Buddha at the Gas Pump

Craig Pearson is Executive Vice-President of Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, and a leader in Consciousness-Based education. He has spoken around the United States on this unique approach to education as well as on Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's programs to create world peace. He has held a number of positions at Maharishi University of Management, including Dean of Faculty, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Dean of Students, Director of Freshman Composition, and Director of Maharishi University of Management Press. Dr. Pearson holds a PhD in Maharishi Vedic Science from Maharishi University of Management. He is the author of two books, The Supreme Awakening: Experiences of Enlightenment Throughout Time - And How You Can Cultivate Them, available through MUM Press (free chapter available for download) or Amazon. and The Complete Book of Yogic Flying. He is also the coauthor, with Brad Moses, of Peace on Earth, a collection of songs about enlightenment and world peace (available on iTunes). He lives on the Maharishi University of Management campus with his wife Melissa and son Soren. Interview conducted January 31, 2015. Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.

Stephan Bodian offers satsangs, intensives, and retreats in the tradition of his teachers, Jean Klein and Adyashanti. His gatherings are noted for their humor, warmth, spontaneity, and intimacy and combine direct pointers, lively dialogues, silent sitting, and guided self-inquiry. He’s the author of several books, including Wake Up Now: A Guide to the Journey of Spiritual Awakening and Beyond Mindfulness: The Direct Approach to Lasting Peace, Happiness, and Love. Stephan spent a decade practicing Zen intensively as a monk but left the monastery because he sensed that the rigorous practice of meditation was obscuring the truth he was seeking. After studying Dzogchen for several years, he met his guru, Jean Klein, a European teacher of Advaita Vedanta, who told him to stop meditating and instead discover the meditator. Shortly after meeting Jean, he had a profound awakening to his true identity as timeless presence. After Jean’s death, Stephan met Adyashanti, and in 2001 Adya gave him Dharma transmission and invited him to teach. Stephan is the founder and director of the School for Awakening, an annual eight-month awakening intensive, and he leads regular retreats and shorter intensives In Tucson, Arizona, and at the Garrison Institute in New York. Trained and licensed as a psychotherapist, Stephan also offers individual spiritual counseling and mentoring sessions to people throughout the world. His approach blends direct, experiential, nondual wisdom with the insights of Western psychology to support students in realizing who they really are while inquiring into the stories and patterns of thinking and behaving that continue to cause suffering. Website: stephanbodian.org Other books: Meditation For Dummies, w/Audio CD(Also available in various languages.) Timeless Visions, Healing Voices: Conversations With Men & Women of the Spirit Interview recorded 1/24/2015 Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.

Kenneth Folk is a personal meditation trainer known worldwide for his innovative approach to secular Buddhist meditation. After twenty years of training in the Burmese Theravada Buddhist tradition of Mahasi Sayadaw, including three years of intensive silent retreat in monasteries in Asia and the U.S., Kenneth began to spread his own findings, successfully stripping away religious dogma to make meditation accessible to modern practitioners. Kenneth has been recognized by Wired Magazine as an influential voice in Silicon Valley’s tech culture, a "power player of the mindfulness movement." Website: kennethfolkdharma.com YouTube Channel Interview recorded 1/17/2015 Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.

Ram Das Batchelder was born in Pennsylvania in 1961, had a spiritual awakening in his early twenties, and has spent most of the last 25 years in India as a devotee of Amma, the “hugging Saint.” He has written four children’s books, which have been translated into several European languages, and also a novel in rhyming verse, three full-length plays, and 40 original songs. In 2012, he and his wife, Tarini Ma, wrote and co-taught a university course on Hinduism in Venezuela. He has given numerous talks and workshops about various aspects of spirituality in many locations around the world. He and his wife are currently offering 5-star tours of the sacred cities of India, to both Spanish and English-speaking groups. “Rising in Love: My Wild and Crazy Ride to Here and Now, with Amma, the Hugging Saint” tells the story of Ram Das Batchelder’s powerful marijuana-fuelled spiritual awakening in America (which included meeting an angel), his two-year struggle with delusion and addiction, his subsequent renunciation of drugs, and his eventual discovery of Amma (the living Guru known in the West as “the Hugging Saint”). The narrative then covers the 27 amazing years he has spent in quest of Enlightenment as Amma’s devotee, most of that time in India. It is a story of profound healing from drug addiction and despair into a joyfully fulfilled life, and is therefore a ray of hope for all who suffer from addiction or mental illness of one kind or another. The book is a suspenseful psychological thriller, “a real page-turner” (as more than one reviewer has said), yet there is so much humor in the narrative that it reads like a comedic novel. It describes his struggles with dysentery and sexual desire during his first several years at Amma’s ashram, and also includes descriptions of numerous miracles he has witnessed, a vision of Krishna, and the steady progression of his meditation, which has culminated recently in states of samadhi. It also discusses how the author left Amma’s ashram for a six year period, visited numerous other Gurus, and then returned, with a fiancée, and was married by Amma in 2001. One chapter is dedicated to the difficulties he and his wife have faced in their marriage, and the beautiful healing Amma has given them as a couple. There is also a section about the Asian Tsunami, which occurred when they were in Amma’s ashram; hundreds were killed in the surrounding area. “Rising in Love” will appeal to anyone interested in spirituality, Enlightenment, Hinduism, Saints or Gurus, as well as psychology, psychotherapy, angels or Jesus. Website: rising-inlove.org Other books: You Are The King- A Parable For Amma's Children Sathyaram Discovers the Mother of All Interview recorded 1/17/2015 Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.

