In today’s episode of Healing from Within, your host, Sheryl Glick, author of The Living Spirit: Answers for Healing and Infinite Love, which shares insights into the awakening process that so many people are experiencing today as they begin to understand Energy- how it works and influences their thoughts and actions and the ultimate possibilities of this wisdom for manifesting their spiritual and life goals with greater compassion and open hearts, welcomes Arjuna Ardagh, author of his newest book, Better Than Sex which is a lively book that helps access such moments of awakening and shows you how easy it is to coach others to live this awakening in day to day life:
We will try to liberate the essence of spiritual awakening and liberate it from the familiar packaging of thousands of years of patriarchal tradition to discover its greatest potential, what is truly most important and alive for us rather than the superficial or watered down version of some spiritual practices. Arjuna will discuss the Seven Innate Brilliances of Awakening Coaching and the differences between awakening coaching and psychotherapy.
At 14 years old, Arjuna, living in England in a family mired in its own psychological suffering began to meditate and went on to teach meditation before the age of 20. He graduated from Cambridge University and went to India for further studies. Arjuna encountered HWL Poonja, a direct student of the celebrated sage Ramana Maharshi. Returning to Seattle, which was then his home, he began to facilitate other’s dramatic shift in their outlook. He felt that by developing peer to peer context for spiritual development it might by-pass the problematic relationship so many people have created over the centuries limiting themselves to working only with gurus, prophets and religious leaders.
Sheryl says “In my new book The Living Spirit Answers for Healing and Infinite Love I suggest that we each have the capacity personally to connect to the wisdom and guidance of Universal Source and that downloading inspiration and guidance from that energy or knowledge helps us pursue our personal life plan and to make an individual intimate connection to Higher Consciousness awakening and finding our ultimate potential to thrive. Holding fast to one particular set of beliefs or experiences does not foster personal growth and a greater understanding of the forces of life and the interconnectedness of all life. The potential we all have to live a successful prosperous and healthy lifestyle is in the energy of Being and in thoughts and actions that we manifest either using the best most positive themes of life or succumbing to the negative aspects of Self. Spirituality is therefore a system of self investigation beyond beliefs and patterned programs to make this union with All…in other words, I recommend various teachers and studies and various energy modalities as the way to find what resonates well within you and to know that anything that leads you to a greater awareness of yourself and others is beneficial….. but we must keep learning and examining all avenues, as life is constantly changing and evolving.”
Arjuna tells us how he came up with the title for his book, Better than Sex. At a workshop while doing exercises to awaken his deepest connection with his true nature as limitless consciousness and the way he lives in the physical and spiritual worlds, one student attempted to describe his experience of the Peer to Peer Awakening Coaching exercises and said…”Well, it’s better than sex….of course implying it’s great to feel at such a deep level and make connections to love and compassion with an open heart and to go beyond just physically feeling good to a complete state of physical emotional and spiritual well being.”
When one has an awakening, they realize they are not just their physical body and this life but are their highest potential and are awareness…this kind of shift of consciousness can have huge consequences for your everyday life. We often feel separated from life and think that these spiritual experiences and understanding are for monks nuns, and recluses but that is not so…
Arjuna writes in reference to peace and awareness…. “Everything we experience through our senses as well as every fleeting thought and feeling is constantly shifting and changing. It is all subject to birth and death. When we are glued to this world of changing things it is like being on a roller coaster that never ever stops…Just a moment of awakening returns you to that which does not change. Awareness is a constant. Hence you are flooded with peace, with stillness, with a feeling of coming home.”
Arjuna says that there are those who follow the Longing and find The Open Secret. Arjuna tells us “There have always been a few people in every culture who followed the longing back into themselves with enough passion that they found the way home..they found the Open Secret beyond the mind beyond the endless procession of thoughts and feelings beyond the automatic machinery of desire. These people became the peak of what we see possible for a human being such as Buddha, Jesus, Lao Tzu, Thomas Jefferson, Albert Einstein, William Blake and Michelangelo. Knowing the Open Secret makes everything sparkle with light and ways to lead more creative lives overflowing with contribution and making a huge difference to the world…many had a teacher or even many teachers..some did not: some were parts of groups read books went on retreats..many did not..some were vegetarian or did yoga or meditation but everyone had one thing in common without exception as they found a way to follow their natural longing.”
