Customer Reviews

Sudden Awakening: Into Direct Realization

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
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"Sudden Awakening" is one of those rare gems that succeeds in taking an idea many seem to think must be very complex, and clearly presenting it with easily understood language and ideas. Not only does Jaxon-Bear offer insights for the individual, he also offers all of humanity the glimpse of a possible future that is free from suffering. And he does so, without sending his readers on a confusing journey through 800 pages of convoluted prose.

I had the good fortune to read this book shortly before attending a weekend retreat and Satsang with Jaxon-Bear, and I found him to be a profoundly insightful and compassionate Teacher, both in person and in writing. "Sudden Awakening" offers readers an invitation to self-examine, ask difficult (and not always pleasant) questions, and find the silence and love that is already within us, underneath this trance called "the ego." Unlike some spiritual teachers, Jaxon-Bear does not talk about "killing" the ego. Instead, he points out that it has been a very real and possibly essential survival strategy for us-- up to *this* point-- but that now it is no longer serving us. And it is our "ego fixation" that has lead to a sense of "duality," that is, the idea that we are somehow "separate"-- from God, from others, even from life itself.

In this book, Jaxon-Bear uses simple (and at times funny) teaching stories to lead the reader on a journey from the invitation to embrace freedom; to understanding the nature of "reality;" to understanding the nature of mind, ego and ego-development; to finally understanding Who We Really Are, so we can awaken and be the silence and love that has always been right here.

Final thoughts: Highly recommended (9.5 out of a possible 10 bookmarks). This is one of the best teachings on Non-Duality I have read, and is an easy-- and potentially life-changing-- read for the spiritual seeker who is ready to "find" and wake up from the trance.

I found myself deeply engaged reading this book... and smiling a lot.
Eli's expression is fresh, deeply insightful, but very easy and enjoyable to read. I experienced a wonderful balance between a ruthless pointing to my own experience of what is un-examined and unconscious - and a lightness of being... a confirmation and support to realize that what I truly want and love, is what I already am, right now.

To those readers who are just hearing the liberating words of truth (spoken by one who is realizing it) for the first time, this book offers a powerful and clear initiation and invitation to awaken. To those fortunate enough to have already received that redemptive instant of Grace, this book offers deep support for staying true to what Grace has revealed. It is an offering of love and wisdom from a deeply realized Teacher.

One of the liberating insights that I have received from this book (that is still reverberating) is to view the function of the "ego" from the point of view of the DNA, with its programmed imperative to survive and replicate. I really got how what is called "ego", which is the experience of being a separate something, is just an advanced program for survival! I can see that at one stage in the evolution of our species it was effective and likely necessary, but now it is outdated and ironically the greatest threat to the human DNA's survival.

As a result of trying on this perspective, something unexpected happened. It uncovered a sense of shame that I had felt during all the years (or lifetimes) when I experienced deep suffering by imagining myself to be separate from God, my own heart and all of life. Understanding the impersonal and functional role of the "ego" allowed this hidden shame to surface and discharge into an experience of compassion for this human ordeal of life experienced as a separate self.

Eli is clearly an Ally and Friend to those who are called to realize the truth that lies beneath the appearance, and to be in service to that. I hope his book finds a wide audience and that it serves to stop the reader's mind, allowing attention to fall into direct experience and reveal the lasting peace that is already present.

For anyone who sincerely wants to have the truth laid out clearly, and concisely, leaving no traps of the mind unexposed, and who wants to receive a transmission of silence that your heart will recognize from every page - this book will be deeply satisfying. Eli Jaxon-Bear is able to transmit the truth in person and by the written word. Reading this book is being with your own self, not in any kind of New Age dream of enlightenment that just pleases the ego with a spiritual story, but in a real, tangible way that can give you the taste of what is actually possible for humanity, here and now. It is a very timely book, because when we look around and see that so many people are fed up with the results of business as usual, this book offers a real alternative, a radical shift of consciousness, that is so needed.
I am very grateful that this book was written, and that it's so freely available.

You have to be at a certain place on your spiritual path to appreciate this book. When I read it, I felt like Eli Jaxon-Bear was speaking directly to me. Anyone on a spiritual path would benefit from this book. I would recommend buying it so that you will at least have it when the time is right. You will know when that is. Sudden Awakening is a valuable tool for those who have worked through and understand about the illusion of our existance here and are ready for the next step. Unity. It clarifies what enlightenment is and the misconceptions of how you get there. This book is the next step in getting to know who you really are.

After reading Joko Beck's Everyday Zen, and being thoroughly disappointed, having been left standing on the platform as the train swished by, resigned to a life of "hard work and practice" - according to Beck - I picked up Sudden Awakening and found hope again; that one can actually *get on* the "Freedom Train", as he calls it, and realize "Cosmic Beingness." Sudden Awakening is a breath of fresh air. Is light, humerous, with simple stories and metahpors to help create the space of understanding. On a few occasions I found the languaging a bit confusing, and a few times I questioned the "awakeness" of the author himself as he seems to suggest on the one hand that it is our "Cosmic Beingness" that is "waking up" (as other authors have also suggested) and on the other says that "we" wake up - does he mean the "ego" wakes up? Others say this is not the case. Also one other glitch is he seems to suggest that "Conscious Silence" is a "power of mind" after having said that the mind is a trance, part of Maya. Conscious Silence is *beyond* mind, is Isness itself.

All in all it is a good read, although others, like Awakening to the Dream by Leo Hartong, are better.

I highly recommend this book. It's a great read for those who are looking for a no nonsense look at spirituality.

I heard him speak on an NPR program. I love the idea of how the ego and self are separate. The book was a little disappointing, though. In my opinion here are too many pages devoted to the argument of why this is plausable, and not enough to how it can manifest in daily life.

This is a profoundly deep, yet easily digestible read. Eli Jaxon-Bear does a great job in making the truth available to everyone, both beginner and advanced spiritual seeker. I highly recommend this book to anyone at any point along the spiritual path to help facilitate sudden awakening into the nature of who one really is. Thank you.

Fascinating reading an article on advanced spirituality of how to be awakened from someone who obviously IS!

Eli Jaxon-Bear gently provides the space for us all to be enlightened and for us to recognize we are already there!

I read this book a year ago (Feb 2006). Loved it. Feeling guilty for not writing a review on a book that had such a positive impression on me so here goes :)

It is a spiritual journey into Awakening to who we are. Not who our mind/ego thinks we are. We were taught those things by others and our own experiences. I wonder: "What if we didn't have those influences? Who would we think we are then?"