Buddha At The Gas Pump

Jan was born 1960 and grew up in Bury, England. His parents were Danish. In 1967 the family moved to Denmark. Jan’s dad is an engineer and there was no spiritual influence from either parent. Yet Jan showed strong spiritual yearnings since an early age. Jan trained as an artist under the Danish painter Niels Hermann Wamberg; he also studied art restoration at the Royal Academy in order to learn the traditional craft. Jan also studied at the university and acquired an MA in history of modern culture. Today Jan works as a full-time professional artist and also has a software company developing photo retouching plug-ins for Photoshop. After doing Transcendental Meditation and the TM Siddhi Programme for six years, Jan felt the need for a guru and found Gururaj Ananda Yogi whom he stayed with for three years. Then Jan’s Kundalini was so active, that he did not need any other guidance than what the Shakti gave, so he gave up on gurus and meditated by observing the inner Shakti’s workings. Following this, Jan bega

One fine morning when I was in my mid-twenties, I woke up and the life I had previously led was over. I was consumed by a longing to be truly intimate with God, the one truth. This great longing grew daily, and it first manifested as being aware of the unseen in nature. Nature invited me into itself, and I found myself taking very long solo trips deep into the wilderness of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. This naturally led to a resonance with Native traditions, and before long I met my first teacher, a highly-respected Lakota medicine man who was very committed to upholding the Old Way. With this association, the intimate awareness of spirit deepened. As the longing for union intensified, the heart opened. This journey took on the qualities of para-bhakti, or intense devotion to the divine. Spontaneous giving of myself to spirit through prayer and tears was a natural response, and I felt myself being consumed. I met my master, Mata Amritanandamayi, in 1993. There was an immediate recognition that I needed to

I was born in the summer of 1942 in Camden, New Jersey to a father and mother about whom I know little other than what I have been told by others. When I was three or four, my mother and father split up and I was taken to be raised by my grandmother, a Holy Ghost Pentecostal Christian, and grandfather. When I was about ten or so, my grandfather died and my mother came back to town for his funeral. Soon thereafter, she was remarried to a sweet man, a tool and die maker, who gave me much and provided me with the basis for a philosophical outlook on life. They took me back from my grandmother, and, within a year or so, we — my mother and step-father — moved to Southern California. In 1958, when I was sixteen and in tenth grade, I stole my parents' checkbook, booked a flight to New York with a bad check, and moved into the Plaza Hotel, where I assembled a wardrobe and other artifacts, went to a play on Broadway (J.B.), drank, ate high and finally bought a $2,500 Patek Phillipe watch in the hotel jewelry store —

Family, friends, clients, colleagues and the world, do not have to wonder if Martha loves them….the answer is lived out in Martha’s actions and words. It’s not just the welcoming hug that envelopes your heart. Or the endearing way that she recognizes your beauty from the inside out. Martha’s love is also demonstrated in the straightforward honest way that she will call out self-defeating and false patterns for those who are interested in discovering their higher, and usually much kinder, next best version of themselves. Martha has the courage and skill of the lion tamer, who steps into the ring with confidence and grace. The ring that she often serves within is called facilitator, teacher, mentor, and friend. Martha joins with whomever she is working with individually or collectively as a group, to meet the unquestioned and stressful thoughts running the show. These false thoughts are typically expressed in stressful, negative, unproductive and sometimes very destructive ways within individuals, relationship

In the eighties, Julie Chimes-Laws worked in the media-based London’s Fleet Street. Company director, businesswoman and part-time racing driver her world underwent a dramatic change when an out-of-the-blue attempt on her life left her for dead. Viciously stabbed repeatedly within millimeters of her life her subsequent survival was considered to be something of a miracle. She wrote a profound yet humorous autobiographical account of her experiences, both in and out of body, A Stranger in Paradise, which was first published by Bloomsbury, London. The book was distributed on three continents and translated into five further languages creating a wave of positive media attention around the world. The extraordinary story was also the subject of a critically acclaimed BBC documentary, which she scripted and co-directed. Leaving the world of convention behind Julie has spent the last seventeen years living abroad. She has traveled extensively during this time whilst encountering the weird and wonderful. Stepdaughter

