Satori Now: Awakening your Highest Self

Satori in Japanese means to be awakened, to understand, to be enlightened. In Zen* Buddhism it means the sudden intuitive insight that this world of separate subjects and objects is an illusion that conceals the ultimate reality of a fully inter-connected universe.

In this book, Satori is defined more broadly to include what it means to be fully aware of your inter-connectedness with the universe even as you go about your life in the modern world.
The experience of Satori is not confined to Zen. It is described vividly in many traditions both old and new. While called by many names though, the underlying experience remains the same. Those who are experiencing it are pointing the way to the next stage in the evolution of human consciousness. Around the world, we are moving towards this higher consciousness. This book describes one way, but there are many such ways, all of them leading to the same destination, an awareness of your Highest Self.

Satori begins with the raising of ordinary consciousness to a higher level. You are born with this potential, but it requires sustained effort to achieve it. This raised consciousness is characterised by a sense of felt connectedness with all things. You no longer think of yourself as an isolated entity, rather you feel yourself to be connected to everything.

Some people will question the existence of the Highest Self because they have had no direct experience of it. If you have such questions, well that is good. Scepticism can help you towards the truth. All that I ask is that you suspend your disbelief long enough to understand and evaluate what is being said in this book.
If you look at the natural world with an open mind you will see ample evidence of an informing principle whose influence organises the natural world into an immensely complex, inter-connected system. Science has identified and catalogued only around two million species of life on this planet Earth, with many more yet to be classified.

The more one contemplates the inter-connectedness of Nature, the more one comes to recognise that there is something in common here. There appears to be just one Life in Nature, and that this one Life has many forms. All of these life-forms are animated by the same underlying principle. This Informing Principle is what the ancient Greeks called Logos in the fullest sense of the word.
Your Highest Self is aware of itself as an aspect of this Informing Principle, hence the exhortation by the Oracle of Delphi in Greece to Know Thyself.

Satori Now is a guide book for people who sincerely want to experience the reality of this higher awareness in the midst of their complicated lives and are prepared to make a strong commitment to achieving this over time. Whoever you are, wherever you live, whatever your accomplishments, if you have a sincere desire to work towards higher consciousness and are prepared to put in the sustained effort, this book can definitely help you to achieve this. The realization of this awareness leads you to a deep inner peace. You are still in the world, but you are not of the world any more.
How long does the process take? It depends on how ready you are to let go of the limiting idea you have of yourself as a separate entity in the world. Since this is probably how you currently define yourself, letting go of it is like letting a piece of you die. Though liberating, diminishing your egoic identity can seem very threatening. This is certainly not to advocate suicide; simply to re-cast your ego in a supporting role, not as the controlling entity.