Teachings En Route to Freedom: A seeker's quest for Enlightenment: Enlightenment Series, #5

By Madhukar Thompson

Throughout history, India has produced an extraordinary range of religious traditions and, even today, innumerable spiritual teachers can be found there.
This book documents Madhukar Thompson's encounters with a wide range of gurus whom he sought out in his quest for enlightenment.
It presents a compilation of remarkably diverse spiritual teachings as expressed in conversations which he had with them over a period of 16 years.
This book features the following spiritual gurus - Osho, Papaji, Harish Madhukar, Gangaji, Annamalai Swami, Lakshmana Swami, Ramesh S. Balsekar, Ranjit Maharaj, Giridhar, Dadaji, Kiran, U.G. Krishnamurti, Choekyi Nyima Rinpoche, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, Andrew Cohen etc...

• Language: English
• Publisher: CreatiVentures Publishing
• Release date: Sep 5, 2014
• ISBN: 9781502202987

Book preview

TEACHINGS

EN ROUTE TO

FREEDOM

Other Books by Madhukar Thompson:

Books

• Enlightenment: An Outbreak

• Enlightenment May Or May Not Happen

• Enlightenment? Who Cares!

• Teachings en Route to Freedom

• Odyssey of Enlightenment

Postcard Books

(Sets of cards taking a light-hearted look at different

aspects of spirituality and the search for Truth)

• Enlightenment by Airmail

• Enlightenment à la Carte

• Satsang

• The Path of Celebration

• The Seeker and His Search

• Meditation

• Enlightenment

• Master!

TEACHINGS

EN ROUTE TO

FREEDOM

A Seeker’s Quest for Enlightenment

Madhukar Thompson

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without prior written permission from the publisher or his agents, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

Copyright © 2000 by (Madhukar Thompson)

Copyright © 2014 by Dr. Joji Valli

Published by

CreatiVentures

C-22, Karan Gharonda

Sainikwadi, Pune – 411014,

Maharashtra, India

Mb. 9689257575 | 9881843756

E-mail: [e-mail]

www.creativentures.in

Printed by:

Mudra PRESS

ISBN-10: 8188360392

ISBN-13: 9788188360390

(NetiNeti ISBN: 1-929924-02-X)

Dedicated to all teachers and seekers

of the Truth

Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

11

Chapter 1: Osho

Meditation Is Seeing Reality As It Is Here-Now 21

"If You Can Rejoice With Me, You Have

Understood Me" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

29

Chapter 2: Papaji

You Can Have It . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

39

You Got It. You Did Your Work . . . . . . . . . . . .

40

In Freedom There Is No Teacher, No Student

and No Teaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

43

A New Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

46

I Am Free!—But Am I? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

46

"Let the Body Go Anywhere, but Yet ‘You’ Are

Not Leaving" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

54

The Very Secret and Sacred Teaching . . . . . . . . . .

59

The Price of Truth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

60

Good and Bad is not Satsang . . . . . . . . . . . . .

62

Chapter 3: Harish Madhukar

Why Only Be Called ‘Super-Buddha’?—Be One!

73

Chapter 4: Gangaji

"If You Meet the Buddha, Don’t Kill Him! Rather,

Prostrate Before Him and Let Him Kill You!" . .

83

Chapter 5: Annamalai Swami

When the Ego Has Died, the Symptoms of

Bliss and Ecstasy Cease . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

102

All Questions and Answers Have the

Same Answer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

107

Just To Remain As You Are Is Enough Practice .

115

Realizing Who You Are: The Only Way

to Freedom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

125

"By Moving Away from the State of Enlighten-

ment, You Got Yourself Caught Up in the Trap

of the Mind and Its Doubts" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

127

Chapter 6: Lakshmana Swami

The Ultimate Instruction: Be Still and Quiet! . .

136

In the Self Is No Seeing—In the Self Is Only Being 137

What Happened in Your Case is Not

Enlightenment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

138

Chapter 7: Ramesh S. Balsekar

"Enlightenment Is the Annihilation of the One

Who Desires Enlightenment" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

148

The Guru’s Teachings: Pointers to the Truth . . . .

