Amoda Maa and Kavi are the Founders and Spiritual Directors of the Amoda Maa Foundation. Their lives and work are dedicated to supporting an “inner transformation” and envisioning a new world of peace and enlightened living.
Amoda Maa brings to her teachings a depth and breadth of understanding of the human journey, born out of her own immersion in the furnace of personal transformation. Born in 1962 on Aphrodite’s Island (Cyprus) in the Eastern Mediterranean, her early life was shrouded in secrecy. Whilst for certain her mother was of Greek descent, her ancestry is otherwise unknown. Just a few months after her birth she was whisked off to England and given a British education. Childhood circumstances continued to be unusual, with unexpected changes and a series of shocks. An introverted nature and a natural inclination towards the otherworldly, she deeply contemplated at a young age the “big” existential questions, such as “Who am I?”, “What is life?”, “Is there a meaning to existence?”, and “Is there something beyond the material reality?”. This led her to study Psychology at the University of London, where she received a Bachelor of Science and then pursued a PhD for seven years, but a long period of depression throughout these years eventually led her to abandon her academic path. At the same time, her personal life dramatically “fell apart” and she turned away from all worldly and material concerns to immerse herself in an all-consuming exploration of philosophical, psychological, metaphysical, and spiritual teachings and practices. Whilst this was a time of intense hardship, it was also a time of discovering inner riches. In particular, she was immersed in Buddhist and Zen Meditation, Tantric Energy-work, Shamanic Healing, “Rebirthing” Breath-work, and Psychosynthesis. She read widely on many teachings, especially Carl Jung, Krishnamurti, Osho, a Course in Miracles, and the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, as well as more contemporary teachings.
Eventually her search for freedom from suffering led her to India in the early 1990’s where her adventures — firstly in the heart of chaos and fear, and secondly in the amplified field of transformation and meditation of the Osho Ashram in Pune — taught her the art of surrender and she discovered the unconditionality of Life itself.
About Amoda Maa
Back at her home in London, she found a new sense of joy and flow by creating a unique transformational method based on breath-work, emotional catharsis, movement, and Sufi whirling meditation. For several years, she offered this method to groups, as well as working with individuals to provide emotional and spiritual counseling, drawing on her experience with various psycho-spiritual practices as well as her knowledge of transpersonal psychology.
Throughout this time, she lived a simple life of “being with what is”. Having exhausted her search for spiritual knowledge, she realized that each moment is the doorway to freedom and there was nothing else to seek. Whilst she still occasionally sat with visiting enlightened teachers, mostly these were ordinary individuals without a big following and she sensed a very thin veil separated her from the same awakened consciousness.
Unexpectedly in 2002, in the depths of an existential aloneness, she experienced a profound awakening in which there was a liberation of self from the knot of ego and an ongoing unfoldment into inner silence. Without a teacher or any guidance, there followed a long period of integration in which all seeking and all methods stopped. In 2012, she started sharing her experience of awakened consciousness at small gatherings in the UK. Since 2016, after the passing away of her mother, she has been living in the US and today her teachings are followed by a growing number of seekers of peace and true fulfillment world-wide.
Amoda Maa has been a keynote speaker at the Conference for Nondual Wisdom and Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies, a frequent speaker at the Science and Nonduality Conference in California, a guest teacher at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Wellness in Massachusetts, a guest teacher at Wisdom’s Goldenrod Center for Philosophic Studies in New York, a guest teacher at the Sivananda Ashram in the Bahamas, a guest on numerous radio and podcast shows (including OM Times Radio, Pathways Radio, and Buddha at the Gas Pump) and her work has been featured in a number of magazines (including Watkins Mind Body Spirit Magazine, Inzicht Magazine for Nonduality, and Conscious Lifestyle Magazine).
She is the author of several books, some of them translated into Spanish and Dutch. Her early books How to Find God in Everything (published as a revised edition Radical Awakening several years later) and Change Your Life, Change Your World were written before she started speaking and teaching in public. Her more recent books Embodied Enlightenment and Falling Open in a World Falling Apart are a comprehensive expression of her essential teachings as they are offered today.
Amoda Maa lives in New Mexico with her husband, Kavi, and their dog, Peyote.
Amoda Maa (full name Amoda Maa Jeevan), means “living a joyous life” in Sanskrit.
Kavi has been in a deep relationship with Amoda since 2003. His love of the ecstatic poetry of Rumi has been a constant in their dance through living, working and visioning together.
Born in Hertfordshire, UK, Kavi’s heritage is English and Scottish. His long journey from early dysfunction to an intense period of inner transformation in the presence of a wild Irish “warrior” teacher eventually unleashed the poet, mystic and musician in him. He has also been on a long journey of profound emotional and physical healing of chronic illness. Through this experience, he finally made peace with “God” and connected with the innate intelligence of life. And then, being immersed in a field of unconditional love with Amoda and supporting her teaching in a practical way since 2019, the truth of awakened consciousness dawned in a natural way.
About Kavi
Today, Kavi has matured into a deeply intuitive and wise guide, offering one-to-one sessions and public meetings in support of the Amoda Maa Teachings. Since 2022, he has been co-founder, co-spiritual director and associate teacher of the Amoda Maa Foundation. He also creates music that supports the space of love and presence that are essential to the teachings. Additionally, he is a prolific philosopher-poet. His poems are read by people all around the world and receive much feedback on their profound transformative quality.
Kavi (also known as Kaviji) means “of a poetic nature” in Sanskrit.
An Introduction to the Amoda Maa Teachings
Amoda Maa speaks about the invitation of each moment to awaken out of ego-identity by knowing the presence and openness that is always here, and about the amplification of this possibility within the times we live in.