Dirty Enlightenment: the Inherent Perfection of Imperfection

Publisher Marketing: Dirty Enlightenment is a stripped-down, radical presentation of the Nature of Reality and your spiritual place in it. In actuality, you are a miraculously present infinite field of transcendental being presenting itself to itself as subtle radiant energy of pure intelligence. This truth is consonant with the view of Dzogchen, Kashmir Shaivism, Advaita Vedanta, Kundalini Yoga, primal Buddhism, and with all radical spiritual traditions. Since this is already and eternally the sole condition, the spiritual challenge is merely to recognize that this is the case, with no special conditions or abilities needing to be cultivated, nothing in one's life needing to be changed or improved in the slightest. With the simple recognition of the nature of your actual condition, you are freed from the confused implications of any misinterpretations of what your condition is, that you may have been laboring under. This recognition is available since it is clearly displayed by every aspect of your experience, and will be discovered by direct investigation without preconceptions. In actuality the only "spiritual" problem possible is misinterpretation, which can give rise to beliefs in separate existence, dependency, vulnerability, inadequacy, failure, death, etc., etc., whereas in fact none of these imagined conditions actually exist at all. The apparent "imperfection" that you may believe your life to be, is in fact already and inherently an entirely transcendental, miraculous eternal perfection, and it can be easy to discover this fact with self-verifying certainty. Peter Brown presents this understanding from several perspectives, as direct description, meditative aphorisms, and question-and-answer discussion, with a personal retelling of his own path of discovery. Contributor Bio:  Brown, Peter Peter J. Brown teaches at Emory University. He is a professor in the Department of Anthropology, Emory College of Arts and Sciences and also a professor in the Hubert Department of Global Health, Rollins School of Public Health. He serves as the Director of Emory's Center for Health, Culture and Society. He has co-edited: The Anthropology of Infectious Diseases; Emerging Illnesses and Society: Negotiating the Public Health Agenda; Applying Anthropology (9th edition); and Applying Cultural Anthropology (8th edition). His research primarily deals with sociocultural aspects of malaria and its control, and he serves on a malaria-related Scientific Advisory Committee for the World Health Organization. He has an additional research interest on cultural issues in obesity and its related chronic diseases. Recipient of several teaching awards, he is a director of a new program "Global Health, Culture and Society" at Emory College.