Integration - Chapter - 2 - Dr. R. Bolstad

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Dr Richard Bolstad
Integration:
NLP and Spirituality
2003© Dr Richard Bolstad
Integration: NLP and Spirit © Dr Richard Bolstad, 2003

http:/www.transformations.net.nz/
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Integration: NLP and Spirituality

Table of Contents
The Science of Oneness ........................................................................................ 5

The Universal Search: A History of Spirituality.................................................... 35
Jnana Yoga: Using The Mind To Go Beyond The Mind ....................................... 87
A. Beyond Self ............................................................................................ 87
B. Ascending States ................................................................................... 94
C. The Unanswerable Question ................................................................. 104
D. Love Is Not What You Think .................................................................. 118
E. The Core State Process ......................................................................... 131
F. Being Of Light ......................................................................................... 137
G. You Were Bound To Read This ............................................................. 146
Karma Yoga: Aligning Your Life With The Universe ............................................ 154
Bhakti Yoga: Devoting Yourself To Life................................................................ 168
Prana Yoga: Raising Life Energy .......................................................................... 179
A. Generating Body Energy ....................................................................... 179
B. Harmonising The Emotions ................................................................... 194
C. Taoist Sexual Chi Kung ......................................................................... 206
Living In Oneness .................................................................................................. 218
Bibliography ........................................................................................................... 220

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The Author:
Dr Richard Bolstad is a certified trainer with the International NLP Association and
with two schools of Taoist Spirituality. Richard has a doctorate in clinical
hypnotherapy and is a member of the New Zealand Association of Psychotherapists.
He is a trained teacher and a registered nurse. His previous book, Transforming
Communication, is a required text in a number of degree level programs, training
counsellors, health professionals, teachers, managers and parents. His articles have
appeared in numerous journals, and he teaches NLP and Spirituality courses in Asia,
Australasia, the USA and Europe.
Home page http:/www.transformations.net.nz/
E-mail richard@transformations.net.nz
Phone/Fax +64-3-337-1852
Dedication:
Dedicated to the author who writes my story, the singer who sings me into existence,
the dancer in whose movement I am.

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Chapter 1:
The Science Of Oneness
Experiencing the Oneness of Life
It is possible to be very healthy physically, to have achieved material success and

even to have lasting close relationships... and yet to find life somehow empty. There
is something more that all truly happy people have: a deep and abiding sense of how
their own individual life has meaning in relation to the whole of life. This sense of
unity with all life is not something fanciful, not something mysterious or
philosophical, not something for only a few to enjoy. It is within your reach. This
sense of connection with all life is what I am calling spirituality, but put simply, it is
Love.
Love binds the universe together as one substance, and it is from love that the
universe is created. Love is the answer to all doubt and fear, and the final solution to
every conflict. The moments in your life when you know joy are always moments of
love. It is love that brings you joy as a tree brings sugar to its fruit. As your
birthright, love is always close at hand, waiting with infinite patience for you to open
the door to your heart. In this book I would like to invite you to step through that door,
and discover life as it actually is; timeless and one.
Let us be clear right at the start that this sense of unity with something greater does
not require a traditional religious belief system. George Bernard Shaw, himself an
atheist, nonetheless believed passionately in the power of love and the oneness of
life. He recognised that "This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose
recognised by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a
feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will
not devote itself to making you happy." (Shaw, 1980, Dedicatory letter). Whether or
not you participate in one of the world’s religious or spiritual traditions, this book will
offer you tools to bring this true joy into your life.

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Chapter 2:
The Universal Search
The History of Spirituality
My aim in this chapter is not to give a comprehensive history of religion and

spirituality. It is to give examples from that history to make sense of some important
concepts which I will use in the following chapters. These concepts (such as
shamanism, mysticism, esotericism, yoga, nirvana, and Taoism) provide the
background for the techniques I am introducing through the main section of the book.
Shamanism: The Source
From recent studies of the brain structures required for spiritual experience, we can
surmise that experiences of oneness with the universe have co-existed with “normal”
self-awareness in human beings since the time of homo erectus several hundred
thousand years ago (Newberg, D’Aquili and Rause, 2002, p 66). Physical evidence
suggestive of religious beliefs can certainly be found in the carvings and burial rites
of Neanderthals a hundred thousand years ago. Prehistoric cave paintings from that
time on look remarkably like the images associated with modern day shamanism.

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Shaman
The term shaman originally referred to a holy person from the Tungus region of
Siberia, and is related to the old Sanskrit word śramana meaning a monk. Shamanism
refers to the spiritual practices associated with hunter-gatherer societies such as
those found in old Siberia. A pioneer researcher into Shamanism, S. M. Shirokogoroff,
noted that shamans are usually identified after their survival of a traumatic episode or
illness. They have had what we would now call a “near death experience”. They then
need to be able to demonstrate the ability to shift into an altered state of mind, usually
called a trance from the Latin trans meaning beyond (Bowker ed, 2002, p 11-12).
These trance states are achieved by rituals such as dancing, drumming, and
concentrating on a mirror, or by the use of hallucinogenic drugs. In them, the shaman
has the ability to experience the oneness of life and to communicate with the world of
the spirits (beings including the souls of those who have died).
The word ecstasy (from the Greek ekstasis; to stand outside) is used interchangeably
with the word trance to describe this shamanic state (Pattee, 1988, p 19). Dr Rowena
Pattee points out that this state of ecstasy is central to shamanism and the core from
which all religious experience evolved. The ecstasy produced by prolonged shamanic
drumming and dancing, she suggests, is the same as that produced by the prolonged
chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra by modern Hindu devotees, or by the whirling
dances of the Islamic Sufis.

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As modern Europeans explored the world and came across the universal human
experience of shamanic trance/ecstasy, they tended to explain it by its metaphorical
representations rather than by the actual nature of the experience reported in each
culture. For example, the Australian Aboriginal “dreamtime” is not a “time” as
Europeans often thought of it, but the realm of experience where the life of all beings
is felt to be interconnected and at one (Bowker, 2002, p 23). Serge King explains that
his Hawaiian Kahuna uncle told him that the four “worlds” or “levels” of Hawaiian
Huna are actually four ways of experiencing life. The fourth level of experience (Ike
papaha) is that where everything is one and one experiences oneself as a unity with
the universe (King, 1988, p 50-51). The higher self (aumakua) in Huna is that aspect of
one’s nature that is one with all other higher selves and one with God. When modern
commentators talk about the dreamtime as a time, or about the four levels of Huna as
levels, it makes the sacred truth of oneness seem like “primitive” mythology. In fact,
these metaphors are explaining a truth that modern quantum physics has only just re-
established for us.

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A similar caution can be applied to the notion of gods and goddesses in ancient
history and in shamanic spiritual traditions. In New Zealand Maori religion, for
example, the word usually translated as “god” or “goddess” is atua. In English,
writers will say, for example, that Papatuanuku is the goddess of the earth. In Maori,
although Papatuanuku can be described as an atua, the more usual statement would
be “Ko Papatuanuku te whenua.”, which translates as “Papatuanuku is the earth”
(Tauroa, 1990, p 95). The gods and goddesses are not separate from nature, they are
nature. In prehistoric times, the preponderance of female images makes it clear that
the most common deities, like Papatuanuku, were female (Eisler, 1987, p 1-15). The
one energy behind the universe, in Maori is known as Io, and is called Io-matua-kore
(Io who is the parent of the void), and Io-te-waiora (Io who is the water of life). To
suggests that the Maori had “many gods” is to describe their sophisticated
experience of the oneness of life in modern European terms.
Esoteric and Exoteric Religion In Egypt
One of the characteristics of shamanic cultures is that each shaman individually

attains their ability to enter the trance state, perhaps taught by another shaman. There
is no established belief system that all shamans in a culture must adhere to. The
President of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, Dr Michael Harner, says “In

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shamanism everyone is his or her own prophet, getting spiritual revelation from the
highest sources.” (Harner, 1988, p 10).
With the development of civilisation in ancient Egypt, Iraq, India and China, city states
began to systematise shamanic teachings. Writing enabled the teachings of an
individual shaman to be transmitted to others, and a caste of “priests” and
“priestesses” emerged in the new civilisations to create, protect and control the
transmission of these sacred writings. As the new civilisations traded with each other,
they shared the teachings and mythology of their gods and goddesses.
Consequently, there are surprising similarities between the religions of the ancient
world, as the following examples from Egypt will show.
While the priestly castes grew stronger in the new civilisations, knowledge of the
original state of trance or ecstasy which inspired them was kept as a secret or
“esoteric” knowledge (from the Greek esoterikos meaning interior). Most of the
population were taught only the “exoteric” (from the Greek exoterikos or exterior)
mythology, moral codes and ritualism. The gods and goddesses were increasingly
thought of as human-like beings separate from the natural world, living in their own
magical lands. In this context, as new individuals emerged able to experience states
of oneness on their own, they would need to be incorporated into the priesthood or
eliminated.
For example, the ancient Egyptians worshipped a huge pantheon of gods and
goddesses, headed by the sun god, variously called Ra, Amen, Amen-Ra, Atum and
Aten.

