An uplifting story of spiritual awakening revealing simple yet profound truths about our natural state of being, set amidst the atmospheric banks of the River Ganges that will appeal to self-help and Eat, Pray, Love readers.

An uplifting story of spiritual awakening revealing simple yet profound truths about our natural state of being, set amidst the atmospheric banks of the River Ganges that will appeal to self-help and Eat, Pray, Love readers.

It is widely thought that finding peace, happiness and freedom requires tremendous effort - that in order to achieve a state of contentment and harmony in life, a journey must be taken, or someone or something must be awakened or overcome.

After a chance encounter with an extraordinary Anglo-Indian man on the ghats of the sacred River Ganges, Ray Brooks discovers through the course of nine conversations that his quest for wholeness has been futile: no such journey was necessary, and, just like a shadow that seeks the sun, he had been searching for a self that had never been lost in the first place.

"No new knowledge is required or acquired, Ray. No transcendental experience or higher consciousness needs to be achieved. When the recognition of what you are is seen - nothing at all happens. Why would it? You simply find yourself as you already are."

This book offers no systems of belief or promises. Instead, it clearly points to something that is ever-present yet usually completely overlooked: the ordinariness and beauty of our true nature. After acknowledging that simple yet profound truth, the search for wholeness will be complete.

"I love The Shadow that Seeks the Sun. Within it are so many gifts to me, especially as I am a regular visitor to India. 
 
The stories are captivating and the talks point clearly to what is most overlooked--our true nature. Bravo to the author".
 
Paul Saltzman - two time Canadian Emmy award winning film and television producer-director and author of “The Beatles in Rishikesh” and “The Beatles in India.” 
 

"The Shadow That Seeks The Sun is a pristine transmission of the teachings of oneness which many attempt but few portray so lucidly or masterfully. For this reason alone Ray Brooks is in a select lineage of teachers who share pure authenticity and essential truth ---and deliver real medicine for the heart.

"As a travel writer I know about the journey that has to be taken to find unique and enriching experiences. Ray Brooks shares his fabulous and humorous encounters in Rishikesh, India with honesty and affection and guides the reader through the most important meeting of his life. A must read for travellers and spiritual seekers alike."

--Lindsay Hawdon, Author of Jakob’s Colours and travel writer, An Englishwoman Abroad, The Sunday Telegraph, The Times, LA Times

“This beautiful book certainly deserves to be included with the luminaries of spiritual literature. Its essence presents the essential, non-dual understanding of not just the author and his many influences but the foundation of all great religious and spiritual traditions.” 

--Alcvin Ryūzen Ramos, Shakuhachi master/ teacher and recording artist

"Stories with well-constructed dialogue and believable characterisation can sometimes offer a terrain filled with insight, revelation and realization that often non-fiction fails to deliver.

"Through this series of Nine Talks between Ray (the seeker) and Rudra (the realised teacher), we are taken back and forth on the time track to places and times that have deeply impacted the author, creating a powerful narrative and teaching device of clarity, insight and awakening.

"The story starts with Rudra, who is actually a quite believable blend of various teachers including Swami Dayananda, J. Krishnamurti, Rupert Spira and  Francis Lucille, replying to Ray’s questions about life while sitting together  on the Ghats in Rishikesh. The answers that follow lead Ray back into his own life’s trajectory to his search’s beginning as an open minded, open eyed deeply curious seeker looking for truth, after having an “awakening experience” in a nightclub in London in the ‘70s. This quickly lands him at the feet of the “guru’s guru” J. Krishnamurti in the Ojai Valley where no time is wasted, as the famous teacher firmly places Ray on the “pathless path” to his own insight and awakening with his words: “There actually are no experiences.”
Reconciling this insight with the awakening experiences that flow through the story is what delivers Ray to his eventual clarity that, “There is nothing to overcome … no-one to be found … you were never bound …  never not free.

"This engaging account naturally ends where it begins, in THIS very moment where in Krishnamurti’s view, “No matter where you find yourself, no matter what background you come from, no matter what state of mind you’re in, you can still clearly look and see what is actually going on, but the observation has to be choiceless and unconditional.”

--Enza Vita, author of Instant Prescence