Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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171 of 173 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You are ready for the undiluted truth, and so am I!, May 1, 2005
In the forward of The Diamond In Your Pocket, Eckhart Tolle says that "The words themselves are charged with extraordinary aliveness and transformative power. This is because they have come out of a living realization of the truth, rather than the accumulated knowledge of the mind."
The editors preface goes on to say, "As you read these pages, may you discover the absolute sweetness of your own innate being. May you look to where Gangaji is pointing and see what remains perfectly unchanged throughout every shifting circumstance in your life. This pristine sky of limitless awareness is your true refuge, it is love itself, and it is calling to you right now from the depths of your very own heart."
Gangaji writes, "This is an invitation into the core of your being. It is not about religion or lack of religion. It is not even about enlightenment or ignorance. It is about the truth of who you are, which is closer and deeper than anything that can be named. In any moment, in a split second, there is the possibility of recognizing the boundless, limitless, eternal divine truth of yourself...The recognition of this truth is what this book is about."
The most important part of this book for me was where Gangaji speaks about the heart of self-betrayal. "We have all experienced the grief of losing something, a beloved one, or a precious object. But even deeper than that grief is the grief of recognizing the betrayal of the truth of ourselves. Rather than actually experiencing this self-betrayal, we usually get very busy fabricating proof that we are not betraying ourselves. We busily gather power, pleasure, or knowledge to prove that we are not really betraying ourselves, that we really are okay. But this grief, this divine sadness, is very important. It is a great, painful gift from the emotional body, and we deal with it in at least a couple of ways. One approach to the grief of self-betrayal is to dramatize it, to make it into a dance, a song or a play, glorifying the sadness and the pain. Another common way is to deny the grief, to push it down out of sight, to numb or deaden ourselves. It doesn't matter which we choose because the grief remains. The loss of being true to ourselves is still present...The pain of recognizing that we have turned away from the truth of ourselves leads to a great cry, a wail, a tearing of the heart...It is possible to lay bare your soul's deep grief without dramatizing it or denying it, to recognize that this longing is an echo of what originates purely and absolutely in the core of your being...This ache has a divine purpose. If you will meet it, this divine ache will return your attention to this present moment where perfect alignment with the truth of who you are can always be found." What I loved about Gangaji is how psychologically savvy she is and that she encourages us to dive all the way into whatever obstacle is appearing to discover what is underneath it all.
I listened deeply where Gangaji said, "People have asked me if after spiritual awakening it still matters that there are hatred, genocide, and continuing violence in the world. Yes, it matters. It matters because it is all a reflection of our own minds. There is nothing going on in the world that is not going on in our own minds. In your willingness to see the truth of that, to experience the horror of that, and finally to see what is also forever untouched by that, you are at least one aspect of consciousness that knows itself to be free. In that living knowledge, which ignores nothing, it is possible to make yourself useful to all of life." I loved that she isn't teaching some kind of spiritual bypass or avoidance of the horror of what is happening this very moment on the world stage with its cast of characters.
This book is for you if you have had a glimpse or taste your own divine radiance and want to inquire all the way into the permanence of that.
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334 of 350 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You Are The Diamond In Your Pocket, May 27, 2005
There is a mysterious power in the transmission to be found in reading Gangaji's words, and I've written this to give you my experience with this mystery, but the best way to know this is to read the book for yourself. Please feel free to ignore all that I say here and just buy the book and read it.
I first met Gangaji in a prison in Colorado in 1994, and fell instantly into love with her. God knows how or why, but in the instant of meeting her eyes, all the years and lifetimes of mental activity stopped dead without warning, revealing nothing but eternal, unmoving, silent love without condition.
I had no spiritual understanding to speak of, and no need for any. I knew nothing of Ramana Maharshi or Papaji, or of the tradition in which they had appeared. I had no reference point from which I could understand what Gangaji was saying, and needed none.
For some months, I wrote to her letter after letter, listened to her satsang tapes whenever I could get some time in the prison chapel where they were kept, and had not the slightest idea or interest in the actual content of her speech.
Then, almost a year after that first meeting, I was sent a copy of her first book You are That!, and I was freshly stunned to discover that her naked words had a power of their own to transmit directly true understanding. Reading her words for the first time I had the direct experience of the power of her teaching, the brilliance and clarity with which she spoke of the reality of realization and of what is asked of us to see it. Her naked words transmit true understanding to all who would receive it.
