Liberation from the confines of the “relative self” (also known as the ego) allows us to see that there is an “absolute self” that is undefined by personality, gender or culture. This absolute self is experienced as stillness or silence. It allows us to see that all forms – whether these be external such as the world and all its manifestations or internal such as thoughts and feelings – are temporary and the only thing that is eternal is the formlessness that lies beneath and beyond these forms. The mistake made is the belief that only this stillness or silence is real and everything else is an illusion. The problem is that although this is essentially true on an absolute level, it often leads to a subtle veneer of “spiritual superiority” and a certain numbness to the depth of human experience. The denial of the movement of life as having any validity results in a kind of nihilism that denies suffering, whether it be our own or someone else’s. In this case, true freedom becomes replaced by detachment and indifference.
Authentic awakening demands an all-embracing relationship to life that leads to a greater intimacy with the depth and breadth of both agony and ecstasy. It’s a passionate experience of the human journey in which we face everything and avoid nothing. This radical opening to what is unfolding within our own experience is what leads to compassion … and surely this is an essential component of a spiritual life? The experience of being both the ocean of consciousness and the waves of life is really what true freedom is. It means we are fully anchored in the eternal light of our essential nature – in other words, that part of us that is untouched by the vicissitudes of our inner and outer world – whilst allowing ourselves to be fully touched by the turbulence that comes and goes. This is what it means to “be in the world but not of it”. And this is especially relevant to today’s changing world.
It is precisely amidst the crashing of the waves that we have the opportunity to dive deep into the truth that is always here. Each moment of chaos, confusion, challenge or crisis is pregnant with the possibility of a new consciousness. It’s an evolutionary moment that invites us to grow beyond ego and its concerns with “me” and “mine”. The ego chooses to see “threat to self” and reacts with attack, defense, blame and judgment. This is how we have created a world of terror, war and suffering. The evolutionary call is to choose an awakened perspective in which the darkness we perceive is recognized as a reflection of where we have failed to illuminate the world with the brightness of our love. By meeting each experience in naked awareness – in other words, in seeing what is here as it truly IS – rather than through the myopic viewpoint of how we think it should be, we have to potential to see the gift of light within even the darkest situation. It is by opening our hearts to welcome everything that we come to rest in the perfect peace that underlies the rise and fall of all phenomena and it is in this opening that we discover the unboundedness of our true eternal nature. This enlightened relationship to life is the key to our power to re-create the world as a place of harmony and wholeness.
As humanity reaches a crisis point, the old egoic paradigm is no longer serving us either as individuals or as a global community. Enlightenment is no longer a luxury reserved for “spiritual seekers”, but a necessity if we are to take the leap into a new way of being and living: we either evolve or we destroy ourselves. Enlightenment is the next step in evolution.
Amoda Maa Jeevan is a spiritual teacher and the author of How to Find God in Everything and the recently released Change Your Life, Change Your World: Ten Spiritual Lessons for a New Way of Being and Living. She currently offers satsangs, retreats and public talks in the UK and has a growing global audience.
For more of Amoda’s books, articles, and video clips, view HERE
Amoda’s spiritual journey has involved a phoenix-like transformation out of the darkness of personal suffering. Born into challenging circumstances, she was classified as clinically depressed for a number of years. In spite of this, she studied intensely for a Doctorate in Psychology, but a profound unity-consciousness experience in 1989 devastated her personal and academic life and set her on the path of self-inquiry. Penniless and homeless, without the usual attachments and identifications of modern-day life, she became a “nobody”. Fueled by her own unexpected mystical and visionary experiences, the next few years were spent on a deep inner exploration which included meditation, primal therapy, rebirthing, metaphysics, psychedelics, and many other psycho-spiritual methods.
Her search for happiness eventually led her to India and to the ashram of the revolutionary mystic, Osho. Although Osho had already left his body, she recognized him as her spiritual master and she opened to the unconditional love in his invisible presence. Seeing through the identification with form, she then turned her attention towards surrender to the totality of existence; life itself became the guru. On her return to the UK, Amoda developed her own unique method of transformation using movement, meditation and breath, but despite her external success, she was still searching for happiness and love and in 2002 she experienced an extended period of “existential abandonment”. This was a deeply internal experience that took her to the core wound of separation or “dark night of the soul”. When her desire for truth finally became greater than her desire for relationship, love, happiness or even enlightenment, a “psychological death” happened and in the midst of this she received a mystical vision. This vision radically changed her life and gave her the keys to the transformation of her own personal suffering as well as the keys to the transformation of humanity’s suffering.
