Dancing Beyond Thought: Bhagavad Gita Verses and Dialogues on Awakening
The author was raised in a devout Methodist home and through early adolescence until late twenties, was married, had two children, was in the submarine service and got a Ph.D.     Following a near-death experience in the military, he deeply explored what was possible to remove his suffering brought about by endless self-referential narrative.  Reading a famous Zen poem  he experienced the falling away of the normal world and a luminous transcendent state.  When this passed, he was left with a burning desire to return to it. He went deeply into Zen meditation, various yogas and self-inquiry.    With a wife and two children and increasingly responsible research jobs in national laboratory, industry and academia, he still got up daily, hours before work, to meditate and do yoga asanas. This process continued for over 25 years eventually reaching the senior executive level of a major company with 1000 folk, 4 research laboratories and a budget of $260M.  There were many "spiritual experiences", but nothing that  ended the suffering brought about by thought. One day, after consciously surrendering every attachment, and realizing his inability to reach the final understanding “by his efforts”, doing an asana done thousands of times before, a complete shift occurred - self-referential thoughts, fears and desires fell away and all that happened, happened in stillness and presence.   He realized that he was not this body, nor these thoughts, but the undying consciousness behind them.   He saw that everything was perfect as it was and that all was somehow within him, and that simultaneously everything was One. He soon left his executive position, did many silent retreats and saw his Zen masters, and yoga teachers in the U.S. and India to confirm his understanding.   To see if it was possible to function successfully from an awakened state, he took other complex, high responsibility, upper-level management positions in fields in which he had no previous experience, and was very successful. During this last period, at the urging of students, other yoga teachers, and a Zen master, he began teaching again.     Since then, he has taught, authored two books, a blog, many articles, numerous videos, interviews, and presentations on nonduality and neuroscience at various conferences and universities.  He has been a subject and/or collaborator in cognitive neuroscience and meditation studies at Baumann Institute, IONS, CSNSC, Yale, Johns Hopkins, and Penn State.