My birth took place January 7, 1949 on a small rural farm in East Tennessee, but somehow I did not forget my spiritual nature in the process of arriving here as a human. As a child, I remembered myself being free from the limitations of form and language, and I made two vows: first, never to forget who I am and the freedom I had prior to birth, and second, to find my way home no matter what it took. In my youth, I experienced a nagging urge to know the Truth of my existence. By the age of 19, this urge developed into a fierce determination to find that Truth at the risk of everything – career, relationships, physical and even mental health. My quest took me into many investigations including teaching the TM program of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi for 12 years. Every investigation left me dissatisfied until the late 1980s when Sathya Sai Baba began to appear in my dreams and meditations. I finally journeyed to Baba’s ashram in July 1990. The moment I saw him step off the veranda, I recalled my childhood vow to find

A clinical psychologist in private practice in Binghamton, NY, Michael studied and practiced Zen Buddhism for many years beginning in 1978. An initial experience of non-dual awareness emerged in 1982. Like virtually all first glimpses, this experiential awareness was fleeting. Still, the appetite for an enduring awakening had taken hold, as well as an absolute faith in the spiritual truths reported by Shakyamuni Buddha and the Zen teachers of ancient China and Japan. Years of frequent silent meditation retreats allowed this awareness to deepen and expand, yet there was still searching for true liberation. The continuous experiential Knowing that this is it emerged many years later after an apparent surrendering of the desire to become anything at all. With this much deeper and more pervasive understanding, there arose simultaneously a reconnection with his childhood roots in the Christian tradition. Michael now shares this knowledge of Self with a growing number of students. The teaching is consistent with th

Richard Sylvester is a humanistic psychologist, therapist and lecturer. For thirty years he engaged with a variety of spiritual practices while also training in psychotherapeutic techniques and teaching counselling. In 2002 Richard met Tony Parsons and as he writes in his first book "That was the end of what I thought had been my life." Richard writes “The most common misconception about liberation is that it is something an individual can gain. But actually it is a loss - the loss of the sense that there ever was a separate person who could choose to do something to bring about liberation. In liberation it is seen that thoughts, feelings and perceptions simply arise in Oneness - there is no one to whom they belong. “The sense of separation makes us take the everyday for granted and clamour for something more exciting to happen. But when separation is seen through, the ordinary becomes transformed into this wonderful play of consciousness, and it is seen that this is already it and this is already sufficien

Saniel Bonder is the author of Healing the Spirit/Matter Split and the founder of the Waking Down in Mutuality work. He has been a pioneer in the widespread embodiment and mutual, evolutionary exploration of awakened consciousness for over a decade. Linda Groves-Bonder is Saniel’s full partner in their transmission and teachings and a Senior Teacher of Waking Down in Mutuality. Together they are now co-authoring a forthcoming book, The Human Sun, and founding Human Sun University. Saniel and Linda's sites: sanielandlinda.com TheHumanSunSeries.com heartgazing.com Recorded 4/23/2011. Part 1 of this interview, recorded a week earlier. Video below.  Audio also available as a Podcast. YouTube Video Chapters: 00:00:00 - Discussion on the Continuation of Ego After Enlightenment 00:04:17 - The Awakening Process and the Extinction of Ego 00:08:20 - Transmission and Integration after Realization 00:12:03 - The Spirit-Matter Split 00:15:54 - Evolution of Ancient Traditions 00:19:21 - Ho

Saniel Bonder is the author of Healing the Spirit/Matter Split and the founder of the Waking Down in Mutuality work. He has been a pioneer in the widespread embodiment and mutual, evolutionary exploration of awakened consciousness for over a decade. Linda Groves-Bonder is Saniel’s full partner in their transmission and teachings and a Senior Teacher of Waking Down in Mutuality. Together they are now co-authoring a forthcoming book, The Human Sun, and founding Human Sun University. Saniel and Linda's sites: sanielandlinda.com TheHumanSunSeries.com heartgazing.com Recorded 4/17/2011. Part 2 of this interview, recorded a week later. Audio and video below.  Audio also available as a Podcast. YouTube Video Chapters: 00:00:00 - Introduction of Saniel and Linda Groves Bonder 00:03:17 - A Quest for Spiritual Connection 00:07:17 - A Shift in Perspective 00:10:37 - The Door to a Whole Other World 00:14:08 - Discovering the Teachings of a Spiritual Teacher 00:18:20 - Awakening and the A

