Seeing, Knowing, Being: A Guide to Sacred Awakenings

From ancient Taoist sages and Sufi mystics to Christian contemplatives and contemporary Zen masters, Seeing, Knowing, Being explores the profound truth behind all the world's mystic traditions: Living a spiritual life has nothing to do with fixing ourselves. It is simply a matter of awakening to what we already are. The real work of self-discovery--and the answer to our suffering, emptiness, and loss of meaning--is learning to see in a different way. "The mystical adventure is all in the seeing," says John Greer. "From departure to arrival, nothing changes but our eyes."

But the process isn't that simple. In this all-embracing work that is destined to become a classic, Greer artfully traces the steps and stages of the delicate process of awakening. He shows how we can move from society's hand-me-down version of reality to the wonder of our true nature--from conceptual, habitual patterns of thinking to knowing the truth by being.

Like a master artist who captures an image and stirs something deep inside of us, Greer also highlights nearly one hundred evocative metaphors, as varied and colorful as the sages themselves, to kindle your imagination and spark your intuition--to shift your perspective and shake you into an awareness that no amount of explanation can.

What Greer shows, with great wisdom and compassion, is that when you put aside the map of the mind, you can follow the compass of your heart. You can move through the details of life--going to work, raising a family, throwing out the garbage--and still experience the wonders and oneness of life with deep reverence, gratitude, and joy.

John Greer has taught insight meditation for over a decade and spent 20 years inquiring deeply into the teachings of the world's traditions. In three decades as a professor at the University of Memphis, he published numerous articles, coauthored several books on education, and was a recipient of the university's highest award for distinguished teaching. John Greer also served in Nepal with the Peace Corps and has traveled extensively on six continents. He lives in Memphis.