Nothing "newagey" about these teachings. Their roots are sacredly grounded in timeless wisdom that has been around for thousands of years. These are real life people who are having a real experience of awakening we all have this inherent nature inside of us. They may not worship a deity but they do speak from the divine source that we are all connected to. Peace and love. Namaste
Seeing Rick Archer into his "primordial peace" is so amazing, a sweet surprise for me. It is the first time that I feel you. I feel you as you are. A beautiful man. And this is not an interview, just two friends keep on sharing. Thank you very so much Rick, I saw a miracle.
Wow. Thanks for the beautiful comment. Do we know each other? Sorry about the poor technical quality of Adya's interview. We had bandwidth problems I think.
Adyashanti experienced a massive awakening that took away all his fear and all his striving at the ago of 25, after only six years of practice. He meditated for hours a day and went on a number of retreats, yet worked a full-time job as well. That is an astonishingly rapid and easy achievement compared to what so many practitioners go through. Many spend decades working just as hard or much harder than him and don't get anywhere.
***** No one. I don't think it has to be difficult either, but traditionally it has been. Often that makes the path into an idol in and of itself, which makes it an obstacle, but often it can also result in awakening. One major problem with the neo-Advaita people like Adya, Gangaji etc. is that their teachings have resulted in many spiritual practitioners around who only think they are awake, but couldn't even be truly present for a count of ten. In reality, IMO, to practice self-inquiry effectively you need a degree of mental stability that isn't emphasized enough. However, it is my belief that we will eventually (perhaps in the next couple of decades) develop a neurological model of enlightenment, and associated technological aids that will result in enlightenment becoming much more readily available to the masses and render current spiritual paths obsolete.
***** Everything you say is true, but - and this is to my mind the biggest issue facing modern spirituality - I don't think the traditional methods work very well. There is much talk about 'just letting go' and 'I AM' etc. and that is all well and good, but how do you actually get there? The cliched answer is that you are already there, but in all seriousness, most of us are not, or we wouldn't have all this shit happening in the world or in our heads. I certainly do not feel awake. I have struggled with mental illness and drug addiction and have benefitted a great deal from modern mental health science. All the letting go in the world was not sufficient for my obstacles, I needed a more specific engagement with them. Therefore I believe the mind sciences are extremely important to the future, and the traditional paths, while beautiful and fascinating, are not.
***** He certainly may have. But I feel that as a result, he may be - unintentionally - misleading other people as to the difficulty of the path and the prospects for success using his methods.
valinor100 Maybe he realised you don't really 'practise' anything and you don't put any effort at all into awakening? Seeking awakening pushes it away, so any effort at all is counter-productive in this case.
I can safely say that teachers have been an obstruction to me as much as they "helped" me. I think teachings are the very best if they are extremely simple, and they have the most effect if the seeker is fresh and new to it all. The older you get and the longer you play with all these concepts in your mind the more deluded you become. A seeker cannot stop seeking even if a teacher tells him to stop. If someone "stops seeking" he was never a seeker to begin with. The student convinces himself that he will stop seeking and 5 minutes later he is wondering what the moral thing to do is in a particular situation. Which is that same seeking impulse rearing its head.
Really? I appreciate teachings of all levels, I find most teachers offer something useful and transmit something, and the older I get and the more I 'play around' with these concepts, the less deluded I become. Maybe time to look into how you are practicing!
Really? I appreciate teachings of all levels, I find most teachers offer something useful and transmit something, and the older I get and the more I 'play around' with these concepts, the less deluded I become. Maybe time to look into how you are practicing!
It helped me a lot. Also jogging and lifting weights automatically gets your testoterone running , increases heart-rate ( which is not conducive to meditation ) and refreshes the brain . Once this happens you can meditate whenever you are ready and work whenever you have to. For me this method worked best.
Thanks Rick, for a great job! As you said, Adya is fresh, he knows all this intimately.... and can't you just tell... you could venture anywhere with him, about this (spirituality) and, bet, he's already, been there, one way or another!
I hear him helping people with emotional content all the time. that's actually mostly what I hear when I listen to him. helping them, from the perspective of his experience. People come up, or call in, with a problem, and he guides them. He also talks about his own issues quite a bit, jokes about his marriage from time to time, his old relationship(s), and he CONSTANTLY references his own mistaken/youthful, masculine approach to seeking "like an athlete."
how do i get rid of all my ego and emotional stuff .i have had the awakening but i have some bad qualities still and its causing me to think something is wrong and causing me to go back into a real bad egoic state.
thank you so much for this interview - very helpful as Adyashanti has put light on many things that are actually happening here...and as always enjoying very much the participation and way being of Rick Archer....thank you...ana
Great point @ 11:45 --all teachings are tools to be put into practice, any holding onto the intellectual knowledge to gain a vaster view intellectually is a construct fabrication, compared to the deep understanding of the experience from the practice learned through the teachings beyond the altruistic and meditation which is important too, but through engaged practice in our daily lives.
