Many revelations started actually before I got the book, revelations about my "stories."  The wounded one, the superior one, the one who would "lead" others !!! Then more & more before Marin retreat & ongoing there.

Funniest incidents triggering more & more stories to see.

Now the book, just bringing it all Home.

This is working folks. I send Love to my New Teacher & to all of you. And
deepest gratitude.

Thank you for showing me the Freedom within.
I AM. YOU ARE!

Hidden Treasure is the most important book I have ever read. I think it might be the most important book in the world.

It is certainly the only book I have ever read or even heard of that is as comprehensive, as accessible and as potent in opportunity for discovery. I consider it the truest and perhaps first really true advaita text for the Western world.

I can't even call it 'spiritual' although it fits that category...I can't call it a 'story' although it contains many stories. I can't put any name or definition on it at all but if I try 'Complete' comes to mind.

Holding all stories and holding all Truth that is untouched by any story....To find this hidden treasure in any moment of any story....To let go of all stories or to open to any point in any story reveals the Same Unchanging Reality.

Yes, advaita, non-dual, TRULY non dual in that duality is not only not an obstacle it is an Opportunity!

So here we have a book that is truly relevant to each and every living being. Here we have a book that is alive, that we can crawl inside and find ourselves everywhere.

I do feel this book is a living thing.
I do feel this book opens me to the Living Possibility of Discovery in Every Moment.
Remarkable, refreshing.....
I am in fact living inside of it and it opens me to the freshness of discovery, to the inescapable Truth of Life contained in and yet not bound by circumstance.

And we get to explore it and ourselves in it Together!  Unprecedented Opportunity! Unqualified Good Fortune!

May the unveiling of our stories and the discovery of our Selves freshly begin!
And may this Beginning have no End, and may our exploration serve Peace for all Beings.

Thank you Gangaji for this exquisite and endless opportunity.

Barbara S.

You can join Gangaji in an opportunity to dive into the book together in the With Gangaji Series - next meeting November 6

I met Gangaji in 1993. She knocked my socks off. Last month, she knocked them off once again at the Hidden Treasure retreat at Kripalu.

I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to meet and work with Gangaji over the last 18 years. You might imagine I have heard what Gangaji has to say. Well, yes and no.

I have listened earnestly and received lifetimes of support. And still, there is always the possibility of hearing freshly. There is the possibility of hearing what has never been heard.

Gangaji began the Hidden Treasure retreat with a series of processes that took each one of us through the graveyard of our stories. (I was reminded a bit of the ghost of Christmas past.) The opportunity was to identify any story I was telling, and see through it to the silent core of my being.

What was remarkable was to recognize a dusty old story I was telling--one I didn’t know I was still subtly telling.  It was like a background hum I stopped hearing long ago. Then suddenly, without any forewarning, it came into clear focus and it wasn’t at all pleasant. 

“I am hideous,” I noxiously told myself. That was all. No other characters or plotlines. Just, “I am hideous.” (Admittedly, a very short story J.) I honestly didn’t know that this “elephant man” story could still play in my mind, but it had me by the proverbial throat that evening, filling my body with terror and shame.

After thrashing about in my bed for a while, at 3:00 in the morning, I put on some warmer clothes and went outside to place my attention on literal space, to the stars above. On the ground were fireflies mirroring the stars. It was undeniably lovely and softening.

In that moment, I asked myself, “Is there space for hideousness?”  “Is there space for shame and terror?”
Yes. Yes, there is.
There is room for it all.
End of story.

In that instant, my attention turned away from a random story I was telling to the spaciousness of my being. I was freshly at home, where I always am! Just like the stars and the fireflies. In knowing who I am in truth, there is nothing to fear. No emotion, no thought, no loss can trample the truth of my being. The inherent, ever present peace of the open heart is the true sanctuary. Not that I can avoid pain as a human being, but when it comes, I can be true to the recognition—the heart gracefully, peacefully holds it all in love. For me that is living freely, living consciously.

I look forward to continuing this self-discovery with the sangha this weekend in the Bay Area, in the coming months with the global online group, and of course, in my own heart, for the rest of my days. If you have any draw to participate in the With Gangaji series or weekend as we dive into the gifts of Hidden Treasure, I encourage you to follow that call. No matter how long ago you met Gangaji, no matter how many times you met with her, there is a gift in offering your own vigilance to this individual and collective realization.

It serves each of us, all of us.
May all being awaken to itself.
With gratitude for all, 
Barbara

Hidden Treasure Weekend

With Gangaji Series - next meeting November 6

I truly believe that Hidden Treasure is the most valuable book I have ever read - and I have been reading new thinkers since the 1960s.    Bless you, thank you.   I always knew IT was simple but never saw the "method" so clearly stated, nor so bravely.
 
Love always,  
Maggie 

There is a weight
and a heft
to memories,
woven as they are
from pieces of old cloth
we’d stashed in a pile
to throw away.

But now opening fresh,
finding a new
existence when told
so convincingly,
along with
no belief
in them
at all.

Dawn

Dearest Gangaji,
I hope this letter finds you well. I just finished your book this morning, "Hidden Treasure." I wanted to share my thought process or insights as I read the book.

I want to thank you for writing the book. It was real, humble and truly allowed me to take a look deeply into my stories. The way you related your stories to the story of the wife and her family was very powerful to me.

Over the week or so that I read it in the evening before bed and in the morning when I got up, I was able to then process it during my day. I was not truly aware of the influence it was having at having at opening my mind and perceptions. I would read the inquiry questions and then they worked somehow within me. At first early in the readings, I underlined certain words or sentences. Then it became clear that to really inquire it had to be my own not your words.

As the week went by I spent more time in quiet and my mind would get agitated and then fall into stillness. The moments of stillness are now greater than the chatter and agitation. The inquiry into the beauty of my life and all its up and downs and seemingly "awful times" as I looked deeper where all preludes to the next step or opportunities for tremendous growth in my life. My childhood, college years, divorce, career, etc.

Something has shifted within my being. We spoke at the Omega retreat in April and I have written you several letters since then. Each letter a falling away of the layers of my perceived self. Through your book and your teachings I am coming home again and again and again.

I went to the cemetery last week to visit my brother's grave. The stillness and beauty I was never able to see or feel before...the gratitude for his life, illness and teaching he has transmitted to me.

The interactions now that I have with patients at my work and insights are continually growing. Whatever their stories, I can perceive them, listen and honor them in a deeper and deeper way. In forever gratitude, D