‘Pointers to Enlightenment’ A book focused on developing spiritual tourism

‘Pointers to Enlightenment’

A book focused on developing spiritual tourism

 

Vipula Wanigasekera’s ‘ Pointers to Enlightenment’ was launched  at Ramada Colombo on 29 October 2013 at a time over 25 Million tourists travel out of their countries every year particularly from the West, seeking  inner peace and tranquility through various practices such as Meditation, Yoga and listening to sermons and discourses of spiritual leaders’.  Therefore Sri Lanka has a great potential to promote spiritual tourism that is expected to be triggered by this book.

Institutions like Amaravathi in England, Plum village in France,  Wat Pah Nanachat in Thailand, Monte Sahaja in Portugal and Tiruvannamalei in India  are offering various programs for tourists who visit such places in numbers. These programs  range from just one hour to a week depending on the spiritual resume of the  visitor and the travel and holiday needs.

Wanigasekea says ‘ The famous personalities such as Eckhart Tolle, Burt Harding, Adyashanti, Peter Russel, Mooji , Scott Kiloby have gained popularity particularly because of their ability to communicate philosophy in a simple and presentable language without involving conventional  practices emanating from various cultures’. ‘ Almost all of them offer full tribute to Lord Buddha for being the first in human civilization to have discovered the truth which is ‘ Self seeing no self’ , which a language cannot explain except for giving  pointers or clues.

This book is presented creatively without giving it a religious label and it is similar to the famous books already published such as Power of Now, Emptiness Dancing, Before I am, A new Earth, Unconditional Life, Waking up in time etc.  These books have cut across the world with the core teachings leading to freedom from suffering because of their innovative and simple presentations.

‘ Pointers to Enlightenment’ is the first of its kind to have been published in Sri Lanka which neither contradicts existing Buddhist philosophy nor  introduces anything new. It only  presents  a doctrine in a different  way through pointers thus helping people to free themselves from their beliefs and opinions based on knowledge gathered through five senses, interpreted by the conditioned mind.

Therefore the book is expected to have a considerable outreach across the western world and later with translations,  into  Scandinavia, France and Germany as well as publishing through websites such as Amazon.com.

Renowned civil servant and Ambassador Lionel Fernando stated in his review of the book  ‘Vipula doesn’t want to portray himself as a preacher or Guru. His humble and gentle approach makes the reader relaxed and gives him or her the confidence to deal with a philosophical subject.  He just comes and sits beside the reader and becomes one of them and then slowly starts a discussion.