Thanks Rick for doing this. Adyashanti is very good teacher. For those who likes Adyashanti's organic teaching style as me, i recommend to check out Greg Goode too. Their teachings are all coming from experience, not books, in my opinion.
Yes, Adyashanti practices the practice of sitting into or resting as silence. Basically a pointer to that is, to - Not interpret anything that you see through the eyes, not accessing any memory . One key to this is , whenever a thought comes to the mind, shift your attention to - who is thinking this thought? - i.e if "I" am what I think ..then who is I . Its a way for the mind to silence itself, by moving attention more and more to the originator of thought..which is silence
38:56 "self there is, to operate in a world of time and space. There has to be some element of self". This is something I'm always wondering when I hear as a response about function of self. Because I don't think its the case. We could very well operate without sense of self. Plants and simple organisms function without any sense of self. And we are not much different from them - our biological aspect could take very good care of ourselves without need for this mental construct of "me". I think sense of "me" is a developmental novelty which proven to be very useful for some species (and also revealing some truth about existence).
Thanks for the compliment. I added Richard to the list and will look into it. (I get new recommendations every day and only do one interview a week, so it may take a while.)
Really valuable stuff for those of us who have had (?) some bit of awakening. Inspires us to keep opening up, exploring the ever deepening wonderous and felt miracle of life...
Thanks for another inspiring interview. Adya's clarity and wide scope approach is heart melting. Thanks Rick and would be great if you had Adya again at the gas pump! d:)
awesome!! I've only very recently discovered Adya. I'm a huge fan of Alan Watts...and Adya seems to strike a very similar chord as Alan. Can't wait to listen to this while I work today. Thanks so much for all the great interviews you upload. You're doing the world a great service.
I am experiencing something similar , a bit diminished energy , I go out of my way to take walks, run, listen to fast music, socialize . These things have helped me reduce the lethargy. I also got a thorough medical checkup to see which hormones low. Since hormones are the basic mechanism of the body to regulate energy. Cut down on coffee and drink lots of water . do weights or something that will increase testoterone. Hope it helps, May the I-am Bless you.
I agree with what was said about the 'Will'. I believe that we can safely say that at the moment of death (of the body), that final letting go of what remains of the 'Will', will be complete.
Rick sir, I have been listening to some interviews.Still many to be covered. But you have been doing wonderful job. Whatever the variety of teachers we have I think any process should end at the point of silence of the mind in waking state. Beyond that what anybod can do? when one reaches that I think a Higher Power takes over
@writing314 I'm in the same boat as you were. I lost my job last year due to the horrid economy, lost everything, and had to move in with my parents at 28. I've become a shell of my former self. Questioning everything about life..wondering what the point of living even is. The depression is crushing. But..since stumbling on Adya's teachings(and Alan Watts) I feel like Im on the cusp of..something. I haven't crossed that "threshold" yet..but it feels close. Good luck to you! Glad you got better.
Fear has been so much a part of my path that I can't imagine it being any other way, and am somewhat irritated by how easily Adya's fear fell away - and it wasn't even much of an issue for him to begin with. I think the lack of a struggle with fear has really affected his teaching style, and not in a good way. In fact I see much of the same thing in the teachings of most people who got enlightened relatively easily, or were 'born' enlightened, in that they never really give precise instructions for practice, because they didn't need precise instructions for themselves.
+valair Yes, it suggests to me(also as one who's had to cope with excessive anxiety in my life though less so these days) that we're hardwired in our brains in ways that Awakening or Enlightenment can't change, even including many years of meditation. These might be neurological "blemishes", faulty parental upbringing early in life even if the parents were not intentionally out to hurt us, or whatever. Adya was indeed quite lucky with that which even he acknowledges. So it's not a level playing field out there.
kwixotic Adya has indeed said he was fortunate regarding his family circumstances and admitted that he had it easy regarding enlightenment compared to a lot of people. I don't think he says it enough though. There are tens of thousands of people following him who are waiting for their big breakthrough and it isn't going to happen with his techniques except for a small percentage. There is a groundbreaking study by Dr. Jeffery Martin, who interviewed hundreds of enlightened people and found that very few make it as far as Adya apparently has, from what I can gather from his teachings. Much of what happens to cause enlightenment is not a mystical unknown but a result of changes in the way our brains are wired. There has been a lot of research into this. I've gotten a lot of help from various innovative approaches, including technologies designed to help rewire your brain to some degree. I'm also involved in several groups that explore the latest developments in what might be termed 'neural Buddhism'. I want people reaching Adya's level to become a common experience in my lifetime and not a rare one.
