Cracked Open

by J.C. Amberchele

Overview

This book is a collection of reflections and observations about life before and after I came to prison, as currently seen from the perspective of this Awake Emptiness at my core. I am profoundly grateful to the late Douglas Harding and his friends for helping me to see Who I Really Am, and to thus break the bonds of contraction and confusion that defined my criminal past. Truly without deserving it, I have been blessed with the miracle of inner freedom, the turnaround of turnarounds, what Harding referred to as the no-meter path to heaven. This book is about living and failing to live the awakened life, and how discovering one's Emptiness—one's divinity—is the difference between the two, which, as it turns out, were never two to begin with. As Harding often said, you cannot fix yourself from the level of the self. Only the One who is Other and yet not other, who is both No-thing and Everything, who is at the very heart of you as Who You Really Are, can transform your life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781626257269
Publisher:	New Harbinger Publications
Publication date:	02/21/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	166
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

J.C. Amberchele was born in Philadelphia in 1940. He attended a Quaker school, then colleges in Pennsylvania and New York, graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in psychology.

In the early 1960s Mr. Amberchele worked as a part-time instructor at a private school in Honolulu, teaching high school math and French. An athlete in high school and college, he tried his hand at auto racing in Hawaii, but soon ran out of funds. He married in 1965, worked briefly as a salesman in both Honolulu and Los Angeles, but soon divorced and returned to Hawaii. After working at odd jobs at a local marina, he began taking LSD, and subsequently joined the growing ranks of “hippies” living in the Waikiki Beach area.

In 1967 he again moved to Southern California, and this time began selling marijuana to support himself. Soon he was transporting wholesale quantities to various cities in the U.S,, and within a year was moving marijuana north from Mexico in cars and airplanes, a “career” he followed for nearly 15 years and one which he admits drove him deeper and deeper into crime and “insanity." During this time he married again, had two children, and travelled extensively, often to avoid the law.

After his arrest, he began writing and studying Eastern philosophy. His first book, a novel, was released in 2002 (How You Lose, New York, Carroll & Graf). He has been a long time meditator in prison, and has called himself a “reluctant Buddhist” since taking formal vows in 2001. As of this writing he has been incarcerated a total of 29 years, and does not expect to be released soon.

J. C. Amberchele was born in Philadelphia in 1940. He attended a Quaker school, then colleges in Pennsylvania and New York, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. In the early 1960s, Amberchele worked as a part-time instructor at a private school in Honolulu, teaching high school math and French. An athlete in high school and college, he tried his hand at auto racing in Hawaii, but soon ran out of funds. He married in 1965, worked briefly as a salesman in both Honolulu and Los Angeles, but soon divorced and returned to Hawaii. After working at odd jobs at a local marina, he began taking LSD, and subsequently joined the growing ranks of “hippies” living in the Waikiki Beach area. In 1967, Amberchele again moved to Southern California, and this time began selling marijuana to support himself. Soon he was transporting wholesale quantities to various cities in the United States, and within a year was moving marijuana north from Mexico in cars and airplanes—a “career” he followed for nearly fifteen years, and one which he admits drove him deeper and deeper into crime and “insanity." During this time, he married again, had two children, and travelled extensively, often to avoid the law. After his arrest, he began writing and studying Eastern philosophy. His first book, How You Lose, a novel, was released in 2002 (Carroll & Graf, New York). He has been a longtime meditator in prison, and has called himself a “reluctant Buddhist” since taking formal vows in 2001. As of this writing he has been incarcerated a total of twenty-nine years, and does not expect to be released soon.