“Many faces of one Self”, FORWARD AND LETTER TO THE READER
© M I L L E N I U M , Ediciones B & Avihay Abohav
FORWARD BY OLGA BERNAL
Avi Hay appeared in my life without looking, with him I learned the treasure of meditation and, beware that the topic is already here, it completely changed my life. So I say and it is true. And as sure as I am that there are no coincidences, how is it possible that he also came to give meditation classes two minutes from my home and then in my own work? And the challenge was complicated: I am working in a hospital, in the midst of the hustle and bustle of patients and doctors, and still, even there, he was able to bring peace.
For my part I cannot be more grateful for what I have learned since then. Especially with meditation, which is already an essential part of my life. Meditating with Avi Hay is simple, you should not be subjected to strict conditions nor approach or any kind of spiritual belief or knowledge. It is simply breathing, opening an interior space of your heart and feeling the wholeness of Being that lives through it. Curiously enough, that it is precisely in this silent emptiness where everything makes sense and I feel capable of loving life as it is.
I emphasize meditation because it is the door to the rest of the experiences, that include Soul Therapy, a unique path of spiritual development based on self-knowledge that for me was a true transformation towards a more conscious and fuller life.
His second book a beautiful name, True faces of one Self, and for me it brings out the pure essence of Avi Hay, in the personal aspect of daily activities, therapies, teachings, lectures and workshops. In the first part of the book he leads us through different topics that all relate to question who we are and what is the meaning of our life. For those who thought that our person is limited to our body, this is a revolution. In the first part we understand that we are not only a body, we are much more, we are a soul. Avi Hay then will illustrate what this means in each topic with abundant and detailed personal experiences, of patients and friends. They are real cases, recent, many of which I know personally. In these examples he shows how these faces are the true faces of the divinity.
In the second part, Avi Hay goes even further, because we have to understand that we are not only souls, we are much more. We are the divinity itself, the manifestation of one Self, the origin and the end of all that is manifested. It is difficult to assimilate, because in our vital experience in the mind limits our ability to understand and, it must also be said, because some manifestations in this world are far from representing the values we relate to the true Self: harmony, beauty, peace and love.
But Avi Hay gives us clear guidelines of how we can finally except our divine manifestation. He gives scientific evidences that every person is able to experience or perceive, so that one grows from the limited concept of identity based which we call “soul” to that which we can call the Source, the Self or “That” which in essence we are.
It is frankly surprising the virtue that Avi Hay has to synthesize knowledge and experiences so subtle and so deep. Has the ability to project his vision through simple words, conceptual images and even a graph that represents our essence. Even tough for those who are facing these issues for the first time it can be difficult to understand, he himself invites us not to enter into dogmatisms, rather to question and experiment directly within us. Whether or not to believe in such difficult subjects as reincarnation is therefore less important.
I encourage you to read it and to feel it with an open heart and experience it personally in everyday life. In our social context we are deeply conditioned by cultural heritage and technological media. We receive and process so much information that we do not have time to reflect. They overwhelm us with so much news that we do not dare to doubt what the official media tells us. And although we already know that the material world is a small part of everything there is, we resist accepting everything that goes beyond what our five senses capture. However, we feel this existential void, because the current social model no longer nourishes what we need. That is why Avi Hay’s work is a blessing for souls in search of light, a balm for wounded hearts, a path of self-knowledge directed to love that manifests itself within all of us and throughout the universe.
I trust that reading this book will lead you to clarity about the meaning of the Awakening of our consciousness, because it is very complete, built with chapters loaded with content, though small in extent. Through them all the message and meaning of what Avi Hay has taught us is transmitted in as many ways as he is capable of expressing. And if it does not lead you to clarity, it will at least make you think about the most important thing we have, life itself and our role as human beings in this world.
For my part it is only thanks to Avi Hay, light of my Awakening, loving teacher who appeared in my path. With a hug of light and love,
OLGA BERNAL LOSADA, author of the book and the blog “Mi camino del alma”
BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION: LETTER TO THE READER
Dear reader, I want this book to be like an arrow from my heart to yours and to resonate within you. My tactic is very clear: expose my own experiences as a scientist of consciousness together with the world-recognized evidences to open the door for a trip to your interior core of being. From there you will be able to contemplate the meaning of life from a profound and innovative perspective, embrace or discard what you think is right and opt, perhaps, for new horizons in your evolution. Your help is essential to awaken us as a species and to manifest ourselves consciously.
