Beyond Vision

Reviews / Votes

"Someone once said that my writings were phenomenological poetry, but really this phrase is more applicable to the writing of Allan Jones. The author brings extraordinary humanness as well as conceptual power to his descriptions of vanishing sight, and I marvel at their beauty and accuracy. The tone is exactly right, and disarming. Living with retinitis pigmentosa involves much more than a series of physiological losses; it is unavoidably an assault on the self, on the identity one has hitherto maintained. Allan Jones brings great clarity and candor and attractiveness to what is a remarkably complex and tricky subject." Oliver Sacks "While it would be accurate to describe Beyond Vision as a spiritual autobiography, it scarcely does justice to this astonishing book. Jones, a former diplomat and lifelong seeker, traces his changing relation to his progressive blindness and chronic spinal pain. These become his "destroyer and uninvited teacher" - nudging him toward a far deeper experience of self, through the ancient Hindu discipline of Advaitic Vedanta philosophy. It's a gripping story. And Jones's fierce intelligence, wry accounts of his mishaps, and refusal to settle for self-pity make clear that this is first-hand, lived experience. In extending the scope of spiritual autobiography, Beyond Vision belongs among the classics in the field." Dennis Lee, author of Heart Residence: Collected Poems 1967-2017

"A one-of-a-kind book that penetrates to the core of what it means to be human in the face of loss of what we ordinarily think of as essential to our personhood - the reciprocal exchanges between our inner and outer worlds through all our senses, but in particular, the sense of sight. Beautifully written, deeply thoughtful, and poignant, Beyond Vision describes Allan Jones's life experiences as he draws on ancient wisdom teachings and practices as well as their more recent counterparts in mindfulness-based stress reduction. What results is a universe in which seeing itself becomes a metaphor for wisdom, and is remarkably independent of the eyes. Allan Jones is showing us that we don't have to literally go blind to wake up to our fullness as human beings." Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness