OpenTube

Joi Sharp on Devotion, Surrender, and Awakening | Buddha at the Gas Pump Interview

Buddha at the Gas Pump®

23,344 views

While watching this interview, feel free to pause and engage one-on-one with the BatGapBot - https://batgap.com/batgap-spiritual-a.... This interactive companion is here to answer your questions and go deeper into the topics, offering insights and personalized dialogue along the way.

Also see http://batgap.com/joi-sharp/

Joi Sharp shares the story of a spontaneous spiritual awakening that began one morning in Tahoe City in her mid-twenties and unfolded into a life of devotion, surrender, healing, and deep inquiry. She speaks about long solo immersions in nature, a resonance with Native traditions, and the profound impact of meeting her first teacher, a respected Lakota medicine man. From there, her path led to Amma, Mata Amritanandamayi, whose presence and guidance shaped nearly a decade in India and a long period of de-conditioning, love, and surrender.

Joi also talks about the relationship between bhakti and jnana, the role of self-inquiry, and her time at Ramana Maharshi’s ashram in Tiruvannamalai. She describes what happened when she returned to the West with little to hold onto, how surrender deepened, and how the sense of a separate self gradually loosened its grip. The conversation touches on presence, discernment, emotional purging, teachers, dependency, and the danger of identifying with awakening itself.

This is a rich and intimate conversation about grace, transformation, and the many forms that awakening can take. Joi’s appreciation for her teachers, especially Amma, is woven throughout, along with her practical reflections on how truth is lived, not just understood.

Interview recorded 7/2/11

🌐 Guest website: https://www.joisharp.com/
📚 Full transcript: https://batgap.com/joi-sharp-transcript/
🎙️ Podcast: https://batgap.com/podcast/
🔔 Subscribe for weekly conversations on spiritual awakening and the nature of consciousness.
💝 Support BatGap (tax-exempt nonprofit): https://batgap.com/donations/
#spiritualawakening #surrender #devotion #selfinquiry #nonduality

Chapters:
00:00:00 - The Spiritual Awakening in Tahoe City
00:04:42 - A Total Inside Job
00:09:08 - The Power of Presence in Nature
00:13:47 - Spontaneous Prayer and Connection with Nature
00:18:37 - A Journey of Healing and Transformation
00:22:39 - Powerful Experiences and Native American Wisdom
00:26:32 - Surrender to the Divine Feminine
00:30:55 - Exploring Eastern Philosophy and Emotional Release Techniques
00:34:26 - Various Jobs and Meeting Amma
00:37:59 - A Moment with Shri Swami
00:42:16 - Claimed by Amma
00:46:04 - Receiving the Silent Transmission
00:50:37 - Seven Years of Restlessness
00:54:14 - Experiencing Total Oneness
00:58:04 - The Divine Intelligence within Amma
01:01:43 - A Spontaneous Invitation to Ramana Maharshi's Ashram
01:05:55 - Going deeper into the inquiry
01:09:24 - The Power of Being Seen
01:13:09 - The Other Side of the Coin
01:16:48 - A Silent Recognition of Presence
01:20:17 - The Depth of Presence and Clarity of Understanding
01:24:47 - Faint Remains of Ignorance and the Instrumentality of the Physical World
01:29:07 - Experiencing Grace and Presence Everywhere
01:33:18 - Letting Go of the Known
01:37:37 - Letting Go of the Need to Know
01:42:13 - Filling up the Space
01:46:16 - The Beauty of Living Fully
01:50:10 - The Danger of Identifying with Awakening
01:54:23 - The Different Approaches to Awakening
01:57:56 - Wrapping Up the Conversation
02:01:07 - Farewell and Next Time

14 Comments

@freefallingintograce4634 10 years ago

What a wonderfully rich and radiant interview! Thank you Joi and Rick.

@jsingh108 14 years ago

I see your point, Rick. Thank you for your reply. I feel that we only recognize that which we identify with. Light recognizes light, yet as consciousness it all dissolves..consciousness is all there is...nothing to hold on to, attach to or hierarchies as such. I see that in many of the interviews I identify experience that as a person I have had to many of the people you interviewed..and it goes deeper than that. It is recognizing that oneness that stands behind all experiencing. Thanks Rick!

@richardmcartney2461 1 year ago

Think on this what really is cosmic consciousness? Yoganandaji put it this way it would take a million years of disease free living for the tenement to with stand the liberating SHOCK of cosmic consciousness. The journey is long and arduous but finding inner happiness is such a great start to our inner journey.

@jsingh108 14 years ago

Great interview Rick! I followed Nirmala Devi for fourteen years and this reminded me of her. I realize now though after "unplugging" from everything possible that the belief that such masters contain more shakti than others is illusive. It is like saying that consciousness is selective and partial and it isn't! Some uncover more of themselves than others. So I do not understand why Jodi would still hold that belief that Amma is the mother more than any other human being?

@joetize 14 years ago

What a nice lady,with a beautyfull girl inside!!!
...a genuin giver...!
Thanks!

@richardmcartney2461 1 year ago

Yes everyone is doing the best that they can. These words of Jesus will now ring true, father forgive them fore they no not what they do. In that one sentence his love and understanding for where we all are on our journey home ward.

@constantchanges00 14 years ago

Where did you post Joi's website link?? Thanks so much, great interview!

@evanwalgren9591 8 months ago

🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂

@richardmcartney2461 1 year ago

Jesus said the harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few.

@BatGap Creator 14 years ago

See batgap (dot) com then scroll down the list of guests.

@BatGap Creator 14 years ago

It's the old levels issue. Does a 200 watt light bulb "contain" more electricity than a 15 watt light bulb? No, but it emits more light. It's physically capable of "channeling" more electricity, and dispelling more darkness.

@osip7315 14 years ago

i wonder if she picked up lymes at lake tahoe, bit of bad luck if that was the case !

yeah i agree the truck being hit was an accident

@yogiyogiinfy 13 years ago

It would be good to know the details of her life, prior to her having that, awakening in the mid twenties. she said it was wild. it is unclear what she meant by that?
How was her relations with her parents and friends?How was she doing at school and college? All this is important to know,what triggered her to have that awakening. Sometimes awakening happens just because you are very troubled in your current life Or if you have lived a life of total indulgence and now you are disgusted with that.