The Awakening process is complex and demanding for all human beings, but as we are interconnected in this hologram of creation, a critical mass of relatively few awakened individuals is enough for the resonance to be effective and influence our whole civilization. My wish is that we could begin to take responsibility, to transform our systems of beliefs and create a reality much healthier, harmonious and happy for us a a species.
I have dedicated my first book to the seekers, to those souls with the fervor of questioning, understanding and practicing many exercises, which break into pieces the current paradigm of materialism and lead us to a more conscious way of life, from an awakened heart. It is an extensive book, in the classic format of questions and answers, which summarizes the human experience on Planet Earth in all areas of life at the beginning of the XXI century. It ends by describing the options for souls to evolve on this planet in these intense times of change and transformation. I trust the Universal Intelligence, which has challenged me to write another book, a simpler more direct and summarized one, to inspire the reader with the experiences of Awakening that I have lived with many people in three continents.
I recommend reading this book in an orderly way, from beginning to end, but then, it can also be consulted as an oracle, asking yourself inwardly about any matter and opening it up for advice. These tips, which are summarized in bold and prominent letters throughout the book, will respond exactly to the moment you are living in your interior. It is important to consult it in a sincere and focused way, so that Intelligence, which acts through the subconscious, brings you a perfect reflection of the current moment in your process of evolution.
This book describes the process of growth in consciousness on the basis of our concept of identity and in two steps: from the person to the soul and from the soul to the Self. It is not a question of two steps in a linear path of time and Space, rather it is only a reference to what is essentially transformed, which is our sense of identity. In fact, we can do these two steps in parallel, there can even be “quantum leaps”, that make us awaken suddenly to the Self, without going through to conscious experience of us as souls, although this is unusual. Above all, it is important to note that this process is unique and singular for every human being. The inner advance in our own concept of identity means that we inquire into the many aspects of our life, without trying to value it on a linear or evolutionary scale. Rather it is a journey from the surface of our identity to its center and root, where we are the direct manifestation of divinity.
To better understand this issue of the Awakening process, I invite you to think about the internet network as a metaphor, in which we are all connected, each one from his or her computer. In each computer there is a virtual image on the screen, which corresponds to our relative and personal reality. We all live and have parallel realities, but we also have a common virtual reality within the internet. And on every computer there is also a RAM memory, which allows you to operate, like our conscious mind, and a brain that would be the processor. The hard disk, then, would be like the subconscious memory of the soul, of immense magnitude in comparison with the RAM memory. It is invisible from the screen of our virtual reality, but it is where the programmer or therapist works to change our subconscious contents. Similarly, each computer has its hardware, which would be our genetics, and also its software, which would be our soul memor, with its main existential program, conditioning and talents, image, sound and video files. So death would be a process of transferring our software to a Cloud Memory until we install it in a new “computer”, with the following incarnation. As we will see later, death does not exist, it is simply a transit to the other virtual side of life. But above all, consider the following fact in this metaphor: no computer works without being plugged into the electric current, which is our unconscious connection with the Source of life.
To meditate is to “turn off” or “reset” our virtual reality and become aware of the light that nourishes us from within, which holds so many parallel worlds, people or “computers” in that immense network of relative realities.
We are all connected in the same Source, which produces the very fabric of time and space and allows us to generate a virtual and relative realities, “a world with two legs created from the subconscious”. Our “computer” simply modulates the electric current in millions of “silicon” cells of immense complexity, and together with software, produces this wonderful spectacle of our relative reality – emotional, mental, and sensory – that is different for each one of us.
For most people the Self or Source of Life is unconscious, just as the electric current is invisible to the computer. And although we project ourselves every day, so convinced that it is the “real” reality, we all need to plug into the Source at night, to recharge the battery. To meditate is to charge the battery consciously and become aware that we are living in a virtual reality, built from that current of life. We have forgotten our origin in divinity and only live that personal reality on the surface of the hologram.
But when we investigate this virtual reality, we discover that everything that separates us from our origin in the Source is the ignorance of who we are. When we meditate repeatedly, it is like turning off or resetting the computer many times, until we perceive that Source which flows through us. Usually meditation is not enough to live consciously, because it is necessary to debug and defragment our memory, that “hard disk” of memories of the soul. To this inner work with the fragmentation of our identity I simply call “Soul Therapy” and it involves investigating our identity through intention (heart), attention (mind) and breath (body).
