Conscious Awakening: A Journey Into Light

By Shri Muktananda

This book tells a story of spiritual awakening under the guidance of Sai Maa, an enlightened spiritual master. It creates a context for better understanding the shift in consciousness currently taking place on the planet. It is informed by the works of several masters of personal and organizational transformation. It depicts how the inner game operates on the principle of allowing vs. doing. Ontological design is a discipline for redesigning the self. Somatic practices integrate body, mind and spirit, and self-transcendence enables access to higher dimensions of consciousness. Each are powerful access points that, when combined, lead to profound spiritual awakening and transformation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Shri Muktananda
• Release date: Jan 23, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393394112

Book preview

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Also by Muktananda

Innovation and Transformation: Creating a Socially Conscious Business,

Second Edition (2010)

Copyright

Published by PaVima Publishing. Copyright © 2018, PaVima, LLC.

This is a work of authorship protected by the copyright laws of the USA. It may not be reproduced, copied, or published by other parties without the express written consent of PaVima, LLC.

Cover design by Nicole Harris.

PaVima, LLC

www.PaVima.org

E-mail: [e-mail]

ISBN-13: 978-1987596946

ISBN-10: 1987596943

For Sai Maa

Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1: Meeting My Spiritual Master

My Journey to India

Awakening

Chapter 2: We Are Multi-Dimensional Beings

The 3rd, 4th and 5th Dimensions

How the Shift Is Manifesting

Chapter 3: The Evolution of Self

How the Post-Modern Self Is Constituted

Beyond Post-Modernism

Chapter 4: Self-Transcendence

Allowing vs. Doing

Shifting the Observer

Chapter 5: The Evolution of the Brain

The Brain vs. the Mind

Neuroplasticity

Chapter 6: Transfiguration

Change vs. Transformation

Transcendence vs. Transmutation

Chapter 7: Conscious Creation

Law of Attraction

Five Steps for Conscious Creation

Chapter 8: Ontological Design

Redesigning the Self

Ontological Coaching

Chapter 9: The Ontology of Language

Committed Action in the 3rd Dimension

Mastering Speech Acts

Chapter 10: Somatic Integration

Feelings, Emotions and Moods

I Am Presence

Chapter 11: Conscious Thinking

Imagination and Visualization

Intuition

Chapter 12: Human Concerns

A Structure of Human Concerns

Listening for Concerns

Chapter 13: Transforming Your Life

Tools and Practices

A Journey of the Heart

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

References

Additional Reading

About PaVima

Services

Index

Prologue

Humanity is currently

undergoing a major shift in consciousness — a shift that is profoundly altering the historical understanding we have held about who we are and the world we inhabit. Indicators pointing to this shift include the ascent of the feminine amidst the death throes of the patriarchy. There is also a growing awareness that love is more effective than reacting out of fear. Furthermore, we are recognizing our identities are not fixed throughout our lives, resulting in the freedom to reinvent ourselves as new human beings living in gratitude, grace and abundance rather than in fear, resignation, and scarcity.

Nevertheless, this shift is still in its embryonic stages. We predominately embody a way of being that defines who and what we are as separate from one another and the planet we inhabit. Survival and fear remain transparent motivating forces. And these are the results: physical and mental illnesses, addictions, alienation, war, oppression, environmental degradation, mass extinctions, and extremist ideologies promulgating hatred and terror in the name of God or Truth.

To accelerate this shift in consciousness, we must systematically expand our understanding of what it means to be human. Our current understanding, while engendering significant technological advancements and amassing ever more material goods and services, is no longer capable of addressing the challenges we face in time to avert a human-induced disaster. We are perilously close to a tipping point from which there is no return, the consequence of which is the destruction of the planet that we and all other living creatures inhabit.

If we try to address these challenges, as many well-intentioned people are attempting to do, without first shifting within us the structure of self that embodies separation, scarcity and fear, we will only make incremental progress that is too little, too late. The forces we have unleashed are quickly outpacing our ability to respond from within the paradigm of self that humanity currently embodies.

In this respect, I would rephrase Albert Einstein’s famous quote by saying, "We cannot solve the global problems we have created for ourselves from within the same paradigm that created them". It is for these reasons I contend that our current situation calls for a radical transformation of what it is to be human.

This book offers an approach designed to accelerate this shift in consciousness. It is based on years of consulting with organizations on four continents and has been honed by my studies over two decades with several masters of personal and organizational transformation. They include the inner game with Timothy Gallwey, ontological design with Fernando Flores, somatics with Richard Strozzi Heckler, and conversational leadership with poet and author David Whyte.

Notwithstanding this background, nothing prepared me for the profound spiritual transformation that occurred in my life when, in 2010, I met Sai Maa, an enlightened spiritual master, energetic healer and global humanitarian. She initiated me into higher dimensions of consciousness that transformed my life. That experience enabled me to redesign my life and my whole approach to personal transformation.

This book tells the story of how I met Sai Maa, and the impact she continues to have in my life. I share how that experience created a context for understanding the shift in consciousness currently taking place on the planet. It also explains how I reinterpreted and integrated much of my former work from the perspective of higher dimensions of consciousness.

