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

by Michael A. Rodriguez

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781684030699
Publisher:	New Harbinger Publications
Publication date:	04/01/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
File size:	801 KB

About the Author

Michael A. Rodriguez is a spiritual teacher who works with people in meetings, retreats, and private sessions on a full-time basis in the United States and abroad. He holds four academic degrees, including a master’s degree in comparative religion from Harvard and a PhD in English literature from Florida State University; taught at the university level for well over a decade; and has lived long-term in two monasteries. Drawing always from his direct experience, Michael illuminates the undivided nature of Life or Consciousness with great clarity and compassion, pointing to reality in a way that is free from dogma, ritual, or adherence to any particular tradition. He draws skillfully from the world’s wisdom traditions and also integrates Jungian psychology, literature, music, and art into his work to address the full range of human potential. All his work, including his interviews, can be accessed via his website at www.boundlessawareness.org.

Foreword writer Joan Tollifson is author of Nothing to Grasp, Painting the Sidewalk with Water, Awake in the Heartland, and Bare-Bones Meditation. 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, IL; and Southern Oregon. Her main teacher was Toni Packer, but she spent time with many other teachers as well.

Table of Contents

Foreword vii
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
1 The Misery of Seeking 17
2 An Alternative Worldview 37
3 The Trance of Misidentification 49
4 The Power of Creative Awareness 69
5 Internal Poverty 83
6 The Most Intimate Poverty 99
7 Interdependence and Divine Vibration 115
8 Dream Yoga and Perception 133
9 Non-Dual
Shadow Integration 151
10 The Miracle of Allowing 165
Conclusion 185

Interviews

Rodriguez resides in Berkeley, CA; Tollifson resides in Ashland, OR.

Editorial Reviews

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

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

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

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

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

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

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