Chris Hebard is the founder and creator of StillnessSpeaks.com, a premier resource on the internet aggregating the text, audio, and film of authentic contemporary and traditional teachers of Non-Duality and Self Inquiry from within all spiritual disciplines. The website reflects his enthusiasm and love for its material. The approach of StillnessSpeaks is integral; it does not promote any particular path or methodology. Chris attempts to honor the many paths available to all Truth Lovers; in doing so, he hopes to demonstrate that there is only one destination. Chris writes, speaks and films on Self Inquiry, Advaita, and non-duality extensively throughout the United States and Europe. He can be reached at oncechris@stillnessspeaks.com. As you will hear in this interview, Chris’s own journey involved becoming a hard-driving, successful businessman, who dismissed spirituality as impractical nonsense, only to suffer a series of devastating losses which brought him literally to his knees, dismantled his ego, and

From http://thomasgates.com/bio: Thomas was born in Texas in 1950 and grew up in the rural countryside not far from Dallas. He spent much of his childhood playing in the woods, observing the stars, the sky, the trees, the animals, the changing of seasons, and the effortless flow of nature’s way. As a result, he quietly sensed that there must be one simple and powerful essence sustaining all this incredibly diverse creation. Meditation Then, shortly before his twenty-second birthday, Thomas learned a unique and simple meditation technique that quickly confirmed his sense of what had been occurring in nature all along. It enlivened the experience of that deep, underlying silence–the silence that permeates and sustains the whole field of existence. Emergency This peace and happiness lasted about one week when Thomas suddenly found himself being rushed to the hospital with a severe case of appendicitis. The doctors told him not to worry. It would just be a routine surgical procedure and that he would be home in

Paul has been involved with the recovery community since 1988, and has been leading workshops and holding talks for 18 years. He has been assisting those with addiction problems for many years. The 12 step program has some very potent ‘pointers’, which have assisted a few to go beyond the 12 steps. Paul is unwavering in his teaching. His very direct, uncompromising pointing doesn't provide a refuge for entrenched conditioning and the sense of separateness, no matter how convincing that experience may be. "Whatever arises in my mind, I don't let it vouch for me."  "Any form of looking that focuses on an object misses the opportunity to directly be the seeing, and not be identified with the object." Paul's site: ZenBitchSlap. Transcript of this interview. Interview recorded 3/26/2011 Audio and video below. Audio also available as a Podcast. YouTube Video Chapters: 00:00:00 - Introduction to Paul Hedderman 00:03:18 - The Essence of Awakening 00:05:13 - The cat knocking over the light and the

Photo Credit: John Day Tim is a philosopher or ‘lover of wisdom’ who is pioneering a simple new way to experience a profound spiritual awakening, which fully embraces our everyday humanity. He has spent his life exploring the awakened state he often simply calls ‘The Mystery Experience’. Tim has articulated his own revolutionary ‘philosophy of lucid living’ designed to help people go beyond ideas and actually experience a ‘deep awake’ state, which replaces out-dated spiritual jargon with clear new concepts which are simple to understand. He has also developed a profoundly simple ‘Mystery of the Moment’ attention technique and a number of powerful ‘I to I’ practices, which quickly awaken practitioners to ‘The Mystery Experience’ and help them commune with others in oneness and ‘Big Love’. Tim has an honours degree in philosophy and is an internationally respected authority on world spirituality. He is the author of over thirty books that have established his reputation as a scholar and free-thinker. He is

Nick Gancitano has spent most of his adult life delving into the mysteries of the ancient spiritual teachings and has undergone a conscious transformation that has made him a specialist in the field. Nick studied under some of its most respected sages and has traveled extensively around the world to deliver this teaching. In addition, Nick himself has been recognized for his simplification of the often complicated spiritual system of advaita (wisdom through direct insight). After returning from his journey, Nick became committed to disseminating these teachings among friends and associates who became students and soon erected The Self-Inquiry Center for Conscious Living, where Nick now provides his lighthearted works to a growing population of devoted spiritual seekers. Aside from being the spiritual director at The Self-Inquiry Center, Nick was once an All-American athlete, corporate regional vice-president, and U.S. National Champion under the legendary football coach Joe Paterno. He later became one of t

