Enlightenment (Thompson)

This book chronicles one man's burning quest as he searches for, and tirelessly questions, a total of twelve spiritual teachers who are widely recognized as enlightened. Spurred on by a passionate yearning for truth, Thompson's odyssey takes him to remote parts of India where he engages in dialogues of a quality and depth rarely found in the annals of religion.

Disciple: I'm seeking the Truth, the ultimate Reality.Guru: Yes. My definition of enlightenment is what colour is for the blind man. We can describe colour to him and he will understand and know it intellectually, as a mental concept. But what it really is as an experiential experience, he will only know after eyesight has been given to him. Or, say we have a glass of water in front of us. The water exists as it is; waterness is its nature. Speaking of it, is water in terms of the mind. Such water is a concept. The word water is not water. No matter how detailed we describe it even if it is described by 100 Einsteins such a description will never be what water really is. We have the triad: the subject (the seer), the object (water) and the process of perceiving water. We can know water only when we drink it, shower with it, etc. That knowing then is a direct existential experience. That knowing is drinking is quenching thirst, therefore, is blissful. The three-fold aspects knowing, drinking and being blissful are one in the event called drinking. It is an impersonal event that occurs as part of the functioning of Totality. It is not an act of an individual "me" embodied in a body-mind organism with the sense of personal volitiona and doership. While drinking, the triad drinker, water, and the process of drinking is dissolved. Drinking occurs as one impersonal event, comprising the drinker, the water and the process of drinking. In this case drinking is the impersonal "What-is." The actual drinking of water is not a concept. At the moment of drinking there is no individual, separate "me"-entity, a drinker drinking water. The "me" comes in afterwards as a further, additional "me"-thought as in "'I' drank water. 'I' experienced drinking water." The fact is, while drinking water happened there was no "me." A body-mind organism was drinking water as part of the functioning of Totality. When we inquire closely, we find that such a "me"-entity does not exist, except as a thought, as a notion, as a concept.

Six first-hand accounts of Enlightenment Occurrences of disciples of Ramesh S. Balsekar.Enlightenment - what happens when it happens!Enlightenment Occurrences are documented by Madhukar Thompson"There was tremendous sense of oneness, not only between Maharaj and myself, but a oneness with the whole existence, with Totality.There was a tremendous sense of oneness which, quite frankly, made words seem so unnecessary. That's why there was certain amount of impatience to get done with the talk. Words seemed so unnecessary.It is there! At the same time, I had the reluctant wish that someone else was translating. For then I wouldn't have needed to do the translations, and I could have been exclusively in the experience, without doing a job at the same time." - Ramesh S. Balsekar"I was filled and overcome by the feeling of a very intense or dense presence.Along with that presence, the deepest possible intuitive knowing came into existence that there is nothing but That.At the same time, it was known that all phenomena, all things perceived, are just an illusion, and nothing other than That.I don't know what happened, or how the occurrence came about, or what this presence was. I don't even want to know. And I don't care.It was so simple and natural. There was no exalted feeling of ecstasy or joy. There were no tears, no thunder and lightning; there was just awareness and certitude, and the feeling of peace and love." - Marc Beuret"It was the moment in which the disciple came to the Master without any expectation or imagination.The mind was totally empty, and the heart was full of love. In this moment it happened that the Satguru showered his love on the disciple.And that was the extinction of the last minute tinge, the unveriling was complete. - Margarete Beuret