When we finally wake up to the Source, which is our essence, we continue to produce a relative reality on our “screen,” but we already know who we really are and stop suffering because of this virtual reality on the surface. The conscious therapist, like a “programmer,” simply transforms the subconscious into conscious, dissociated, and dismantle programs of suffering and discomfort. I present a visual scheme of this metaphor after this introductory letter and it also includes the understanding of Duality – “Wave” and “Particle” / “Light Body” and “Physical Body” / “Software” and “Hardware” – from a Non Dual perspective, inspired by quantum mechanics as follows.
If you visualize our physical body as a particle on the surface of this side of life, the body of our soul would be like a wave, or what I call “Light Body”. The quantum space where the we interchange and transit between these two manifestations is the Source of Life, at the center of the sphere of creation, which is a “holographic apple”. But since we are beings of a complexity far greater than that of a particle, we have a large memory of the soul stored at the subconscious level and this “software”, is what actually moves us between This side and the Other Side, until we complement our process of Awakening and remember our origin in the divinity, in the Source of life.
The first step in Awakening, from the person to the soul, is a radical change in our sense of identity.
The person is our most superficial identity or the one we appear on the outside, but when we first wake up first, we become aware that behind the person we have a soul, a long path traveled through past lives, talents, desires and subconscious patterns, which is currently stored in our subconscious memory. To this step from the person to the soul I dedicate the first part of the book and gather in it many conclusions, examples, anecdotes, sharing the collected experiences of personal testimonies in workshops, groups and private meetings. I have tried to capture these testimonies in different fields of life, mostly from in my direct experience, but occasionally I add the most recent researchers in psychiatry, psychology and science.
As I will explain later, even this “small” passage from the person to the soul is a giant step, when it comes to the human collective. It involves a change in our paradigm of life and involves a profound transformation in educational, social, medical, economic and political systems. That is why it is so difficult for us to take that step, although we are all moving through it gradually. To live consciously as souls is a tremendous revolution for the species, because it would shake us from the slavery of matter due to existential fear; We would approach life as a journey towards self-realization of the soul on an individual and collective level.
The second step, from the soul to the Self, from the “software” of the soul to the “plug into the current of life”, at the center of the hologram, is an incredible journey that relatively few souls lived in the history of humanity. These souls have been our prophets, teachers and spiritual guides for millennia. But I suspect, with great clusters of evidence, that in these times of Awakening we would eventually be millions of humans who end our evolutionary cycles and we would pass to the Non-Dual experience of divinity as our true and ultimate identity.
This second step in evolution is a journey from the soul as identity to the depth of Being, to the Source of life, at the center of the hologram of creation.
It happens when our mind, whose habit is to shoot the attention out, is absorbed in the heart, achieving a natural rest in peace and love, just like deep sleep without dream but conscious. To this step I dedicate the second part of the book, although perhaps it is the most difficult to describe with words. It is a mystical journey that requires going through the Dark Night of the Soul and transcend even that subtle and virtual concept “soul” as our identity. And for this second part it would be better to use poetry, parables and tales of the life of saints, sages, yogis and prophets. And yet, I have tried to draw a sketch of what this process of the old souls is about.
It requires a great maturity, periods of integration, to consolidate personal identity from the depths of something so highly abstract, intelligent and compassionate as the light of the Self. Living from the Source allows us to rest in our Home, in God, trust, enjoy and Serve the universal intelligence, free ourselves itself from the suffering caused by the journey of soul in separation in many lifetimes.
To me, the metaphor of a sphere or the “holographic apple” is a very suggestive and useful. It depicts self-realization as a journey from the surface of life to depth in one Self. It ends when we truly experience how great we are as direct manifestation of divinity, God or the Source of the Life. Thus we also understand that the Absolute, formless, eternal and unlimited, in the center of that “apple”, needs us to experiment itself and expand. The multitude of colors and forms in time and space get more and more complex until it finally becomes conscious of itself in the human forma. And upon our return to the Source, we understand that we are all interconnected at the root of our identity, where we are all one.