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Ra
In popular understanding, the Egyptian gods and goddesses were much like mortal
people. They had their own angers, jealousies and prides; their own love affairs and
their own favourites in the world of humanity. Keeping them happy (so that, for
example, the Nile would flood and replenish its delta with rich soil each year) required
the elaborate rituals which only the priests and priestesses knew how to perform.
3500 years ago, the priests of Amen and the nobility were the top tier in the empire,
which had a middle class of craftspeople and educators, and a lower class of
peasants and paid workers. The Pharaoh was worshipped as a god-emperor,
descended from the mythical first god-king Osiris and goddess-queen Isis. The Sem
priesthood of Amen were notoriously corrupt and were the real power behind the
pharaoh.

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Osiris
Pharaoh Tutmoses III ruled Egypt from around 1504-1450BC. He extended the
Egyptian empire from Nubia in the south to Syria in the north.
Pharaoh Tutmoses III
He also formally organised the “esoteric” mystery cults of Isis and Osiris. The term
mystery comes from the Greek myein (to close or shut) and the mystes (in Greek)
were those let through the closed door and “initiated” into the secret teachings. The
Egyptian mystery cults ran healing sanctuaries called "Sleep Temples." In these
temples, the initiate was put into a sleep-like trance by means of chanting; priests and

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priestesses then guided the person to “leave their body” and experience their
oneness with everything. This process was considered a healing ritual, and was said
to have been developed by the physician-priest Imhotep (see Musès, 1972).
Imhotep
It is metaphorically retold in the myth of Osiris, who was killed by his brother Set, and
resurrected to eternal life by his wife Isis. In a manuscript found at Nag Hammadi in
Egypt, the goddess Isis explains (Johnsen, 1999, p 181):
“I come from infinite power to those who meditate on me

I am found by those who sincerely seek
Gaze on me in your meditation; still your thoughts and listen to me…
I am the wisdom of the Egyptians and your wisdom too
My image is worshipped in Egypt, though I exist beyond all images.”

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The goddess Isis
In later centuries this Egyptian mystery religion was introduced to the new
civilizations of Greece and Rome. Hints of it also occur in the teachings of the Jewish
religion, which the Jewish people say emerged from the teachings of a Hebrew child
adopted by an Egyptian pharaoh. Moses, the name of this adopted child, is the
Egyptian word for child, as in the name Tutmoses, meaning the child of the god Tut or
Thoth. The teachings of ancient Egypt have had a long reach. The Rosicrucian order
is a modern day western esoteric society which claims that it has its origins in the
mystery spirituality organised by Tutmoses III.
One hundred years after Tutmoses III reorganised the mystery religions, a new
pharaoh attempted to establish this esoteric understanding of oneness as the official
religion. In 1379BC, the twelve year old Amenhotep IV ascended the throne of Egypt
and was married to Nefertiti, formerly the second wife of his late father Amenhotep III.
Nefertiti was originally a princess from Mitanni in northern Iraq.

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Amenhotep IV
It was the people of Mitanni who introduced the mystery teachings of Mitra to the
world. Mitra later appears in sacred writings from many civilisations, and is called
Mitra in the Indian Vedas, Mithra in the Iranian Avesta and Mithras in Roman writings
(Cooper, 1996, p 1).
Mitra

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Mitra was born in a cave watched over by three shepherds, on December 25th. He
taught the worship of the one god Ahura Mazda (the wise lord), and the religious
priesthood of the time had him put to death by being hung on a tree. His followers
celebrated his teaching of oneness in a ritual where they ate wafer bread and drank
wine, in a metaphorical acceptance of the oneness of life. Mitra says “He who will not
eat of my body and drink of my blood, so that he will be made one with me and I with
him, the same shall not know salvation.” (Godwin, 1981, p 28).
Symbol of Mitanni civilization ( 1450-1360 BC) & Ahura Mazda
The wafers given to the initiates at this ceremony carried Mitra’s symbol, the cross +
(Freke and Gandy, 1999, p 60). There are hints of Mithraism in the Christian religion
(the three wise men at Jesus birth in the Christian story are called Magi, the name of
the priests of Mitra, for example), and Mithra is still accepted as a teacher in the
Zoroastrian religion of the Parsis, a Persian people living mainly in India (Bowker
2002, p 216-219)

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The Parsis
Let’s return to the story of Nefertiti introducing Mitra’s ideas in Egypt. Nefertiti
encouraged Amenhotep IV to institute a vast religious reform in Egypt, decreeing
Mitra’s teaching that only one god actually existed.

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Nefertiti
While this god was called by the Egyptian name Aten (energy), the influence of the
Mitanni teachings of Mitra is clear in Nefertiti’s work. All statues in Egypt were altered
to eliminate the names of the other gods, the pharaoh changed his name to
Akhenaten, and a new capital city called Akhetaten was built. In Nefertiti and
Akhenaten’s understanding, the one god, Aten, was a universal power, present in all
things. Aten was an unseen energy which was present in all of nature and required no
religious rituals to appease. The aim of the new “religion” was simply to attain
oneness with this energy. The powerful priesthoods no longer received royal funding.
For the first time in Egyptian history, Akhenaten had the royal family depicted in
lifelike realism in the art of his new buildings. Akhenaten had no interest in wars
maintaining the Egyptian empire. Despite the pleas of his local governors, he
withdrew all his forces from Palestine leaving it to the wandering Habiru (Hebrew)
tribes, also worshippers of one god.

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Akhenaten and Nefertiti
Akhenaten and Nefertiti’s reforms made public the esoteric element in Egyptian
religion. For a time, it looked as if they had the power to transform Egyptian society,
but their reforms only lasted twenty years. In 1362 at the age of thirty, Akhenaten died
and the powerful priesthood of Amen reasserted itself through the new boy pharaoh
Tutankhamen. (For more on Akhenaten’s life and attempted reforms, see Aldred,
1988).
The Mystical Traditions In Judaism
Similar struggles between the outer priestly religion and the inner mystical teaching
of oneness are characteristic of the history of the middle eastern civilizations.
Consider first the religion of the Hebrew people, Judaism. By 2000 years ago Judaism
had three main sects including two orthodox groups; the Sadducees (scribes) and the
Pharisees, according to the Jewish historian Josephus (lived AD 37-98, quoted in
Thiede, 2000, p 21-24). The esoteric tradition within Judaism was largely kept at this

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time by the third Jewish group, the Essenes, now well known because of the 1947
discovery of some of their scrolls in the hills near their ancient Dead Sea settlement in
south Palestine.
Ancient texts…
…were kept in pots

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The northern sect of the Essenes were known as Nazareans because they took a form
of the Nazarite vow (a vow not to cut ones hair, but to let it grow free like the wild
grape vine, or nazir). The Nazarite Essenes were a group of non-violent, vegetarian
healers, who lived in equalitarian communities, sharing all possessions. Their
metaphorical ritual of death and resurrection was the daily immersion of initiates in
water.
Edmond Szekely is a Roman Catholic theologian who researched an early Christian

group who considered themselves both followers of Jesus and Essenes. He accepts
their claim that the Christian Jesus himself was an Essene teacher. Szekely’s
translation of the original Aramaic/Hebrew text of the Essene Gospel of Peace (kept in
the Vatican library) makes explicit the mystical nature of the Essene beliefs. “Enter
the Holy Streams, even that Life, that Sound, and that Light which gave you birth; that
you may reach the kingdom of the Heavenly Father and become one with him even as
the river empties into the far-distant sea. More than this cannot be told, for the Holy
Streams will take you to that place where words are no more, and even the Holy
Scrolls cannot record the mysteries therein.” (Szekely, 1981). Certainly, even the
accepted Christian Gospels have Jesus saying rather mystical things at times. For
example, he says, using the Nazarean’s metaphor of the vine: “Abide in me, and I in
you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can
ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me,
and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing"
(John 15:4-5).

