Transformation through Intimacy, Revised Edition: The Journey toward Awakened Monogamy

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This journey through the stages of deepening monogamous relationship will appeal broadly to readers of self-help and spirituality titles in the tradition of John Welwood and Stephen Levine, and to anyone seeking greater intimacy--as well as autonomy--with their partners. A comprehensive guide to intimacy through greater self-awareness-for those who want more loving, passionate, and liberating monogamous relationships Intimate relationship has long been viewed and lived as a lesser alternative to spiritual life. More recently, the need to integrate our spiritual and intimate lives, rather than maintaining separate spheres and relationships on autopilot, has become increasingly apparent. Given the high rates of infidelity and divorce, it would seem that the possibilities of freedom through intimacy have not been explored in much depth. Too often we pull away when relationships become difficult, missing out on the rewards of connecting more profoundly. The passage from immature to mature monogamy is not only a journey of ripening intimacy with a partner, but also a journey into and through zones of ourselves that may be very difficult to accept and integrate with the rest of our being.Transformation through Intimacyexplores intimate relationships through a four-stage lens- me-centered, we-centered codependent, we-centered coindependent, and being-centered. Bringing his many years of experience as a psychotherapist and spiritual practitioner to the subject, relationship expert and integral psychoterhapist Robert Augustus Masters shows readers not only how to navigate the thickets of reactivity, conflict, shame, anger, fear, and doubt, but how to understand them in a new light so that a deeper level of relating to oneself and one's partner becomes possible, opening new levels of trust, commitment, and love.

Reviews

I love this book! There is a depth, a magic, and a sense of ultimate fulfillment that we find through learning to love one other person completely. This is a heros and a heroines journey; it asks everything of us, but also gives us all we have ever longed for. We need a great guide on such a journey, and Masters is such a one, walking by our side as we venture into deeper waters, finding an ever-deeper healing and freedom through awakened monogamy.Arjuna Ardagh, author of The Translucent Revolution

A thought-provoking, clear, passionate, and powerful road map straight to the nectar of intimate love. In the crucible/sanctuary of committed monogamous partnership, Masters shows us how to realize our deepest potentials for mutual healing, integration, and awakening, as well as how to come radically alive in what he calls the ashram of the twenty-first century.Katherine Woodward Thomas, author of Calling in The One

An illuminating and practical book about how intimate relationship can be a path for deep healing, transformation, and awakening. Masters writes with strength and precisionpay particular attention to his groundbreaking chapters on emotion and sexuality.Gay Hendricks, PhD, author of Five Wishes and The Big Leap

This is an important and tremendously useful book, packed with wisdom and insight. Highly recommended!Ken Wilber, author of The Integral Vision

For anyone who wants to more deeply understand the seeming mystery of relationshipand transform their partnership to a sublime union of souls.Barry Vissell, MD, and Joyce Vissell, RN, MS, authors of The Shared Heart

Transformation through Intimacyis so comprehensive, so down-to-earth, so vivid and raw, so unflinching and kind, so patient and persistent, it's hard to imagine that a more potent guidebook to healing the multiple dis-eases of todays intimacies could possibly appear. There isn't a couple on earth, nor a single seeking someone to love, nor anyone exploring multiple partnering or other unconventional arrangements, who can't benefit by looking into the numerous mirrors Robert holds up here as he traces our potential growth through four stages of maturity in intimacy....Robert has distilled into simple, ordinary essences his highly sophisticated awareness of philosophical, developmental, and clinical theory and his vast years of experience in therapeutic and teaching practice. The result is a book that anyone with a feeling heart, a questing mind, and a dedicated willingness to deeply encounter self and other can surely understand and grow from immenselyagain and again."
Saniel Bonder, founder, Waking Down in Mutuality, author of Ultimaya 1.0andHealing the Spirit/Matter Split

Robert Masters grabs us like no other couples therapist because his ear for the normalized reactivity and interpersonal laziness we bring to our close relationships is alarmingly familiar. No one can read this book and mindlessly fall back on Im doing the best I can or Im only human. But, happily you will no longer want to. Masterss no-nonsense recognition of our immaturity fuels a profound and hopeful understanding of couples development where a genuine trust in Beingness neither bypasses immaturity nor allows it to run the show. Through his own intense investigation of intimate relationship, Masters teaches us that if we are willing to roll up our sleeves, we can discover that what we have always wanted actually exists: the safety with our beloved to be raw and unfiltered and the safety to truly live in our Bigness. At a time when many are questioning the viability of long-term monogamy, Transformation through Intimacy shows us that we ultimately have only two romantic choices: boredom or grace.Nancy Dreyfus, PsyD, author of Talk to Me Like I'm Someone You Love

Transformation through Intimacy is a bold, refreshing guide for anyone craving a deeper, more authentic connection with their belovedand willing to dive into new depths of compassion, understanding, and honesty. The rewards are exponential, as Ive experienced personally. Robert truly is a master.Mary Allen, author of The Power of Inner Choice

In this oh-so-brilliant book, Masters calls us out from behind our relational hiding places, reminding us that there is a sacred, expansive path lying in waiting for us beyond the bondage of our unconscious connections. With powerful and heartfelt language, he paints a new and wondrous portrait of possibility for intimate relationship, one that awakens us to the often unseen universe that lives between and within our hearts. It is right there, close at heart, just waiting to be uncovered, embraced, and explored. Transformation through Intimacy is a magnificent map of awakening. I highly recommend it to anyone who is ready to plunge deeper in their relational life.Jeff Brown, author of Soulshaping

A profoundlyilluminating book!Robert Augustus Masterssbreadth ofexpertise anddepthofheartreveal the wayto become intimate with all of who you are. His guidance is compassionate, penetrating,and clear as a bell, callingyouintothe very heart of relational intimacy. When Transformation through Intimacybecomes required reading forteenagers, our world willtransform!Robert is truly a master of human transformation.If youare ready to deepen your emotional intelligence and experience wholehearted, wide-awake, relational intimacy, this book is for you.Terah Kathryn Collins, author of The Western Guide to Feng Shui

Transformation through Intimacy is a plea that couples not settle for anything less than awakened monogamy, defined as attachment built on total trust that enlivens, gladdens, and expands. It sparkles with Masterss many gems mined from decades of counseling and inner work.Marnia Robinson, author of Cupid's Poisoned Arrow

"This book will inspire you to do what it takes to create a deeply loving, monogamousbut not monotonousrelationship.Diana Daffner, author of Tantric Sex for Busy Couples

Author Bio

Robert Augustus Masters, PhD, is a relationship expert, an integral psychotherapist, and a psychospiritual guide and trainer, with a doctorate in psychology. He is the cofounder, with his wife Diane, of the Masters Center for Transformation (MCT), a school featuring relationally rooted psychospiritual work devoted to deep healing and fully embodied awakening. He is also the author of many books (including Transformation Through Intimacy, Spiritual Bypassing, Emotional Intimacy, and To Be a Man) and an audio program- Knowing Your Shadow. His uniquely integral, intuitive work, which he developed over the past thirty-seven years, dynamically blends the psychological and physical with the spiritual, emphasizing full-blooded embodiment, authenticity, emotional openness and literacy, deep shadow work, and the develop-ment of relational maturity. At essence his work is about becoming more intimate with all that we are, in the service of the deepest possible healing, awakening, and integration. He works side by side and in very close conjunction with Diane. They live and work in Ashland, Oregon. His website is http-//robert-masters.com. He posts regularly on his Facebook page- https-//www.facebook.com/robertaugustusmasters