Sandy Jones is the Literary Executor to the William Samuel legacy.  In 1996, she was given his entire catalog of works and today is the spokesperson for William Samuel’s message- publishing and promoting the entire William Samuel catalog. In addition to being the registered agent for the works of William Samuel,  she is the owner and mentor of the Woodsong Center for Self-Discovery located in Ojai, California.  The Center hosts gatherings for readings and group discussions based on William’s message.  Sandy is also the proprietor of Celestial Song Mystical Emporium a popular gift shop and gallery located in Ojai, CA. Sandy is an accomplished artist and  writer, currently writing a book, which she says “is simply a joyful expression of my love for Life and the the Living Unbound Beauty and Peace that has found me.”  The book, currently untitled, is scheduled to be published in the Spring of 2015.  You can find more of her art and writings at her website woodsongjournals.com. Email Sandy at: samuelandfriends@gmail.com William Samuel - September 2, 1924-May 22, 1996 William Samuel was a prolific writer and teacher.  William Samuel was known as the “teacher’s teacher” perhaps because so many teachers came to study with him. There was an inordinate number of philosophers, theologians, and members of the academe. In the later years there came physicists and mathematicians. It seemed to William that he would get the most earnest and dedicated students of Truth. Quite a number of Taoists and Buddhists had found William’s message and came to study–even some who were called Masters. Many have gone from his study to become authors, writers and teachers. In some marvelous way his story has been found by the metaphysical and scientific elite of all the word–at least by a few. He said “When it is told perfectly, my whole world will hear.” Although, Mr. Samuel did not embrace the idea of being called a teacher, saying “I’ve been telling my own story–how it happened and what it has allowed me to understand–for over 30 years. That is not the same as being a teacher.” He was a genuine sage and mystic.  He brought the message of non-duality, or as he called it the Subjective View in a simple heart felt words that everyone interested in their Self discovery can understand and profit from.   A humble man who discovered true peace and tranquility that remains steady and true even during the changes and turmoil encountered in life.  Never seeking to be well known or venerated himself, he has been widely  recognized by many as a genuine true Master.    William’s message is that he did not embrace the idea of being called a teacher, saying “I’ve been telling my own story–how it happened and what it has allowed me to understand–for over 30 years. That is not the same as being a teacher.” “Every teacher, book, writer, practitioner, sage, guru or peanut vendor, by whatever name, title or label they go by, is an aspect of the Awareness (Identity) “we” are. We take the book from the shelf most likely to render a specific service at a given moment. Exactly so, we have appeared to go to the philosophy, teacher, church, friend, stranger or peanut vendor that has unfolded as sufficient for the moment–but that philosophy, teacher, church, friend or stranger is within the awareness We are. So is the peanut vendor. We are forever looking at our Self.”…..William Samuel William Samuel was one of the first Americans to sit with Ramana Maharshi 
The story of his visit goes something like this: At 18 years old he graduated from Clemson and was immediately made captain of infantry and sent off to battle in China, during W.W.II While in China, William’s troops were doing battle along with the British and Indians near the Burmese boarder. It was during that time when William apparently was given some much needed R&R. He took advantage of that time and went to see Ramana Maharshi in Tiruvannamalai, South India. William, at that time,

