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9 of 11 found the following review helpful:
 A must read for all Oct 23, 2008
By Margaret Merritt
"Maggie"
I have been on my own conscious Spiritual path since 1986. I have read dozens and dozens of 'self-help' books, have participated in a variety of therapies and have explored numerous Spiritual groups/belief systems. All the above has lead me to where I am now -- ie ready to truly become honest about who I am and what my role in this life is. Reading Shunyamurti's book, "The Transformational Imperative," was like being in a very frank, yet loving conversation with a teacher about the nature of Spirituality and the urgency for each of us to return to our true nature.
I found it to be very complimentary to Ekhart Tolle's book, "A New Earth." Both authors discuss in detail the importance of becoming present to life as it truly is and that, by becoming present we become free of our fears, anxieties and, in the end, our ego.
If you found value in Tolle's work, "The Power of Now" and "A New Earth," I believe Shunyamurti's book is the icing on the cake for those of us that are on this path and seek guidance from a true Teacher. Namaste, Maggie
6 of 7 found the following review helpful:
Practical Guide for Spiritual Transformation Oct 23, 2008
By Johanna
The Transformational Imperative is a book of Truth and great spiritual insights designed to speak to all beings seeking answers to their deepest questions. It shows us that what we are is something more than our bodies, our beliefs, our choices. The core of our being is divine. This serious and enlightened collection of essays describes in great detail the reasons for our dissatisfaction with life, the chaotic nature of the world and so much more. For those who are seeking peace in their internal and external lives, this book provides the basics for achieving that peace, balance and inner harmony. It explains why the world is experiencing such turmoil and what we, as conscious beings, can do to alter that course. It is a book of inspiration, hope and great joy. I plan on sharing it with the people in my life who are looking for answers to some of the most basic, and yet most complex, of life's questions.
A great read for those interested in developing their spiritual path and for those who are already on one!
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
 too 'guru' like but interesting anyway Oct 26, 2011
By William F. Goedecke III
"bgsf"
I like the Transformational Imperative because I agree with its basic theme about the imperative to change and to find transcendence given the ongoing collapse of our social infrastructure and the reflection of that collapse in the physical infrastructure (i.e. - resource scarcity, climate change, etc.). However, I am deeply suspicious of spiritual leaders with all the answers. I wonder what Shunyamurti's birth name is, for example (I did my Google search and could not find it). Why did he move his institute to Costa Rica? I have met some amazing people along the way - a true guru who was reportedly involved with young girls, a brilliant mystic who eventually trapped his followers in what seemed to be power delusions. I know of the insistence to find a true guru within the Hindu spiritual traditions, yet I see someone like Elisabeth Kübler-Ross who found her spiritual self through her dedicated work (without tradition and guru). So I will take Shunyamurti's work with caution. I would certainly not take what he says about LGBT issues to heart (as regards previous comment). But I am interested in his core message. I can't tell how he structures his teachings from this book. I did do the early Arica work (Oscar Ichazo) - and I give Mr. Ichazo credit for creating a solid structure to his teachings - pretty amazing actually (for those who are interested, the enneagram books give no clue to the originality and sophistication of this work). So I will follow Shunyamurti's talks a little more to see if there is something new in his work. What I would like to have seen in his book was more of a structure in how he approaches the work of transcendence.
7 of 9 found the following review helpful:
this book changed my life! Sep 30, 2008
By S. Kelly
"SK"
I have read the essays in this book over and over - each time finding another gem of information that eloquently explores life's greatest mysteries including love, higher purpose, and truth. The author gives a complete picture of the current state, fate (and development) of the split human ego and the way to transcend a consciousness that has become fragmented and unloving. He explains why a transformation (of human ego consciousness) is absolutely necessary for the future of our species, our beautiful planet and all of the other creatures that share it with us. On a more personal level, the book delves into many self-destructive behaviors and how to understand and liberate oneself from such actions and patterns that inevitably lead to unhappiness and suffering. He talks in depth about how to form harmonious relationships and communities that will support growth and creativity of each individual. Shunyamurti has highlighted wisdom from many of the world's greatest spiritual traditions making this book absolutely accessible to anyone who chooses to read it. I know that this book will illumine all those who have the opportunity to read it.
