Awake Joy: The Essence of Enlightenment by Katie Davis

Encouraged by Eckhart Tolle, Awake Joy is a unique and comprehensive guide to awakening to the new state of consciousness that is currently emerging on our planet. It points to the discovery of the radiant joy that is beyond the thinking mind, the separate sense of self, its idea of separation and identification with form.

Katie Davis takes the mind-identified reader through their personal growth strategies to awakening. She then deepens to Self-discovery or what we might call the realization of the Heart. The book encourages full embodiment of this truth and then shifts to awake living by embracing humanity’s diversity, the earth, its environment and its creatures as none other than the Essence. Katie shares that when the human being is consciously fulfilled, we live the natural way of the Heart in a profoundly human manner.

It used to be that awakening was extremely rare, but today this is not so and people are opening to Self-discovery. It requires presence and not practices, although the book offers experiments and meditations to reveal ego’s delusion. There is nothing unique, or for that matter peculiar, about realizing who you already are beyond your given name and form. It is a normal maturing process of the human being and is available right now to everyone.

Awake Joy is meant to be your companion throughout your life’s journey to true and lasting fulfillment. It will be a trusted resource again and again throughout the years. This A-Z handbook stands free of concepts, philosophy and eastern jargon to point clearly and pragmatically for those who are ready to surrender suffering for themselves, their relationships, their families, the schools, the workplace, the world’s religions and the world.

KATIE DAVIS is a graduate of the University of Washington and spontaneously awakened over 20 years ago, without spiritual practices or teachers. A former secondary school educator, businesswoman and mother of two, she simply radically fell into the reality of who we really are. After years of integrating, she began teaching and now travels worldwide to share her message of freedom and joy with her husband, Sundance Burke, author of Free Spirit. Click here to view

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Katie Davis 1 – ‘Awake Joy’ – Interview by Renate McNay

Katie Davis – ‘Awake Joy’ – Interview by Renate McNay

In 1986, Katie Davis, author of “Awake Joy”, had a spontaneous awakening that radically transformed her life. At the time, she had never heard of awakening and enlightenment. The integration took twelve years. Katie’s husband is Sundance Burke, author of “Free Spirit“, who awakened in 1982 with Satoshi (Osho/Nisargadatta influence) and Shunyata, named the Rare Born Mystic by his friend Ramana Maharshi.

In 1998, Sundance and Katie became close friends with Eckhart Tolle, who encouraged them to share the teachings and write their books. They travel worldwide to share the message of conscious freedom and causeless joy in the form of talks in spiritual gatherings, satsang, intensives, silent retreats and private appointments. In this interview she talks about her life and her work.

Katie Davis – Buddha at the Gas Pump Interview

Katie Davis is a spiritual teacher and author who offers satsang worldwide. She is a graduate of the University of Washington, a former secondary school educator, a former owner of aerobics studios in the Pacific Northwest and mother of two.

She is author of Awake Joy: The Essence of Enlightenment and since 1999, she has been traveling to share with people the radical possibility of Self-realization that is the end of all suffering, separation and the key to world transformation.

Katie Davis was a Keynote Presenter at the Vancouver BC Convention Centre in Canada. She offers spiritual talks at church services or spiritual gatherings, corporations, hospitals, professional communities and organizations, schools, television and radio shows, as well as for community organizers worldwide that are offering talks in the form of satsang in public meetings, intensives and silent retreats.

In 1986, Katie Davis radically and spontaneously awakened to the ultimate reality of who we really are without practices or teachers. She had never meditated or even heard of enlightenment, Advaita Vedanta, Non-duality or Self-realization. Katie had no intellectual reference whatsoever for what had occurred.

In 1988, Katie met her future husband, Sundance Burke, author of Free Spirit: A Guide to Enlightened Being, who had similarly awakened in 1982 with Satoshi (Osho) and Shunyata, named the Rare Born Mystic by his friend, Ramana Maharshi, one of the most cherished sages of modern day India.

Katie Davis is a world spiritual teacher and a current resident of Seattle, Washington, USA.

