What the teachers say

Advaita and contemporary teachers describe recognition as seeing through an identification with body, mind or role, after which what was always aware is noticed. They agree that nothing new is acquired. They differ on whether this can be called an experience.

“You don't become aware, for you are awareness.”

Rests on teachings of Ramana Maharshi, Annamalai Swami, Nisargadatta Maharaj, Swami Dayananda, Eckhart Tolle, Rupert Spira, Jean Klein, Gangaji, Mooji, Isaac Shapiro.

Advaita teachers speak of the Self as awareness, devotional teachers of the Divine within, Buddhist teachers in the catalog of no fixed self and of interbeing. The Dalai Lama explicitly sets the Buddhist teaching apart from a permanent atman, so we show these views side by side and do not merge them.

“There is the experience but no experiencer.”

Rests on teachings of Ramana Maharshi, Mooji, Sri Ramakrishna, Amma, Ayya Khema, Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh, J. Krishnamurti, Byron Katie, U. G. Krishnamurti.

Self-inquiry, surrender, devotion, hearing a teaching, staying with “I am”, listening to the body, calm and insight, and questioning a thought are all described as doors. Ramakrishna and Vivekananda say knowledge and love meet, Ramana gives inquiry and surrender as two routes, and Adyashanti calls teachings strategies that suit different people.

“There are innumerable opinions and innumerable paths leading to God.”

Rests on teachings of Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta Maharaj, Sri Atmananda, Papaji, Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda, Mother Meera, Neem Karoli Baba, Eckhart Tolle, Rupert Spira, Gangaji, Ganga Mira, Billy Doyle, J. Krishnamurti, Byron Katie, Adyashanti, Ayya Khema.

Ramana starts from the wish for happiness everyone shares; Tolle, Spira and Lucille speak of the end of a search, of peace and of a kinder relation to one’s own person; Byron Katie and the Plum Village trainings speak of suffering loosening when believed thoughts and the illusion of a separate self are seen. These are the teachers’ reasons; we promise no outcome.

“enables you to have a compassionate attitude toward everything that makes up the 'surface I'”

Rests on teachings of Ramana Maharshi, Eckhart Tolle, Rupert Spira, Francis Lucille, Isaac Shapiro, Byron Katie, Thich Nhat Hanh, Dalai Lama, Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda, The Mother.

Ramana distinguishes a mind that subsides and rises again from one that has resolved, and the Vivekachudamani (attributed to Shankara) speaks of the impression of being the doer that remains. Tolle, Lucille, Adyashanti, Spira and Ayya Khema describe habits that keep their momentum. Several say there is no fixed order or formula, so this describes a common pattern, not a stage model.

“However, there are no rules or formulas.”

Rests on teachings of Ramana Maharshi, Adi Shankara, Sri Atmananda, Annamalai Swami, Nisargadatta Maharaj, Eckhart Tolle, Francis Lucille, Adyashanti, Rupert Spira, Gangaji, Mooji, Ayya Khema, Dalai Lama, S. N. Goenka’s Vipassana (context, not in the catalog).

Annamalai Swami notes that even the wish to transcend a habit is a habit, Mooji says the mind cannot be fought and won, Thich Nhat Hanh compares mindfulness of anger to caring for it, and Ayya Khema warns that pretending tendencies away splits us. Here our working word “alchemy” finds its anchor: the relationship to experience changes before the experience itself does.

“Even our desire to transcend our vasanas is a vasana.”

Rests on teachings of Annamalai Swami, Robert Adams, Mooji, Eckhart Tolle, Billy Doyle, Isaac Shapiro, Thich Nhat Hanh, Ayya Khema, Neem Karoli Baba, Ram Dass, Osho.

Spira, Lucille and Doyle, from Jean Klein’s line, describe separation held as tension in the body; Adyashanti warns against making emotion wrong; Ram Dass treats relationships as material for practice. Spira adds that body exploration is not a duty for everyone and should stop if it makes one feel very bad.

“an exploration of our feelings at the level of the body is necessary as well as an investigation of our beliefs at the level of the mind”

Rests on teachings of Jean Klein, Billy Doyle, Francis Lucille, Rupert Spira, Adyashanti, Isaac Shapiro, Ram Dass, Neem Karoli Baba, Thich Nhat Hanh, Ayya Khema, John Welwood (context, not in the catalog), Jack Kornfield (context, not in the catalog).

