Buddha At The Gas Pump

Saniel Bonder is the author of Healing the Spirit/Matter Split and the founder of the Waking Down in Mutuality work. He has been a pioneer in the widespread embodiment and mutual, evolutionary exploration of awakened consciousness for over a decade. Linda Groves-Bonder is Saniel’s full partner in their transmission and teachings and a Senior Teacher of Waking Down in Mutuality. Together they are now co-authoring a forthcoming book, The Human Sun, and founding Human Sun University. Saniel and Linda's sites: sanielandlinda.com TheHumanSunSeries.com heartgazing.com Recorded 4/23/2011. Part 1 of this interview, recorded a week earlier. Video below.  Audio also available as a Podcast. YouTube Video Chapters: 00:00:00 - Discussion on the Continuation of Ego After Enlightenment 00:04:17 - The Awakening Process and the Extinction of Ego 00:08:20 - Transmission and Integration after Realization 00:12:03 - The Spirit-Matter Split 00:15:54 - Evolution of Ancient Traditions 00:19:21 - Ho

Saniel Bonder is the author of Healing the Spirit/Matter Split and the founder of the Waking Down in Mutuality work. He has been a pioneer in the widespread embodiment and mutual, evolutionary exploration of awakened consciousness for over a decade. Linda Groves-Bonder is Saniel’s full partner in their transmission and teachings and a Senior Teacher of Waking Down in Mutuality. Together they are now co-authoring a forthcoming book, The Human Sun, and founding Human Sun University. Saniel and Linda's sites: sanielandlinda.com TheHumanSunSeries.com heartgazing.com Recorded 4/17/2011. Part 2 of this interview, recorded a week later. Audio and video below.  Audio also available as a Podcast. YouTube Video Chapters: 00:00:00 - Introduction of Saniel and Linda Groves Bonder 00:03:17 - A Quest for Spiritual Connection 00:07:17 - A Shift in Perspective 00:10:37 - The Door to a Whole Other World 00:14:08 - Discovering the Teachings of a Spiritual Teacher 00:18:20 - Awakening and the A

Chris Hebard is the founder and creator of StillnessSpeaks.com, a premier resource on the internet aggregating the text, audio, and film of authentic contemporary and traditional teachers of Non-Duality and Self Inquiry from within all spiritual disciplines. The website reflects his enthusiasm and love for its material. The approach of StillnessSpeaks is integral; it does not promote any particular path or methodology. Chris attempts to honor the many paths available to all Truth Lovers; in doing so, he hopes to demonstrate that there is only one destination. Chris writes, speaks and films on Self Inquiry, Advaita, and non-duality extensively throughout the United States and Europe. He can be reached at oncechris@stillnessspeaks.com. As you will hear in this interview, Chris’s own journey involved becoming a hard-driving, successful businessman, who dismissed spirituality as impractical nonsense, only to suffer a series of devastating losses which brought him literally to his knees, dismantled his ego, and

From http://thomasgates.com/bio: Thomas was born in Texas in 1950 and grew up in the rural countryside not far from Dallas. He spent much of his childhood playing in the woods, observing the stars, the sky, the trees, the animals, the changing of seasons, and the effortless flow of nature’s way. As a result, he quietly sensed that there must be one simple and powerful essence sustaining all this incredibly diverse creation. Meditation Then, shortly before his twenty-second birthday, Thomas learned a unique and simple meditation technique that quickly confirmed his sense of what had been occurring in nature all along. It enlivened the experience of that deep, underlying silence–the silence that permeates and sustains the whole field of existence. Emergency This peace and happiness lasted about one week when Thomas suddenly found himself being rushed to the hospital with a severe case of appendicitis. The doctors told him not to worry. It would just be a routine surgical procedure and that he would be home in

Paul has been involved with the recovery community since 1988, and has been leading workshops and holding talks for 18 years. He has been assisting those with addiction problems for many years. The 12 step program has some very potent ‘pointers’, which have assisted a few to go beyond the 12 steps. Paul is unwavering in his teaching. His very direct, uncompromising pointing doesn't provide a refuge for entrenched conditioning and the sense of separateness, no matter how convincing that experience may be. "Whatever arises in my mind, I don't let it vouch for me."  "Any form of looking that focuses on an object misses the opportunity to directly be the seeing, and not be identified with the object." Paul's site: ZenBitchSlap. Transcript of this interview. Interview recorded 3/26/2011 Audio and video below. Audio also available as a Podcast. YouTube Video Chapters: 00:00:00 - Introduction to Paul Hedderman 00:03:18 - The Essence of Awakening 00:05:13 - The cat knocking over the light and the

