nondual philosophy

Walking on the edge of Knowing and Not Knowing

A shiny brass trident carrying the hand drum of Shiva, god of destruction, absolute wisdom and bliss, is trembling impatiently in the windscreen. Above and below the narrow serpentine mountain road, towering Himalayan cedars block the view, as we rumble along the potholed tarmac towards the Jhanna waterfalls. Here and there colourful villages perched on steep terraced slopes, flash between the dark tree trunks. At the tall waterfalls cascading from high meadows and snowclad peaks, we get out and put on our backpacks.

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Language and Reality

The ancient song about the nature of reality, Shivoham Shivoham sung by Jakob Weise , with a video illustrating the world of the novel by V.J. Sam, Like Two Rivers.

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The Red Thread of Prayer Beads

“Babaji smiled broadly and put his hand on Gabriel’s shoulder.” This world is a constant giving of gifts and singing of songs” he said. Gabriel blinked even more confused. The sadhu sighed and said, “Find a song, sing it, and know that where the words are not, you will find the truth”. Babaji held his gaze with a blank face. Then he took a mala, a string of prayer beads, off his wrist. The string bore one hundred and eight beads of rock crystal.

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Cover Design for Like Two Rivers

“Unexpectedly Nabil stepped out into an octagonal courtyard. In the centre sat a beautiful star shaped basin. Two overlaid squares turned around a common centre. Eight-pointed. Around him there were twelve dark door openings. Above them were twelve dark portholes. Through a circular aperture in the top of the tall dome, he saw above him the distant paleness of Aleppo’s winter sky. He had never seen anything like it.” ( from The Octagonal Room)

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The Characters of Like Two Rivers

“Samira, she said again, this time audibly but with a low voice, as she smiled faintly at herself in the mirror. Katarina had picked the name from a shop that sold crystal vases. Samira. It had been a spontaneous whim which in an instant had become her new truth. A truth whose shielding falsehood Sherif might now be able to threaten. She detached her eyes from her face in the mirror and looked down into her coffee cup, the untouched milk foam reached slightly above the rim. The reflection of her camera next to the cup was a proof that she was now a photographer.” Chapter 4, Caught

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The journey through Like Two Rivers

“You and I are like two rivers running for the same ocean, when we meet, we are lost forever”.

In this novel, a long journey through confusion towards clarity is described. As it moves through both time and space, it takes you from Parisian suburbs and Copenhagen hipster town, through eighties Istanbul, pre-war Aleppo, and bohemian Cairo, to old Bucharest, and up into the timeless hidden valleys of the Himalaya… and further

Among the dramatically different characters, we meet: a French speaking lovesick philosopher, a wealthy gay esoteric Egyptian, a clear-eyed boy orphaned by a drone, a sharp Turkish-Italian gallerist, a charming pot smoking painter, and a beautiful but lost Parisian girl.

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Read a chapter of the novel Like Two Rivers, Chapter 0. The Source

Chapter 0. The Source. In this first chapter we meet the Himalayan hermit Babaji, seen through the eyes of Gabriel, an overwhelmed young traveler.

It was spring and a cold, ceaseless rain fell for three days, melting away the remains of the snow that also surrounded the temple and the pool by the hot spring. Throughout the winter, Babaji had, with a pick axe, fought against the might of the elements. Everyone else had taken shelter below, in the villages of the narrow valley. But not Babaji. In solitude, he had watched the slow spirals of the falling snow and his mind settle.

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