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Aside from the Essenes, there is second stream of mystical teachings within Judaism,
which has its beginnings within a century of the time of Jesus in the book Sephir
Yetzirah by Akibha ben Joseph (died 138AD).
Gold locket as illustration to the book Sephir Yetzirah, chapter 1:1

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In Spain between 1281 and 1286AD, the Jewish rabbi Moses de Leon wrote down a
teaching which he attributed to second century Jewish teachers such as ben Joseph,
and which he called the Zohar or Book of Splendour. The Zohar was added to over the
following centuries. It asks readers to “look under the garment of the Torah” or
Judaic law and to feel and enjoy God”. The system it introduces is called the
Kabbalah, which seeks to explain how the unknowable God manifests Himself in the
knowable world. Kabbalistic scholar Abraham Heschel says “He who is ‘the soul of all
souls’ is ‘the mystery of all mysteries’…. While there is an abysmal distance between
Him and the world, He is also called All. ‘For all things are in Him and He is in all
things’… He is both manifest and concealed.” (Heschel, 1971, p 284). In the eighteenth
century, a kabbalistic movement arose amongst the Jews in the Ukraine and Poland.
Called Hasidism, this movement centered on charismatic holy men or Zaddikim, who
entered states of ecstasy and healed others of physical illnesses. Tradtional Jewish
rabbis did not appreciate this ecstatic movement. By the end of the eighteenth
century, Hasidism was outlawed by orthodox Judaism. Its books were burned, and its
followers driven out of the Jewish communities (Neusner, 2002, p 205-208).
The Mystical Traditions In Christianity
Such mystical teachings were also not well tolerated within the newer Christian faith.
Christianity was first officially accepted in 324AD by the emperor Constantine.
Constantine became favourable to Christianity after winning a battle against his rival
for the throne, Maxentius, while flying a flag with a cross on it and the words “Sol
Invictus” (Invincible Sun). He believed that the sun god, whom he associated with
Jesus, had ensured his victory. Since 321AD, state offices had been ordered closed
on Sunday as the holy day of the sun god, and at that time Christians switched from
worshipping on the Jewish Sabbath (Saturday) to worshipping on Sunday. They also
switched to celebrating the birth of Jesus on December 25th, the birthday of the sun
god and of Mithras.

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The emperor Constantine
The early Christian church had permitted many choices within its ranks. But these
heresies (from the Greek hairesis, meaning choice) were forbidden by a series of
councils of priests beginning at Nicea in 325 and presided over by Constantine. The
heresies of most concern to the church at this time were collectively known as
Gnostic (from the Greek Gnosis or knowledge). The Gnostics believed that truth could
be found by personal inquiry, rather than by adherence to traditions. Wisdom was
personified by the Gnostics as a being (Sophia) and seen as the feminine aspect of
godhead. After the council of Nicea, the Gnostic teachings were forbidden, and by 435
an imperial decree declared that the death sentence be administered to all heretics
including Gnostics. So thorough was the destruction of the Gnostic texts, the only
surviving texts of the movement are 50 scrolls found in 1945 hidden in an Egyptian
cave at Nag Hammadi. These scrolls include the Gospel of Truth, which sums up the
Gnostic approach to mystic experience thus:
“As one's ignorance disappears when he gains knowledge, and as darkness

disappears when light appears, so also incompleteness is eliminated by
completeness. Certainly, from that moment on, form is no longer manifest, but will be
dissolved in fusion with unity. For now their works lie scattered. In time unity will

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make the spaces complete. By means of unity each one will understand itself. By
means of knowledge it will purify itself of diversity with a view towards unity,
devouring matter within itself like fire and darkness by light, death by life. Certainly, if
these things have happened to each one of us, it is fitting for us, surely, to think about
the All so that the house may be holy and silent for unity.” (Grant, 1961).
Mysticism continued to have a place within both Judaism and Christianity, but it was
a much more cautiously stated place. Perhaps the most famous of the medieval
Christian mystics was Francis of Assisi, in Italy (1181-1226).
Assisi, Italy
After an initial period of hostility from the local church in Assisi, Francis managed to
convince Pope Innocent III in Rome to permit his group of followers to continue living
in poverty around the countryside church of San Damiano, which they had restored
from ruins. Francis’ approach to the mystical experience was as unlike that of the
Gnostics as could be.

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Francis
Asked to draw up detailed rules for his group, he replied “God made known to me that
I was to behave with a madness that the world knew nothing of, and that such
madness was to be all the learning we were to have.” (quoted by Payne, 1977, p 168).
And yet in his sense of oneness, he challenged closely held church beliefs; saying for
example “What is the definition of heaven? Complete happiness. But how can anyone
be completely happy when he looks out from heaven and sees his brothers and
sisters being punished in hell ?….If a person is killed at the other end of the world, we
are killed. If a person is saved, we are saved.” (quoted by Kazantzakis, 1977, p 158)
Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1581) and John of the Cross (1542-1591) together founded
the order of the Discalced Carmelite monks and nuns. Their writing remains some of
the most extraordinary mystical exposition ever.

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Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1581)
Teresa says of the final experience of mystic union with God that “This instantaneous
communication of God to the soul is so great a secret and so sublime a favour, and
such delight is felt by the soul, that I do not know with what to compare it, beyond
saying that the Lord is pleased to manifest to the soul at that moment the glory that is
in Heaven, in a sublimer manner than is possible through any vision or spiritual
consolation. It is impossible to say more than that, as far as one can understand, the
soul (I mean the spirit of this soul) is made one with God, Who, being likewise a Spirit,
has been pleased to reveal the love that He has for us by showing to certain persons
the extent of that love, so that we may praise His greatness. For He has been pleased
to unite Himself with His creature in such a way that they have become like two who
cannot be separated from one another: even so He will not separate Himself from
her.” (in her book Interior Castle, Seventh Mansion, Chapter 2).
The Christian mystical tradition continues to this day, as does the Jewish tradition.
Thomas Merton (1915-1968) was an American writer and Trappist monk at Our Lady of
Gethsemani Abbey in Trappist, Kentucky. His writing frames Christian mysticism for
the modern world, and makes links between Christianity and Buddhism. Merton

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explains, “To say I was born in sin is to say I came into the world with a false self. I
was born in a mask…. If the very deepest ground of my being is love, then in that very
love itself and nowhere else will I find myself, and the world, and my brother and
Christ. It is not a question of either-or but of all-in-one... of wholeness,
wholeheartedness and unity… which finds the same ground of love in everything.”
(Finley, 1978, p 27, 57).
The Mystical Tradition In Islam
In 610AD, when the Arabic teacher Muhammad first had the visions that led to the
creation of Islam (the name Islam means “submission”), the nomadic Arab tribes
worshipped a multitude of gods, goddesses and spirits along with Allah (Allah is “the
high one”; this is the name that Jesus, speaking Aramaic, used to refer to God as
well). Muhammad taught submission to Allah as the only God. From the beginning,
there were mystics in Islam, including Hasan al-Basri in Iraq (died 728AD), Dhu al-Nun
al-Misri in Egypt (died 861AD) and the woman teacher Rabi’a al-Adawiyya in Iraq (died
801AD). As in Christianity and Judaism, these “Sufi” (the word suf means wool, and
these mystics wore rough woollen clothes) often incurred the wrath of the orthodox
authorities. The Persian teacher Mansur al-Hallaj, for example, was executed in 922AD
for claiming to be one with God and stating “I am the truth.” By the twelfth century,
there were several Turuq (schools) of Sufi, each named after the teacher who had
founded it. (Johnstone, 2002, p 285-287).

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The Sufi, meditation
The Sufi themselves, while accepting the six pillars of Islamic faith, often also say that
their teachings predate Islam and are the same as the core teachings of the ancient
Egyptian mystics, the Kabbalists and the Christian Gnostics. Idries Shah explains
“Sufism has always existed…. Sufism is the knowledge whereby man can realise
himself and attain permanency. Sufis can teach in any vehicle, whatever its name.
Religious vehicles have throughout history taken various names.” (Shah, 1974, p 312).
Sufi teaching is often done using metaphors like the parables with which Jesus the
Nazarene taught. Consider this delightful tale of the Sufi teacher Bayazid, about the
illusory nature of the self (from Shah, 1974, p 274). “When someone knocked on the
door, Bayazid called out: ‘Whom do you seek?’ The caller answered ‘Bayazid’.
Bayazid replied ‘I, too, have been seeking “Bayazid” for three decades, and I have not
yet found him.’” The other vehicle used in Sufi teaching is poetry. Amongst the great
Sufi poets is Jalal-ad-Din Rumi who died in 1273. The following verses exemplify his
poetry, which transcends the division between sacred and “profane” love (from Rumi,
1997, p 16).
“When the lover breathes,

Flames spread through the universe.

