Table of Contents
Praise for Hidden Treasure
Gangaji is one of the smartest, clearest, and most poetic spiritual leaders of our time. Her writing in Hidden Treasure is compassionate, transparent, generous, and ruthless. The mere reading of only a few of her words brings me home in seconds to the truth of who I am.
Alanis Morissette, Grammy Awardwinning singer and songwriter
To liberate oneself from the story of the ego is a momentous leap utterly necessary in order to wake up to your true nature. It is the transmission and tools for this great liberation from the story of ego that Gangaji gives her students and all of her readers. What a joy to feel the power of this liberation both in Gangajis words and, even more, in the space of silence between the words. It is only from this place of liberation that resplendent glory of the unique perspective of your enlightenment can emerge in its full radiance. It is an honor and a delight to recommend this book to any sincere seeker.
Rabbi Marc Gafni, Ph.D., author of Soul Prints and The Mystery of Love
Gangajis luminous words reflect her luminous Heart, which shines through in the naked telling of her story and her realization. Theres a simplicity, beauty, and grace in her presence and her prose that comes from the real freedom underneath. Listen, absorb, relax, and know that you are already Home.
Stephen Dinan, CEO, The Shift Network, and author of Radical Spirit
We each have our own story of the life that we think we are living. But underneath this story lies the deeper truth of who we areour real natureand a life that is fully present. With simplicity, clarity, and the deep wisdom gained from her own lived experience, Gangaji gives us the tools we need to make this step into our real self. Hidden Treasure is an invitation to wake up into the truth and freedom that are always here.
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, Ph. D., Sufi teacher and author of
The Return of the Feminine and the World Soul
Hidden Treasure not only speaks to the transformation of consciousness, but is a tool for directly transforming consciousness. I turned the last page and felt cleansed, renewed. Ordinary things were more vividly imbued with the sacred, loved ones more lovable, the path home to my true being ample and gracious. The perennial truths Gangaji shares in this sublime book penetrate to the heart of our deepest longings, and reveal the treasures hidden in the places we have been conditioned to turn away from: the open fields of silence behind our stories.
Mirabai Starr, adjunct professor of philosophy and world
religions, University of New MexicoTaos
What I love about Hidden Treasure is Gangajis frankness and openness about her own journey, and her demonstrating how the very human challenges that mark our daily lives not only are inseparable from nondual realization, but are the means by which we travel to the core of our innermost self. Her guidance for inquiry is wise, helpful, and practical, and offered from a woman who has labored with love on the path of spirit and of life. Mariana Caplan, Ph.D., author of The Guru Question: The
Perils and Rewards of Choosing a Spiritual Teacher and Eyes Wide
Open: Cultivating Discernment on the Spiritual Path
For my daughter, Sarah
Introduction
My teacher told many teaching stories. Sometimes he told about a lion raised as a donkey who, through the good grace of another lion pointing out his inherent lion-ness to him, wakes up to his true nature and roars. Another time it would be the story of the exquisite hiding place in a thiefs own pocket, where a rich merchant makes sure his brilliant diamond is secure. He often told the teaching story Hidden Treasure that sets the context for this book. In Hidden Treasure, a grieving and humbled widow and her children discover that there had been a treasure under their feet the whole time they experienced poverty.
All of these stories teach us that we arent who we think we are. How we have defined ourselves is not the truth of ourselves. What we think we must have is already present, and when we think we have lost the value of our lives, it is still here if we know where to look.
This book is offered as support in discovering that our individual stories can point to what is under our noses, even if we experience it as absent. We each have the capacity to discover the truth of who we really are, whatever our particular story may be.
We can find the treasure in our own being that we may think we have to look for somewhere else. And we can discover that no matter how the events of our lives are arranged and rearranged, true and lasting value is here, precisely where we stand.
This book is designed to demonstrate both how we keep ourselves in the dark and howwith nothing changing in our storywe can discover the light. The truth is simple, but the ways of obscuring the truth are complex. If we can simplify the complexities of our individual suffering, we are already closer to truth. We think we suffer uniquely, and our particulars may be somewhat unique, but the patterns are the same. In particular ways we are under the spell of ignorance. Ignorance can be described, and through this description it can be dispelled.
This book invites you to tell your story within the context of recognizing the peace and fulfillment that are always present in the core of your being. The books purpose is to support you in seeing what gets in the way of that recognitionthe clothing you have put on to cover the naked core of yourself. This covering is fabricated from the memory of past eventsboth your individual past and our collective, human past.
If you are like most humans, you are weaving fabric for this clothing in the present as you prepare story lines for the future. If you are willing to stop weaving for a period of deep and truthful inquiry, you can discover what the stories cloak. In this book you are not asked to transcend your story. We can recognize the power and beauty and horror of particular stories, while also recognizing the necessity to see through these stories to discover what lives at the core.
In our long human history of storytelling, there have been great beings with awe-inspiring stories that reveal the victory of self-discovery. What inspires us about these great ones is that somehow their lives turned toward and then reflected the sublime discovery of everlasting truth. This book invites you to let your story be a contribution to the universal revelation of self-discovery, expressed uniquely as you.
This invitation is not as outrageous as it may initially appear. Even the greatest saints and realized beings had much that was ordinary in their life stories. They had pain and failure. Like us, they knew self-doubt and setbacks. When we are willing to recognize what was ordinary about those people, we can more fully embrace the possibility of our own lives turning toward and then reflecting direct and endless discovery of ourselves.
In this book you are asked to see underneath and inside the story. We have learned how to present ourselves, carefully covered for both protection and deception. To the degree that we are unaware of what is free inside usregardless of our presentationswe suffer. As you either peel the layers off your story, or see through these layers, you stand naked to yourself, in silent awareness.
