A Shortcut To Enlightenment?

If you are like most of us in our modern society, you are seeking the ‘shortcut’ in every aspect of life… and, especially in your spiritual journey to enlightenment. I used to be one who said there is no such thing as a shortcut to enlightenment … until I experienced Oneness blessings.

A Context for Experiencing Oneness Blessings:

I am a Unity minister and an interfaith leader. I have had mystical experiences throughout my life. I have focused on my inner spiritual journey and committed myself to teach and share from an inner awareness derived from embodying and living Universal Truth Principles. My intent has always been to be a transparent model of heart-centered spiritual awareness and Christ or Divine Consciousness. I honor the many paths to God that exist in our world.

As Oneness blessings entered my life, I was praying for enlightenment and already felt consciously interconnected to everyone and everything. I knew there was another level of awakening that I had experienced in moments of Infinite clarity, but had not sustained those states of awareness. I was seeking a way to access and sustain that expanded experience of Oneness.

I had recently had a profound realization during a visit from the Dalai Lama. I had the blessing to be amongst about two hundred interfaith leaders that were invited to gather with the Dalai Lama in Tucson. Before he walked into the room, I felt a wave wash through me that awakened an experience of compassion that is beyond anything I’d ever known. I instantly knew compassion in a new and expanded way. The tears began to flow from my eyes and I realized that the Dalai Lama must be near. The door then opened and in came the Dalai Lama. Even more expanded waves of the energy I interpreted as compassion came through me and I looked around noticing that I was not the only one with tears flowing. His presence had awakened in me an awareness of compassion as an expanded and alive experience.

I knew in that instant that my greatest desire to be a vessel of light and love that transforms consciousness through Divine Presence was a very real possibility. The ‘me’ that believes it exists must be released, transformed or transcended in some way so that the Divine is all that is experienced in, as, and through me. I must become transparent for the Divine to do its holy work of awakening humanity and opening hearts. This was now my passion and the context for my introduction to Oneness.

What is Oneness Blessing or Deeksha:

Here is a short summation of information I have gathered to describe deeksha:

Deeksha is a spiritual growth tool for awakening to higher awareness and flowering of the heart. Deeksha is an ancient word derived from the Sanskrit language referring to a “benediction” or a “gift” from the Divine.

Oneness Blessing (also known as Oneness Deeksha or Deeksha) is the direct transference of Divine Grace - an intelligent sacred energy that causes the heart to flower and initiates a neurobiological change in the brain. This brings a shift in perception and the realization that the sense of a separate self is an illusion. This is not just another concept, but an experience of Oneness with all of Creation and with the Divine Presence.
The Oneness Blessing (Deeksha) frees the senses from the constant chatter of the mind resulting in clarity of perception and spontaneous feelings of love, joy, peace, and inner silence. It dissolves negative life patterns, releases traumas stored at the cellular and energetic levels, and facilitates deep emotional and physical healing. Eventually the process brings a permanent end to personal suffering and Full Awakening to the very highest states of consciousness.

The Oneness Deeksha is usually transferred by the initiated ‘Blessing Giver’ placing his or her hands on the crown of the recipient's head. It can also be given by intention from a long distance away in meditation.

Experiences vary and may be strong, subtle or even delayed until days later. One may experience a variety of sensations, including tingling in the head, blissful feelings running through the whole body, or perhaps nothing at all. Whatever the experience, it is certain that the process of Awakening has begun (a process custom designed for each individual by their own Divine) that leads gradually (or sometimes suddenly) to Full Awakening into Oneness.

The Oneness Deeksha is dogma-free and does not belong to any particular religion, philosophy or belief-system. It helps each of us to discover and fully experience the Reality of our own unique relationship with the Divine.

The founders of the Oneness University - Sri Bhagavan and Sri Amma - believe the solution to humanity's suffering is found through each individual being elevated to a state of causeless love, limitless joy and an awakened state of Oneness.

