Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950),
Advaita sage
“Of all the thoughts that
arise in the mind, the 'I'
thought is the first. It is
only after the rise of this
that the other thoughts
arise. It is after the
appearance of the first
personal pronoun that the
second and third personal
pronouns appear; without
the first personal pronoun
there will not be the
second and third.”
Robert Adams (1928-1997), Advaita
sage, knew Ramana Maharshi
• “Problems just mean that the
world isn’t turning the way you
want it to. But in truth, there are
no problems. Everything is
unfolding as it should.
Everything is right. You have to
forget about yourself and
expand your consciousness
until you become the whole
universe. The reality in back of
the universe is pure
awareness. It has no problems.
And you are that.”
Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897-1981),
student of Sri Siddharameshwar Maharaj,
and Advaita sage
"The seeker is he who is in search of
himself. Give up all questions except
one: ‘Who am I?’ After all, the only fact
you are sure of is that you are. The ‘I
am’ is certain. The ‘I am this’ is not.
Struggle to find out what you are in
reality. To know what you are, you must
first investigate and know what you are
not. Discover all that you are not -- body,
feelings, thoughts, time, space, this or
that -- nothing, concrete or abstract,
which you perceive can be you. The
very act of perceiving shows that you
are not what you perceive. The clearer
you understand that on the level of mind
you can be described in negative terms
only, the quicker will you come to the
end of your search and realise that you
are the limitless being.”
Wei Wu Wei (Terence Gray, 1895-1986),
Irish aristocrat, student of Ramana Maharshi
and of Ch’an Buddhism, and Advaita sage
“Why are you
unhappy?
Because 99.9 per
cent
Of everything you
think,
And of everything you
do,
Is for yourself And there isn't one.”
Jean Klein (1916-1998)
student of "Panditji" Rao, and Advaita sage
• The only obstacle [to realizing
freedom] is your belief that you are
an independent entity. You are
stuck in this belief. It belongs to a
personality invented by society,
education, experience, beliefs,
second-hand information and all
kinds of reading. You have
identified yourself with this
fictitious “I” and you live from this
point of view. You look at and
contact the surroundings from this
viewpoint. Because the personality
is an object like any other, you live
in object-object relationship.
Francis Lucille (1944- ), student of
Jean Klein, and Advaita sage
“Advaita is a sanskrit word that
literally means "not two". Synonyms
of Advaita are non-duality
(nonduality, non duality). Advaita is
not a philosophy or a religion. Nonduality is an experience in which
there is no separation between
subject and object; a "me" and the
rest of the universe; a "me" and
God. It is the experience of
consciousness, our true nature,
which reveals itself as absolute
happiness, love and beauty.
Consciousness is defined as that,
whatever that is, which is aware of
these very words right here, right
now.”
Rupert Spira (1960- )
Ceramicist and nonduality teacher
• Experience is all we have and
Consciousness is the primal and
most intimate fact of experience.
• Every experience that we ever have,
that we ever could have, that we ever
will have, is experienced by this
Consciousness.
• Meditation is simply to abide
knowingly as that. It is very easy. In
fact it is the easiest thing because we
already are that. It would be
impossible to be anything else.
• We just remain as we are, as we
always have been. And we allow the
mind, the body and world to be just
as they are.
Adyashanti (Stephen Gray, 1965- ) Zen
student of Arvis Joen Justi
• Truth is only discovered in
the moment.
• There is no truth that can
be carried over to the next
moment, the next day, the
next year.
• Memory never contains
truth, only what is past,
dead, gone.
Greg Goode (1953- )
Philosophical counselor and nonduality teacher
I experience no edges or borders or limits.
I cannot experience a difference between
"me" and "you." Your inquiry will confirm
this as "your" experience as well. It is not
personal, but global, unlimited. It is
already that. That is, inquiry will reveal the
lack of difference between a "you" and an
"other." Ironically, the desire to attain this
as a personal experience is as close to
separation as you'll ever get - and even
then it is not truly separate. The desire to
experience what another experiences is
based on unsubstantiated beliefs, all of
which lead to suffering. Wanting to
experience what we project "an
enlightened person" experiences is the
very feeling of suffering; it's not the path to
the ending of suffering.