154

Chapter 8: Ranjit Maharaj

The Realized-One:If He Was Never Born—

How Could He Ever Die? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

167

Chapter 9: Giridhar

You Don’t Search Enlightenment for Your Own

Possession—You are Possessed by Seeking . . . . .

190

Chapter 10: Dadaji

The Discovery of the Timelessness: The Beginning

and the End of All Human Search . . . . . . . . . . . .

209

If You Want Enlightenment, You Must Work

for It. It is not a matter of Destiny . . . . . . . . . . . . .

212

Chapter 11: Kiran

Spiritual Practices are Obstructions to

Awakening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

229

There is No Sat—There is No Sang:

There is Nothing to Do . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

243

Chapter 12: U.G. Krishnamurti

It’s Better to Run Away with the Best Friend’s

Beautiful Wife Than Wait for Moksha . . . . . . . . . .

258

The Demand for Absolute Certainity . . . . . . . . . .

269

Chapter 13: Choekyi Nyima Rinpoche

Loving Kindness Is the Mother of Liberation . . .

290

Chapter 14: Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche

You Cannot Find a More Effective Training

for Attaining Buddhahood Than Dzogchen . . . .

309

Chapter 15: Andrew Cohen

Enlightenment—Yes, Life Positive—No . . . . . . . .

320

Epilogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

321

Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

323

INTRODUCTION 11

Introduction

The old Mercedes lurched and reared with a ghastly scraping sound, then crunched back down and jerked to a halt in the rock debris and dirty snow at the road’s edge. My four passengers and I were unhurt, but the crankshaft was bust and we were stuck with darkness falling on a mountain pass 100 km from Kabul. I was 22, fresh out of university with a bachelor’s degree in industrial management, and heading for India. It seemed a very long way away.

Luckily for us, a local businessman stopped and

agreed to tow us to Kabul through the ice and slush. From Kabul, by truck and a series of bus and train trips, I made it to Pakistan and then on down to Amritsar in India where I bought a bicycle and pedaled 1,400 kms to the holy city of Benares.

I was looking for adventure, and it was not in short supply. But what most impressed me on my travels, and what stayed longest in my mind, were the encounters with sadhus (ascetics), saints, and holy men who lived in the village temples where I often spent the night. Their contentment was contagious. In their presence, I experienced a state in which I was closer to being fulfilled than I had ever imagined possible.

12 TEACHINGS EN ROUTE TO FREEDOM

I traveled around Southeast Asia for a year and a half, wandering as far as Bali in Indonesia, and then returned to visit my family in southern Germany and to continue my education. I received a master’s degree in business management and then began a professional career as an industrial executive in Japan. Restless and wanting my own business, I quit and started a jewelry import company with a partner. The venture was a success and I also inherited property and money from my family. I was wealthy, secure and in perfect health. Naturally, I indulged myself in many of the pleasures one can purchase, which supposedly bring lasting happiness and fulfillment. But, in spite of this, there was always a feeling that something was missing. And, whatever I did, this feeling persisted.

In my late 20s, I began to wonder why fulfillment continued to elude me. My experience was that, apart from a few fleeting moments of satisfaction, all my pleasurable experiences, no matter how intense, were basically inadequate. The contentment I had tasted in India haunted me. Then, as if in answer to my longing, my best friend and business partner introduced me to the spiritual teachings of the East. These proclaimed that the urge for permanent and final fulfillment is universal, and that it can be achieved. This blessed state was called moksha or nirvana—freedom, liberation from identification with the body and mind, enlightenment.

By 1980, I was back in India—this time seeking lasting fulfillment. And what an intense ride this search was to prove! Little did I know that, over the next two decades, I would meet more than a dozen spiritual teachers, three of whom would become my masters. In their different ways, they all claimed to have what I wanted so badly.

And they taught what enlightenment is, and how I too could find it—how I could realize eternal peace and fulfillment as my own true nature. My yearning for this INTRODUCTION 13

drew me towards them and 16 years of my life were spent living in their orbit, meditating and working in their ashrams.

