There were many laughs at Tony Parsons’ talk today in Hampstead, London. What a ball. It was nice to go with a few people connected with this blog too. Unlike the satsang I went to a few weeks ago, this meeting was alive and vital. No chance of boredom. The room was packed, probably about 130+ people. I said a quick hello to him at the end and told him I would love to talk with him on the phone but daytimes were difficult. He said to email him my number and he would call me one evening. Now, who else would offer that?
It’s hard to put the meeting into words – you kinda had to be there. Words are not there to describe it and if I were to describe it, it would be a second-hand attempt and probably something would end up being added. Nonetheless I’ll give it a go and I jotted down a few snippets for you:
“There’s no such thing as free will and choice – it’s part of the dream.”
“We’re discussing the possibility of the end of individuality.”
“The way it reveals itself is by not being known.”
“There is no knowing of liberation although there can be expression of it but this comes out of nothing.” (paraphrased)
(This one was in response to a question I had about there being a sense of the me being no more, and that life becomes different and therefore, my question was is this a kind of knowing.)
“If cause and effect were real there would be such a thing as real time.”
Ref I AM – “There’s no “I” to be “I Am” ” I Amness is just another game.”
And lastly, “Awareness is that which feeds separation.”
Now, on the last quote – this evening as I checked my email there was one about “one of the pioneers of non-duality” who is giving a talk. The thought came that I should go just to see what this person has to say, but then I watched one of this person’s videos and decided against it. In one video, he was propounding awareness as one’s true nature, and then encouraged the listener to “cease allowing tension to settle on thoughts, ie pause thinking.” So, if you pause thinking that’s the direct method to enlightenment? If you get to awareness you’ve, err, what exactly? Awoken? Become realized? It’s a nice idea, but it doesn’t work quite that way – not from where I’m standing anyway.
The message in this video, to me, was not vital nor alive. It was simply an idea. It was a message of there being a process by which you could get to awareness and thus get there – whatever the ‘there’ was that this person thinks is ‘there. Because that’s what it is – a method to get somewhere. Hmmm!
As Tony Parsons said today (and what a cheeky chappie ‘he’ is!): “Eckhart Tolle, Gangaji, and now Andrew Cohen are on a path of saving the world.” That was so funny.
Only up to a few weeks ago I had been watching Gangaji and had thought she had something great to offer. And then I got it. These people all have some method to offer, and they sit there as if they have achieved something that all those who come and listen to them, can also now achieve, thanks to their teaching and ‘transmission.’ (lol). The whole teacher-student thing jars badly with me. It creates a separate-type scenario whilst trying to teach Oneness – how contradictory can you get.
But where the teacher sets themself up as a teacher, it’s like they set themselves up as God or a special spokesperson for Oneness, and it all becomes very much based upon them as an individual. The student becomes dependent on them, and compares themself to the teacher. And so the game of becoming better continues, only now it seems elevated since the word ‘spiritual’ has been added. Yet it has become even more of a subtly and inadvertently deceptive process and one that can never stop, like a runaway train.
Same with this guy in the email today. All these people who set themselves up as teachers are simply advocating ideas that come from separation. If they came from Oneness, the teaching would be ‘I can teach you nothing because you are already That’ but instead what they say is ‘close your eyes, remove thought, and bingo, you’ve realized yourself’ Or teachings of awareness – and as Tony Parsons says, awareness needs someone separate to be aware of something separate. So where’s the Oneness in that?
Well, obviously, even separation is Oneness by the very nature of Oneness, but it’s the teachings that these teachers put out that are in question and keep the seeker constantly seeking. What’s even more funny as well as subtly deceptive is that some teachers will speak of ‘my teacher’ (eg Papaji or others) – but if they are realized then why would they need to keep referring to ‘their teacher’? Why would they hold on to that story? How come they even use the word ‘my’ in the phrase ‘my teacher’? (Now, I had several really good teachers but they were called school teachers…lol)
As you can see, I’m not in favour of following a spiritual teacher. You don’t need a teacher, for that would be like saying there is something wrong with you, or something needs fixing. You don’t need a teacher, and there isn’t something wrong with you, and you don’t need fixing. You just need to be prepared to let the me-story collapse. To just be prepared for that. You don’t have to do it, and you can’t do it. But just be prepared. Mind you, even that sounds like a process in some way, but I guess what I’m saying is stop searching for it, cos it’s here already and everywhere.
Thanks for reading.
Comments, as always, welcome.
Love,
Reena
PS. Next Tony Parsons talk in London is on 3rd November. I think I will be going, and if you wish to hook up before-hand then let me know. We’ll probably meet in the Starbucks across the road from Hampstead tube station.
PPS In case you’re thinking this is the opposite of what I’m saying – ie going to see Tony is like going to see a teacher – wrong! Going to see Tony is like going to the Comedy Club 🙂
Reena Gagneja
Buy her eBook The Alkaline Diet Guidebook and improve your health and wellbeing.
Latest posts by Reena Gagneja (see all)
- Dr Eben Alexander – Life after death is real and consciousness survives death of the body - March 11, 2016
- Bashar – profound speech (video): you, now and eternity - January 25, 2016
- The silver lining of problems and pain - August 10, 2015
The whole teacher-student thing jars badly with me. It creates a separate-type scenario whilst trying to teach Oneness – how contradictory can you get.
Dear Reena ,
The Great Way is not difficult
for those who have no preferences.
When love and hate are both absent
everything becomes clear and undisguised.
Make the smallest distinction, however,
and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart.
If you wish to see the truth
then hold no opinions for or against anything.
