Richard Harvey
connecting psychotherapy and spiritual growth for human awakening
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Dharma Sky
talks on psychological and spiritual understanding and renewal for the modern era
The following is an edited version of the foreword by Robert Meagher:
Foreword
From November 2012 to May 2013 I had the honor and privilege of attending two series of online lectures by Richard Harvey. The first series was titled The Sashti Poorti Lecture-Seminars and was comprised of the following eight lectures:
- Absolute Freedom: The Path of Love, Devotion, and Surrender Parts 1 and 2
- Honoring the Gate: Blessing, Gratitude, and the Golden Opportunity Parts 1 and 2
- Sacred Attention: Awakening, Liberation, and Spirituality in the World Parts 1 and 2
- The Three Stages of Awakening: A Radical New Approach to the Human Predicament in the 21st Century Parts 1 and 2
The second series, The Panchavati Online Discourses, contained the following six lectures:
- The Heart of Compassion
- How the Soul is Born into the World
- Authentic Love and the Birth of the Soul (inc. How the Soul is Born into the World Part 2)
- The Intuition of Eternity (inc. How the Soul is Born into the World Part 3)
- The End of Seeking
- The Threshold of Transformation
Following the two lecture-seminar series, Richard decided to compile the transcripts of all fourteen talks into an e-book. And I was once again gifted with the honor of being asked to write the foreword for this wonderful e-book that Richard is now extending to all of humanity. The resulting manuscripts contained in this e-book are a divine gift from Source itself. There is a blessed purity and sacredness about the lectures that vibrates off the page or screen.
Following the lecture proper, Richard would invite questions and sharing by participants. This was a welcomed opportunity to ask for clarification of lecture content and/or share experiences and insights gleaned from the talks. Richard has delicately honored that aspect of the lectures by integrating questions and answers into the manuscripts. His compassion and support throughout the discussion portion of the lectures provided a safe and welcoming environment for all to share in the experience.
Richard brought the lectures to life through his sharing of personal experiences that are recounted throughout the transcripts and which illustrate immensely vital material for this time in humanity’s evolution and transformation. These personal stories enriched the lectures and made the experience divinely human. There was no question that Richard had walked the path before and learned from his, at times, arduous journey. Now, it is his desire to serve humanity through an expanded view of psychotherapy and spirituality, Richard is offering his journey for all to examine and, if they are brave enough, to learn from.
The overarching tone of the lectures was compassionately introspective. Richard invited participants into a safe and peaceful space for listening with all of one’s senses. His personal approach often compelled the participant to look at their own lives through the lens of Richard’s three-stage model of psycho-spiritual development.
While accessible to anyone oriented toward inner work, the lectures are steeped in deep truths that challenge and invite us to venture within to discover our true self. This discovery process is not unlike yin yoga poses that initially challenge us to relax our muscles. Our body’s automatic response is to protect itself and resist being stretched. However, if one is courageous enough to hold the pose for an extended period of time, the muscle eventually relaxes and the underlying fascia, the connective tissue that surrounds the muscle, blood vessels, and nerves, allows us to sink deeper into the pose. The lectures contained in this e-book offer the seeker the same experience. Stay with the lecture and you will eventually relax into the deeper truths embedded in the prose.
Richard is a gift to humanity. As everyone who participated in the lecture series is a gift to humanity. You are a gift to humanity. Embrace the divine grace that resides within you. May these sacred manuscripts open the door to that divine grace and welcome you home to everlasting peace.
Shanti, Namaste, Agapé,
In love, gratitude, compassion and forgiveness…
Rev. Robert Meagher
Founder and
Spiritual Director
Spiritual Guidance
Ottawa, ON, CANADA
The Contents
Foreword by the Rev Robert Meagher 7
Introduction 10
PART 1: From Freedom to Awakening
THE SASHTI POORTHI LECTURE SEMINARS
1 ABSOLUTE FREEDOM:
The Path of Love, Devotion and
Surrender Part 1 14
Introduction to my work and the Sashti Poorthi lectures 14
The lecture topics 15
The human
dilemma 16
What is freedom? 17
You are hardly free… 18
You
are not free to be yourself 19
The courage to be free 20
Relatively
free and absolutely free 21
Absolute
freedom, devotion, and love 22
A poem: Sashti Poorthi 22
Exercise: Consider your life… 23
2 ABSOLUTE FREEDOM:
The Path of Love, Devotion
and Surrender Part 2 25
Bound 25
Eternity in time 27
Student, disciple, or devotee? 27
Practicing devotion 28
Dedicated
to the Divine 29
Immersed in Unity 30
How the mind works 31
You
and I are absolutely free 32
Exercise:
How you feel constricted… 32
A
summary 33
3 HONORING THE GATE:
Blessing, Gratitude, and the Golden Opportunity
Part 1 34
The longing for the Divine 34
The mystery and the call 35
The
gate and receiving the gift 36
Appreciation and response 37
A
revolution in consciousness 38
