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Your Unique Self
Underlying the vision behind democracy is the recognition that every individual has dignity, adequacy and worth. This democratic understanding of the worth and standing of the individual lies at the core of what the West calls enlightenment. The Western idea of enlightenment, rooted in the great vision of the Biblical prophets, is generally understood to have entered mainstream consciousness through the political democratic movements of the mid 18th century. Western enlightenment is primarily concerned with the democratization of political power. Classical enlightenment, sometimes called Eastern enlightenment because it was greatly emphasized in the East, is about the individual merging into the greater one. The appearance of separate self is an illusion, which must be overcome as the individual realizes that one is really not separate at all but part of the one. The goal of Eastern enlightenment is moving beyond the grasping ego and desperately seeking separate self by attaining a state of consciousness in which the illusion of separateness was dissolved in the greater one. This path of classical enlightenment is seen as the path beyond suffering. Unique Self enlightenment brings the Eastern and Western understandings about enlightenment together, into a higher Integral World Spirituality embrace. Unique Self enlightenment is based on your commitment to transcend separate self into the one, even as you realize that that essence sees through your unique perspective. Unique Self opens the door to the potential democratization of enlightenment. To awaken to your Unique Self is to be lived as God, which, in truth, means to be lived as love.
505 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
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237 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 25, 2015
The comparison between western and eastern approaches of spirituality and the notion of Unique Self to reconcile both is powerful. I also appreciate the 8 stations on the roads to the Unique Self, especially the one dealing with your unique shadow (and the 10 principles to work on it)
And this quote about friends:
There are 3 kinds of friends in the world. An ordinary friend sees you as you appear to be. An extra-ordinary friend sees you for what you can be. But in presence of the highest friend, you already are.
And that yes in hebrew means integrity (and so much more)
And this quote about friends:
There are 3 kinds of friends in the world. An ordinary friend sees you as you appear to be. An extra-ordinary friend sees you for what you can be. But in presence of the highest friend, you already are.
And that yes in hebrew means integrity (and so much more)
June 22, 2020
This is a difficult book to rate; many of the ideas are beautiful, inspiring, deeply insightful. I cried a few times at some of the personal stories Marc shares. There is a deep and grounded spirituality, and unique takes on old concepts, like shadow = unlived life. So why 2 stars?
1) The basic premise of unique self is set up to be a new evolution in consciousness, (“for the first time in history”, etc) I think this requires straw-manning all other spiritual traditions and teachings. I think Unique Self is a nonduality Teaching with the emphasis on the personal expression rather than the universal; the wave rather than the ocean. This isn’t a problem except that Gafni keeps saying this is a unique spiritual take that basically no else has, essentially relegating all nondaul teachings to True Self teachings, which I think is a big mistake.
2) he talks abt Unique Self as this unique teaching while at the same time harkening back to ancient traditions and reinterpreting them in his framework, as unique expressions of unique self. (“Know yourself is the Unique Self Maxim of the Delphic Oracle” p 121) This contradiction runs throughout the book continuously in a way that I found deeply frustrating.
3) He’s constantly name-dropping in a way that I find undermines the credibility of what he’s saying.
4) I think it overemphasizes uniqueness in an unnecessary dialectic that make
5) I think the overemphasis on uniqueness has a huge potential for supporting narcissism and a form of tantric spiritual bypassing
6) there are a variety of claims I simply disagree with or find i have to jump through big hoops to make sense in ways that wouldn’t be misleading
As a result I would dissuade others to read this book unless they already have a deep spiritual grounding, insight and study, already have an integral view so they won’t be enamored by the relative truths and take the bathwater w the baby, and a deep psychological self understanding and are used to disagreeing w certain points authors make with agreeing with others. Maybe that’s everyone
1) The basic premise of unique self is set up to be a new evolution in consciousness, (“for the first time in history”, etc) I think this requires straw-manning all other spiritual traditions and teachings. I think Unique Self is a nonduality Teaching with the emphasis on the personal expression rather than the universal; the wave rather than the ocean. This isn’t a problem except that Gafni keeps saying this is a unique spiritual take that basically no else has, essentially relegating all nondaul teachings to True Self teachings, which I think is a big mistake.