Katie’s website: katiedavis.org

Katie’s book, Awake Joy: The Essence of Enlightenment

Interview recorded 4/29/2012

Karen Johnson ‘The ALIVENESS of Presence’ Interview by Iain McNay

Published on May 23, 2013

Karen Johnson ‘The ALIVENESS of Presence’ Interview by Iain McNay
Karen is a co-founder of The Ridhwan School/Diamond Approach with AH Almaas (Hameed Ali). She talks about her life, her meeting with Almaas and how their friendship lead to the creation and the on-going development of the school. She also shares her own remarkable expression of presence in its many manifestations.
http://www.conscious.tv

The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss ~ David Bentley Hart

Despite the recent ferocious public debate about belief, the concept most central to the discussion—God—frequently remains vaguely and obscurely described. Are those engaged in these arguments even talking about the same thing? In a wide-ranging response to this confusion, esteemed scholar David Bentley Hart pursues a clarification of how the word “God” functions in the world’s great theistic faiths.

Ranging broadly across Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Vedantic and Bhaktic Hinduism, Sikhism, and Buddhism, Hart explores how these great intellectual traditions treat humanity’s knowledge of the divine mysteries. Constructing his argument around three principal metaphysical “moments”—being, consciousness, and bliss—the author demonstrates an essential continuity between our fundamental experience of reality and the ultimate reality to which that experience inevitably points.

Thoroughly dismissing such blatant misconceptions as the deists’ concept of God, as well as the fundamentalist view of the Bible as an objective historical record, Hart provides a welcome antidote to simplistic manifestos. In doing so, he plumbs the depths of humanity’s experience of the world as powerful evidence for the reality of God and captures the beauty and poetry of traditional reflection upon the divine.

David Bentley Hart is an Eastern Orthodox theologian, philosopher, writer, and cultural commentator, described by George Weigel as “one of America’s sharpest minds.” He has taught at the University of Virginia, the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota), Duke Divinity School, Loyola College in Maryland, and Providence College.

David Bentley Hart: Being, Consciousness, Bliss: Beauty as Knowledge of God – Art Symposium 2013

Violence & Peace in Contemporary Art: Biola Art Symposium 2013. March 2, 2013.

David Bentley Hart, is an Orthodox theologian, philosopher, and cultural commentator, whose specialties include philosophical theology, patristics, and aesthetics. 
Hart has been published in various periodicals including, Pro Ecclesia, The Scottish Journal of Theology, First Things, and The New Criterion.

He has taught at the University of Virginia, the University of St. Thomas, Duke Divinity School, and Loyola College in Baltimore. Hart is the author of seven books including Beauty of the Infinite: The Aesthetics of Christian Truth (Eerdmans, 2004), which has been lauded by The Christian Century as “one of the most brilliant works by an American theologian in the past ten years.” His two most recent books are The Doors of the Sea: Where Was God in the Tsunami? (Eerdmans, 2011), and The Devil and Pierre Gernet: Stories, his first work of fiction (Eerdmans, 2012).

Remembering Being – Part 1A & Part 1B ~ Tara Brach

Published on May 15, 2013

Remembering Being
Our fear-based doings block us from realizing the formless dimension of our Being, and living from that source of wisdom and love. This talk explores the habitual control strategies that keep us from presence; and the role of mindfulness and lovingkindness in reconnecting with the ground of Being.

Remembering Being – Part 1B

Adyashanti and A. H. Almaas: Realization Unfolds

Two Visionary Teachers Invite Us to Explore the Path to Spiritual Awakening
Spiritual realization expresses itself differently through different teachers. With Realization Unfolds, two of our generation’s most pioneering and influential spiritual teachers present a six-session on-demand online course that explores their respective perspectives on spiritual awakening and what it means to live an awakened life.

As you watch the video of the dialogue, we invite you to reflect deeply on what is being discussed and its relevance in your own life. After each video presentation, you will be offered a series of questions and contemplations. If you wish, you may write out responses to these in the online journal provided.

For the duration of Realization Unfolds, Adyashanti will be referred to “Adya” and A.H. Almaas will be referred to as “Hameed,” the names most commonly used by their friends and students.
Highlights
Is psychological self-knowledge necessary for spiritual realization?
What about human uniqueness and individual personhood after awakening?
What is the role of the spiritual teacher and transmission in the awakening process?
The Diamond Approach—a way to investigate reality and work on oneself that leads to maturity and liberation

The Way of Liberation: A Practical Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment ~ Adyashanti

The Way of Liberation is a stripped-down, practical guide to spiritual liberation, sometimes called awakening, enlightenment, self-realization, or simply seeing what is absolutely True. It is impossible to know what words like liberation or enlightenment mean until you realize them for yourself. This being so, it is of no use to speculate about what enlightenment is; in fact, doing so is a major hindrance to its unfolding. As a guiding principle, to progressively realize what is not absolutely True is of infinitely more value than speculating about what is.

