"Radvaita!"

Radvaita is "Radical Advaita"

I am coining a new word, "Radvaita," for "Radical-Advaita," and that is what I am calling these oh-so-far-gone "Neo-Advaitists" who proliferate the Western Non-Dual community! Radvaita goes beyond Neo-Advaita, as it goes to the extreme that anything you may know, think or believe can never be true. That goes for belief in scriptures, traditional gurus, lineages of sages, study or sadhana of any kind, belief in the laws that govern the dualistic world (ie Karma), etc. What is left is a maverick attitude that "nothing matters," and that, "all rules, techniques, laws, paths and revelations are false," and what is real is only your moment to moment consciousness of the world around you, regardless of how limited and full of judgement and ego that awareness might be! 


 Radvaita excuses all behaviors! Right conduct, they will tell you, "is oppression," because the truth is that it doesn't matter what you do because all  life is an illusion anyway! Radvaitists claim that there is "nobody home," but they display more ego than any other spiritual group I have encountered! They, after all,  are the "enlightened ones," having reached this revelation on a face book page under the tutelage of some twenty-something kid who claims enlightenment, but revels egotistically in his newly acquired role as "a teacher of the Highest Reality!" Radvaita indeed!

Only the Radvaitist has the Real Truth!

These same Radvaitists believe that the ultimate state of being is "nothingness." The highest liberation, in their way of thinking, is to become nothing at all! Last I looked, that qualifies as pure nihilism! You see, it turns out that  many of these Radvaitists, before finding their Radvaitic path, were non-believers in anything spiritual, people with no faith, and hardcore nihilists! But with Radvaita they seem to have found a "spiritual" path that is not  spiritual (!), but is "beyond spirituality!"  They maintain that, "spirituality with all its trappings is a snare," and, no one in their right mind wants to be like these "seekers" who "spend all their lives doing difficult if not impossible spiritual practices, all the while missing the Radvaita reality of nothingness that we have achieved by doing... nothing!"

Early on, the Radvaitists come to, or are led to the conclusion that there is no "self," no person wth a name and a form, no "doer."  They call this revelation. "enlightenment," yet Advaita Vedanta (traditional Indian Non-Dualism) tells us that this discovery is but a first baby step!  They negate all that comes after that step, all the various experiences of consciousness, the samadhis, the satoris, the illuminations, and in doing so, the classic sense of enlightenment as laid out by a ten thousand year-plus lineage of enlightened beings. Pretty bold for such a newcomer to the consciousness game!  At the same time those who eschew the scriptures have usually never read one.  Those who don't see a need for a teacher have never sat with a true teacher of consciousness, and those who see every spiritual exercise as an exercise in futility, have never done one!  But, even without this experience, the Radvaitists claim the highest knowledge and realization is theirs, and theirs alone!.

A Radvaitist who habituates some of the face book non-duality pages that I read once posted, "Don't get stuck in the Bliss!...Go beyond!" To which I answered, "I would be perfectly happy to be stuck in the Bliss of God. I would even devote a lifetime or two to it! I will worry about getting stuck in that bliss if it happens, and then, only if I see a down side to it!" Its as if these Radvaitists, before they have even realized who and what they are, are concerned only with the highest possible liberation and "beyond,"so they try to achieve that alone!  Its like saying that you want to go into politics but rather than starting with some local town office you announce that you will only accept the office of President of the USA, and nothing less!

Imagine being invited someplace but being given no directions to get there, no roads to take, no shortcuts, nothing.  How would you find such a place?  The Radvaitist says, "Give up the search," so you even stop looking for it.  What are the chances of finding that destination?  Nil!  But the Radvaitist believes that if you give up the search, if you let go of all the clues, all the paths, all the experiences of others, all the work required, you will magically have the revelation and arrive at Self Realization! Wow!  Now that's quite a deal!  But wait.  Are you sure that whomever made that offer was referring to those at the very beginning of the search?  It makes logical sense that when you are  drawing close to the Truth of all Existence, one must let go of all.  But to do so at the starting gate is like turning off your engine when the light goes green (as in "go!") at a drag race strip!  These Radvaitists have nothing to fund their trip to the revelation they seek!  Garbage in Garbage out applies to  spirituality!  If you put in no effort you get no result!  So with no results to speak of,  the Radvaitist is content with his "no-self" realization, and, still deeply immeshed in their ego-mind-body complex, parades themselves as if they are enlightened.  And "everything you know is wrong!"

The Ancient pre-Vedic Rishis...

When the ancient Rishis (sages of pre-Vedic India) were asked to describe their experience of enlightenment to the people, they used the words, "Sat Chit Annanda," or, "all Truth, all Knowledge, and all Bliss (love)." They said that this description is the closest to that state as any language could relate. The Radvaitists maintain that Sat Chit Annanda can not be the nature of enlightenment, because the so-called "enlightened state" is just nothingness.  Again we come back to that often quoted but always wrong definition of, "the Void," or the Buddhist, "Shunyata," taking it to mean "void of everything or anything." This is not what Shunyata implies! It implies an emptiness of that which is not self existent. That would include inanimate objects, name and form, emotions, thoughts, ideas, concepts, etc. But Love IS God. Bliss is God. Truth is God, and the very seeds of knowledge is God!  The Void is full of these self existent qualities. But shhh...don't tell, the Radvaitists. (They won't believe you anyway!)

When you lose your ego you do not become nothing or nothingness! The ego is a *limitation* of consciousness, that which you believe to be "you" is but a MERE droplet in the eternal ocean of Being. The ego keeps you from the whole, from the fullness, limiting you to a body, a mind, a personality, with a history. Lose the ego and you become EVERYTHING! You finally reach that effulgent FULLNESS of Being that is existence itself, that is God!

• The Radvaitists seem to be allowing ego (in the sense of an individualized separateness of being) to hold sway over their behavior, believing that setting the ego free from all limits of behavior is "liberation" of some sort. But, that is not the case at all! That is pure ego manifestation where the individual supersedes the whole! The Radvaitists speak using foul language and sexual innuendo just to show off to others their supposed "freedom," demonstrating how they are not ruled by anyone or anything (especially what others may  believe). But this is all obviously done from a strong ego consciousness because the result of this behavior is separation from others humans, usually placing them above all beings (including the saints gurus, sages and wisdom keepers) in some kind of revelatory wisdom that they possess that is missing from all except those of identical like mind. This "freedom" is paraded about, always becoming more and more outrageous, permissive and suggestive. demonstrating a deep involvement with and attachment to the world and the sense pleasures contained therein, and a dependancy on the ego-self, with no real experience or understanding of the Unitive Consciousness.

