HeartSourcing
Finding Our Way to Love and Liberation
Braun writes with palpable empathy and shares his wisdom about unconditional love as a catalyst to transformation.
HeartSourcing: Finding Our Way to Love and Liberation, by Ramgiri Braun, is a book that will appeal to nearly everyone on the spiritual path. For those who are just beginning to dip their toes into the profound teachings of the East, as well as those who have an intimate understanding of satgurus, bhakti yoga, and the like,
Ramgiri Braun was born in Germany in 1951, and HeartSourcing opens with his riveting memories about being born and raised in a country crippled by guilt and depression. Unable to shake the debilitating shame he inherited, his lifelong struggle to transcend this deep wound is woven through the story and culminates in a healing retreat to Auschwitz with Roshi Bernie Glassman.
At eighteen, Ramgiri experienced an “awakening,” which gave him a taste of a freedom from his suffering. “Now,” he writes, “nothing attracted me more than the idea of living continuously in the clarity and love I knew was possible. I could wake up! Although I had no idea how to go about doing so, from that day on I devoted myself to awakening.”
A copy of Be Here Now, by Ram Dass, and a chance meeting with Dass propels Ramgiri to India where he became a disciple of Neem Karoli Baba Maharajji and lived in his ashram until shortly before Maharajji’s passing. Consumed with grief, Ramgiri became a wandering sadhu in the Himalayas until he is diagnosed with an incurable cancer, and was told to return to the West for treatment. When he admitted himself to the hospital in Germany, the cancer was gone, a miracle he attributed to the grace of his guru.
HeartSourcing is much, much more than Ramgiri’s fascinating memoir. It is an accessible and serious primer on how to manifest one’s own healing from suffering. Ramgiri speaks to the reader with palpable empathy and shares his wisdom about and techniques for working with one’s pain, using love as a catalyst to transformation. He also draws from Byron Katies groundbreaking “The Work” and integrates it into a powerful seven step system “for opening yourself to the core of your being.”
An excellent appendix, glossary, an essay on meditation, a how-to of Katie’s “The Work,” and more, perfectly round out Ramgiri’s beautifully written tome for those seeking an awakening.
Reviewed by
Patty Sutherland
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
