On Saturday, January 25th I attended what I'd call "Satsang-By-Any-Other-Name"
with Byron Katie. It was held at a posh downtown San Francisco,
sponsored by The Learning Annex.
In preparation for the big day, I'd read "Loving What Is",
read a few Web interviews, and listened to a couple of commercial
audio tapes of sessions.
I arrived early and secured a front-row seat in the carpeted meeting
room (no floor seating with bring-your-own zabuton for this venue!).
I try to get front-row if possible for these things as I'm there
primarily to suck a toke off the energy pipeline, should the teacher
be unconsciously proffering any such.
About 85/15 female/male ratio in the final, full-room crowd of say
250 people that ultimately materialized. Not much in the way of
stage, setting, or props, just a leaflet table with flowers. A few
assistants/gophers and such scuttling about helping with setup,
registration, book-selling, etc.
As set of Inquiry worksheets had been placed on every seat, so most
of us filled out some "issue" (person/thing/self etc. that
is hassling your mind at this time, judge it harshly, state how the
universe is doing you wrong and what action needs to be taken
post-haste to rectify these unfortunates oversights on the part of
What Is… you guys know the drill!) So everybody prepped beforehand
with that.
Buzz of excitement ripples through the crowed, in strolls Katie,
looking absolutely fabulous, all in black. I'd thought maybe the
obsessive re-use of that one single portrait/photo of K on all
her published materials might be masking a gradual "dissolution
of the physical shell" (as it were), but NO she looked
great! Not much make-up, looking as alert as a Lioness on the
Serengeti (are there any left there actually?), she seemed a
beautiful golden fish swimming free through crystal waters …
She stood and walked-around the entire session, using her hand-held
mic for 3 hours straight with one single 15-minute break Though I do
try to be sensitive to energy emanation, in this particular case, I
did not feel any specially strong field-radiation from Katie. Not a
criticism, as I suppose that's not on her menu anyway. Just a side
note.
I do know that K has publicly dialoged with Advaitatistical
adepts (who sometimes do have an energetic or palpable
wake-up-clarion type of physicalized effect on people, as Ramana
did) and apparently there was found to be some commonality between
them, you can refer to the interviews with K in "Emerging
Spiritual Teachers" and "The Awakening West" for more
on that.
She thanked us warmly for coming, in a strong and pleasant
Southern-California-housewifely vocal manner. Definitely a
no-nonsense person however, despite the warm and pleasant persona,
no small talk, no jokes, just let's get it on.
She gave us another few minutes to finish our worksheets, then
called on about 7 people in a row to read the first line of their
issues "I need [-------] to stop [----------]".
Usual stuff I suppose, "I need Phil to be more attracted to
me" "I need my mother to stop lying" "I need my
boss to stop defaming me", etc. The minutia of Earth-Plane
existence, but apparently nettling these people to a considerable
degree. Only the first line was read, then onto the next claimant.
Then it was time to go in depth. Apparent random selection of raised
hands, to get down to The Work. First to plunge in was a lady
sore at her Mom for being a pathological liar. Ho hum, all in a
day's work. K easily blew that one away... "I need my Mom to
lie to me" "I need to stop lying to myself" Etc.
Next one was more interesting a young-ish, intense-looking woman
who made the following subtle linguistic point re one aspect of K's
work the definition of the word "should". For example,
when you say to K, "My mother should not lie to me", she
will ask "Does she lie to you ?" "Yes"
"Well then is it true what you said: `my mother should not lie
to me' ?" "Yes." "Does she lie ?"
"Yes" "Well then what's the reality ? She's lying to
you! So, it isn't true to say she shouldn't lie to you, because she
IS lying to you that's reality!" This young lady made the
point that "should" and "is" are distinguished
in normal meaning. What "should be" can be held separate
from what "is", in the normal usage of these words. But to
K, the word "should" simply does not exist. So there can
be a slight linguistic confusion, for those under the sway of
language…
Anyway, after trying to talk around THAT for a few minutes, this
young woman opened up that she had been brutally beaten throughout
her childhood by her father, and was having trouble freeing her mind
from bitterness moving on. The woman also too issue with statements
that appear on K's audio tape, to a woman who'd suffered childhood
sexual abuse, that the child had been, in a very small part,
responsible or provocative.
Too much to go into here, but it was a long (40 minutes or so) and
intense exchange quite fascinating. However, I could sense that
the work might get a bit stale, rather quickly, if it is not Your
Own Issue being drilled. Actually, in my case, even it if were my
own issue(s), I think I'd get bored with it.