Ramesh Balsekar (1917-2009), student of
Nisargadatta, and Advaita sage
A simple examination of one's
personal experience will reveal
that what usually disrupts the
peace and harmony in life is a
thought about something we
think we – or someone else –
should or shouldn't have done.
What mystics have said for
ages, is viewed from the
perspective of modern living:
that actions are 'happenings'
and not something done by
someone. This understanding is
what actually contributes to and
helps us in discovering the state
of equanimity and peace which
we most ardently seek.
Wayne Liquorman (1951- ), student of
Ramesh Balsekar, and Advaita sage
“You have probably spent your whole life
trying to control and modify the events
you see are connected to your guilt and
suffering. You try to be more patient,
more honest, more loving, more chaste,
more generous, more open, more
tolerant, more productive or more
effective. Despite your efforts it is likely
that some, perhaps many of the events
connected to your suffering and guilt
continue to occur.
Look deeply into the assumption that
you COULD have acted/reacted
differently in the moment that you did
what you did. Examine the claim by the
ego that you were the author, the
independent source of that event for
which there is now a feeling of guilt.”
Candice O’Denver
“Great Freedoms” teacher
“Rest as flawless
awareness, seeing all as
flawless awareness, until all
is flawless awareness”. In
other words, rest as the
awareness which is the
underlying essence of all
thoughts and emotions,
seeing the anger and lust as
forms of that awareness,
and eventually you will find
that the anger and lust are
nothing but pure awareness
in disguise.
Scott Kiloby (Advaita teacher)
• In seeing that awareness is
ever present, we realize that
awareness is our real identity.
This naturally and effortlessly
releases the tendency to
identify with the various
appearances that come and
go within awareness.
Appearances include thoughts,
emotions, sensations, states
and experiences.
Papaji (1910-1997), student of Ramana
Maharshi, and Advaita sage
Again and again we speak of this thing:
only get rid of your impediments, and
simply stay quiet, that’s all. With the
very burning desire, like somebody
who is burning, and will run to a well,
or a river, or a stream, only for water.
Someone who is burning must go to
the water; he will not go anywhere
else. Like this, if you have the burning
desire, “I want to be free, in this life,
before the end of this life”, this must
be a longing always in your mind, then
you will be successful. You will have
won the game and you will be very
happy always because freedom and
happiness and bliss go together.
Gangaji (Merle Antoinette ("Toni")
Roberson,1942- ), student of Papaji, and
Advaita sage
“I truly have nothing to
teach you. There have
been many teachers who
have taught exquisite and
useful codes of conduct,
methods of meditation,
ways of living and
manifesting in the world. I
am simply pointing to the
stillness that is alive in
the core of your being
and inviting you to turn
your attention to That, to
let That live your life.”
Ram Dass (Richard Alpert, 1931- ), student
of Neem Karoli Baba, and guru of selfless
service and compassion
Ram Dass changed the world in 1971
with the publication of his hugely
influential “Be Here Now” - a book that
quickly brought spiritual practice and
meditation to millions of Westerners.
Not only did its stunning information
and design impel readers right into a
realization of the essential present, it
introduced Eastern spiritual practice to
the West in a totally accessible
way. The book still stands as the
highly readable centerpiece of
Western articulation of Eastern
philosophy, and how to live joyously a
hundred per cent of the time in the
present, luminous or mundane. It is
still part of the timeless present. Being
here now is still being here now.
Swami Muktananda (1908-1982),
disciple of Nityananda, and controversial guru of
siddha yoga
“In this world of desires, a person
becomes his own enemy and begins to
torture himself. He himself becomes a
sinner and then groans. He himself
serves the poison of ignorance to himself
and thus commits suicide. While he is
hostile to himself, he blames others. Why
do you commit suicide for lack of
knowledge? Give up your illusions and
see yourself as you really are. Uplift
yourself by means of knowledge. Serve
the nectar of wisdom to yourself. Achieve
greatness. The soul dwells as the
perceiving Consciousness in every
being. Reflect on the inner Truth. Explore
your own depths. Direct your seeking
within. Revel in your own being.”