Shortly after this experience, Amoda let go of the transformational teaching she had developed and she entered a period of not-knowing. Whilst she continued to be touched by the fragrance of spiritual masters, in particular Ramana Maharshi, it is through the contemplation and application of the spiritual lessons received in the vision that an awakened presence became embodied as a living reality. Since then, all seeking stopped, all methods dropped, and there is a gentle coming home to rest more deeply in non-dual awareness amidst the mystery of ordinary life.
Amoda’s work today has evolved out of her direct experience of awakened awareness and is free of all tradition, dogma or ideology. Her message of Radical Awakening and her passionate desire to shape a more loving world inspires people of all ages and backgrounds to live an authentically awakened life. Amoda’s work is attracting a growing global audience and she offers satsangs and retreats around the world. She is the author of How to Find God in Everything (Watkins, 2008), Change Your Life, Change Your World (Watkins, 2012), and is currently working on a third book. She is also the founder of the Foundation for Conscious Change, a non-profit organization that aims to support her teaching via outreach programmes.
Books: 1. How to Find God in Everything: An Invitation to Awaken to Your True Nature and Transform Your World, 2. Change Your Life, Change Your World: Ten Spiritual Lessons for a New Way of Being and Living
“Every experience of your life is a calling from God. Every experience – whether it be pleasurable or painful – is an invitation to embrace the fullness and depth of this moment as it is now. Deep intimacy with this moment offers the promise of liberation. It is an invitation to your true nature.”
In this enlightening book, Amoda Maa Jeevan speaks directly to the inherent wisdom within each of us, inviting us to recognize that everyone and everything is a manifestation of God. Based on the vision she received in 2002, she shows us how bringing this realization into daily life can make a real difference to our personal and collective reality.
The book outlines seven areas of life (Body, Mind, Self, Relationship, World, Planet, Spirit) that are gateways through which we can discover the truth of our divine nature and transform our lives from suffering to joy. Each chapter includes a meditation.
In this book, Amoda shares the collective vision that belongs to each and every one of us and shows us how it has lain dormant in our hearts until this very moment when the world stands on the threshold of transformation. And she shows us how learning to choose Love over Fear in every circumstance – however difficult, painful or challenging can transform our lives from suffering to joy.
This book is contemporary and utterly compelling it is full of spiritual nuggets and you can open it at any page to read like a prayer to the soul. Described as “one of the best metaphysical books in recent times” and rated “3rd most life-changing book in 2008″ read it and be empowered to become a part of the revolution in consciousness that has the power to change your world!
Your True Spiritual Power
Amoda Maa Jeevan speaks about the message in her book ‘How to find God in Everything’
7 Gateways to God
Video developed from the newly released book “How To Find God in Everything” by Amoda Maa Jeevan. A beautiful guide for anyone looking to enhance their spiritual journey.
A short excerpt from Amoda’s public talk on Evolutionary Darkness at Alternatives in London in December 2012 (part 1) – here she talks about the meaning of enlightenment.
Evolutionary Darkness (part 2) – Alternatives
Amoda talks about radical awakening and a total spiritual revolution…in which we are crucified on the cross of past fear and future hope to which we turn around 360 degree in a vertical dimension and experience the kingdom of Heaven within… of shifting out of the eyes of ego to the eyes of an unbounded heart…. a spiritual heart.
A short excerpt from an evening Satsang with Amoda Maa Jeevan, recorded on 11th December 2012 at the Friends Meeting House in Hastings, East Sussex, UK – the question is “do you want happiness or do you want freedom?”
Amoda Maa Jeevan talks about the relationship between ego, awakened self and action. This excerpt is taken on the final day of a 3-day retreat called “Take the Leap and Set Yourself Free” at Gaunt’s House in Dorset, UK in April 2011.