  
  
•  Those who follow the Radvaita path tend revel in this behavior, as is evident on face book pages and in other discussion groups, applauding the harshness and the obscenity used in tearing down those who see spirituality in a different, more mature light. That Radvaitists see people like this as being the future Krishnamuthis, only speaks to the insidious nature of this aberration of spirituality and how far it has spread in the West. I see this all as tragic and serious and not leading to a growth in consciousness at all, but instead to a new foundation for egoistic "I, me, mine" (to quote John Lennon) behaviors. If anything can be called "antiChristic" it would be this phenomena, as evil is the individual over the whole where spirituality is about the whole, leaving the individual consciousness behind and creating an ever widening expansion of LOVE!

  
  

Nothing Matters; Everything Matters

This dialectic is one of those Zen paradoxes the purpose of which is to shock and propel the acolyte's consciousness beyond the dual realm of opposites,  of good and bad, or yin and yang, etc., into the unity wholeness of the "One." Unfortunately there are some aspirants of enlightenment who are seeing only one side of this spiritual coin.  It is being taught,  by several teachers in the Western non-duality movement, that the enlightened consciousness is beyond good and bad, so, many aspirants seem to be negating, ignoring, and giving no credence to the importance of the existence of good and evil in the world!  They see good and evil equally as an illusion,  and as a result they are fostering an attitude of disconnection from, and a lack of compassion for, the suffering inherent in the human condition.  Rather than helping or serving their fellow humans, as many great saints and sages have done throughout history, they eschew any sort of individual or group social or political action towards peace, an end to hunger, energy conservation and the collapsing ecology.  They believe instead that it makes no difference what you do as,"good and evil are an appearance created by the mind and have no reality of their own."  This may be an ultimate truth, on the ultimate plane of existence, but we live here in the world.

Does what we do really matter?

This is an unfortunate and overly simplistic interprettation of this teaching.  It is missing the fact that, besides the obvious "horizontal duality" of opposites within the world (yin & yang), there also exists a "vertical duality," consisting of relative existence (creation) as the yang pole, and the Unity Consciousness as the yin pole. Now, in the koan, "Nothing matters; Everything matters," each  phrase relates to a different plane or pole of the reality.  The phrase, "nothing matters," takes the perspective of the ultimate plane, the non-dual state itself (ultimate yin).  In that transcendent state, matters of the world have no real existence. They are only a projection of the Oneness onto a seeming relative existence, a superimposition on our conscioousness, and have no permanent existence of their own.  In the non-dual state, worldly matters have no sway because the  Unitary Monad is pristine, and is untouched by the world, where certain laws apply.  Most important of these laws that apply universally in the world is  the law of Karma! 


Because the ultimate state transcends the ordinary worldly consciousness,  the various problems inherent in the created world seem as a  dream when seen from that ultimate state.  These worldly problems can not touch the ultimate consciousness.  But this only works for a FULLY REALIZED SOUL! In this created world, the law of Karma is in full force! On every projected or relative plane, every thought, action and deed has consequence, with no exception!  These consequences are  returning resultant forces of actions perpetrated by us, and they have a potent effect on the spiritual progress of the individual soul, or "Jiva" who commits these  actions, both volitionally and  unintentionally.  Even accidental actions can have strong consequences that can pull one from their path. For this reason, the classic Gurus of Advaita Vedanta (Hindu non-duality) laid out very specific modes of behavior in thought, word and deed for students, that, when followed, will help minimize Karmas and Vasanas (subtle impressions) that can cause one great difficulties in their worldly and spiritual lives. 

Lords of Karma

Some of the intentional editing of the traditional Advaita Vedanta that took place when it was brought from the East to the West, included the deletion of the Law of Karma.  It is true that from the highest reality perspective, Karma  does not seemingly exist.  But in the world, Karma rules all!  There is no escaping this!  This is an observable fact that can be seen by anyone who has eyes to see the patterns in their own lives and the lives of those around them.  Karma, simply stated, means, "Every action has an equal but opposite reaction." or more commonly, "What goes around comes around!" Any act of volition, whether it be thought word or deed, has consequence on all levels, except for the very highest.  Once again, the only exception to this is the person who has realized full enlightenment. He/she is no longer touched by Karma.  That is the one and only way out of Karma's grip on our existence!  But here is where the wrong conclusion is being drawn by Western Advaita aspirants. They seem to believe that if they  apply this truth of the highest plane onto the relative plane in which they live, it will protect them from the consequences of their actions, and, I guess,  help them, in some way, that I have not as yet fathomed, to reach enlightenment.  They believe that Karma doesn't really exist, because on the highest level (only), this is the case.  The problem is that this is all just a thought process within the mind, within the created world, and not an actual and direct experience!  Without full Self Realization this flawed idea will never protect the person from the laws of the relative plane!  This is a cold, hard fact!

Indulging the Senses

These same aspirants take this n a step further by believing that,  because matters of the world are not experienced as a hard reality on the highest plane,  this must also be the case for the relative plane as well! Some try to disregard the natural laws of the relative plane altogether.  In this imagined karma-free fantasy life of theirs, they do whatever they please, because in this paradigm, nothing matters! There is also no attempt to reign in control of indulgences of any sort (as is practiced in authentic Advaita) including, materialistic desires, sense pleasures, the use of drugs and alcohol, as well as the transgressions of anger, greed, lust, jealousy and sloth.  All are  especially disastrous for the seeker of Truth.   In authentic Advaita Vedanta. disciplines are employed to help control these earthly indulgences!  But, the belief amongst the neo-Advaitins is that ultimately, it just doesn't matter what you do in the world, because there are no consequences to be had!  I say, good luck with that!

