SOMA
The School of Meditation and Awakening
ENLIGHTENMENT, also called AWAKENING,
WAKING UP, or WAKING DOWN
Is Available to Every Body who wants it
and will persevere.
Waking up is hard to do….or so most people think. However, the great esoteric secret of the
Eastern and Western mystics is no longer a secret. The knowledge and experience is
available to be shared and to transform your life. The awakened Being, or person who is
awake to his/her nature as Consciousness, Pure Awareness, the Absolute, or Being
is able to help transmit the vibrational feeling of the state to others and can
also assist others in a cognitive understanding (through analogies) of what this
shift means.
The Absolute awakened to its Nature in this body-mind complex called Jonathan Labman in July 2001. Since that time an intense
transformational process has occurred to free “me” up of many major
misconceptions, false beliefs, and neuroses untouched by years of other
spiritual and psychological work. It
is now clear that the “I” is more a continuous process like a film than it is a
fixed concept like a photograph.
This website and my work is an offer to dare you to grasp the means of your own
Awakening and work with me until it is obvious what your True Nature is.
This process can take a few months or a few years.
However, most people that I have worked with (about 5 so far who are in stages
of awakening) come to this experiential and cognitive Awakening within
approximately 2 years.
Enlightenment, as a concept, is fraught with misunderstanding.
It is not a state wherein one can produce “magic,” instantaneous healing,
or levitation or any of the signs and wonders, necessarily, though sometimes
those things occur. They are
distractions. Awakening is a state
in which you wake up to your true nature, which is that you are simultaneously
the Infinite Consciousness that transcends time and space and all limitations
AND the finite, mortal, body-mind complex that is bound by time, space and the
limitations of mind and culture.
The most obvious benefit of Awakening is that you can be relieved of illusions, and they cause all
of our unnecessary suffering. You
will also have access to the eternal “perfect brilliant stillness” to quote an
author I read recently. This
stillness will keep you sane through any change in your outer body-mind, and in
a state of ultimate inner peace.
Waking Up does not produce endless bliss, in the sense of a permanent, ecstatic,
orgasmic high. Drugs don’t do that
and neither does Enlightenment.
Waking Up to Being means Waking Up to EVERYTHING: highs, lows, pains, pleasures,
transcendence and immanence.
However, the peace that passes understanding is yours for the asking if you Wake
Up from the dream of confusion about your identity and false feelings of
separation from “The Rest of It” (what I sometimes call Consciousness when I
pray).
How We Work Together
1.
An Assessment
First I will sit down with you for an initial evaluation session to assess whether you are
psychologically stable enough to do this work.
Since the other hat I wear is as a mental health and addictions
counselor, I have the tools available to do this assessment.
The ego must already be fairly functional in order to withstand the demotion from ruler to servant
that Awakening will produce; but you don’t have to be perfect. Though you will Awaken with your
neuroses intact, they won’t remain intact forever. The transformational process
continues as a regular feature of Awakened life.
2.
The Group and Individual Work
If you feel comfortable working with me, and I assess that you are stable enough to do the work of
Awakening, two processes will begin:
(a) group work, wherein you join a group that meets weekly for two hours for
meditation and satsang (satsang is a question and answer format), and (b)
individual work, wherein we meet at regular intervals to work on your own
intense inner process. If I assess
that you are not ready to begin, I can work with you as a counselor or refer you
to someone else to work with you.
The group meets weekly on Saturday mornings from 9 to 11AM except on holiday weekends (Halloween,
Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, Easter, Memorial Day) all during the
“school year.” People rest from
group processes for two months in the summer: July and August. The fee for group work is
currently $40 per weekly session, though that may change; fewer than 5 people
and the fee will rise to $50 or $60.
Individual work can be as much or as little as you like.
I meet with individuals on Saturdays after the group sessions for half
hour or hour sessions. The fee
for individual work is based on a sliding scale from $60 to $200 for an hour. You and a friend can come and split
an individual session if you like.
Sliding scale rates are based on your total household income divided by 5%.
3.
Suggested Readings, Spiritual
Practices and Other Teachers
No one person has the entire perspective on the Infinite.
(Okay, you can laugh now, how can anyone express the Infinite entirely?) I will recommend readings that have
been helpful and sittings with other teachers. I have read hundreds, if not
thousands of spiritual texts for the last 40 years. I will also recommend that
you listen to your own deepest impulses of being.
Sometimes it is helpful to do intense spiritual practice. Sometimes it is better to rest in
Being and do nothing.
4.
Meditation
Meditation is a core practice, without which
you will not experience the Transcendent and begin to form an analogous
understanding of Awakening. We will
practice meditation every Saturday and I recommend that you practice it in
between sessions.
5.
I am a Mentor and not a Guru
We will work together through a
dialog that helps you uncover the truth about yourself: your real feelings,
your thoughts, the influence of your history on your current life, and what your
personality is like. We will look at your entire life: physical, mental,
emotional, psychological, which are all a subset of Being.
Mentoring is the process by which I
relate to you as an equal human being, not a superior. Though I am awake and radiate
Awakeness, I am not your ontological superior. Worshiping
another human being is merely a cul-de-sac in the process of awakening:
projecting onto the other what is already in you.
In this process, I am merely the guide.
I still (gasp) make mistakes and will adjust my mentoring work to your
particular personality and requirements.
My work integrates the extensive and
multi-faceted education that I have (summarized below), and brings it to bear on
helping you to empower yourself. I act as your guide through the process of
self-inquiry, which will help you discover the truth of who you are. This work
goes all the way to the radical shift in awareness and perspective that is
called awakening. In these processes, asking the right questions can help to
produce quick shifts and openings in your life.
Educational Credentials:
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B.A. in English and Bible from Covenant College (1978),
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License in Massage Therapy from the Swedish Institute in New York (1992)
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Courses in Rehabilitation Counseling (Master’s degree) at New York University
(1994)
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3-Year Certification in Psychic Awareness and Energetic Healing (1998)
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Master's Degree with a concentration in Counseling Psychology from Vermont
College (2000), and
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500 Hour Certification in Yoga Teacher Training (RYT with Yoga Alliance 2001) in
New Hope, PA.
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Awakening within the Waking Down in Mutuality school of yoga tantra. Senior teachers and the founder of the
school have confirmed the awakening here, and are still working with me as
guides and teachers. You can see their
information at
www.wakingdown.org.
-
40 years of spiritual work and practice.
All are welcome regardless of: race,
creed, nationality, religion, spiritual affiliation, or sexual orientation. I
especially welcome and work with all minorities who are most often
disenfranchised from spiritual community.
Enlightenment for Every Body!
You can reach me by
e-mail via
j@simplyawake.com or by phone at 215-630-0528.
I look forward to meeting you…
Jonathan Labman
P.S. – To read the story of my life and Awakening, go to
www.amazon.com and order my new book An
Ordinary Being: A Journey from Chaos
to Awakening.