "DONATE" button at the bottom of this page and send a quick email to: Mandi

Thanks very much.

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'The Joy of No Self'

- New Book by Mandi Solk

'The Joy of No Self' is really about seeing beyond the search for 'home'. There is no journey necessary because 'home', or 'Being' is all there is. Seeking can end right now, because Liberation is already the case. This book is an act of love using, words, pictures and poems to enable the reader to see the Truth of pure Being. When it is seen that there is no 'Self' - then there is no suffering. If there's 'nobody home' who is 'in there' to suffer? This is the Joy of No Self!

Price: £8.95

If you live in the Uk, you can buy this book directly from me, and the p&p will only be 80p. Just click on the Paypal 'donate' button further down this page. Thank you.

Click on the above icon to order the book directly from 'Lulu' in USA, if you live outside the UK

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Non-Duality is the seeing through the dream of apparent separateness.There are no separate individuals or objects. The belief that we are all separate from each other is the cause of all suffering.

When we look at life through the lens of Mind/God - through the microscope of Being we see fully, but when we look through the filter of human mind, we see only the partial view of things. This is what is meant by the biblical phrase: 'through a glass darkly'. The human view is limited and obscures the brilliant light of the the true picture - or reality. The human view reverses the Truth in every case and sees only doubt where there is certainty; the dark and hidden where there is only the blindingly obvious Light; alone-ness instead of all-One-ness; poverty and lack where there is only abundant supply and divine provision; and fear and hate where there is only Love.

Whatever the negative appearance might be - it is always erroneous, because Being is always STILL and nothing happens. The mind however is always busy and conjuring up negative thought-pictures which appear as separation and suffering. But the one thing we absolutely CAN rely on is who we truly are - our real, glorious perfect, still Being. This is what we can always refer back to in order to see the truth in every and any life situation. We need this wonderfulself-referral system so that we can avoid having 'the wool pulled over our eyes' by the thick, almost impenetrable weave of our thoughts, commonly known as the 'veil', through we must eventually see beyond.
All there is, is nothing being Everything.
Therefore there are no such thing as ‘enlightened teachers/gurus’ because ‘liberation’ doesn’t ‘happen’ to a person. Liberation is already the case. How can anyone teach you to ‘BE?

Beyond the appearance of Suffering

Suffering doesn't and cannot exist in Reality and by Reality I am talking about Being – Oneness – our True nature, God. From the human point of view the pictures of suffering are all too horrific and appear very real, but when we look through the lens of Spirit, we are looking above and beyond the human picture to the root of our Being, which always remains untouched.
God, which translates as 'Good' in many languages, has nothing whatsoever to do with the appearance of suffering, which is always witnessed or experienced by the 5 physical senses. Whereas, Oneness, our true Source is beyond all human experience.
Good and bad cannot occupy the same space and within this glorious, perfect Being the idea of 'good' and 'bad' has no place, as they are human judgements and have nothing to do with the Source.
In BEING, nothing happens. In our human dream – everything happens. Thoughts aren't just in our head but they appear to manifest as separate individuals, situations and disasters.
The appearance of a catastrophic earthquake is devastating to the victims. But when we truly understand the nature of Reality, we can see that every facet of Being is manifested and every apparent individual is dreaming a very different picture. From a person trapped under the rubble, to myself seeing it on a box in living room, to a volunteer or doctor who is helping, to someone who hasn't seen the news and knows nothing about it. Who's to say which human view of the situation is correct?
The other night I was told that on my street and outside my own door, was a man shouting at the top of his voice menacingly and threateningly to another neighbour. I did not see or hear any such thing. Later on, another neighbour approached me to discuss the incident and she didn't believe me when I told her heard nothing. Her waking-dreams have shown her a world where men are violent and not to be trusted; my dreams do not hold on to such images. So was there really a violent man outside my door or not? And how could it have anything to do with the Source or Being anyway?
All suffering, even when it appears and feels so real, is always a human story and has no roots in Reality in Being in God, Good.

About 'Mandi'

As I started to write this, the page stayed blank for ages because the very idea of having had a past, a ‘history’, no longer ‘computes’ . It is meaningless, because the idea of a past is a totally mind-made construct. However, for any interest it may serve, the following, is the story of this character, ‘Mandi’s’, ‘past’ that the mind has constructed, but please understand that what appeared to happen to 'me', is not a formula that can be used, and also that every word that talks about a 'past' or 'when 'I' was younger, IS JUST A PRESENT THOUGHT RIGHT NOW. THERE IS NO TIME AND THEREFORE NO PAST, NO FUTURE AND NO ME - THEREFORE : NO 'JOURNEY'. It's all a meaningless story, but just for fun, here it is anyway!

"From a very 'young ag'e there was a pre-occupation with the question: ‘Has this world been specially made just for me? Am I dreaming ‘it’ or is ‘it’ dreaming me?’

This was followed 'years later' by much searching and the usual round of various schools of meditation: TM; Dhama; Rama; Karma; Larma etc. then I persevered by studying Zen and Buddhism and then ‘Zen Buddhism’; Japanese Buddhism, other forms of Buddhism, including, for a while, studying to be a Buddhist teacher, then on to Taoist teachings.