Classical sources speak of humility, no hatred, careful work and acting without the sense of being the doer; householder teachers say ordinary duties are a full place of practice; Buddhist teachers place ethics before, during and after meditation. Aurobindo and the Mother make the transformation of life part of the aim, while for Ramana the natural state leaves nothing more to do.

“To the extent we behave with humility, to that extent there will result good.”

Rests on teachings of Ramana Maharshi, Adi Shankara, Swami Dayananda, Sri Ramakrishna, Lahiri Mahasaya, Anandamayi Ma, Swami Vivekananda, Meher Baba, Amma, Ayya Khema, Thich Nhat Hanh, Sri Aurobindo, The Mother, S. N. Goenka’s Vipassana (context, not in the catalog).

Ayya Khema calls calm the means and insight the goal, Ramana asks what use trance is without lasting peace, and Mooji and Ganga Mira say recognition does not depend on a silent mind. Tolle and the Dalai Lama distinguish real stillness from dullness, tiredness or substances.

“However they are not the goal of meditation. The goal of meditation is insight.”

Rests on teachings of Ayya Khema, Thich Nhat Hanh, Ramana Maharshi, Annamalai Swami, Sri Atmananda, Jean Klein, Eckhart Tolle, Mooji, Ganga Mira, Gangaji.

Ramana says a flash that begins must end, and advises learning the teaching intellectually and then practising it. Adyashanti says the West confuses enlightenment with mystical experiences, and also warns against dismissing a real seeing because fear or anger remain. Dayananda’s school names the opposite risk of chasing experiences instead of understanding.

“Learn it intellectually first, then do not stop with that. Practise it.”

Rests on teachings of Ramana Maharshi, Adi Shankara, Siddharameshwar Maharaj, Ramesh Balsekar, Swami Dayananda, Adyashanti, Francis Lucille, Rupert Spira, Ganga Mira, The Mother, Meher Baba.

Papaji asks for no effort and Balsekar says effort belongs to the “me”; Ramana and Annamalai Swami say effort is needed until it becomes effortless. Asked whether one should simply keep still, Ramana answered that whoever cannot should keep inquiring, and Spira holds both levels at once. We present both without choosing.

“There is a state beyond our efforts or effortlessness. Until it is realised effort is necessary.”

Rests on teachings of Ramana Maharshi, Annamalai Swami, Papaji, Ramesh Balsekar, U. G. Krishnamurti, Isaac Shapiro, Rupert Spira, Sri Aurobindo.

Meher Baba and Aurobindo say the ego cannot end or transform itself by its own effort. Ramakrishna and Aurobindo pair grace with longing and practice rather than passivity, Ramana says the Guru only shows the way, and Spira and Lucille say a friend or teacher greatly helps. Several devotional teachers explicitly do not ask anyone to change their faith or teacher.

“But this grace descends upon him only after he has prayed to God with intense yearning of heart and practised spiritual discipline.”

Rests on teachings of Meher Baba, Sri Aurobindo, Sri Ramakrishna, Anandamayi Ma, Neem Karoli Baba, Ram Dass, Ramana Maharshi, Swami Dayananda, Rupert Spira, Francis Lucille, Mother Meera, Shivabalayogi, Yogi Ramsuratkumar.

Adyashanti speaks of skipping over psychological material and sometimes advises staying with dark material instead of transcending it. Ayya Khema, the Plum Village trainings and the Vipassana tradition of S. N. Goenka say practice is not an escape. The opposite misuse, dismissing a real recognition because one still hurts, is named too.

“a process I saw happening in the Buddhist community I was in, and also in myself.”

Rests on teachings of Adyashanti, Ayya Khema, Thich Nhat Hanh, Osho, Eckhart Tolle, S. N. Goenka’s Vipassana (context, not in the catalog), John Welwood (context, not in the catalog), Jack Kornfield (context, not in the catalog).

Tolle speaks of a dark night close to depression and says discovering a pattern is not failure; Adyashanti describes hard years; Spira says to stop a body practice that makes one feel very bad. Research outside the teachings documents fear, sleeplessness and a sense of unreality among meditators.

“If you felt very bad as a result of trying this, I would stop immediately”

Rests on teachings of Eckhart Tolle, Adyashanti, Rupert Spira, Gangaji, Thich Nhat Hanh, Jack Kornfield (context, not in the catalog).