My first confession is that I’m not really a writer. I am, in fact, a successful chartered accountant and business analyst specializing in Information Technology. I have an entirely efficient and methodical mind and consider myself a pragmatist, with both feet firmly planted on solid, empirical ground. It just so happens that I have an obsession with getting to the bottom of things, with finding out the truth – no matter how painful the process, and regardless of the cost to my reputation.
When, at 28, I began my journey of self-questioning and exploration, soon after arriving in Australia as a migrant from Malaysia, I didn’t expect to find myself running afoul of my family’s religious fundamentalism. Indeed, I believed they would accept – if not applaud – my intellectual curiosity and desire to reassess and upgrade my own beliefs. And when I completed the first version of this book and had it published at my own expense, I thought my friends and family would be proud of me, at least for being such an ardent amateur scholar and spiritual seeker. Instead, they were shocked and upset by my loss of faith in the fundamentalist dogma to which they continued to cling. They began to pray for my soul, convinced that I had become a prime candidate for eternal perdition. God knows what they’ll be thinking when they realize that instead of feeling repentant and returning like a good sheep to the fundamentalist fold, I have decided to revise, revamp, and re-issue this book for a wider audience – on an even more controversial tack!
Here I’d like to acknowledge the enormous editorial and literary contribution of my sagacious friend, Antares, whom I met on a trip back to Malaysia in 2004; and who valiantly agreed to help rectify the weaknesses of the earlier edition and “sex” up the writing - but ended up doing “a complete overhaul.” As I said, I’m not really a writer – well, not yet - but I’d very much like to develop my own writing skills to the point where I can confidently produce meaningful and readable prose. In any case, I’m now a bona fide publisher with several other titles in the pipeline.
This book is not intended as an academic dissertation. It is the story of my own journey from belief to unbelief – and my quest for a paradigm of reality that includes, rather than excludes. A great deal of personal data is interwoven with the transpersonal discussion of religious dogma and alternative spirituality. Thanks to Antares’s encyclopedic input, I have accessed a great deal more fascinating and valuable data in the brief course of our collaboration than in several decades of personal research prior to our fortuitous meeting.
So have I jumped out of the Christian fundamentalist frying pan into the fire of newfangled “New Age” notions? Does meditation open one up to demonic possession? Is the practice of yoga the Hindus’ revenge on the western world? Are tai-chi and chi-qong subtle manifestations of the Yellow Peril? If the universe is holographic, how REAL are our lives?
In school I was a head prefect. At work I wasted no time getting to the top of the corporate food-chain, earning big bucks as a business software consultant. I have always been serious-minded and sober about attaining my goals – which, for a long time, were not so much my own as my parents’ – and their parents’ parents.
Persistence, in short, is no stranger to me. But I’m setting my own goals now. I intend to get to the bottom of why we believe the things we do – and how we can free ourselves of limited and limiting beliefs and behaviors. I warmly welcome you on this journey. Your presence greatly honors me.
No comments:
Post a Comment