Discussion of this interview in the Batgap Community Facebook Group: / 2436179646607821
Chapters:
00:00:00 - Introduction to Buddha at the Gas Pump
00:05:25 - Discovering Meditation as a Child
00:10:08 - A Chance Encounter with Franklin Merrill Wolfe in the Sierras
00:15:14 - A Powerful Experience in the Mountains
00:20:14 - Taking the Bodhisattva Vow
00:25:49 - Different Experiences of Awakening
00:30:39 - Surrendering and Shift in Perception
00:35:00 - The Awakening and Infinite Growth
00:38:50 - Understanding the Bhagavad Gita and Knowledge
00:42:34 - The Compatibility of Absolute and Relative Realities
00:46:01 - Cultural Conditioning and Beliefs
00:49:44 - Shared Understanding of Religious Figures
00:53:17 - Thoughts and Awareness
00:56:57 - The Mechanism of Witnessing
01:00:39 - Perception of Subtle Phenomena
01:04:22 - The Unusual Marriage Story
01:07:48 - Unexpected Intuitions
01:11:22 - The Power of Higher State of Consciousness
01:14:53 - Healing Stories
01:18:17 - The Journey to Amma's Ashram
01:22:14 - The Precise Vedic Ceremony, The Mysterious Pundit, and a Spitting Image
01:26:22 - Personal EKG Machine and Atrial Fibrillation
01:30:15 - Overwhelming Experience with Arjuna
01:34:12 - Beings of Light and Future Possibilities
01:38:19 - The Immortality of the Soul
01:42:20 - Exploring the Concept of a Free Agent
01:46:04 - Buddha's Enlightenment and Spiritual Consulting
01:49:44 - Awakening and Holding up the Stick
01:53:25 - The Power of the Collective Consciousness
01:57:15 - The Holiness of Sacred Places
02:00:36 - Farewell
When I was 11 years old our school took a bus trip to the local library. While most of the children were off exploring the mysteries of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, for some reason I found myself in the row of books called Philosophy and Religion.
I recall pulling a hardbound book off the shelf and directly opening it to an old black and white photograph of the Portola Palace in Lhasa, Tibet. At that moment, it was as if all my breath was sucked out of me and my mind went totally quiet. Somewhere in the depth of my being, I knew I was looking at a very familiar place, one that I may once have called home. I stood there for a very long time just staring at that photograph.
Then, like a starving young man having a meal laid before him, I hurriedly began to devour the book. When it was time to leave the library and head back to school, I took the book with me to the check-out counter. What followed was a pitched battle with my teacher and the librarian on one side, and one very determined boy on the other. In the end, I got to take the book home.
That book changed my life. At the time, I took the descriptions of a world rarely seen to be real mysticism. With great determination and passion, I began reading everything I could get my hands on about Tibet, its culture, and spiritual teachings. Thus, began a lifelong pursuit for spiritual insight and knowledge mystical experience.
In my youthful naivety, I also began what I deduced as a meditation practice from stories in the book. This practice was quite complex and involved sitting quietly in the lotus posture with my spine perfectly straight while emptying my mind of everything. After about four years of practicing my meditation, one day I was sitting quietly and deep into it, when the bottom dropped out. No mind, no thought-just a great expanse. When the experience ended, I felt the most amazing deep sense of happiness bliss. This bliss we might describe as “the peace which passeth understanding”.
The problem was my meditation practice was extremely difficult and required great effort and time to achieve the effortless state. I began to search for something easier. I tried several other practices and even religions until one day I received a phone call that was to be another turning point in my life.
My best friend had gone to college and suggested that I leave my job with the Forest Service and continue my education. I think he just wanted someone to share the rent with but it got me there.
When I arrived on campus to find Maharishi Mahesh Yogi teaching a course about meditation and training young men and woman like me how to teach Transcendental Meditation, a mantra-based meditation practice. I snuck into his lectures and listened attentively and knew this was the spiritual practice I had been seeking.
Website: michael-lovelightlaughter.org
Interview recorded January 27, 2018.
8 июл 2024
