My initial interviews were with established teachers and authors, but I soon realised that if we continue to predominantly hear these people talking about ‘realisation’, it is easy to get the impression that ‘realisation’ only happens to people like that. I felt that surely there must be unknown people out there living with this understanding in the community – and of course, there are.

I eventually found a number of people who still lived their life much as they had done before the realisation, working and living in the everyday world. I have chosen seven of their stories for this book.

They don’t use the precise words of non-duality ‘teachers’ and their stories are filtered through the personality and flavour of each person, which brings an accessible quality that helps convey ‘that’, that is ‘flavourless’.

Hearing these people talk about living with this understanding in the real world (not in an ice-cave somewhere!) confirms the closeness of it all. I realise now that this can ‘happen’ to anyone. There are no qualifications.

I didn’t want the book to become a list of amazing enlightenment experiences, as I am aware of the problems that this can create in the seeker’s mind, but in the end I felt that these experiences were a part of the whole picture and needed to be included.

About the author

Sally Bongers is a film director, photographer and cinematographer, based in Sydney. Sally studied at the Australian Film Television and Radio School, subsequently winning two AFI Awards for Cinematography. She runs her own film production company, Light Corporation in Australia. Sally’s spiritual journey has taken her from Muktananda to UG Krishnamurti, Ramesh Balsekar to ‘Sailor’ Bob Adamson and Tony Parsons.