Blue Mountain Center for Meditation
See EASWARAN, EKNATH.
Bonder, Saniel (1950– ) contemporary
American teacher
Saniel Bonder, formerly a leader with ADI DA SAM-
RAJ, left that community in 1992 and has since
emerged as an independent spiritual teacher.
Bonder was born in 1950 in New York to a
Jewish family who moved to North Carolina in
- He was awakened to spiritual matters in
the later 1960s while a student at Harvard Uni-
versity. His turn toward Hinduism was influenced
by YOGANANDA’s Autobiography of a Yogi and by
an encounter in India with Ramana MAHARSHI.
In 1973 he learned of Da Free John (who is now
known as Adi Da Samraj), and he joined the small
community around him. He became a student of
the ADVAITA VEDANTA philosophy that underlies that
community.
By the beginning of the 1990s, Bonder decided
that the experiment in spirituality led by Adi
Da had failed, and in 1992 he withdrew from
the community. He began an intense period of
self-exploration with the assistance of a psycho-
logical therapist and a shaman. His experiences,
including an encounter with the Goddess, led
him to experience what he termed “Onlyness
of Being,” what traditional Hindu teachers term
SELF-REALIZATION. From that point he began to
conduct workshops and to lead daily MEDITATION
sessions. A small initial following has grown into
a new community organized around his teaching.
He discovered that the new relationships were
becoming what he called alchemical catalysts for
transformation.
Bonder has characterized his approach to
spirituality as “waking down.” He contrasts
his approach to the common idea that escape
from mundane existence is necessary in order
to become spiritual. He suggests that the ideal
is to “fall” into both one’s pure conscious nature
and one’s embodied personhood at the same
time. With this “fall” we realize that we already
are infinite transcendental Being incarnating as
human being. Bonder has described his approach
as “aspirant centered.” He tries to assist seekers in
realizing their divinity as a beginning point for a
life of transformation. He defines self-realization
as awareness and confidence in one’s basic inte-
gration of both infinite and finite natures.
Among those who found their way to Bonder,
a number of students, including his wife, have
emerged as teachers and adepts. They now assist
in leading the community that operates under the
name Waking Down in Mutuality. Activities are
carried out across the United States. Headquarters
are at the Ma-Tam Temple of Being in Portland,
Oregon. Bonder has written several books and
regularly teaches at Ken Wilber’s Integral Spiritual
Center.Further reading: Saniel Bonder, The Divine Emergence
of the World-Teacher (Clearlake, Calif.: The Dawn Horse
Press, 1990); ———, Waking Down: Beyond Hypermas-
culine Dharmas—a Breakthrough Way of Self-Realization
in the Sanctuary of Mutuality (Portland, Ore.: Mt. Tam
Awakenings, 1998); John W. Parker, Dialogues with
Emerging Spiritual Teachers (Fort Collins, Colo.: Sage-
wood Press, 2000).Brahma
Brahma is a divinity who makes his appearance
in the post-Vedic Indian epics (c. 700 B.C.E.–100
C.E.). He has an important role in the stories of the
great gods in the epics and PURANAS. He is often
listed in a trinity alongside Vishnu and Shiva,
where Brahma is the creator god, Vishnu is the
sustainer of the world, and Shiva is the destroyer
of the world. Brahma is generally considered the
creator of the universe, but there are many differ-
ent accounts of this act within Indian mythology;
in fact, some stories credit other divinities or enti-
ties with the creation.
Unlike the other two members of the trin-
ity (and to a lesser extent the Great Goddess),K 88 Blue Mountain Center for Meditation