Welcome! Thank you so much for your interest in learning about our Maximizing Joy full evergreen course and sample session mini-course.

We’re honored to open with this appreciation of Maximizing Joy from one of the founders of the human potential movement, Stanley Krippner, author of A Chaotic Life: The Memoirs of Stanley Krippner, Pioneering Humanistic Psychologist.

"Joy, and such associated feelings as bliss and happiness, are often in short supply in this troubled world. In this remarkable course, Saniel Bonder and Linda Groves-Bonder and their guest speakers teach their virtual students how to find and maximize joy, not only in such obvious settings as family, faith, music, Nature, work settings, and loving relationships (with pets as well as other humans) but also in adversity, contemplation, and solitude. Their discussion of the neurophysiology of joy presents its underlying mechanisms. Too often joy is taken for granted, but this course provides ways to find it, maximize it, and make it a part of everyday life.

“This is an important, original project, one that will bring joy to many people.”

And here’s a statement from Marci Shimoff, #1 NYTimes bestselling author, Happy for No Reason and Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul:

"Just knowing that the Maximizing Joy program is available gives me joy and hope. Created by pioneering spiritual leaders Saniel Bonder and Linda Groves-Bonder, this unique course is both timeless and timely. In our challenging world, with unprecedented levels of depression, hopelessness, anxiety, and fear, this is a powerful antidote to experience, metabolize, and make your own. With powerful practices and processes, Saniel, Linda, and their wise guest teachers welcome us to supercharge our joyousness.

"If you’re curious but not ready for the full 8-session course, you can opt for a “sample session mini-course,” Laying a Foundation for Maximizing Your Joy. This mini-course itself could help you optimize happiness in a deep and lasting way.

"I’m delighted to give this program and these great teachers my highest recommendation."

 Maximizing Joy
In Your Life, Work, Relationships — and World

An 8-session online recorded course
with pioneer democratizers of embodied spiritual awakening

Saniel Bonder & Linda Groves-Bonder

With Guest Speakers
in order of appearance:

Rick Hanson, Ph.D., Mirabai Starr, Ken Wilber,
Stephen Dinan & Devaa Haley-Mitchell, Miranda Macpherson,
Anodea Judith, Ejna (formerly Jean) Fleury, & Terry Patten

Dear Friend,

A great question haunts so many of us every day:

With all the challenges, pressures, and anxieties I'm dealing with every day — how do I stay happy?

More than that — how can I be as joyful as possible, and help others do that too?

Think about the things that tend to drain off, if not completely boil away, the juiciness of your sense of basic wellness and happiness.

For most of us, that list is pretty long. For many, it's just about joy-destroying.

There's no need here to catalogue the multiple intense stresses that afflict so many of us. We don't need to be reminded. It's in our faces and on our devices all day, most every day.

All of this is contributing to skyrocketing levels of personal and shared anxiety, distress, depression, even hopelessness, and literal mortal fear. For so many, this much threat is unprecedented, at least in recent memory.

The transformational teaching and process that we two offer is now called the Human Sun HEART Work. In the past it has best been known as Waking Down in Mutuality®.

Its "Down" part never shrinks away from the pain, distress, darkness, and difficulties of being alive, including the impact of both historical trauma and recent or current events and circumstances. But we're not "downers," and we don't encourage anyone else to be either.

So in case there's any question, here's our position on everyone's disposition:

Joy is good and good for us all!

That's true for us at every stage of our personal and spiritual development. And it's true in all kinds of outward and inner circumstances.

However, there is some fine print, some elaboration we need to add, about how to deal with feelings and experiences that tend to make us anything but joyful.

More than that, there are so many marvels of delight worth exploring and learning how to cultivate, including many ways to enhance, refine, and share joy.

In what follows, we offer practical information about the format and features of the Maximizing Joy course and also the many benefits it might bring you, as well as other appreciations from thought leaders and from grateful folks who’ve previously taken the course.

"Knowing Saniel and Linda, and seeing the lineup of luminaries they’ve assembled, I know that Maximizing Joy has been designed and infused with wisdom, integrity, and practical tools for growth and transformation — and, yes, conducted with maximum joy."

