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Ascension!: An Analysis of the Art of Ascension As Taught by the Ishayas
This book clearly explains the teachings of the Ishayas, an ancient order of monks who were entrusted by the Apostle John to preserve the original teachings of Christ until the third millennium. The Ishayas hold that the original teachings of Jesus were not a belief system at all, but rather a mechanical series of techniques to transform human life into a constant perception of the perfection within the human heart. Real expansion of consciousness occurs only through direct, personal experience. Ascension! is an invitation to awaken to the innermost Reality of your true Self. This text also includes a description of the Ishayas' 27 Ascension Attitudes.
- GenresSpirituality
189 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
15 people are currently reading
383 people want to read
About the author
Maharishi Sadasiva Isham
6 books11 followersThe life of every person is sacred. The revelation of that sacredness is often revealed by a person's contribution to humanity. In many cases, that contribution is only revealed after death. Maharishi Sadashiva Isham (MSI) was such an individual. MSI's life was punctuated by the desire to know. His search was not for knowledge but for Truth. Truth was most important to him and he shared that Truth in total commitment to healing the world.
Born April 13, 1949 in Seattle, Washington, MSI's early life was marked by a desire to find meaning in a seemingly lonely and cruel world. His frustration from feeling different and alone was blanketed by a firm hope that one day he would discover the purpose of life.
After graduating Phi Beta Kappa, Cum Laude in English from the University of Washington, MSI met his teacher, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of Transcendental Meditation (TM.) MSI entered into a formal teacher/student relationship with Maharishi and became a TM teacher shortly thereafter. He eventually found himself in Fairfield, Iowa, home of the TM University with a wife and two children. Content in his experience of expanding consciousness, he settled into a quiet lifestyle of writing books and designing and building houses.
His life was thoroughly shattered in 1988 when, in a matter of months, he lost his business, his money, his house and his family through divorce. Considering his loss an omen, and disenchanted with the rules surrounding TM, he began a new quest for the meaning and purpose of life.
During a journey to the Himalayas, MSI found the Ishayas, an ancient order of monks founded by the Apostle John. From them, MSI learned the techniques collectively known as the Ishayas' Ascension that he would later bring to the world.
Born April 13, 1949 in Seattle, Washington, MSI's early life was marked by a desire to find meaning in a seemingly lonely and cruel world. His frustration from feeling different and alone was blanketed by a firm hope that one day he would discover the purpose of life.
After graduating Phi Beta Kappa, Cum Laude in English from the University of Washington, MSI met his teacher, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of Transcendental Meditation (TM.) MSI entered into a formal teacher/student relationship with Maharishi and became a TM teacher shortly thereafter. He eventually found himself in Fairfield, Iowa, home of the TM University with a wife and two children. Content in his experience of expanding consciousness, he settled into a quiet lifestyle of writing books and designing and building houses.
His life was thoroughly shattered in 1988 when, in a matter of months, he lost his business, his money, his house and his family through divorce. Considering his loss an omen, and disenchanted with the rules surrounding TM, he began a new quest for the meaning and purpose of life.
During a journey to the Himalayas, MSI found the Ishayas, an ancient order of monks founded by the Apostle John. From them, MSI learned the techniques collectively known as the Ishayas' Ascension that he would later bring to the world.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 31, 2011
This is a short and easy read. There were a couple of typos in the Overview. Don't let that dissuade you from reading further. The book is full of insight on the nature of reality and the underlying conditions necessary for entering into unity consciousness. This is a gem of a book for people interested in living in unbounded presence.
February 13, 2023
A book written from Higher Consciousness, it changes life reading it.
May 9, 2022
First read many years ago I thought it was a sales pitch for his meditation techniques.
Second read, it's clearly an application of the technique to issues. MSI applies appreciation, gratitude, compassion and love to issues, resolving them for the reader. He asks us to consider the possibility that perhaps external circumstances and inner conditions are optimal, perfect even, for human development to enlightenment.
To be fair, he's not talking about emotion and cognition as a meditation in itself, but as a vehicle for meditative access to pure consciousness.
One radical conclusion from the book is that compassion is not difficult, as a Buddhist has opined, but rather simple: "True compassion means raising the level of consciousness of the sufferer by recognizing that the suffering is misplaced, that it is an impossible event in enlightenment, and then by sharing that vision...with perfect love." So it's simply spotting and loving someone in the midst of error. "...with compassion," MSI writes as an aside "the mind, heart and body all rise to fulfillment together." It's the all-at-onceness, the "everything everywhere all at once" quality of compassion that defies definition.
It might also seem as if MSI is teaching a relativistic message regarding truth, but that's also inaccurate: he asserts the absolute is beyond mind, following his teacher Patanjali. I highly recommend his very practical translation and commentary on the Yoga Sutras, by the way.
MSI's teaching on emotions is compelling - we must "learn to be our own Cosmic Parents" - allowing our emotions to be free, while taking responsibility for them.
MSI quotes his anonymous teacher saying "the means gather around sattva" (purity and clarity).
Like de Gracian (Art of Worldly Wisdom) MSI proposes that wisdom is a form of beauty or charm. This view is also held by Plato in the Phaedrus.
