395. Pamela Wilson, 2nd Interview

Pamela WilsonPamela Wilson celebrates 20 years of being on the road worldwide sharing Truth, Clarity, Love and the Joy of Being. Her new book The Golden Retriever’s Guide to Joy is a distillation of everything she has noticed within, reading the Book of Life, within Stillness. She delights in getting to the Heart of the Matter, literally, finding the intelligent presence within all form and function. And then showing it its true nature.So, that emotion, sensation, the body and the mind can also return and stabilize as balanced rooted spaciousness. Join the fun, Life is simple within its complexity!

Interview recorded 4/11/2017

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

YouTube Video Chapters:

  • 00:00:00 – Buddha at the Gas Pump Introduction
  • 00:04:20 – Living in Rooted Spaciousness
  • 00:07:35 – Joy in Heaven
  • 00:10:59 – The Universal Language of Respect
  • 00:14:21 – Noticing the Felt Sense
  • 00:17:32 – The Value of Being Grounded and Established
  • 00:21:02 – The Enlightenment of Dogs
  • 00:24:03 – Experiencing Spiritual Evolution
  • 00:27:48 – Liberating the Mind
  • 00:31:09 – Stillness and Conditioning
  • 00:34:18 – The Mysterious Nature of the Body
  • 00:38:03 – The Basis of Activity and Rest
  • 00:41:30 – The Intelligence of Life
  • 00:44:33 – The Illusion of Control
  • 00:47:33 – The Sense of Personal Self
  • 00:51:02 – The Nature of Consciousness
  • 00:54:20 – The Grace of Exhaustion
  • 00:57:26 – The Role of Serotonin in Mood Regulation
  • 01:00:46 – The Path of Least Action
  • 01:04:07 – The Eternal Nature of Life
  • 01:07:50 – The Quibble about Reincarnation
  • 01:10:53 – Strength and Vulnerability
  • 01:14:14 – Natural Retreats and Divine Beings
  • 01:17:34 – The Power of Love and Respect
  • 01:21:13 – The Language of the Heart
  • 01:24:40 – The Art of Dismantling Defenses
  • 01:27:55 – Divine Qualities and their Opposites
  • 01:31:31 – Yudhishtira’s Test by Lord Shiva
  • 01:34:40 – Falling apart to make room for the new story
  • 01:38:08 – Introduction to Pamela Wilson’s Offerings
  • 01:41:08 – Music

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377. Regina Dawn Akers

Regina Dawn AkersRegina Dawn Akers has been sharing spiritual teachings, organizing retreats and leading pilgrimages to holy sites in Israel and India since 2005. She’s published two books: “Holy Spirit’s Interpretation of the New Testament: A Course in Understanding and Acceptance” (NTI) and “The Teachings of Inner Ramana”. Her third book “Thoughts of Awakening: 365 Thoughts for Daily Contemplation” is provided as a free e-book. Each of these books came to Regina from within through her willingness to be their scribe, student and teacher. She is a living model of their teachings and a clear channel of the deeper meaning that lies hidden beyond the written word.

Regina shares insightful and consistent clarity using a variety of spiritual teachings as pointers. She is the founder of Awakening Together, a worldwide online spiritual assembly dedicated to helping people become self-reliant with inner spiritual wisdom. Awakening Together uses the teachings of many spiritual traditions to point toward one truth, one true Self, which lies peacefully within each of us. Regina is the author of Awakening Together’s 2-year Minister Preparation Program (MPP), which is a contemplative study of Truth through teachings from Hinduism, Buddhism, Sufism, Kabbalah, the Tao Te Ching, A Course in Miracles, the New Testament, and contemporary masters including Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj.

When she is not traveling, Regina lives a quiet life in Pueblo, Colorado. She enjoys spending time with her family, her dog and a few close friends. Regina invites everyone to enjoy the inspiration and online spiritual community provided through awakening-together.org.

Written Books

Audio Books

Transcript of this interview

Interview recorded 12/10/2016

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

YouTube Video Chapters:

  • 00:00:00 – Introduction to Buddha at the Gas Pump
  • 00:05:23 – Dancing and Religious Beliefs
  • 00:09:27 – Awakening and One’s Own Path to Truth
  • 00:13:37 – Seeking the Truth in the Bible
  • 00:17:53 – Discovering the True Self and Adoption from China
  • 00:22:20 – Entitlement to Miracles
  • 00:25:12 – Different Types of Awakening
  • 00:29:30 – The Teacher of God
  • 00:32:53 – The Message in the Movie
  • 00:37:31 – Recognizing My True Self
  • 00:41:41 – The Form of Divine Intelligence
  • 00:45:25 – Moving for My Daughter’s Happiness
  • 00:48:45 – Following the Inner Voice
  • 00:54:10 – Reading the Bible & The Guiding Light
  • 00:58:27 – The Beginning of a Challenging Relationship
  • 01:02:32 – The Healing Opportunity in a Relationship
  • 01:07:58 – The Natural Wisdom of the Universe
  • 01:12:34 – Healing from Rejection
  • 01:16:10 – Lessons in Healing and Love
  • 01:20:08 – Learning Self-Inquiry from Inner Ramana
  • 01:23:03 – The Three States of Mind
  • 01:26:32 – Tools for Self-Realization
  • 01:31:04 – The Possibility of No World and No Mind
  • 01:34:30 – Enlightenment of an Apple
  • 01:39:37 – Living in the Now
  • 01:43:28 – Introduction and Lack of Questions
  • 01:47:42 – Joining an Online Sanctuary
  • 01:51:15 – Financial Support and Fees
  • 01:54:25 – Joining Awakening Together to Find Inspiration and Community
  • 02:01:58 – The Power of Group Collaboration and Support
  • 02:02:00 – Useful Tools on the Website