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One breath shatters this illusory world

Into particles.
The Sufi, mysteries
The world becomes an ocean

From beginning to end,
And the ocean disappears in its majesty.
If this were made manifest for even a second
To the people
There would be no humanity left.”
Sufi ideas and practices also circulate outside of Sufism in the work of teachers such
as Gurdjieff. George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (1877-1949) was a Russian who searched
Asia and the middle east looking for the ancient mystical teachings.

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George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (1877-1949)
He studied with Sufi and other teachers, learning both Sufi sacred dancing (a form of
meditation akin to Chinese Tai Chi) and Sufi mystical thought. By 1914 when Peter
Ouspensky met him (Ouspensky, 2001) and began introducing his ideas to the west,
Gurdjieff said that he was teaching the fourth of four ways to attain oneness.
1) The way of the Fakir. Indian Fakirs gain extreme control over their physical
body.
2) The way of the Monk. Monks gain control over their emotions by “submission”.
3) The way of the Yogi. Yogis gain control over their mind by meditation.
4) The way of the Sly Man. Gurdjieff’s fourth way involves living in the world
rather than withdrawing from it, and using all experiences to assist “the work”
of waking up from the sleep of normal consciousness.
Indian Paths
Civilisation arose in fertile river valleys throughout Asia and North Africa, and the
Indus Valley cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro in northern India emerged at the

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same time as the cities of Egypt. Around 1500BC, the Aryans from central Asia moved
south into India, bringing with them the Sanskrit language and a diverse religion
similar to that of the Mittani and Persians (Flood, 2002, p 24-53).
Mohenjo-Daro ruins
This religion would in time be known as Hinduism. The Aryans recorded their
teachings around 1200BC in books called the Vedas (veda is the Sanskrit word for
knowledge). The Vedas describe a society divided into four castes: The farmers
(sudra) the merchants (vaishya), the warriors and nobles (kshatriya) and the priests
(brahmana). While much of the Vedas tabulates the brahmanic rituals required to
honour the Aryan gods, they also contain eleven sections of Upanishads (secret
teachings) which explain the philosophy which is the “end of the Vedas” (Vedanta).
The Upanishads give the first written exposition of mystical thought. They teach that
behind the gods and goddesses of the Hindu pantheon is one energy or “God”, called
Brahman in its creative aspect, Vishnu in its preserving aspect, and Shiva in its
cleansing or destructive aspect. This unity is synonymous with truth (satya),
consciousness (chit), and bliss (ananda). As Vishnu the preserver, God incarnates in
human form (as an avatara or incarnation) to teach the truth of unity. The Vedas say
that the individual soul (called the atman) returns in reincarnation after reincarnation
until it discovers its unity with the world soul (Atman), which is one with God. The
Upanishads reveal that true knowledge or wisdom (Jnana) comes not from mere ritual
offerings (puja), but from stilling the mind in meditation (dhyana) until the state of

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unity (samadhi) is reached. By renouncing the desires of the world the sannyasin (the
word sannyasin means one who has renounced) dedicates her or his life to the search
for moksha (liberation) from suffering. The activities which lead to this liberation and
“realisation” of the oneness of the Atman are called yogas (the word yoga means
yoke or link).
Another important concept in Vedic philosophy is the need to follow ones divinely
ordained life path (dharma). Two great epic poems, first written between 500BC and
100BC, explore the theme of dharma by retelling the story of two avatars of Vishnu.
The Ramayana tells the story of Rama, and the Mahabharata (attributed to the sage
Vyasa) tells the story of Krishna. At one point in the Mahabharata, Krishna teaches
the essence of the Vedic philosophy to his friend Arjuna in a poem called the
Bhagavad gita (a gita is a song and bhagavad means God, so this is “the song of
God”). The Bhagavad Gita is the core religious text of Hinduism, and in it Krishna
teaches various yogas:
Karma yoga: the path of dedicating all one’s actions as service to God
Bhakti yoga: the path of devotional practices such as chanting sacred chants
(mantras)
Jnana yoga: the path of wisdom; of perceiving the one truth behind the world of
illusion
Dhyana yoga: the path of meditation
Since the time of the Vedic texts, Indian society has accepted religious diversity (see
Radhakrishnan and Moore, 1989). New teachers have arisen, at times commenting on
the Vedas and at times contradicting them. Even contradictory views are often
eventually incorporated into the field of Hinduism. For example, while the teachings of
Buddhism form a separate religion, the Buddha is usually recognised as an avatar of
Vishnu by orthodox Hindus. Amongst the movements which feed into this melting pot
of philosophy and spiritual practice are:
• Carvaka, a form of materialist scepticism, based on the Brhaspati Sutra (written
around 600BC).
• Jainism, a religion based on the teachings of Mahavira (599-527BC) and requiring a
strict code of non-violent conduct and renunciation.
• Buddhism, a religion based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama (around 480-
370BC).

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• Raja Yoga, based on the Yoga Sutras written by Patanjali (second century BC).
Patanjali teaches the detailed system of cleansing exercises, pranayama (breath
control), asanas (postures) and meditation (dhyana) which has come to be taught
under the name yoga in the west.
• Tantra. Tantra means extending or weaving, and refers to a number of texts written
around 700AD as “extensions” to the Vedas. The Tantras are couched as
dialogues between Shiva (God/spirit) and Shakti (Goddess /energy). Tantric texts
advocated the harnessing of creative energy from art, music, dance, visualisation,
sexuality and other life practices for spiritual awakening. Tantra yoga was
incorporated into both Hindu and Buddhist doctrine as another path to oneness. In
places such as Tibet, it enabled connections to be made between the newer Indian
teachings and ancient shamanistic practices.
• Sikhism, based on the teachings of Guru Nanak (1469-1539AD). Sikhism draws
elements from Hinduism and from Islam and teaches that God transcends both
religions.
• Krishna Consciousness, the bhakti (devotional) movement begun by Chaitanya
Mahaprabhu (born 1486) who taught the Hare Krishna mantra.
Hinduism is a vibrant mystical tradition which has included many hundreds of

apparently awakened teachers in the last century alone. Since the 1950s, its open
acknowledgement of esoteric spirituality has made it attractive to many westerners
searching for a tradition all but lost in European history. One of the first Indian gurus
(guru means dispeller of darkness, or “teacher”) to visit the west was Paramahansa
Yogananda (1893-1952) who arrived in 1920. Here are excerpts from Yogananda’s
description of his first taste of Samadhi bestowed directly by his guru Sri Yukteswar
(Yogananda, 1973, 166-168):
“Sri Yukteswar… struck gently on my chest above the heart. My body became
immovably rooted; breath was drawn out of my lungs as if by some huge magnet.
Soul and mind instantly lost their physical bondage, and streamed out like a fluid
piercing light from my every pore. The flesh was as though dead, yet in my intense
awareness I knew that never before had I been fully alive. My sense of identity was no
longer narrowly confined to a body, but embraced the circumambient atoms. People
on distant streets seemed to be moving gently over my own remote periphery. The
roots of plants and trees appeared through a dim transparency of the soil; I discerned
the inward flow of their sap…. An oceanic joy broke upon calm endless shores of my

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soul. The Spirit of God, I realized, is exhaustless Bliss; His body is countless tissues
of light. A swelling glory within me began to envelop towns, continents, the earth,
solar and stellar systems, tenuous nebulae, and floating universes. The entire
cosmos, gently luminous, like a city seen afar at night, glimmered within the infinitude
of my being. The sharply etched global outlines faded somewhat at the farthest
edges; there I could see a mellow radiance, ever-undiminished. It was indescribably
subtle; the planetary pictures were formed of a grosser light…. I cognized the center
of the empyrean as a point of intuitive perception in my heart. Irradiating splendor
issued from my nucleus to every part of the universal structure. Blissful amrita, the
nectar of immortality, pulsed through me with a quicksilverlike fluidity. The creative
voice of God I heard resounding as Aum, the vibration of the Cosmic Motor.”
Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi (1880-1950) is considered one of the most important
spiritual teachers of twentieth century India. He left home at the age of 16, after a
shocking experience of foreboding of death, and went to live at Tiruvannamalai by the
holy mountain Arunachala, in South India. After some years of absorption in
meditation, he began to teach, urging people to realise that there exists only one
fundamental reality or "Self" behind all our experience. Maharshi emphasised that
since only the self exists, there is no special state that has to be "gained somehow".
He says "There is no reaching the Self. If the Self were to be reached, it would mean
that the Self is not here and now and that it is yet to be obtained. What is got afresh
will also be lost. So it will be impermanent. What is not permanent is not worth
striving for. So I say the Self is not reached. You are the Self. You are already that.
The fact is, you are ignorant of your blissful state." (in Godman ed. 1985, p 19). This
more extreme approach is known within Vedanta as Advaita.
Advaita Vedanta has attracted interest amongst westerners seeking a less mythical
approach to unity than that offered by, for example, Krishna Consciousness. One
example is Gangagi (formerly Antoinette Robertson Varner), who was born in Texas in
1942, and married and had one child before moving to San Francisco and beginning a
spiritual search in 1972. She ran a Tibetan Buddhist centre in California and then met
her teacher Sri H.W.L. Poonjaji in India in 1990. Poonjaji was a student of Ramana
Maharshi and Gangaji is now recognised as an awakened teacher in Maharshi's
lineage. With her partner, NLP trainer Eli Jaxon-Bear, she teaches Maharshi's Advaita
approach around the world.