6 of 8 found the following review helpful:
A pure path that shows the way towards Spiritual Liberation -- in this lifetime! Apr 03, 2010
By Juan Arias Grillo
"Satananda"
The Transformational Imperative is truly a blessing and a light for all. It is so difficult to find a book, not to mention a spiritual path and community, that explain in such a clear and intelligent discourse the overwhelming obstacles that humanity is currently facing, and at the same time proposes a real, existent and authentic path to free ourselves from ignorance, lack, hatred and suffering.
One of the many ego-shattering messages of Shunyamurti is that the process of inner purification is now a life or death matter. We as individuals and as a collective cannot delay any longer in accepting, as Dante poetically reminded us, that the true way has been wholly lost. It is time to leave behind the petty denial of our closed hearts and begin the courageous and sacred journey of purifying and transforming our narcissistic and infantile egos and thus surrender to a higher consciousness which is based on divine love, compassion, generosity, truthfulness, wisdom, commitment and delightful bliss.
Shunyamurti, just as Saint Francis of Assisi, invites us wholeheartedly to become instruments of God, so we can manifest once again a Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.
As a student of Sat Yoga, I am sincerely grateful to Shunyamurti for his couragous calling and loving guidance and strongly recommend this book to everyone who is searching for a genuine, straight and pure path to live a life of dignity, beatitude and union with the highest Truth.
I would also like to take this opportunity to share my comments to what I consider to be a misleading Amazon book review on The Transformational Imperative (entitled: A deeply flawed, but engaging call for self-transformation) from an ex-student of Sat Yoga, since I feel its title and some of the points of the reviewer are simply not accurate.
I would therefore like to honor the integrity and purity of the Sat Yoga Sadhana (Practice) and Community of Costa Rica by sharing more deeply my experiences and understandings of the Sat Yoga teachings and transformational process. You are invited to read my comments below:
I thank the reviewer, whom I personally know and have practiced with, for taking the time to share his thoughts on The Transformational Imperative, written by Shunyamurti (Director of the Sat Yoga Institute in Costa Rica).
I am a current student and disciple-in-preparation of the Sat Yoga Institute, and have been with the Sat Yoga Institute for the past 5 years. I have a lot of first-hand knowledge about the process and would therefore like to share my thoughts regarding this review.
I can comfortably state that Sat Yoga teachings provide a lot of insight into the current global problems, including poverty, war, despair, chaos and overall negativity. The Sat Yoga teachings do, in fact, emphasize that these problems are the result of a collective projection of our egoic shadow, but, what is meant by this is that our current collective level of consciousness and compassion has fallen into egocentric, narcissistic, and even psychotic deviations that end up producing these massive and negative consequences around the world, both for individuals and collectively.
At Sat Yoga we have an Advanced Class for those students who wish to delve deeper into the politics, logic, mysteries, and history of what ancient yogis referred to as Maya (also known as the Cosmic Dream, or what most of us call our "real world"). In this advanced class we enter into an understanding of what we refer to as Forbidden and Unbearable Knowledge, as well as other paradigm-shifting and ego-shattering fields which reveal the different agendas that governmental "elite" powers use to keep individuals weak, dependent and brainwashed. We study very seriously the underlying messages of blind and heartless sociopolitical, scientific, economic, agricultural and ecological policies and practices that are ideologically dignified with such noble signifiers as Democracy, Evolution, Progress, and Freedom; but to overcome this system of false consciousness at the macro as well as at the micro level, we need to become humbler, more generous, and smarter. For this reason, we are studying such disciplines as semiotics and linguistics, structuralism and post-structuralism, surrealism and deconstruction, Lacanian psychoanalysis, and many other contemporary philosophic approaches that will help us identify how our minds have been programmed with self-defeating symbols that are controlling our lives, and learn instead the arts of decoding and purifying those old emotional fixations with pure loving energy and a blissful brilliant will.
At our Institute we do not teach that corrupt global forces will magicaly disappear once enough people attain enlightenment. Instead, what Sat Yoga's philosophy is teaching is that those corrupt forces are definitely not sustainable and are creating a massive self-destruction of our planet and species and will therefore inevitably disappear, but not so much magically but tragically, as we are seeing daily all the suffering that is being produced out of the utter ignorance and lovelessness of the current global leaders.
Sat Yoga thus supports the imperative and hard work of creating an ethical and creative spiritual community based on sharing, cooperation, compassion and wisdom. This is our ultimate goal and proof that there is hope for humanity to live in love and not in war: our message is one of Love, not of criticism of the big Other (to use a Lacanian term). We are re-creating a community system based on the wisest and highest and most noble principles that the greatest liberators of humanity have taught and modelled.