+valair Well, the eminent sage Nisargadatta, stated "chemicals come together and the I am appears". What he was commenting on from a neurological or neuro chemical perspective was that at around the age of 3, those chemicals in our brain responsible for the sense of self(i.e., I believe they're called "neuropeptides") merge in such a way as to do this. So in this sense, there are those perhaps like Adya who have been "neurologically blessed" in addition to having great parents. And that might facilitate Awakening/Enlightenment. I can't speak for Eckhardt Tolle who likewise had a genuine Awakening at 29 except that it was in the midst of a suicidal depression, ans likewise I've read how major life crises, traumatic breakdowns and what not have been followed by Awakenings and I can't believe that in every instance they were blessed in the way Adya was.
I listened to many non dual youtube videos for years, simply searching for someone who was having an experience similar to my experience. Non duality was the closest I found but it was not at all the same. I made a video to share my experience of no self. And when I say no self I mean I see no individuals anywhere I look. For anyone that is interested, here's the link to the youtube video: Most similar to non duality but really nothing like it.
Having listened to a lot of Adya, minute 50-51 is the sole instance where he ever mentions the 5 year process of working through "emotional, ego and spiritual issues." I find this very hard to reconcile with his teaching everywhere else because he always deals with people by radical means, cutting at the root of identity and precisely avoiding the very emotional issues which he himself took five hellish years confronting. The awakening did not absolve him from this. Anyone notice this. Thanks
@BuddhaAtTheGasPump I'm sure you have considered this, but for similar situations in the future, I would put in a vote for closing the video to improve audio quality.
thank you for writing this, im on this same boat.. indeed i was also considering medication, because this does have the potential to keep me here stuck forever or to at the very least ruin my chances of getting a career even my toughts seem to be following this pattern of absolute procastination has this gotten any better for you? and i agree...it's awesome that they are actually documenting all this!
@writing314 I agree. :) That's why I like people like Adyashanti and Allan Watts and Tim Freke(look him up! he's amazing). They aren't the usual milquetoast airy spiritual sorts you usually come across. They have a sense of humor and vigor for life. True spirituality is about being ENGAGED in life. Once you get the truth of oneness...it enabled you to truly let go and live freely, unconstrained by fear. That's the idea. Not to check out of reality and live in some blissed-out state.
@oldbagge this answer based purely in my subjective experience: when ego and habitual self-definition are filtered out of thought in a moment of real conscious clarity, words can arise in the human mind which conform to the truth of what is perceived, but which hold no personal attribution. imo this is extremely similar to the ancient greek tradition of the "logos," an impersonal voice capable only of the clear expression of truth. our bodies don't need body-ers, and thoughts don't need thinkers
@chuckthelumberjack If you go to Adya's website there is an audio download called "In Harmony with Existence" - he talks about this and how to align with the truth for over an hour.
@writing314 well said. back in my younger born again christian days, i was rather judgmental of anything different. college, weed, and new people changed that. my first real friend in college was a muslim girl who totally changed my mind about "other" people. now, i value diversity more than just about anything. homogeneous ideas and lifestyles breeds stagnation and ignorance...and fear.
hi rick, keep up the great job, are you aware of ben smythe, he's an interesting man, found him on youtube take a look. love the show and you are the best part of it. love john
J Money So... is there nothing that needs doing - will all naturally occur? A: I'm now awakened and feel compassion for those who are not. I will offer help as they present themselves, to the degree that is beneficial. B: I'm now awakened and seek a following and donations to support my teaching life. There are many variations of A and B but they are fundamentally what I've witnessed in my life and A is rare. I am a teacher of a different art and 99% of the time I am never compensated or think to seek compensation - I don't know why - it's a just natural occurrence. It's really the "students" who teach themselves. I can only show how/what I do. Not everyone will get it. Learning the art depends on them. Enlightenment has become a business.... What "student" could really know if a "teacher" is enlightened?
