Memories and Reflections

In this section we are publishing stories of direct experience.
These stories are of great use to seekers of all traditions. Like traveller's tales, they help explain some of the enigmatic characteristics of the inner landscape.
The experience of direct transmission is essentially the same.
Clues to the language of the Self can be found in the traveller's tales of others.
It is easy to mis-interpret some of our own inner experiences. It is from keeping company with other seekers we are reminded of the profound and joyful state of the great Gurus, and of our own struggles and revelations. 

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JUST  ONE LOOK
by Andrew Sharp     

As I entered the room and sat down my mind stopped. The question I’d brought – something awkward and intellectual about love and whether it could be quantified, controlled or measured in some way – suddenly became irrelevant. Meeting his eyes, I was drawn inside myself to a place beyond questions and answers. I simply was.

A question – any question – had been the prerequisite of a private meeting with Swami Muktananda, or “Baba” as he was affectionately known to his devotees. He was regarded as one of India’s most prominent gurus, disciple of the renowned ascetic Bhagwan Nityananda, imbued with the power to bestow enlightenment in a mysterious process known as “shaktipat”. This was a spontaneous awakening of the seeker’s kundalini energy which countless numbers of Baba’s devotees claimed to have experienced.

They reported experiencing spectacular inner visions, bodily sensations and a range of temporary behavioural abnormalities, while some said they experienced no immediately discernible effect at all. It was claimed though that in all cases shaktipat would bring about profound improvements in the recipient’s life.......... read full story


BABA MUKTANANDA – THE FIRST HUNDRED YEARS
by Mark Edwards

My connection with Baba began in the 1970s at a satsang at the Fremantle Pottery Studio of  Joan Campbell. Campbell, who had visited Baba in India, was clearly deeply affected by him. Her rustic pottery studio was adorned with photographs of Baba and his guru. The combination of incense, puja items and the beautiful chanting while sitting cross legged on the floor created an exotic and mysterious ambience which was at once both foreign and oddly familiar.

 A deep curiosity about Baba was evoked and within few years I found myself sitting in an Indian bus, travelling down the dusty, bumpy road leading to his ashram. My initial visit to Baba’s ashram opened me in a way I could never have imagined, redefining my most fundamental ideas about who I was.

Baba’s central teaching that true spiritual progress occurs through the grace of a Guru raises the thorny issue of how to distinguish a true Guru from an ordinary teacher. According to Baba, a mark of true Guru is that he causes an internal revolution in the seeker.  This inner revolution can be a challenging and unsettling process. While it may include peak experiences of blissful clarity and expanded consciousness, a range of confronting emotional and psychological experiences are also commonly reported..........read full story


FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF BLISS
by Claude Pezet

It was in the autumn of 1973 while studying at university that a unique, close encounter with the ‘Fourth Way’ completely shifted and realigned the tectonic plates of my life.
 
At the time I was researching a project on the sublime cave paintings from Ajanta. I was captivated by a particular image, of one of the bodhisattvas , or compassionate forms, of the Buddha. In this representation he delicately holds a lotus flower in his right hand while gazing contemplatively upon those gathered around him.  
Trained in Western iconographic religious art I nevertheless found myself deeply moved by the graceful, sensual yet deeply spiritual quality of this form. It was imbued with a masterful elegance and radiated an extraordinary presence, with its body seemingly filled with life giving force.   I found myself spontaneously drawn back to this intriguing 2000 year old image again and again for several days.   And then it happened…
After working late one night on cataloging a selection of paintings I’d chosen for the presentation I finally went to bed. Before I knew it I found myself hailing a cab in New York City near where I’d lived for several years. A cab stopped and jumping in the back seat I was immediately struck by the appearance of the driver. He was diminutive yet somehow huge and was garbed in flaming orange including a beanie on his head. And whoever this character was he had a mischievous smile on his face. Before I could even complete the instructions for my destination this unusual person interrupted and said “No, you follow me.” ..........read full story