Ruiz' Four Agreements, so lacking in a practical technique, find their praxis in ascension and their reason for being. Praise brings impeccability, gratitude brings not taking things personally, love permits questioning assumptons, and compassion admits doing one's best. So these may be seen as the operationalization of the Four Agreements.
MSI wisely did not try to teach ascension by book. It needs the direct transmission from person to person and verification of experience. People need to feel it. And perhaps that's why ascension did not develop more globally.
It may also be that MSI's teaching came too early, with its posthuman, lucid dream, and archetypal undertones, for the general population to admit. Perhaps people needed the reassuring bromides of other teachers rather than the loving recognition of error of MSI.
""At all times, there is only good." What a relief to a tired mind to think such a simple thought! ... Entertaining this one thought inspires us to learn of the good in all things." MSI writes.
Much of the end of the book follows Patanjali's praxis, describing the gunas and three advanced states, telling great stories (the king and the monkeys - don't kill the monkeys!) and a description of the mechanics of ascension. The first sphere is practical and psychological, while the second is frankly quite mystical in nature, and the description of the remaining 5 spheres is pretty abstract.
Hard to know who to recommend this book to. If you've just learnt ascension it's invaluable. If you haven't it may be frustrating. If you want to learn about MSI's ideas, his translation of Patanjali is beautiful and practical. It presents many parallels to Alice Bailey's book Glamour, where darkness is dispelled by the practice of positive emotions, and has a practical application. I wish his work were much, much more widely practiced.
Second read, it's clearly an application of the technique to issues. MSI applies appreciation, gratitude, compassion and love to issues, resolving them for the reader. He asks us to consider the possibility that perhaps external circumstances and inner conditions are optimal, perfect even, for human development to enlightenment.
To be fair, he's not talking about emotion and cognition as a meditation in itself, but as a vehicle for meditative access to pure consciousness.
One radical conclusion from the book is that compassion is not difficult, as a Buddhist has opined, but rather simple: "True compassion means raising the level of consciousness of the sufferer by recognizing that the suffering is misplaced, that it is an impossible event in enlightenment, and then by sharing that vision...with perfect love." So it's simply spotting and loving someone in the midst of error. "...with compassion," MSI writes as an aside "the mind, heart and body all rise to fulfillment together." It's the all-at-onceness, the "everything everywhere all at once" quality of compassion that defies definition.
It might also seem as if MSI is teaching a relativistic message regarding truth, but that's also inaccurate: he asserts the absolute is beyond mind, following his teacher Patanjali. I highly recommend his very practical translation and commentary on the Yoga Sutras, by the way.
MSI's teaching on emotions is compelling - we must "learn to be our own Cosmic Parents" - allowing our emotions to be free, while taking responsibility for them.
MSI quotes his anonymous teacher saying "the means gather around sattva" (purity and clarity).
Like de Gracian (Art of Worldly Wisdom) MSI proposes that wisdom is a form of beauty or charm. This view is also held by Plato in the Phaedrus.
Ruiz' Four Agreements, so lacking in a practical technique, find their praxis in ascension and their reason for being. Praise brings impeccability, gratitude brings not taking things personally, love permits questioning assumptons, and compassion admits doing one's best. So these may be seen as the operationalization of the Four Agreements.
MSI wisely did not try to teach ascension by book. It needs the direct transmission from person to person and verification of experience. People need to feel it. And perhaps that's why ascension did not develop more globally.
It may also be that MSI's teaching came too early, with its posthuman, lucid dream, and archetypal undertones, for the general population to admit. Perhaps people needed the reassuring bromides of other teachers rather than the loving recognition of error of MSI.
""At all times, there is only good." What a relief to a tired mind to think such a simple thought! ... Entertaining this one thought inspires us to learn of the good in all things." MSI writes.
Much of the end of the book follows Patanjali's praxis, describing the gunas and three advanced states, telling great stories (the king and the monkeys - don't kill the monkeys!) and a description of the mechanics of ascension. The first sphere is practical and psychological, while the second is frankly quite mystical in nature, and the description of the remaining 5 spheres is pretty abstract.
Hard to know who to recommend this book to. If you've just learnt ascension it's invaluable. If you haven't it may be frustrating. If you want to learn about MSI's ideas, his translation of Patanjali is beautiful and practical. It presents many parallels to Alice Bailey's book Glamour, where darkness is dispelled by the practice of positive emotions, and has a practical application. I wish his work were much, much more widely practiced.
February 11, 2012
Ascension! An Analysis of the Art of Ascension ISBN 13:978-0-9843233-0-2 ISBN 10: 0-9843233-0-9 LC 95-061427 (Old ISBN: 0-931783-51-8) This short book succinctly informs of the True Nature of Reality while describing the spider web woven by the mind that keeps one falsely separated from That. While the concepts are not new, they are more profoundly, clearly and plainly stated than I’ve ever seen. MSI predominately emphasizes the power and authority of one person’s choice in changing the entire universe. That each person and each choice they make is the only factor that can change one’s reality.
November 24, 2014
A great in-depth analysis about life and the important questions we all have...
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews