I’m the Chief Cook and Bottle Washer at Buddha at the Gas Pump. Richard Miller hosts a similar interview show called Never Not Here. Somehow we connected and he asked to interview me, not necessarily as an awakened being or teacher, but as a fellow spiritual aspirant. In the summer of 1967, when I was 17 years old, I was driving through Westport, CT with three friends in the car. One of them in the back seat was reading from a commentary on the Tibetan Book of the Dead by Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (Ram Dass). A quiet but memorable realization dawned in me that there was such a thing as “enlightenment” and that realizing it was life’s ultimate goal. I rather recklessly explored that possibility through drugs for a year, then saw the futility of that approach and learned Transcendental Meditation. I taught TM for 25 years and still meditate regularly, but am not affiliated with any particular spiritual organization. I respect any of them which seem to offer genuine benefits to their participants.
Interview recorded 6/5/2010.
Other talks by or interviews of Rick on BatGap:
- SAND 2019 – Knowledge/Reality is Different in Different States of Consciousness
- 2018 SAND Conference Q&A and Interview by Shakti Caterina Maggi
- SAND 2017: “The Ethics of Enlightenment”
- Talk at Berkeley Open Circle Center
- SAND 2015: Science and Spirituality: Potential Allies in Discovering Truth
- Interviewed by Fax Gilbert
Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.
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