256. Anamika Borst

Anamika BorstOne spring afternoon in 2009, the last piece of the puzzle found its place, effortlessly.

The simplicity of the information stared at me as I made my way back to the train station. While walking away from meeting Leo Hartong in Holland, his simple words “Yes, this is It,” had once and for all confirmed that I already knew the answers to the questions: “ Is it the Beingness of what we are?”, “Is this what the search is all about?”, “Is this really It?”, “Is it really this simple?”

It started as the trees lining the streets and the people walking and shopping. Nothing had changed and yet everything was different, direct, immediate.

Not that I did not know this intimacy. I had been having Oneness experiences in which the little child, the adolescent, the adult disappeared, and the thing that remained was the field of awareness with sounds, sights, and smells in vibrant clarity. Only, it had taken a journey of 25 years to come to grasp that This is what it is all about.

While I boarded the train, I wondered: “How come this obviousness had not been recognized before?”, “How can I have been so dense that I had failed again and again to notice it while it already stared at me right in the face all this time?” (Continued on Anamika’s bio page.)

Anamika’s website: anamikaborst.com

Book: Life at Zero distance: The freedom of being nothing and none

Home for the aged that Anamika mentions in the interview, and which she supports: Mahatma Gandhi Home for the Old Aged in Pondicherry

The story of Anamika’s owl.
Interview recorded at the Science and Nonduality Conference, 10/23/2014

Wind noise may make parts of this interview difficult to hear. Here’s a transcript that will help you follow it.

Dutch transcript of this interview

Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.

YouTube Video Chapters:

  • 00:00:00 – Welcome to Buddha at the Gas Pump!
  • 00:01:32 – Dutch people and speaking English
  • 00:02:46 – Travel through Nepal and India
  • 00:04:14 – The core of Sri Aurobindo’s teachings
  • 00:05:47 – Wrong ideas about enlightenment and the teachings of Sri Aurobindo
  • 00:07:28 – Brahma Realization and the Interpretation of Teachings
  • 00:08:57 – Understanding the system
  • 00:10:27 – Loss of personality and self-exploration
  • 00:11:43 – Discovering an unknown result
  • 00:13:19 – Misuse of non-dual teaching
  • 00:15:03 – Meeting with Leo Hartong in the Netherlands
  • 00:16:10 – Deconditioning and experiential reality
  • 00:17:43 – The spiritual quest
  • 00:18:58 – No choice, everything is encounter and impulse in the direction
  • 00:20:34 – Preference for Chocolate or Vanilla
  • 00:22:27 – The Longing for Truth
  • 00:23:41 – Releasing energetic tension
  • 00:25:03 – Acceptance of what is
  • 00:26:20 – The natural tendency towards health
  • 00:27:40 – Unity that decides
  • 00:29:06 – The Oneness of Things
  • 00:30:45 – Ideas about something
  • 00:31:43 – A caution about the tendency to say
  • 00:33:36 – Meeting with Leo Hartong
  • 00:34:45 – The process of personal growth and change
  • 00:36:22 – The origins of the book
  • 00:37:35 – The Old Age Home in Pondicherry
  • 00:38:57 – Service as a spiritual practice
  • 00:40:29 – Openness and inclusivity in life
  • 00:42:15 – Interrogating concepts and beliefs
  • 00:43:35 – A conversation with Anamika