The Heavenly Backflip

J.C. Amberchele is a remarkably eloquent writer; the sixty-one succinct chapters of The Heavenly Backflip draw on conversations with fellow inmates and Buddhist group members and cover topics such as the nature of enlightenment, the Headless Way, the direct and the progressive path and the various concepts of Buddhism. Interspersed with these are taut chapters of prose informed by his own first-hand experience of Awakening. This is the Perennial Philosophy brought fully to life within the confines of a prison environment. This third book by Amberchele is made up of short chapters of alternating prose and dialogues with fellow prison inmates. A voracious reader and long-time Buddhist practitioner, his search found its conclusion in The Headless Way approach devised by Douglas Harding. As well as being an exposition of the Perennial Philosophy, Amberchele answers, via the dialogues, questions which come up along the path leading the reader towards a very practical seeing of one’s Original Face. Altogether, a concise, profound and exuberant text on the nature of identity.