The Second Birth: Stories of Awakening within the Heart of Community

In "The Second Birth", a group of men and women share their experiences of self-discovery and transformation. Each story is unique. The common ingredient is Waking Down in Mutuality, an approach to spiritual awakening pioneered by Saniel Bonder starting in 1992 that has evolved into a community of teachers, mentors, and participants in the United States, Canada, and Europe and has already made awakened living possible for hundreds of everyday people. These stories, articles, letters, poems, and journal entries describe a journey of mental, emotional, physical and spiritual exploration, always mysterious, sometimes harrowing, leading to a Second Birth, a profound personal transformation. Though its lineage flows from ancient traditions, Waking Down is grounded in modern Western experience and culture. Its process leads to an ongoing Whole Being integration, a grounding of Consciousness in matter, spirit and body in a seamless onlyness of Being that includes all the joys and challenges of being human. There's a secret to this book: it's contagious. The Waking Down community has found a way to naturally, more or less routinely, share a "transmission" or energy of personal evolution, transformation, and awakening. People "catch" it by being sympathetically attracted and then discover it in themselves. Often readers will find they are starting to go through these transformations simply by reading. Many spiritual true-story books report exotic experiences and events that the reader can hardly hope to duplicate in her or his own life. Readers of "The Second Birth" will find the opposite challenge: these are the stories of ordinary people of all ages with a variety of backgrounds in life and spirituality. The one thing they have in common is the catalyst of a loving community that supports and guides them through spontaneous shifts in consciousness into a deeply natural, awakened life.

About the Author :
Bob Valine, the editor, lives near Ashland, Oregon, where he teaches writing and math part-time at a community college, writes poetry and stage plays, and takes long walks and bike rides. He was a disciple of Osho in the 1980s and worked with American advaitic teachers in the 1990s. He first encountered Waking Down in Mutuality in 1999, but was no longer interested in spiritual teachers and groups. He experienced his Second Birth in 2000 when he went to a Waking Down retreat that promised gourmet food and hot tubs on the California Coast. It took him several months to understand what had happened, and several years to begin to try to share it in words. He believes what happened for him can happen for many others. This book is his way of saying, "Yes, it's possible."