— Philip Goldberg, Spirit Matters podcast host, author of American Veda: From Emerson and the Beatles to Yoga and Meditation — How Indian Spirituality Changed the West, The Life of Yogananda, and Spiritual Practice for Crazy Times

Going forward, you might appreciate this introductory video presentation, which helps set the stage for everything else you’ll find in this letter — and in the course.

For brevity and clarity, and to preserve the ambience and energy of the original live course, we’ve edited this preview talk quite a bit. As a result, the video image jumps a little here and there. The audio is pretty smooth. We hope you enjoy it!

"The Two Kinds of Joy, and
Why It's Totally OK for You to Maximize Both"

We're now delighted to offer this pre-recorded 8-session online course, Maximizing Joy: In Your Life, Work, Relationships — and World, which we originally delivered with the help of nine current-day wisdom elders.

We hope you’ll find what's in the course timeless, timely, or both. As part of making it more obviously relevant and accessible for you right now:

• We've added a sample session mini-course, "Laying a Foundation for Maximizing Your Joy." The mini-course is the entire first session of the full course. Our three key points and guest speaker Rick Hanson's cutting-edge neuropsychology address the Session 1 theme that's fundamental to all the sessions that follow: "Why Non-Joy Seems to Win So Much of the Time, and What We Can Do About It."
  • You can check out the mini-course to see if the full course might be of value for you. For many, along with the free introductory talk above, that single stand-alone session is an empowering, life-changing resource they make use of for a long time to come:

Even from just getting into the Maximizing Joy materials, I’ve gotten so much out of them.

From Saniel and Linda’s intro talk on “The Two Kinds of Joy," it was a revelation for me. It was validating to get that I'm already tapping into both the existential/unshakable and the experiential/temporary forms of joy — and liberating to hear that I’m truly free to maximize both in my life. Plus, what a kick to get full permission to spend time each day not only pleasing my inner queen — but also pampering my inner child or teenager!

And then, the mini-course on “Laying a Foundation for Maximizing Your Joy”: wow! Linda’s story about being pulled over by a traffic cop on Halloween, when she was dressed up as a baby doll, and cracking him up with laughter when she dared to stay in character, showed me that it’s possible to bring lightness and joy even to really bad situations.

In his interview, Rick Hanson’s neuroscientific explanation of the brain’s “negativity bias” — how evolution has made our minds like Velcro for negative experiences and Teflon for positive ones — has stuck with me. So his recommendation just to “take in the good” every day through the exercises he teaches right there in the interview. My whole life has changed for the better as a result.

I’m eagerly going forward in the whole Maximizing Joy course, and I’m just very grateful.

— Cat Dancing-Strong, retired IT project manager

• • To make both courses easily affordable for most people, we've cut the full 8-session price for "Maximizing Joy" by $200 to just $98 USD, and the mini-course, originally $30, is only $9 USD. If you already know you want to purchase one of these, scroll down to the “BUY” buttons near mid-page or toward the end of the page.
• We've also begun hosting one live Q&A and conversation gathering on Zoom each month, at no extra cost. It's open to the community of all those who've bought either the mini-course or the full 8-session version. We look forward to seeing and talking with you there.
• And — more to come! Stay tuned to our newsletters (you can opt in here) and, coming soon, our new blog on www.sanielandlinda.com.

Whichever version of Maximizing Joy you explore, we hope it brings you perspectives and practices that enhance your joy for the rest of your life — and puts you in touch with a community of others for whom greater joy of both kinds is a primal necessity and, in the words of one friend, a moral imperative.

"The spiritual teachings of Saniel Bonder and Linda Groves-Bonder embody timeless wisdom, immense practicality, and a refreshing lightheartedness and joy. They are authentic healers — practitioners who help people become whole by discovering their intrinsic holiness. And, they are among the most talented, multifaceted, awake people I know."

