Jed McKenna's Enlightenment Trilogy

[Laughing Buddha]

I’d like to draw your attention to Jed McKenna and his books. Jed is no ordinary author. He has written a trilogy of books that are easy to read and very entertaining, yet at the same time exceptionally profound. These books are nothing short of excellent, in fact they’re so spiritually advanced that a lot of people might quite simply not realise what true gems they are.

“Spiritual Enlightenment - The Damndest Thing” is the first in the series and announced the arrival of a major new voice in modern spirituality. Jed McKenna pulls no punches, but tells it like it is. It’s probably not to everybody’s liking, in fact some people might find his approach a bit upsetting, as he obviously is more interested in truth than making you feel good. The second book is called “Spiritually Incorrect Enlightenment” and is every bit as good as the first one. It contains a very interesting and enlightening in-depth discussion about Herman Melville’s book "Moby Dick", as well as more of Jed’s hilarious and outrageous experiences and profound insights. The third book, “Spiritual Warfare”, is in one sense, more of the same, but so well written, insightful and entertaining that it might well be the best of them.

Jed McKenna speaks of enlightenment and spiritual awakening, and does so without compromise. This is not for people who want something nice to play with, something pleasant to doze off to or some new belief or theory to occupy themselves with. Jed McKenna doesn’t provide any kind of self-help and offers no tools for self-improvement. It would be more accurate to say that he encourages a complete dismantling of the self, instead of developing or perfecting it. His message is a stark and unforgiving wake-up call, yet it's all written in the most charming and eloquent manner possible. These are spiritual books in the very best meaning of the word. If you are serious about spiritual awakening, you might consider checking out the weird, wild and wonderful writings of Jed McKenna.

Pathik Strand

[Sighclone]

Oh yes, many of us love Jed. In fact, we kinda think he is Adyashanti. You will notice he is rather well protected by his publisher and there are no You Tube videos, etc...thanks for the reminder and reviews!

Andy

[Onceler]

I am finally getting around to reading these books. They are as you describe, unsettling, uncompromising, and entertaining. I have the sense I wasn't ready to read them before now...although the ideas expressed are nothing too new, they hit between the eyes.

[Badger57]

Thanks for the "head up" regarding Jed being Adyashanti!I love his work so had to get these! I can definitely "hear" him while I read the books. Same gently humourous and self effacing style and lines about his love for cycling and tiramasu are "clinchers!!!"

[Laughing Buddha]

There are certainly many similarities between Jed McKenna and Adyashanti, in fact so much so that it's entirely understandable that most people seem to have drawn the conclusion that the books were indeed written by Adya. Whether or not that's the case isn't really of any importance, but just for fun and to add to the growing body of evidence, let me just mention yet another couple of things.

One is the word "grok" which I've never heard any other spiritual teacher than Adya use........until it popped up in Jed's book Spiritual Warfare. It's a funny kind of word that seems almost a bit quaint, so it's a bit odd that they should both use it. The other thing is something I think Jed McKenna has used at least a couple of times, and this particular quote is from page 257 of "Spiritual Enlightenment - The Damndest Thing" (2010 edition):
"In a few years I'll ask her how the enlightenment thing is working out and she'll say "Real good, thanks. Really getting a kick out of it. You?" But that's still a ways down the road."
This exact kind of exchange between teacher and student who meet again further down the road is used as an example by Adya on one of his CDs to illustrate a point to a questioner, although unfortunately I can't remember which recording it's on. It's nearly exactly the same, almost to the word, so I would say that it seems to suggest that Adyashanti really did write the Jed McKenna books or that he's read them and found the above kind of little exchange so good that he decided to make use of it himself.

When all is said and done, written and read, understood and assimilated, it's completely irrelevant who Jed McKenna is on the level of personality. The real thing is what he's written in the books, not whether he is this that or the other person. If he prefers to remain nobody, that's just fine. I can certainly sympathise with him.

Pathik

[Quinn]

'Grok' is a term from "Stranger in a Strange Land" by Heinlein, written (I think) around the 60's. So either of them would have access to it. It was a pivotal book for me and one of the first times I began to see that 'this world' can be seen from lots of perspectives (and interpretations). Great book for loosening up our hold on what's right/wrong or good/bad. (I haven't read it for 30 years....maybe I should pick it up again and see what I get out of it).

To me, there's a huge difference in style between the two. Adya is forceful and cuts through the crap, but there's an underlying compassion that comes across. I'm halfway thru the second book of McKenna's trilogy. I almost didn't want to read it after the first. There's a tone of....everybody is a jerk and that's the way of it. Nobody really wants enlightenment, and why would they? He seems (so far) to be steadily distancing himself from life in the books. From compassion.

Maybe it's Adya playing with a personality - a part of him that just wants to slap people and say, get over yourself.