Honoring my gate 39
A new path
of opening and discovery 40
Exercise:
Honoring the gate: Parts 1 to 3 41
4 HONORING THE GATE:
Blessing, Gratitude, and the Golden Opportunity
Part 2 43
The soul is not the spirit 44
Exercise: Honoring the Gate: Part 4 45
Non-attachment, even to the means to Truth 46
Fetishizing and the teachings of truth 47
Beyond the gate 48 A poem: Surrender 48
Everything is Consciousness 49
Real nature 50
This miracle
of life 51
The viewpoint of Truth 52
5 SACRED ATTENTION:
Awakening, Liberation, and Spirituality in the
World Part 1 55
Everything resolves in its opposite 56
All is Consciousness 57
A sense
of self 58
An eternity of longing 59
An attitude of presence 59
People need to talk 60
First stage
awakening 61
A culture of fantasy 62
Psycho-biological retardation 63
Authentic sacred attention and the imitation 64
An historical perspective 64
Near and far enemies 65
Sacred
attention in the 21st century 66
ADDENDUM
Whole-body listening 67
Second-stage questioning 67
6 SACRED ATTENTION:
Awakening, Liberation, and Spirituality in the
World Part 2 68
Which stage of awakening am I in? 68
The attraction of fear 69 Fear becomes a friend 70
Awareness and authenticity 70
The loss of sacred attention 71
One in Consciousness 73
Sacred
practice and ritual 73
Disaster
scenarios 75
Openness 76
Acceptance 76
Expansive communication 76
Resonance 77
Staying “on” 78
The present reality 78
Blessed
state of attention 79
Sacred attention
is always present 80
7 THE THREE STAGES OF AWAKENING:
A Radical New Approach to the Human
Predicament in the 21st Century
Part 1 82
Specialization versus the expanded view 83
Discovering the model 84
A
new mythology 86
Progressive methods 86
Doing and being 87
Spiritual
instruction 88
The Kaliyuga 89
The idea of awakening 90
The
first stage of awakening 91
The
ancestral tide 93
The name of
God 94
Divine reflections of One
Love 95
8 THE THREE STAGES OF AWAKENING: A Radical New Approach to the Human Predicament in the 21st Century Part 2 97
Heaven on earth 97
Deepening
in the life of authenticity 98
The final paradox 99
Why are you
attached? 99
Do I have to study? 101
From the top of the mountain 101
You are human and divine 103
God is you and you are God 104
A breath of the purest air… 105
An entirely new flower 106
The mystery and the apotheosis 107
A view of eternity 108
PART 2: Compassion, Soul and Seeking...
THE PANCHAVATI DISCOURSES 110
9 THE HEART OF COMPASSION
I am and I am not
We are All
From the level of appearances to centering
in the heart
From all is One to transcending the opposites
From knowing
where love appears
to the transformation of suffering
Absence of
self
The Heart of Compassion Exercise
10 HOW THE SOUL IS BORN INTO THE WORLD
The wonder of it
Endgaining
How is the soul born into the world?
The spiritual path
An evolutionary shift?
Spiritual realization is
an inner event
Loss of the human center
The Drop of Honey
Four spheres of human experience
The thinking
realm
The practice of radical awareness
You think “reality”
The
personal narrative
Tricking the mind
11 AUTHENTIC LOVE & THE BIRTH OF THE SOUL
(inc How the Soul
is Born into the World Part 2)
The disguise of your nobody-ness
From simplicity through complexity
to simplicity
The Essence of Love expresses itself in endless forms
The second veil of darkness
The realm of non-relationship
The
dark corners of relationship
Everything must disappoint you
12 THE INTUITION OF ETERNITY
(inc How the Soul is Born into the
World Part 3)
What does spirituality have to offer?
Great adepts suffer
Being
blissful always
You are merely a drop of water…
Intuition of eternity
Spiritual teaching is metaphor
Authentic spirituality is serious
Acting
out the agony
The natural course of life
Someone who knows you better
than you know yourself
The Third Realm: Nature
The end of the present
series
13 THE END OF SEEKING
The dilemma
Spiritual preparation is seeking
What are kriyas?
The fifth sacred tree
You are not here
Spiritual status and prestige
Reality is like food
Sighting truth
The epitome of love
Surrender
is non-attachment
Seeking is of the ego
The true teaching
The essence
of spiritual teaching
The pleasures of the world
The ego is the seeker
14 THE THRESHOLD OF TRANSFORMATION
What is the true nature of human beings?
This sense of wonder…
Find two things exactly the same
The fork in the road is the peak of
the mountain
Happiness is not the outcome of desire
Three ways to
Self-realization
When the inner world outshines the outer world
Life
seeks fulfillment
The Threshold of Transformation
The journey of self-discovery
Crossing the void…
Authenticity is base camp
Bibliography
Appendices
A note about the original courses
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What participants say
I
am almost speechless at the end of your discourses. I'd like to take the
opportunity to express my deepest gratitude. All of your talks are deeply
moving and your gift for raising consciousness is breathtaking. The words
of profound wisdom you express have resonated with me and reached me in
an unimaginable way. They have given me the gift of deep introspection.
There is such richness to be gained by having the honor to participate in
such a graceful display of heartfelt dialogue
Louise Leroux, Counselor and Social Worker
It
was like the journey of 1000 years! I am grateful beyond words!
Florin Buzatu, Psy D, psychology student
I
have been astounded by the truths that Richard's talks revealed
Tarajia Morrell, actor, writer, restaurateur