My first master was Osho. He promised to deliver

what I longed for if I surrendered to him completely and dedicated myself to the practice of his teachings. I did so, and with the utmost intensity, but ten years later when my guru died, his promise had still not been fulfilled.

Eighteen months passed before I was led to my second master, Papaji. He taught The Self is already realized; enlightenment can occur here and now. No practice is necessary. Just ask yourself, Who am I? and, in an instant, you are free. Within days of meeting him, my master enabled me to recognize my true nature and

declared that I was enlightened. But my own experience of daily life taught me otherwise and tortured me with doubts. Sometimes it seemed that I really was enlightened, other times I most definitely was not.

After two years of this see-saw existence, I left my master and began traveling all over India, seeking a guru who could dispel my doubts and help me find final fulfillment. Over the next four years, I asked every guru or teacher I met, If my enlightenment experience wasn’t enlightenment, what is enlightenment then? And how can I attain it, once and for all? They all agreed that final fulfillment is possible, but they disagreed about how to achieve it. In fact, they disagreed on many crucial issues such as the relationship between the intensity of a seeker’s efforts and his/her spiritual progress, the merits of meditation and Self-inquiry, and the transformative power of the guru’s presence. At times, I felt so disillusioned and fed up with the whole spiritual search that I even began to ask them how to drop it altogether and become a normal citizen again.

During this time, I met my third master, Ramesh S.

Balsekar. He taught that the spiritual search is merely 14 TEACHINGS EN ROUTE TO FREEDOM

part of an impersonal process which is moved entirely by God or Consciousness. This teaching implies that neither the seeker nor the guru can in any way influence or determine which spiritual practice (if any) the seeker will follow and when (if ever) enlightenment will happen.

But eventually, the inconsistencies and contradictions in his teachings became too much for me to swallow, and my association with him as my guru came to an end.

By this time I had understood one thing: that seeking is a process of which teachings are only a part. All they can do is point to our true nature which is beyond the mind—which the mind cannot know, which one can only be. My second master had led me to recognize this—the bliss of eternal peace—and since then I have been blessed with many dips back into it, but I still feel that a deepening of my spiritual understanding is necessary. And it does indeed occur, thanks to the classical Advaita Vedanta teachings of Sri Adi Shankara, dating from the 8th century AD, to which I was introduced in the summer of 1997.

This book presents a series of episodes from my

personal odyssey in search of freedom. The chapters, set out in chronological order, take the form of transcripts of talks and conversations with the various teachers I have met. The transcripts should not be taken as complete summaries of the gurus’ teaching—after all, they document responses to questions that arose from a specific individual at a specific point in time. However, they do express certain key aspects of each particular teaching and give a taste of each guru’s style.

Each chapter is introduced by a short biographical note on the guru in question, and a brief explanation of the context in which our encounters took place. On occasion, the names of other participants in the discussions have been changed so as not to encroach on their personal privacy. For readers who wish to know more about a particular teacher and his/her teachings, contact INTRODUCTION 15

addresses and titles of relevant publications have also been included.

Teachings En Route To Freedom is my 13th book, published by Neti Neti Press—a company I founded in 1998. Previous publications provide further documentation of the teachings of some of the gurus featured here.

Their texts and cartoon illustrations contain many insights into the spiritual search in general, and the phenomenon of enlightenment in particular. They are published in the hope that they will help and inspire fellow seekers in their search for truth, peace, enlightenment and understanding.

OSHO 17

1

Osho

18 TEACHINGS EN ROUTE TO FREEDOM

OSHO 19

My initiation into neo- sannyas by Osho in July 1980

Osho, also known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, was

born in Kutchwada, Madhya Pradesh, India, on

December 11, 1931. After his enlightenment at the age of 21, he taught philosophy for several years at the