I am offering a few excerpts of my experiences over the last five years to offer you some insight into a process with Oneness. Grace has the Intelligence to individually design our awakening journey so each testimony will be unique. I can only speak from my experience and hope it would point the way to possibilities for you.
Being highly sensitive to energy, my experiences of deeksha were profound from the first time someone gave me a blessing. I felt an energy entering with tingling in my head and pulses moving through my body. I experienced an inflow of light. I knew something was happening. Over a few months of receiving monthly oneness blessings, I realized my mind was quieting down in ways that I had never previously sustained. Deep mediations had created amazing spiritual experiences, realizations and guidance throughout my life. Yet, somehow, my mind chatter would always return.

After nine months or so of oneness deeksha, I had the blessing of having Arjuna Ardagh, author of the book, Awakening into Oneness, presenting at my ministry in Chandler, Arizona one evening. I attended Arjuna’s weekend workshop in Phoenix for the next three days. Blessing givers from throughout the Phoenix area were encircling us throughout the weekend sending intention deeksha. We also had multiple hands-on blessings given to us throughout the weekend while we did activities designed to take us beyond our current level of awareness. I ‘popped’ out of illusion suddenly and experienced Reality as it is – pure consciousness and bliss.

Though I had previously had a spontaneous experience of ‘Oneness’ many years before that had created a context for my continuing quest, this was unique. It was unique because a good portion of the 300 of us in the room were able to experience an awakened state that weekend. It was also unique because my previous experiences had taken me on an inner journey into consciousness and the flow of the story of creation where I realized Oneness, but this experience was just pure awareness. There was no longer a ‘me’ – only consciousness itself.

I felt the effects of this Oneness state intensely for the next several days and then eventually returned to a mind with less chatter than previously. I had more of an ability to be an observer of my thoughts. I no longer identified with my thoughts all the time, but just noticed them instead. It was not a permanent state that was sustained, yet somehow, the experience of ‘myself’ was never the same after that experience. I knew that I desired more of this experience.

At that time, we were offering Oneness Blessings every month in my ministry and I participated as much as possible. Each time I could feel shifts happening – tingling, energy pulses, buzzing, ‘spacey’ness, increased clarity afterwards, quieter mind for a time being, etc. I could feel that there was something to this transference of grace even though I could not pinpoint all that it was doing in tangible ways yet.

One day in December of 2009, I was walking down the street in Melbourne, Australia and I suddenly had the realization that I had no thoughts. I could get to thoughts, but there was no ongoing commentary in my mind – only quiet. I experienced everything as an experience of what it was – no commentary on what it meant or didn’t mean. It was very liberating and I felt alive in a way I had never felt before. I was experiencing life as it is.
I was blessed that this experience sustained for me for fourteen months. My life was going through many dynamic transitions and I was able to be present to them in the most amazing ways. I continued to seek ways to get more engaged in Oneness.

A member of my congregation, Lucy Schwill, returned from India in such a state of bliss that her very presence would open others into a heart space. I knew I wanted to experience this forever.

I experienced the Oneness Awakening Course with Lucy and discovered another layer of the Oneness journey involved deep inner processes that combined with Blessings of Grace to release the charges and unforgiveness that had unconsciously kept me in bondage to suffering. I was finally experiencing the release of patterns that had plagued me my entire life. I could see relief from the merry-go-round of repeating dysfunction and operating from the wounds I had acquired both in this lifetime and previous lifetimes.

I began to notice that I was no longer suffering over things that had been very challenging to me in the past. Emotional pain that in the past would have kept me in inner turmoil for days or weeks, I was now able to experience quickly and move beyond. There was a deep inner joy that was residing in me even in the most difficult circumstances. My mind would get engaged periodically for a short time, but then would bounce back into what I was now calling a ‘no mind’ state.

The power of the Oneness blessings had transformed my inner experience and as a result, my outer world was shifting as well. I felt clearly guided to go to India and take the “28 Day Oneness Deepening” course. The Divine would have it that I ended up spending 40 days in India and also completed the Oneness Trainer course while I was there.