Craig Holliday is both a Nondual teacher and Licensed Professional Counselor, offering Nondual Therapy and Meditation workshops, retreats and Satsang. His work is dedicated to the discovery of our innate Divinity through embracing our Humanity. He works in a way that addresses our everyday suffering as a doorway to our inherent freedom. He meets with individuals in Durango, Colorado and from around the world on Skype. At just 19, Craig began apprenticing under his teacher David in Southwest Colorado. David, a little-known meditation master, (who lives a private meditative life) guided Craig for 20 years, in the lineage of Sri Aurobindo. This relationship deeply shaped Craig’s life and teachings. During the last 10 years Craig also studied with Adyashanti who guided him through 4 profound awakenings (head, heart, Hara and Kundalini). Upon request from others, Craig began sharing these nondual teachings in Satsang. Over the years, Craig has received ongoing support with teaching and his personal life from David, Adya, Jon Bernie, Lama Tsultrim and others. Despite profoundly awakening to the truth of his own being, Craig also understands the evolutionary nature of our souls and values the work of continually examining our humanity (both individually and with teachers), while surrendering to our Divinity in greater and greater ways. He shares this same invitation to others. Website: craigholliday.com Book: Fully Human Fully Divine, Awakening to our Innate Beauty through Embracing our Humanity Interview recorded 1/3/2015 Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.

Mary O’Malley is an author, counselor, and awakening mentor in Kirkland, Washington. In the early 1970’s, a powerful awakening set Mary on the path to changing her whole relationship with the challenges of her life, freeing herself from a lifelong struggle with darkness. Since that time, Mary has taught extensively throughout the United States, Canada and Denmark. She is an inspirational speaker who leads retreats that transform people’s lives, including week long retreats in beautiful places like Costa Rica and Hawaii. She also provides individual counseling and offers ongoing groups where people can come together to experience the miracle of Awakening. Mary’s new book, What’s In The Way IS the Way, is endorsed by Dr. Christiane Northrup, Jack Kornfield, Neale Donald Walsch, and Stephen Levine. Information about the book and Mary’s offerings can be found on her websites, maryomalley.com and whatsinthewayistheway.com. Book and CDs: What's In the Way IS the Way: Moving Beyond Your Struggle Into the Joy of Being Fully Alive The Gift of Our Compulsions: A Revolutionary Approach to Self-Acceptance and Healing Belonging to Life: The Journey of Awakening 6 CD Set: Being Healed By Our Compulsions: A Workshop in Washington, DC Interview conducted 12/??/2014 Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.

Marie Manuchehri, RN, is a nationally known energy intuitive and Reiki Master who first discovered her gifts for energetic healing while working as a registered oncology nurse. In addition to her private practice in Seattle, Washington, which includes thousands of clients from across the world, she leads popular workshops and hosts “The Marie Manucherhri Show – Where Energy and Medicine Meet.” Marie is an author, public speaker, teacher, and leads a mentoring program for others interested in the field of energy medicine. Website: energyintuitive.com Books: Intuitive Self-Healing (book) Attuning to the Unseen World (Self-Guided Video Course) How to Communicate with Your Spirit Guides Interview recorded 12/20/2014 Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.

Dale Borglum founded and directed the Hanuman Foundation Dying Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the first residential facility in the United States to support conscious dying. He has been the Executive Director of the Living/Dying Project in Santa Fe and since 1986 in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is the co-author with Ram Dass, Daniel Goleman and Dwarka Bonner of Journey of Awakening: A Meditator's Guidebook and has taught meditation since 1974. Dale lectures and gives workshops on the topics of meditation, healing, spiritual support for those with life-threatening illness, and on caregiving as spiritual practice. He has a doctorate degree from Stanford University. Website YouTube Channel Interview conducted 12/13/2014 Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.

Leonard Jacobson is an awakened spiritual teacher, healer and mystic who is deeply committed to guiding and supporting others in their journey towards wholeness. In 1981, he experienced the first of a series of spontaneous mystical awakenings that profoundly altered his perception of life, truth, and reality. Each of these enlightenment experiences revealed deeper and deeper levels of consciousness, filling his teachings and his writings with profound wisdom, clarity, love and compassion. He has been running workshops, seminars and retreats for over 30 years, offering inspiration and guidance to those on a path of awakening. He shares a simple and direct two-step path to awakening. The first step leads to the awakened state of Presence. The second step leads to mastery of the mind and ego. He lives near Santa Cruz, California and he is the founder of The Conscious Living Foundation, a registered nonprofit organization. His books have been published in many countries including the United States, Japan, China, Taiwan, Holland, Denmark, Poland and Lithuania. You can learn more about Leonard at www.leonardjacobson.com Books: Journey Into Now: Clear Guidance on the Path of Spiritual Awakening Words from Silence: An Invitation to Spiritual Awakening Embracing the Present: Living an Awakened Life Bridging Heaven & Earth In Search of the Light Interview conducted 12/7/2014 Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.