Many people think that it is the function of a spiritual teaching to provide answers to life’s biggest questions, but actually the opposite is true. The primary task of any good spiritual teaching is not to answer your questions, but to question your answers. For it is your conscious and unconscious assumptions and beliefs that distort your perception and cause you to see separation and division where there is actually only unity and completeness.

The Reality that these teachings are pointing toward is not hidden, or secret, or far away. You cannot earn it, deserve it, or figure it out. At this very moment, Reality and completeness are in plain sight. In fact, the only thing there is to see, hear, smell, taste, touch, or feel, is Reality, or God if you like. Absolute completeness surrounds you wherever you go. So there is really no reason to bother yourself about it, except for the fact that we humans have long ago deceived ourselves into such a confined tangle of confusion and disarray that we scarcely even consider, much less experience for ourselves, the divinity within and all around us.

The Way of Liberation is a call to action; it is something you do. It is a doing that will undo you absolutely. If you do not do the teaching, if you do not study and apply it fearlessly, it cannot effect any transformation. The Way of Liberation is not a belief system; it is something to be put into practice. In this sense it is entirely practical.

To read this book as a spectator would be to miss the point. Being a spectator is easy and safe; being an active participant in your own awakening to Truth is neither easy nor safe. The way forward is unpredictable, the commitment absolute, the results not guaranteed. Did you really think that it could be any other way?

Excerpted from the Introduction of The Way of Liberation by Adyashanti.

© Adyashanti 2012

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Adyashanti The Undivided Self

Now: Embracing the Present Moment by Richard Singer

If it is possible to teach embracing the present moment, Singer (Your Daily Walk with the Great Minds) has made it that much easier with this collection of “living in the now” quotes gathered from wise teachers throughout the ages.

Each saying is followed with a brief and reflective commentary on the message, then followed with compassionate “Do It Now” exercises and inspirations that further engage the reader. “My books are not only for reading, they are meant to be lived,” writes Singer, who describes himself as a lifelong seeker of truth and recorded wisdom.

To model living in the now, the second part of the book features stirring essays from diverse contributors describing their daily practice of present-centered mindfulness. The person who reads one reflection each day from this well-conceived book is almost certain to find him or herself entering into a deeper—and possibly transformative—practice of appreciation for the wonder of life each moment offers

Richard Singer is first of all a real human being who is quite faulty and still struggles with life on a daily basis, however on a wordly basis he is an award winning author, trained psychotherapist, college instructor, and most importantly a seeker of truth. He continuously searches for wisdom to use in his life, as well as helping other human beings in their precious journey.

He has studied Eastern Psychology, Buddhist Healing, and Non-Violence at the Doctoral Level; in addition, he has spent years devoted to the study of wisdom recorded throughout history. He seeks to impart this knowledge to the world through his writing. His primary purpose is to benefit humanity in any way possible. Richard states that My books are not only for reading, they are meant to be lived.

Richard has written two meditation books and co-authored an inspirational children’s book.He consistently supports human beings in their search for purpose and passion in life. Richard passionately believes in equality among all human beings. “After all we only have one race; the Human Race.”

He has been featured in many magazines, on various radio and television shows, and his books have been widely reviewed specifically by Library Journal, Martha Stewart’s Living Magazine and many other review forums.

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To Have or To Be? ~ Erich Fromm

Erich Fromm’s groundbreaking examination of an age-old question, and a stunning look at how to pursue a life with purpose and meaning.

Life in the modern age began when people no longer lived at the mercy of nature and instead took control of it. We planted crops so we didn’t have to forage, and produced planes, trains, and cars for transport. With televisions and computers, we don’t have to leave home to see the world. Somewhere in that process, the natural tendency of humankind went from one of being and of practicing our own human abilities and powers, to one of having by possessing objects and using tools that replace our own powers to think, feel, and act independently.