Today, as I write this, I remember that it is my “rebirth” day. This was the day I dropped my given name and received a new “spiritual” name. Along with that I also dropped some layers of my old identity and embarked on a search for what was true.
The search for what is true is the “spiritual search”: the quest for awakening or enlightenment. Today, there seems to be so much talk about “awakening”. Never before – at least in the known history of humankind – has there been so much interest in spiritual matters. What was once reserved for mystics has become commonplace. And what once required years of seclusion in a cave at the top of the Himalayas has not become available to us in the everyday context. To many of us interested in the path of awakening, “enlightenment” is no longer a mysterious word. But it is still an apparently mysterious process!
Dismantling Myths
I think it’s important to bust some myths around this. Like many other people on the path, I used to think that this was something that happened when you became “spiritual enough” or when you had “meditated enough”. But I’ve discovered that it really isn’t about what you do, about how many spiritual practices you perform, or how many spiritual teachers you’ve been around. Nor is it some cosmic state in which you exhibit super-natural powers. And neither is it an endless bubble of bliss!
Awakening is about recognizing that your true nature is already enlightened. It’s about shifting your attention from who you think you are to who you really are. It’s what happens when you have the willingness to step out of the tyranny of your thinking mind and into the abyss of being.
This willingness arises when you’ve truly had enough of suffering, when the background of unhappiness is no longer an option and you desire liberation above and beyond all else. This burning desire for liberation is the spark that ignites the flame. Although once it has been lit, you cannot control when and how it will happen … or even whether it will happen. That is an act of grace.
Going Within
What’s important in all this, is that the spiritual search itself is a block to awakening. Looking for something outside of yourself puts the thing you are looking for into the future. And the truth of who you are can only be found right here in the present. Your true nature is revealed when you drop the search and take a vertical leap from your head to your heart.
This vertical direction is exactly the opposite of what the conditioned mind does. The mind runs forwards and backwards from past to future in a horizontal direction. Awakening requires that we turn around and turn within. It’s a challenging requirement amidst the demands of everyday life.
Being Present
But the call for awakening today is exactly this … to bring enlightenment right into our everyday lives. It means staying present with all the difficult and painful situations that we may find ourselves in. Not turning away, but turning towards each situation in gentle openness.
This is the ability to be here now … whatever our circumstances. The more deeply we can rest in the presence of being, the more we awaken to the truth of who we are beyond all story-lines of “this shouldn’t be happening” or “I’ve done something wrong”.
What happens as we exercise this muscle of awareness that keeps us rooted in the now instead of running away scared, is that the ego shifts its focus of attention. One of the myths on the spiritual path is that the ego has to die. But I think it is more like the ego has to transmute. In other words, it becomes an “aware ego”.
The Ego
An aware ego is no longer obsessed with a primitive self-survival instinct, rather it has the capacity to become a witness to what is happening. When the aware ego comes together with the awakened self – the part of you that has recognized it’s eternal and unchanging nature – then there is the capacity for conscious choice. This is the choice to respond to life rather than to react to life. Another way of saying this is, we now have the ability to take awakened action.
In today’s world, doing and being need not be in opposition to each other. It does not serve us or the world to turn our backs on life and simply gaze our navels. What is relevant today is for right doing to arise out of right being. This is a new kind of “integrated enlightenment” in which our actions are congruent with our awakened awareness.
So often on the spiritual path, I’ve come across people who claim to be awakened – and indeed they have recognized that part of themselves – but they are still playing out old habitual patterns that do not contribute to the awakening of the world. I’m not saying that we should be “perfect”. Perfection of our personalities does not necessarily go hand in hand with awakening.
The personal development arena is full of people who have worked on themselves so that they are positive, happy, living their purpose and manifesting their dreams. But this does not necessarily mean that they inhabit the wide-open spaciousness of their unchanging consciousness. They have not awakened to their deepest nature. But the converse – of being awakened and not having done some work on how to integrate that awakening into the vehicle of the personality – is also not the whole story.
Integrated enlightenment means we bring our awakening into the everyday arena so that we become conscious of what we think, feel, say and do. And we make choices that serve not only our own fulfilment but also the fulfilment of those people whose lives we touch. This is a shift from being motivated by self-serving gain and immediate gratification to being motivated by the desire to be of service to the bigger picture.
