Spiritual Initiation and the Breakthrough of Consciousness: The Bond of Power Tapa blanda - 2003

SPIRITUALITY / SELF-HELP Shakti is the creative force, the bonding power, that holds the universe together. Shaktipat is the moment when enlightenment is instantaneously conferred upon a student by a master's touch. The guru conferring shaktipat creates a bond of power in those who have accepted him or her as their teacher. In Spiritual Initiation and the Breakthrough of Consciousness Joseph Chilton Pearce describes his experience of shaktipat from his teacher Swami Muktananda. From this awakening Pearce undergoes a dramatic shift of mind and comes to the realization that perception is reality and that insight is our only vehicle for profound self-transformation. Oneness with God is the birthright of every individual, though we are culturally vaccinated to resist experiencing this higher consciousness. Our search for objective truth has led us not to wholeness, but instead to the belief that we have no bond to each other, to God, or to an inanimate, physical world. The challenge faced by modern humanity, which is the challenge Muktananda gave to his students, is to passionately gather up the scattered fragments of our lives and channel them into the creative realm, where, with insight or revelation, we will be able to become more than ourselves. JOSEPH CHILTON PEARCE is the author of The Crack in the Cosmic Egg, The Biology of Transcendence, Magical Child, From Magical Child to Magical Teen, and Evolution's End. For the past twenty-five years he has taught about the changing needs of children and the development of human society. He lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.