Jason Shulman

JASON JINEN SHULMAN NONDUAL HEALING and A SOCIETY OF SOULS Jason Shulman is an American spiritual teacher whose original work springs from his Judaic and Buddhist background. He is the founder of A Society of Souls: The School for Nondual Healing and Awakening, based in the United States and the Netherlands. There he teaches the distinctive body of nondual work he has developed to awaken the human spirit: Nondual Healing, Impersonal Movement and the Work of Return. Jason’s main concern has been to develop paths of healing the mind, body and spirit based on his own understanding of the difficulties inherent in the human condition. Through his studies and practice, Jason has developed a unique perspective on human consciousness and the nature of existence. His work seeks to translate this perspective into a replicable and clearly-delineated path for other seekers of truth to follow. He has been especially interested in applying personal spiritual work to methods of transforming society at large. To that end, he has created the MAGI Process, a nondual method of working with conflicts between people, institutions and governments. He is the author of numerous monographs and books, and several albums of his work as a singer and songwriter. More about his work can be found at www.societyofsouls.com THE FOUNDATION FOR NON DUALITY LIBRARY In 2014, The Foundation for Nonduality, a not-for-profit entity, was created to become the home of the Jason Shulman Library. The Foundation for Nonduality is dedicated to making the principles of nondual thinking and practice as articulated by Jason Shulman available to the greater public for the purpose of transforming the consciousness of individuals in order to help alleviate suffering in the world. Our hope is to educate individuals, professionals, families, groups, organizations, businesses, and those working in the area of conflict resolution. These principles and their practical application focus on the unitive connection between personal and transcendent consciousness as the foundational basis for change and healing. THE JASON JINEN SHULMAN LIBRARY Over the past forty years of teaching, Jason Shulman has worked to reconcile the deistic or relative paths of liberation with the consciousness of Buddhism and other non-theistic paths to create a truly nondual path of healing, one that does not exclude any aspect of reality. His work emphasizes the healing of the personal ego and its rightful place in any path that seeks liberation from ignorance and the awakening of compassion. It also seeks to bring the truly human world, with its imperfections, into alignment with the realization of transcendent awareness. In this way we develop a conscious awakening to the sacredness of every sentient being and every time-bound moment. One of the central missions of The Foundation for Nonduality is to make these principles of nonduality available to a larger audience. This new perspective on nonduality is being used not only by seekers of awakening, but as new approaches that enliven a variety of other disciplines, from teaching to parenting, from law to business, to medicine and other health-oriented modalities and concerns. To deeply embody the nature of the inseparable connection between the personal and universal perspectives has powerful implications for personal as well as organizational healing. Nondual consciousness sees the world and the individuals that comprise it, with both their vast imperfections and their beauty, as a workable basis for healing and change based on reality-as-is, rather than a prescribed set of doctrines and ideas. MAGI PROCESS The MAGI Process—a thirty-eight step, dynamic spiritual methodology for the resolution of conflict and awakening—is a way of participating in the creative machinery of the world. Since, from a nondual perspective, we are part of the world, made by the world and simultaneously making the world, to do the Process is to engage fully with reality. It is to drop into the programming language that made and makes the world as we know it. The thirty-eight Steps of the MAGI Process are the actual answers about what is really here and who we are. They describe the essence of what you will find at every step of the journey when personal desires and questions come into contact with the great, impersonal vastness of Reality. The world is filled with seeds. Dust motes from the skeletons of stars float in the universe, condense and form suns, planets, and new life. The pine cone makes a forest of pines. The apple pip makes an orchard and fruit and a future apple-picking time. Each seed sets in motion a myriad of events, some predictable and some unknowable. But each seed is a lever that can move a mountain, start a family, make a new path, bring new hope, and change a world. The MAGI Process is a seed and we, when we use it, are the fruit, the life that springs from it. Some of why it works remains mysterious, but we can say this: by using the Process, we become a potent kernel and the world is where we are planted. When you finish doing a MAGI