RiverGanga Foundation
Your words have given me absolutely nothing...

John,

Your words have given me absolutely nothing — and absolutely everything.

I followed your words, and after a couple of weeks (and almost giving up) I 'found myself.'

It happened completely unexpectedly.

I found everything — and nothing.

That 'nothingness' seems to be a silent, sweet anticipation, the expectant capacity for my next thought or physical experience.

I found everything I ever wanted — in my permanent sense of 'being.'

I cannot thank you enough, I just cant believe it — but I know it's true.

I don't know what makes me more happy — that a man 'like me' found it, or that a man 'like you' found it.

Based on what I read about your life story, I'm so glad that you found it, I'm just so happy that John Sherman found it, I'm so incredibly happy that you found it!!

I'm so happy for you — it may have taken years, but if ever a man 'deserved' to 'get it' — you are that man.

Of course, we all already 'have it', but the way you explain it when you talk is just brilliant — absolutely, utterly brilliant.

Never in my life have I heard another person's voice explain something so inexpressible so well.

Man, if you hadn't gone to jail, you could surely have been some sort of 'slick' corporate trainer, and your voice alone (my girlfriend thinks you have the most incredible voice ever) would have guaranteed you a plush lifestyle for life — but for what, exactly?

All these ludicrous thoughts about 'enlightenment' — and yet every one-day-old kid on the planet 'gets it', without thought, without knowledge, without 'education.'

John, thank you so much.

I love you beyond words, although I'm painfully aware that this isn't typically a phrase which an ex-con really wants to hear from another man, particularly when he 'found himself' in the shower.

But of course, you aren't really an 'ex-con' — that’s just part of the story.

It just seems so ironic, so ridiculous to say to someone "By the way, thanks — you made me realise that I am infinite consciousness, infinite love."

But you did make me aware of this, and what can I say?

Thank you.

I wish I could send some money to you, but I'm a struggling, 'failed' writer, although I have 'sent' everyone I know to your website in the last week, and will continue to do so.

From an 'Englishman' to an 'American', from a '40-year-old' to a '63-year-old', from one part of 'consciousness' to another, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Incidentally, your cat looks magical — what incredible eyes.

Thanks again, John — your life was obviously leading you towards 'Ramana’s words,' and my life was obviously leading me towards 'yours.'

I really mean it.

Thanks, mate.

N.

England  
April 19, 2007

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2010 Fundraising Progress

Your single donations and monthly pledges make up 91% of all income to the foundation. We need to raise $56,500 to finance and sustain our work over the next twelve months. 

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As of July 21:

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  • next event
    Worldwide Online Meeting

    Saturday, September 11 at 4 pm PDT (UTC/GMT -7)

    People all over the world gather together with John for a couple of hours. John is available to listen to your questions, and to help you sort out any difficulties you might experience in your own practice of looking at yourself.

    This is very much like a call-in radio show. If you simply want to listen to the meetings, all you need to do is to install the software and have speakers attached to your computer. If you wish to speak with John, then you will need a headset with microphone. You can also use earbuds and a microphone.

    All our events are always free of charge. Spontaneous donations for the support of our work are always welcome and gratefully accepted.

    All are welcome, with no regard for religious and spiritual beliefs and practices.

     

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    free ebooks
    Look At Yourself and Meeting Ramana Maharshi by John Sherman are available as free ebook downloads.
    Featured Letter of the Month
    We receive many, many beautiful and useful letters.  Every month we try to feature one here that seems especially valuable and instructive for one reason or another.
    Podcast

    A Worldwide Meeting - July 10, 2010

    My role in this adventure of trying to bring the simplicity of this work to every human being is not to concoct teachings, ways of looking at things, instructions and practices that are my creation, and then pass them on to you for you to receive gratefully, and try to make sense of. My role here is actually to distill and articulate the product of an ongoing conversation among all of us, over a period of more than ten years now, about the discovery that bringing an end to misery in a human life is actually not only possible but easy and simple, and can be done by anyone. It requires nothing at all to accomplish this except the determination to do one simple, solitary, radical act, and that is to turn the beam of your attention onto the feeling of being you. That's it. In the end, and against all odds and all expectation, this repeated act will bring sanity into your life. It will eliminate the underlying sense that life is treacherous and not to be trusted, and that something desperately needs to be done about it.

    Complete, live recording of a Worldwide Online Meeting with John Sherman broadcast live from Ojai, California on July 10, 2010.

    Video Blog

    Our Work

    First, last, and always, my advice is only to look at the feeling of being you, without the mediation of understanding, the need to resolve paradox, or the requirement that this looking lead to any conclusion. Simply make every effort just to look, and persist in that effort as often as you can. In this effort, understanding is irrelevant, belief is irrelevant, even duration is irrelevant — the briefest look, repeated over time, does all the work.

    A Message from John Sherman, videotaped in Ojai, California on May 15, 2009.

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    donations

    Our work is to bring the practice of looking at oneself to all who are interested.

    The only problem anywhere to be found is the false belief that you are at the mercy of your life, and the only solution is the truth, which is everywhere and always present and self-evident. Ridding oneself of the false is as easy as repeatedly tasting the truth of being here, unmovingly, unchangingly here. This repeated looking directly at oneself is the infallible method of the vichara.

    Although our meetings are free of charge, they are certainly not free of cost. The money needed for this work must come entirely from the generosity and compassion of those who, like us, have seen for themselves the immense worth of spreading this good news to all humanity.

    Please help provide financial support for the work of making this method more widely available in the world by making a donation or a monthly pledge in any amount now.

    All gifts to the RiverGanga Foundation are fully tax-deductible as charitable donations.

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    We need volunteer help in many areas. If you have any talent, skill or calling you'd like to give to this work, please contact us.  You can call us at (805) 649-1600 or email us:    volunteers@riverganga.org
    contact us

    RiverGanga Foundation
    PO Box 1566
    Ojai, California 93024-1566
    Phone: (805) 649-1600
    Email: info@riverganga.org

    RiverGanga Foundation is a not-for-profit, 509(a)(2) public charitable organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the United States Internal Revenue Code.

    Our Internal Revenue Service Employer ID Number is 77-0561647. All donations are tax deductible for US residents as charitable contributions.

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