To set up what you like against what you dislike
is the disease of the mind. ( First Para of THE GREAT WAY by third Zen Patrirarch)
IF ALL THE SPIRIT-UAL REALISED PEOPLE HAVE ALWAYS SAID ,ARE SAYING, AND WILL SAY .THERE IS ONLY ONE . there is only one subject – GOD . rest are infinite objects in the subject .
Then where lies the question of right or wrong, JARRRING OR BLISS . All is perfection personified eternally on all fronts. Some can experience the perfection ,most cant and keep working to reach that frequency to experience it in thier own ways, which they will make it finally, some way or the other, whenever as the DISEASE keeps reducing. EVOLUTION gurrantees it . ( my personal opinion only )
Also from the historic & traditional point of view from the way of YOG ( not YOGA )
the defination of a GURU is a lot diffrent as we understand in todays context and more so outside INDIA . It stands totally changed with Guides, Teachers & Masters from the concept of what GURU has meant in India since times immemorial . (not that India has a monoply over this subject, but from histrocial point of view as on date )
Guru is not a person – not a individual being . It is a flow of knowledge which has been flowing unbroken ( of course through persons only, passed on from teacher to another in succesion ) from 100s of years . Who ever stays with the flow and becomes one with the flow will become that and that is how it has been working in INDIA from so many years irrespective of TIME . And not many gurus are in Public domain really . Though i can count many many guides ,Teachers & Masters in India today in the public domain so what to talk of outside India . Without questioning or casting any doubts overs any ones abilities on any front for all the guides Teachers and Masters all across all i am trying to put on record is the ” Meaning of GURU ” , as it stands in the science of YOG . Please read this in that context only . Nothing more . How many guides Teachers or Masters can truly show that flow . Afterall yog was given by sun god to Ishvakoo , who gave it his son ………..and the tradition has been going on unbroken….to date . It is not necessary that all flows are known and publicised for commercial or name objectives .Who ever wishes to treat this as humbug is most welcome , too . To each thier own .
More over, any guide, teacher or Master is speaking in “HIS NAME ” is in whatever way, so called right or wrong is speaking on the SUBJECT only . They may not have complete knowledge on the subject but they have some, hence they are wanting to dispense it to who ever who does not even have that ,whatever thier motive ( that is why someone gets people to come to them ). BUT AT THE END OF THE DAY THEY ARE TALKING ON THE SUBJECT ONLY .
WHO IS ANYONE TO JUDGE, MAKE OPINIONS , PASS COMMENTS ON THE WORKING ON ANY ONE ONE ? But what to do . THE DISEASE IS EPIDEMIC ALL ACROSS , so it has continued , is continuing , will continue till Eternity . you need to pass time etc etc . most natural………….. !! The success rate in this science has been pathetically very low and will always stay so …………….!! it has to be or else how will EARTH survive with all its Dance & drama if the success rate gets very high . (on the lighter side )
THAT IS WHAT THIS GAME IS ALL ABOUT . TO GET RID OF THE DISEASE AND BE ” LIBERATED FROM THIER ILLUSIONS ” AND BE CURED FINALLY .
WITH MALICE TOWARDS NONE . LOVE TO ALL .
Dear Rajesh, I agree with you whole heartedly, the whole teacher-student thing is contradictory to permanent liberation, freedom and bliss. Along my path I journeyed and explored many teachers but none was able to impart to me what I was looking for (despite my belief that my search was over which it was not) – which was the permanency of the spiritual freedom and non-attachment I had been given a direct taste of in 2007.
No teacher helped with regard to the relative self / life (karma), they all speak of the Absolute, as have I too since 2007, and this is the easy part.
The hard part is the discharging of the patterns and circumstances which arise in our relative lives – it is not enough to simply believe that all is one and that we are oneness, ‘all there is this’ and so on and so forth. It is still the ego doing all of this spiritual stuff.
But very few on this earth can achieve Moksha (liberation) by themselves, and a guide or teacher is needed, but the sorts of spiritual teachers we see thesedays is not enough. That is just food for the ego. What is needed is a human who is fully self-realized or who can impart permanent self-realization on another. These are very few and far between. There must also be a sincere and deep desire for moksha, not simply a desire for ‘my teacher.’ This is where I am right now. The journey continues, and deepening occurs.
Yeah, liked that posting. Thanks Reena. Wish that Tony Psrsons came to NYC.
There are a lot of “Guru-Shops” out there!
Anything that we do to try and achieve awareness, oneness
or any state is simply do-ing and it’s like riding on a merry-go-round.
One never quite reaches where they think they want to be.
Stop do-ing and let the be-ing shine forth.
As far as teachers, all of life can be a teacher
if one is so inclined to seek one out,
or one can simply live, love and enjoy life.
Blessings
Is it possible that life, as we think we experience it, is simply an evaluation of a life that we have previously lived? this would explain ”Deja Vu”
Certainainly, when we leave our bodies, and look back, this world appears as no more than an illusion, a dream, and even our own ”bodies” are viewed by us with complete indifference, being perceived as no more important than the rusty old cars we drive around in.
Thank you Reena for sharing your thoughts. So what you’re saying that all stories are true, but none of them are :-). Knowing that (and we all do) we can watch life with humor.
I think breathing is enough to do. All other things will happen ‘from itself’. Some people might call that love.
Rob, indeed. Stories are a compensation mechanism for something we think we lost but we didn’t. The re-discovery of what is plain to see – the All That Is – is hidden by identification with the story. Yes, it is ironically funny that many people don’t really have a sense of humour – there is a seriousness and deadening due to story, but really nothing really matters. Even breathing – just happens, we don’t have to remember to do it (good job or every time we get lost in thought which is pretty much constantly we’d die! :)). Life just happens. That doesn’t mean we give up and sit there for life to just happen. The difference is the claiming of the credit for who is doing all the stuff that happens ((ha, or not claiming if we don’t like the look of it!).