session, there is a kind of quietness that comes over you, but it is the quietness of strenuous activity, of having spent yourself in good effort. You might feel as if you have been tumbled and smoothed like a small river rock; you might just feel emptied of conceptions, pre-conceptions, and thoughts of all types. You might feel ready to listen and to hear—maybe for the first time—the heart cry of others. You may feel fearless, ready to stand your ground and now have the words to explain why your actions are what they are. But after all is said and done, you feel like a potent being, ready to blossom, filled with non-reactive grace, which is to say, open-heartedness for its own sake. THE MAGI PROCESS, A NOTE FROM JASON SHULMAN I'd like to welcome you to the Magi Process, a new way of working with conflict and its resolution. This Process, created in 2003, is a nondual way of working with conflict. While it does not take sides, it understands that any conflict involves sides; while it understands the difference between inner and outer conflict, and knows how inner conflict leads to outer conflict, it does not make a distinction between the two. Instead, it works directly, in a vivid manner, with the fabric of the world itself, a world that contains both inner and outer. Using the Magi Process is to take an interactive journey behind the appearance of the world into its inner mechanism. This journey however, is not a psychological one, but into and through a place that makes both the observer and the observed; the world and the one who participates in it. It works because on all levels, you and the world are actually one. Yet, the Magi Process does not bury differences in oneness. Neither is it a disinterested process. It understands the difference between right and wrong, even as it helps us admit that we don't always know the difference, and sometimes can never know the difference. Its aim is to heal and it does this by unifying the world, seeing how disparate pieces, and even pieces in conflict, can remain separate and yet part of the whole simultaneously. Doing the Magi Process will change you. Although it is not a psychological process it will bring up psychological material in you, allowing you to look at preconceptions and limitations within your own psyche. It will also change the world. This Process can be used for working with your own, internal conflicts as well and as such is a powerful path to problem-solving from the nondual perspective. Your problems are not different from the world's conflicts of course. They arise together and are indivisible. By using the Magi Process you are joining a growing community of people who are interested in turning self-change into world-change, but who want to do this with eyes open, seeing the world as it is in its deepest heart: a unified and unifying place for all beings. With blessings, Jason Jinen Shulman QUOTES & RESPONSES TO THE MAGI PROCESS "I'm 55 years old, and until I worked the Magi Process this year, I couldn't have cared less for my body. It always seemed to be an obstacle to my quest for God and a way to serve. Engaging with the Magi has changed my relationship with my body, which I now view as a marvelous tool for being with One and of service to the world too. That's all I've really wanted to attain to for the past thirty years. I feel like I've come home." —Peggy Gerber "I can feel the movement in my own body of the political and social issues I am addressing. This is deeply satisfying not only because of the possible results (which we can’t always know) but because participating in this way leaves one less helpless, less alienated and more available to true movement within and beyond the self. When I start with a personal issue and frame it as a universal one, the result is not only deep and happy movement in my personal relationships but a sense of connection to all others all over the world and through time who have similarly struggled. This touches me deeply." —Carolyn Tilove PROVOCATIVE SPIRITUAL TEACHER Of the new breed of spiritual teachers active in the public eye today, few are as inclusive ' or as provocative ' as Jason Shulman. His work defies labels and any attempts at simple definition. He is one of the most highly respected serious exponents of Kabbalah today. At the same time, he is a Buddhist teacher and Dharma lineage holder in the Zen tradition. He is dedicated to holding both of these ancient traditions in his work. Shulman's teachings are equally God-inspired and nondual. This uniquely open-hearted and spacious ability to span many positions and perspectives is the hallmark of the new spiritual paradigm he proposes for our world today. From his long grounding in the traditional spiritual training of Judaism and Buddhism, Shulman offers a fresh interpretation of the ancient paths to enlightenment and God-Realization. The new territory he unfolds with poetic eloquence includes both God and Boundlessness; the personal self and the Transcendent Self. Rather than speaking about enlightenment or God-realization as some sort of state or