What I write in this book is totally true from my own angle of experience, which of course is a relative and singular angle, so it can only be “my relative truth.” But I hope you can recognize the echo of the Universal Truth among its lines, because to that I have dedicated my life and I think it can be felt. However, I do not pretend to convince you of anything, I write it because it is simply the task of my soul in this last life, in which I seem to resume many lifetimes altogether. So I offer you to reflect on the conclusions of a traveler in this relative reality of planet earth in the XXI century and decide the path for your own.
My path was to believe in nothing, just to allow me to experience directly and open my mind in this great laboratory. And I permit myself to experience as many times as I want and need, to achieve inner certainty. It seemed impossible for me to live life differently and I always wanted to go further beyond a mere “spiritual” curiosity. I was interested in walking the path to the end, verifying my conclusions again and again to be able to share with whoever is willing to learn and listen. We may not all need to go out on a quest to find the meaning of life in general, but we all long to know the true meaning of our life.
Finally, the best thing one can discover inside is one own true Self.
I guess if one could speak of the meaning of Awakening in a one single sentence, it would be: to live from a heart anchored in the Divinity, to serve the universal intelligence in body and soul. And for me, it means making self-realization accessible and completely demystifying the notion of “enlightenment” as the object of spiritual pursuit. To begin to feel that divinity in oneself we only need to “turn off” our virtual reality and become aware of what we already are. That is, to achieve happiness, health and abundance we should only ask ourselves: how can I love and serve life from what I already am?
However, to reach this conclusion I offer you a detailed description of the map of many souls. This map even includes the explanation of terms like “soul”, “Other Side”, “reincarnation”, according to a “spirituality” that is simply self-consciousness. The map is aimed at both old and young souls, who long to travel in their own way, because for me each path is respectable. If in the first book I offered the theory and practice of Awakening, here I leave you the testimonies of innumerable experiences to stimulate your interest in undertaking this journey in your own way.
I do not expect humanity to jump into the consciousness of the Self from one day to the next. There are many young souls developing on the face of the planet and others who are just traveling in our planetary reality. This is a multilevel school for souls, it is unlikely that it will suddenly become a “planet of mystics.” However, I have this following clarity:
The incredible number of souls traveling in our world now is only due to the great opportunity to be free and Awaken.
Although sometimes it seems so futile to aspire to change while watching the collective waves of suffering in our world – violence, hunger, poverty, pollution, natural and artificial disasters – I insist on trusting in Universal Intelligence, which to guide us in our planetary evolution. This millennium, which begins with extreme polarity, offers us to transcend duality and return to the unconditional Source of light and love at the root of our identity. I believe that many souls will end their evolutionary cycles in their present lifetime and for them I have wrote this book.
I believe each one of us can connect with the Source of Life in a direct, organic way, through conscious breath focused in the heart, or what I call “meditation.” I want to convey to you that it is the true meaning of the divine-human experience. I also appeal to old and wise souls, to take command and act for the benefit of transforming our civilization. The earth as a school offers us multiple levels of learning, to grow in consciousness until we reach the experience of the divinity in oneself. The last lesson of the sage is to learn to live beyond time and space, even in his physical body, and to completely absorb his mind in the heart. It requires a great trust in Universal Intelligence, but it measures with the experience of pure love, silence and happiness.
Therefore, dear reader, I hope that the book will seduce you with the balm of our lost love: the love for life itself, for existence as it is, from the inner experience of simply Being. To me, all souls are direct channels of the Source, light beams of the same Sun, waves in the same ocean, with an inherent right to inner happiness and with the capacity to transcend.
And I do not want to finish without expressing my deep gratitude to all these souls whose histories are narrated in this book and especially to Olga Bernal, who corrected the draft of the manuscript and wrote the prologue. As a general rule, I do not mention the names of the people whose processes I describe in this book, except in cases where I expressly received their permission.
All of them, my friends and family, disciples of meditation and Soul Therapy, participants in retreats and private sessions consultations, are my true teachers. To them I add my partner Amor and my two children, who are my greatest teachers in these times. All of them have taught me, through that Hall of Mirrors, what it is to grow as a soul, in different roles and aspects of life, and resonate with love. I hope that reading the book will activate in you this resonance with the love and illumine your path with the light of the Universal Intelligence. With my deep gratitude for your listening and sharing this journey inside your heart, in Service and love,
Avi Hay
Orba, November 29 of 2015
© M I L L E N I U M , Ediciones B & Avihay Abohav