+J Money The rest of nature doesn't have to deal with an ego or childhood conditioning. But higher mammals can be imprinted by painful past experience, though a loving "master" can heal them. Orchids are gorgeous; I can gaze at them all day. But I wouldn't want to be one--no consciousness. All teachers need to be paid in some form. Once the money is taken care of, they can focus on the work, from which even Adya needs a break now & then.
so is it nessisary to give up all your possesions. to get through all of your ego emotional stuff after u do have the awakening. but still have so called bad vassanas
I think physical phenomena, however they might begin , finally result in some kind of hormones or the other. Spirituality is the driver ( as you said ) . But it uses the mechanism of the body . So if you are feeling physical un-motivated, its most likely the hormones which have been regulated through spiritual practices optimally for meditation or "Just being" , but if the mind wants to do something, like work, then this is not optimal. please check thyroid, testoterone levels,
Westerners have a major problem with understanding self/âtman in Indian philosophy, especially Buddhism. The only people who categorically denied the self were the Indian materialists. With Buddhism the problem of self is mistaken identity. We cling to the psycho-physical body as being the self, when it is not the self (Sk., anâtman). No-self in Buddhism means not to attach to what is not your true self. You're true self is not to be found in your psycho-physical body.
@BuddhaAtTheGasPump hi richard, great job. have you heard of ben smyth (think thats the correct spelling) he talks well on this subject found him on youtube see what you think. keep it up, like your style love john
hahaha, I saw the same... but Adya looks like an alien even in HD videos. A very dear alien : ) As said by someone I read one day: if I could get one pound for each pixel of this video, I would have... one pound
+Mary Gwen Dungan For the Bay Area, that could be a bargain though it depends where exactly he got it, the size of it, maybe it needed major restoration, etc. He doesn't impress me as the sort who would purchase an oversized mansion unless he wanted to hold Satsangs there as well.
You have understood the idea of free 10 day Vipassana retreat wrong. As you understand, renting a big house for 10 days is never free despite the fact that the teacher, the cooks and other volunteers don't get any compensation. The idea is to pay whatever you feel you'd like to pay for those 10 days. I paid 800 euros calculating that already a dorm bed would cost half of that. Unless you are a very poor person, paying nothing at all is a weird decision. Even if you didn't get anything from the retreat.
Jippoti They don't charge you $80 a day for being there though, or any amount of money for that matter, which is my point. I understand very clearly that you are free to donate after the retreat. That wasn't really my point of comparison. Personally, I enjoy poking fun at the idea of sitting around in silence for a price (expensive prices might I add), or listening to a human being chirp about the "nature of life" or "freedom" to another human being FOR A PRICE. I'm entitled to poke fun at it, so I do. Thank you.
Having listened to a lot of Adya, minute 50-51 is the sole instance where he ever mentions the 5 year process of working through "emotional, ego and spiritual issues." I find this very hard to reconcile with his teaching everywhere else because he always deals with people by radical means, cutting at the root of identity and precisely avoiding the very emotional issues which he himself took five hellish years confronting. The awakening did not absolve him from this. Anyone notice this. Thanks
Nothing "newagey" about these teachings. Their roots are sacredly grounded in timeless wisdom that has been around for thousands of years. These are real life people who are having a real experience of awakening we all have this inherent nature inside of us. They may not worship a deity but they do speak from the divine source that we are all connected to. Peace and love. Namaste
Seeing Rick Archer into his "primordial peace" is so amazing, a sweet surprise for me. It is the first time that I feel you. I feel you as you are. A beautiful man. And this is not an interview, just two friends keep on sharing. Thank you very so much Rick, I saw a miracle.
Wonderful interview, thank you Adya for your simplicity and the love that you are.
Adyashanti's teachings are so helpful , Adyashanti , Mooji, Papaji Wow! I am lucky to be born in this time period
It just simple love I feel after watching this. Thank You all.
"...letting go of one's personal relationship to their own existence".
What a Master...
Wow. Thanks for the beautiful comment. Do we know each other? Sorry about the poor technical quality of Adya's interview. We had bandwidth problems I think.
Brilliant interview. The first talk I have heard Adyashanti and I love the way he transmits. Thank you both ❤️
great interview, light, deep, clear, precise, succinct, extended. thanks rick
Adyashanti experienced a massive awakening that took away all his fear and all his striving at the ago of 25, after only six years of practice. He meditated for hours a day and went on a number of retreats, yet worked a full-time job as well. That is an astonishingly rapid and easy achievement compared to what so many practitioners go through. Many spend decades working just as hard or much harder than him and don't get anywhere.
*****
What you said has nothing to do with my comments on the difficulty of the path...
*****
No one. I don't think it has to be difficult either, but traditionally it has been. Often that makes the path into an idol in and of itself, which makes it an obstacle, but often it can also result in awakening. One major problem with the neo-Advaita people like Adya, Gangaji etc. is that their teachings have resulted in many spiritual practitioners around who only think they are awake, but couldn't even be truly present for a count of ten. In reality, IMO, to practice self-inquiry effectively you need a degree of mental stability that isn't emphasized enough.