thing, he prefers the term 'awakening': a continuous moment by moment process that never ends. The path that Shulman offers is exceptionally well-suited for our life in the 21st century. He calls for commitment to being awake to Reality and to being fully human. At first glance, these might seem diametrically opposing aims, but in Shulman's map, they are the same destination, where living in the world and being with God are identical things seen from different standpoints. In Shulman's masterful and seamless integration, what initially seems like contentious spiritual or theological territory unfolds as a panoramic landscape. This level of development or awakening is what draws students from around the world to Shulman. Though many are new to spiritual work, most are long-time practitioners who come to learn how to work with their most profound spiritual questions and deepest longings. SUFFERING People also come to Shulman with the suffering of their everyday lives ' illness, chronic difficulty in relationships, lack of fulfilment at work, a longing to be of service to the world; sadness, loneliness, anxiety, fear and rage. His work is particularly helpful in this regard. The programs he has developed for A SOCIETY OF SOULS are specifically designed to bring together the spiritual heights of revelation and Ultimate Reality with the small and great trials and tribulations of contemporary human life. Shulman's work as a spiritual teacher is his primary, but not his only calling. He is dedicated to the process of healing and much of his spiritual work today is centered around teaching the powerful modalities of Integrated Kabbalistic Healing and The Work of Return, both of which he has developed. SPIRITUAL MUSIC Alongside his spiritual and healing career, his earlier passion for music has remained undimmed. He is an accomplished singer and songwriter. Music for Shulman has always been a powerful way of expressing his personal knowledge of human suffering, longing, courage and joy. Currently, Shulman has two CDs of spiritual music. The first, 'The Great Transparency' was released in 1998 and his second, 'Buddha-Cloud' in 2005. Buddha-Cloud' is available online through omstream.com A new CD, 'Songs and Chants for Receiving God', will be in the music stores at the end of 2006. Produced by Gary Malkin, these chants and songs composed by Shulman contain in music the essence of his teachings. ★ BOOKS ★ ★ NEW: THE MAGI PROCESS, A NONDUAL METHOD FOR PERSONAL AWAKENING AND THE RESOLUTION OF CONFLICT The MAGI Process—a thirty-eight step, dynamic spiritual methodology for the resolution of conflict and awakening—is a way of participating in the creative machinery of the world. Since, from a nondual perspective, we are part of the world, made by the world and simultaneously making the world, to do the Process is to engage fully with reality. It is to drop into the programming language that made and makes the world as we know it. The thirty- eight Steps of the MAGI Process are the actual answers about what is really here and who we are. They describe the essence of what you will find at every step of the journey when personal desires and questions come into contact with the great, impersonal vastness of Reality. The world is filled with seeds. Dust motes from the skeletons of stars float in the universe, condense and form suns, planets, and new life. The pine cone makes a forest of pines. The apple pip makes an orchard and fruit and a future apple-picking time. Each seed sets in motion a myriad of events, some predictable and some unknowable. But each seed is a lever that can move a mountain, start a family, make a new path, bring new hope, and change a world. The MAGI Process is a seed and we, when we use it, are the fruit, the life that springs from it. Some of why it works remains mysterious, but we can say this: by using the Process, we become a potent kernel and the world is where we are planted. When you finish doing a MAGI session, there is a kind of quietness that comes over you, but it is the quietness of strenuous activity, of having spent yourself in good effort. You might feel as if you have been tumbled and smoothed like a small river rock; you might just feel emptied of conceptions, pre-conceptions, and thoughts of all types. You might feel ready to listen and to hear—maybe for the first time—the heart cry of others. You may feel fearless, ready to stand your ground and now have the words to explain why your actions are what they are. But after all is said and done, you feel like a potent being, ready to blossom, filled with non-reactive grace, which is to say, open-heartedness for its own sake. Paperback: 152 pages Publisher: Foundation for Nonduality, The (March 18, 2016) Language: English ISBN-10: 0997220104 ISBN-13: 978-0997220100 Business & Money > Human Resources > Conflict Resolution & Mediation Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Specific Topics > War & Peace Self-Help > Relationships > Conflict Management ★ WHAT DOES REWARD BRING YOU BUT TO BIND YOU TO HEAVEN LIKE A SLAVE? (Poetry) Reviews and Quotes "It is rare to come upon a mystic who can convey through words what defies language, a poet who can sculpt the spiritual into his poems without grandiosity, and a man who can bring fierce honesty and accuracy to the most intimate details of a life. Jason Shulman s poems are layered with the multidimensional harvest of his commitment to live in the totality of being human: his many faceted spiritual path, his mystical teachings, his poetic gifts that sing with startling metaphor and music, and his human heart that holds open the riddles of love, sex, age and death with searing honesty and a koanic transmission of not answers but openings. In fact, these poems return poetry to its original mission as spell, chant, and prayer where opposites dissolve and the mind is released through words into what goes beyond them. Robert Hass once said, Poems must move in two directions at once: enchantment and disenchantment, life and death, knowing and having no idea. Shulman s poems succeed in this, and more: From our minds / stained with life and death he bends / these poles into a single thing." —Kim Rosen "Jason Shulman s ecstatic and lyrical poems often start in an exploratory and quizzical mood, and then open up to a wider world in surprising, unexpected ways. His path is open to suggestions offered by the passing nature of things that the observers makes sense of within this world. This points him through flowing speech, making poems centers of energy about larger energies outside the self, discoveries of various notable, expressive phenomena. Yet, his marked humility before these mysteries allows for explorations towards not final truths so much as wisdom in delineating a path to contemplate the wondrous conditions of our lives in this time, this reverberant shared space." —David Schloss Paperback: 104 pages Publisher: Dos Madres Press (November 18, 2013) Language: English ISBN-10: 1939929067 ISBN-13: 978-1939929068 ★ THE INSTRUCTION MANUAL FOR RECEIVING GOD A selection of quotes: "We need only embrace ourselves in conscious awareness, with deep knowledge and without judgment, to feel God" (Shulman pg 16). "Being with God is a nondual state. This means it can never be achieved by choosing only one side of reality in reaction to a less preferred condition or state" (Shulman pg 56). "The ego likes to think it can achieve a state called 'enlightenment,' and then its work will be finished. But 'awakened' just means you'd better roll up your sleeves and pay attention, because life continues to happen" (Shulman pg 70). From reviewers: "Here are a few of my favorite excerpts from this gloriously poetic, healing book: "The hardest job in the world is to be simply and fully human." "When we have problems, we imagine a different sort of life where there are no problems and then attempt to get there...There is no life but this one. There are not two lives, one better than the other. True change begins with a relationship with what is actually present in the Now." "God cannot be known secondhand...God comes from the heart and not from a book. You must think God up for yourself." "The bruised apple is still good for making pies. In other words, trust in the Creator to see the good that even you yourself cannot see. Your sorrows do not need to disappear for you to be good in God's eyes. Therefore you need never hide any part of yourself again." "There is no form of freedom that does not include our limitations and suffering." "All neurosis is an obsession with memory." "Your ongoing life is the furnace that brings human warmth into the world." "Every story about a vision quest or spiritual journey ends with the hero discovering something that was in him or her all along...Trust that everything you need is already within you." The Instruction Manual for Receiving God shows us how to move from lost to found, from rejected to accepted, from wounded to healed, from wandering to rooted. Like Dorothy, we can come to realize that "we had it all along"--and that there's no place like Home. And where is Home? It's right where you are sitting, my Friend." —Janet Boyer, Hall of Fame Vine Voice, October 24, 2006 "Jason's new book is like the clear scent of a flower calling us home. As my dad and my first husband were dying they both said the same thing: "It's time to go home." Listening to each I thought, "Why can't I go home while I am still alive?" This book opens to us that way home, not by re-making our life into something other than what it is, but by guiding us as we take every bit and morsel of it as the nourishment we need to be truly at home in our life and body." —Mary K. Bernsteinon October 2, 2000 "If God is - Always-Present-Everywhere - and is most desirous of being Found, then our Relationship with this Being is unalterably different from the way that most of us approach it. This is a book that is profound in its simplicity, its depth and its wisdom. It is a human roadmap to that which is paradoxically both BEYOND US and yet at the same time may quite possibly represent our ultimate Identity. In my opinion, it is must reading for