Nukunu was born in Odense, Denmark 1947. He left school 13 years old. He was declared hopeless so he was given no education certificate. He worked and trained as a house painter for the next 4 years. After 9 months of military service he started to study again, first secondary school, then college and the University. He holds a Bachelor in Philosophy and a Master in Psychology. In the end of his Master degree 1979 he met Osho. Maybe the most important event in his life so far. He worked as a therapist in Poona and the West for the next 16 years. When Osho died in 1990, Nukunu was carried on to another Enlightened Master Poonja’ji in Lucknow. He spent 4 years with the great Master until he finally met the masters of the Sacha Linage in 1994. On March 9, 1995 there happened spontaneously a shift in Nukunu's consciousness and a radical new way of viewing life was born. Since then all his work has been centered on helping people into the non-dual. Nukunu uses his background in meditation and therapy to invite you into who you are. His basic approach is that you are already what you are looking for. "Relax as awareness into this moment and it will reveal itself.” You cannot become Enlightened (since you are it already) you can be Enlightened. His Dharmadoors are all about going beyond the separation of “I” and the content of consciousness. He is offering Satsangs, Intensives, retreats and a training in Non-Dual Therapy. Website: youarethat.dk YouTube Channel Book: True Rebellion, The: a Story of an Awakening Discussion about this interview is in the forum. Interview recorded 11/22/2014 Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.

In February of 2003, Tom published the My Big TOE trilogy (MBT) which represents the results and conclusions of his scientific exploration of the nature of existence. This overarching model of reality, mind, and consciousness explains the paranormal as well as the normal, places spirituality within a scientific context, solves a host of scientific paradoxes and provides direction for those wishing to personally experience an expanded awareness of All That Is. The MBT reality model explains metaphysics, spirituality, love, and human purpose at the most fundamental level, provides a complete theory of consciousness, and solves the outstanding fundamental physics problems of our time, deriving both relativity theory and quantum mechanics from first principles – something traditional physics cannot yet do. As a logic-based work of science, My Big TOE has no basis in belief, dogma, or any unusual assumptions. My Big TOE - The Complete Trilogy(printed version) My Big TOE - Free version on Google Books Tom's website: my-big-toe.com Tom's YouTube channel In the interview, Tom referred to a conference at which he's going to speak. Here's info about that: May 22-24, 2015. Tom as well as many other prominent researchers of post-materialistic consciousness science will convene at the International Academy of Consciousness’ (IAC) research campus, located near Évora, in the Alentejo region in Portugal, for the 1st INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF CONSCIENTIOLOGY (which means consciousness-ology). Confirmed speakers include Brenda Dunne, former manager of the historic Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research laboratory and president of International Consciousness Research Laboratories (USA, co-author of Margins of Reality); NASA’s Tom Campbell, nuclear physicist (USA, author of My Big TOE); Massimiliano Sassoli de Bianchi, PhD (Switzerland, author of The Observer Effect: The Quantum Mystery Demystified), Ulisse di Copo, PhD and Antonella Vannini, PhD (Italy, authors of Syntropy: The Energy of Life), Chantal Toporow, PhD (USA, representative of the Society for Scientific Exploration), and Wagner Alegretti, Electrical Engineer (Brazil, senior researcher with the International Academy of Consciousness). Swiss neuroscientist Olaf Blanke will represent the more conventional view, thus enriching the debate. Additional multidisciplinary speakers, who will be selected from over 50 entries from researchers worldwide, will represent a number of institutions and perspectives, from near-death experiences to measurable effects of the mind on physical systems. Weblink to congress: http://icc.iacworld.org/#. Weblink to ongoing courses in consciousness development and out-of-body experiences: www.iacworld.org. Interview recorded 11/14/2014. Discussion about this interview is in the forum. Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.

Bart Marshall describes his spiritual path as “self-guided eclectic.” It began with a death experience in Vietnam in 1968 and ended in 2004 on an airplane at 30,000 feet over the Atlantic as he returned from a workshop with Douglas Harding. In those intervening years he “turned over every rock” in his quest for a final answer, but counts three teachers as the most influential: Richard Rose, Nisargadatta Maharaj, and Douglas Harding. He founded Self Inquiry Group (SIG) in Raleigh, North Carolina (www.selfinquiry.org), and for many years held weekly meetings before stepping back in 2013. Sometimes called “the reluctant guru” by those who know him, Bart nevertheless travels widely to speak when asked, and teaches retreats and intensives with Deborah Westmoreland (Conscious TV interview) events that have proven to be highly transformative for participants. Bart is the author of The Perennial Way: New English Versions of Yoga Sutras, Dhammapada, Heart Sutra, Ashtavakra Gita, Faith Mind Sutra, and Tao Te Ching, and an upcoming book, Christ Sutras (Fall 2014), which contains the complete sayings of Jesus from all sources arranged as topical sermons. He is currently completing a book of essays on spiritual matters, Becoming Vulnerable to Grace. Interview recorded 11/8/2014 Discussion about this interview is in the forum. Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.

An architect and community activist living in Nevada, Sat Shree experienced a sudden awakening to the spiritual dimension of existence in 1998. “This state arose suddenly without any effort on my part in the midst of an individual human life in one night in 1998. This ‘awakening’ was a glimpse of an utterly different and radical state of being that I now reside in. However back then it was just the beginning of a process that set in motion a transformation that utterly changed reality as I had known it, a process that continues to this day.” This intense transformation process that began in 1998 completed nine years later in 2007. The ‘who’ I am became the ‘what’ I am and a new dynamic and integrated state of being began to manifest, which I named Sat Shree. This is what I am, and is in fact, what you are. Some call this the ‘enlightened state’; the state of one who not only ‘knows’ but ‘is’ THAT underlying Reality which is the foundation of all existence, manifested in human form. After coming to this state it soon became apparent this did not just happen to me, but is the beginning of an unfolding process of a radical and extraordinary new collective consciousness that is now available to mankind. It is clear that a new possibility now exists for mankind; the next stage of human evolution. My work is to play a part in this Truth Manifestation by awakening and supporting its expression in those that come to me, and to show people how to collaborate with the natural maturation process each of us, in fact, all of mankind is going through. I have traveled this journey myself and have learned the secrets. I am, like all truly awakened spiritual teachers, a farmer tending nature’s garden of evolving souls. Sat Shree shares his direct experience through talks, workshops, retreats and other events in the Reno area, Portland, Boulder and India. In 2009, together with his wife, Satyamayi, Sat Shree founded New Dharma to support his teaching. Website: newdharmayoga.com Discussion about this interview is in the forum. Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.

T Jonathon Proctor is the creator of Being Real—Being Embodied. He works with individuals and groups to balance and integrate the “ascending” currents of awakening and the “descending” maturation of embodiment. T has a background in physical therapy and bodywork, Vipassana meditation and non-dual realization and has spent the last decade as a student of the Diamond Approach. His own journey, his work with others, and years of experience as a Hospice bereavement facilitator have inspired a deep appreciation for the individual narrative as a well of meaning; seeing self-understanding as a powerful movement of compassion. His orientation arises out of a heartfelt knowing that every aspect of our human experience is essential to the process of Awakening and Self-realization. Embodiment is functional awakening. Being Real—Being Embodied is designed to integrate the boundless presence of Essential Being into the ordinary life of the individual. Instant awakening(s) may occur but it is a myth that total ego annihilation and transformation certainly follow. This is demonstrated in the lives of gurus and teachers who, while undeniably awakened, make a mess of their own and others’ lives. Awakening and embodiment have a reciprocal relationship. Put in a simple way Awakening is absence and Embodiment is presence. Awakening reveals the emptiness of separate selfhood. We awaken from thoughts, emotion, relationship, history, roles and body as our ultimate identity. As these awakenings happen space becomes available for the various qualities and capacities of Being—intelligence, strength, discrimination, compassion, love and presence—to transform the individual. Embodiment calls us to transform our shadow; meaning our inner animal, wounded child, our hidden trauma, and even our drive for destruction. We are further enjoined to cultivate our capacity in the world—in work, in community, in love, and in play. The individual person becomes more real, a movement of unified reality rather than an island of ego. This is a process in time that requires devotion, sincerity, and humility. We as individual human beings live as the meaning of Being. Being Real—Being Embodied utilizes the real life issues of the person as fuel for transformation. In a complete awakening absolutely everything is included. Website: beingrealnow.org Interview recorded 10/26/2014 Discussion about this interview is in the forum. Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.