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6 of 8 found the following review helpful:
A book that offers nothing... Aug 11, 2008
By Randall Friend
Charlie's book - "Paradise Found" - contains all that a seeker needs to realize what they are. Yet as Charlie so eloquently and ruthlessly puts it - nothing is needed, there is nothing to realize, what you already are is nothing - no-thing... any "one" who could benefit is more of the same illusion, the false assumption of personal and limited being, the erroneous self-center which appears to need realization.
Charlie uses words and levity brilliantly to point to THAT which is prior to words, THAT which contains the ideas of seeking and enlightenment, suffering and peace... THAT ON WHICH the entire dream appears to appear.
"Paradise Found" combines quotes from various "teachers", along with his own experiences and conversations with "seekers" to form a consistent theme - "YOU" ARE NOT! The YOU you've taken yourself to be is a FICTION.
If you consider yourself a seeker, this book does only what any clear and direct teaching can do - give you no ground on which to stand, give you no handle to hold, give you no self in which to retreat, give you no hope or meaning, leave you totally and completely naked, swinging in the breeze... pointing to the fact that the very idea of YOU is only ever an appearance in the clear ocean of timeless awareness which you've always been.
Charlie does this over and over in Paradise Found.
2 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Paradise Found Right Where You Are Sep 01, 2009
By JD Hazlewood - Author of "That Which Always Is" & "Peace of No Mind"
"Paradise Found" points directly and perfectly to the Source that You Are. Charlie writes clearly and doesn't beat around the bush; he goes straight to the heart of the matter.
This book is written so that the understanding is seen, not learned, because this is not a learning process, but more of a realizing, no process to it.
Any one of Charlie's books gets down to brass tacks immediately. There's no waiting until "chapter 5" to start hearing the message. He writes to show you who you truly are, and letting you know that the illusion of suffering is just that.
If you a searching for something, "enlightenment, peace, nirvana", or whatever source of contentment that you feel is missing, that can be realized in the pages of this book, these words express that message so well.
Once the words bypass the mind, the seeing is clear, and you'll know immediately that "Paradise" was never lost.
3 of 5 found the following review helpful:
A Perfect Summer Nonduality Book Aug 11, 2008
By Jerry Katz
"Nonduality.com"
Paradise Found, by Charlie Hayes, is one of those "last books you'll ever need to read" books. It's like one of those non-existent Mackinaw peaches from Oregon that's only available for two weeks out of the year. Paradise Found possesses that longed-for juice that pours out with every bite. It has the joy and summer of the peach. And it possesses the hard pit to roll around in your mouth.
Sometimes the pit splits open (on its own for whatever reason) and inside is a seed, smooth and cool. Paradise Found possesses all layers of the peach: the outer skin, the fruit, the pit, the seed.
THE SKIN OF THE PEACH:
The Table of Contents is like the outer layer. There are 109 short chapters. Here is a selection of their titles:
3. What Is Unreal? What Is Real?
7. Is This All There Is?
8. The Addict You Believe You Are
14. What IS "Is"?
46. The 'Aha' Is Always Here and Now
55. Who Cares??
56. There Are No "Accurate Pointers"
60. "Teachings" Are A Distraction
THE FRUIT ITSELF:
Questioner: How Do I DO the Investigation?
Charlie Hayes: Who Asks That Question? Quite a few have asked, essentially, "HOW do I DO this investigation? Do I just ask who am I over and over? I have tried that, it seems to reveal a sense of space and openness but soon I am right back into the pain of being me, and I am still suffering. This goes on in spite of years of commitment to being earnest and taking up practices and meditations etc. I am tired of flopping back into being a little complaining me and I want to end this search for real. What to do? How to see that the I is a phantom as is pointed out by these Nondual teachings?"
The "pat answer" in Nonduality circles is to ask, WHO wants to know? That is a great pointer for some but for many it just increases the frustration and is often dismissed as "fundamentalism" or "Advaita-speak" and is certainly NOT helpful in those cases. It's almost kind of condescending...
I can share that the two things that helped the most for me were the seeing that this that I am is not a concept or experience but a silent open background of space-like awareness that is always here before anything else and that I am that awareness.
THE PIT OR STONE:
Hayes writes:
Who chooses? That is what needs to be examined. So, NO I do not agree. There is NO ego! It's a ghost! You scare yourself telling yourself ghost stories where YOU are the main ghost character, the star in your drama. It's crap.
Don't get me in the middle between you and that writer, whom I do not know. If you keep roaming the Internet and writing to other teachers I will NOT reply to you again. ... The real question which you keep avoiding asking yourself is Who Am I"? I say refuse all thoughts except who am I? If you can, just do it. If not keep looking in all the wrong places, in thoughts and outside yourself. But get real with it, man!
THE SEED:
The seed is either stumbled upon or not and no quotation can be selected. The seed is direct, living, seeing of what Charlie is saying. You may have a better chance of stumbling upon split-open, seed-revealing peach stones via this book than with most others of its kind.
CONCLUSION:
Richly supplemental are many delicious quotations of teachers who most strongly influenced Charlie Hayes. They include John Wheeler, Stephen Wingate, Leo Hartong, John Greven, Robin Dale, John Astin, Nisargadatta Maharaj. Bob Adamson is often mentioned.
Paradise Found is the perfect summer nonduality book, all year long, for generations to come.
3 of 5 found the following review helpful:
Tough Love and/or Ruthless Compassion Aug 11, 2008
By Richard Hay
Charlie's manifestation of the "Truth that Sets us Free" is, as he himself (or Not Self) likes to say, "Hardball and/or End Game" of the first order! As such, Charlie is a Living Expression of "Tough Love." In this regard, "Paradise Found" does not offer to wake "YOU" up to "What YOU Always Already ARE" softly or gently, but rather with a "cold slap in the face and repeatedly hard kick" in the "ego's butt" until "No One finally gets It"! However, if you truly are "sick and tired of being sick and tired," and actually serious about "getting out of your own way," this is the last book the "seeker you now think you are" will ever need. And although Charlie's "north end" will remind you (repeatedly) that anything other than I Am (and not even That) is BS, his Obvious Love for That Which Is Beyond Relative Conception is Self-Evident. (Note: Though there may be many other books forthcoming, this one may be "Mr. Charlie's Opus"!)
Friend, retired Military and Airline Pilot, and Author of "Out of My Mind and Back to My Senses," Rich Hay, Major, USAF (Retired)
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