Satchidananda (1914-2002), founder of
Integral Yoga and of Satchidananda Ashram
“There is only one cause for all
mental problems, worries and
anxieties: selfishness. Restlessness
of mind is caused by
disappointments. Only selfishness
can cause unhappiness. To
maintain your tranquility you must
keep your mind away from duality—
pleasure, pain; profit, loss; praise,
blame. If you can keep your mind
away from duality, you can still have
ideas and perform actions, but they
won't affect you. When you
renounce your attachment, there is
nothing to shake you. It is the
feeling of possession, of clinging,
that disturbs the mind.”
Leslie Temple-Thurston (1950?-), awakened
through TM, and Advaita sage and founder
of Corelight
“Using our capacity to be in the
witness, we must use vigilance to
watch ourselves throughout the
day. We must observe
dispassionately what sort of state
we are in all the time. The criteria
we would be watching for are
tiredness or tension in the body; a
slumping posture; irritability;
exhaustion; tunnel vision on a
mental, emotional, or physical
level; or feelings of overwhelm,
depression and boredom.”
Catherine Ingram (1950?- ),
Advaita teacher
“Love gets twisted
sometimes. And it shows
up in all kinds of sad and
tragic ways when it has
been perverted,
suppressed, and denied.
Though love is everyone's
essence, not everyone is
aware of that at all times.
Stay with your own knowing
of love. It transforms your
vision of the horrors.”
Tenzin Gyatso (1935- ),14 th Dalai Lama of
Tibetan Buddhism
• “I believe that the
purpose of life is to be
happy. From the
moment of birth,
every human being
wants happiness and
does not want
suffering. Neither
social conditioning
nor education nor
ideology affect this.
From the very core of
our being, we simply
desire contentment.”
Sharon Salzberg (1952- ), Buddhist
meditation teacher and cofounder of Insight
Meditation Society
“It is hard to look at our own
problems, negativities, hatreds,
fears, and to admit they are
there. We tend to cut off these
parts of ourselves, to push them
away. Or we succumb to them
at times. But there is a way of
learning how to see these things
in ourselves without taking them
so to heart, so to speak. We can
learn to say, "This is a habit of
the mind or this is a conditioning
of the mind and it doesn’t feel
good."
Joseph Goldstein (1944- ), Buddhist
meditation teacher and cofounder of Insight
Meditation Society
“I don't think there's
ever an escape from
the world as long as
we are alive. The
goal is freedom from
attachment. It's
being free from the
thirst of desire. It's
not nonexistence.”
Jack Kornfield (1945- ), Buddhist meditation
teacher, cofounder of Insight Meditation Society,
and founder of Spirit Rock Meditation Center
“For almost everyone who
practices, cycles of
awakening and openness are
followed by periods of fear
and contraction. Times of
profound peace and
newfound love are often
overtaken by periods of loss,
by closing up, fear, or the
discovery of betrayal, only to
be followed again by
equanimity or joy.”
Jon Kabat-Zinn (1944- ), mindfulness meditation
teacher and founder of the Center for Mindfulness
in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at University
of Massachusetts Medical School
“The two fundamental things
that most people get out of
the Mindfulness Based Stress
Reduction program,
independent of symptom
reduction, are these. First, the
breath is an ally and can be
used to calm down and see
more clearly. The other,
related discovery, is that you
are not the content of your
thoughts. You don't have to
believe them or react to them.
That's incredibly liberating.”
Master Charles Cannon (1945- )
Student of Muktananda, Founder of
Synchronicity Foundation
Faber, VA
• "Life is Divine...You
are alive.
You are Divine...All
and everything is
Divine.
Honor the divinity
of Life".
Next…
• …some autobiography…
Poplar Grove Schoolhouse (1904)
Plum City, WI (my dad is in front row, 6th
from left)
Parents and three oldest of nine
children in 1933, at house where I
was born in 1930
In 2003, after remodeling and
under different ownership, the
house looked like this
Another 2003 view of my birthplace
One of two other things Pierce County,
WI is noted for: The birthplace of Laura
Ingalls Wilder (1867-1957)
“Little house in the big
woods”, reconstructed
on original site near
Pepin WI.
The second other thing is:
• In 1984, the Ellsworth Cooperative
Creamery was proclaimed the "Cheese
Curd Capital of Wisconsin“
• Our Mantra:
−Cheese Curds in Every Home
−Cheese Curds in Every Store
−Cheese Curds in Every Restaurant
−Cheese Curds in Every Life Style
Namaste΄
“ I as Awareness/Presence salute
You as Awareness/Presence”