http://heartgazing.com/integral
http://greatreliefsecrets.com
http://sanielandlinda.com
Saniel Bonder is the founder of the international Waking Down in Mutualityâ„¢ transformational process and community. He, his wife Linda Groves-Bonder, and their colleagues in that network have helped many hundreds of people rapidly achieve stable spiritual awakenings of the turiyatita, or most fully unitive and non-dual, degree. Historically, there are few if any precedents for such advanced realizations among so many otherwise everyday people in just over a decade and a half.
Saniel was born in New York to second-generation Jewish parents. Upon entering Harvard in 1968, he was awarded an Honorary National Scholarship, given annually to only a few students with extraordinary promise. He later graduated with a B.A. in Social Relations (psychology, anthropology, and sociology combined).
It was during those years that his spiritual quest began. Influenced by a great many adepts and teachers, Eastern and Western, including the Beats, Martin Buber, Thomas Merton, and Neem Karoli Baba, he was principally schooled in the Heart-Consciousness transmissions and work of his root guru, Ramana Maharshi, and his primary incarnate guru, Adi Da. He spent nearly twenty years in Adi Da‘s community, where he served as an editor, writer, educator, priest, and cultural leader. He published a well-received biography of his teacher in 1990, before finding it necessary to leave the great adept‘s work in summer 1992.
To his amazement, that departure catalyzed a rapid advaitic and tantric culmination of his quest. After awakening in late 1992 and discovering a living spiritual transmission flowing from his Heart, Saniel found it necessary and inevitable to chart a new, mutual, in some ways revolutionary course. Ever since, he has pioneered and championed the democratizing of non-dual, embodied, “divinely human” Heart-awakeness and collaborative, integrative evolution. He‘s grateful to be part of the Integral community and, especially, for Ken Wilber‘s support all along.
To more fully democratize his own work, in 2024 Saniel transferred organizational stewardship for Waking Down in Mutuality to autonomous non-profit corporations created and led by teachers and other realizers who were once his students. While continuing to provide inspiration and leadership to the Waking Down in Mutuality community, Saniel and Linda have also developed their own expressions as a unique team of husband-wife spiritual teachers.
HEARTgazingâ„¢ is their offering of empowering support to all people who can benefit from the primal nurturance of Saniel and Linda‘s Heart-transmission, regardless of their beliefs, practices, and other religious and spiritual involvements. This gentle yet profound resource is designed for use by anyone anywhere who hungers to deepen and grow in spiritual faith and all-around personal integrity, wellness, effectiveness, and joy.
For those who desire direct Self-realization, ongoing healing, evolutionary integration, and discovery and fulfillment of their ultimate life-purpose, Saniel and Linda offer The WholeHEART Wayâ„¢ advanced teachings and trainings. This Way‘s flagship teaching-stream and life-path is their Founder‘s Revelation of Waking Down in Mutuality. Its other distinct yet interlinked teachings and life-ways are The Tantra of Trustâ„¢, The Force of Destiny, and Awakened HEART-Shamanismâ„¢.
Recognizing the extreme life-challenges and crises of confidence and trust so many people are facing in today‘s global recession, in 2024 Saniel and Linda are embarking on a Take HEART! Tour to bring their inspiration, encouragement, and direct transmission to others around the U.S. and in other countries. Wherever they go, they will also make pilgrimages to offer their prayers and blessings at significant sacred places and also sites of infamous human tragedy and atrocity.
Saniel is the author of many books, including Healing the Spirit/Matter Split, Great Relief, Waking Down: Beyond Hypermasculine Dharmas, The White-Hot Yoga of the Heart, The Conscious Principle, a novel, While Jesus Weeps, a golf book, What Does It Really Mean to Take an Honest Swing?, and also a flute CD, The Nectar, as well as several other publications in process. He and Linda have co-created three online home-study courses: Transmission of the HEART, an introduction to HEARTgazing; The Great Relief Hero‘s Journey; and The Human SUN Experience.
Along with Linda, Saniel is a founding member of Integral Institute, a charter member of Integral Spiritual Center, and a member of the Advisory Board for Genpo Roshi‘s Big Mind, Big Heart trainings. He also writes a column on “The Spirit/Money Split” for Good Business International (www.good-b.com) and is the “SF Spirituality Examiner” for Examiner.com (www.examiner.com).
