I’ve enjoyed preparing this brief guide. It’s helped me to understand some of the finer details of how fortunate I was to stumble upon a modern way to experience pure consciousness and then discover it led to inner peace and happiness.
Here’s more information about the people mentioned in this Brief Guide:
>“Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras” is one of the most important ancient spiritual texts. It was written about 2000 years ago by the Indian sage, Patanjali, but only a list of brief chapter headings, or lecture topics, “sutras”, have survived. The first few sutras concern pure consciousness, “stilling the mind”, which is the subject of this brief guide. The other sutras are a comprehensive account of Hinduism known at that time, and won’t be of interest to most Europeans. Unfortunately the lectures themselves have not survived.
Each version of the Yoga Sutras contain commentaries added later by various spiritual scholars. From their emphasis on technical spiritual nuances it’s clear to me that they were written by people who have never experienced pure consciousness or “stilling the mind”.
>“The Mystique of Enlightenment” is U.G. Krishnamurti’s account of his own enlightenment and his subsequent attempts to destroy the myths surrounding the subject. When I met him in 1980 he spoke in a much more down-to-earth manner than this book suggests. But it’s still the most readable of the books mentioned in this brief guide.
There are lots of film and video interviews of U.G. on the internet. They also bear little resemblance to the man I visited in a Bombay apartment in 1983: He spoke an a very straightforward, mater-of-fact manner about how the sense of self had uninstalled and how enlightenment was a “catastrophe”: He explained that enlightenment was not a spiritual awakening but a physiological event that can happen to anyone at anytime.
I visited him for an hour or so for the 10 days he was staying in Bombay. My real spiritual education started when I met him and ended when he flew off to Germany. An extraordinary person, and an extraordinary education!
>I haven’t found any other mention of Doctor Sahib besides my recollections for this website. This is what he would have preferred as he never sought an audience larger than could sit on the the floor of his small living room. I visited him for last the last two weeks of my year in India in 1980. I returned in 1983 to visit him twice a day, morning and evening, for most of the year. He hardly spoke about spirituality, but to be in his presence was transformative and unforgettable.
>“I Am That”, about Nisargadatta, is less easy to read as he speaks in a more traditional manner than U.G. Krishnamurti. When I visited him in Bombay, 1980, he answered questions in a more direct and straightforward manner than in this book. In his own way he taught much the the same as U.G: He called the sense of self an illusion, and that spiritual practices merely strengthen the self of self and cannot free you from it.
Unlike many eloquent spiritual teachers he didn’t sugar coat spirituality – he pointed out that in reality we are just a “food-body” that’s born to eat, grow, procreate and die.
>“The Collected Works of Ramana Maharshi” contains Ramana’s own account of his enlightenment. It’s a very large and comprehensive volume of Ramana’s words, writings and life. It’s very much about Hinduism and may not make much sense to western spiritual seekers.
These books are all available as free Pdf downloads from the Internet:
In the following pages you’ll find more information about the sense of self, a Q & A section, some thoughts about science and spirituality, and the essential disclaimer.
Spiritual enquiry
Stumbling into it
Some extras
Disclaimer