This line of rationalization is seen as being an "evolved state" by the radical neo-Advaitins. They go around speaking robotically they think from the ultimate plane of reality, when all the while they are still stuck in the creation/world and are a still as vulnerable as the next guy to the results of their actions!  What is really going on here is a psychological disassociation with life, along with a sense of depersonalization, and an accompanying abnegation of any and all responsibilities to humanity.  They see people involved in social or political action as foolish and deluded, "If they only knew the Truth that I know, they would not waste their time feeding the poor and helping the sick."  Of course, all of this flies in the face of the teachings of the world's great saints, sages and Avatars.  From Mahatma Ghandi to Jesus Christ, it has been demonstrated that the enlightened approach to life in the world is "Seva," or service to one's fellow sentient beings!  By doing service to others the boundaries of separation begin to fade and one begins to intuit the Divine Self in all. And what's more, suffering is alleviated to some degree in the world.

Books, DVD's, Satsangs

Upon critical examination, one can easily deduce the reasons why a neo-Advaita teacher might want to leave Karma out of their teaching.  Because their goal is to sell books, CD's and DVD's, fill their satsangs and retreats, and to be sure that they are attracting an ever expanding audience, they purposely neglect teachings about things like  Karma because the disciplines that the law of Kama implies for spiritual aspirants is unattractive to their following, who love to hear teachings and teachers that say, "drop all seeking, do no practices!" This is a recurrent theme of late in neo-Advaita!


But in human existence, everything does matter (!), that is, until one is Self-Realized and there is nothing that can matter for all is resolved into the Oneness. For a student of enlightenment though,  to try to fit ultimate plane ideas into the relative plane is silly, like the trying to force the proverbial square peg into a round hole.  Assuming that ultimate plane ideas apply in relative existence is just foolish and lacks a basic understanding of the nature of things.  

Worries in the Oneness

Adi Shankara 788CE-820CE)

"Advaita," is a Sanskrit word which means, "non-dual," or more literally, "not two."  Advaita is a spiritual philosophical school that maintains that there is but One consciousness that pervades, underlies and contains all of creation, and, that the world, our lives, our minds with all of its thoughts, wishes hopes, feelings and emotions, and our bodies, are all but a projection, a mere superimposition, like a motion picture projected upon the screen of that consciousness! The appearance that there seems to be separate objects and even sentient beings with individual identities,  is said to be an illusion of the mind, or "Maya."  This philosophy is an ancient one and had its origins in the Vedas and other ancient Holy Scriptures of India.  Great sages like the Adi Shankara (788-820 CE) taught this philosophy and the practices that were part and parcel of it.  These teachings have been handed down from teacher to disciple for thousands of years with many adherents achieving the state of Self Realization, or Enlightenment, where one has the visceral experience of this non-duality, and becomes then liberated from the cycle of birth, death and reincarnation.  Advaita or non-dualism is also an integral part of Buddhism, especiallyin the Chan and Zen sects.

Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi

The more contemporary Indian teachers of Advaita, like the great sage Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950), left writings that became published books which found their way into  esoteric bookstores in the West. Pratitioners of Eastern spirituality and yoga found the ideas contained within to be revolutionary in regard to the customary Western way of seeing reality. They endeavored to practice what was taught, especially the Maharshi's teachings on the practice of "Atma Vichara," or "Self Inquiry," where one continuously ponders and investigates the question, "Who Am I?"  Sri Ramana says that by this practice, done with earnestness and intensity,  one can achieve Self Realization.

In the 1990's,  a new phenomena began to appear on the Western scene...Non-Asian, self-appointed and self-endorsed teachers of Advaita, who claimed to be "awakened," or even to be "fully enlightened!" Many of these "teachers" were former students of Sri Poonaji (a.k.a. Papaji), who was a student of Ramana Maharshhi. or of the controversial Bhagavan Rajneesh,  later known simply as "Osho."  These new teachers offered teachings in the West, tailored just for the Western mind, which is always looking for instant results and gratification.  More and more of these teachers sprouted like mushrooms after a morning rain.  It seems like anyone who has had any sort of awakening experience launched a career as a teacher of highest truth!   In non-dualist traditions like Zen Buddhism, a single satori (enlightenment experience or glimpse) does not a teacher make.  Continued practice and study are required, and not until the aspirant's enlightenment is a permanent state of affairs is one allowed to even consider teaching anyone. Here these self-endorsed "gurus" are each opening a web site, making videos for You Tube, writing books and having public satsangs.

On Satsang 
The traditional meaning of Satsang is, "company of truth."  Satsang is what followers, devotees or disciples of a spiritual teacher or teaching do when the teacher is not available.  That is, to spend time, chant prayers or sing kirtan, discuss teachings, etc., with like-minded people.  The idea is to protect the "young sprouts" of spirituality from outside influences that may interfere or distract from their practices and progress.

"Satsang" with a neo-advaita teacher

Today Satsang has become an event where an entrance fee is charged, and a "teacher" discourses and fields questions from those attending. Too often this turns into a show of the teacher's ability to "one-up" each questioner, often to the delight to all those who have gathered. The teacher will give absolute-plane answers to pertinent questions that should have been addressed on the relative plane to foster understanding, as in the East where stories and parables bring home the higher truths.  The idea here is to "shock" the person into a numinous experience of the no-dual state.  This is practiced in Zen, but only with students who have done Zen practice for years. In this case this is being thrust upon unpracticed and uncontrolled minds that are not ready to grasp and hold such exalted truths. A typical answer is, "Who is it that is asking the question," or, "who would you be if you dropped the question altogether," all pointing to  a philosophical pinnacle that supposedly answers all questions and doubts.  Watching the faces of the questioners, you can often see confusion and disappointment in these answers, but, the answers often draw "oohs" and "ahhs" and sometimes even applause from those watching this "spiritual circus" This requires just some skill in this manner of reparte on the part of the teacher, but no depth of real knowledge or experience. Actually nothing is answered and nothing is taught in this that a person can take with them into their daily life. It all sounds good, and I have heard much of this line of retort parroted in posts on facebook pages.   The goal is for the teacher to look and sound "awakened." contrasting the "ignorance" of the questioner.