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She says "I knock on the door in the dream of "you and me" and I have something
very wonderful to tell you…. Consciousness is free. You are freedom itself. You have
only imagined yourself to be separate from consciousness, imagined yourself limited
to a body you imagine yourself to be. You have always been free. When this is
realised, there may be great laughter, and there may be many tears, there may be
shouts, and there may be dancing. The recognition of who you truly are, of your
natural state, is beginning the adventure of what is before beginning. It is the ending
of the preoccupation with the cycle of self-involvement, and the beginning of true self-
discovery, which knows no limits, knows no other." (quoted in Ullman and
Reichenberg-Ullman, 2001, p 220)
Buddhism
There can be little doubt that the figure of the Buddha towers over the history of
mystical experience on this planet. The religious tradition of Buddhism is the largest
overtly mystical movement ever seen. Siddhartha Gautama was born as a prince in
the kshatriya (warrior caste) Sakya clan, in southern Nepal, around 480BC. Distressed
by the omnipresence of suffering in human life, Siddhartha left his palace and his wife
Yasodhara to become a wandering sannyasin, fasting and performing rigorous yoga.
After some years he abandoned these harsh practices and by prolonged seated
meditation attained enlightenment, experiencing the unitary state that he termed
Nirvana. He returned to teach his path to both his fellow sannyasins and his former
family, being then known as the Buddha (enlightened one). He taught four truths:
1) Life as we usually live it inevitably involves suffering.
2) Suffering has a cause, which is the craving for what is not present and the craving
to hold onto what is present.
3) Since it has a cause, suffering can cease, and Nirvana be experienced.
4) The eight-fold path leading to this cessation of suffering involves understanding
the situation, resolving to change it, speaking, acting and working in ways that
support this resolve, and applying energy to be mindful (aware of each moment)
and meditative. Right action involves not harming humans or animals.
The Buddha’s initial teachings did not concern themselves with questions about the
existence of a “god” or the nature of the universe. Buddha said "Suppose a man is
wounded by a poison arrow, and his friends and relatives bring him to a surgeon.

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Suppose the man should then say: "I will not let this arrow be taken out until I know
who shot me….I will not let this arrow be taken out until I know the kind of bow with
which I was shot; the kind of bowstring used; the type of arrow…. That man would die
without knowing any of these things." (Rahula, 1959, p 14). Buddha also did not want
his followers to merely accept his teachings. He urged "It is proper that you have
doubt…. Be not led by the authority of religious texts, nor by mere logic or inference,
nor by considering appearances, nor by the delight in speculative opinions, nor by
seeming possibilities, nor by the idea: "this is our teacher". But… when you know for
yourselves that certain things are wholesome and good, then accept them and follow
them." (Rahula, 1959, p 2-3).
During Buddha’s lifetime, the sangha (community of monks and nuns) spreading the
Buddhist dharma (path) grew gradually bigger, including several local nobles.
However, it was a century after Buddha’s death that the sangha became a world
religion. In 268BC, a 32 year old prince called Ashoka ascended to the throne of the
Mauryan empire of north India. Eight years later, Ashoka led his army in the campaign
to annex the final area of north India not under Maurya control, a little state called
Kalinga. After his victory, Ashoka rode in pride onto the battlefield. But instead of
pride, he felt disgust at what he saw. Over 100,000 Kalingan men lay dead, in a field
covered in rivers of blood. Beside the slain, mothers, wives and children, many of
whom would now starve without a provider, mourned their loved ones.

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Ashoka
Ashoka went home and converted to Buddhism, taking on the name Piyadasi (“one
who’s appearance brings joy”). All across India he announced his conversion on 50
foot high, 50 tonne stone monuments. He begged forgiveness of his people and
promised never to lead them into another war. For the first time in history, he set up
free hospitals (for people and for animals). Animal sacrifice was banned throughout
the empire and the killing of endangered species was halted. Fruit trees and medicinal
herbs were planted along all major highways and wells dug to provide free water there
too. Religious freedom for all sects was announced. Great edicts faced out from the
borders of the empire promising Ashoka’s neighbours that Ashoka loved all human
beings as dearly as his own children, and he would do them no harm. Officials were
appointed to free all prisoners who had family to support or could be forgiven their
crimes safely. Every five years, Ashoka had other officials travel across the empire to
check that all knew his new rules and check that local officials acted with compassion
and justice. The crime rate plummeted, and India enjoyed a golden age of peace.
(Dhammika, 1993)
In 250BC, Ashoka presided over the third world conference of Buddhism. At this
conference, the division between two groups within Buddhism was discussed. The

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Theravada (teachings of the elders or Theras) school wanted to keep Buddhism to the
simple codes initially taught by Buddha. The more popular Mahayana (greater vehicle)
school wanted to open Buddhism up to lay membership, to accept new meditation
practices which were claimed to have been taught in secret to the innermost
disciples, and to accept new doctrines such as the ideal of the bodhisattva. The
bodhisattva is a future Buddha, and Mahayana practitioners can take a vow that they
will one day become a Buddha, and will not enter the final Nirvana until all living
beings are enlightened with them. The conference in 250BC agreed to accept that
there were now two different traditions within the sangha (Theravada and Mahayana).
After the conference, Ashoka funded missions which sent Buddhist teachers out to all
known civilisations. In 235BC Ashoka and his children left the throne and became
missionaries themselves. Today, Theravada Buddhism survives in Sri Lanka and
parts of South East Asia, while Mahayana Buddhism has spread through China, Japan
and Tibet. It was Ashoka who set this spread in motion, and his name is revered from
Japan to Sri Lanka. The British historian H.G. Wells wrote “Amidst the tens of
thousands of names of monarchs that crowd the columns of history… the name of
Ashoka shines, and shines almost alone, a star.” (quoted in Dhammika, 1993, p 1)
After Ashoka’s death, Buddhism declined in India, largely after the Moslem invasion.
Buddhism entered China over the two centuries following Ashoka’s council, and
moved into Japan from China and Korea around 538AD. Each of the major schools of
Chinese Buddhism was in turn adapted to Japanese conditions, renamed, and
established in the island nation. One of the most popular schools was the Pure Land
school (called Jingtu in China and Jodo shu in Japan).

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Monks from Jodo shu school in Japan
This school encouraged the chanting of a mantra honouring the name of the
Bodhisattva (future Buddha) called Dharmakara in India, Amitabha in Tibet, Amita in
China, and Amida in Japan. Followers believed that by chanting this mantra, they
would be reborn in Amita’s magical land to the west (a far cry from the original
teachings of Siddhartha Buddha). The school of “Meditation Buddhism”, called
Dyhana in India, was bought to China by Bodhidharma (470-520AD) and named Ch’an
in China, or Zen in Japan.

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Bodhisattva Ghuang-Yng in China
Ch’an/Zen encouraged a refocusing of Mahayana attention on the core idea of

meditation practice in Buddhism. In Japan, its austerity appealed to the Samurai
warrior class and it became a popular military philosophy (rather ironically
considering the Buddha’s original non-violence). (Bowker ed, 2002 p 72-105).

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Bodhisattva
Buddhism did not make headway in Tibet until around 600AD. In Tibet, a form of
Buddhism called Vajrayana (thunder vehicle) evolved, combining Mahayana teachings
with local Bon shamanism, and with the emerging tantra yoga system. In 1240AD the
Tibetan prince Pakpa held audience with the invading Mongol leader Kublai Khan, and
so impressed him that Kublai made

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Vajrayana (thunder vehicle) in Tibet
Tibetan Buddhism the predominant religion of Mongolia, and guaranteed Tibet’s

independence. It was the Mongolian leader Altan Khan who first bestowed the title
Dalai Lama (Ocean teacher) on the Tibetan spiritual leader Sonam Gyatso in 1578.
(Bowker ed, 2002 p 72-105). Tibetan Buddhism also allowed the development of many
tantric schools where women were considered the superior vehicles for human
spirituality. The Candamaharosana Tantra says, for example (quoted in Shaw, 1994, p
39):
“One should honour women.