K seems to be an amazing hybrid two parallel universes, one of
intense concern with absolutely minute particulars of relationships,
typical low-level human background-noise types of difficulties, but
this trivial focus all somehow filtered through K's own apparent
breakthrough into a charming and spacy loftiness (or, lofty
spaciness?)
Anyway, K gives no quarter on any point of The Work, does not
deviate from its pursuit into any digression, makes no reference to
anything outside the room, the person, the issue, at hand. Totally
focused, in a warm, charming, yet oddly zombified way. Like a smart
and charismatic version of a Stepford wife, I felt.
Just to check out the 1-1 energetic interactional potential from
her, I raised my hand and snagged the mic to ask a question. I noted
that K has said (earlier this session, and in other interviews) that
you don't need to do any Work on thoughts that are pleasant, let
those be, enjoy them, just Work on the nasty stuff. I said that I've
heard elsewhere that ALL thoughts and mind chatter, even if
pleasant, are held to block us somehow from direct perception of the
present moment radiating Reality all around us, and therefore there
are those who advocate stomping the little suckers be they nice or
be they nasty. Thus, my question.
She engaged very warmly on it, I must say I was somewhat whirlpooled
into her warmth, her attention, her eyes as she spoke. Her eyes
sparkle radically! Is that a showbiz pre-talk eye-drop thing, or a
sure sign of having achieved Nirvana, or what ?? She does have a
fantastic ability in 1-1 lasering that is apparent but maybe a bit
muted by the crowd presentation, but felt strongly when directed
full on you. I felt I was just kind of basking dumbly in her
momentary attention, nodding stupidly and hoping she'd just keep on
answering me at greater greater greater length … the actual
content of her answer, boiled down, was that your neg's are
plentiful enough to give you all the Work you can handle. And when
you've stomped enough Neg's, over time, the "good" ones
will also begin to fade of their own accord, leaving Only What Is,
in each moment.
But all things must pass, and we wrapped up the three hours with me
feeling: I'd enjoyed the intellectual elements (or rather, K's
shrewd deflection of intellectual probing) from the young beaten
woman; too stiff from sitting in that narrow chair for too long;
slightly buzzed out from having my question so warmly answered;
impressed with K herself (Let's face it - she's a Goddess!); and
somewhat bored with The Work. Imagine having to whip out that
cumbersome mechanism with any kind of regularity!
"O body swayed to music,
O brightening glance,
How can we know
the dancer from the dance?"
- WB Yeats
Anyway, this was me there - then. Your own mileage may vary!
Gangaji
Session Jan 26, 2003
I went and visited Gangaji's satsang session yesterday, to check
on her vibes.
Very nice venue, Mill Valley (Marin County CA), a scenically
situated Recreation Center with a spacious and gracious
architecture.
Fancy setup, with a kind of living-room or talk-show style
mini-stage set, everything professionally video taped with lighting
setup etc. Huge photo blow-ups of Papaji and Ramana flanking the
front platform. Flower, 2 comfy-looking chairs, with boom mikes
positioned one for each chair.
About 250 or up to 300 people in attendance, some down on the hard
wood floor - front & center - like me, the majority in fold-up
chairs behind.
About 60/40 women/men ratio I would say, more men than usual in any
kind of semi-New-Age-y event.
They let us in around 3:30 by 3:50 everybody was settled down, we
waited in silence until Gangaji entered quietly without any
ostentation via a side-door, pausing to remove her shoes at the
entrance. That was my first view of her.
Nice-looking lady, not at all over made-up as some have commented,
minimal or no make-up at all that I could see. Dressed simply and
attractively. White hair somewhat tousled. As I say, nice-looking,
but I had no immediate reaction as she lightly mounted the little
stage set platform and settled into a chair. She immediately closed
her eyes and just sat silently, so I and everybody else of course
also just sat silently, most with eyes closed.
I estimate that we sat for about 10 minutes like that. Towards that
end of that period (which was terminated by Gangaji opening her
eyes, stretching slightly and making a kind of soft purring noise or
other vocal indication of readiness), I distinctly perceive her very
strong energetic field, directly pressing against my aura. This
resulted in a curious "rocking" effect, as though
something was gently nudging my own energy field, retracting
slightly, and nudging again, in a pulsing rhythm, causing slight
rocking of my physical body as I sat on the floor in front (2nd row
back) in seiza posture. At the same time, I perceived a kind of
"solar wind" effect of heat or blowing precisely from her
direction. This had not been apparent in the 30 mins I had sat in
same spot waiting before Gangaji's entrance, nor had I felt it in
the first couple of minutes of plain sitting quietly with G. on her
perch. It came on gradually towards the end of the quiet sitting
intro phase. I do not experience this energetic "rocking"
or "solar wind" effect during my normal shakti/ki bodywork
and meditative activity, though of course I experience many other
typical Shakti effects on my own. This was definitely perceptible as
emanation from G herself. This effect persisted throughout the
Satsang until G's departure. I may have looked a bit weird with that
slight rocking, but it was strong and definite. More interpretive
comments about this at the end of this note.
