Jump Into Life: Moving Beyond Fear

The Jump Into Life: Moving Beyond Fear is helpful and affirmative ideas. Desjardins is so open and generous with his wisdom, and while this book is compiled from recorded lectures and exchanges with students, his conversational style allows the reader to feel connected to the author. The lifetime of experience is behind his words, unlike many spiritual "teachers" who don't have a practical understanding of their material because they haven't lived it. Desjardins has lived it, worked with it, taught it, for the last forty years. It is his own synthesis of East and West--Gurdjieff, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity--but it doesn't feel like a mish-mash of dogmas; the core teachings of each tradition have been wisely assimilated by a lively mind and willing spirit.

There are no complicated theories here--no rituals, no yogic techniques. There's no magic formula for enlightenment offered, except advice to breathe deeply and to open up and to be grateful. He presents the blueprint for that internal structure, and it is based on saying YES to change because it's the path to new levels of understanding, having gratitude, choosing to be positive, and knowing that you already have Buddha Nature (you are already free, you are already whole, you are already wise.) It's a long journey toward the freedom that has been yours all along. This books gives straight-forward advice for that journey from a good-natured man who has seen all the emotional pitfalls and ego-detours and survived, with his heart and mind intact.

Arnaud Desjardins (born June 18, 1925; deceased August 10, 2011), producer at the ORTF from 1952 to 1974, was one of the first practitioners of Eastern religion to be discovered in France, working on televised documentaries with many great spiritual traditions unknown to Europeans: Hinduism, Tibetan Buddhism, zen, and soufism (Islamic mysticism) from Afghanistan.
Arnaud Desjardins was part of Gurdjieff groups, his first contact with mysticism. Educated in a Protestant Christian environment, he was equally taught of the spiritualist life on a trip to a trappist Catholic monastery. He then became interested in yoga, and when asked to direct a film for French television, he chose to make a series of films on India, for which he gained notoriety for his first film, Ashrams. It was because of his numerous voyages and his passion for spirituality that he made many more films and wrote a number of books.

His thoughts were written in a spiritual traditional book by his master, Swami Prajnanpad, whom he got to know after filming a number of mystics from varied backgrounds. He became a follower of Adhyatma yoga, a branch of Advaita Vedanta. This strand of Hinduism is based on the Vedas, more particularly, the Upanishads. This open dialogue about the grand spiritual traditions, both Eastern and Western, became his major field of study under the encouragement of his master.

Arnaud Desjardins spoke of his spiritual approach like this: "It's a way of eroding egocentricity which is compatible with different creeds and religious convictions"

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