Arjuna writes, “The Open Secret is hidden deep within each of us and more important shares how to perform the ultimate act of service and loving kindness that anyone could possibly perform for any other human being bringing the Open Secret alive in another…The ancient texts about the Open Secret is available to all Human beings and begins with you and is the infinite source of stillness well-being and creativity that is the essence or energetic part of your living eternal soul being.”
Sheryl asks Arjuna tro describe how longing and the need to know the Open Secret are different than desire. Pursuits such as I want chocolate..a BMW or want to be famous are desires and only lead to more desires but longing is different. It can be very strong and eclipse the interest for anything else in your life, but we do not necessarily know clearly and logically what the longing is for. Now truthfully not everyone on the planet has this sense of longing for the Open Secret..for it is deeply buried and needs great self-investigation and introspection to reawaken it. But once it is awakened you do not need to serve or follow anything outside yourself.
Some of people’s deepest longings are;
Peace
Stillness
Freedom from the Mind
Finding my unique gift
Love without fear
An end to worrying
Opening my heart
Doing boldly what I came here for
Belonging
Loving deeply
Sheryl asks Arjuna what Radical Awakening is and if he can offer us a story of someone’s awakening. An example would be Mark in London on a subway platform usual worries concerns and mild panics of being COO of an international bank. Suddenly in a state of openness and expansion radically different from an identification with his own story and narrow to do list for today…a shift shocking in some ways..a door to something vast opened and he found he could return to it by paying attention to it. A shift of consciousness…Marl thought it only happened to people who lived in India..his life since that day has been devoted to exploring ways to live this same openness and freedom so that his everyday life can actually support that awakening rather than close it down.
So therefore:
Awakening is simple…it is a moment of recognition where the attention really is deeply, profoundly a shift from this secondary state of perception and identification with thoughts feelings history and personal stories, likes and dislikes, to finding out who is actually aware of this moment. It is reaching into this infinite realm beyond the mind of Universal Consciousness and the Eternal Source of Creation.
RADICAL AWAKENING is the capacity to interact with another human being in such a way that they quickly shift from preoccupation with thoughts and feelings to resting in a more expansive awareness…their natural state in a few minutes.
Sheryl Says “As a Reiki energy practitioner/medium the messages I download from this higher state of Universal Consciousness helping people become aware of their own soul essence and during the hands on healing part of their session they feel what you are describing as Radical Awakening and rest in their natural state of Being. In “The Living Spirit Answers for Healing and Infinite Love,” I discuss our multi-dimensional status as sensory energetic beings having a physical life and the way we may come to know ourselves more fully intuitively with an inner awareness in order to relinquish the programming of the past and to work from within this state of Consciousness discovering greater love compassion and a sense of well being…it must be felt before it can be accepted and appreciated. For my clients the readings and the healing work opens up a portal for higher awareness and a means to support and encourage others..YOU Could call me an Awakening Coach although I thought of myself prior to reading Better than Sex as a force for empowering others to discover their personal power their inner soul life plan and to fulfill their destiny… as I also feel I help others to find their own divinity move past fear of failure. For our listeners if you would like help in beginning your own self-investigation into energy healing work mediumship studies and the Universal Laws of Energy for self-mastery of emotions thoughts and behaviors please feel free to go to my website www.sherylglick.com and contact or call me.
Arjuna describes a sensory based reality where we are all perceiving another layer of reality called secondary reality. In addition to hearing sounds, seeing colors and movement and feeling sensations there is a secondary layer that is created in thought. Then there are the thoughts rarely about what is happening now: they run into the past and into the future and they are often mostly out of control. While the secondary layer allows us to create great art and literature and to imagine and invent many things the other layer of thought and illusion can be a curse when we cannot unplug from it and for many the thinking process goes berserk and creates fear and limitation due to being trapped in negative thinking…turning those into positive thoughts and shifting fear into optimism, control into acceptance, and desire into gratitude becomes a way that some people leave this state that diminishes their joy and love of life.
Arjuna addresses the concept of coaching and his take on how to use coaching for self-awakening and for helping others and how awakening coaching is slightly different. The International Coach Federation is a global body that is advancing coaching as a profession worldwide Thomas J. Leonard is the leader in this field.