However, it is my belief that we will eventually (perhaps in the next couple of decades) develop a neurological model of enlightenment, and associated technological aids that will result in enlightenment becoming much more readily available to the masses and render current spiritual paths obsolete.
*****
Everything you say is true, but - and this is to my mind the biggest issue facing modern spirituality - I don't think the traditional methods work very well. There is much talk about 'just letting go' and 'I AM' etc. and that is all well and good, but how do you actually get there? The cliched answer is that you are already there, but in all seriousness, most of us are not, or we wouldn't have all this shit happening in the world or in our heads. I certainly do not feel awake. I have struggled with mental illness and drug addiction and have benefitted a great deal from modern mental health science. All the letting go in the world was not sufficient for my obstacles, I needed a more specific engagement with them. Therefore I believe the mind sciences are extremely important to the future, and the traditional paths, while beautiful and fascinating, are not.
*****
He certainly may have. But I feel that as a result, he may be - unintentionally - misleading other people as to the difficulty of the path and the prospects for success using his methods.
valinor100
Maybe he realised you don't really 'practise' anything and you don't put any effort at all into awakening? Seeking awakening pushes it away, so any effort at all is counter-productive in this case.
I'm only 33 minutes in but already wanted to say how much I am enjoying this Rick. Great work. Thanks! love, moe xxx
I can safely say that teachers have been an obstruction to me as much as they "helped" me. I think teachings are the very best if they are extremely simple, and they have the most effect if the seeker is fresh and new to it all. The older you get and the longer you play with all these concepts in your mind the more deluded you become.
A seeker cannot stop seeking even if a teacher tells him to stop. If someone "stops seeking" he was never a seeker to begin with. The student convinces himself that he will stop seeking and 5 minutes later he is wondering what the moral thing to do is in a particular situation. Which is that same seeking impulse rearing its head.
Really? I appreciate teachings of all levels, I find most teachers offer something useful and transmit something, and the older I get and the more I 'play around' with these concepts, the less deluded I become. Maybe time to look into how you are practicing!
Really? I appreciate teachings of all levels, I find most teachers offer something useful and transmit something, and the older I get and the more I 'play around' with these concepts, the less deluded I become. Maybe time to look into how you are practicing!
It helped me a lot. Also jogging and lifting weights automatically gets your testoterone running , increases heart-rate ( which is not conducive to meditation ) and refreshes the brain . Once this happens you can meditate whenever you are ready and work whenever you have to. For me this method worked best.
Thanks Rick, for a great job! As you said, Adya is fresh, he knows all this intimately.... and can't you just tell... you could venture anywhere with him, about this (spirituality) and, bet, he's already, been there, one way or another!
The most wonderful so far!!!! Love you adya!
I hear him helping people with emotional content all the time. that's actually mostly what I hear when I listen to him. helping them, from the perspective of his experience. People come up, or call in, with a problem, and he guides them. He also talks about his own issues quite a bit, jokes about his marriage from time to time, his old relationship(s), and he CONSTANTLY references his own mistaken/youthful, masculine approach to seeking "like an athlete."
how do i get rid of all my ego and emotional stuff .i have had the awakening but i have some bad qualities still and its causing me to think something is wrong and causing me to go back into a real bad egoic state.
Ben is on the list. I'll add your vote for him. Thanks.
thank you so much for this interview - very helpful as Adyashanti has put light on many things that are actually happening here...and as always enjoying very much the participation and way being of Rick Archer....thank you...ana
Great point @ 11:45 --all teachings are tools to be put into practice, any holding onto the intellectual knowledge to gain a vaster view intellectually is a construct fabrication, compared to the deep understanding of the experience from the practice learned through the teachings beyond the altruistic and meditation which is important too, but through engaged practice in our daily lives.
Thanks Rick for doing this. Adyashanti is very good teacher. For those who likes Adyashanti's organic teaching style as me, i recommend to check out Greg Goode too. Their teachings are all coming from experience, not books, in my opinion.
Yes, Adyashanti practices the practice of sitting into or resting as silence. Basically a pointer to that is, to - Not interpret anything that you see through the eyes, not accessing any memory . One key to this is , whenever a thought comes to the mind, shift your attention to - who is thinking this thought? - i.e if "I" am what I think ..then who is I . Its a way for the mind to silence itself, by moving attention more and more to the originator of thought..which is silence
38:56 "self there is, to operate in a world of time and space. There has to be some element of self". This is something I'm always wondering when I hear as a response about function of self. Because I don't think its the case. We could very well operate without sense of self. Plants and simple organisms function without any sense of self. And we are not much different from them - our biological aspect could take very good care of ourselves without need for this mental construct of "me". I think sense of "me" is a developmental novelty which proven to be very useful for some species (and also revealing some truth about existence).