This shift is one that I believe can fast-forward our personal and collective evolution. It’s a shift that our modern times is calling for … we can resist it and fight the flow of life or we can do it willingly and relax into divine plan.
With great fluency and spontaneity, Amoda succinctly flows with her spiritual knowledge..the true power of total shift from myopic view of ego and mind to the 360 degree shift in inner consciousness.
A brilliant enlivening and over pouring of raising one’s consciousness of bridging Heaven to Earth.. of spirituality to practicality.
Amoda’s interview on Bridging Heaven to Earth TV Show –
“Your real job – like mine and everyone else’s – is to go inside and awaken
in order to serve the world with the fragrance of your essential love-nature. When doing is rooted in the essence of being then real change can happen.
It’s called awakened action, and it’s the pinnacle of becoming an Agent of Change.”
In this inspiring new book, Amoda shares a collective vision that offers us a road-map through tough times. The Ten Spiritual Lessons held within this vision show us how to walk through the darkness of fear, doubt, uncertainty, and pain towards the light of our true inner radiance. This light has the power to transform our lives from suffering to joy, and the power to transform our world from terror to peace. Each of these Ten Lessons is a very real action you can take to activate a specific quality of an “inner spiritual muscle” that – when applied over and over again – creates inner and outer change.
Each Lesson includes a Daily Declaration, a Call to Action and a Self-Reflection Exercise, as well as blank Journal Pages. This is, ultimately, a spiritual workbook and the practical application of the teachings in each chapter is vital for the embodiment of the insights offered.
Whether you are experiencing personal pain and hardship or whether you are faced with the increasing challenges of today’s turbulent world, the invitation in this book is to awaken to the truth of your radiant nature and thereby to shift from the myopic perspective of ego to the clarity of vision offered by an unbounded heart. Should you take up the invitation, you will be empowered to live from your greatness and to play your rightful role in the evolutionary shift of our times. And there is truly nothing more exciting or more vital than this today!
The book includes a Foreword by John Selby, Best-selling Author and Psychologist.
Table of Contents:
INTRODUCTION – The Invitation to a New Way of Being
Lesson One: RESPONSIBILITY – The Power to Make a Choice
Lesson Two: CLARITY – The Power to See
Lesson Three: RELAXATION – The Power to Let Go
Lesson Four: PRESENCE – The Power to Know Who You Are
Lesson Five: TOTALITY – The Power to Love
Lesson Six: GRATITUDE – The Power to Receive
Lesson Seven: FORGIVENESS – The Power to Heal
Lesson Eight: NAKEDNESS – The Power to Trust
Lesson Nine: SERVICE – The Power to Give
Lesson Ten: RESOLUTENESS – The Power to Take Action
AFTERWORD – The Next Step
10 Spiritual Lessons for a New World By Amoda Maa Jeevan
Amidst intensely turbulent times, so many of us today are feeling the urgent call to make changes that will create a brighter future for us all. Yet, however much we may want to save the world or fix what’s wrong, the truth remains that we can only change the world by changing ourselves. Inner transformation is the key to outer change.
Only by having the courage to walk through the darkness of fear, doubt and uncertainty towards the light of our true inner radiance can we transform our lives from suffering to joy and can we transform our world from terror to peace. The activation of this inner light is a radical shift in consciousness that awakens us to the miracle of our own power. It’s a shift from seeing through the myopic lens of ego to seeing through the unbounded clarity of an open heart.
This shift gives birth to a new way of being that is expressed through awakened action. When doing arises from our infinite nature it has a very different quality to when doing is a result of small-minded beliefs. The former is in harmony with the symphony of the cosmos, because the cosmos is infinite in nature. The latter creates dissonance and disharmony, because ego opposes the flow of life. Real positive inner and outer change can only happen when there is a congruency between our state of consciousness and the nature of Existence.
In 2002, I received a vision that revealed ten spiritual lessons that evolve us out of the old paradigm of separation into a new paradigm of unity. In practicing these lessons daily, we exercise an inner muscle that activates our capacity to become agents of change in our lives and in the world. Each lesson awakens a specific quality within us, and when all ten are put together, there is a radically new relationship to everything.