Women are heaven, women are truth.
Women are the supreme fire of transformation.
Women are Buddha, women are religious community,
Women are the perfection of wisdom.”
The basic Buddhist teachings of mindfulness meditation remain constant from Zen to
Vajrayana to Theravada schools. Consider this instruction by one of the great women
teachers of Tibet, Niguma (Shaw, 1994, p 88):
“Don’t do anything whatsoever with the mind –

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Abide in an authentic, natural state.

One’s own mind, unwavering, is reality.
The key is to meditate like this without wavering;
Experience the great reality beyond extremes.
In a pellucid ocean, bubbles arise and dissolve again.
Just so, thoughts are no different from ultimate reality,
So don’t find fault; remain at ease.
Whatever arises, whatever occurs,
Don’t grasp, release it on the spot.
Appearances, sounds and objects are one’s own mind;
There’s nothing except mind.”
Chinese Paths
Ancient Chinese shamanism was organised into the philosophical system of Taoism
by the teachers Lao-tzu (approximately 604-500BC) and Chuang-tzu (369-286BC). Tao
means the way or the path, and the goal of Taoism is to align the Tao of each human
being with the Tao of nature itself. Wen-tzu explains
Tao
“Lao-tzu said: Those who are known as Real People are united in essence with the
Way, so they have endowments yet appear to have none; they are full yet appear to be

45
empty.” (quoted in Cleary, 1991, p 26). The first verse of Lao-tzu’s text Tao te Ching
(Book of the Tao) indicates that Taoism is a mystery religion, and that it accepts that
absolute truth cannot be pinned down by one name. It says (Lao-tzu, 1970, p 57):
“The way that can be spoken of

Is not the constant way;
The name that can be named
Is not the constant name.
The nameless was the beginning of heaven and earth;
The named was the mother of the myriad creatues.
Hence always rid yourself of desires in order to observe its secrets;
But always allow yourself to have desires in order to observe its manifestations.
These two are the same
But diverge in name as they issue forth.
Being the same they are called mysteries,
Mystery upon mystery –
The gateway of the manifold secrets.”
Many Taoist teachers found that their ideas and the Buddhist creed were perfectly
compatible, and scholars often spoke of the San Jiao (three linked paths) of China –
Buddhism, Taoism and the moralistic teachings of Kong Fu-tse (Confucius). However,
Taoist priests vied for favour with Buddhist scholars at the Chinese imperial courts,
and the Emperor Wu Zong (ruling 840-846) actually persecuted Buddhism on behalf of
Taoism.
Exercise systems comparable to Indian yoga were always an integral part of Taoism,
and both Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu mention breathing and movement exercises.

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Monument to Lao-tzu, China
The Taoist physician Hua T’o (141-203AD) developed a movement sequence called
“Play of the Five Animals”.
The Taoist physician Hua T’o heals the water Dragon
Bodhidharma, the Indian monk who brought Dhyana (Ch’an) Buddhism to China in the
6th century also taught “muscle and tendon changing” movement exercises and
martial arts at his Shoaling temple (Cleary, 1991, p xviii-xix).

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Monk from Shoaling
Early on in Taoist history, many Taoist practitioners hoped to discover a process

leading to physical immortality, perhaps using herbs and chemicals. The search for
an alchemical “elixir of eternal life” gradually came to be merely a metaphor used to
explain the building of internal energy (chi) for meditation, using physical exercises
and breathing exactly as the Indian yoga systems did. It is only in the last two
centuries that these Chinese exercise systems have been known by the collective
name qigong (Pronounced Chi Kung). There are over 2000 schools of chi kung active
in China at present.
Theosophy and Krishnamurti
So far in this chapter, I have summarised the development of several of the world’s
great mystical traditions. Clearly, the practitioners within these traditions are often
aware that their own tradition is but one expression of a fundamental human search.
In the last few centuries, there have been many attempts to create new synthetic
“world religions” which acknowledge this one source of all spiritual teaching. The
Theosophical Society, for example, was founded by Madame Helena Blavatsky and

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Colonel Henry Olcott in New York in 1875. "Theos" means God and "Sophia" means
wisdom in Greek. The society's outward aim was to promote the core teaching of all
religion; the divine wisdom which teaches that there is a oneness behind the
universe, and that human beings are destined to be united with that oneness.
The society's second and more secret aim was to find and support a world teacher
called “Maitreya” who was expected to “incarnate” in the twentieth century. For this
purpose, Annie Besant and Charles Webster Leadbeater moved the society's
headquarters to Adyar, India in 1907. In 1909 Leadbeater saw a boy called Jiddu
Krishnamurti on the beach at Adyar and was struck by the size of his “aura”.
Krishnamurti (Jiddu was his family name) had been born in South India in 1895, and
presented as a rather dreamy, unfocused youth who reported on occasion seeing
ghosts and images of Hindu gods. To many people’s surprise, Leadbeater identified
him as the person set to be the “vehicle” of the world teacher. In 1911 a world wide
organisation called the Order of the Star in the East (with 50,000 members) was set up
to serve Krishnamurti in this mission.

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In 1922, Krishnamurti began having some physically and psychologically dramatic

experiences, including visions of the “Maitreya” seen by him and others. After these
experiences, in 1928 he began to speak as the world teacher: “I am one with the
Beloved - whether you interpret it as the Buddha, the Lord Maitreya, Shri Krishna, the
Christ or any other name”. (Krishnamurti 1928, p46). But at the same time he warned
“Suppose a certain person was able to tell you that I am the World-Teacher, in what
ways would it help, in what way would it alter the Truth? In what way would
understanding come to your heart, and knowledge come to your mind? If you depend
on authority, you will be building your foundations on the sands, and the wave of
sorrow will come and wash them away.” (Krishnamurti, 1928, p.51). Others in the
Theosophical movement were disturbed by Krishnamurti’s new forwardness. The
conflict over his apparent rejection of the authority of Theosophy led to splits in the
movement, including the breaking away of Rudolf Steiner, who founded
Anthroposophy in 1909 ("Anthropos" means human).
Much to the distress of the Theosophists, Krishnamurti’s opposition to worship, and

his opposition to his own “messianic role” intensified to the point where, in 1929 he
dissolved the Order of the Star, saying “I maintain that truth is a pathless land, and
you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect ... . If
any organisation be created for this purpose it becomes a crutch, a weakness, a
bondage, and must cripple the individual, and prevent him from growing, from
establishing his uniqueness, which lies in the discovery for himself of that absolute,
unconditioned truth ... . My only concern is to set men absolutely, unconditionally
free.” (Lutyens, 1975, p 272-275).
Indeed, teaching about this fundamental human transformation occupied the rest of
Krishnamurti’s life till his death in 1986. As schools and educational centers were set
up under his guidance, and as books, audiotapes and videotapes ensured his
teachings reached beyond the thousands who saw him in person, he tirelessly taught
the same rather simple message of total, unconditioned awareness as the first and
last step to transformation. He consistently refused to indulge in speculation about
matters which were peripheral to this transformation, as did the Buddha before him.
No mythological or magical beliefs are necessary to make sense of what he is saying.
To my thinking, Krishnamurti was without a doubt the most extraordinary spiritual

teacher of the twentieth century. Amongst those who describe him as a central
change agent in their life are: quantum physicist David Bohm, writer Aldous Huxley,

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philosopher George Bernard Shaw, healer Deepak Chopra MD, scientist Dr Rupert
Sheldrake, singer Van Morrison, martial artist Bruce Lee, author Henry Miller, and a
number of psychotherapists including Esalen co-founder William Quinn (for all their
comments, see Blau, 1995). Larry Dossey MD, author of several books on mind-body
healing and spirituality, says “Krishnamurti’s writings changed my life, as they have
influenced the life of thousands of others worldwide. His books should be regarded
as what they really are: sacred literature ... “Is the universe friendly?” Einstein once
asked. To which we could reply: “It must be; it gave us Krishnamurti.” (Blau, 1995,
p.238).
Krishnamurti As A Person
Krishnamurti
Since many of the techniques introduced in this book owe their existence to
Krishnamurti’s teachings, you may be curious about Krishnamurti as a person, and
there are many puzzles about his personal life. Different biographers have grappled
with the fact that a rather naïve, innocent personality seemed to co-exist in
Krishnamurti alongside the extraordinary "being" who spoke the teachings. Were
there two Krishnamurtis, one using the other as a vehicle, as the Theosophists had

