Unique Self Library
Soul Prints
Your Path to Fulfillment
(Simon and Schuster, 2001)
This is Dr. Marc Gafni’s first English-language book, in which he refers to Soul Print not as a typology of ego, but as an expression of enlightened essence. The term Unique Self also appears in this book for the first time.
Marc Gafni follows in the tradition of Rabbi Harold Kushner and Ram Dass, bringing wisdom to everyday experience and using spiritual stories to teach us how to live happier lives. The secret is to “live your story,” and we do this by identifying our Unique Selves — our “soul prints.” Only then can we connect on a deeper level with the world and with those sharing it alongside us.
Soul Prints speaks to all readers, regardless of religious beliefs or practices. Using the power of myth — Biblical and folk — and drawing on his own highs and lows, Gafni offers advice on how to overcome the obstacles of an increasingly disconnected world to form bonds based in truth and love: connections that begin with our true selves.
Radical Kabbalah, Book 1
Enlightenment Teaching of Unique Self, Non-dual Humanism and the Wisdom of Solomon: Great Teaching of Ethics and Eros from Mordechai Lainer of Izbica
(Integral Publishers, 2012)
Dr Marc Gafni’s two-volume academic treatise on Radical Kabbalah lays the groundwork for key dimensions of the Unique Self teaching. Compared by Prof. Richard Mann with the work of Elaine Pages on the Gnostic gospels, called “magisterial” by Sally Kempton, and described by Zack Stein as a work that comes around “once in a generation,” Gafni introduces in this work the enlightenment teaching of what he terms non-dual humanism.
Based on a deep re-reading of over a thousand Aramaic and Hebrew texts, Gafni first outlines the core teaching and then traces the esoteric intellectual history of non-dual humanism in five major matrices of the Kabbalah In the vision of non-dual humanism the potential democratization of enlightenment opens up as a genuine option in which every human being is called to lives lived “as Source.” Sean Esbjorn Hargens cited this work as a classic example of what leading scholar Jeffery Kripal calls Mystical Hermeneutics in which the scholar practitioner brings his full Eros and love into unlocking and evolving vital lineage sources and sharing them with the world.
Radical Kabbalah, Book 2
The Wisdom of Solomon as the Matrix of the Enlightenment Teaching of Non-dual Acosmic Humanism and Unique Self
(Integral Publishers, 2012)
In the second volume in the Radical Kabbalah set, Marc Gafni cracks an esoteric code deep within the Kabbalistic tradition which identifies “wisdom of Solomon” as being the source of the teaching of non-dual humanism. Gafni then shows that this teaching of the wisdom of Solomon, i.e. non-dual humanism, did not originate with Mordechai Lainer of Izbica. Rather it has deep roots in earlier Zoharic and Lurianic texts all of whom received and transmitted the non-dual humanism teaching of the wisdom of Solomon.
Nevertheless, it remained to Mordechai Lainer of Izbica to fully explicate and evolve the radically empowering implication of this ancient teaching. In this volume, Gafni carefully and rigorously uncovers the hidden teaching of the wisdom of Solomon as they appear encoded within Hassidic writings waiting to be discovered.
Other publications on Unique Self
The Journal of Integral Theory and Practice (JITP), the official source for material related to Integral Theory and its application, devoted an entire issue to Unique Self. In this issue, Dr Marc is the guest editor and writes two core articles on Unique Self, one emergent from Mordechai Lainer, and the other on the core Unique Self teaching, which are a cornerstone for World Spirituality teaching. Included in these articles is one by Zak Stein, which compares Gafni’s Unique Self teaching with Andrew Cohen’s Authentic Self teaching.
Your Unique Self
The Radical Path to Personal Enlightenment (Marc Gafni)
In this groundbreaking book, “Your Unique Self, The Radical Path to Personal Enlightenment” Dr. Marc Gafni makes an inspired call for the “Democratization of Enlightenment”, as the critical next step in the Evolution of Consciousness. He offers a new vision of ” Enlightenment” which liberates it from the esoteric discourse of spiritual elites, and makes it a genuine option in the very heart of mainstream culture.
Self in Integral Evolutionary Mysticism
Two Models and Why They Matter (Marc Gafni)
Two major works have been written within the framework of Integral Wisdom about the nature of Self and God. While they share important features, namely the evolutionary context of the conversation and a vision of Self beyond Ego, their interior visions of the quality of the Self beyond Ego are profoundly different. Both of these visions of Self-or key dimensions of the two versions-have been adopted, directly and indirectly by many spiritual teachers. In this clear and compelling work Marc Gafni articulates the two models, their shared features, their differences and why–as we seek to articulate an Integral Wisdom–these differences matter so desperately.
What they say:
Reading SELF is a fabulous opening for me.
I will be teaching from it tonight on my Sacred Journey Course. The theme is Education Our Local Selves.
What I received from you is the understanding of how my own Unique Self can make intimate contact with the Unique Self of the students, “which further elicits the Unique Self of the teacher as well as the student.”
I have held back this passionate outpouring of intimate contact of Unique Self with Unique Self, and kept it into a personal realm, rather than the ubiquitous realm of Outrageous Love of all with no reserve.
It is explosive. Tonight’s class I will be reading from SELF opening myself to my students in a new way.I can now feel how to do it in my teaching, in the personal mentoring, and in my whole life with everyone everywhere…like you do!
Thank you, thank you, thank you for this great liberation that overcomes the illusion of separation and reserve (sort of a lady-like stance of reserve and decorum) that I believe I have had because I never encountered one who gave me the new experience and example.
Paul R. Smith, author of Integral Christianity: The Spirit’s Call to Evolve:
When I look at the ten thousand books on spirituality, mysticism, and evolutionary religion in my library, I can tell, at a glance, without looking at titles, which ones were most helpful to me. They are the ones with Post-it notes sticking out from the top, marking pages that I found quite valuable. Self in Integral Evolutionary Mysticism by Marc Gafni is one of those few dozens with numerous colorful sticky notes flaming out from its top edge. Gafni’s previous book, Unique Self, was a breakthrough opening in understanding the Self in relation to union with God. This book continues by focusing on an opposing popular postmodern view of self and pointing out the crucial differences. With laser-like insight Gafni lets his view remain the only one I can joyfully endorse as an integrally-informed Christian mystic and scholar. This book shines with radiant luminosity and spiritual depth.
Your Unique Self: An Integral Path to Success 3.0
(Integral Publishers – October 9, 2014)
Your Unique Self 3.0 is a re-edited and condensed release of the Unique Self book targeted to spiritually conscious entrepreneurs and changemakers establishing their connection with the larger world.
When entrepreneurs Wake up. Grow up and Show up, they Free up the enlightened creativity of their entrepreneurial spirit. and become the heroes of their own life.
Education in a Time Between Worlds: Essays on the Future of Schools, Technology, and Society
by Zachary Stein
Our world is currently undergoing major transformations, from climate change and politics to agriculture and economics. The world we have known is disappearing and a new world is being born. The subjects taught in schools and universities today are becoming irrelevant at faster and faster rates. Not only are we facing complex challenges of unprecedented size and scope, we’re also facing a learning and capacity deficit that threatens the future of civilization.
Education in a Time Between Worlds seeks to reframe this historical moment as an opportunity to create a global society of educational abundance. Educational systems must be transformed beyond recognition if humanity is to survive the planetary crises currently underway. Human development and learning must be understood as the Earth’s most valuable resources, with human potential serving as the open frontier into which energy and hope can begin to flow.