James David Parker
Short Biography in relation to nonduality
Discover direct insights and experiencing that naturally and professionally expresses the discipline and pointers into nonduality.
James David Parker is an independent philosopher, author and speaker. In his teenage years and early twenties he trained and became internationally renowned in conjuring and magical artistry. James later moved in the direction of philosophy, politics and law to work in this field and understand these different aspects of life. When 'de rigueur', he still occasionally entertains guests with his conjuring at dinner parties and events. James has also created a process of art called 'philosophical illusion' that he uses to express life at a visionary level. He performs this at unique occasions when it is 'comme il faut' for either the mainstream or advocates of this discourse.
James' teaching and discipline includes both psychological and philosophical insights in ways that can create a revolution in perception, observation in the process of thinking, nature of awareness, human relationships, and the need to relatively bring about a real and practical shift in the way society thinks in order to progressively transform it.
He expresses the perception that society will only partially change as an external phenomena when it is attempted through ideological or religious means. He sees that in order for awareness to fully flourish there needs to be clear insights into this nonduality and humanitarianism as two sides of the same coin.
James has published a book entitled ‘An International Humanitarian Organisation: A United Nations of the People’ through Cambridge Scholar Publishing, succeeding in the book being reviewed by their panel of professors and experts.
Although James finds a universal thread in the wise aspects of religion, spiritual teachings and traditions, together with seeing Zen Practice as a tool (not a tribe) on being helpful for clarifying the mind and Vipassana meditation as a way to have direct insights into sensations of the mind and body, he has no identification to any religion, spiritual tradition nor nationalism, and sees both awareness and human beings as primary when communicating to see life as a whole.
James speaks to both large and small audiences and individuals across the world.
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Longer Biography in relation to nonduality.
The term "philosopher" comes from the Ancient Greek (philosophos), which is the word for the "lover of wisdom". The definition of wisdom is the ability to use knowledge, understanding, honesty and insight to meet truth in the right way. For James, when the different perspectives of 'philosophy' are perceived clearly it is therefore then the most accurate, effective and integral pointers to direct insights, discernment, honest understanding, pure perception and the deep awareness into the true nature of nonduality.
Although he has reverence for genuine and wise advocates of nonduality he never puts them on a psychological pedestal because he sees this as a delusion into the true nature of life. He sees that whether one is a so called guru or spiritual teacher, on a relative level we are all simply human living on this tiny planet in an infinite universe. James has observed that there are a few aspects and strands to contemporary nonduality that have become another form of exaggeration and western unconscious pretence. He has also observed that some of these areas have become somewhat lopsided and out of balance and therefore do not fully articulate or accurately express nonduality from the direct insights of so called clear wisdom, relative truth and enlightened rationality.
When he charges for talks and meetings it is not for some kind of spiritual idea of superhuman specialness or transferring grandiose energy that people in the spiritual community can sometimes believe and project onto speakers in this field. It is simply in order to professionally function in a monetary system like all of us, while giving time and service to this discipline and pointers in the same way he does for his conjuring skills and applied or academic lecturing.
James has never been a so called seeker, never sought for teachers, which he sees as predominantly a western focus projected on to the east. At the same time nor does he create teachings that are a reaction to this new age narcissism. It is clear that this also becomes just another process of superior narcissism. He does not rearrange language just to critically negate relative truths that can be seen beyond concepts or a rationalisation process using absolute 'no me' terminology to just look like one has transcended the new age celebrity style circus.
From the age of about fifteen he has simply been learning about life and the mind beyond accumulating knowledge. There never was a need for some imagined goal of enlightenment. He simply meditated, observed and read, meditated, observed and read, meditated, observed and read. He did it for no known reason, it just happened by itself for the sake of just doing it. It was in the same way one may learn how to spell or do math just because one is learning about life as a human being.
This does not seem common in society and so James did create an unconscious superior but naturally benign identity about this in his twenties. Although he was never part of this so called collective seeker meme that he saw as very obvious, it was simply a natural process of learning. At first he did imagine it was more common and when he realised it wasn't he became very intense like a missionary. During this time, however, while studying for a degree in politics there was a constant process of direct insights into life, nature of it and the thinking process of conditioning while the self still manifested.
Seeing through the pretence of the ego narrative was simply the foundation and the so called beginning of clearer direct-learning. It was not just an end of some predominantly western consumer driven seeking, it was the start of learning deeply as a constant process. This never ends and is a continuous process of vaster and vaster intelligence that emerges from awareness, the first person position and intricately seeing the truth of being part of and one aspect of the human species. This leads to directly seeing the ignorance in society created by human psychology, which is beyond the idea of going beyond a separate self as an individual.
On another note, James also apprenticed in the magic arts from the age of ten with the direct ambition to be someone and famous. During his teens he performed on stage and television and in his teens and twenties won many magic awards. It was here after experiencing this insight that life is not just about success is when he started meditating and understanding life intensively, exploring philosophical teachings such as Zen, the independent philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti and many teachings within this non dual field.
During studying for a masters in International law, James experienced the centreless, timeless and universal reverence, particularly through the process of vipassanā from the Theravāda tradition, and later zazen with constant choiceless awareness. Identical to what the philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti regularly pointed to with clarity. After this Zen-like process it continued kind of (as a close analogy) like a background, and since then there has been constant direct insights into life.
James now speaks about the human experiences in contemporary culture with great precision, subtlety and quality. He travels across the world discussing the need to understand the greater aspects of life. His teaching is about clear observation beyond any dogma and intellectual knowledge. Humanity has become largely absorbed in patterns of images and this then creates thinking as a system of classification. James' explores how and why this causes separation between human perception, which then manifests as abstractions leading to the barriers and limitations in ones life.
It is this awareness of both our thinking and our action that enables us to see separation as an illusion and instead directly observes that we are all deeply and directly the same essence of life. James does not see his apparent process as an individual matter but as a collective one. He also sees that without fully seeing our collective and societal conditioning then it is not possible to be fully aware and one cannot fully appreciate the absolute of this awareness. This observation transcends social construction and manifests the insights into the true nature. There is a deep transformation in oneself when there is intelligence, wisdom and compassion flowing from complete awareness.
On the relative side of the world that we all face together James is an International Political and Legal Analyst and published author in this field who specialises in international relations. He is currently giving presentations and speeches that explore the way international solutions can be implemented in order to fix the escalating problems that we all face together.
James professionally gives public talks, writes and discusses with many different individuals and groups. The best way to understand his teachings is to go and directly attend one of his events.