Being a long time student of Advaita Vedanta (in the Indian tradition), I had no idea that there even was a Western Advaita movement, much less an absolute fad (no pun intended).  The movement came to my attention in 2010, after I did  some exploring in my first experiences on facebook.  There were many facebook "groups" and pages on the subject!   I was elated! "Look at all these people into Advaita," I exclaimed incredulously! I had thought that I was part of just a small group of spiritual aspirants carrying on this sacred tradition in the West.  But, lo and behold, here were hundreds of interested participants from  the USA, South America, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, France, and even the Nordic and Slavic countries, coming together and participating in these groups on facebook!  I was not alone, so I thought! I was beside myself in joy on this accord!  But, after just a short involvement with these groups, some of which were run by popular neo-advaita teachers,  I sensed that something was "Missing in Mumbai," and "Tainted in Tiruvanamalai!"  Something was really  off.

What first surprised me were the various teachers who people quoted or who's videos they posted on the facebook non-duality sites. I had never heard of any of them, except perhaps Eckart Tolle, who's touting by Opra Winfrey catapulted him to great popularity (and wealth).  Of course traditional Advaita Vedanta teachers like Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi or Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, who are the best known and most venerated advocates of non-dualism  in the East in recent times (the Maharshi died in 1950 and Nisargadatta in 2001), were occasionally mentioned in the current dogma,  but all too often they were mentioned in a derogatory manner, citing them as "dinosaurs of dead traditions!"  The Western teachers, who's videos I took the time to watch, all claimed to be "awakened," or "enlightened," meaning they had realized the highest truth of existence.  Now, I have been very fortunate in this lifetime to have met several truly enlightened Eastern teachers and adepts from Hindu, Buddhist, and Sufi traditions.  I will tell you, that each of them radiated an amazing presence of love, and joy, as well as a wonderful uplifting spiritual energy, that was so tangible that you could seemingly cut it with a knife!  In contrast I found these Western teachers, though intellectually astute,  on a whole, to be vibrationally vacant, if not dull.  This was surprising and unexpected. It certainlt was not due to some sort of projected prejudice on  my part, as I entered into watching these videos with true curiosity and openness.  But I was disappointed to say the least.  Not only was I not impressed  by their spiritual energy (or lack thereof), but their teachings had some very serious flaws, at least from the standpoint of the Advaita Vedanta tradition.

 Basically, what was missing from the teachings were the very foundations upon which spiritual discovery rests.  This includes certain prerequisites of character, including virtues of love, truthfulness, compassion, forgiveness, generosity, as well as control of the endless stream of thoughts in the mind and control of the five senses of perception.  A  certain level of renunciation of the things of the world is also required for spiritual growth and enlightenment.   I found no emphasis on study of the world's rich treasure trove of scripture on non-dualism, the works of enlightened sages,  nor are there any practices, such as meditation prescribed.  Students are encouraged to "just do nothing," and, they are told,  enlightenment will "just happen!"  In fact, teachers have told their students that spiritual practices have either no effect, or, they actually set you back!  Many a teacher tells how after decades of practices, it was when he or she finally gave up the practices that they had their "enlightenment" experience.  What they fail to relate is that those years of study and practice are what "prepared the field" for the seeds of enlightenment to germinate and grow into that experience.  You have to have practiced in order to give up practice. You can't give it up if you never have done any practices! Telling the untrained not to do any practices or disciplines while throwing the highest esoteric truths at them has created a strange breed of spiritual aspirants.

What amazes me to this day is the crass demeanor of the people involved in these facebook groups about  the subject of non-duality.  In my 40 years on  the spiritual path, the people involved were generally loving, kind and mutually supportive. What I saw here was the antithesis of what I experienced and expect from spiritual aspirants!  This was so different. It was like a spiritual locker room mentality, replete with obscenities, sexual innuendo, and all sorts of behaviors that would never fly with the various groups, teachers and Gurus I had spent time in and with. I found people attacking each other, not just attacking ideas or concepts, but viciously attacking each others's personalities! People were even being singled out for group abuse in an attempt to "break the person's ego."  This came from the idea that one teacher put forth that one should feel no "charge" in response to personal attacks, showing that they are not attached to their "ego-self."  Unfortunately, and more times than not, and to the contrary. a person would *build* their ego so large that nothing anyone could say could bother them, the total opposite of the goal of this misguided exercise!

I often tell a story about a man who builds a house for his family.  He levels the ground, digs a foundation, pours a strong cement foundation, and brick by brick builds up the walls so each brick supports the next.  When he is finished the house is a model of beauty and function.  Another man sees the house and decides to build one like it, but he neglects many steps.  Instead of leveling the ground and digging a foundation, he starts on the uneven earth.  He builds up the house using only those materiuals and labor that will allow its fast completion.  The houses seem alike from the outside.  But then a fierce storm hits the area.  The first man's house weathers the storm with minimal damage, while the second man's house is toppled.  In this story the first man's house is traditional Advaita, as practiced in Vedanta,  Zen, Chan and Vajrayana Buddhism.  The second house is this neo or as some are calling it "pseudo" advaita, skipping all the traditional steps and leaving its aspirants without a domicile.  The question is, to what end is this neo-advaita movement coming forth?  The answer is old and simple.  The Almighty......(Dollar)!

Its not cheap to study neo-advaita.  There are books and DVDs to buy, and "satsangs" to attend, and then there are those trips to South India, to the ashram of Ramana Maharshi in Tiruvanamalai at the foot of the sacred Arunachala mountain, where it is in vogue for these no-advaita teachers to hold their satsangs.  Holding these meetings at this holy site is done to  somehow lend credence to their teacher status.  The problem is that Ramana Maharshi appointed no successor at his passing in 1950.  He endorsed no teacher to carry on his work.  Though Sri Ramana's photo often graces the altar at these Satsangs, there is no real connection between these teachers and the great Sage.

Satsang in Tiruvanamalai

Each of these events held at the Ramanashram in Tiruvanamalai, hosted by neo-advaita teachers, can cost the aspirant lots of money.  First there is the trip to India which from America can cost close to $1800 for airfare alone!  Then there is ground travel, accommodation, and finally the retreat or workshop fee!  The teachers sometimes charge exorbitant amounts so as to lend further credibility to the event. They have found that the more they charge, the more the people regard their teachings as essential.  So a new profession has been crafted: The neo-advaita teacher!  Not only do many of these teachers support a modest lifestyle by this work, but some actually support an affluent one, all on the backs of the aspirants, many of whom are not in such lofty financial straits!

