[SufiMystic] The tale of a seeker - Autobiography of Aziz

[Guest guest]

At 1/26/2002-10:11 AM Jan Sultan wrote:

>Beautiful autobiography of a seeker.

>

>Jan

>--------

>

>http://www.azizkristof.org/Biography.html

 

 

Did I say beautiful autobiography? I think it is a must read for seekers

and even more interesting for 'finders'. He seems to have tested/practiced

every tradition and visited them in their own home country! For example

check this .....

 

" ........ I visited some gurus in Rishikesh. It was all rather amusing.

Most of the gurus looked rather suspicious. I attended a Satsang with a

surprisingly well-known American woman, who didn't seem to have any clue as

to what she was talking about. She gave some disconnected statements about

Enlightenment, which showed her lack of basic knowledge and experience. And

of course, nobody meditated there. Most seekers in Rishikesh seem to be

completely spaced out and without any discriminative wisdom in their choice

of a master. Either they smoked a lot or talked about some flighty

experiences with their gurus. Because of poverty of my experience here, I

was able to appreciate more my Zen training and wisdom. I was very moved

being able to visit the Samadhi of Nisargadatta Maharaj. There was a

wonderful coincidence because the day I visited his place was also the

anniversary of his death. I paid him homage and expressed my infinite

gratitude for his guidance. I also used this opportunity to visit two other

masters in the area: Ramesh Balsekar and Ranjit Maharaj. Ramesh was a very

special man, in love with I Am, but rather identified with a certain

Advaita line of logic. He was very humble and beyond guru trips, although

our discussions about free will did not get anywhere, as he radically

refused such a possibility. He asked me: 'why don't you find the inner

essence?' I said, 'I am speaking from that place!' In that case why are you

checking out all these gurus? 'Because that is my destiny,' I replied. I

used his own argument of destiny to challenge his interrogation of my quest.

 

Most Advaita seekers go through Bombay to visit Ramesh. It is like the

tourist in India who has to visit the Taj Mahal, so the Advaita seeker must

visit Ramesh. And he tells them, they don't have free will, it is all just

movie. He tells them that Enlightenment cannot be reached through effort

for effort is from the ego and ego cannot jump above its own head. So they

all realise through this 'logic' how ridiculous they are and they relax.

Afterwards they see that the meeting was wonderful but they are still as

miserable as before! My feeling is that Maharaj himself was not attached to

the concept of destiny. Even though he spoke about destiny in such a fixed

way, I feel that he could just say the opposite. This was the same issue

regarding the need for practice. In the simplistic interpretation of

Advaita, the need for practice is denied because practice takes place only

in ignorance. But in an imaginative interpretation of Advaita, the vision

of non-duality is more dynamic and includes the need for practice. That's

why Maharishi spoke so much about arresting the mind, and Maharaj about

keeping the sense of I Am, and so forth. Ramesh did not reach his awakening

to the State of Presence directly through his effort, but neither through

the dropping of his effort. It was through Maharaj that the energy of

transformation shifted Ramesh into a higher state. It didn't merely happen

because such was his destiny, but because of the presence of an alive

master. .......... "