Amoda Maa Jeevan - Radical Awakening: Discovering the Radiance of Being in the Midst of Everyday Life

Radical
Awakenin

Amoda Maa is a contemporary spiritual teacher and author. Her teaching arises out of direct experience of awakened awareness and emanates the untamable fragrance of freedom whilst radically embracing the mystery and mess of human existence. In 2012, Amoda started speaking from silence in small gatherings in the UK. Today, she offers meetings and retreats to a growing global community.

Amoda Maa

Radical
Awakening

Discovering the Radiance
of Being in the Midst of
Everyday Life

This edition first published in the UK and USA in 2016 by Watkins, an imprint of Watkins Media Limited

19 Cecil Court

London WC2N 4EZ

A revised and updated edition of How to Find God in Everything, first published by Duncan Baird Publishers in 2008.

Design and typography copyright Watkins Media Limited 2016 Text copyright Amoda Maa Jeevan 2008, 2016

Amoda Maa Jeevan has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without prior permission in writing from the Publishers.

Managing Editor: Sarah Epton

Designed and typeset by Manisha Patel

Printed in Finland

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-78028-900-7

www.watkinspublishing.com

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

T his book has taken a long time to gestate - and an even longer time to write. Along the way, there have been a number of people who have supported me, inspired me and been instrumental in my evolution both as a writer and as an authentic human being.

Those who have assisted directly include Julia McCutchen, whose initial enthusiasm fanned the flames of possibility and whose sensitive feedback and gentle advice have been invaluable, as well as my editor Michael Mann, whose vision and conviction for this project propelled it into action. I am also grateful to the team at Watkins for their behind-the-scenes work.

Those who have been a part of the process indirectly include - on the earthly plane - Richard Rudd whose gene keys revelations many years ago came like a thunderbolt from the heavens and aligned me to my true purpose, and Drs Pankaj and Smita Naram at Ayushakti Ayurvedic Clinic in Mumbai, whose expertise and loving care rejuvenated my body, mind and soul and helped me see the world with fresh eyes. On the spiritual plane, I am eternally grateful to Ramana Maharshi, whose vibration of Truth penetrated deep into my being, stripped me of what was false and catapulted me into a new phase of life, and to Osho whose ever-present Love continues to burn bright in my heart.

Id also like to thank all those whove attended my classes, workshops and retreats during the years of ecstatic dancing, shaking, breathing, screaming, crying, laughing and surrendering to deep stillness. I am truly blessed by both the sublime and the crazy times we have shared! And I thank each and every one of you for your patience whilst I - and my work - have gone through countless transformations. Even though we no longer meet in this way, something new has been born out of the ashes and each of you has a special place in my heart.

Last, but certainly not least, there are not enough words to thank the two most important people in my life, both of whom have contributed to my growth in very different ways. These are my mother, who unceasingly loves me, and Kavi Jezzie Hockaday, my beloved, my creative partner and my true friend.

PREFACE TO NEW EDITION

I t has been almost ten years since this book was written and published as a first edition. During that time much has changed in my life. The initial bud of awakening has matured into the flower of awakeness; what was experienced as a surprising release of self-identity from the knot of ego is now lived as a gentle river of grace in the midst of everyday life.

In the years it took for the bud to become a flower, there has been an ongoing purification. Although there had been many years prior to awakening in which I immersed myself in therapy, bodywork, meditation practices and other psycho-spiritual tools in order to unravel my complex story and heal some of the traumas, there still remained defensive layers of ego-protection. In the glaring light of unconditioned awareness that revealed itself in awakening, these more subtle mental and emotional contractions eventually dissolved. And out of this fire of truth - and after a long period of simply waiting - has emerged my role as a spiritual teacher.

It has been a delicate emergence, a fresh and innocent openness without fixation on outcome, allowing lifes intelligence to inform my actions. At first, just a handful of people came to the meetings in which I offered silent meditation and brief discourses that arose out of that silence. Gradually, more and more people gathered, and today I travel to many parts of the world offering my work. In response to both the deepening of my own inner experience and to the depth of inquiry that happens in these gatherings, the expression of my teaching has evolved.

When the first edition of this book - entitled How to Find God in Everything - sold out its entire print run a couple of years ago, it was clear that a new edition was required. This was an opportunity not only to publish a paperback version, but also to make a few adjustments to bring the book into alignment with my teaching today. In order to preserve the authenticity of its original message, not many changes have been made. The most substantial change has been a revised Introduction, in which I speak more about radical awakening in the midst of ordinary life and in the midst of a rapidly changing world. I also speak more about how this radical awakening appeared in my life. Although today I rarely mention the mystical vision I received in 2002, I have kept this in the Introduction as it was a crucial part of my journey, as well as being the catalyst for writing the first edition of this book. But here - in this new edition - I also include what happened shortly after the vision; because, in retrospect, I can see that it was within this second experience that all constructs of duality (including me as a separate self) died to reveal the ever-present radiance of Being that is my natural state.

Also, today I rarely use the word God: it is a word burdened with cultural and religious conditioning and its deeper meaning is almost always missed by the Western mind. I now prefer to speak of being-ness, presence, or silence. Depending on the context, I also refer to this primary state of consciousness as unconditioned or nondual awareness, or simply as awakeness. Here in this new edition, I use God interchangeably with these terms, so as to give more expression to that which is essentially inexpressible. And some of the sentences have been revised to soften the heavy emphasis on God and allow a more spacious view of the deeper dimension of Being that is really what this book is about.

But I have not completely thrown out the God word; this is partly to keep the integrity and continuity of writing, but mostly because the original title of the first edition of this book (How to Find God in Everything) was inspired by a beautiful saying from the Indian mystic Rabindranath Tagore: In order to find God, you must welcome everything.