Everpresent and Stable
Pure Awareness
in a Weekend?
by Dan Drasin, New Dimensions Radio
Reprinted from Earth and Stars Magazine, September 1998 Issue
The literature caught my curiosity. It claimed
that I could "wake
up from the dream of false identification" in a weekend.
The seminar's premise--and promise--was that "with a Radical
Awakening, Pure Awareness" could be "ever-present and
stable."
During my 25-year affiliation with New Dimensions Radio and
other leading-edge organizations, I've had the opportunity to
experience a wide variety of spiritual paths and psychological
approaches. None had promised quite so much in so short a time.
Although I was skeptical, upon the strong recommendation of
a close friend I attended an evening presentation by Ramana,
the creator and facilitator of this seminar. (Ramana was named
by his teacher, Sri H.W.L Poonja, after Poonja's own teacher,
Sri Ramana Maharshi.) Soft-spoken and with a quick wit, Ramana
put me at ease immediately
Ramana says he developed his own science
of enlightenment, which he calls "Radical Awakening," based
on the direct experience of Self catalyzed by his teacher,
and also on his many years
as a practitioner and teacher of various methods of transpersonal
psychology, hypnotherapy, biofeedback, and Neuro-Linguistic Programming.
During the evening's presentation I witnessed several people
shifting into a profound state of heightened awareness, including
myself. I booked a private Radical Awakening session with Ramana
that night.
In his private sessions Ramana employs a
sensitive biofeedback meter that monitors subtle changes in
the body's physiology as
the subconscious moves through different states. In my own 90
minute session, Ramana’s skilled use of this device was
invaluable in helping me access deeper realms of Self in a remarkably
short time.
Ramana took my "story" (the past and present particulars
of my personal life) as a starting point. But before I knew it,
I found myself moving through finer and finer states of awareness
until I was led to a feeling of wholeness and completion such
as I had never before experienced. The "small self" that
had always taken the credit (or blame!) for everything seemed
to have dropped away. The "large Self" that remained
seemed vast and refined, without a beginning or end in either
space or time. What a feeling!
After the session I noticed that this profound
awareness was continuing to maintain itself in the background
of my daily life,
shifting my perspective on each "ordinary" experience.
A peaceful centeredness and alert relaxation seemed to pervade
all events.
In next attending Ramana's "Radical Awakening" weekend
intensive, I again witnessed him guiding individuals quickly
into this same state of awareness. Ramana said that there was
a "silent transmission of freedom" which had been passed
from Sri Ramana Maharshi to his own teacher, Poonja-ji (affectionately
known as "Papaji") and then on to himself... and that
it could easily be passed from one person to another. "Waking
up," he insisted, "need take only a split second." The
weekend was set up to provide a supportive environment for that,
and then to help deepen and stabilize it.
In the seminar's final hours, Ramana led
the participants to "enter
the cave of the Heart, from where all things arise." During
this potent process we all began to understand how the awakened
person lives fearlessly, surrendered to the Heart and love.
In effectively combining traditional and modern modalities,
Ramana's work is clearly on the cutting edge of consciousness
development in the west. After such a profound experience, I
can only give him my highest endorsement for a truly amazing
and innovative piece of work.