— Larry Dossey, M.D., author, One Mind, The Extraordinary Healing Power of Ordinary Things, Prayer Is Good Medicine

"Finding our Joy and bringing it forward into the world is the critical skill of our times. Understanding the elements that make this possible is the core purpose of Maximizing Joy, and Saniel and Linda deliver on their promise. Drawing on nearly 60 years of their combined teaching expertise, along with delightful insights from other renowned voices, they have given us an immeasurably valuable conversation that weaves together modern paradigms with the ancient wisdom of our radiant hearts, and illuminates the dynamic interplay of the most important aspects of our whole being, from surrendered mindfulness to empowered activism.

"The topics covered in the guest interviews are wide-ranging, full of wealth and wisdom. As a bit of a neuro/biology geek myself, I especially enjoyed Rick Hanson’s approach to anchoring joy into the entire body-mind for ongoing well-being. Anodea Judith gives an excellent account of joy throughout the chakras, making a beautiful case for the profound importance of cultivating trust in our own bodies and all the way through to Grace, for the greatest experience of Joy in our lives.

"If you want to give yourself the gift of boundless, vibrant, unshakable Joy in your life, let this profound offering be your starting point."

— Jon Mattingly, former student and teacher of Waking Down®

Already know you want to take the full 8-session course
or the sample-session mini-course?

Possible benefits from taking the 
"Maximizing Joy" course
— and some of them, 
just from the mini-course

Here are possible takeaways you can get from these teachings. If this seems like a lot of big claims, we're confident that the course can deliver them. Gotta say, we loved putting this list together for you:

▶ Why spiritual bypassing of our wounds, trauma, and pain misses the mark of authentic joy as much as emotional wallowing in our miseries

▶ Solitude, intimacy, aloneness, and loneliness: what flips the switch of joy in each of these, and what doesn't

▶ The age-old truths that so many find in faith — rejoicing in the "3 Faces of God"

▶ What's love got to do with joy? One way or another, just about everything!

▶ How serving and just being kind to other people and creatures outshines stress and makes us happy — and them too

▶ Learning how to recognize and integrate our "shadow," why professional therapeutic help can be crucial, and how to avoid re-traumatizing ourselves

▶ The wisdom — and relief — of learning how NOT to add reactive suffering to the normal distress and occasional, for some chronic, anguish of living

▶ The miracle of what our pets and other animals do for us, mostly without even trying

▶ Why it's important to cultivate joy in all four Integral "quadrants" — our inner and outer personal lives, our collective subjective "we-space," and our participation in external systems and institutions

▶ Why generosity is ultimately anything but altruistic, gratitude is "attitudinal gold," and trust makes endorphins swim around in us like happy dolphins leaping through the waves (sorry! couldn't resist! :->)

▶ How to tap into the foundational happiness of what we call "the Heart," spelled with a capital "H," that can't be disturbed or diminished by any events — internal or external

▶ The "limbic loop," the "sinoatrial sync," and other neurophysiological verifications of why good company is so good for us — and bad company is so bad

▶ The transformative power of "greenlighting" the parts of ourselves we tend to struggle with and suffer the most, and the confident joy of "Six-Step Recognition Yoga™"

▶ The secrets of "Coconut Yoga" for apologizing and making wonderful amends when we've harmed or hurt someone — such that sometimes both parties are grateful the original wound took place to begin with!

▶ When purposelessness or lack of motivation can be just what the joy doctor orders

▶ The gift of temporary immersions in a feeling of bliss so powerful you can't even begin to describe it — and how to integrate that gift wisely

▶ Work and the real web of our interconnectedness: why well-intended contribution of every kind has intrinsic spiritual value and serves the wellness and joy of everyone everywhere

▶ Increasing your appreciation of a song well sung, a task well done, a child's love, the stars above — the simple marvels and sheer miracle of our ordinary moments of daily living

"Saniel Bonder is one in whom the Conscious Principle is awakened, and he is attempting to forge a new path of mutuality in the midst of ordinary, messy, everyday realities ... and Linda Groves-Bonder is a brilliant teacher in her own right."