Thanks for the compliment. I added Richard to the list and will look into it. (I get new recommendations every day and only do one interview a week, so it may take a while.)
Thanks. Sorry about the poor video quality.
He very sincere and not arrogant.
One of your best interviews.
this is fascinating , all the diferent flavors of interviews,all the different techers
beautiful adya
Really valuable stuff for those of us who have had (?) some bit of awakening. Inspires us to keep opening up, exploring the ever deepening wonderous and felt miracle of life...
Thanks so much Rick!!! :)
Very clear and helpful interview. :)
... "alien or burn victim" ... great humor, thanks for publishing in spite of the video "quality" ~ the content prevailed. *Love*
Thanks for this interview! I'm reading Emptiness Dancing, by Adyashanti and liking that.
Thanks for another inspiring interview.
Adya's clarity and wide scope approach is heart melting.
Thanks Rick and would be great if you had Adya again at the gas pump!
d:)
Thank you so much for doing this interview. At last somebody is willing to talk about post Awakening. I just wish more could be so open.
Great Clip !
awesome!! I've only very recently discovered Adya. I'm a huge fan of Alan Watts...and Adya seems to strike a very similar chord as Alan. Can't wait to listen to this while I work today. Thanks so much for all the great interviews you upload. You're doing the world a great service.
this is a great interview. thank you
I am experiencing something similar , a bit diminished energy , I go out of my way to take walks, run, listen to fast music, socialize . These things have helped me reduce the lethargy. I also got a thorough medical checkup to see which hormones low. Since hormones are the basic mechanism of the body to regulate energy. Cut down on coffee and drink lots of water . do weights or something that will increase testoterone. Hope it helps, May the I-am Bless you.
is it normal that i use to meditate easily after physical exercice, now after month of inactivity i feel It's hard to meditate.
I agree with what was said about the 'Will'. I believe that we can safely say that at the moment of death (of the body), that final letting go of what remains of the 'Will', will be complete.
Rick sir, I have been listening to some interviews.Still many to be covered. But you have been doing wonderful job. Whatever the variety of teachers we have I think any process should end at the point of silence of the mind in waking state. Beyond that what anybod can do? when one reaches that I think a Higher Power takes over
ego is a resistance of what is...
EGO IS ALWAYS NEGOTIATING
WITH LIFE
@writing314 I'm in the same boat as you were. I lost my job last year due to the horrid economy, lost everything, and had to move in with my parents at 28. I've become a shell of my former self. Questioning everything about life..wondering what the point of living even is. The depression is crushing. But..since stumbling on Adya's teachings(and Alan Watts) I feel like Im on the cusp of..something. I haven't crossed that "threshold" yet..but it feels close. Good luck to you! Glad you got better.
Fear has been so much a part of my path that I can't imagine it being any other way, and am somewhat irritated by how easily Adya's fear fell away - and it wasn't even much of an issue for him to begin with. I think the lack of a struggle with fear has really affected his teaching style, and not in a good way. In fact I see much of the same thing in the teachings of most people who got enlightened relatively easily, or were 'born' enlightened, in that they never really give precise instructions for practice, because they didn't need precise instructions for themselves.
+valair
Yes, it suggests to me(also as one who's had to cope with excessive anxiety in my life though less so these days) that we're hardwired in our brains in ways that Awakening or Enlightenment can't change, even including many years of meditation. These might be neurological "blemishes", faulty parental upbringing early in life even if the parents were not intentionally out to hurt us, or whatever. Adya was indeed quite lucky with that which even he acknowledges.
So it's not a level playing field out there.
kwixotic
Adya has indeed said he was fortunate regarding his family circumstances and admitted that he had it easy regarding enlightenment compared to a lot of people. I don't think he says it enough though. There are tens of thousands of people following him who are waiting for their big breakthrough and it isn't going to happen with his techniques except for a small percentage.
There is a groundbreaking study by Dr. Jeffery Martin, who interviewed hundreds of enlightened people and found that very few make it as far as Adya apparently has, from what I can gather from his teachings.
Much of what happens to cause enlightenment is not a mystical unknown but a result of changes in the way our brains are wired. There has been a lot of research into this. I've gotten a lot of help from various innovative approaches, including technologies designed to help rewire your brain to some degree. I'm also involved in several groups that explore the latest developments in what might be termed 'neural Buddhism'. I want people reaching Adya's level to become a common experience in my lifetime and not a rare one.