Just prior to going to India, my mind bounced back in with the usual chatter. I was dismayed at first, but learned that the path to awakening takes us in and out of ‘states’ of consciousness until we come to permanent awakening. What I have learned as I continued to go in and out of these amazing ‘states’ of consciousness or awareness, is that Oneness is a journey. The journey to enlightenment is very real and involves both awakening and God-realization. It is still my commitment to reach the full awakening and God-realization that is the ultimate flowering of a heart and soul. I am still in a flux as I blossom and grow.

As I have watched others that have reached awakening as a permanent state, I have confidence that it is available to me too. I am watching so many transform from the Divine Intelligence of the Oneness Blessing and Grace in ways that years of psychotherapy and spiritual counseling have not achieved. The transformation brings emotional healing and release from the bondage of perceptions of self as separate from the Divine. Oneness becomes an exhilarating experience of Reality just as it is. Life becomes more joyful and full of peace along the way.

These are all the same experiences that are available through many paths. Yet, the purpose of Sri Amma and Bhagavan is the awakening of humanity. Therefore, they bring this particular intent into the field of consciousness in a more precise way through the flow of grace given in Oneness blessings. Will we all get to enlightenment eventually. And, if there is a fast track, then I am all for it!

I have only touched the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the realizations and depth of transformations in my own being and the stories I have seen and heard from others. For myself, a new level of authenticity and ability to BE without the mental or emotional anguish, without the incessant internal questioning and doubt, is truly a gift beyond value. I had achieved what I considered to be a considerable ‘Christ Consciousness’ in my path with Unity and Interfaith and I continue that path with passion today. The rapidity of transformation that has happened for me in Oneness is moving me to new levels of freedom and experience. It is my vision for everyone to have this freedom and awareness.

Am I fully enlightened yet? No. I still move in and out of states of awareness along the way. And, I am grateful for the liberation already experienced as well as for embracing an additional path to awakening that is as easy as receiving and giving blessings. It is the Divine that does the work and I just keep opening to clear away more of me so that more grace can flow. Someday, I trust I will be fully transparent so that the Divine is all that exists. That’s the ultimate Truth anyway. I’m just unlearning the idea of my existence that keeps me living in the illusion of separation.

Is Oneness a shortcut to enlightenment? Only you can decide that for yourself. Give yourself the gift of experiencing some ‘deekshas’ or oneness blessings. Let it be a supplement to your own spiritual path and faith tradition. This does not interfere with any other spiritual work, but deepens our relationship with our own Divine. There is really nothing to lose and everything to gain. Freedom from suffering, from the incessant mind commentary, and from the internal critic is a pretty amazing result along the way to awakening.

I join Sri Amma Bhagavan and the millions in our Oneness family throughout the world in calling for full awakening and God-realization for 70,000 individuals to create a tipping point in consciousness that will allow everyone on our planet to awaken! Thank you, God, for all the ways You bring Your Truth, Light and Oneness into our experience of life!

If you would like to experience a Oneness Blessing group near you, visit www.worldonenesscommunity.com and click on ‘groups.’ To learn more about Oneness courses offered at Oneness University, visit www.onenessuniversity.org

Reverend Kyra Baehr is a Oneness Trainer, Unity minister and Spiritual Coach. She is currently in Houston, Texas supporting the Oneness community at Unity of Houston led by Rev. Howard Caesar. (www.unityhouston.org) Kyra pioneered Unity of Divine Love Spiritual Center and led that ministry for 11 years in Chandler, Arizona between 2000 and 2011. While in Arizona she was on the executive committee of the Arizona Interfaith Movement for over ten years making presentations to two Parliament of World Religions. She also created and led a Unity women’s ministry for 12 that continues to serve women in Arizona. For more information on Kyra’s background or to contact her, visit her website at www.livelighttoday.com