2) he talks abt Unique Self as this unique teaching while at the same time harkening back to ancient traditions and reinterpreting them in his framework, as unique expressions of unique self. (“Know yourself is the Unique Self Maxim of the Delphic Oracle” p 121) This contradiction runs throughout the book continuously in a way that I found deeply frustrating.
3) He’s constantly name-dropping in a way that I find undermines the credibility of what he’s saying.
4) I think it overemphasizes uniqueness in an unnecessary dialectic that make
5) I think the overemphasis on uniqueness has a huge potential for supporting narcissism and a form of tantric spiritual bypassing
6) there are a variety of claims I simply disagree with or find i have to jump through big hoops to make sense in ways that wouldn’t be misleading
As a result I would dissuade others to read this book unless they already have a deep spiritual grounding, insight and study, already have an integral view so they won’t be enamored by the relative truths and take the bathwater w the baby, and a deep psychological self understanding and are used to disagreeing w certain points authors make with agreeing with others. Maybe that’s everyone
December 17, 2013
We have a symbiotic relationship with God... We view the world through God's eyes and God views the world through ours... We wear God's face in the world... We experience holiness, not by being perfect, but by embracing paradox...
Marc Gafni's new book, Your Unique Self (Integral Publishers) is filled with such insights into personal enlightenment. After finishing the book, I can absolutely say I experienced enlightenment and entrancement, teleported to a fuller, airier state of being.
Your Unique Self is rich and revolutionary. Gafni is part of a World Spirituality “movement” hoping to transcend current archaic counter evolutionary spiritual systems. He claims that “First-tier” religious systems are too steeped in dogma and mythology and limit human consciousness. The “second-tier” level of consciousness, reached by only 10% of the world population is the more radical path to enlightenment.
Touching on metaphysics, spiral dynamics, philosophy, psychology, mysticism, cosmology, quantum physics and religion, Your Unique Self is a trip through human consciousness since the dawn of time. Gafni lays out the progress of the human spirit; from religious myth to evidenced-based reason, from fractals to post-modern deconstructionism. His conclusion is radical. The way out of the current mess is a World Spirituality based on the unique self, our uni-verse and the “God-Spark” in us. We are called to participate in a benevolent cosmos as divine beings.
Story is one of the main ways to finding enlightenment – personal story. Gafni maintains story and help us discover our place in the world and in our skin. We need be aware of our “shadow” (Carl Jung) and see it as simply our unlived life. As well, our ego or false self must be transformed into authentic self. No matter our story, we are a vital part of the whole universe; particular, not a “cog in a wheel”, and must embrace our story within the larger narrative.
The author exhorts not only personal enlightenment, but a revolution of the soul. Creating a new vocabulary, Gafni reinterprets words that have lost their meaning over time and familiarity. Words like “uni-verse” and “en-trance” take on new meaning. He also points out the limitations of words in describing spirituality, but also their power. For example, he opens our minds to possibility and the wonder and simplicity of the word “yes”.
By now, you may be thinking, Gafni is a quack. I struggled through the first 100 pages of the 500-page book, unable to grasp the presentation, wary of New Age gobbledygook and the marketing engine driving the book. I persisted and received the reward of a truly “lightened” consciousness – the heaviness of supernatural forces gone! That being said, Your Unique Self is ultimately an affirmation of personal worth and potential – a motivational treatise. The uniqueness of every person validated. It's not a religious book, but it transports the reader to the stars. The author marries science and religion and we, as readers can experience the wedding ceremony and reception afterwards with gladness.
I benefit from reading books like Your Unique Self, because it contains insights I have already accepted subconsciously. The whole concept of personal narrative, “uni-verse” and personal mythology (rather than pathology) are examples. I also found deep satisfaction in his reminder that spirituality can evolve rather than stay rooted in fundamentalist or existentialist absolutes.
