Elysha (Eel-i-sha), was born Raymond Joseph Omundsen on the 17th of April, 1956 in Wanganui, New Zealand. His first round of awakening flowered on the Friday evening of the 8th of May,1992, in Wellington, New Zealand. It was a profound realisation that followed on the footsteps of a lifetime of searching.
Thus began the gradual journey of heart and true discovery that led Elysha to become an internationally recognised spiritual teacher. In coming to see the beauty and richness of the heart and the journey into Oneness, he found something amazing, yet profoundly simple: the true essence of the self. This inspired Elysha to write his first book "Heart In Motion", which is filled with this profound understanding of life.
Elysha's writings provide a great opportunity to consistently remain in the transcendent awareness that characterises pure being, and in his book "Who You Are" he shares an effective method for discerning between the truth of this moment and the illusory 'I.'
Elysha writes...
After 18 years of spiritual seeking - in which many energetic changes and revelations had taken place - I sat down on my sister's doorstep one day and wept over the realisation that, despite all of these years of searching, I had not really changed at all.
Even with everything that had taken place, 'I' was still the same old me that had begun this trip 18 years earlier.
At that moment, it became clear to me that there was nothing I could do to change that 'status quo,' because all of my actions were from the point of view of the 'I.' No matter what I did or embarked upon, I was trapped and encased by this 'I.'
In other words I felt truly stuck...and my weeping was heartfelt.
Two weeks later as I was going about an ordinary day, the spontaneous grace of the Divine showered on me, releasing my mindbody from an element - the first round - of the "bind of the mind."
I laughed...what I'd been seeking was already here - and always had been. My idea of "me" was only a momentary façade overlaying this divine grace with who I thought I was.
As this grace and clarity kicked into gear, Elysha began teaching again in late 2002. At that time, the immanent energy of this universal understanding became so factually self-evident to him that he knew anyone was completely capable of entering the directness of this freedom, if they so desired.
Elysha writes...
Like everything else about waking up to what and who you truly are, the reality is nothing like any of the ideas you may have about it beforehand.
There is a great liberation in realising how truly free-standing your own transcendent consciousness is from the "mind-body package" that you find yourself in. This consciousness is always accessible and already here for every one of us, and there is a real depthless joy and happiness that arises from this.
When you grow tired of choosing the activities associated with who you think you are, moment by moment, you may well realise that you have the energy and the attention to dwell in the Divine presence that is already here in your life, permeating every moment.
Elysha's method is so ingeniously simple that anyone can use it to change their life. This teaching really works, no matter where you're at in your spiritual life, no matter what you have discovered and what else you have been exposed to.
Anyone who is determined to momentarily surrender their hold on who they think they are is capable of discovering the ultimate truth - the state of the natural human being, beyond every idea of 'self,' grounded in the joy and beauty of the present moment.
A small group of people became regular visitors to sit with Elysha and later, in 2004, all moved to the north island of New Zealand in order to live close together and to sit in daily meditation whenever possible.
It was here that Elysha co-founded Our True Nature Charitable Trust, a non-profit Charitable Trust that began as a small community of friends and has now blossomed into a group of self-realised individuals, all working together to bring simple clarity to the planet.
During December 2007, one of Elysha's students went beyond the dimension of the self into the no-self state. This was Elysha's companion Julie Sarah Powell, who had practiced this method with such diligence that she transcended even his level of seeing and being. She had moved beyond the mind that governs the 'I', and into the complete state of the natural human being.
Elysha has helped hundreds of people over his 16 years of teaching to get in touch with their true nature, and Julie is his best example to date. Elysha and Julie continue together, to provide support for anyone who is ready to begin living the beauty of their heart.
As Elysha clearly explains in his book “Who You Are”, the living truth of the moment is that you are absolutely free; you are a living embodiment of the Divine. It’s a truth that's always been there, waiting for you to discover.