So who is the real loser in all of this?  For one, the true study of Advaita is the first victim, as it is being trivialized by this ersatz teaching.  The next immediate victims are the aspirants who wind up without a foundation of study and practice, waiting for enlightenment to happen spontaneously, without any effort on their part.  Godot would arrive sooner!  Leave it to the West to take something spiritually pure and beautiful and make it into a commodity where quality is sacrificed for  profit.  But that is our way.  That is why we are in the mess we are in.  Offering ersatz liberation to the unsuspecting, the neo-advaota movement is just more of that which hurts us, profit over truth, gold over love.

My Life In the Spirit Part-I

I was born in 1951 in Manhattan, NYC,  in what was then called, "Columbia Heights," and which is now just considered to be a part of Harlem.  As a toddler I was visited by “spirit lights” as I sat in my crib, quietly awake in the very early AM.   The lights would come and circle and surround me in a playful manner.  Eventually, as I got older, the lights no longer appeared and I didn’t see anything like them until 40 years later when I was sitting in the pitch darkness in a stuffy living room in a small house on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation, where Medicine Man, Robert Steed was “calling in the spirits” during a sacred Lakota Lowampi (“healing sing”) Ceremony. As the drummer sang the special “calling in” song, those lights once again danced around the room just as they did in my childhood room. 

At age 11, I had a classic direct experience of the non-dual reality, where I could no longer experience myself as the name and form that was somehow associated with my consciousness.  Having no context for my experience, and not being able to convey the experience to my parents in a way that would elicit some help with understanding what had happened,  I was frightened by it all.  I thought something was wrong with me.

At age 19 (1971) I was working as a Radio Personality on a groundbreaking progressive rock radio station, WLIR-FM in Long Island, NY.  It was during this time that I began reading about Yoga philosophy, and how the universe was a projection of the Self, and not a hard and fast separate reality that we merely perceive through the senses.  This clicked so heavily with me, and answered so many questions.  

The book that started it all for me

  One day, WBAI, the Pacifica listener sponsored radio station in NYC,  was promoting their playing of a tape of Baba Ram Dass, formerly Richard Alpert, the Harvard University Psychologist cohort of Timothy Leary and his "League for Spiritual Discovery (LSD), entitled, "The Transformation of a Man - Richard Alpert to Baba Ram Das."  Much to my dismay, the program was to air precisely at the time that I was to be on the air on WLIR FM.  So I decided to patch an old FM receiver to a reel-to-reel tape deck in the station's production studio and try to record the show. Well as the graces would have it, the taping went off without a hitch, and I was anxious and excited to get home to listen to the tape.  When I got home I settled in, smoked a little bit of pot, started the tape and lay down on my bed and listened to the talk that eventually became Ram Das' book, "Be Here Now!"  When Ram Das came to the place in the story where his soon-to-be Guru, Neem Karoli Baba (Maharaji), told Ram Dass that Ram Das had been out under the stars the night before, some miles away from the Guru, thinking about his mother who had recently passed away, I bolted up, stopped the tape, turned on the light and just sat there incredulously stunned. How could Maharaji know this? After that night,  I gave up entirely my use of marijuana and occasional alcohol, and I took up the practice of Hatha Yoga and more importantly, Meditation. 

Some weeks later, one evening, after going through my routine of Yoga asanas (exercises),  I sat to meditate and absorbed myself in the repetition of a simple Ram mantra.  The mantra deepened and deepened in me when of a sudden there was a burst of bright white light and I had a powerfully electric, ecstatic experience that was so intense, it caused me afterwards to decide to devote my life to finding God!

He had long white hair and a long white beard!

In this initiatory experience there was a vision of a man, who I construed to be a holy man or a master. He lay on his side with his elbow on the ground and his head propped in his hand.  He had long white hair and a long white beard and appeared for just a few seconds. When the intensity of the vision had subsided to a degree, I told myself, “I just saw God!”

As I pursued the path of meditation I searched through the myriad teachers from the East that flooded America in those early 70’s, and who were making appearances in New York City, hoping that I would find the man in my vision.  At first when I saw posters of Sri Swami Satchidananda of the Integral Yoga Institute, I thought that he looked a lot like the person in my vision.  I went to a weekend retreat with the popular Swami and found him to be a warm, affable man and a yoga adept, but there was no real connection. So my search went on.

Lex Hixon

A friend of mine was the engineer for  Lex Hixon’s popular radio show “In the Spirit” on Pacifica’s NY radio station, WBAI FM.  My friend invited me to work on the show as technical assistant and a sound engineer and as a music programmer  for when a music interlude was required.  Working on the show, I had the opportunity to meet all kinds of teachers from Hindu Swamis, to Sufi and Zen Masters to self styled American Gurus. Some were quite fantastic.  Once, I wound up sitting across the studio glass from Aido Roshi,  then abbot of the NY Zen Center, who had set up his alter so it was just below the glass window.  In effect, I was right in the path of the Roshi’s chants, prayers, and devotions as he spoke them.  The program ended late and I had to run to catch a train home. Sitting on the train I was pulled into such a high state of meditation, I lost track of where I was, and, if not for a friendly conductor tapping me gently from my reverie, I would probably have ridden that train to the end of the line, many stops beyond my own!


Regardless how attracted I was to a teacher or teaching, I was always cognizant of  Ram Das’s advice in  “Be here Now,” of not taking any teacher’s initiations unless it felt absolutely right.  So I continued my search. 

Hilda Charlton

By 1972,  I was working as a concert sound mixer and stage manager for Long Island’s beloved concert venue, “My Father’s Place.” Through some musicians that were appearing there, I was introduced to Hilda Charlton, an American spiritual teacher who spent 17 years in India, first as a dancer, and then as a mystic, and who had spent time with many amazing well known, and some even more amazing lesser known holy men and women.  When she returned to America she was asked to teach a meditation class by some young spiritual seekers, so she began to teach a class at a small Church in New York’s West Village.  I took teachings from Hilda (which required no initiation, fee, or vow), for 7 years,  and through her, heard amazing stories about this wonderful Holy Man from South India, Sri Sathya Sai Baba, with whom she had spent quite a bit of time.  