After stiring a bit, and gazing quietly around the room with a
visual sweep right-to-left / front-to-back, G opened with
introductory comments in a clear, strong, but otherwise unremarkable
voice (though kind of an odd combination of Texas and India in the
accent)! She spoke in a slow and measured cadence of her gratitude
to us for coming and what she hoped and presumed was our gratitude
in having the chance to be there. She mentioned that some people
might have come in devotion, and others in skepticism
(telepathically picking up ~my hopefully neutral but definitely
non-devotee mentality?? )
More talk along these lines, gratitude, openness "to the
Nectar" of truth, Satsang and togetherness, etc. Just a few
minutes of that.
Then the "bulk" of the Satsang consisted of G choosing an
attendee from among a few raised hands in the crowd, inviting such
choos-ee forward to the chair adjoining her own on the podium.
The first couple such choosee's were clearly hard-core, long-time
female devotees/attendee's. Absolutely totally and completely blissed
out. Not to criticize at all - this was touching to witness.
Definitely all such as those love G totally - body, mind and soul.
They stumbled about a bit with their words, but it was pretty much a
non-verbal exercise of Bliss Kiss anyway, G held their hand
throughout. Just talk about gratitude, progress, understanding
(finally! - seem to be the idea of it), and declarations of love for
the Guru (e.g. "I am SO in love with you!") Again, it was
touching, played better than it sounds her. G absorbed it with
panache, sincere interest without any ego puffery that I could
detect. G made some encouraging comments along the lines
"That's beautiful, that's reality, you have found
yourself" etc etc. Pretty generic lines, really more New Age-y
and less Advaitistic than I'd expected. Actually G never once
trotted out ANY of the harder-edged Advaita staples screenplay such
as "Who do you think is experiencing this bliss?" or even
"What do you mean you love others now? There ARE no
others!" It was pretty much straight-forward New Age Love Bomb
validation. Again, performed with style, dignity, and apparent
sincerity by G, unfailingly impressive in her slightly detached
sympathy and warmth... paradox ?
Others rotated through the hot seat... all appeared tongue-tied and
blissed out while interacting with G, though this may have been just
stage fright for many. A few near or total newbies. All got the same
validation and warmth from G, nobody got any Kali-ficational
harsh-guru come-uppance at all. Only one male I think. He made a
funny response to G's question: "So, what do you REALLY
want?" "You mean, apart from wanting you to be my
Mommy?" ...
One girl was a very young and sweet veterinary medicine student.
This triggered a nice mention by G of Ramana's lover for animals,
which I've always greatly greatly admired him for, and G displayed
her humor here, saying to the girl "Well you have charmed THIS
animal (pointing to herself), ... do you want to pat my head?"
(G lowers her head playfully to the girl's hand.) That was cute, got
a laugh from the crowd.
Overall G was unfailingly polite, gracious, affirming, humorous,
dignified, ever-so-slighty remote/distant.
During all this I was absorbing considerable directed energy
emanating (not in any personal way of course) directly from where G
was sitting. I am sensitive to energy and capable of objectively
detecting and reporting about this aspect. Felt slightly detached
from myself, completely aware-but-utterly uncaring about the
physical discomfort of sitting motionless in seiza on the hard floor
for two hours... seemed to be happening to somebody else.
Yet I was NOT "blissed out" in any true sense, just felt
warmed/fuzzed by her energy field/emanation, and also this slight or
odd feeling of detachment from myself. But there was not any kind of
really dramatic experience internally ( I did not care/mind about
that of course of course. I went to this with as objective, neutral
and open a mind as possible, just in the sprit of "I heard she
sang a good song; I heard she had a style; and so I came to see her;
to listen for a while" - that's all, not requiring, expecting
or needing to be blissed out or Insta-Enlightened (as some people
reported from visiting Ramana at Arunachala, for instance).
