“The point of this teaching is the realization of total and complete freedom, in which we are free from suffering.”
I had my first conscious spiritual awakening aged 18.
Everything was seen to be one, the sense of personal self fell away and I had a deep sense that I truly was not the limited being that I commonly took myself to be. This experience was short-lived and further fueled my seeking. I wanted to try to re-experience it. I think because this experience happened in the context of reading a book, I subsequently developed a voracious appetite for reading spiritual texts. I read books on everything such as on Buddhism, Zen, Taoism, Mystic Christianity, Vedanta, Dzogchen, and the core texts of each, as well as many self-help and new-age type books.
I also had a keen interest in science and mathematics and my studies took me along this route in school, eventually leading me to study medicine and become a doctor. I later got married and now have two amazing and lovely children. Alongside my studies, career and home life, the spiritual seeking continued for 15-20 years.
Now the sense of a ‘me’ living a life and the dissatisfaction that fueled my spiritual seeking have both disappeared, leaving behind an ordinary life ‘being lived’ or living itself. I call it Freedom.
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Tom is a medical doctor who lives in London UK with his wife and 2 children. He holds regular meetings in London and on Skype to share this wonderful teaching with anyone who is interested.
To learn more about him and his teachings see www.tomdas.com.
Interview recorded July 23, 2016
Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.
YouTube Video Chapters:
- 00:00:00 – Introduction and Support
- 00:06:25 – Teenage Interest in Spirituality
- 00:11:25 – The Relationship between Spirituality and Science
- 00:17:06 – Awakening and Freedom
- 00:21:58 – The Fourth State: Turiya
- 00:26:10 – The Fourth State
- 00:29:57 – The Continuum of Awareness and the Notion of Doership
- 00:33:48 – Transformation in His Presence
- 00:38:05 – Skepticism vs Cynicism in Spiritual Teachings
- 00:43:27 – Subjective Experience and Suffering in Spirituality
- 00:48:36 – The Nature of Hypotheses and Possibilities
- 00:51:46 – The Blurred Lines of Different Functionalities
- 00:56:09 – The Illusion of Duality and Non-Duality
- 01:02:39 – The Illusion of Individual Self or Doer
- 01:08:12 – The Interpretation of Life’s Experiences
- 01:11:32 – Difficulty of Expressing Experiences in Words
- 01:15:25 – The Complexity of Spiritual Teachings
- 01:19:07 – The Progression of Enlightenment
- 01:22:35 – The Potential of Each Individual
- 01:25:28 – The Concept of the Universal Doer
- 01:29:18 – The Concept of Self in Eastern Traditions
- 01:32:46 – Different Ways of Transmitting Knowledge
- 01:39:15 – The Importance of Developing Clarity
- 01:43:52 – Understanding the Vasanas
- 01:47:48 – Devotion and Appreciation
- 01:51:48 – The World is Brahman
- 01:56:18 – Realizing Brahman
- 01:59:27 – The Value of Teaching
- 02:02:36 – The Key to Experience
- 02:05:44 – The Balance of Knowledge and Experience
- 02:10:11 – Music
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