What is amazing and evolutionary about coaching is that;
- Coaching is Respectful –believe in each person’s unique potential-become the ultimate that you are.
- Coaching is Facilitating our Evolution beyond Hierarchy the coach is not a teacher or a master nor a servant but a deep well wisher standing by your side helping you discover your own brilliance.
- Coaching is Client-Centered By asking powerful questions the client discovers that everything the client is working towards and aspiring to is already within them.
- Coaching is Not about Dogma but about the clients own experience intuition and wisdom. Dave Buck says a great coach typically has a method and then personalizes it with the player on how to apply it to each unique situation Transcending the method to find your own personal style is what great coach.
- Coaching is Solution-Oriented Rather than focusing on old neurotic childhood conditioning a good coach focuses on what is right with you and builds on that.
- Coaching is about Play
Awakening coaching allows one person to support another: to recognize their hidden brilliance free of any hierarchy and is another level to experience ones own Beingness and the vastness or presence of inner soul self.
Arjuna talks about the last few decades and how things have changed dramatically as millions of people have had glimpses of their true nature as limitless beings of untold possibilities. He says, If we are honest with ourselves we can recognize that one dimension of ourselves is free and one with Universal Source or energy in its eternal essence and the other dimension of ourselves our ego and physical world can still get caught up in the small drama of life The problem is not that we have these human characteristics but that we resist them deny them and do not tell the truth about them…here is the drawback to our merging of our multi-dimensional or dual nature as both spiritual and physical beings and in not utilizing both aspects of our life and may limit our ability to live joyfully prosperously and healthy.
The Awakening Coach is fully aware that energetically we are all equal and one except of course for the personal details of our physical lives. So an awakening Coach can support true friendship discovering new things together rather than telling you they have been somewhere and now they’ve come back to tell you how to climb that big Mountain We are here as human beings with the intention of true support which means holding a space of acceptance and pure loving attention. It is limitless consciousness that is that vastness and that perceives everything beyond the functioning brain which accesses sensory awareness…it is the mind or higher energy field connected to all of life and Universal energy that is that Consciousness that is freedom and eternal life.
Arjuna would like readers to take away from his book that;
- We are multi-dimensional beings here to discover the authenticity of who we are as total consciousness observing our physical sensory lives.
- The difference between desire and longing is desire is of your sensory or physical world and longing is a deep buried truth of your eternal soul nature and the force for creation divinity and love that we each are.
- An awakening process is in truth the outcome of questions we ask ourselves in the deepest recesses of our heart..Who are we …Where do we come from…Where do we return after death…As we may remember long ago a Prince named Siddhartha left his privileged life in search of enlightenment or a greater understanding of those important questions we all ask as he had this deep longing for true remembrance and under a bodhi tree he had his awakening and simply recognized that his true nature was Awareness…nothing more nothing less…
- That recognition becomes the foundation upon which everything else is experienced. That which is revealed to anyone in a true moment of awakening is always the same it is limitless consciousness with no color. texture or shape, no sound, no gender, no nationality. no cultural bias, no past or future…empty of content but absolutely full of love full of presence
- Men and women have both feminine and masculine energy in some kind of balance. In past history it was assumed by a patriarchal society that the leader of each religion was a man and that spiritual awakening was a practice reserved for Men…this has been the problem that has created so many disasters in our world..it is not true and only an equalitarian society honoring the gifts of all human beings is the evolutionary path forward. Time to revise ancient philosophy and religious thinking which was established in more primitive societies where survival was the main prerequisite Now we live in a world of quantum physics and a clearer understanding of Universal expansion creation and the future awaits the higher awareness of Consciousness beyond Gender…
Sheryl and Arjuna have explored the reality for millions of people today who are recognizing the multi-dimensional aspects of their energetic and sensory life experiences and finding the means to live in balance love and harmony with a true knowledge of their dual nature as both spiritual and physical beings. In discussing this sense of awakening or deep longing for awareness of higher consciousness and harnessing it as the source of all life we move past fear limitation and negativity to a more realistic view of ourselves others and human conditions and can adopt positive life styles making better choices for our personal growth.
Arjuna Ardgh link to www.awakeningcoachingtraining.com
Better than Sex link to www.awakeningcoachingtraining.com
Sheryl Glick link to www.sherylglick.com
The Living Spirit link to www.sherylglick.com |