Photo Credit: John Day Tim is a philosopher or ‘lover of wisdom’ who is pioneering a simple new way to experience a profound spiritual awakening, which fully embraces our everyday humanity. He has spent his life exploring the awakened state he often simply calls ‘The Mystery Experience’. Tim has articulated his own revolutionary ‘philosophy of lucid living’ designed to help people go beyond ideas and actually experience a ‘deep awake’ state, which replaces out-dated spiritual jargon with clear new concepts which are simple to understand. He has also developed a profoundly simple ‘Mystery of the Moment’ attention technique and a number of powerful ‘I to I’ practices, which quickly awaken practitioners to ‘The Mystery Experience’ and help them commune with others in oneness and ‘Big Love’. Tim has an honours degree in philosophy and is an internationally respected authority on world spirituality. He is the author of over thirty books that have established his reputation as a scholar and free-thinker. He is

Nick Gancitano has spent most of his adult life delving into the mysteries of the ancient spiritual teachings and has undergone a conscious transformation that has made him a specialist in the field. Nick studied under some of its most respected sages and has traveled extensively around the world to deliver this teaching. In addition, Nick himself has been recognized for his simplification of the often complicated spiritual system of advaita (wisdom through direct insight). After returning from his journey, Nick became committed to disseminating these teachings among friends and associates who became students and soon erected The Self-Inquiry Center for Conscious Living, where Nick now provides his lighthearted works to a growing population of devoted spiritual seekers. Aside from being the spiritual director at The Self-Inquiry Center, Nick was once an All-American athlete, corporate regional vice-president, and U.S. National Champion under the legendary football coach Joe Paterno. He later became one of t

Mandi Solk lives in the picturesque town of Hebden Bridge in England, UK. She founded Nonduality-North six years ago in order to attract Nonduality Teachers to the North of England. Mandi is herself a Nonduality Teacher and has now handed Nonduality-North on so that she can concentrate on her own meetings and YouTube videos. She has written a book: 'The Joy of No Self', endorsed by Scott Kiloby and Jeff Foster, and is presently working on another. Website:  nonduality-mandi.blogspot.com. Interview recorded 2/27/2011 2nd BatGap interview with Mandi Transcript of this interview. Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast. Due to technical problems, this video only contains still shots of Mandi, while Rick's video is normal. YouTube Video Chapters: 00:00:00 - Introduction to Mandi Solk 00:02:49 - A Seeker's Journey 00:06:17 - Letting go in the face of death 00:09:20 - The Awakening and Change of Perspective 00:12:00 - Encased in a Wall of Terror 00:15:01 - Profound Silenc

Philip Goldberg has been studying India’s spiritual traditions for more than forty years, as both a practitioner and an author.  After teaching Transcendental Meditation in early 1970s, he became a professional writer and has written or co-written 19 books, including The Intuitive Edge, Making Peace With God, Roadsigns on the Spiritual Path and his most recent work, American Veda: From Emerson and the Beatles to Yoga and Meditation, How Indian Spirituality Changed the West. The book was greeted by enthusiastic reviews from journalists and experts in the field. He is also published novelist and a member of both the Writers Guild of America and the Authors Guild.  His blogs appear regularly on the Huffington Post, Elephant Journal and other sites. An ordained interfaith minister and spiritual counselor as well, Phil was the founding director of the Forge Guild of Spiritual Leaders and recently created Spiritual Wellness and Healing Associates (SWAHA) in Los Angeles, with his wife, acupuncturist Lori Deutsch. 

