Genres: Inspirational, Meditation, Memoir, Mind Body & Spirit, Spirituality
Format: Hardcover, Kindle, Paperback
Is God in That Bottle Cap? A Search for Truth by John D. Sambalino
Synopsis:
One man’s quest to achieve enlightenment through a life of meditation, spirituality, mindful living, self-inquiry, and martial arts •True life story demonstrating the many benefits of meditation, based on the author’s 44 years of daily meditation, more than 40 years of yoga and tai chi, and more than 20 years of qigong •A guidebook to living a life of spirituality.•Written by a follower of the “Classic” spiritual masters: Sri Ramana Maharshi, Paramahansa Yogananda, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Yogi Amrit Desai, and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.•This book lays out the real-life reasons why you should meditate, and the many benefits you can hope to achieve from your efforts. It does not tell or show you how to meditate. Journey with the author on a life-long quest to uncover the Ultimate Truth, that hidden reality that is the very essence of you and all that surrounds you. To answer the simple question “What’s it all about?” The first part of the book takes you on his more than 40-year journey of discovery, including trips to India, Egypt, and the sacred regions of the Himalayan Mountains. Join his meditations at many week and months-long meditation training sessions. Enjoy his storytelling, parables, and adventures in self-discovery. Let his most personal experiences be your inspiration to start your own journey. Proven methods of self-realization and profound revelations are discussed in great (yet non-judgmental) detail as you travel his inspiring road to what the sages term “Enlightenment!.“ The second part of the book has the author attempting to describe the indescribable, as he shares what he has learned through his lifelong personal spiritual journey. “Enlightenment is the realization of one’s true Self, our true Being. Not our constantly changing body, thoughts, and emotions that we take to be who we are, but rather, the never changing, pure awareness, or consciousness that lets us say: my body, my thoughts, my emotions. “Happiness, contentment, and tranquil well-being are all parts of what he learned and experienced, leading him to finally pronounce “I’m just this seemingly nutty, crazy guy, who learned not to take anything too seriously, as all is not as it appears!
“In Is God in That Bottle Cap? A Search for Truth, a lawyer writes about spirituality in an engaging combination of autobiography and philosophical treatise.
Beginning as a child who resisted having to eat fish on Friday, to his adulthood as a world-traveler who sees that God is found not so much in precepts as in experience, John D. Sambalino has always been seeking truth, and so conveys a sense of exploration that is fortunately free from self-congratulation. The first glimmers of this search came with his interest in martial arts and the understanding that such physical practices have their roots in spiritual discipline. An early transcendent experience in which reality seemed to stand still while he was one with everything around him convinced him that there was a goal to be sought.
Studying engineering at university, he soon realized he must choose a career that would allow him to travel and pursue higher realities. He switched to a degree in finance, and ultimately became a lawyer, married his youthful sweetheart, had children, but never really “settled down.” Though that path may seem less spiritual on the surface, it is this story that makes it more accessible to the everyday reader. Sambalino is not a lone monk sitting on a mountaintop, but someone who has tried to mix spiritual discipline with modern life. Almost every year, in addition to work and faithful daily meditation practice, he made time to go to spiritual conclaves, take rigorous meditation courses, and travel – to India, Egypt, Nepal – and delve ever deeper into his inner landscape.
In this way, Sambalino’s book is part travel memoir, which is where the book becomes most alive. Traversing the Himalayas, visiting the site of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s one-time ashram, even lying still and corpselike inside the Great Pyramid, Sambalino has embraced each opportunity to understand who and what truth is, and who and what he himself is and might become. He introduces his audience to numerous masters and their spiritual pathways: Sri Ramana Maharshi, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Paramahansa Yogananda, and of course, Jesus, Krishna and Buddha. All in all, the memoir is more informative than the typical work about a spiritual journey.
Sambalino’s writing is intelligent and at times humorous, despite its heavy subject matter. The book is not a strict work of self-help, though Sambalino does exhort his readers to abide by many of these precepts, but he is careful to stress that all such advice and apparent wisdom offered in all the holy books of the world will not reveal the truth, which is, he says, “nowhere, yet everywhere.” This is refreshing in a field with books that are overloaded with authors claiming “I have the answer.” He leaves left few stones unturned in his search for what he calls “beingness” – but, as he emphasizes, that beingness is a quality or experience that can’t be explained or completely understood by reading or thinking.
Obviously composed to help others make their way to the truth, Is God in That Bottle Cap? presents the example of one man’s striving, some of it seemingly haphazard, much of it sincerely aimed at an ultimate goal. By showing himself to be a regular guy gradually growing into this knowledge, Sambalino offers readers hope of success in their own personal journeys.
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