+valair Well, the eminent sage Nisargadatta, stated "chemicals come together and the I am appears". What he was commenting on from a neurological or neuro chemical perspective was that at around the age of 3, those chemicals in our brain responsible for the sense of self(i.e., I believe they're called "neuropeptides") merge in such a way as to do this. So in this sense, there are those perhaps like Adya who have been "neurologically blessed" in addition to having great parents. And that might facilitate Awakening/Enlightenment. I can't speak for Eckhardt Tolle who likewise had a genuine Awakening at 29 except that it was in the midst of a suicidal depression, ans likewise I've read how major life crises, traumatic breakdowns and what not have been followed by Awakenings and I can't believe that in every instance they were blessed in the way Adya was.
Not that I have heard. I should have asked him. Next time if there is a next time.
I listened to many non dual youtube videos for years, simply searching for someone who was having an experience similar to my experience. Non duality was the closest I found but it was not at all the same. I made a video to share my experience of no self. And when I say no self I mean I see no individuals anywhere I look. For anyone that is interested, here's the link to the youtube video: Most similar to non duality but really nothing like it.
Having listened to a lot of Adya, minute 50-51 is the sole instance where he ever mentions the 5 year process of working through "emotional, ego and spiritual issues." I find this very hard to reconcile with his teaching everywhere else because he always deals with people by radical means, cutting at the root of identity and precisely avoiding the very emotional issues which he himself took five hellish years confronting. The awakening did not absolve him from this. Anyone notice this. Thanks
I added your "vote" for her. Thanks.
He's hard to get. I've made attempts, but so far no response.
Hoping for a second interview!
@BuddhaAtTheGasPump I'm sure you have considered this, but for similar situations in the future, I would put in a vote for closing the video to improve audio quality.
thank you for writing this, im on this same boat..
indeed i was also considering medication, because this does have the potential to keep me here stuck forever or to at the very least ruin my chances of getting a career
even my toughts seem to be following this pattern of absolute procastination
has this gotten any better for you?
and i agree...it's awesome that they are actually documenting all this!
@writing314 I agree. :) That's why I like people like Adyashanti and Allan Watts and Tim Freke(look him up! he's amazing). They aren't the usual milquetoast airy spiritual sorts you usually come across. They have a sense of humor and vigor for life. True spirituality is about being ENGAGED in life. Once you get the truth of oneness...it enabled you to truly let go and live freely, unconstrained by fear. That's the idea. Not to check out of reality and live in some blissed-out state.
Ego is a Verb
I like Eggos.
Nice interview.
What form of meditation does Adyashanti practice?
What form does he teach or recommend?
Just sitting in Silence?
Thanks.
Is echart tolle on bgp?
@oldbagge this answer based purely in my subjective experience: when ego and habitual self-definition are filtered out of thought in a moment of real conscious clarity, words can arise in the human mind which conform to the truth of what is perceived, but which hold no personal attribution. imo this is extremely similar to the ancient greek tradition of the "logos," an impersonal voice capable only of the clear expression of truth. our bodies don't need body-ers, and thoughts don't need thinkers
@chuckthelumberjack If you go to Adya's website there is an audio download called "In Harmony with Existence" - he talks about this and how to align with the truth for over an hour.
@writing314 well said. back in my younger born again christian days, i was rather judgmental of anything different. college, weed, and new people changed that. my first real friend in college was a muslim girl who totally changed my mind about "other" people. now, i value diversity more than just about anything. homogeneous ideas and lifestyles breeds stagnation and ignorance...and fear.
35:25 WOW!
what did he have to do to get rid of the ego and emotional garbage after his first awakening.
hi rick, keep up the great job, are you aware of ben smythe, he's an interesting man, found him on youtube take a look. love the show and you are the best part of it. love john
so realllll
BATGP--see if you can snare Murray Oxman up there in Corvallis, oregon. he wrote "the How to Easily Handle Difficult People handbook".
Curious how the whole rest of nature needs no spiritual teaching or guidance and how spiritual teachers charge money for so called truth/love? Hmmm
J Money So... is there nothing that needs doing - will all naturally occur?
A: I'm now awakened and feel compassion for those who are not. I will offer help as they present themselves, to the degree that is beneficial.
B: I'm now awakened and seek a following and donations to support my teaching life.
There are many variations of A and B but they are fundamentally what I've witnessed in my life and A is rare. I am a teacher of a different art and 99% of the time I am never compensated or think to seek compensation - I don't know why - it's a just natural occurrence.
It's really the "students" who teach themselves. I can only show how/what I do. Not everyone will get it. Learning the art depends on them.