Siddhananda's journey began in her teenage years. It wasn't until she was around 30 that her journey and seeking of truth began in earnest. At this time, Spiritual practices were picked up on her own, and Kundalini spontaneously awakened due to a sincere prayer of wanting to be of service to humanity. She was not prepared or had any idea what this awakening would open or where it would lead. With this awakening, many phenomena, shifting states of consciousness and radical mood changes manifested which left her extremely ungrounded and shaken. After a long period of struggling to understand what was taking place and being unsuccessful at coming to any balance or peace within, Siddhananda found her Guru, GuruSwamiG. Siddhananda has been with her Guru for 10 years. Increasing stability, deepening states as well as balance slowly filtered in during this time  due to  her Guru's  grace and guidance. Recently, a profound shift took place in which all sense of separation and individuality suddenly dropped. Spont

Genpo is a long-time Zen practitioner, now Master, who has developed the “Big Mind Process”, through which "Novice participants without any formal meditation training can have profound spiritual experiences with persistent enhancement of well-being..." Interview recorded 1/10/2011. Audio and video below. Audio also available as a Podcast. YouTube Video Chapters: 00:00:00 - Introduction to Zen Master Genpo Mersal 00:02:56 - The Role of Zen and Buddhism in My Life 00:05:18 - The Journey of Consciousness 00:07:01 - Throwing Our Backs Into Awakening the Planet 00:08:47 - Becoming a Zen Master 00:10:47 - The Growth and Maturity of Zen Masters and Roshis 00:12:53 - Total Freedom and Empowering Others 00:15:13 - Enlightenment and Liberation 00:17:34 - The Journey up the Mountain 00:20:03 - Falling from Enlightenment: Returning to the Marketplace 00:22:26 - Indulging in Shadows 00:24:39 - Reintegrating the Shadows around the Marketplace 00:27:07 - The Importance of Working

Burt Harding, founder of the Awareness Foundation in Vancouver, offers a radical invitation to recognize the truth of our being as already whole and fulfilled. He reminds us of the love we really are beyond the personal stories we carry. In this way, we come to recognize what we have always known but did not live from – the beauty and wonder of our own true essence. Burt conducts sessions and workshops in Supersentience, a system devised to help heal deep wounds and promote a shift in the perception of who we really are. He has conducted studies in higher consciousness for thirty years and had his own television series on the mind/body connection. Burt's site Interview conducted 1/9/2011. Audio and video below. Audio also available as a Podcast. YouTube Video Chapters: 00:00:00 - Introduction to Burt Harding 00:02:36 - The Life-Changing Book 00:04:40 - Finding my Place and Holding Classes 00:06:53 - Discovering Super Sentience 00:08:58 - Integration of Spiritual Teachings 00:11:09

Michael Fischman is a founding member and current president of the U.S. Art of Living Foundation, a non-profit educational and humanitarian organization whose programs have impacted more than 25 million people in more than 140 countries. A former advertising executive with Ogilvy & Mather, he is also the CEO of APEX (Achieving Personal Excellence), the corporate training division of the International Association for Human Values. “For the past twenty years, I have dedicated my life to sharing and growing on a spiritual path that has brought fulfillment and happiness to millions of people around the world,” says Michael. He currently lives in Boca Raton, Florida. Michael's site: http://www.stumblingintoinfinity.com/ Michael's book: Stumbling Into Infinity: An Ordinary Man in the Sphere of Enlightenment Transcript of this interview Interview recorded 1/2/2011. Audio and video below. Audio also available as a Podcast. YouTube Video Chapters: 00:00:00 - Introduction to Michael Fischman and the Art

Ananta grew up in London and left England aged 19, with the desire to live as a free being. This first expressed itself through travel and lead her to Asia in 1989 where she has lived ever since. Searching to find the Truth of herself she found her way to the Osho commune in Pune, India where she explored meditation and Self-awareness groups for more than 10 years, also working with people for several years in the healing fields. In 1994 she entered a two and half year period of silence in a Japanese prison. During this period True Freedom was realized. That which has always been Free, Full and Enough unto Itself! The Peace that is the ground of all experience. The Love that does not need an experience of Love. The happiness that is our True Nature without needing an experience of happiness....  revealed itSelf to ItSelf. Coming back into 'the world' in 1997, there followed a period of confusion as personality and drama began to reappear causing the search to go on. In 2000 she then found her way to Int

Scott Kiloby is an author and international speaker on mindfulness and addiction recovery. Scott is also the founder and director of the Kiloby Center for Recovery. After twenty years of addiction to drugs and alcohol, Scott began to develop Natural Rest for Addiction which has helped people all over the world confront the root of their addiction, anxiety, and depression. Scott was the COO of MyLife Recovery which held the patent on the naltrexone implant. Scott also developed an app that acts as an interface between pain management doctors and their patients to decrease the likelihood of addiction. The app also protects doctors legally from claims of negligence arising out of opiate overdoses. Originally from southern Indiana, Scott was an attorney for several years before becoming an author. He travels extensively across the United States and in Europe giving talks, seminars, and intensives. Along with his work at the Kiloby Center, Scott is also the director and co-owner of the Natural Rest House, a det