This book also offers an array of tools and practices designed to shift the paradigm of self that most of humanity currently embodies, resulting in radical personal transformation. As the title suggests, it is about my conscious awakening and the journey that ensued.

I trust it will inspire and serve you on your own journey into light.

Chapter 1

Meeting My Spiritual Master

The phone rang

at 8:20 PM on Wednesday, November 4, 2009. I didn’t know it at the time, but that phone call would lead to a series of events that would transform my life. The caller, Jeff, was referred to me by Michael, a mutual friend. Jeff was the Executive Director of Humanity in Unity (now known as Light Legacy Foundation), a US non-profit, tax-exempt organization founded by Sai Maa. At the time, I was not aware of Sai Maa nor her organization. Jeff explained that Sai Maa was an enlightened spiritual master, energetic healer, and global humanitarian. He had been hired by the organization’s Board of Directors to address several endemic organizational issues, and to set it on a fresh course. To that end, he called upon his network to see who might help him.

On that phone call, I asked Jeff some probing questions about the organization, but mostly I needed to learn more about Sai Maa — not so much about his claims of her spiritual mastery — but mostly about her as a person, her history and her style. I respectfully pointed out to Jeff that although he was the Executive Director of Sai Maa’s organization, the organization itself stems from her. If an organization is not energetically aligned with its founder or founders, it will not and cannot function effectively. To think clearly about the challenges he faced, I explained to Jeff, I needed to meet with Sai Maa.

Jeff agreed and arranged for me to meet with Sai Maa when she visited Boulder, Colorado the following January. I planned my visit to Boulder with enough time to meet with Jeff, his management team, members of the Board of Directors, and some of Sai Maa’s students before meeting with Sai Maa herself. Those meetings were very helpful and informative. Wherever I went, I was welcomed with open arms. Some things stood out. I was really impressed with the commitment and professional backgrounds of many of Sai Maa’s management team and Board of Directors. I also met with some young adults who were actively engaged in Sai Maa’s youth education programs. I was amazed to witness the profound and positive impact Sai Maa was having in their lives.

I visited Sai Maa’s ashram in Crestone, Colorado. There I met Swami Parameshwarananda, affectionately called Swamiji. He is one of Sai Maa’s long-time and closest disciples, and the Spiritual Director of the Order of Sai Maa Brahmacharya, a monastic order of disciples and teachers. He knew a great deal about Sai Maa and her history and he generously shared what he knew with me. I also met the Brahmacharya who were in residence at the ashram. We shared a meal together before I departed. It was an inspiring and uplifting experience.

Throughout my meetings I heard many interesting stories, anecdotes and vignettes about Sai Maa. A picture was starting to emerge, but it was not enough to form the coherent narrative I was seeking.

Specifically, I was looking for the coherence between Sai Maa’s history and style and the structure of her current organization. Any gaps would factor into my restructuring proposal. In my experience, a founder’s background and style are important organizational design considerations. When we do not recognize someone’s style, we are not really recognizing the person as a person. Worse yet, we may be inadvertently depriving them of their dignity.

Prior to my first meeting with Sai Maa, I was invited to attend a program she was holding with her Boulder community. Sai Maa entered the room in silence dressed in a beautiful sari. Much to my surprise, I was struck by her powerful presence and the aura of love that enveloped her. At one point I looked into her eyes and it felt like I was looking into infinity. As the program unfolded, I could feel the energy rising throughout the audience. It was an unexpectedly powerful experience. At the end of the program, I met briefly with Sai Maa who warmly thanked me for coming and confirmed our meeting for the next day at 10:00 AM.

The next morning, we met in the boardroom at the organization’s headquarters. Sai Maa wore a stylish but conservative business suit. She was accompanied by two women who were members of her Board of Directors. Sai Maa sat at the head of the table. Her two directors sat at her left. I sat at her right. Sai Maa brought with her a notebook which contained her views on leadership, management, finance and marketing. She said she had expressed these views to Jeff but did not always feel she was heard. She asked my views on a number of these issues and I gave her examples of how I had dealt with such matters throughout my career as an organizational consultant.

From my perspective, the meeting was going very well. Now it was my turn to ask her some questions about her history and background, but the meeting had already lasted for an hour and a half, and Sai Maa had to attend to other matters. She invited me to join her for dinner that evening where I would have an opportunity to ask my questions.

Over dinner, Sai Maa shared with me her fascinating history and experience. She was born and raised in Mauritius, a small island off the coast of Africa in the southern half of the Indian Ocean. Her father was a civil engineer who provided a very comfortable upper middle-class lifestyle for Sai Maa, her mother and two sisters. Mauritius is an ecumenical society so even though Sai Maa was raised in a Hindu family as a member of the Brahmin caste, she was exposed to all the major religious traditions.

Sai Maa was born with certain esoteric powers including the ability to read energy. The human energy field (also called the aura) is a field that surrounds us. It encompasses the meridians, chakras, and the