Mandi Solk lives in the picturesque town of Hebden Bridge in England, UK. She founded Nonduality-North six years ago in order to attract Nonduality Teachers to the North of England. Mandi is herself a Nonduality Teacher and has now handed Nonduality-North on so that she can concentrate on her own meetings and YouTube videos. She has written a book: 'The Joy of No Self', endorsed by Scott Kiloby and Jeff Foster, and is presently working on another. Website:  nonduality-mandi.blogspot.com. Interview recorded 2/27/2011 2nd BatGap interview with Mandi Transcript of this interview. Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast. Due to technical problems, this video only contains still shots of Mandi, while Rick's video is normal. YouTube Video Chapters: 00:00:00 - Introduction to Mandi Solk 00:02:49 - A Seeker's Journey 00:06:17 - Letting go in the face of death 00:09:20 - The Awakening and Change of Perspective 00:12:00 - Encased in a Wall of Terror 00:15:01 - Profound Silenc

Philip Goldberg has been studying India’s spiritual traditions for more than forty years, as both a practitioner and an author.  After teaching Transcendental Meditation in early 1970s, he became a professional writer and has written or co-written 19 books, including The Intuitive Edge, Making Peace With God, Roadsigns on the Spiritual Path and his most recent work, American Veda: From Emerson and the Beatles to Yoga and Meditation, How Indian Spirituality Changed the West. The book was greeted by enthusiastic reviews from journalists and experts in the field. He is also published novelist and a member of both the Writers Guild of America and the Authors Guild.  His blogs appear regularly on the Huffington Post, Elephant Journal and other sites. An ordained interfaith minister and spiritual counselor as well, Phil was the founding director of the Forge Guild of Spiritual Leaders and recently created Spiritual Wellness and Healing Associates (SWAHA) in Los Angeles, with his wife, acupuncturist Lori Deutsch. 

Siddhananda's journey began in her teenage years. It wasn't until she was around 30 that her journey and seeking of truth began in earnest. At this time, Spiritual practices were picked up on her own, and Kundalini spontaneously awakened due to a sincere prayer of wanting to be of service to humanity. She was not prepared or had any idea what this awakening would open or where it would lead. With this awakening, many phenomena, shifting states of consciousness and radical mood changes manifested which left her extremely ungrounded and shaken. After a long period of struggling to understand what was taking place and being unsuccessful at coming to any balance or peace within, Siddhananda found her Guru, GuruSwamiG. Siddhananda has been with her Guru for 10 years. Increasing stability, deepening states as well as balance slowly filtered in during this time  due to  her Guru's  grace and guidance. Recently, a profound shift took place in which all sense of separation and individuality suddenly dropped. Spont

Genpo is a long-time Zen practitioner, now Master, who has developed the “Big Mind Process”, through which "Novice participants without any formal meditation training can have profound spiritual experiences with persistent enhancement of well-being..." Interview recorded 1/10/2011. Audio and video below. Audio also available as a Podcast. YouTube Video Chapters: 00:00:00 - Introduction to Zen Master Genpo Mersal 00:02:56 - The Role of Zen and Buddhism in My Life 00:05:18 - The Journey of Consciousness 00:07:01 - Throwing Our Backs Into Awakening the Planet 00:08:47 - Becoming a Zen Master 00:10:47 - The Growth and Maturity of Zen Masters and Roshis 00:12:53 - Total Freedom and Empowering Others 00:15:13 - Enlightenment and Liberation 00:17:34 - The Journey up the Mountain 00:20:03 - Falling from Enlightenment: Returning to the Marketplace 00:22:26 - Indulging in Shadows 00:24:39 - Reintegrating the Shadows around the Marketplace 00:27:07 - The Importance of Working

Burt Harding, founder of the Awareness Foundation in Vancouver, offers a radical invitation to recognize the truth of our being as already whole and fulfilled. He reminds us of the love we really are beyond the personal stories we carry. In this way, we come to recognize what we have always known but did not live from – the beauty and wonder of our own true essence. Burt conducts sessions and workshops in Supersentience, a system devised to help heal deep wounds and promote a shift in the perception of who we really are. He has conducted studies in higher consciousness for thirty years and had his own television series on the mind/body connection. Burt's site Interview conducted 1/9/2011. Audio and video below. Audio also available as a Podcast. YouTube Video Chapters: 00:00:00 - Introduction to Burt Harding 00:02:36 - The Life-Changing Book 00:04:40 - Finding my Place and Holding Classes 00:06:53 - Discovering Super Sentience 00:08:58 - Integration of Spiritual Teachings 00:11:09