Khen Rinpoche Geshe Kachen Lobzang Tsetan is Abbot of the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery in Bylakuppe, in southern India. He is a Tibetan Buddhist monk from Ladakh, India, who has lived and taught in the United States for more than fifteen years. He began his monastic life at age seven in Stok, his family village.  At age thirteen he joined the Stok Monastery to study and memorize Buddhist scriptures. In 1952, when he was sixteen years old, he walked with his father from Ladakh to Shigatse, Tibet, to enter the famous Tashi Lhunpo Monastery. The 800-mile trek took them over two months to complete. Khen Rinpoche Tsetan received his novice monk vows there and studied Buddhist philosophy at the monastery's Skilkhang College with many prominent Tibetan scholars. His dream was to receive the Geshe degree in Buddhist philosophy, similar in level to that of the Western Ph.D. This dream was deferred for him when the Chinese government intensified its policy of cultural genocide on occupied Tibet in 1959. The daily public h

Dr. Gregory Tucker was a Clinical Psychologist who woke up when he read Wei Wu Wei's "Open Secret," one of eight books Terence Gray wrote between 1958 and 1974. The shift from the lie, right now is real, to the truth, right now is only a Mind generated dream, made him confront the fact "Psychotherapy" is not a people-based event, but only a dreamer-based event, in which the dream features all the problems the dreamer in the dream deals with in the process of defending the fiction it is 'the person' it portrays in the dream. Waking up occurs exactly as fast as the dreamer in the dream surrenders to the fact it can only be a dreamer in this dream, somewhere with that fact, and probably filling time defending the lie it is some kind of a person, and more likely than not, a less than okay person. Seeing 'the truth' prompted Greg to stop working with 'people' to work with the suffering dreamers endure defending the fiction they are people. He calls what he does, "The Recovery Process," which assists dreamers to id

Janet Sussman is a transformational musician, seminar leader, intuitive counselor, and published author. She has given concerts throughout the United States and has created two albums, Bridges and Subtle Bodies. She is known for her ability to use music to create a powerful process of spiritual journeying and awakening. She is also the author of Timeshift: The Experience of Dimensional Change and The Reality of Time, which has been praised by spiritual luminary Dr. Jean Houston as “in the nature of a revelation.” Janet is a specialist in the architecture of the subtle bodies. In her written and musical works, as well as her intuitive counseling, she transmits a consciousness awakening and an opening into celestial light. Students report experiences of unity, of merging with the other while maintaining the core value of the Self. Janet has developed a system of subtle energy balancing called Sunpoint™ which works to enhance the core identity of the individual and bring an experience of transcendent wholeness

Leslie Temple-Thurston is a teacher of enlightenment, who for twenty-two years has wholeheartedly dedicated her life to inspiring and guiding people towards reaching their spiritual awakening at this most important and pivotal moment in humanity’s evolution. “The heart is where heaven and earth meet— it is the place where our human-ness meets and integrates with our divinity. The journey to discover the heart is the journey to find our true humanity—the perfected human being—that which we really are.” — Leslie Temple-Thurston Leslie mentors individual seekers worldwide who are committed to their work of transformation and awakening to higher states. She guides people towards becoming fully conscious of and knowledgeable about the luminous core of light within themselves. She encourages her committed students and many others who come to sit with and study with her, to aspire fully and completely towards the state of mystical enlightenment. Vision holder and founder of the non-profit organization CoreLight,

Ishvara was born in 1945 in Missouri USA and raised a fundamentalist Christian. While involved in church ministry at a young age, he became frustrated with the limitations of restricted belief. He began a quest for truth that led him to explore the great scriptures of the world, but he continually found limitations and contradictions in the interpretations of the core truths. For ten years he owned a metaphysical bookstore on the Oregon coast, where he gave talks and mediation classes. He became widely known for his wisdom and gentle way of teaching. In 1987 Ishvara experienced a quantum leap in consciousness, a profound awakening. Ishvara merged with Life, seeing the universe, seeing love, knowing everything without any trace of doubt. Ishvara became aware of his true being and of the significance of his awakening: a new level of existence had taken birth in human form. Ishvara could not relate his experience to anything that was recorded in any book or scripture. His awakening did not reveal the human li