In short, at Sat Yoga we do study the critical facts of the post-modern fallen institutions, and those students who feel called to learn what is truly happening behind the scenes of the ruthless capitalistic economy are welcome to join and strengthen their higher discernment (which we also refer to as Buddhi in Sanskrit), but this should come out of a sincere and truthful desire to heal the world, and our own being, and not out of a fearful desire for revenge and scapegoating, which as history teaches us only ends up in fragmentation, disharmony and nihilism.
In our regular weekly classes we also study different communities and leaders who have proven that a life of peace and wisdom is possible. We learn from the great and beautiful example of the Native American Indian Nations and their tribe leaders, which were sadly massacred by the European colonizers, but still their legacy guides us to find the way to live in union with Nature and with each other. We study great spiritual sages and active community leaders, both ancient and contemporary, such as Shankara, Mahavira, Nagarjuna, Krishna, Christ, Mary Magdalene, St. Paul, Confucius, Buddha, Muhammad, Ibn Arabi, Mullah Sadra, Maimonides, Spinoza, Mahatma Gandhi, Thich Nhat Hanh, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Thomas Merton, Ananda Mayi Ma, Sri Ramana Maharshi, Sri Aurobindo, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, and Swami Ramdas, just to name a few.
It is unfortunate that the great effort of community building is perceived today by some as a simplistic approach to global change. I believe Sat Yoga defends the importance of creating a unique living model that will work as a wonderful example for the whole world to appreciate, and we are not the only ones doing this, although more role model communities are urgently needed. This will certainly not resolve all our world problems at once, but it will invite many to live an authentic life of truth, purity and meaning. This is no different from what the main founders and leaders of all great cultures have taught us: our current global problems are not only within our heads, but they are also within our closed hearts.
We do need to create fresh politics and social norms, in yoga this is called the yamas and niyamas, which are vows and agreements of behaviours that allow a group of beings to relate wholesomely, wholeheartedly, and honorably. We all need to recreate a new higher order in this lifetime, there is no doubt about this, and this will benefit the small towns and communities that surround us, the cities, provinces, and all countries in ways that one simply cannot perceive. The power of divine love and wisdom is invincible, as it has been eternally taught, if we would only resolve our fears and surrender to the Supreme Intelligence, which is within us all. A true Sat Yogi is a disciple of Love and Wisdom -- unconditionally.
Having said all this, the reviewer should know that he is always invited to return to our community and resolve his issues directly with Shunyamurti, who is the current person responsible and chosen for the leadership and evolution of our community. By not being willing to face and work through his own egoic anxieties and defenses, but instead leaving and lashing out unfairly, his karma ended up producing more maya (egoic confusion) than clarity. Fortunately, in the Sat Yoga community, we humbly specialize in deconstructing maya, and this allows us to see all the divine blessings in disguise that God generously provides us for our ongoing growth.
I would also like to take the time to respond to the reviewer's comment and critique of the cost involved in individual transformational sessions at the Sat Yoga Institute. In Sat Yoga we learn that a healthy and truly loving relationship with a wise mentor is vital for the process of healing and growth. Our egoic consciousness has received its sense of self from its parents, schooling, society and culture. If such an initial identity is one that creates suffering, then it is important to recreate a sacred relationship with a spiritually developed being who can guide one and see one's true Self underneath all the egoic veils, through time and at all times. This is the difficult yet sacred work of a spiritual guide and community.
Shunyamurti is not only a spiritual sage but he is also a highly respected professional in the fields of psychology and psychoanalysis. After spending many years living as a fully committed monk, he was able to earn a doctorate in psychology as well as receive training in the different modern schools of psychoanalysis (Freudian, Winnicottian, Kleinian, Jungian and Lacanian, and others). The immense body of knowledge that he has gained through his 30 or more years of study and clinical research has allowed him to help many people rise from serious and terrible crises into a gracious state of peace, clarity and hope.
Currently, the Sat Yoga Institute as an educational center does not produce much income, since it functions as a Free Spiritual Institution. The majority of our classes are fully based on love donations. In some seminars, film series, and special intensives, we ask for a suggested donation in order to be able to cover food costs and to afford investing in more educational books and videos. But no one is ever turned down because of lack of finances. Students attend our weekly meditation sittings and they contribute what they can without anyone asking any funds from them. This applies also for retreat visitors.