anyone whose Spirit and Consciousness is so engaged." —Stephen Mallson October 12, 2006 "This book does not encourage false forays into imaginary worlds where there is no suffering of any sort, where some magical notion of spirit has whitewashed reality into a palatable dollop. Instead, the words in this book seek to awaken you to the truth of God, that perspective and level of integration that allow you to be separate and one with the universe at the same time. It seeks to put life into perspective and to make our lives something worth living, despite the hardships inherent in the situation in which we find ourselves." —From the book "Rare is the day that I read a book but instead enter a peaceful sanctuary. It is equally rare for me to discover a book that depressurizes the air surrounding the human condition and the idea of spirituality. The Instruction Manual for Receiving God does not advocate the destruction or transcendence of the ego, nor does it promote striving to reach a superhuman ideal. There are no flights into magical thinking, denials of the difficult or dualistic notions of God being "here" but not "there". Instead, this seminal work disseminates forbidden knowledge--ideas so profoundly simple and shockingly sublime that to peer into this deep well of mystery is to see the face of God. According to author Jason Shulman, you--yes, you!--already have what you need to receive God. In fact, "you have your own song, and God has a ticket to your concert. If you are shy, God, being God, will sing for you." —Janet Boyer, Hall of Fame Vine Voice, October 24, 2006 "In those moments when all you can hear is the house creak and the dog change positions, I like to pick up this book and read one or two of what the author calls seed passages. It's that kind of book. The author provides joyfully lively and thought provoking portals for the contemporary seeker's spiritual envisioning regardless of the readers' religious or non-religious identification. It is a small book with big ideas. Mr. Shulman's languaging, explanations and examples, in this his second book, are extremely clear, to the point and easily understood., The profound perspectives offered present many varied opportunities for the healing integration of body, mind, heart, and spirit into a place of embodied fullness and awakened consciousness. I find this book deeply transformative, full of delight and would recommend this book to all seeking devotional insight." —RKGon January 16, 2007 "I feel happy that there is a book that makes known the true kindness of God: That God embraces the human condition just as it is and we can be with God just as we are. This book is written with a living and embodied wisdom by someone who understands our deep need for a relationship with God that lets us relax and be ourselves. It is also written with great kindness towards the condition(s) we find ourselves in as human beings. I'd have to say that kindness is the heart of this book. The Seed Passages unlock my mind and heart (and even my feet) to reveal God in this place, right now. Practicing receiving God in this way helps me to work with my longing to be in (or go to) some other place in order to be with God. I can just be myself, right here, at my cozy desk, and be with God, too. This makes getting on with the tasks of life much easier as pining to be (or worse, fantasizing about being) elsewhere in order to find God is such a painful energy drain. In another piece of writing called "The MAGI Process," Jason Shulman writes, 'The world settled down is God.' "The Instruction Manual for Receiving God" is a walk through the settled down ground, and a felt sense of the divine plays on every page. This is one of those books you can walk with, and in, at the same time. I highly recommend it as a guide book for the great spiritual journey to one's humanity." —Erin Mintaon October 2, 2006 "In the Jewish tradition is Jason Shulman's The Instruction Manual for Receiving God. Shulman, a Kabbalaist who has also drunk deeply from the well of Buddhist Dharma, is the founder of A Society of Souls, a school based in New Jersey dedicated to awakening the human spirit. Shulman writes in a direct but low-key manner, presenting us with 108 (a number favored by Buddhists) "seed passages" which he invites us to meditate and reflect on. The core message that Shulman delivers is that it is not so much God who is elusive, but rather, it is we who tend to hide ourselves and make ourselves unavailable to God. We think that because we are imperfect, we must not let God see us, but, in fact, it is in embracing our imperfection, in this moment, exactly how we are, that awakening and enlightenment become possible. For example, one of the seed passages states that "God receives us just as we are. But we don't receive ourselves in the same way. We don't love ourselves as we our. Our deepest work is not so much to improve ourselves as to realize ourselves, to see ourselves clearly and dearly." Then, the commentary on this passage concludes that, "The secret here is that we are not practicing being better