Well speaking of songs, it was about time to wind up, so G gently
shut down the raised hands, saying that the closing song, to be sung
by one "Kirtana" (spelling?) would "answer your
questions now". The performer was an intensely serious looking
young woman with solo self-accompaniment on guitar.
Minor surprising incident, in that as the boom mike was being
adjusted over the guitar, the mic fell out of its holder onto the
guitar with a loud bang! The performer looked a tad shaken
(superstitious
group, at heart?) but G recovered very nicely with a warm, deep
chuckle and a comment about "slapstick" and then turned
attention momentarily away from the confused young woman by making a
nice joke about "Hey why'd you guys turn off MY mike now? I
guess they're making sure I can't sing along!"
The song itself was a death-bed lament of regrets as though the
writer/singer were actually dying, and looking back to how she ought
to have lived life. Though rather odd in expressing deathbed regrets
about a "life" that from Ramana's point of view would
presumably be said never to have occurred in the first place, it was
beautifully sung and played and very moving in its content. I
wouldn't mind having a recording of that. Definitely some teary eyes
at the end of that.
That was it. G made a few closing remarks that more or less escaped
me (except for one that for some reason struck me - she said
"Our next session is scheduled to happen early March, but maybe
we won't ever meet again, you just never know. Things can change in
the world so quickly."), then gathered the stack of letters
from the table at her side, and quietly descended the stage.
We remained sitting quietly for a minutes. Then after a few more
procedural info points from an assistant, we put on our shoes and
filed out.
My energetic impression had remained absolutely constant, or
slightly intensifying throughout the entire 2-hour Satsang. It
ceased pretty much immediately after G left the hall, with not much
after-effect. This was not a "heart" radiation of love, it
was warm, yes - but not a pure love energy. It was just a power
field. It reminded me very much of the impersonal power field or
"solar wind" type emanation that is very clearly
perceptible in the vicinity of the Great Buddha bronze statue at
Kamakura, Japan. Pretty much identical. What I'm thinking is that
this might possibly be the accumulated layers simply of all those
thousands who have concentrated their devotional attention towards G
over these dozen years ? This is what in Pranic Healing would be
called "energetic cords" - a kind of affliction, or
irritating by-product, of fame, in their terms, but not really
connected with traditional or Advaitistic notions of enlightenment.
I'm not sure about it.
As I crossed the parking lot to my car, I spotted Gangaji with a
small knot of people around her own car, preparing to depart. As I
crossed a dozen yards away, she suddenly looked beyond her immediate
cluster of people, exactly in my direction, I think looking to hail
or greet somebody getting into their car just behind where I was
walking.
But seeing her gaze momentarily (accidentally) lock on to me, I felt
a sudden surge of deep respect for her, and spontaneously bowed with
Namaste towards her, completely heartfelt. She looked at me with a
slight and brief smile, before turning away.
Eckhart
Tolle Session Mar 29, 2003
I turned up an hour early for Eckhart Tolle's scheduled
appearance at a New Age church facility in Los Angeles (Culver
City). My ticket was general seating, so I figured I'd arrive waaaay
early, an hour early in fact, to secure a near-front location. I
consider location an important tactical element for these events,
based on my theory that these enlightened types may be shedding some
kind of emanative energy which could lead to a pleasant and possibly
permanent contact high, thus sparing me a lot of blood, sweat, and
sneers in my own chase after the big E.
One block from the event, I get my first clue - Tolle is a Big
League Player! Uniformed traffic directors all over, gesturing a
long line of cars into a distant side lot, the traffic already
beginning to snarl. I park and scoot into the venue, dodging the
milling throngs, get my ticket marked by one of the phalanx of
ticket takers, stroll blissfully into the (cavernous, church-ified
warehouse of a) meeting hall - only to find ALL the "good"
seats including the entire center section and most of the remote
wing sections on either side pasted with "RESERVED" signs
and prohibitive tape and ropes. So I creatively, grabbed a chair
from the far back and slid it up as an innocent appendage to the end
of an existing center-section row.
Lucky I'd got there early though, as when it came up to within 15
minutes of show time, the question wasn't getting a GOOD seat, it
was getting ANY seat. Tons of people still showing up at the door,
tickets in hand, being told "We have no more seats..."
This seemed to raise some irritation and ire among the ingressing
masses. Some individuals more vociferous than others, as always. But
I could detect the strain of New Ager's trying to keep their
spiritual cool under the hammer of mundane resource-scarcity
pressure.
Eventually that problem was solved by opening up two large virgin
sections of choir seating on stage behind Tolle's (prospective)
chair.