'Next', I came to Christian Science which was very interesting, as it seemed to touch on the non-dualistic perspective. God wasn’t seen as some great being in the sky, instead, Mrs. Baker-Eddy, founder of Christian Science, had written 7 synonyms to describe God. These were: Love; Life; Truth; Mind; Principle; Soul; Spirit.
I also liked the Christian Science ‘Statement of Being’, which states:
‘There is no Life, Truth, intelligence nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and it’s infinite manifestation for God is All in All. Spirit is immortal Truth: matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal, matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God and man is his image and likeness. Therefore man is not material he is Spiritual”

Through Christian Science, I diligently studied for '20 years' to see that there weren’t any separate individuals only the dream of separateness caused by our ‘mortal mind’. However, although I gained absolute clarity and intellectual understanding through all this study, it was this very clarity that got in the way of my ever seeing ‘This’. The seeing was obscured because it is takes an expanded ‘seeing’ well beyond the confines of the mind, to see that there is no one here that can understand anything in the first place. This is a place where the mind can’t go and has to simply give up.

Also, like all religions, Christian Science demanded a great deal of strongly committed study; beliefs in certain ideals, (which I didn’t agree with,) also, the giving up of pleasurable substances (like tobacco and alcohol) etc. Although I didn’t drink or (eventually!) smoke, I didn’t like organizations and religions that enforced opinionated rules. What’s more, it seemed to me that a lot of Christian Scientists continually felt guilty if they weren’t ‘getting it’ clearly enough! (However, I have enormous respect for Christian Science as they are 'spot on' about many things concerning Non-Duality.)
So , I decided to leave the Christian Science religion, and continue my search for enlightenment, (still believing there was an ‘I’ who could get enlightened!)

'Then' I joined the ‘Be in the Now road-show’ and found that I could ‘be in the NOW’ for at least 3 mins at a time if I really put my ‘mind’ to it!

Finally, I came to read some 'Non-Duality' books. I read them hungrily, one after another in a week and when I got half way through one of them’, I woke up one morning – except there was no ‘I experienced’ and no-one was there. There was just a ‘Being-ness’ that was seen from everywhere simultaneously and not coming from the body on the bed, but the body on the bed was part of ‘it’ too. There was no location for a ‘me’ to exist – this was being no-thing and everything at the same time. This continued throughout the morning and actually I found it quite frightening – like I was going mad. As I bumped into people whom I knew when I walked round my town, they were all expecting me to be ‘in’ – ‘at home’ or at least located somewhere behind my eyes, but I just found it impossible to act like a person located in a body. But this may've 'ocurred' or not anyway, without reading the books, as it has in many other cases.

All this rather reminded me of a time, many years ago when I had a near-fatal motor-bike accident. Apparently, I had been thrown from my motor –bike by a car pulling out across my path, and my body plummeted right through the back to the front windscreen of the car. Both the bike and the car were ‘write-offs’ and I ended up seemingly dead on my back on the road, with a shocked crowd gathered around me gawping in horror.

Yet, my experience was very different indeed.

I experienced a floating upwards, and a growing realization that the objects around me (including people) were not solid at all and that absolutely NOTHING I’d ever worried or felt guilty about all my life, MATTERED! Whether it was ,people, bills, lovers, jobs, houses, war, cruelty, love and hate, poverty or riches, none of it mattered, etc. Then I just kept laughing – it was such an enormous relief and so incredibly FUNNY! It was wonderful, but soon enough, ‘thump’ and I opened my eyes and was on the ground looking up at the shocked people, and I just couldn’t stop smiling. I had no pain and I’d suffered no damage of any kind- not even a bruise or delayed shock. No one could believe it. In a way, there had been a death that day, but only of the apparent SELF – not of the body.

But this realisation or ‘seeing’ soon faded, just like the ‘waking up in the morning’ experience, described previously, and then there was a hankering after it for a while, followed by many more glimpses, such as turning over in bed and finding I was transparent – there was no substance to ‘me’. Or playing my piano and seeing that it was being played by no-one – there wasn’t an ‘I’ playing it, etc.

However, after these initial ‘glimpses ’, there was a gradual falling away of any interest in seeking after enlightenment and a seeing that all there is, IS awakeness – everywhere! And after, the seeking fell away, there was a continuing expansion of ‘aliveness’ taking place, until I saw that the perception of a ‘me’ at my centre, just wasn’t there any more, and I hadn’t even noticed. There was no further interest in reading non-duality books– just a simple enjoyment of whatever is going on at the time, whether it’s washing my hair, driving my car, watching TV, walking the dog, whatever! Just an easiness with whatever’s happening at the time and a real relief at seeing that there is no ‘I’ to make choices. Things simply arising and then disappearing again, like soap bubbles – just like an apparent ‘me’ writing this : it arose that this would get written, yet without any sense of a person choosing to do it, yet it effortlessly occurred anyway.

Although it appears that there was some sort of journey to a final destination here, this was not the case at all. It was simply that for me, when I read some books on 'Non-Duality' there felt a resonance, a relief , a sense of ‘coming home’. But all of this is only illustrating ‘my’ perspective, because there is no past and there is no future, this is just a construct of the mind,therefore there can be no method and no journey. All of that really is an illusion, a dream. There are plenty of people who have never walked a ‘Spiritual Path’ yet who have simply ‘woken’ up’ or had glimpses.

I still love to see and hear good communicators of 'Non-Duality' talk, therefore, I decided to invite speakers to come up to Yorkshire to come and give Talks for people in the North, and so ‘Non-Duality-North’ was born.

So please visit: www.non-duality-north.com

MEETINGS

The first Tuesday of every month in Hebden Bridge

19.30 - 21.30 C0ST: £10

at: 2 Fountain Street. If you would like to attend, please ring Mandi for directions

I am also very happy to travel and do meetings wherever I'm invited!

If you would like a 1-hour consultation at my home,

(or a 1hr phone session) the cost for either is: £25 (which is paid via Paypal using the "Donate" button below.)

Please email me to arrange a suitable time: mandi@non-duality-north.com