You Are That! is a compilation of beautifully edited transcripts of Gangaji's teaching in satsang.
The Diamond in Your Pocket is Gangaji speaking directly to you.
This book is not intended for advanced spiritual seekers; nor is it intended for those with little or no spiritual understanding. Spiritual understanding is irrelevant here. This book is not for the religious or the irreligious; for the seekers after wealth or for those who renounce the world; for the healthy or for the sick; for those who are comfortable with their lives or for those who hate their lives. This book is intended for you and for you alone.
From the beginning, great beings have appeared among us from time to time, moved by compassion to tell us that reality is not what we think it is; that the world is not what we think it is; that pain and pleasure are not what we think they are; and, most fundamentally, that we are not what we think we are. They have told us that this misunderstanding of our own actual nature is the root of all misery and suffering, all horror and aggression and hatred and violence everywhere. They have told us simply that the truth is within us, and that knowing the truth will set us free.
By and large, we have responded to this simple, straightforward suggestion by constructing elaborate paths and religions, practices and meditations. We have told ourselves endlessly that, if we can only stick to these strategies, someday we will break through to the truth and be free at last.
We have brought into being initiations and transmissions, meditations and mantras that produce states that we imagine to be the states of the enlightened sages. But these states come and go; when they are present, we fear their passing; and when they are gone, we mourn their loss and long for their return.
We have created vast religious edifices of hope and sacrifice to gods and saviors created in our own image. We have done great deeds of compassion and proselytizing; we have shed oceans of blood and burned ourselves alive; we have created wondrous works of religious art, and we have created and destroyed civilizations, all in the hope of personal salvation.
We have spent our precious lives searching, searching, searching ... searching for truth, searching for love, searching for fulfillment, searching for comfort, searching for we know not what. We have searched high and low in thought, in passing states, and in objects of acquisition and loss. And we have failed. Nothing works - nothing spiritual, nothing religious, nothing material, and nothing philosophical.
But all that is finished now, all of that is in the past: Gangaji is here and now. And with her, the opportunity is present, here and now, to be finished with all postponement, all excuses, all futile searching - once and for all.
Gangaji is not an avatar, nor is she a guru in the usual sense of that word; she has no special powers that I've been able to detect. She is physically beautiful. Her voice is soft and inviting, and her speech is eloquent, but she is no orator, no gifted preacher; she makes no sermons that will lift your spirit and make your heart sing. She will not give you ecstatic experiences. She is, as she is fond of saying, "just like you", and if you find anything special in her, it is but your own specialness, your own eternal radiance that you find, masquerading as her. What she is, is absolutely true: true to herself, true to you, and true to what she herself has discovered. And what she has to offer is fresh, and radically simple, and true to all the great masters who have gone before her.
I met Gangaji almost eleven years ago, in a federal prison in Colorado. I cannot claim that I brought any quickness or intelligence to that meeting, but I did want with all my heart to hear what she had to say, to receive what she had to offer, and in the end that was enough.
It is great good luck that has brought this book into your reach, and if you will open your mind to receive what she has to offer, she will lead you into a direct meeting with yourself at the core of the hated ego itself, where is to be found nothing whatsoever but eternal, radiant consciousness - which is all the self there is. If you will open your mind to receive what she has to offer, she will further lead you into a meeting with yourself at the core of every thing whatsoever: every horrible fear, every desperate hope, every transcendent experience - every mundane moment of your life. In all of it what is to be found is the same eternal, radiant consciousness, which is the self of all, which is you, and you alone.
in this love without condition,
John Sherman
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37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful gentle guide to your higher self, February 7, 2006
I've never been a huge fan of Gangaji, over the years I have listened to her on audiotape and CD a few times but never had a heart felt pull like I do with authors such as Robert Adams or Eckhart Tolle. But this book I found different. It has strong spiritual pointers wrapped up in small easy to read chapters. I still prefer a few other teachers, but have found some real gems in this book that have stayed with me. A softer female nurturing aspect seems to come through, compared to the many male authors who speak on similar topics.
This is one of those book you could read many times and still find new things each time. I feel this embodies the peak of Gangaji's teaching's and wisdom in an easy to read format.
Wonderful gentle guide to your higher self.
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