— Ken Wilber, philosopher, founder of the international Integral movement, author of The Religion of Tomorrow and other seminal works

"I'm an experienced student of Saniel and Linda's Human Sun Heart Work, and as such have taken and/or participated in most, if not all, of their courses. Of them all, Maximizing Joy has been my favorite and most personally meaningful and empowering. It's difficult to explain why, but I can connect with at least 2 specific reasons:

"1) The emphasis that it's totally OK to maximize the personal, daily, everyday joys. I think I had still been living with some lifelong internal messages, received from my mother (and no doubt others in my young personal world), that to care for self, let alone seek 'joy,' was selfish and not a good or OK thing. Even though I had done a lot of psycho-spiritual work for decades before this course, somehow that message was still in me. The permission, emphasized in this course, to maximize that personal joy was very liberating for me — I GOT IT! Perhaps the 'reason' is that I now somehow know that my own joy helps bring out my inner SUN and LIGHT more to others and the world.

"2) The interviews with the 8 other teachers were so excellent — the ways that Saniel and Linda interacted with them and what I heard from them was very rich. I had been familiar with most of them, but there were a couple of people who I heard speak extensively for the first time. They were all empowering and motivational for me.

"And, in retrospect, overall, I feel that this course really helped deepen my already felt and known sense of 'unshakable JOY.'"

— Marlene Samuelson, Professor Emerita of Biology and gender awareness/rights advocate

The "Maximizing Joy”
course format

Each of the 8 full sessions and the mini-course session include 3 main components, all of which you will find on the course's private webpage for registered purchasers only. All the recordings are available in both video and audio only (mp3) formats and are downloadable onto any device:

• An up to 60-minute presentation by us, Saniel and Linda
  • Originally recorded on Facebook Live Video
• A bonus interview with a spiritual and cultural thought leader and activist
• An up to 75-minute Q&A/conversation with participants in the original live course
• Plus, meditation and experiential exercises or practices offered by us and by most of our guest speakers
• Recorded music and other helpful material
  • Including Linda's vocal toning and one of her original songs
• Lightly edited transcripts of all Session 1 recordings except the Q&A/Conversation, available to both mini-course and full course buyers as supplemental adjuncts to the video and audio-only primary course communications
• Lifelong access to all this on the private course webpage
  • Take the course at your own pace, in your own sequence, and dip in or come back to it whenever you like
• A live monthly Q&A and conversation/practice session on Zoom
  • Open to all purchasers of both versions of the course
  • We hope you'll come join us frequently!

The single session mini-course, “Laying a Foundation for Maximizing Your Joy," consists of Session 1 of the full course in its entirety. All the recordings — our presentation, the bonus interview with Rick Hanson, Ph.D., and the original first conversation with live course participants — offer a great basis for everything else you might learn and implement from the full course. Plus, there are two key practices, “Gazing” meditation and “Six-Step Recognition Yoga," and you also get free transcripts of most of this session’s recordings.

Titles of the course sessions
with our guest interview speakers

Session 1: Why Non-Joy Seems to Win So Much of the Time, and What We Can Do About It
▶ Bonus Interview with Rick Hanson, Ph.D., renowned neuroscientist and author of Buddha's Brain, Hardwiring Happiness, Resilient, and Neurodharma

Session 2: Serving and Being Served — Secrets of Unstinting Generosity and Delighted Receptivity
▶ Bonus Interview with Mirabai Starr, spiritual teacher and author of Wild Mercy: Living the Fierce and Tender Wisdom of the Women Mystics and other titles

Session 3: The Endless Dance of Being True to Yourself While Helping Others Do the Same
▶ Bonus Interview with Ken Wilber, philosopher, a major founder of the international Integral movement, author of A Brief History of Everything, The Religion of Tomorrow, and other seminal works

Session 4: Acting Local, Being Global, and the Grace of Contribution
▶ Bonus Interview with Stephen Dinan and Devaa Haley-Mitchell, Co-founders of The Shift Network; Stephen is also author of Sacred America, Sacred World

Session 5: Drinking From the Fountain of Blissful Nectar in Your Own Heart
▶ Bonus Interview with Miranda Macpherson, spiritual teacher and author of The Way of Grace: The Transforming Power of Ego Relaxation