The audience seemed more gender-balanced than either Katie's (f/m
80/20) or Gangaji's (f/m 70/30), at about f/m 60/40. Women always
seem to predominate at these things ?
On the stage/platform itself, there was little stagecraft, just the
obligatory paired vases of Satsang-Love-In flowers, a simple
(audience-identical) four legged chair, a standing mic at chair
level, and a smallish table to the chair's right, with water glass.
The event began a bit late, what with all the filing in and seat
hunting. Finally the doors were shut, it got quiet... I was absorbed
in some day-dreaming, NOT in the present moment - and when I looked
back up on stage - there he was, already standing there, bathed in
spotlight, adjusting the standing mic. A smallish and physically
unprepossessing guy, I'm sure most of you know. Humble and gentle in
appearance and mannerisms. He sat and composed himself, and didn't
begin to talk for another 5 minutes or so.
The entire audience of TWELVE HUNDRED PEOPLE (at $75 a shot!) fell
reverentially quiet.
After a relatively short opening-silence stint, Eckhart began to
speak quietly, in a near-monotone. His voice is gentle, lulling, not
unpleasant - approximating 2001's HAL 9000 computer voice, but
layered with a touch of soft German accent and the occasional flash
of a humorous twinkle.
Kind of an elfin type (though decidedly not a Legolas in the looks
department... but hey I'm not exactly Paul Newman myself)
He began with a somewhat interesting riff about "how you might
be feeling right now", referring to the just-past ticket
snafu's. He said that those frustrations ("What do you mean
there are no more seats ?! I've got a ticket!!) were a good practice
opportunity for awareness, for saying "yes" to the
"form of the present moment". Observe any frustration in
yourself, feel how the righteous anger strengthens the small mind,
confirming the ego's "rightness" - feel the strengthening
yet hardening, almost contraction, of your energy field, the effect
on your body, etc.
Of course, absolutely none of the above applied to me at all, as I'd
gotten an OK seat long before game time ... Hahaha!
Just kidding, of course he meant it to apply to all of us, and to
any other frustration. I only mention it because he returned to this
narrative about the ticket frustrations several times throughout the
evening.
Lately I've begun to realize that a Satsang, or quasi-Satsang, or
pseudo-Satsang or whatever these are, needs to be
"evaluated" (if at all) on a couple different levels. The
"small (egoic) mind" always needs to judge right ? That's
what I'll be doing here.
From the "small mind's" point of view, the intellect that
is, most or all of what Eckhart said would be considered platitudes,
New Age truisms, or just common sense. He talked for example about
themes such as "people who can't give up the role of being a
mother or father - even when the child is already 30"
(shocking!) or "when you do anything even something trivial,
like buying a newspaper, treat it as a chance to engage another
equal being with your full attention" or "children get
taught labels too early, before they have a chance to fully observe
and appreciate a 'tree' they learn to label, categorize, and forget
trees'. Now all the above themes (developed at some length) are
certainly true and valuable insights... but - honestly - fairly tame
stuff.
Of course, my saying it is 'tame' or 'common sense' - all that is
just mind-chatter, the shallow and supercilious
"intellect" (such as mine is LOL!) compulsively slapping
down, judging, comparing, carping, etc.
Yep, I know it.
Tolle himself gets major self-awareness points for stating at the
outset that "your mind will feel bored and restless in this
session... and it won't excite your emotions either" I mean,
what can one say to that ?
Yes, overall it WAS fairly boring, at the level of mind or
intellect. You might as well have stayed home and read - I don't
know - possibly "Conversations with God" or something ? Or
Jonathan Livingston Seagull ? Or hey just stay home and read Tolle's
own book (which delivers all his concepts in a far superior fashion
than his talk last night, but I don't hold that against him, as I
believe he correctly assumed that he was addressing an audience of
those in-the- know, and already-on-board.)
So another level of analysis, for me at least, is energetic. I do
sometimes get a major, directly palpable energy hit from certain
teachers. Unfortunately, I didn't feel much of that from Eckhart
either. Maybe I was seated too far away ? Rather than feeling
hyper-alert, I began to feel drowsy and dozy before half way
through. Bit of an ordeal actually, three hours of that, with
Eckhart just a small distant figure on the stage.
