Radical Awakening FAQ

Yukio Answers Questions About Radical Awakening

I've done so many seminars which gave me great experiences, but none which permanently ended my longing and search for more. How is Radical Awakening different?
A radical awakening is not an experience. It is a fundamental realization of the Self. This is a shift in knowing who you are, not just a single experience of it. So, even when you think you "forget" after your awakening, there is always a deeper knowing that you've never left the Self. This is a freedom that few people have felt.
I am skeptical. How can such a powerful, permanent shift be enabled by just one weekend?
Yukio's teacher, H.W.L. Poonja (affectionately called Papa-ji), stated, "To be your Self is the easiest of all things. It requires no effort and can be realized in one quarter of a second." The late Zen master Suzuki Roshi, with whom Yukio studied early on, stated, "Enlightenment happens in a moment...it is an occurrence, like an accident." Radical Awakening sets the stage for a split-second realization, where you are "accident prone."
What actually happens in Radical Awakening Intensives?
We start with inquiring into who you are -- your self-identifications which lead to suffering. Working with these inquiries, Yukio guides people in exploring realms of awareness and consciousness. Meditation, stories, sharing, and transpersonal processes "set the space" for a Radical Awakening.
Is this enlightenment?
No. You can think of an enlightened being, a "janai," as so rooted in the Self that every expression and action consciously expresses his/her full realization of Self. However, after Radical Awakening, there is a spontaneous and moment-to-moment deepening and maturation into That. Follow-up support in a community nurtures the maturation.
Is Radical Awakening someone's new "good idea?"
Our foundational teachings come from one of India's greatest saints of this century, Sri Ramana Maharshi. The 2,500 year old Advaita teachings that inspired him are some of the earliest recorded spiritual teachings. Advaita, the philosophy of non-dualism, is a specific branch of the Hindu Vedanta that was buried amongst the ancient stories (purnas) and scriptures (vedas). In most translations of the stories, it was edited out since it was felt to be too esoteric and not essential to the story line. It is also important to understand that realization of Being cannot be "learned" from any teaching, philosophy, or book. It occurs in the silence, as a transmission that goes from person to person, from spirit to person (as from the still present energy of Ramana Maharshi), or directly from the Absolute.
What is this "transmission"?
There is a "resonant frequency" which opens the space for realization of the Self. Sri Ramana Maharshi was such a powerful carrier of this frequency that it "jammed" competing frequencies, giving people access to a silent mind where realization occurs. The current was transmitted by Ramana Maharshi to Papa-ji, who transmitted it to several individuals, telling them to pass it on. Yukio is one of those individuals. He is a conduit of this energy. Basic to Radical Awakening is the fact that every person who is "awakened" becomes to some degree a conduit for this transmission.
How do I know that I can receive this transmission? Can everybody receive it?
Papa-ji stated that there is a "readiness" which is associated with listening to the truth of who you are. He said that what is required is the desire for freedom, and that if one desired this above all other desires, there could be complete realization. Papa-ji also stated that it is only grace which brings you the truth, yet one's openness, earnestness, and desire for freedom, along with continued exposure to the transmission, sets the stage for reception.

Radical Awakening: An Overview by Yukio Ramana

Radical Awakening, which is what I call the work that I have developed, affords a sudden and impacting shift in one's conscious awareness of Self. People report that it is akin to entering a state of effortless meditation.

After experiencing my own Radical Awakening with my teacher Papa-ji, some years ago, this Awareness has remained fairly stable. In this consciousness, I still feel (and sometimes act out) a full range of emotions -- anger, fear, joy, compassion, hurt. Yet, with all of these feelings, there is always an underlying knowing, a conscious awareness of something deeper which is ever-present.

I have been using different formats to take people to their own personal Radical Awakenings -- private sessions, small group meetings, day-long and weekend intensives. The results have been astonishing. People have reported their false illusions of self being dispelled in an instant. And they report a relaxation of demands for things to be any certain way -- there is a flexibility in instances that previously were problematic. The people who have experienced Radical Awakenings are in a maturation process that is occurring spontaneously and naturally. They are open to a spaciousness and inner quietness which seems to have no limit to how deep it can go.

Testimonials from those who have experienced Radical Awakening