Gangaji
American Spiritual Teacher and Author
- Expertise : Author, Spiritual teacher
- Languages : english
- Website : https://gangaji.org/
GANGAJI is a well-known American spiritual teacher and author. Gangaji was born Merle Antoinette Roberson (Toni) in Texas on June 11, 1942, and grew up in Mississippi. After graduating from the University of Mississippi, she and her young family moved to San Francisco. After a divorce, she sought to change her life via political activism and spiritual practice.
She took Buddhist Bodhisattva vows, practiced Zen and Vipassana meditation, helped in a Tibetan-Buddhist-style meditation center, and began a career as an acupuncturist in the San Francisco Bay area. Unfulfilled by her seemingly successful life, in 1989 she and Eli Jaxon-Bear moved to Hawaii.
Gangaji recently works to write and tour as a teacher. She also holds that the truth of who you are is already free and at peace, which can be realized simply by ending one’s search. Despite her successes, she continued to experience a deep and persistent longing for fulfillment. In her life, she pursued many paths to change her life, including motherhood, relationship, political activism, career, and spiritual practice, but even the greatest of her successes ultimately came up to short.
Gangaji also teaches “direct experience,” or meeting whatever emotion is present for people facing strong emotions such as fear and anger, or in dealing with traumas which keep them locked in personal misery and unable to experience freedom. For example, Gangaji says, “Fear is about survival. When you drop under it and experience the fear without trying to change it, just letting it be, then it becomes unchanged.
Events
Books
- You are That! (1995),
- Freedom and Resolve (1999),
- Just Like You, An Autobiography (2003),
- The Diamond in Your Pocket: Discovering Your True Radiance (2007),
- Hidden Treasure: Uncovering the Truth in Your Life Story (2011),
- Freedom and Resolve, Finding Your True Home in the Universe