A significant incident happened in 1976.  I was living with some other students of Hilda in a house near the water of the LI Sound, between the Throggs Neck and Whitestone  bridges.  I was sitting with my house-mate, Michael in his room. It was early evening so the lights were low and the only light in the room was from the candles on his alter.  Upon that alter were pictures of various Indian saints including,  Sathya Sai Baba, Shrirdi Sai Baba, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Yogananda, Sri Ramana Maharshi and Neem Karoli Baba.   I was sitting on the floor next to the alter and Micahael was sitting across the small room from me with his back against the wall.  We began to discuss spiritual matters and as we did I flipped into that same state of 

God has a huge sense of humor!

consciousness that scared me so much at age 11.  I had lost consciousness of myself as a name and form and was just s point of consciousness, and nothing else.  The strange thing about being in that place was that I found it all to be hysterically funny!  I remember that I thought for a moment of my name,  personality, mind and body and was amazed that I had ever connected myself to those silly limitations.  I was expansive, universaal, and it was all just so funny.  What was also funny was that I was able to speak and answer Michael's questions from that place.  I remember glancing over at the alter at the pictures of those holy men and for a moment I glimpsed what it must be like for these spirtitually free beings to come to this dualistic plane in order to help others to find out who they really are.  "We must appear to these fellows to be total idiots," I laughed!.  That day I made  a wonderful discovery! God has a huge sense of humor!  I mean gut busting laughter funny.  I mean not knowing if your heart can take it - omigod I'm gonna die laughter!  For a good example of this watch this short video of Mooji, a contemporary teacher of "advaita vedanta," or non-dual reality.  Watch: "Laughing Buddha".

Where this same state of consciousness scared me as a child, this time, in Michael's, room it was blissful, and yes, very, very  funny.  This time I had the foundation of six years of study and meditation practice.

 It was about this time that I had left Hilda's classes  to become more involved with the Sathya Sai Baba Centers in NYC and Queens, NY.  I finally was able to put together the money and the time off from work to make my long awaited trip to India to see the Guru who was the center of my spiritual practices.  I traveled to India twice to see Sai Baba.   My first trip was in 1978.  Sai Baba was very gracious, granting me several personal “interviews” and even materializing a crystal  japa mala (rosary) for my use.   I married in 1980 and in 1984 brought my wife Deborah, and my 19 month old daughter, Autumn, to India, where the family was graced with a private interview with Sai Baba who materialized a pendant for Autumn, who is now 27. 


Many people believe that Sai Baba was a "Poona Avatara,"  a full incarnation of godhead, a being who was born fullly conscious of his divinity.  There are so many stories about Sai Baba's "miracles," and I have had my own share of them in my life.  Let me relate one story for which I have no explanation.

NT Rama Rao as Krishna

I was in India my second time.  We had gotten stuck in the city of Bangalore in the state of Mysore, waiting to take ground transportation to Sai Baba's Ashram, in the little village of Puttaparthi, in the state of Andhra Pradesh.   Its seems that the Minister of Andhra Pradesh,  NT Rama Rao,  was beloved by the people of his state.  He was formerly a film star making hundreds of films and playing Lord Krishna and other divine personages in that celluloid reality.  It turns out that he was a spiritual man, and instead of hoarding the monies he made as a film star, he gave much of it away in the form of lands to the poor people of his state. When he went into politics, he was easily elected to the office of Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.  In 1984, in a bold move, the opposition party deposed Rama Rao on some trumped up charges.  The people of the state wouldn't have it and so, Andhra Pradsh broke into riots.  The danger was enough to keep the taxis from making the four hour trip from Bangalore to Sai Baba's Ashram. Devotees of Sai Baba traveling to the Ashram started to bunch up in the pleasant (pre tech boom) city of Bangalore.  

Sai Baba giving Darshan

In Bangalore we met many interesting devotees. including an elderly Indian man who was a retired male nurse from Montreal.  He spoke several languages including, Quebecois, Hindi and English.  He was traveling with a devotee from Montreal who spoke only Quebecois.  Jump forward two weeks later when, after a harrowing trip to the Ashram (another long story),  we were  settled in and  were finally sitting on the darshan line (darshan means literally to see, hear or touch  a holy man).  There were about 1500-2000 people at the Ashram at that time and Michael, myself and our friend from Montreal and his Quebecois friend had lucked out that day and were sitting in the first row on the men's side.  My wife and daughter were sitting across the way on the women's 
side. The nurse was interested in coming to live at the Ashram and work in Sai Baba's hospital nearby, and he wanted to ask Baba 's permission to do so.  Just a few people are allowed to come to the Ashram to live.  One may only do so with Baba's permission.  After waiting for some 20 minutes, Sai Baba walked out of his quarters inside the "Prashanti Mandiram," or "Peace Temple," and began to walk along the crowd.  As he drew near I began to get the usual warm vibration of Sai Baba's presence which elicited an deep inner joy.  He walked over to us and asked the nurse from Montreal in English, "What do you want?"  Our friend explained, in English, that he was retired and his children were all grown and settled, and that his wife had passed away, and that he would love to spend his later years working in the hospital at the ashram. Sai Baba pointed to the door he had emerged from just moments ago and said to our friend, "you go!"  Meaning,  he was to sit by the door and wait there to go inside to speak with Sai Baba privately.  Sai Baba made his way through the men's side and then moved to the women's side and then finally back to the veranda of the Temple.   He ushered the several people he had picked for private interviews, which included our friend, into the little room, the door was closed and the people outside dispersed.  Michael, myself and the Quebecois man stayed behind to wait for our friend to come out of the interview.    

After a half an hour,  the door finally opened and out came our friend, smiling from ear to ear.  As he approached us the Quebecois man ran to him excitedly speaking in his French Canadian dialect, a mile a minute!  Our friend spoke back to him in Quebecois, with Michael and I not understanding a word.  We approached the two of them and asked our friend, "what was that all about?  He said that the Quebecois man was so surprised and excited because Sai Baba can speak in Quebecois!

"He can?" I shot back.

"He heard Sai Baba and I conversing in French!" the nurse replied.

"That's ridiculous!" I said, "You and Baba were speaking in English, I heard the whole thing!"

