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Message |
| Posted By: |
Lizard |
| Date: |
18-Jun-2000 |
| Subject: |
Holistic Life Interview - 1982 |
Found this treasure in a friend's closet . . . here's an excerpt:
Holistic Life: What is it like and how does it feel to be an enlightened person?
Atmananda (Rama): Wonderful! It is to be aware of nothing and everything at the same time. Not to be aware of every finite thing, what everyone thinks, but to be aware of the totality of existence, to merge with that consciously. It's also to be aware of nothing because in the enlightenment process one merges with nirvana and one must dissolve, and there can be no awareness because one does not exist anymore - you go beyond the bound circle - so all in all it's wonderful.
Holistic Life: How do you explain the difference between your approach and the traditional eastern approach to spiritual teaching?
Atmananda (Rama): I am traditional, extremely traditional. However, what we see in many of the so-called gurus or teachers that have come from the east is not traditional at all. Traditionally one teaches people how to become liberated and attain spiritual independence without forming an overdependence upon the teacher. There are a number of practices that you teach a person. First and foremost are meditation and self-giving; when the person becomes more advanced, how to enter the supraconscious states. So really I teach all the traditional forms.
At the same time we are indigenous to the west in that we teach how to attain enlightenment while living in the world as opposed to some forms of contemporary eastern metaphysics. (The idea that the individual is to withdraw from life because life is an illusion.) Life is not really an illusion - it's as real as everything else. There are just different degrees of reality.
What I'm saying is that I'm terribly traditional; however, tradition gets lost from time to time in spiritual practice and it becomes ritual. Then every once in a while a group of teachers incarnate on the planet who remind people that it's not the rituals or the symbologies that matter but the pure spiritual experience itself. That's what it's all about and that's traditional. That's what Buddha did, that's what Christ did and that's what a lot of lesser-known enlightened people did.
Holistic Life: What's the most common problem your students have in their quest for self-realization?
Atmananda (Rama): As far as the individual is concerned it's always the same - It's the ego no matter where you live; east, west, north or south. The biggest obstacle to enlightenment is the need to be special.
Holistic Life: What parting words would you have to say to our readers?
Atmananda (Rama): I think it’s important that people stop trying to expect that all of life will be formulated for them. People go to spiritual teachers and they expect the answers and they expect it all to be laid out and it’s not that easy. If it’s ever easy, then you’re not studying the truth. The truth is the most difficult study there is. It’s rewarding but difficult. It’s not easy and that’s why so few people attain enlightenment. That doesn’t mean a person won’t because it’s too difficult. You have to respect the study.
People think that you just go to the guru, say a few words, chant a few mantras and enlightenment comes. It’s a complex study – much more complex than becoming a neurosurgeon. Becoming a neurosurgeon is child’s play compared to enlightenment.
Again, it’s something you can do. It’s a wonderful process but people don’t understand the process. It demands a lot of respect and if you have that respect you do very well with it. But it’s not just another thing you get into – it’s a multi-lifetime study. It’s the most rewarding study there is.
One doesn’t have to be enlightened to gain rewards from it. Everyday you go further and become more conscious. But it’s painful sometimes because life is painful sometimes. It’s beautiful sometimes. It’s all of life, you can’t leave out a trace of it. Yet, you go beyond life too, beyond death. You’re studying everything that exists and doesn’t exist and beyond all that. Quite a study.
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