Excerpt from "Midnights with the Mystic: A Little Guide to Freedom and Bliss"

Then Sadhguru asked me if I had heard that some researchers in India had been scanning the brains of people who have been through Isha Yoga's Inner Engineering course and practicing the techniques for more than three months.

I had heard about that, so I nodded yes.

Sadhguru went on to say that the scientists had found that the coherence between the practitioners' right and left brain were phenomenally high. "That means, Cheryl, that you will get to use a little more of your brain than before. Generally they say that people are only using 12 percent of their brain, but from my experience of people, I don't believe they are using even that," he said and let our a hoot of infectious laughter.

Then he went on, "Yoga is the path of becoming limitless. Yoga transforms and liberates human beings so that they can reach this unbounded state. Humans, unlike animals,do not merely exist. They are becoming. 'Human' is not an established quality; one has to grow into it. One has to become that. To evolve as a human being is to become aware of one's limitations, to strive, with intense passion, toward the transcendence for which we all have the potential. Yoga is a way of finding your ultimate potential. In a specific context, yoga had come to mean spiritual union with the absolute. Liberation while living is the goal of yoga, the highest experience, a fusion of the individual with the universal."

Although his world seemed both inspiring and filled with possibility, I caught myself again wondering if such transcendence really could be possible for me. Even though many remarkable things had happened to me, I continued to wonder if I would truly be able to become self-realized in this lifetime. Part of me wondered how much the yoga, the practices, had to do with it. It's a technology that affects not only your body, mind, and energy, but that also somehow makes you receptive. I know it's a big part of it, but I also know that it's not the whole thing. Some of the practices Sadhguru teaches are similar to those I was exposed to in the past, but he puts them together in a completely different way. Even with all the yoga, Sadhguru did in previous lifetimes, and with all that he accomplished, he said that he did not become enlightened. The reason why is shrouded in mystery. I knew the practices were working, but perhaps this process is more than something I can do myself. Something seems to have to happen that I'm not doing. I have often heard Sadhguru say that "you have to put yourself aside."

Perhaps the answer to this question could be found in Sadhguru's own story. . .

The above is an excerpt from the book Midnights with the Mystic: A Little Guide to Freedom and Bliss by Cheryl Simone and Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev. The above excerpt is a digitally scanned reproduction of text from print. Although this excerpt has been proofread, occasional errors may appear due to the scanning process. Please refer to the finished book for accuracy.

Copyright © 2011 Cheryl Simone and Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, authors of Midnights with the Mystic: A Little Guide to Freedom and Bliss

Cheryl Simone, author of Midnights with the Mystic: A Little Guide to Freedom and Bliss, is a lifelong student of human potential, a spiritual seeker, an entrepreneur, a wife a mother, the CEO of several businesses. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

Sadhguru Vasudev, co-author of Midnights with the Mystic: A Little Guide to Freedom and Bliss, is a yogi, mystic, and visionary. He is a spiritual master with a difference. An arresting blend of profundity and pragmatism, his life and work serve as a reminder that inner sciences are not an esoteric discipline from an outdated past, but a contemporary science, vitally relevant to our times. Probing, passionate, and provocative, deeply insightful, devastatingly logical, and unfailingly witty, Sadhguru's talks have earned him the reputation of a speaker and opinion-maker of international renown.

For more information on Cheryl's experiences and to download a free introductory talk by Sadhguru entitled Inner Engineering, please visit http://www.midnightswiththemystic.com and follow the author on Facebook

Purchase Information

Midnights with the Mystic?

A Little Guide to Freedom and Bliss?

By Cheryl Simone and Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev?

Published by Hampton Roads?

May 2008;$16.95US; $19.95CAN 978-1571745613