Gafni's work is an important undertaking for humankind. He offers a way through the current stagnant period in human evolution by way of personal enlightenment via the unique self and corporately through a World Spirituality. A World Spirituality that embraces the stories of all faith traditions without mythological specificity.
Consider this Christmas season, a child born with a “divine spark” lying in a manger under a supernatural sign in the sky two thousand years ago. Consider us all having the same divinity in us at birth, the vulnerability with which we face the world and our own uni-verse. Gafni's book illustrates a way to embrace the human truth of Bethlehem and our own historical truth to experience enlightenment.
Marc Gafni's new book, Your Unique Self (Integral Publishers) is filled with such insights into personal enlightenment. After finishing the book, I can absolutely say I experienced enlightenment and entrancement, teleported to a fuller, airier state of being.
Your Unique Self is rich and revolutionary. Gafni is part of a World Spirituality “movement” hoping to transcend current archaic counter evolutionary spiritual systems. He claims that “First-tier” religious systems are too steeped in dogma and mythology and limit human consciousness. The “second-tier” level of consciousness, reached by only 10% of the world population is the more radical path to enlightenment.
Touching on metaphysics, spiral dynamics, philosophy, psychology, mysticism, cosmology, quantum physics and religion, Your Unique Self is a trip through human consciousness since the dawn of time. Gafni lays out the progress of the human spirit; from religious myth to evidenced-based reason, from fractals to post-modern deconstructionism. His conclusion is radical. The way out of the current mess is a World Spirituality based on the unique self, our uni-verse and the “God-Spark” in us. We are called to participate in a benevolent cosmos as divine beings.
Story is one of the main ways to finding enlightenment – personal story. Gafni maintains story and help us discover our place in the world and in our skin. We need be aware of our “shadow” (Carl Jung) and see it as simply our unlived life. As well, our ego or false self must be transformed into authentic self. No matter our story, we are a vital part of the whole universe; particular, not a “cog in a wheel”, and must embrace our story within the larger narrative.
The author exhorts not only personal enlightenment, but a revolution of the soul. Creating a new vocabulary, Gafni reinterprets words that have lost their meaning over time and familiarity. Words like “uni-verse” and “en-trance” take on new meaning. He also points out the limitations of words in describing spirituality, but also their power. For example, he opens our minds to possibility and the wonder and simplicity of the word “yes”.
By now, you may be thinking, Gafni is a quack. I struggled through the first 100 pages of the 500-page book, unable to grasp the presentation, wary of New Age gobbledygook and the marketing engine driving the book. I persisted and received the reward of a truly “lightened” consciousness – the heaviness of supernatural forces gone! That being said, Your Unique Self is ultimately an affirmation of personal worth and potential – a motivational treatise. The uniqueness of every person validated. It's not a religious book, but it transports the reader to the stars. The author marries science and religion and we, as readers can experience the wedding ceremony and reception afterwards with gladness.
I benefit from reading books like Your Unique Self, because it contains insights I have already accepted subconsciously. The whole concept of personal narrative, “uni-verse” and personal mythology (rather than pathology) are examples. I also found deep satisfaction in his reminder that spirituality can evolve rather than stay rooted in fundamentalist or existentialist absolutes.
Gafni's work is an important undertaking for humankind. He offers a way through the current stagnant period in human evolution by way of personal enlightenment via the unique self and corporately through a World Spirituality. A World Spirituality that embraces the stories of all faith traditions without mythological specificity.
Consider this Christmas season, a child born with a “divine spark” lying in a manger under a supernatural sign in the sky two thousand years ago. Consider us all having the same divinity in us at birth, the vulnerability with which we face the world and our own uni-verse. Gafni's book illustrates a way to embrace the human truth of Bethlehem and our own historical truth to experience enlightenment.