The (dare I say it?) boredom was compounded by the fact that of the
3 guru's surveyed, Eckhart had the least audience participation,
that is to say, zero. None whatsoever! Swept onto the stage, sat,
talked for just shy of 3 hours, "Thank you thank you",
down off the stage, quickly through the center aisle to the main
door, flanked by nervous-looking attendants on all side, into a
waiting semi-limo type car - whoosh he's OUTTA there... But again
highly understandable, as frankly what would the audience do if he
hung around ? Just blather and bother him with all their dumbass
personal baggage and "problems". So I do genuinely
sympathize with him on this point... However, it WOULD have been
nice if a few vetted "philosophical" type questions from
the audience had been permitted... would have helped keep me awake
at least.
It got more interesting in certain stretches. Being in LA, I guess
he thought he should address some local concerns, so he talked a
little about how in his 20's he'd always wanted to be
"recognized" and "appreciated" by the world. But
the world never did. Then he said the irony of it is that now
"The world thinks I'm great" (appreciative laughter from
audience) but that this outcome, now, really doesn't matter at all.
He said (tad wistfully?) that being a nobody, unknown to the world,
is actually a wonderful thing. He related that bit of personal stuff
to an archetypal LA story, going on at some length about how you
might today be working as a waiter or waitress and then be suddenly
discovered by a major director, end up "moving to Beverly
Hills" - then realizing you are still the same person... not
satisfied, because "the world of form is not stable"... it
can't last, etc. It began to get slightly trite again (<== small,
egoic mind Judgement Alert!!)
I did encounter one major insight, a really interesting point he
made that indeed seemed to blow my mind somewhat and really woke me
up at least. I'm probably not doing this justice, but anyway
essentially he made the point that when we look out into space
(normal, you know, stars and stuff) there are two kinds of things
going on there. There's all the stars, planets, comets and what not,
which are the forms or objects, and then there is ... well, there's
space. That from out of which all the stuff arises. And he compared
that situation to our internal experience of thoughts, constantly
streaming, but there's always a huge background field always
present, out of which they arise. And then he linked that back to
present moment appreciation, the Now, saying that if you resent and
resist "the form that the present moment takes" you will
never be able to see past that form, into the ever-present Space
from which the present moment eternally arises ...
Wow ! Now THAT was cool stuff! I'm probably not catching it right in
my description above, please refer to Eckhart's existing or planned
published materials for the real deal (don't recall reading this in
his existing books, or hearing it on the CD's), but I've summarized
it here in the context of saying that that portion really DID
seem to open up my brain and perceptions, like a drug. The effect
lasted from that segment of his talk until next morning, but is now
wearing away. Oh well, it was fun. And I think it is an interesting
idea/practice to work with in the future ... maybe he will go
into that further in his next book.
[How
they stack up]
That was cool!
Overall though, perhaps due to the crowds, the distance, the
'boring' format, whatever, this was the least interesting and
'charging' of my "Big 3" Satsang attendances. Maybe that
just means my mind is desperately trying to drag me away from this
guy as it senses that HERE, after all, lies the truly greatest
threat to its small-time ego shell game... ??
In the personality/presence sweepstakes, the Win, Place, and Show
trophies all go to ... Byron Katie !! Yep, she has by far the most
interesting, cool, riveting, kick-ass personality of the three,
magnetic, genuine, interesting... what can I say, somehow
"real" in a more palpable way than the other two (Eckhart,
Gangaji). And, definitely not afraid to grapple with anything
anybody wanted to say... she had no message really, other than her 4
questions that fit on an index card, just pure audience work. Yet
despite her engaging charisma, she never seemed at all phony or
manipulative - she seemed like a woman who has simply arrived at her
true self. With her winning personality and riveting work-the-crowd
style, the exact opposite of Eckhart. Well I know I shouldn't be
comparing them. So sue me.
As for the energetics area, Gangaji easily steals the show. Alone of
the three, she absolutely radiated a completely obvious and fully
charged energy field that was almost instantly detectable, constant
throughout the session, warm strong and just so OBVIOUS. She was all
energy.
But in the "message" department, despite the boring
session I've just described, I think Eckhart, based on his books, is
the MAN. His writing is so clear, simple and useful, I don't see how
you can beat it as a fully accessible step-by-step walk-through of
the concepts, showing exactly how our own egoic mind possesses us
like a demon, uses us like donkeys, and basically laughs at us like
fools for not seeing through all the stupid games. It is just so
easy to see (in other people at least), once you've read Eckhart's
book.
* – This
is an expandable set of pages. If you've been to see any of my
listees and would like to offer an "objective" report, ie
from one not already "attached" to the teacher in question
or full of ideas based on attachment to a "competing"
teacher, send it in (Feedback)
and i'll be happy to put it up. Other Reports
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