Meeting the Status Quo

Meeting the Status Quo The Meditation Teacher When I had been teaching for only six months, I was invited to dinner by an American meditation teacher whom I had known in my days as a seeker He was looking forward to our meeting because he wanted to see for himself what had happened to me. Soon after I sat down, he began to ask me questions about my experience. 1 repeatedly said that it would be better to wait until after we had eaten, as 1 sensed something uncontrollable might happen if we began to speak in a serious way. He found this difficult to understand. After we had finished dinner, we sat down in chairs opposite each other and he proceeded to question me about my experience. Almost immediately 1 was overwhelmed with ecstasy, and simultaneously felt all barriers of time, space and personal identity fall away My answers and the power and intensity with which they were pouring out of me shocked my host. Engulfed by the unknown, all prior assumptions about who 1 was were rendered irrelevant, and Mft-nn^ the Slalus Quo therefore ii hccanic impossible for me to be anything but ullerly real. My laughter echoed a knowing confidence that could not pretend otherwise. When I said thai all ihc books on his bookshelf were useless if he truly wanted to be free, his expression changed from shock to anger. When I said that I was sitting before him completely naked and that

meant no disrespect, he seemed to withdraw even more. The room was filled with a powerful presence and my friend seemed at a loss to comprehend what was occurring. He concluded only that I had become arrogant, and 1 sus- pect also felt I had lost my mind. I had, but he was unable to appreciate how fortunate I was to have done so. Eight years later, he is still teaching other people how to meditate. A Spiritual Community A significant number of those who were coming to sec me when I began to teach in England were part of a medita- tion community that had been loosely associated for over ten years. In the early 1980s, I had been a student of the leader of that community. Many in the group had spent several years in India in the 1970s practicing meditation intensively At that time, most had abandoned worldly ambitions for the promise of enlightenment. When 1 came on the scene m the second half oi the 1980s, 1 discovered \Um main i^l these peojile had long ago given up on that inc^iiiise and were now. At] I 'mcomc/i/iomcj/ Rclalionshiii to Life to my surprise, almost all immersed in different forms of psychotherapy. This intrigued me as I had heard about these individuals over the years of my own seeking and had looked up to many of them. Suddenly 1 found myself in the unusual position of teaching those who had been at it far longer than I had. Within a few weeks of my arrival, most of the core group found themselves on fire with the passion for liber- ation once again. When they had all met in India years earlier, their intention was only to become free, to be enlightened in this birth and to be able to manifest that enlightenment in a profound and extraordinary way That which most had long since abandoned hope for was now burning in their veins. It was then that I began to have intimations of what the future might bring. I watched in amazement as ideas that had become fixed about what was possible crumbled. Innocence and passion rediscovered created an air of excitement and renewed willingness to take risks. Within a few months almost all of the members of the board of their meditation center had decided to leave, not only because they were admitting their disillu- sionment, but because they had found what they had originally been looking for. Their western teachers, whom they had met in India and began their journey with years earlier, were not pleased. In fact, when they tried to speak to them about their experience, to their surprise, their enthusiasm was met with disinterest. Meeting the Status Quo Later, I lie leader of the community commented, "The problem with Andrew was thai he was only interested in enlightenment, lie never wanted to settle into the practice/' The Hospice Worker In 1987 when 1 was teaching in Amsterdam, a man in his early forties came from America to see me. He had orig- inally been inspired by Ram Dass. His spiritual journey eventually led him to Asia where he became a Buddhist monk for some time. Later he traveled throughout India, meditating and visiting different spiritual teachers. When

met him, he had long since disrobed and had become a hospice worker, running a center that helped people face into and prepare for their own death. He also led medita- tion retreats. He came to me because he said he wanted to be free. One morning, bubbling with joy and excitement he came to visit me, proclaiming, 'i want to bring you to the States to teach. 1 want to introduce you to all my friends. Six months later I was on my way to America, he hav- ing prepared the way. When 1 arrived, he stayed with my wife and me and a small group of other sludenls in a large house in the country. But something had changed. The joy and excitement was gone and he looked lerrible. He u^ld me he was terrified of letting go. He said, disappcMnled in An ( 'tuonditional Rchuiouship to Life himself, "I'm unable to trust." Soon after, he was gone. He returned to his hospice work, and within days he was once again helping people face into their own death and teaching others how to meditate. The Transpersonal Psychologist Shortly after I moved back to America,

lived and taught in western Massachusetts for six months. A woman in her early fifties came to see me teach almost every night for three weeks. She was a therapist, a teacher and trainer of transpersonal psychologists, and a Buddhist who had practiced meditation for years. From the very first evening she came, she was intrigued. She had many questions and we often spoke at great length. One night she asked me, "Andrew, how do you do it? You're able to get people to let go in such a short time. In my work this usually takes years. I'm fascinated by how well you know people and how deeply you're able to work with each person. Just watching it is wonderful." After a few weeks something interesting happened. Instead of being the observer, she became the observed. Unexpectedly she now found herself the object of atten- tion, because this time she was the one on the spot. Seeing that she was not able to let go, she looked at me and smiled knowingly. "My number is up," she said. Meeting the Status Quo The next day, she left lo leach a training course for transpersonal psychologists. A week later I received a card from her which said, haven't run away. I want you to know 1 still want lo be free." I never saw her again. An Vmonditumdl Rclalionship to Life J