Bodian - Wake up Now: a Guide to the Journey of Spiritual Awakening

Praise for Wake Up Now

This book is one of the most concise guides to spiritual awakening I have read. Both profound and practical, it guides the reader through the intricacies of awakening as only someone who has walked the walk themselves can do. The clarity and compassion this book offers the sincere spiritual seeker is both rare and welcome.

Adyashanti, author of The Impact of
Awakening and Emptiness Dancing

Many books talk about spiritual awakening, but Wake Up Now breaks new ground by providing a detailed road map to the complete awakening process. Profound yet accessible, precise yet jargon-free, this wise book leads you step-by-step on the direct path home to your radiant natural state, your innermost true self.

Lama Surya Das, author of Awakening
the Buddha Within

Communicating nondual wisdom is a high artrequiring a precise and evocative use of language, as well as a profound understanding of paradox. In Wake Up Now, Stephan Bodian more than manages both of these challenges and provides the fortunate reader with a doorway into the real but ineffable possibilities inherent in this very moment.

Stephen Cope, director of the Kripalu Institute
for Extraordinary Living and author of
Yoga and the Quest for the True Self

Read Stephan Bodians Wake Up Now to do just that. It cuts through everything!

David Chadwick, author of Crooked Cucumber:
The Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki

Stephan Bodian masterfully presents enlightenment not as a state to be achieved, but as our underlying condition that is already present, only awaiting recognition. This is a must read for all who sincerely desire a direct pointer to absolute truth and to living the awakened life.

Richard Miller, Ph.D., cofounder of the International
Association of Yoga Therapy and author of
Yoga Nidra: The Meditative Heart of Yoga

Stephan gently takes you by the hand and guides you home through the spiritual maze to your innate awakened essence, awareness itself. Wake Up Now is an extraordinarily userfriendly, radiant gem.

Leonard Laskow, M.D., author of Healing with Love

Wake Up Now is a timely book. Not only does it invite the reader to step out of the mind into our natural state, but it also paints the possibility of fully embodying that awakening in day-to-day life. Stephan Bodian is one of a growing breed of translucent writers and teachers who point us to a new vision of the possibilities of being human.

Arjuna Ardagh, author of The Translucent Revolution

WAKE UP NOW

A GUIDE to the JOURNEY
of SPIRITUAL AWAKENING

STEPHAN BODIAN

Copyright 2008 by Stephan Bodian. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-0-07-174236-8

MHID: 0-07-174236-0

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To Consciousness,
the silent source and essence of all.

And to you, dear reader:
May this book illuminate your journey of awakening.

Needless to say, a book of this kind is the fruition of countless insights and experiences, many of them precipitated or inspired by the kind support and compassionate presence of others. As the words poured forth and appeared on the page, it was clear that this person here is merely an instrument of a more universal movement of truth.

First, I offer heartfelt thanks to my many friends and colleagues, for the love and wisdom weve shared over the years; to my students and clients, who kept asking questions and eliciting clarification; and to my friend and Dharma brother John Prendergast, who read the manuscript carefully and offered invaluable suggestions and feedback.

Thanks also to the folks who made possible the publication of this book: my agent, Bill Gladstone, who believed in the proposal and found it a good home; and my editors at McGraw-Hill, Doug Corcoran and Sarah Pelz, for their enthusiastic support at every stage of the process.

Finally, I offer deep bows of appreciation to my teachers, without whose dedication and compassion this book would never have been written: Shunryu Suzuki Roshi; Kobun Chino Otogawa Roshi; Taizan Maezumi Roshi; Tsoknyi Rinpoche; and, especially, Jean Klein and Adyashanti. My gratitude for their generosity and their commitment to truth knows no bounds.