Boundless Awareness: A Loving Path to Spiritual Awakening and Freedom from Suffering

Description

Suffering is part of the human experience, and everyone in the world is seeking relief. But there is something greater, something that we all share, indeed something that we all are, that can alleviate that pain: it is the formless presence - the loving, boundless awareness - at the heart of all experience. This book cuts through the esotericism surrounding spiritual awakening to help you realize your true nature and show you how to integrate that realization into everyday life.In life, there is turmoil and inevitable pain. There is war, hunger, failure, heartbreak, and trauma. We struggle in relationships and with our attachments, thoughts, feelings, and memories, trapped in the prison of psychological self-consciousness. Most of us have been conditioned to believe that we are all separate individuals to whom uncomfortable or upsetting things happen. We feel alone and isolated from the world, and convince ourselves that the beauty, truth, and goodness we long for are out of our reach. Really, it's this imaginary division that causes us to suffer. Boundless Awareness seeks to relieve this suffering by drawing attention to the beautiful, encompassing, cohesive nature of awareness itself, as found in your direct experience. Using practical, contemplative exercises and brief meditations, the author guides you along a broad path of spiritual awakening, deconstructing your delusions of self and separation and integrating a concept of existence that is free from the suffering of individual selfhood, but which acknowledges the attachments, traumatic experiences, and emotional pain of being human. With this book, you'll come to realize your innate perfection as the uncreated light of boundless awareness, and soften into the open, spacious, and unconditionally loving essence of existence. You'll gain a deeper understanding of pain and attachments, and learn to meet these experiences with a new resilience. Most importantly, you'll find guidance on how to embody and express this awakening as love, joy, service, and creativity in your daily life.

Michael A. Rodriguez is a full-time non-dual coach who works with people in private sessions, offers satsangs here and abroad, and leads retreats. He has a bachelor's degree in English literature from Saint Leo University, a master's degree in Irish literature from Trinity College, Dublin, a master's degree in comparative religion from Harvard University, and a PhD in English literature from Florida State University. Rodriguez taught at the university level for sixteen years. He has published scholarly articles on Samuel Beckett and has given many talks at national and international academic conferences on topics such as modern literature, aesthetics, and psychology. Foreword writer Joan Tollifson is author of Nothing to Grasp, Painting the Sidewalk with Water, and Awake in the Heartland. Her first book, Bare-Bones Meditation, was published by Bell Tower in 1996. Tollifson writes and talks with people about the living reality here and now. She has an affinity with both Buddhism and Advaita, but belongs to no formal tradition. Her approach is simple and down-to-earth, pointing beyond concepts and beliefs to the immediacy of direct knowing and being. Tollifson has lived in Northern California, rural New York, Chicago, and Southern Oregon. Her main teacher was Toni Packer, but she spent time with many other teachers as well.

"Boundless Awareness is a delight to read, as it invites the reader to embody the 'loving awareness' you are reading about with alive metaphors and heart-centered guided meditations. Michael addresses important topics such as boundless awareness versus the intimacy of experience, sudden versus gradual awakening, nothing to be done versus something to be done, no practice versus practice, and transpersonal versus personal in a way that is down-to-earth and a breath of fresh air." --Loch Kelly, author of Shift Into Freedom--Loch Kelly "As someone who quickly became a close friend, and in three appearances on Buddha at the Gas Pump, I've found Michael to possess a rare blend of clarity, wisdom, and humanness. Those qualities come through clearly in this book." --Rick Archer, founder and host of Buddha at the Gas Pump--Rick Archer "I have read many spiritual books over the ten years I have been interviewing people for www.conscious.tv, but I found that Michael's book has an exceptional clarity that gave me a deeper understanding of who we really are." --Renate McNay, www.conscious.tv--Renate McNay "In the growing field of non-dual literature, Boundless Awareness shines with an unusual clarity, warmth, creativity, and nuanced insight. Michael also breaks new ground with his discussion of post-awakening shadow integration, deftly including truths from both direct and progressive spiritual approaches. This is cutting-edge work: engaging, inspiring, and beautifully written. I highly recommend it!" --John J. Prendergast, PhD, retired adjunct professor of psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies, and author of In Touch--John J. Prendergast, PhD "Michael delivers grounded, translucent teachings that penetrate and liberate both mind and heart. His book is a sublime manual for awakening, and it delivers much-needed clarity and precision on the liberating process of removing that which obscures our true nature. There is a clear and radiant transmission inherent within these pages. May it land and take root in your heart." --Susanne Marie, spiritual teacher, speaker, and group facilitator of Life Living Itself--Susanne Marie "Michael is the living expression of his remarkable teachings. If you want to know him, read his book. If you want to experience the Truth as it has been revealed to him, step into these pages. You will be embraced by a humble and knowing heart. A timeless and expansive wisdom awaits you." --Bruce Joel Rubin, Academy Award-winning screenwriter of Ghost, Jacob's Ladder, My Life, Deep Impact, Stuart Little 2, The Last Mimzy, and The Time Traveler's Wife--Bruce Joel Rubin "Michael A. Rodriguez brings the words of a poet, the keen eye of a scholar, and the heart of a devotee of truth to this skillful evocation of non-dual realization. He covers the territory thoroughly, including the subtleties of embodying our inherent perfection in these imperfect human forms. An excellent resource for beginners and seasoned seekers alike." --Stephan Bodian, founder and teacher at the School for Awakening, and author of Wake UpNow and Beyond Mindfulness--Stephan Bodian "Skillfully drawing from both direct and progressive path practices, Michael has given us an integrative manual for awakening. His intellectual sensitivity and openhearted ease shine through in these pages. I sincerely hope that Boundless Awareness finds the wide readership it deserves--it is one of the most lucid, helpful, and accomplished books that I have read on this subject in recent years." --Julian Noyce, founder of Non-Duality Press--Julian Noyce "With incredible clarity and an unbounded heart, Michael masterfully guides you to step out of the prison of thought-created experience and into the freedom of an undivided view, in which the shining essence of reality reveals itself. A beautifully eloquent book that will undoubtedly serve to untangle many of the preconceptions about the 'awakened state' and provide helpful pointers and practices to those willing to embark on the journey of direct realization." --Amoda Maa, author of Embodied Enlightenment--Amoda Maa