Non–Duality – The groundless openness

Douwe Tiemersma Ph.D. (1945) was a teacher of Biology and then senior lecturer in Philosophy at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam until his retirement in 2005. He has given weekly advaita-satsangs in Gouda ever since his enlightening encounter with Nisargadatta Maharaj in 1980. Besides writing the 'Foreword' to Nisargadatta's spiritual classic, 'I am That', he has written and edited approximately twenty books and many articles, especially about non-duality, most of them in the Dutch language. In addition, he is the founding editor of the Dutch language magazine InZicht (In Sight), a periodical dedicated to the exploration of paths of radical self-inquiry.

This is an excursion through the world of nonduality. Douwe Tiemersma steers you through alleys of advaita, into Nisargadatta's room, from question mark to question mark, to the corners and turns of his spiritual biography, and into the experiences of witness-being and self-being. Tiemersma is a nonduality pioneer. He wrote the foreword to Nisargadatta's I Am That, which is why his name is familiar. Yet he is low key, writing in his native Dutch, teaching through his Advaita Center in Gouda. Tiemersma is a reason why the Netherlands is a world center of nondual activity. Openness is a key theme in this book, a repetitive reminder to enjoy the vistas and sounds and flavours of nondual descriptions and confessions while staying with 'the Openness that is not limited by anything and goes right through everything.' Thanks to this English translation from the Dutch by Ellen and John Trezevant, an extensive and diverse text by Douwe Tiemersma, the quiet gem of the Netherlands, is available to a much wider audience than has ever known him. --Jerry Katz, Nonduality.com This book is a jewel because it discusses the many aspects of spiritual development so fundamentally: from the perspective of individual being-experience and the assessment of experiential truths. --Journal of Yoga