On Having No Head – Douglas E. Harding
A Contemporary Spiritual Classic
“1 know of no other piece of writing as concise … that stands a better chance of shifting the reader’s perception to a different register.”
— PROFESSOR HUSTON SMITH, author of Religions of Man and The World Philosophies
“Headlessness,” the experience of the no-self that mystics of all times have aspired to, is an instantaneous way of “waking up” and becoming fully aware of one’s real and abiding nature. Douglas Harding, the highly respected mystic-philosopher, describes his first experience of headlessness in On Having No Head, the classic work first published in 1961. In this book, he conveys the immediacy, simplicity, and practicality of the “headless way,” placing it within a Zen context, while also drawing parallels to practices in other spiritual traditions. If you wish to experience the freedom and clarity that results from firsthand experience of true Being, then this book will serve as a practical guide to the rediscovery of what has always been present.
“Reason and imagination and all mental chatter died down . . . I forgot my name, my humanness, my thingness, all that could be called me or mine. Past and future dropped away . . . lighter than air, cleaner than glass, altogether released from myself, I was nowhere around.”
— DOUGLAS E. HARDING