Michael nodded in agreement. 

"I'm sorry, but Baba and I spoke only in Hindi!" the Nurse replied,

Now what kind of trickery or slight of hand was that?  Neat trick in my book! Sathya Sai Baba remains as an enigma in my life.  Oh, the Nurse got his wish and was given permission to move to the Ashram!

For me, an icon in the world for Self

Sai Baba advises his devotees to pick a name and form of God that appeals to them and to visualize that form and repeat that name with the syllable, “Om,” attached to it.  I took Sai Baba’s own name and form (which follows the Hindu  dictum that, “the Guru is God,”) and continued to meditate on Baba’s name and form as a practice for several years.   After a time,  as a direct result of this practice, and much to my surprise, I came to understand that God, or Sai Baba, or what ever name you will attach to the Reality of Self,  lies within my heart.  That God is in me, as me.   It is only Grace that one is able to find a being in the outer world who can reflect that back to you.  Many Gurus lead the aspirant to become more and more attached only to the Guru and not the Self within. This attachment can keep you stuck serving this Guru for lifetimes!  But, when you find a teacher who brings you to the place of  Self within yourself, so that you are no longer dependent on the outer Guru… When you come to this place where the God inside you becomes so patent that you do not need the outer Guru, then you have found a True or Sat Guru. 

Watch for the Next Installment: My Life in Spirit: Part II, "The Other Indians"

Religion is of Man, Not of God

Religion, though inspired by God, is a creation of man,* not of God.   When a great God-like soul comes to earth and shares his teachings, his divine presence, and perhaps even a miracle or two, with the masses, all is well until he departs from the earth. Then his followers will  try to canonize him, codify,  publish and disseminate his teachings, and establish an institution of faith around his name.  Thus a religion is born, and  thus, all the trouble begins.

If you have ever come into contact with an enlightened being, you will know that the experience is ineffable, indescribable. Try as you may, you will not be able to convey the totality of the experience in a way that people will fully understand, especially people who are spiritual novices, or worse, non believers.

An old spiritual teacher of mine, Hilda Charlton, warned her students against trying to share personal spiritual experiences with those who have no belief in such things.  She said that each time you do that you will diminish your own experience.  This proved to be true.  Every time I tried to relate some amazing encounter or meditative experience to a nonbeliever,  I felt as if a chunk of the energy from the experience had gone out of me.  I also found that it was difficult, if not impossible to reclaim that energy.  Imagine then, the difficulty the disciples of Buddha or Jesus had in trying to relate their experiences of seeing miracles, hearing divine teachings, and being in the auric presence of these great ones, to the flocks of seekers that gathered about them!

Do you remember the game of "telephone?" You line up a dozen people, and the first one in the line whispers a phrase or sentence into the ear of the next one in line. Then, that person whispers what he heard to the next one, and so on down the line to the end. Then the last person tells what he or she has heard. The two versions are, more times than not, so different that you all have a good laugh about it!

Now imagine the distortion in the teachings of Jesus after fifty years of his teachings being passed down as an oral tradition! Yes, it was fifty years after the crucifixion of Jesus that the first elements of Christian scripture became written word!  Some of the Gospels were written as much as one hundred years later! 
 
Four hundred years passed before Buddha's teachings were put to the pen!  As these teachings were passed down through the years, how many numerous distortions must have been made in both of these cases just from the fact they were passed orally? Of course the religions formed around these teachings will make claims like, "the Bible is the unaltered Word of God, and there have been no distortions from man as the writers were divinely inspired!"   If you know a little bit of biblical history you will know this to be impossible. So much has been changed or removed from the Christian scripture by various councils, papal edicts, kings, emperors and editors. Roman Emperor, Constantine, changed the new religion in some pretty drastic ways in order to fit his own agenda. He insisted upon these changes before he agreed to allow Christianity to become the official state religion of Rome!

The Buddhists maintain, that because teachings were accompanied by a "spiritual transmission," given by the enlightened teachers that came later, the teachings have been preserved in their purity.  But if that were the case, why are there so many different sects of Buddhism with disparate practices and teachings?   I have personally heard members of one sect decry another's authenticity, sometimes inferring that the other was not Buddhist at all!

Religions often lose their way by the actions of their followers. Practices are changed or ignored altogether!   My guru, Sai Baba, tells the story of the Hindu holiday "Ganesh Chaturti," where the god "Ganesha" is worshiped both in temples and in the homes of its adherents.  Ganesh is the beloved and benevolent elephant headed god who is propitiated at the beginning of any endeavor for a successful outcome.  During this holiday it is customary to offer a platter of milk to a picture or statue of Ganesh upon the family altar. But first, the family cat must be rounded up and placed under basket.   Then a rock is placed on top of the basket to ensure that the cat can not escape and drink the milk on the altar.  As time went by, little by little, the prayers and the milk offerings to Ganesh were dropped. Nowadays, Sai Baba continues,  Ganesh Chaturti is observed each year by putting a cat under a basket for the day, and nothing else!  So, the original practices of the holy day were sadly lost. and were replaced by an absurdity!

Besides this sort of cultural distortion, there also have been purposeful changes made to religions, done for worldly and not spiritual reasons. These changes have supplanted and sometimes eliminated the original teachings or beliefs. For example, many believe that the doctrine of reincarnation is found in Buddhism and Hinduism alone.  But it turns out that it was also a tenet of early Christianity, as it was,  and still is, a tenet of mystical Judaism. Now the early Christians practiced as mystical Jews, so it follows that they would believe  in reincarnation! Nothing in the Gospels denies reincarnation.   When Jesus asked  the disciples, "Who do you think I am?" They answered that many said he was John the Baptist whom King Herod had put to death, come back to life.  Others  said he was Elijah, who according to tradition would return before the Day of the Lord, and still others  said he was a great prophet like Jeremiah.   These answers would imply a belief in the doctrine that those who die can return to earth in another form. These Jewish followers would not have answered in this way if reincarnation was not an accepted part of their religious paradigm.  

Reincarnation was removed from Christian doctrine in the 6th Century at the Second Council of Constantinople. Today, if you were to mention reincarnation to a fundamentalist Christian, they will tell you that it "is a lie of the Devil, and was never a part of the Word of God!"