Fromm argues that positive change—both social and economic—will come from being, loving, and sharing. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Erich Fromm including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author’s estate.

Born in Frankfurt-am-Main, Erich Fromm (1900-1980) studied sociology and psychoanalysis. In 1933, he emigrated as a member of the Frankfurt School of social thinkers to the United States, moved to Mexico in 1950, and spent his twilight years between 1974 and 1980 in Switzerland. His books Fear of Freedom (1941) and The Art of Loving (1956) made him famous. Other well-known books are Marx’s Concept of Man, Beyond the Chains of Illusion, and The Essential Fromm.

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Erich Fromm Interview Excerpt

Erich Fromm discusses the Having and Being modes of orientation

The Essential Erich Fromm | A Film by Thiago Da Costa (Trailer)

Published on Nov 1, 2012

This is a preliminary trailer for Figura Media’s upcoming film about Erich Fromm.

It will chronicle Fromm’s life, works and ideas and will be released in 2013. Feel free to share it with friends.

The Experience of This Moment, Satsang with Nirmala

In this satsang with Nirmala, he invites you to a deeper experience of your true nature.
Nirmala is a nondual spiritual teacher in the Advaita tradition of self inquiry. He offers satsang gatherings across the United States and around the world as a celebration of the possibility, in every moment, of recognizing the limitless love that is our true nature. He also offers Nondual Spiritual Mentoring, or spiritual guidance, in one-on-one satsang sessions either in person or over the phone. He is the author of several books about nonduality, spirituality, enlightenment, and spiritual awakening, including a collection of spiritual poems entitled Gifts with No Giver. More information about mentoring sessions and free downloads of his books are available on his website at http://www.endless-satsang.com.

Radiance: Experiencing Divine Presence by Gina Lake

Radiance: Experiencing Divine Presence is a free ebook that shows you how to experience the Divine in the world in simple ways by being very present. It’s possible to experience the mysterious truth that everything is an expression of the Divine by paying close attention to the many signs that reveal this great Mystery. Radiance points out these clues so that you can more easily recognize yourself as the Divine—that which is creating and has created this you that you think you are and all that this you is experiencing. It was given to Gina Lake by her inner teacher.

It had this effect on one reader: “Your words are of great joy to me and very comforting . . . my heart expanded so much, I thought it would burst.”

Click Here To Read The Free ebook.

The Ego Is Just a Thought

Gina Lake is a spiritual teacher and the author of numerous books about awakening to one’s true nature, including Trusting Life, Embracing the Now, Radical Happiness, Living in the Now, Return to Essence, Loving in the Moment, Anatomy of Desire, and Getting Free. She is also a gifted intuitive with a master’s degree in counseling psychology and over twenty years experience supporting people in their spiritual growth.

Gina Lake – Buddha at the Gas Pump Interview

In 1986, Gina realized she could pose a question mentally and get an answer mentally. Three years later, a very beneficial relationship with a wise nonphysical being began, who has been her inner teacher, mentor, and healer. In the late 80s and 90s, after earning a master’s degree in counseling psychology, she worked as an astrological counselor, metaphysical teacher, and writer, and spent much of her time meditating and doing inner work.

In 1999, Gina had a spiritual awakening shortly after meeting Adyashanti, and has since written numerous books related to awakening. Two weeks after that shift, she met Nirmala, a non-dual teacher. In 2000, Gina and Nirmala moved from California to Arizona together and married.

The focus of Gina’s writing and teaching is on helping people be in the present moment and live the happy and fulfilled life that is possible and on shedding light on the ego and other programming that interferes with awakening to one’s true nature. Gina is most interested in how the Divine moves in life through us and in helping people align with and express the Divine, or Essence, in their life. She defines Essence as the individualized expression of the Divine. Being in Essence results in what she calls “radical happiness,” which is the happiness that exists at our core and doesn’t come and go with circumstances. It is the happiness that comes from awakening to the truth of who we really are and living in the world as a unique expression of that. The opportunity to realize this happiness exists in every moment—for anyone—by simply being present in the moment.

Gina and Nirmala live in Sedona, Arizona, where they hold weekend intensives. Gina’s website offers information about her books and courses, and free e-books, book excerpts, a monthly newsletter, a blog, and audio and video recordings:

http://www.radicalhappiness.com