"The spiritual path is a path of death, a path of loss. In the willingness to lose everything, the recognition of who one is, is revealed."

What is life? What is death? Who are you? In this new compilation Gangaji leads us on a profound investigation into that aspect of life most avoided in Western culture, the inevitable death of the body. In a number of deeply moving monologues and interactions, Gangaji speaks with people currently facing this core issue either through personal illness or the loss of a loved one. The invitation is to stop all strategies of mind to escape this one inescapable event and to fully meet your own primal fear of death, here and now.

"The desire for truth, for God, for freedom will never be satisfied even by the most exquisite experiences or states of mind. This is the realization that most people avoid because it is so radical, because it means that the desire for freedom is not just a toy of the mind."

Unlike other desires, the desire for true freedom is an invitation to turn the mind back into the very core of the desire itself, rather than projecting into the future. In these conversations Gangaji makes it clear that once that choice is made it is possible to realize something more limitless than personal freedom: the direct experience of what is and always has been and always will be free.

"What I have to offer is very simple. It has nothing to do with acquiring any special powers or any state of mind. It is about recognizing what is already permanently here, in every moment, every situation, and every state of mind, and yet is ungraspable by the mind."

What is present in the midst of any thought and when every thought in the mind is stilled? In this collection of monologues and interactions, Gangaji addresses a dilemma that the mind cannot resolve: "the truth of one's being is not graspable by any power of the mind." Gangaji brings lightness and humor to exposing the mind’s incessant tendencies to acquire, define, and imitate what is already inherently one’s true nature. Here is the possibility of seeing that everything that can be grasped by the mind is impermanent, has a birth and a death, but that which is eternal, the truth of who one is, is always permanently here.

"Most people come to spiritual teachings to add to their accumulation of power, but what is offered here is the possibility to recognize what is untouched by any power. That which is free of all power and free of all powerlessness is the truth of who you are."

There are many powers within the human capacity, but the power that particularly captivates and entangles us is the power of our mind. In this selection of monologues and interactions, Gangaji helps to expose the common strategies of the mind’s power employed for comfort and survival: possession, denial, memory, and projection. While these powers may be at times appropriate for our relative existence, she clearly illustrates how they cannot deliver the indestructible peace and fulfillment that is untouched by any power.

“There is no self to be liberated. There is only the Self, which is beyond liberation and can never be bound. But your ideas of yourself can be liberated, and they are naturally set free when they are met in stillness, in silence, in the heart.”

The mind thinks in terms of exclusion: This is good and that is bad; I want this and I don’t want that; in order to be spiritual, I should feel that and not this. The mind is even capable of believing in the concept of no-mind, and launching a battle to exclude thought. In this compilation of meetings and conversations, Gangaji invites us to set aside all spiritual beliefs and discover what is already here, already known, deeper and closer than any memory or imagination.

Standing in the Truth of Who You Are includes three of Gangaji’s most powerful monologues ever recorded, and speaks to the potential for all of us “as ordinary human beings, living ordinary lives, to stand up extraordinarily.” With this compilation of dialogues, monologues and a repeating question exercise, you are invited to examine at the deepest level, who you are. As Gangaji says, “This is the full circle. This is coming home.”

“We have to be willing to tell the hard truth about the power we have to corrupt the most pure, most sublime recognition of truth. You can’t finally tell the truth through the mind, because the mental process is busy with damage control. But there are a few questions you can ask to support truth telling, and you can deeply examine and ruthlessly, often painfully, answer them. The questions are, “What is my life standing for?” “What has it stood for?” “What is the deepest call for my life to stand for?” All you have to do is be really willing to look very carefully and see."

"The most sublime truth of all has never been stated, or written, or sung. Not because it is far away and cannot be reached, but because it is so intimately close. It is too close to be described, objectified, or known, yet it is yours already. It is alive and present as the stillness that is the core of your being."

One’s own awareness is so ordinary and all pervasive it goes continually overlooked, yet ironically it offers the very freedom that is longed for. When attention is turned toward the essential experience of simply being, it is possible to discover that one is not a body identified with thoughts and feelings, but rather the limitless awareness aware of it all. Here Gangaji offers the opportunity to be aware of awareness itself rather than the often conflicting factions of mind and emotion; to give the whole of oneself to this that is already effortlessly present, alive as the inherently free awareness that you are.

"The desire for true freedom, the desire for real fulfillment, paradoxically can finally only be realized if you don’t do anything for its realization."

Ironically, a spiritual practice can become the obstacle to self-realization. In this compilation Gangaji addresses the topics of meditation and practice, when they are useful and when they are a hindrance. Her invitation is to stop every effort toward what you think will give you truth and peace so that truth and peace can naturally reveal themselves in your heart.

"The powers of the mind to grasp, reject, project, and deny are the powers used to wage war. You cannot wage peace. The ground of peace that is always here is only revealed when the war ceases to be waged within your own mind. Peace is closer to you than your own breath."

Many of us are deeply concerned about the current state of separation and war on our planet, and there is a growing collective desire to reconcile this age-old dilemma within our minds and hearts. What is the answer to personal and planetary suffering? Where can true peace finally be found? This compilation of monologues and conversations with Gangaji offers the opportunity to examine every imagined boundary between who you are and peace itself, to take responsibility for the warring factions within your own mind, and to consciously embrace the indestructible peace and compassion that is the truth of the heart.