351. David Godman, 2nd Interview

David GodmanDavid Godman has lived in India since 1976, mostly in Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu. He spent his time there studying and practicing the teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi. His anthology of Ramana Maharshi’s teachings, Be As You Are, is probably the most widely read book on Sri Ramana’s teachings. During his fourteen-year stay at Ramanasramam (1978-92), he managed the ashram’s library, cataloged its archives, and recorded the stories and experiences of devotees who had had direct contact with Sri Ramana.

David is the authorized biographer of two devotees of Sri Ramana Maharshi (Lakshmana Swamy and Papaji) who realized the Self in Sri Ramana’s presence and who later went on to become gurus themselves.

He has written and published several other books that contain first-person accounts of devotees who moved closely with Sri Ramana Maharshi and who were transformed by his power and presence.

In collaboration with two Tamil scholars, T. V. Venkatasubramanian and Robert Butler, he translated and edited several Tamil texts including two authoritative collections of Ramana Maharshi’s teachings that were originally recorded in Tamil verse. The three of them also joined forces to bring out Sorupa Saram, a translation of a text in which a 15th century Tamil saint and Guru, Sorupananda, speaks authoritatively of his experience of the Self. Earlier this year David and T. V. Venkatasubramanian completed a new book that will be entitled The Shining of my Lord. It will contain translations of Tamil verses by Muruganar, an enlightened devotee of Ramana Maharshi who wrote thousands of verses in which he praised his Guru, spoke of his own liberated state, and thanked Sri Ramana for bestowing it on him. It will be published later this year.

In the 1970s David frequented Nisargadatta Maharaj’s satsangs in Mumbai. In the 1980s he was a regular visitor to the ashram of Lakshmana Swamy and Saradamma in Andhra Pradesh. When they moved to Tiruvannamalai in the early 1990s, he helped them to establish and landscape their new property at the foot of Arunachala, the holy mountain where Sri Ramana Maharshi spent all his adult life. For four years in the 1990s, he lived with Papaji in Lucknow and ended up writing or editing five books about him.

David Godman is married to Miri Albahari, a philosophy lecturer who teaches in Perth, Australia. He is based in India, but nowadays spends part of the year with Miri in Australia.

Last year David released a series of twenty-seven films on Youtube in which he spoke about Ramana Maharshi, the places where he stayed, his devotees, and his teachings. The series contains about fifteen hours of talks about Sri Ramana and can be found here:

Books:

First BatGap interview with David

Transcripts of this interview:

Discussion of this interview in the Batgap Community Facebook Group

In this interview, David Godman speaks of Robert Adams, whom he never met. He makes some remarkable claims based upon Robert’s own account of his life, including years he claimed to have spent with Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj. It now appears extremely unlikely that Robert Adams ever met either, and that other claims David Godman repeats are highly improbable. Please see this article for details. David Godman has since taken down the YouTube talk he gave on Robert Adams.

Interview recorded 6/26/2016

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

YouTube Video Chapters:

  • 00:00:00 – Introduction to Buddha At The Gas Pump with Rick Archer
  • 00:05:34 – The Extraordinary Journey of Maurice Frydman
  • 00:10:28 – Finding Ramana in Tiruvannamalai
  • 00:15:16 – Maurice Frydman: An Extraordinary Man of Action
  • 00:20:01 – Maurice’s Last Days and his Hidden Talents
  • 00:24:50 – The Maurice and Nisargadatta Book Project
  • 00:29:10 – Maurice’s Self-Governance Project
  • 00:33:28 – Maurice’s Bold Actions
  • 00:37:48 – A Karma Yogi with a Dual Strand
  • 00:42:08 – Gandhi’s Spiritual State
  • 00:47:22 – Parallel Lives of Social Uplift and Transcendence
  • 00:51:57 – Manifestation of Ramana’s Appearance
  • 00:57:31 – The Vision of Ramana and the Connection with David Godman
  • 01:02:27 – Composing Tamil Poetry with Bhagavan
  • 01:07:49 – Bhagavan’s Thorough Copy Editing
  • 01:13:42 – Seek out the Blessing of Others
  • 01:19:19 – The Concepts of Kartrutva and Kartavya
  • 01:25:08 – The Existence of Gods or Entities
  • 01:30:25 – Feeling the Pain of Others
  • 01:35:17 – Mysterious Visitors on Bhagavan’s Birthday
  • 01:39:42 – Conviction in the Presence of God
  • 01:44:10 – Anecdotes about Papaji
  • 01:49:10 – The Power of Meditation and Introversion
  • 01:53:26 – The Mathematics Test and the Experience of God
  • 01:58:58 – Ramana’s Teachings From Experience
  • 02:04:09 – The Power of Teachers and Lineage
  • 02:08:44 – Accessing the Guru’s Power through Words
  • 02:13:31 – The Guru’s High Standards
  • 02:18:04 – Ramana Maharshi’s Unusual Habits
  • 02:22:35 – Ramana’s Retelling of Miraculous Stories
  • 02:26:56 – Stirring up bliss and intoxication