The Direct Way: Thirty Practices to Evoke Awakening

by Adyashanti

Join renowned spiritual teacher Adyashanti for a practice-based journey out of the thinking mind and into the awakened awareness beyond perceptual reality.

For renowned teacher Adyashanti, every single moment contains a doorway into spiritual awakening. But what does it actually mean to “wake up” to the truth of reality? And what does it take to recognize these opportunities?

In The Direct Way, Adya (as his students call him) offers a sequence of 30 practices intended to connect with and cultivate ever-greater awareness of the unseen dimensions of your being. From the simple expression of “I am,” to an exploration of the Spiritual Heart, and all the way into the fundamental ground of being, these exercises emphasize that the process of awakening takes “many small glimpses, experienced many times.” Adya concludes with practical pointers on how to integrate transcendent experiences into the everyday fabric of life—including your career, personal goals, and intimate relationships.

Here you will discover:

• How to dis-identify from conceptual, ego-based thinking
• Perceiving the ego as a tool to navigate consciousness rather than an obstacle
• The “knowing yet empty” quality of foundational awareness
• The surprising route to realizing awareness of the Spiritual Heart
• Feeling through the Spiritual Heart as a way to experience true interconnection
• The meaning of the Zen teaching phrase, “This very body is the Buddha”
• Exploring the exhilarating paradox of Being and Becoming
• How to establish anchor points to stabilize your journey into the Ground of Being
• What it means to live each day with “enlightened relativity”
• How awakening puts control of your experience in your hands—but also the responsibility for it

No one experiences awakening quite the same. With The Direct Way, join Adya to discover pathways toward an awareness as wide as the sky and as personal as your innermost heart.

Genres: Spirituality, Buddhism, Nonfiction, Religion

89 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 6, 2021

About the author

Adyashanti is an American spiritual teacher from the San Francisco Bay Area who gives regular satsangs in the United States and also teaches abroad. He is the author of several books, CDs and DVDs and is the founder of Open Gate Sangha, Inc. a nonprofit organization that supports, and makes available, his teachings.

Reviews

[Ann Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm just starting to reread this again because I didn't "get it" the first time. This a manual of sorts. And I haven't relaxed into the practices. But practice is practice. It took me 8 or 9 years of trying Mayurasana in my yoga practice before I could start to enter the pose. In the same way, uncovering what is already and always there might entail some practice.

[Jeffrey N. Hora · Rating 4 out of 5]

I purchased this book on the strength of an article in PARABOLA magazine. For the first few chapters I was intrigued, then a bit bored, then found interesting things to consider.

Adyashanti is a pretty "verbose" writer, in some ways. It seemed that he spent several chapters describing something that could have been rolled up into a single chapter. Then I began to see the wisdom in "turning the gem" just a bit in each chapter to provide some commentary and an exercise that looked at different views/aspects of awareness and spiritual formation.

Having spent some time reading and studying various mindfulness and awareness works across certain spiritual traditions, I am finding the differing ways of describing and encouraging awareness and formation helpful. This work is helpful.

[Tetrijeb · Rating 3 out of 5]

seems to be a rehash/repackage of loch kelly and prendergast heart teachings. it seems unfortunate, with time adya books are slowly deteriorating in quality, as this one at times seems like spiritual wordsoup of absolute, boundless, ultimate, true nature, blah blah, etc..plenty of fluff but weak on content, comparing to adyas awesome earlier work, which carried alot of firepower and substance, and could literaly shake your world. this book in comparison just seems like watered down, even new agey spiritual buzzword soup. i really love adya, but this seems to me the weakest of his books.

[Rushina Ansari · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a food for thought - a nice background to read up if you're into meditation practice.

Relaxes you immensely, with very practical to-do list of thoughts you can feed into when you meditate.

I did not like the constant use of big spiritual words in each and every sentence which means zilch beyond a point.

[Merl Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply Profound and Powerful Directions to Awakening

As yeah anti has helped me to awaken through straightforward, direct teachings. This book has been his most important in creating a shift to Self. I am done. I am beginning.

[Everett Grandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Directness

Here may be answer to Western hesitancy to adopt a practice of awareness awakening, this pinning expresses an alternative to structional penatration of ignorance, its all you.

[BILL COGDILL · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spiritually Instructional

Took me to a next step of spiritual growth. Challenging. Still working on some of the meditations to understand the techniques more deeply. Refreshingly, plainly written in a simple, understandable way.

[Linus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolute spiritual dynamite, accessible, clear and practical, on par with Eckhart Tolle at his best. Highly recommended to any serious spiritual seeker!

[dave redondo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciate the effort, some of the words feel nice, but did not work 😞

[natasha jinks]

Loved this book, Love Adya