Session 6: Why Trust Is the Ground of Joy — and How to Strengthen It
▶ Bonus Interview with Anodea Judith, founding director of Sacred Centers, therapist and global teacher, author of Wheels of Life, Eastern Body—Western Mind, The Global Heart Awakens, and more

Session 7: The Serene Joy of "Foundation Friendship," the Radical Unity That Liberates Us into Our Uniqueness
▶ Bonus Interview with Ejna Fleury, Lakota Grandmother, Visionary, and Peace Ambassador for the Crow Creek Sioux tribe

Session 8: What the One Great Heart We All Share Won't Settle for Less Than
▶ Bonus Interview with the late Terry Patten, Integral leader, (r)evolutionary, and author of The New Republic of the Heart — please see Terry's statement in the P.S. below

Some other, hopefully tantalizing takeaways you may get from these courses...

▶ The gift of laughter — and the wellness wisdom of getting ridiculously silly at least once a day!

▶ 3 of the most potent triggers in Nature of our whole-bodily sense of well-being

▶ Why, to help you pursue your dreams, callings, or purpose, no one ever tells you "Follow your brain" instead of "Follow your heart"

▶ The power of simple gazing with someone we trust to strengthen our spirits, anchor our resilience, and even activate and enhance our whole-being feeling-intuition of the one great Heart we share with all life and all that exists

▶ How every moment of prayer or meditation and every act of kindness contribute more to peace on Earth than we can possibly know

This recorded course and its mini-course excerpt are open to all. Everyone is welcome to partake of these offerings. Especially all who sense that our potential is immense, that we can enjoy life ever so much more than we ordinarily do — and that maximizing joy itself helps change our world!

What the two of us facilitators, our amazing bonus interview guest speakers, and the past course participants share in these recordings can enhance your present faith or spiritual practice, if you have either of these — and may well open them up for you, if you don't.

So will any of the private monthly Q&A conversations and practice group gatherings on Zoom, which are open to all past or present buyers of either version of the course.

And so will other special things we’ll add to the course later on — stay tuned!

One more thing: make sure to check out our P.S. below — where another special friend, now no longer with us, had things to share with you about our work and us.

We sooo hope you will partake of these course offerings and register now!

As you consider whether
to invest your time, money, hope
and heart in "Maximizing Joy"...

Remember all the stuff that tends to drain off the juice of your sense of wellness, if not boil it away?

It's all still going to be here tomorrow, testing and challenging you.

This course can empower you to meet all that and more—with joy!

Sending you all our love and Heart-blessings, with deep appreciation for who you are and are becoming,

Saniel and Linda

P.S. In closing, here's a more extensive appreciation of our work and us from a nearly lifelong friend and fellow spiritual journeyer of Saniel's who passed away in late 2021. Terry Patten was a leader of the international Integral movement, author of the bestselling A New Republic of the Heart, and founder of the New Republic of the Heart community:

"Saniel Bonder has been awakened for decades, and was an early pioneer in the democratization of awakening. I have known him for almost 50 years, and I can attest that, quirks and all, Saniel is the real thing — brilliant, awakened, authentic, deep, alchemically potent, sincerely caring, and vulnerably, divinely human — a true original.

"He has a superpower or siddhi: he is able, quite naturally and authentically, to behold the unique divinity, humanity, and gifts of an awakening soul, and to mirror it back — not infrequently with life-changing catalytic effects. During the early years of teaching Waking Down in Mutuality he catalyzed transformational awakenings in many dozens of ordinary people, creating a community of awakening and clarifying a dharma that embraces the messy imperfection of human life rather than attempting to override it in hypermasculine fashion.

"He is a tantric, and works the alchemy of the deep feminine — now in a new way because for over two decades he has been synergistically partnered with his wife, Linda Groves-Bonder. Linda is revered in her own right by students for an immense capacity to transmit transformative love, and for her unique abilities to help people awaken to and deeply embody their divine humanity.

"Together, Saniel and Linda are now empowering the awakening and growth of many emerging gnostics, weaving a masculine-feminine matrix of blessings, and — one heart at a time — activating and provoking new levels of emergence and empowerment, helping people 'drop' into conscious enjoyment of and participation in the sacred nature of reality, recognizing that it is always already the case."