Why did the Church remove reincarnation from the faith?  Reincarnation implies that a soul can eke out salvation by working towards it over many lifetimes. Meanwhile, the Church had spread the dictum far and wide that they were the one and only path to salvation available to mankind!  The problem was, that because the doctrine maintained that man could attain salvation by himself, reincarnation could eliminate entirely the people's need for the clergy and the Church altogether!  What would this do to the Church's monetary income they made from the tithing of their flock?  Or for that matter, what would it do to the immense power the Church held over the people?  The possibilities were just too unacceptable for the Church, so  reincarnation was out.  Edit!

Religious doctrine, as we find it today,  has been transformed to something unrecognizable  because of the "telephone," effect it has passed through. In this "game" of telephone, we are the last person in line!  Additionally, the already distorted message has also been changed by the leaders of the faiths, to suit any purpose they deemed necessary to maintain their power and influence over the people!  The ability to shape their religions to their own ends gave it's leaders  great power to shape and control the faith and religious ways of entire civilizations!

No religion can convey the original spiritual energy experienced by the few people who had the immense good fortune to actually see,  hear and feel, first hand, the message and presence of the enlightened ones. Without that experience, the religion's message becomes vapid, empty,  easily misconstrued and potentially twisted into errant forms. The experience of that spiritual power is the only true touchstone of authenticity.  Teachings either convey that energy or they don't. When they don't, as has been the case in so many of today's religions, what we are left with is a message sometimes entirely different from the original.  And this time, no one is laughing!

Christian evangelical preachers use special techniques to induce mass trance and bring a crowd into a state of religious "hysteria."  Special music and lighting, inflections of the preacher's voice, and other hypnotic techniques are a part of the dog and pony show they run for their unsuspecting crowds, who, in their own way, are yearning for spiritual succor.  They perform, "healings" upon their flock on stage, using the endorphin inducing hysteria, and then wonder why their so-called healings don't stick when the person gets home.  Typically, they will blame this relapse of affliction on a lack of  faith in the recipient, saying their belief was just not strong enough to hold the healing.  People are brought up in wheelchairs in so much arthritic pain they cant walk or properly use their fingers.  The preacher comes over and whacks them on the forehead and before you know it they are up and dancing around the stage.  "A miracle," the crowd oohs and ahhs, but endorphin is the body's natural oxycontin and when that much is flowing, for those few minutes, the wheelchair bound seeker is "healed."   

The energy that is whipped up in this crowd is attributed to, "the presence of the Holy Spirit," but the same energy is whipped up in a rock concert where God is not being invoked at all!  Energies or "vibes" carry qualities.  An energy can carry the qualities of love or it can be one of hate.  Its all energy.  But, the spiritual power that an enlightened one carries whether he is in front of a crowd or alone is an energy of universal peace and love. The energy an enlightened one exudes is a byproduct of their Self Realization, not something that is conjured in a hypnotic trick.


The pristine energy of Jesus or Buddha in its pure form can not be described  in words,  let alone by a religious doctrine. Language can only allude to it.  Scripture can point to it.     Enlightened beings exist in it. 

So then,  religion today is an archaic admixture of tainted spiritual doctrine, combined with with a moralistic and political dogma as contrived by the writers, pundits and preachers of the faith, that is designed to meet the needs of the  institutions that they have formed around the name of the enlightened founder of the sect. For the institution and not the people.  For political and social ends, and not the original intent and spiritual message.  

So many Churches of different beliefs,  all claiming to be Christ's "true Church!"  So many Jewish Synagogues and sects with different degrees of adherence to the principles of Judaism, all claiming to be the "true Jewish tradition."  The differences in these various Churches and Synagogues are made by men and not by God!  They have arisen to suit the different desires of the worshippers, and sometimes just of the hierarchy of the particular sect alone.  This is just more of man changing and distorting teachings for his own purpose. This is not of God.  God is the changeless Reality.  

Man's ego is huge.  A spiritual ego is worse and is more potentially dangerous than a worldly one. When sects deny other sects, or what's worse, when they deny other religions, it is the epitome of delusion and egoism.   

Innate in man is the desire to draw closer to the ultimate reality that religions call God. This is a spiritual yearning in everyone's heart. Whether people realize it or not, their need to fill themselves with comforts, possessions, wealth, sex, good food, etc.,  is a misplaced desire to find their own spiritual nature or God. This,  according to the enlightened ones, is the true  fulfillment of life!  When a religion instead  leads man to separate himself from others, or to feel that has a truth that others don't, and that he shall forcibly share this "truth" with others, whether the others like it or not, that religion is not helping people find the God within, they are instead instilling a false sense of separateness and  ego.

What is worse, is that God today, and through the ages, has been used to justify all kinds of behaviors that no Buddha, Christ or Avatar would condone: Genocides, wars, crusades, inquisitions, and  campaigns of hatred towards others who don't follow their way are the horsemen of this apocolypse.  All this, in the name of these religions of men, and in the name of the Messiah, Prophet or God they purport to represent!  

Man, in his greed and thirst for wealth and power and not for the presence of the "lord within," has co-opted the teachings of the enlightened ones.  Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Mohamed, Moses, all pristine in their connection with the One God, have all been and are still being used to quench man's thirst for self gratification.  Those with ulterior motives have twisted the original teachings and spiritual principles so badly that they don't make logical sense today! People are then forced to believe the absurd and the magical which require huge leaps of faith, so much so that the adherents to these doctrines become easy to radicalize. The modern versions of these religions are perverse shells of the true spirit of their founders,  and are but a dim indication that at some time, the light of God has reached out and touched mankind, but that man has drastically failed to meet the challenge and responsibilities of that contact.  By its very nature,  religion is evolving to a state where it is simply not of God!  Perhaps, by its very nature, it never can or will be!  

                                                        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*I am using the word "man" to indicate "mankind."  It is coincidental that the majority of the problems inherent in religion have been created by men and not women.  We are in a patriarchal religious cycle.  This may account for all of the violence and wars perpetrated because of, or in the name of religion.    

Next time:  Spirituality.  What is it?  How does it differ from religion?  What is the spiritual secret that can change your world?



Namaste, Mitakuye y'oasin, Peace,
Freddie Blue Fox
Interfaith Minister