than we are. We are simply practicing kindness toward who and what we are." I found some of the passages to be truly enlightening, while others failed to hit home. But overall, as I read this book, I found myself cheering on Shulman's message about being here, now, exactly as we are, with all our imperfections and warts. Forget about the notion of a single "Big Bang" or spiritual enlightenment, the Kosmic Orgasm that sets you free forever and lifts your spirit permanently into the clouds. That's not what life is about, that's not what being human is about, and while this sort of thing does occasionally happen to people, it doesn't happen because you want it to happen or try to make it happen. Again, be here now, with whoever you are with, doing whatever you are doing. Open a page, read a seed passage, and let Jason Shulman's wisdom flow into you. —Jordan Gruberon November 6, 2006 "Who knew that God seeks me? Who knew that humanity is Divine? This book makes me want to be human because it illuminates humanity and begs me to be exactly who I am, what I am, and where I am. It doesn't tell me how to rise above it. It's truly an instruction manual for loving myself, and in that process, I receive God." —Dianne L. Polsenoon October 17, 2006. "What a wonderful book, simple and clear from cover to page. Jason has been one of my most important teachers, and I have read all that he has published in the 10 years I've studied with him. Everything till now has educated me and assisted me on my spiritual path, but nothing has touched my heart as this book does. It is the very best of his teaching, soul to soul, heart to heart, breath to breath. More than words to study, these are words to soothe, inspire, remind, restore and heal all who are willing to take them in. It is a great gift to have the heart of his teaching accessible in a form I can pick up and partake of any time my soul needs a long, cool drink of reality. Definitely one of those desert island picks!" —Amazon Customer on October 10, 2006 "Easy reading, highly inspirational. Read it like drinking fine liquor - a little bit at a time, letting the words sink in and be carried on their wisdom on the days that follow." —R. Diamondon January 5, 2007 Review: "Life is a journey to see how big our hearts can get." ~ Jason Shulman Jason Shulman presents short quotes and longer passages to open the heart to receiving God. He believes we are on this earth to awaken to God and that this life is the best teacher we can have to evolve as souls and awaken to our birthright. Making yourself available to God seems to be the main theme as God is ever present in our lives whether we are acknowledging his presence or still awakening to the knowledge of God's love. "Have compassion for your ego. It is doing two important jobs at once, which often puts it in agonizing conflict with itself. The ego's first job is to maintain the integrity of the individual, personal self. It simultaneously has the job of seeking out the larger view in which the personal self is only a part. Both are needed." ~Jason Shulman This book takes a variety of ideas and brings them into pure focus. For one, the issue of the ego is treated with a much more balanced approach. Various issues are not items to eradicate from our lives, but elements to nurture. A healing of the ego instead of an attempt to evolve away from the ego. This is explained by showing how the healed ego has moved away from being self-centered and alone to a more kosmocentric experience. Some of the issues addressed include: Joy, Suffering, Holiness, Freedom, Prayer, Awakening, Kindness, Unity, Duality, Enlightenment, Compassion and Limitlessness. Jason Shulman's Instruction Manual for Receiving God reads like a deep sigh of peace and is not only spiritually healing, it brings together a number of spiritual beliefs to form a more coherent whole and this brings emotional calm and a sense of completion. —The Rebecca Review, Amazon Hall of Fame, Top 500 Reviewer Vine Voice, November 21, 2006 Hardcover: 176 pages Publisher: Sounds True; First Edition (October 1, 2006) Language: English ISBN-10: 1591795192 ISBN-13: 978-1591795193 ★ GERMAN EDITION: GOTT EMPFANGEN: 108 WEGWEISER ZU DEN QUELLEN DES LEBENS (GERMAN EDITION) Print Length: 193 pages Publisher: Arkana (October 25, 2010) Language: German ASIN: B004P1J4E8 ★ KABBALISTIC HEALING: A PATH TO AN AWAKENED SOUL A guidebook to using the Kabbalah to transform our consciousness in order to heal the body, mind, and spirit • Describes a process of unification with God and the healing implications of that process for our daily life • Introduces four kabbalistic universes that form a topographical map of reality • Offers a unique perspective on human consciousness and the nature of existence from a leading modern kabbalist Kabbalistic Healing shows how the Kabbalah--the Jewish mystical path to knowing reality--can kindle the central fire in our being so that we can unite with the divine. It describes the ultimate healing possible for the human soul: an awakening to our true nature that makes our former lif