Dr Mark Atkinson is the founder of The Whole Body Healing Clinic in London and a pioneer in the field of holistic medicine, healing and personal transformation. He is an author and the complementary health expert for Now magazine and Good Morning Television in the UK. In 2006, he provided the introduction to my book, The Spiritual Practices of the Ninja: Mastering the Four Gates to Freedom

This is Dr Atkinson’s introduction.

Do you really want to be free and happy - or are you addicted to your sorrow? A lot of people are addicted and they either don’t know it or don’t know what to do about it.

Herein lies the problem: programmed by society to believe that happiness, love and freedom can only be acquired through power, possessions and people, men and women have lost the one thing that really matters: themselves. Many, sadly, will never learn the truth of who they are, of ‘who it is that lives’, beyond the labels given them by the world.

You are not one of these people.

You have been drawn to this book because life has chosen this moment to reveal something of itself to you through the writings of Ross Heaven, its author. You are right on time to read what you are about to read.

The incongruence and tension that results from living a life according to who we think we are, and not the truth of who we really are is at the heart of our pain and unhappiness. This suffering, which we could also call ignorance of truth, is what you and I, knowingly or unknowingly, desire to be free of. Beyond this ignorance lies the truth, the thing we most need and desire to be re-united with.

This truth - intelligence, consciousness, soul or spirit - is the goodness, the life, the love, the happiness and peace that we were and wish to be once more.

And there is life’s great paradox. Billions of men and women are searching for the truth outside of themselves and not within. As a person with amnesia might walk out of their house in an attempt to find their house, so we walk out of our truth looking for our truth. This continues until the day of awakening, the day that we start to see the world as it is and not as we think it is. This marks the first sign of our impending freedom.

So… are you courageous? Are you willing to let go of the past and face your shadows? Are you ready to descend deep - beyond the mind - into the stillness, the Void from which you arose? A ‘yes’ or even a ‘maybe’ is sufficient. You are ready to be free and to meet your guide, Ross Heaven. He will escort you through the Four Gates To Freedom.

Ross has drawn upon his considerable personal experience to create an extraordinary book, which details, I believe, many of the necessary insights and practical tools that will, when lived with our total and conscious participation, enable us to start living our lives as we choose to live them. All that is required is our commitment and willingness to become all that we are.

The Spiritual Practices of the Ninja: Mastering the Four Gates to Freedom, by Ross Heaven, is published by Destiny Books (March 24, 2006). ISBN-10: 1594771073