University of Jabalpur, and then spent numerous years traveling throughout India leading meditation camps and lecturing on topics of philosophy, religion, and

enlightenment. In 1967, he settled in Bombay. One year later, he initiated his first disciples into what he called neo- sannyas. 1 In the early 1970s, the first Westerners began flocking to him. Over the next 30 years, perhaps a hundred thousand seekers from all over the world would become his disciples. He established his first ashram in Pune, India, in 1974, moved it to Rajneeshpuram in Oregon, USA, in 1981, and then reestablished the ashram at Pune in 1987. His ashrams and communes, as well as his personality, lifestyle, teachings, and disciples, were controversial throughout his life. He died in Pune on 1 see Glossary

20 TEACHINGS EN ROUTE TO FREEDOM

January 19, 1990, amid allegations that he had been poisoned by the US government during his stay in an American prison. Osho did not appoint a successor, but, before his death, he entrusted the administration of his expanding work to an Inner Circle comprised of 21

members. Today there are hundreds of Osho centers

around the world. His Osho Commune International

keeps flowering. It is the largest and most comprehensive center for personal growth in the world today, with more than one hundred courses running simultaneously at any given time. Osho’s words are published in over 700 book titles. In addition, there are several thousand audio and video cassettes available, containing his discourses and talks. The ashram address is: Osho Commune International, 17 Koregaon Park, Pune 411001, Maharastra, India; phone [phone]; fax [phone]; e-mail [e-mail]; website www.osho.com

OSHO 21

For the past twenty years, I have devoted myself whole-heartedly to the search for enlightenment. It all began in the summer of 1980, when I was visiting the Shree

Rajneesh Ashram—Osho’s ashram in Pune, India. While participating in a breath therapy session a few days after my arrival, I had an experience of the indescribable bliss of egoless and mindless satori (experience of Self). This was not a conventional experience. It was timeless, although by the clock it continued for several hours.

Unfortunately it didn’t last and my mind returned. I thought that Osho (or Bhagwan, as he was then known) could help me to become established in a permanent, no-mind state of pure happiness. I therefore asked the master to initiate me as his disciple. On July 22, 1980, this initiation into neo- sannyas took place.

Meditation Is Seeing Reality As It Is Here-Now

Sannyas was given by Osho at the beginning of his evening darshans (seeing or being in the presence of a guru). After he had greeted the assembly with folded hands in the traditional Indian gesture of namaste, he sat down in his chair, and darshan began. That evening, there were six of us waiting to become his disciples. We were called forward and asked to sit in a semi-circle on the floor in front of the master. Moments after Osho had told us to close our eyes, I experienced another satori—the essence 22 TEACHINGS EN ROUTE TO FREEDOM

of my true nature. After what seemed an eternity, his words, Now come back! reached beyond time and

space to my beingness. The master had again granted me a glimpse of the goal that I sought.

Osho then called me to come and kneel in front of

him. He smiled broadly and held, in his raised right hand, a mala (rosary) of 108 rosewood beads with his portrait framed in a rosewood locket hanging from it. Poised to receive sannyas, I leaned forward towards him and, with both hands, he slipped the mala gently over my head.

Then, he placed his right thumb quite firmly up against the center of my forehead and I felt a subtle vibration of cool stillness and silent peace emanating from his touch.

In a perfectly balanced movement, he exerted pressure on my third eye (the spot between the eyebrows) and, at the same time, drew me closer, his left hand gently pulling on the mala he had just placed around my neck.

Throughout this powerful and graceful ritual the master looked deeply into my eyes.2 We remained in silent eye-to-eye communion for some time. Then in a fluid motion, everything naturally took on a new form as Osho was handed the official sannyas certificate by his assistant. He signed it, and pointed to the document, smiling. My new name, he said, would be Swami Dhyan Bertl.3

Dhyanis Sanskrit for meditation; and Bertl was my nickname, which he now interpreted as Sanskrit for

brightor brilliant. I had used this nickname in my sannyas application form, expecting the master to choose a new name for me. Instead, he gave my old name a

totally new significance. The moment he handed me the 2 In the eastern tradition, a seeker’s initiation into discipleship is performed either by the guru’s touch or look, or through silence.