November 22, 2017
Beautiful Transmission of the Unique Self Dharma & Experience
If you are in search of an Enlightenment that leads directly to your day-to-day life, you have found a treasure. Beyond the identifications of the ego and beyond the classical enlightenment experience of emptiness there is a space where the absolute dignity of the Personal is resurrected: a space of personal love that melts the ego-contractions, and of the realization that the One True Self is always already Unique and has a perspective, our perspective. Through this we are becoming active participants in this world that needs our gifts so desperately, as well as co-creators in this evolution of love and consciousness, which is something that only our egos refuse to believe.
The book is psychoactive in the best sense of the word. In its subtle linguistic beauty it breathes the experience of the Unique Self that is transmitted to the reader. In Marc's own words: "This book speaks dangerous words. Dangerous to your sense that you are small; to your feeling that you are alone and invisible; to your belief that you are worthless, inadequate, or bad; to your belief that you are too much or not enough. I invite you to listen dangerously."
Besides a comprehensive theoretical localization of the integral concepts between Eastern and Western Enlightenment teachings, between Kabbalah and integral and evolutionary spirituality, between the Personal and the Impersonal, which especially in the expansive footnotes doesn't lack in academic rigor, you find applications like 25 practical and easy to recognize discernments between ego and Unique Self as well as the implications that the Unique Self experience and teaching has for such diverse areas of life like love, sexuality, shadow, education as well as malice and death.
If you are in search of an Enlightenment that leads directly to your day-to-day life, you have found a treasure. Beyond the identifications of the ego and beyond the classical enlightenment experience of emptiness there is a space where the absolute dignity of the Personal is resurrected: a space of personal love that melts the ego-contractions, and of the realization that the One True Self is always already Unique and has a perspective, our perspective. Through this we are becoming active participants in this world that needs our gifts so desperately, as well as co-creators in this evolution of love and consciousness, which is something that only our egos refuse to believe.
The book is psychoactive in the best sense of the word. In its subtle linguistic beauty it breathes the experience of the Unique Self that is transmitted to the reader. In Marc's own words: "This book speaks dangerous words. Dangerous to your sense that you are small; to your feeling that you are alone and invisible; to your belief that you are worthless, inadequate, or bad; to your belief that you are too much or not enough. I invite you to listen dangerously."
Besides a comprehensive theoretical localization of the integral concepts between Eastern and Western Enlightenment teachings, between Kabbalah and integral and evolutionary spirituality, between the Personal and the Impersonal, which especially in the expansive footnotes doesn't lack in academic rigor, you find applications like 25 practical and easy to recognize discernments between ego and Unique Self as well as the implications that the Unique Self experience and teaching has for such diverse areas of life like love, sexuality, shadow, education as well as malice and death.
October 13, 2013
As I reflected on the Lectionary text today this book stands out. The text is about the ten lepers and only one came back to thank Jesus for the healing. He is his unique self. This book is about developing our unique selves. Rather then seeking glory, money, power, prestige one should appreciate and love him or herself for their uniqueness. My sense is the author would like to see a creation of a world religion removing the prejudices and the biases in the various religions. For me, a part my unique self is being a follower of Jesus, letting go of the institutional prejudices but practicing the basic theme of the Judaeo-Christian tradition, "To love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, and mind, and your neighbor as yourself. One quote stood out for me:
"Peace will come into the world when each person can hear themselves for who they are, without needing to drown out all the other voices." Marc Gafni
When we accept each other in our own uniqueness--there will be peace. Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!
"Peace will come into the world when each person can hear themselves for who they are, without needing to drown out all the other voices." Marc Gafni
When we accept each other in our own uniqueness--there will be peace. Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!
July 8, 2013
Your Unique Self is a masterpiece in the Integral Spirituality genre. Not a fast read, for me at least, but engaging and provocative. This is one I will keep close for frequent reference and regular inspiration.
April 5, 2016
A beautiful and insightful guide to self-realization.
August 20, 2021
Interesting, and hard. Truly hard to build.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews