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William Samuel
(1924-1996)
     
"Every teacher, book, writer, practitioner, sage, guru or peanut vendor, by whatever name, title or label they go by, is an aspect of the Awareness (Identity) "we" are. We take the book from the shelf most likely to render a specific service at a given moment. Exactly so, we have appeared to go to the philosophy, teacher, church, friend, stranger or peanut vendor that has unfolded as sufficient for the moment--but that philosophy, teacher, church, friend or stranger is WITHIN the awareness WE are. So is the peanut vendor. We are forever looking at our Self.".....William Samuel After leaving China, William's quests to study at the fountainheads of the world's ideas took him twice around the globe, into the remotest places, including several years in the Orient and India. In India, William was the first American to visit and sit in silence with a guru who, William tells us, later became world famous. This was a week long stay, but William does not state specifically the name of this guru.
  William Samuel, (September 2, 1924-May 22, 1996) was a prolific writer of truth, science, religion, and spiritual awakening. William Samuel was known as the "teacher's teacher" perhaps because so many teachers come to study with him. There was an inordinate number of philosophers, theologians, and members of the academe. In the later years there came physicists and mathematicians. It seemed to William that he would get the most earnest and dedicated students of Truth. Quite a number of Taoists and Buddhists had found William's message and came to study--even some who were called Masters. Many have gone from his study to become authors, writers and teachers. In some marvelous way his story has been found by the metaphysical and scientific elite of all the word--at least by a few. He said "When it is told perfectly, my whole world will hear."

Although, Mr. Samuel did not embrace the idea of being called a teacher, saying "I've been telling my own story--how it happened and what it has allowed me to understand--for over 30 years. That is not the same as being a teacher."

It becomes very clear in these later days that William was a master teacher who has found a way to communicate honestly and clearly his insights on the Absolute and the premises of the metaphysical and Non-Duality.

William Samuel was quite well known, but he never encouraged a following. He would go to great lengths to stop any personal veneration. In William's words saying "To whatever extent I allow Samuel to be the object of praise and veneration (instead of God-self) to that same extent I create the tangible situation which must appear to bring Samuel down in the eyes of the venerator. That is self-flagellation I can do without. It is difficult enough already for the few of us on earth who have been given the task of waging worldwide battle against the power of belief. Most tenacious among those beliefs is the insanity that one must be either a leader or a follower. Allness leads what? Singleness follows whom? The Seminal Idea discloses Identity to be nothing less than the Ineffable's very own Self-awareness! Every grain of sand and star in the heavens shouts the proof of this fact. Every flower that blooms and wild bird that flies verifies the changelessness of this fact. When the story is told properly--and listened to as a child listens--the individual awakens to DOMINION, to his birthright, his heritage from the beginning, and there is no more need of teachers. SOMEONE must make the honest statement in such a manner, and at this time that one is me--and shall be--until it comes to me to do otherwise. Tell me, if on the world scene I have been successful in disclosing DOMINION to those who have come to me, would this produce a following of sycophants? No. We are a camaraderie of living Light and love to whom the entire world will turn when our time has come. Like Lao Tse who lived his Light silently and alone while working square in the middle of the teeming scholasticism of his day, we avoid human entanglements and personal popularity like the plague. We honor the Light that is Life, that every person is. We may very well appreciate a mirror that speaks to us with clarity and honesty--and we may consider that mirror unique among mirrors--but the authority lies with the awareness that looks into that mirror, and not the mirror."

The growing demand for his clear, brilliant, and effective instruction, even since his passing, is testimony to the fact that his work is universal and timeless in its profound wisdom.

Those who knew him best considered him a humble, unpretentious, soft-spoken teacher who communicated truth in a tender, simple and yet powerful way. Those who listened and heard his message were brought to find a peace and understanding that carried healing on its wings.

Samuel enjoyed a worldwide correspondence with those he has helped find the fabled "peace beyond understanding."

And now, those who find his work to be a clear, brilliant, and effective instruction are passing along his name, as his work reaches even greater numbers today.

William Samuel was one of those rare people who could synthesize the teachings of Eastern thought and Western religions. His work offers a clear explanation of the nature of enlightenment through simple uncomplicated language. He has a genuine gift of communication, a method of communication that uses words in such a manner that creates a synergy that allows the reader/listener to hear a message that transcends the ordinary limits of words.. He communicates beyond intellectualism. William discovered that he had a unique gift that allowed him to teach that which is most often said to be 'un-teachable'. He found a way to write in layers, sounding overtones, much like music; the words are like the single notes coming together creating chords. Then, layer upon layer, the right chords are struck and the heart hears the full message in the way one hears a whole symphony. Because of this gift, his work is best read gently and without struggle to understand. William often said about his message, to read and listen to with the Heart.

William Samuel devoted his life to the search for truth, a quest that took him twice around the globe and included the years he spent in China during the Second World War, a period which his books describe in some detail (see A Soldiers Story).

William was brought up in the beautiful hills of Alabama where he spent his childhood. His mother was a practicing Christian Scientist and she brought young Samuel to church with her every Sunday. William's father was Jewish and the enforcer of the discipline and academics in William's youth.

William Samuel Boy ScoutWilliam was very bright as a child and appreciated and learned from life's situations, questioning and seeking understanding even at this young age. William's favorite pastime was to wander the back woods, rivers and trails, hunting ancient arrowheads, listening to the bird songs, enjoying the old trees and meadows and being immersed with nature. His love of the outdoors lasted his whole life.

Although William was a gentle and thoughtful boy, his father sent him to Clemson College South Carolina which was a military school. Young William was about 14 years old. . A brilliant student, with genius IQ, he spent 4 years attending the military academy, learning and gathering much of his wisdom through the adversity and pain of these harsh surroundings. His natural inclination to seek greater understanding through all life's situations was the key that got him through those difficult years. This wise approach continued throughout his life.

At 18 years old he was made captain of infantry and was sent to do battle in China, during WWII

As an American infantry captain who fought in some of the fiercest battles of World War II Samuel lived and tested his spiritual insights on the battlefield.

While combating Japanese troops for two years on the Chinese mainland, his translator was a venerated Taoist monk, Mr. Shieh, who was to become his friend, guide, and spiritual teacher through those years.

Soon after the war, Samuel returned to China and continued to study with Mr. Shieh for several months. Mr. Shieh would give William 'assignments', such as sitting at the fountain square in town and having to find 'something good' about every passerby.
  A seeker, soldier, husband, businessman, and healer

In the 1950's, married and with three young sons, besides his writing, William had become the proprietor of his father's small bakery and restaurant in Birmingham.

However, by 1952 he had been called once again to war. For many months he lead troops through the Korean War, which he reports had been even more devastating than the battles fought in China.

When he returned from his Korean duty, he went back to his family and the restaurant and bakery business. During these years he wrote his first book titled Two Plus Two Equals Reality. Though it was a small book with only 60 pages, it was filled with tremendous insight. This book brought many to notice his wisdom and people began to gather around him to listen and to study.

He had also become a well known practitioner and healer among the growing metaphysical crowd.

Soon folks from all walks of life and from all parts of the world came to see him. At first primarily metaphysicians but then people of all religious and philosophical outlooks, Eastern and Western began to show up. Many would come to his Birmingham bakery where he would enjoy longs talks and philosophical discussions with the varied people and groups that sought him out or happen to be just passing through.

At this time, he also devoted himself to writing, and teaching, and lecturing. He wrote and taught about what he called "a new way of understanding."

By 1968 he had written and published his most noted book A Guide To Awareness and Tranquility and completed its companion book The Awareness of Self-Discovery in 1970.

By now he had sold the bakery and gave himself entirely to writing and to the many people whom he corresponded with and to those who came to study with him. His love for the outdoors was such that he held most of his classes under the pine trees of his home in Mountain Brook, Alabama and aboard his houseboat, "the good ship Lollygog," as it drifted along the banks of Alabama's Coosa River.


The stories that lead to his own enlightenment are told throughout his books and audio recording. His work is iconoclastic on the one hand; tender and warm and inspiring on the other. He has the unique genius of being able to bring together Western Christian metaphysics and Eastern thought, offering an indispensable guide for any seeker wishing to peace and understanding.

William Samuel's writing isn't based on theory. On the contrary, he lived the words he wrote, and passed the wisdom on to us. In doing so, he left us extraordinary insights and discoveries which help us rediscover the Divine that already resides within us. In William's own words; "Every word I've published, I have lived. I do not write from theory, speculation, nor from the opinions of other--only from my own LIVED experience. It seems most important to me to put every revelation and glimmer of light to the living test. I've done just that and have published nothing that did not first prove fruitful in my own experience.... and I had still another criterion;. Nothing is included in these works that had not only borne fruit for me but had also proven to do the same for others who had put it to the same test as I. An intellectual difference, perhaps, is consistency".

Several years after publishing his works, William was delighted to find this statement in THE TEACHINGS OF SILVANUS (vii,4): found among the Nag Hammadi Library scrolls 'Put all words to the test first before you utter them.'

William was informed by the British Philosophic Society, who had finished an examination of his book 'A Guide To Awareness and Tranquility' that they had found this book to be 'A thoroughly supported philosophic system. Every statement in his work, has been properly supported with the reason and logic a philosopher considers necessary. Mr. Samuel has made a statement for the allness of God which is intellectually sound even to the most demanding members of the academe--the philosophers. To address the Heart without galling the intellect is a feat indeed'. In William's humble and honest style he responded "Human intelligence couldn't possibly do that, but Awareness is that feat in action."

By 1986 he had written and published his final book The Child Within Us Lives! A Synthesis of Science, Religion and Metaphysics. This book charts a practical and livable course through the labyrinth of the objective sciences and religions into the mysterious states of the new quantum sciences and metaphysics, further, we are taken to the transcendence of such divisions, by way of the discovery of our original nature, the Child within. The Child Within is perhaps one of the most extraordinary books you shall ever read. You will find this book to be a working and proven study of metaphysics that does not decry the reality of matter, but insists that matter be understood as part of one's self-discovery in process. In this book Samuel speaks to the primal nature of light and linear time and to the necessity of understanding them. Scientists and religionists alike will appreciate this well-written work that is filled with clarifying analogies.

Samuel's brilliance combined with his keen awareness of spiritual life is evident in his ability to write in a gentle, unpretentious style. He is powerfully iconoclastic on the one hand and tender, warm and inspiring on the other. He speaks the Truth without the stilted jargon of Eastern non-duality or Western Theology. In his work you will find a nonsectarian view-unconventional beauty-beholden to neither establishment nor organization.

William's books are filled with personal stories telling us how he put his insights to the test, showing us exactly how we can live and prove these precepts in our own lives.

If you are searching for an end to personal turmoil, here, in William Samuel's books you will find a teacher's textbook and guide that goes from Alpha to Omega in clear, simple, tender language.

His books are written for those who want Illumination itself, not a description of it-and for those who want to know how to live it.

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