3 As my story unfolds, the reader will find my name changing to Dhyan Hareesh and finally to Madhukar.

OSHO 23

document, I became a sannyasin—a person who has taken sannyas. The certificate showed a white dove and a red dove—symbolizing the master and the disciple respectively—flying in synchronicity into the sky.4 The golden circle encompassing both doves symbolized the oneness of the two in their spiritual bonding. The letter-head of the document read: "Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh—

Sannyas Document." The certificate contained my new name, the date, and Osho’s signature.

While I continued to kneel, Osho proceeded to explain the significance of bright meditation.

Mind, he said, is always dead. It is only an accu-

mulation of memories, a junkyard of dusty repetitions from the past. Nothing bright or original can come from mind. All breakthroughs in science are accidental. They happen though intuitive gaps, in meditative moments, when something breaks through from beyond. All the great scientists are puzzled by this. And they are forced to confess it. In what they contribute, anything original is not their own. Where it comes from, they can’t tell.

In science, meditation is accidental. But in religion, it is deliberate. The whole effort of religion is to put the mind aside and look directly into That-which-is. Mind is crazy. It distorts what is seen through it. Through meditation, the mind gets put aside and seeing becomes bright and clear—so that Reality is seen as it is. It is seen in utter silence, beyond the noisiness of mind. God is just That. God simply is What-is. What comes from there is good and beautiful.

By virtue of his conferring sannyas, the master accepted 4 Until his departure for the USA on June 1, 1981, Osho dressed in a simple white robe. In contrast, his sannyasins were asked to wear red or orange colored robes in the ashram, and clothes of similar color in the outside world.

24 TEACHINGS EN ROUTE TO FREEDOM

me as his disciple with the promise to guide me to his own state of perfection, and I vowed to devote my life to the pursuit of Truth and enlightenment. As visible signs and tokens of having taken sannyas, I was asked to meditate at least one hour a day, observe the dress code, and wear the mala with Osho’s photograph hanging from it.

The satori experience during the sannyas ritual was an experience without an experiencer. Pure objectless being had made itself present—but not to an experiencer.

It just occurred in and of itself without purpose or meaning. In the beginning, it seemed to expand from deep inside, perhaps at the bottom of the spine, and then, instantaneously, it encompassed unending universes. Its nature was thingless, changeless, timeless, spaceless, limitless and indescribably blissful. But, consuming though it was, this non-experience did not last. Or rather, its timeless and changeless nature was soon covered again by the notion of an experiencer who had experienced the experience without an experiencer.

What remained was the intense longing to have more—

to permanently be the non-experience of That.

My first few days in Osho’s presence had presented me with a glimpse of That which neither is nor is not—

which is beyond the body, mind and soul and the entire comprehensible universe, and yet is always present. It was of inexpressible proportions.

What a master! What a presence! What power! What

a transmission! Yes, this was my master—forever! My heart was singing. A huge tidal wave of love and gratitude swept from my heart to my master and filled the whole cosmos. I knew I would do anything, whatever the cost, to make That my eternal home. I knew I was possessed by That. In fact, I realized I had been possessed by It since my earliest childhood. But instead of a trickling faucet, now the sluice gates were opened. In the same measure OSHO 25

in which the direct experience of That disappeared, the intensity of my urge and demand for It increased.

In the days that followed, I heard Osho confirm that this ecstatic condition would become my own permanent state when I became an enlightened buddha like him. He added that it might take time for this to happen—perhaps several lives. But I was convinced that enlightenment was a definite possibility because I had had a taste of it. And I knew I didn’t want anything else but That in this lifetime.

Henceforth, the remainder of my life would be dedicated to the goal of finding Truth and final fulfillment. By taking sannyas, I vowed that all other desires would stand in the shadow of this single consuming desire. In fact, from then on, all other desires became the servants to this one desire.

Know Thyself! I heard the master exclaim so often in the days to come. And he would add, "By knowing yourself you will be eternal."5

Thus my spiritual journey began with a tidal wave of ecstasy and the ritual of initiation. Both were no-mind experiences—the culmination of the spiritual search.

What did I need to do to achieve my spiritual goal and let such egoless moments become a permanent state?

What were the steps? Osho made it easy by providing the answer: Surrender to me, and I will take care of your enlightenment.

This was the spiritual formula and credo that