A few core members of our community support our urban Institute, its rent and part of our monthly expenses. They do this out of pure love and recognition of the value of rescuing such a wisdom school and sacred environment as the one Sat Yoga offers. But still, in Kali Yuga, funds are short. This is why Shunyamurti selflessly gives his whole income, from his profession as an adept clinician of human consciousness, to the Institute, so that its premises can keep functioning as a beacon of light for those who seek a refuge from the current suicidal rat-race that life has become.
If Shunyamurti could charge less, even nothing, he would do it. In fact, he does lower his fees in many cases, and charges nothing to those on a serious path of discipleship. I know this because I am a close student of his and a disciple-in-preparation. The truth is that right now most students--at least those who are serious about their spiritual process, who are mature and have led responsible and ethical lives, and who have sufficient financial resources--are more than happy to contribute to the community and the Institute by paying a fair fee for their individual clinical sessions because at the same time they receive such priceless psychological and spiritual aid and support that strengthens them in their path of individuation and liberation.
In the case of students who cannot afford a $75 session, or do not have funding at all to pay, we also offer the option of sessions with clinicians-in-training who are ready to work with those who seriously seek to benefit from our atmanological transformational processs. Shunyamurti supervises this process without asking for anything in return. We would love to have more clinicians trained in the art of Sat Yoga to help all those beings who are currently arriving to our Institute in search of their true Self, who seek to live a life of joy and higher creativity. This is possible, though it usually takes a bit of time, but we are seeing here the blossoming of many beautiful souls who bravely face down their inner shadow, and make the choice of a true Sat Yogi to slay the inner demons and unite their will with the loving and luminous Presence of our Supreme Beingness.
Having mentioned this, it would be worthwhile to share that in Costa Rica private psychotherapy sessions go from $75 to more than $100. One can check the main private hospitals in San José for these figures. I know this for a fact, since before starting my training in Sat Yoga, back in 2005, I visited a well recommended private psycho-therapist who charged me $100 per session, but the most expensive and regrettable aspect of her therapy was not the money but the terrible pills she told me to take, which produced long nights of horrible side-effects. Fortunately, I stopped taking those "meds" immediately and that was the end of that therapy. On the other hand, one can surely visit a clinician who is not well qualified and who has not undergone the kind of advanced training and life-dedication necessary to become a true master of the conscious and unconscious mind, and you can pay less. But in the long run, the money saved will most likely not pay off and one will end up stuck in the same unhealthy patterns as one started in, looking for yet another therapist, another teacher, another community or another country.
The Sat Yoga teachings also are extremely valuable in cultivating the wisdom to avoid being tricked by the inevitable egoic melodramas that most egos act out throughout their dark nights of the soul through different forms of victimization, regressions to infantile states, unhealthy enmeshments and inappropriate or even violent behavior. If anyone ever wishes to leave the Sat Yoga community, or to stop doing individual sessions, that is each person's decision and right. But this does not mean that if someone withdraws from their spiritual training and disciplines without having achieved a minimum level of humility, compassion, maturity, wisdom and nobility to live a sustainable loving life of selfless service and ongoing growth, that their teacher and guide will pretend that everything is all right and that one has achieved instant graduation. A spiritual guide has the difficult task of being truthful with his or her students, and this is something that the ego does not appreciate. For the ego, this may feel like manipulation; but if one, through God's grace, would develop a sufficient capacity for detached discernment to question one's own motives for such reactions to the therapy, therapist and community, then one might be able to enter into a healthy dialogue with one's guide that would actually produce a strengthening of such a relationship instead of an inaccurate and failed ending.
To finish my response, I have to say that I am extremely grateful for Shunyamurti's generosity and wisdom. For the first couple of years of my process at Sat Yoga I did pay for my individual sessions, and this was important for me to recognize and appreciate the value and sacredness of such service. Once I learned this lesson, and was able to open my heart to the community and become more a giver instead of a taker, Shunyamurti stopped charging me for his individual sessions and since then he has been there to help me any time I have fallen into maya (which is a yogic word for egoic crisis). So this is a good and living example of a relationship that has become stronger through the hard work of taking the risk to trust and to test the Other over and over again, as well as a fruit of disciplined daily meditation which allows one to detach from infantile patterns of relating which unfortunately seek to remain stunted in obsolete ruthless patterns of aggressivity and narcissism.
So I invite anyone who seeks a serious and yet playful path of authentic spiritual transformation to visit our Institute, and soon our rural Ashram, to learn together the perennial ways to a blissful existence.
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