Enlightenment has become a business.... What "student" could really know if a "teacher" is enlightened?
+J Money
The rest of nature doesn't have to deal with an ego or childhood conditioning. But higher mammals can be imprinted by painful past experience, though a loving "master" can heal them.
Orchids are gorgeous; I can gaze at them all day. But I wouldn't want to be one--no consciousness.
All teachers need to be paid in some form. Once the money is taken care of, they can focus on the work, from which even Adya needs a break now & then.
so is it nessisary to give up all your possesions. to get through all of your ego emotional stuff after u do have the awakening. but still have so called bad vassanas
sems like adya speaks from uganda (and outside is 1399 year)
That's Anthony Hopkins isn't it?
Does Adya ever say who/what he thinks that voice was? - The one telling him that there was still more to go?
I think physical phenomena, however they might begin , finally result in some kind of hormones or the other. Spirituality is the driver ( as you said ) . But it uses the mechanism of the body . So if you are feeling physical un-motivated, its most likely the hormones which have been regulated through spiritual practices optimally for meditation or "Just being" , but if the mind wants to do something, like work, then this is not optimal. please check thyroid, testoterone levels,
This "winging it" as he claims he does could make him an excellent actor, moreso because he'd draw from the improvisational element from within.
Westerners have a major problem with understanding self/âtman in Indian philosophy, especially Buddhism. The only people who categorically denied the self were the Indian materialists. With Buddhism the problem of self is mistaken identity. We cling to the psycho-physical body as being the self, when it is not the self (Sk., anâtman). No-self in Buddhism means not to attach to what is not your true self. You're true self is not to be found in your psycho-physical body.
@BuddhaAtTheGasPump hi richard, great job. have you heard of ben smyth (think thats the correct spelling)
he talks well on this subject found him on youtube see what you think.
keep it up, like your style love john
"Adya looks alternately like a space alien and a burn victim." BAHAHAHA I laughed SO HARD!!!
He charges a hundred a day for a 4 hour day retreat...id be in samadhi too if i didnt have to work...:) but it works ,the dharma works
Looks like Adya is in a Waldorf School....
hahaha, I saw the same... but Adya looks like an alien even in HD videos. A very dear alien : )
As said by someone I read one day: if I could get one pound for each pixel of this video, I would have... one pound
I have always tought that enlightened people does not like to talk so much. Just read the tao te king.
@BuddhaAtTheGasPump i think its ben smythe
yeah, like those decomposing corpses which we can witness at some gore websites.
Hey, newagers! Stop burning gasoline. I mean it.
I also read Adya is supporting Trump's campaign...
lol
shape shifter :)
crap i was just going to get another beer.
Wow, the introduction here is super lame. Follow your dreams of materialism is about the worst advice that anyone can give.
+Mary Gwen Dungan
For the Bay Area, that could be a bargain though it depends where exactly he got it, the size of it, maybe it needed major restoration, etc. He doesn't impress me as the sort who would purchase an oversized mansion unless he wanted to hold Satsangs there as well.
+Mary Gwen Dungan I've been to his house. It's nice but by no means extravagant. I'd say appropriate for a couple with no children.
$80/a day for something you could do on your own? holy sheeeeit. You can go on a 10 day vipassana retreat for free LOL.
You have understood the idea of free 10 day Vipassana retreat wrong. As you understand, renting a big house for 10 days is never free despite the fact that the teacher, the cooks and other volunteers don't get any compensation.
The idea is to pay whatever you feel you'd like to pay for those 10 days. I paid 800 euros calculating that already a dorm bed would cost half of that. Unless you are a very poor person, paying nothing at all is a weird decision. Even if you didn't get anything from the retreat.
Jippoti They don't charge you $80 a day for being there though, or any amount of money for that matter, which is my point. I understand very clearly that you are free to donate after the retreat. That wasn't really my point of comparison.
Personally, I enjoy poking fun at the idea of sitting around in silence for a price (expensive prices might I add), or listening to a human being chirp about the "nature of life" or "freedom" to another human being FOR A PRICE. I'm entitled to poke fun at it, so I do. Thank you.
I hope everybody here lives in a cave and does their job for free.
Gahaa xd
Stop playing around visit headless.org and be done with it!!!
Having listened to a lot of Adya, minute 50-51 is the sole instance where he ever mentions the 5 year process of working through "emotional, ego and spiritual issues." I find this very hard to reconcile with his teaching everywhere else because he always deals with people by radical means, cutting at the root of identity and precisely avoiding the very emotional issues which he himself took five hellish years confronting. The awakening did not absolve him from this. Anyone notice this. Thanks