Essentially, the ten lessons are about taking responsibility for our own evolutionary growth because only an awakened being can bring light to the world and be an effective agent of change. As we stand on the brink of a monumentally pregnant moment in the history of humanity, my invitation is that you join the inner revolution that can give birth to a radically new you and a radically new world.
A brief outline of the Ten Spiritual Lessons:
Speaking from the Heart with Anadi is Amoda Maa Jeevan. Amoda talks about her new book, Change your life Change your world, and her work as a spiritual teacher. Amoda beautifully describes her ‘spiritual awakening’; a very inspiring story.
Lesson 1 – Responsibility
To recognize that we are solely responsible for both our happiness and our unhappiness transforms our internal paradigm from victim-consciousness to becoming a master of our inner world. The power to make a conscious choice in how we respond to life is the foundation for the flowering of a new consciousness.
Lesson 2 – Clarity
To recognize that the world we experience is a reflection of our inner world gives birth to awareness. Awareness has the power to dissolve all story-lines of blame, shame and pain and allows us to rest in the truth of what is really here. This clarity erases inner and outer conflict and sows the seeds for true peace in the world.
Lesson 3 – Relaxation
The more deeply we relax and allow life to unfold in its depth and breadth, the more we are nourished. Taking action from a place of deep relaxation is far more powerful than acting from inner resistance. The former leads to aliveness, the joy of being and a world of creative possibilities, the latter leads to stress, disharmony and disease.
Lesson 4 – Presence
The capacity to penetrate this moment with the depth of our presence cuts through ghosts of past-fear and fantasies of future-hope. In the discovery of what remains, we are granted the power of knowing ourselves as the eternal, infinite space within which everything else comes and goes. This knowing-ness is the key to our true power.
Lesson 5 – Totality
By opening wide to welcome every experience, however painful or challenging, we say YES and become a lover of life. To meet everything with totality offers the potential for deep intimacy that lifts us out of survival-based fear into the arms of unbounded love. This is the birth of compassion, both for ourselves and for the world.
Lesson 6 – Gratitude
Digging deep to find gratitude for even those things we would rather cast out from our lives sends an arrow of love right into the heart of darkness. It’s far more powerful than denial or hate. Gratitude shines a light on the true riches of our inner nature. What we’ve been looking for outside of ourselves has been right here in our hearts all along.
Lesson 7 – Forgiveness
Forgiveness isn’t about turning the other cheek and allowing abuse to continue. It’s about choosing to see through unconscious actions to the purity of essence at the core of every human being. Inherently, there is no evil: the darkness we perceive is only a reflection of where we have failed to illuminate the world with our love. Our capacity to forgive heals the wound of separation and returns us and the world to wholeness and holiness.
Lesson 8 – Nakedness
The courage to be seen, warts and all, allows authentic relationship to happen. In the willingness to be hurt, to face the fear and to experience honestly what lies beneath, we see that love is always here, whatever form it takes. A world built on authenticity is a convergence of hearts in which we herald in a radically new way of life.
Lesson 9 – Service
The new evolutionary impulse coming through humanity today demands that we make the transition from taking to giving. It’s not about doing good but it is about serving God. It’s the call to step beyond our comfort zone into our greatness so that we play our rightful role within Divine Plan. It’s about awakening to our essential love-nature and then serving the world with the fragrance of this love.
Lesson 10 – Resoluteness
The unwavering resolve to take one step at a time, whether we walk over mountain peaks or through valley lows, guarantees that our inner radiance is never extinguished. Action fuelled by the motivation to be a beacon of light unto ourselves and unto the world is the mark of a true agent of change.
About the Author: Amoda Maa Jeevan is an author and spiritual teacher. Her book “How to Find God in Everything” was rated 3rd most life-changing book of 2008. Amoda’s teaching of Radical Awakening arose out of her phoenix-like transformation of suffering, her own spiritual search, and the vision she received in 2002. Today, her work is an evolution of this vision in which she shares her passionate desire to shape a more loving world with people of all ages and backgrounds and inspires them to live an authentically awakened life. She offers talks and retreats, is a frequent guest on radio & TV, and is the founder of the non-profit organisation, the Foundation for Conscious Change, dedicated to personal and planetary awakening.