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claimed? When Krishnamurti's Indian co-ordinator expressed this opinion to him,

Krishnamurti dismissed it saying "Sir, the chap who talks under the tree is now
talking to you." (in Narayan, 1998, p 27). This is something that had very little interest
for Krishnamurti himself. For him, questions about his private or internal affairs were
just so much speculation about the origin of the poisoned arrow in our eye (to use
Buddha's metaphor –see earlier).
In his everyday life, Krishnamurti was constantly laughing and telling jokes, quite
different to the austerity he seemed to convey on the teaching platform. Bhikku
Walpola Rahula, a renowned Buddhist scholar who admired Krishnamurti, says that
the same playful humour occurs in both the Buddha and Krishnamurti's stories. At
one point, for example, Krishnamurti was emphasising that "These are not my
teachings, but the teachings of life." Laughing about people's admiration for his
Indian name, he said he was now considering changing it to Christopher Murphy!
(Weeraperuma, 1998, p 57).
As another example of Krishnamurti's avoidance of "fan clubs", he was very reluctant

to discuss his ability to heal others. In 1960, his friend Vimala Thakar was suffering
from serious bilateral ear problems, causing long term pain, periods of
unconsciousness and deafness. After a few sessions with Krishnamurti placing his
hands by her head, her hearing was restored, and the constant pain completely
disappeared. These sessions of physical healing immediately preceded Vimala's inner
transformation, described below. (Thakar, 1974, p 30-37) The editor of the complete
works of Mahatma Gandhi (V. Ganesan) reported a similar experience when he found
himself unable to continue his work because of failing eyesight. Krishnamurti simply
moved his fingers across Ganesan's eyes and his sight was restored. (Narayan, 1998,
p 60). Giddu Narayan documents a number of occasions like this, where Krishnamurti
seemed able to heal severe eye conditions such as detached retinas, to heal
congenital heart defects and to heal serious musculo-skeletal injuries. When Narayan
asked how this happened, Krishnamurti dismissed any claim to be the source of the
healing, saying simply "Somewhere something clicks…. Energy passes." (Narayan,
1998, p 30). In public, Krishnamurti would refuse to discuss such events. They
certainly make sense in terms of the energy processes I will explore later in this book.
Another mystery about Krishnamurti's private life involves the private sexual
relationship with Rosalind Williams Rajagopal which he apparently maintained from
1932 until he began public teaching again in 1947. In a rather puzzling attempt to

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avoid scandal, Rosalind remained officially married to Krishnamurti's assistant,

Desikaracharya Rajagopal. Rajagopal had informally told Rosalind that their marriage
was over, following the birth of their child, Radha, in 1930. While there was no direct
contradiction between Krishnamurti's relationship with Rosalind and his teachings,
many people were shocked by its disclosure forty years later.
Krishnamurti and Rosalind, 1935
In his later teachings, Krishnamurti never criticised romantic love. In fact, he

cautioned "All religions have told us to deny sex, to suppress it, because they say it
is a waste of energy and you must have energy to find God. But this kind of austerity
and harsh suppression and conformity to a pattern does brutal violence to all our
finer instincts. This kind of harsh austerity is a greater waste of energy than
indulgence in sex." (Krishnamurti, 1991, p 61).
He also encouraged people to find, in "ordinary" romantic love, that same beauty that
love always offers. He says "Can't two people be in love and both be so intelligent and
so sensitive that there is freedom and absence of a centre that makes for conflict?
Conflict is not in the feeling of being in love. The feeling of being in love is utterly
without conflict. There is no loss of energy in being in love. The loss of energy is in
the tail, in everything that follows -jealousy, possessiveness, suspicion, doubt, the
fear of losing that love, the constant demand for reassurance and security. Surely it
must be possible to function in a sexual relationship with someone you love without
the nightmare which usually follows. Of course it is." (Krishnamurti, 1991, p 64).
One day, Krishnamurti asked his friend Narayan "What is the essence of my
teaching?" Narayan suggested that it was the notion, which Krishnamurti emphasised
at the start of most talks, that "You are the world." Krishnamurti agreed and added
"The observer is the observed." (what you are observing, internally or externally, is
not separate from some hypothetical "you"; it IS you). (Narayan, 1998, p 36-37).

53
Whenever he was asked which great teacher was closest to his own ideas,
Krishnamurti would unhesitatingly reply "Buddha". (Michel, 1995, p 97).
Vimala Thakar
Vimala Thakar is a friend of Krishnamurti’s with whom I have been fortunate enough
to study. She is the personal link that converted my written contact with Krishnamurti
into a face to face learning experience. Thakar is often described as the greatest living
fully enlightened woman teacher. She was born in India in 1922 and fascinated with
religion at an early age. As an adult, she studied philosophy at Nagpur University. In
India, Vimala found, the idea of a woman by herself finding ultimate spiritual
enlightenment was not accepted. Women could be "devotees" or divine mother
symbols, but not awakened teachers. She says "When I wanted to study the Vedas,
the Brahma Sutras, in Varanasi, I went with folded hands to the authorities on the
Vedas and they said, "No, a woman should not study the Vedas."…. "Alright," I said,
"I will study by myself."…. This differentiation has to go. There is differentiation that
has to do with the body, with different kinds of limitations. But that doesn't mean that
a woman is not entitled to liberation." (in Parish, 1996).
Vimala Thakar

54
In the years following Mahatma Gandhi's 1948 assassination, Vimala joined the
Sarvodaya movement, set up to carry on the social change work Gandhi had urged.
Sarvodaya has four basic goals she explains (1984, p125-128): equality, collective
ownership of land and factories, decentralised decision making, and a stateless
(anarchist) society. It is committed to achieving these non-violently. An example of
Sarvodaya's methods is the campaign to convince village landowners to gift their
lands to communal ownership (Gramdan). By 1969 140,020 villages (a quarter of
India) had achieved an agreement to develop Gramdan, though less than 1,000 had
finalised community control.
As one of 5,000 full time Sarvodaya volunteers, Vimala Thakar was in the forefront of
this campaign when, in 1956, she met Jiddu Krishnamurti. His talks about "a radical
revolution in the human heart and mind" seemed to provide a missing piece in the
jigsaw of Vimala's life. The talks had a powerful effect on her inner state. "It was not
listening to a speech. It was experiencing that abundant energy, which was
struggling to express itself through words. I went back to my room. I spent the whole
day in silence.... The words and the intensity throbbing in them had opened the doors
to the unknown. I was not aware of anything but the irresistible presence of the
eternal ... No words could describe the intensity and the depth of the experience
through which I am passing. Everything is changed. I am born anew." (Thakar 1974,
p 49).
Vimala is the only person that Krishnamurti ever directly asked to go out and teach.
Encouraged by her friend, Vimala began to speak out about the importance of fusing
social action and spirituality. "It is neither the current socioeconomic structures
alone, nor the individual mind by itself that has created the chaos, the ridiculously
sad plight we're unhappily enduring. Both are expressions of the collective
consciousness... The structures of society need to be transformed, but the hidden
motivations and assumptions on which the structures rest need to be transformed as
well... Life is not fragmented; it is not divided. It cannot be divided into spiritual and
material, individual and collective.... We are wholeness, and we move in wholeness."
Vimala currently lives in a community with several friends, at Mt Abu in the Himalayan
foothills, and she runs trainings for such diverse groups as peace activists, Buddhist
groups, businesspeople and yoga teachers. Her fundamental message continues to
parallel that of Krishnamurti; guiding us to experience life as an undivided wholeness,
rather than separating out the "self" from "the world". She emphasises "The ego is a

55
contrivance like any other concept, but we have become so accustomed to live from
that centre we feel we are really the ego and forget that it is a concept we have
created." Like Krishnamurti, she is clear that meditation (which she often refers to as
"silence") means more than merely using a technique. She says, "Please do not
confuse silence with concentration. There are techniques of concentration which
help to quiet a mind that goes on chattering to itself, likes to keep itself in good
company. There are techniques such as mantra, repeating a word or phase, watching
the breathing, looking at the flame of a candle, concentrating on parts of the body.
These do help control the wanderings of the mind and might be used initially if we
like, but its very easy to make habits of these techniques ... Concentration involves a
subtle movement towards an object; in silence there is no movement at all".
Interpretation and Originality
This book presents an approach to spirituality which draws liberally on the teachings
of Jiddu Krishnamurti and Vimala Thakar. Krishnamurti himself always cautioned
"The teachings are important in themselves and interpreters and commentators only
distort them. It is advisable to go directly to the source, the teachings themselves,
and not through any authority." (Krishnamurti Foundation Trust, 1993, p 3). He
advised biographers and other commentators "All you can say is, 'Probably this is
what K. meant.' It's good to use words like 'perhaps' and 'probably' because they
introduce an element of doubt in the mind of the reader. Sir, if you do that you will not
run the risk of becoming a misinterpreter." (Michel, 1995, p xii). I will follow his
recommendation. The processes I teach are inspired by Krishnamurti’s work, and
they may perhaps be what he meant.
Finally, as the writer of Ecclesiastes in the Bible says “there is nothing new under the
sun.” (Ecclesiastes, 1:10). Everything you will read here has been said in some way
before. And yet it is never said quite the same way, just as one can never step into the
same river twice. As an NLP trainer, my interest is in making the collective wisdom of
humanity available in useable forms today. Even in this task, what I am doing has
been attempted before. There are other excellent NLP based books on spirituality that
you might want to read after this one. Peter Wryzca’s Living Awareness is an example
of a work with a similar breadth to my own. Peter is an NLP Trainer, and a practitioner
of Transcendental Meditation who lives on the predominantly Hindu island of Bali.

56
Robert Dilts and Robert McDonald are two other NLP trainers, whose book Tools of
the Spirit adds many new NLP processes for touching the source of spirit. And Ted
Falconar’s book Creative Intelligence and Self Liberation identifies some of the same
philosophical links between NLP and Krishnamurti’s teachings which I use here.
Angela and John Hicks’ book Healing Your Emotions combines NLP and chi kung in
ways similar to my own. By now though, you will know that there are some important
new contributions that this book makes. One is that it systematically researches both
the science of oneness and the history of its application. Another is that it makes
publicly available, for the first time, a series of important processes which I have
modelled from Krishnamurti and others. These are not mere theories or factual
explanations. They are real tools with which you can change the quality of your life
forever. As you read, find time to actually do the exercises, and you will realise that
they open into that which all human beings have sought. It is this which calls to you,
and at the end of your life, you will know that every moment spent in this search was
a moment worth living. Let’s begin.
Summary
The search for the experience of oneness is as old as human society. Early human
expressions of spirituality probably were very similar to the shamanism which has
been studied in traditional Siberian society. Shamans with their own individual belief
systems enter trance or ecstatic states using drumming, dance and hallucinogenic
plants. In the first civilizations, such as ancient Egypt, priestly castes controlled the
rituals required to appease gods and goddesses, and the shamanic experiences were
hidden in esoteric or mystery religions. The mystery religions provide initiates with
secret rituals which metaphorically invite them to experience unity with the
goddess/god. Examples are the worship of Isis and Osiris in Egypt, Mithraism in
Persia and ancient Rome, and even early Christianity with its links to the Jewish
Essene community.
Within Judaism, Kabbalist mystical traditions emerged 2000 years ago and in the Arab
world, the Sufi mystical tradition has allied itself with Islam since the time of
Mohammed in the eighth century AD. Sufi sacred dances and teaching stories have
been introduced to the west both by the Sufi teachers and by explorers such as
Gurdjieff. Mysticism also emerged in early Christianity, where the Gnostics taught

57
their followers to trust a mystical “knowing” of truth rather than to accept written
authority. Later Christian mystics (such as Teresa of Avila) were often more careful to
couch their experiences in terms acceptable to the church authorities. Members of all
these western traditions have acknowledged their interconnectedness. Kabbalists,
Sufi, Gnostics and later Christian mystics have all experienced persecution by their
mainstream religion at times, after claiming direct experience of truth and experience
of oneness with God.
In India, teachings about the ultimate unity of all that is were contained in the Vedas,
written around 1200BC, The later Bhagavad Gita teaches various paths to this unity,
called yogas. These include karma yoga (action), bhakti yoga (devotion), jnana yoga
(wisdom) and dhyana (meditation). Within the diversity of Hindu teachings, Buddhism
is a strongly non-violent and meditation focused path, first taught by Siddhartha
Gautama (born 480BC). It spread beyond India thanks largely to the work of emperor
Ashoka two centuries later. The Theravada Buddhism of south Asia teaches only the
original meditation techniques, whereas the Mahayana Buddhism of northern Asia
accepts veneration of Bodhisattvas (future Buddhas) and other spiritual exercises as
part of Buddhist practice. Tibetan Buddhism has links to the tantric tradition which
utilises meditative sexuality and creative expression. In China, Buddhism has links to
the ancient teachings of the Tao, which is the path of nature. Taoist spiritual exercises
or chi kung perform a similar function to Indian yogic exercises.
The last two centuries there have been various attempts to create religious synthesis.
The Theosophical Society was set up to support the core esoteric teachings of
oneness. In 1909 Theosophists found the young boy Jiddu Krishnamurti and prepared
him for a role as world messiah. While Krishnamurti soon rejected the authority of
Theosophy, he became an extraordinarily respected teacher of Buddhist-like
awareness techniques. His friend Vimala Thakar is perhaps the most respected
woman teacher of spirituality alive today, and teaches a fusion of social action and
awareness. My own contact with Krishnamurti and Thakar have led me to develop
many of the models presented through the rest of this book.
_____________________________________
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2003© Dr Richard Bolstad

Integration: NLP and Spirit © Dr Richard Bolstad, 2003

Integration: NLP and Spirituality

The Science of Oneness ........................................................................................ 5

Integration: NLP and Spirit © Dr Richard Bolstad, 2003

Integration: NLP and Spirit © Dr Richard Bolstad, 2003

Experiencing the Oneness of Life

It is possible to be very healthy physically, to have achieved material success and

Integration: NLP and Spirit © Dr Richard Bolstad, 2003

The History of Spirituality

My aim in this chapter is not to give a comprehensive history of religion and

Shamanism: The Source

Integration: NLP and Spirit © Dr Richard Bolstad, 2003

Integration: NLP and Spirit © Dr Richard Bolstad, 2003

Integration: NLP and Spirit © Dr Richard Bolstad, 2003

Esoteric and Exoteric Religion In Egypt

One of the characteristics of shamanic cultures is that each shaman individually

Integration: NLP and Spirit © Dr Richard Bolstad, 2003

Integration: NLP and Spirit © Dr Richard Bolstad, 2003

Integration: NLP and Spirit © Dr Richard Bolstad, 2003

Pharaoh Tutmoses III

Integration: NLP and Spirit © Dr Richard Bolstad, 2003

“I come from infinite power to those who meditate on me

Integration: NLP and Spirit © Dr Richard Bolstad, 2003

The goddess Isis

Integration: NLP and Spirit © Dr Richard Bolstad, 2003

Integration: NLP and Spirit © Dr Richard Bolstad, 2003

Symbol of Mitanni civilization ( 1450-1360 BC) & Ahura Mazda

Integration: NLP and Spirit © Dr Richard Bolstad, 2003

Integration: NLP and Spirit © Dr Richard Bolstad, 2003

Integration: NLP and Spirit © Dr Richard Bolstad, 2003

Akhenaten and Nefertiti

The Mystical Traditions In Judaism

Integration: NLP and Spirit © Dr Richard Bolstad, 2003

…were kept in pots

Integration: NLP and Spirit © Dr Richard Bolstad, 2003

Edmond Szekely is a Roman Catholic theologian who researched an early Christian

Integration: NLP and Spirit © Dr Richard Bolstad, 2003

Gold locket as illustration to the book Sephir Yetzirah, chapter 1:1

Integration: NLP and Spirit © Dr Richard Bolstad, 2003

The Mystical Traditions In Christianity

Integration: NLP and Spirit © Dr Richard Bolstad, 2003

The emperor Constantine

“As one's ignorance disappears when he gains knowledge, and as darkness

Integration: NLP and Spirit © Dr Richard Bolstad, 2003

Integration: NLP and Spirit © Dr Richard Bolstad, 2003

Integration: NLP and Spirit © Dr Richard Bolstad, 2003

Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1581)

Integration: NLP and Spirit © Dr Richard Bolstad, 2003

The Mystical Tradition In Islam

Integration: NLP and Spirit © Dr Richard Bolstad, 2003

The Sufi, meditation

“When the lover breathes,

Integration: NLP and Spirit © Dr Richard Bolstad, 2003

One breath shatters this illusory world

The Sufi, mysteries

The world becomes an ocean

Integration: NLP and Spirit © Dr Richard Bolstad, 2003

George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (1877-1949)

Integration: NLP and Spirit © Dr Richard Bolstad, 2003

Integration: NLP and Spirit © Dr Richard Bolstad, 2003

Integration: NLP and Spirit © Dr Richard Bolstad, 2003