Richard Sylvester - Buddha at the Gas Pump Interview

Also see http://batgap.com/richard-sylvester/

Richard Sylvester is a humanistic psychologist, therapist and lecturer. For thirty years he engaged with a variety of spiritual practices while also training in psychotherapeutic techniques and teaching counselling. In 2002 Richard met Tony Parsons and as he writes in his first book "That was the end of what I thought had been my life."
Richard writes "The most common misconception about liberation is that it is something an individual can gain. But actually it is a loss -- the loss of the sense that there ever was a separate person who could choose to do something to bring about liberation. In liberation it is seen that thoughts, feelings and perceptions simply arise in Oneness -- there is no one to whom they belong.
"The sense of separation makes us take the everyday for granted and clamour for something more exciting to happen. But when separation is seen through, the ordinary becomes transformed into this wonderful play of consciousness, and it is seen that this is already it and this is already sufficient.
"This is a recurring message. It overthrows all authority. It can't be killed off. It requires nothing. It requires no churches, no philosophical tracts, no scriptures, no history. If everything that had ever been said or written about non-duality were to disappear in a moment, it would simply re-emerge. It would re-emerge because nothing has to be learnt, nothing has to be studied, nothing has to be done, no spiritual purification and no pleasing of God has to take place, for the seeing of liberation to occur. It arises spontaneously. One moment there's somebody there, the next moment there isn't. One moment there's somebody crossing a field, the next moment there's just crossing a field."
Richard has written three books about non-duality, 'I Hope You Die Soon', 'The Book Of No One' and 'Drink Tea, Eat Cake'. He gives talks on non-duality in England and abroad. If you would like to know more, please visit www.richardsylvester.com or www.richardsylvester.co.uk.

Interview recorded 5/8/2011.

Due to technical problems, this video only contains still shots of Richard, while Rick's video is normal.

Category:

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Tags:

• enlightenment
• awakening
• meditation
• self-realization
• interviews
• spirituality
• non-dualism
• advaita
• non-duality

[JMac1868]

A person is standing in a mud puddle and asks a person standing at the edge of the mud puddle, "How do I get out of this mud puddle?" And the person at the edge of the mud puddle says, "There is no person and therefore there is no person in the mud puddle." Nowhere to go and nothing to do because there is no one to do it :) This points at liberation but the person can't see where is being pointed to because where is being pointed to is without the person!

[classicalguitartv]

i like what Richard says - he's great. The interviewer is sort of trying to find a "key" or something that would "help" the understanding. Yeah, I've been there.....

[17894Railroads]

1.18 ish

its not helpful, its destructive, thats the point

[17894Railroads]

the pool of mud metaphor is simply an attractive seeker story

later on, making ordinary into grandiosity 54 minutes ish

[17894Railroads]

the pool of mud metaphor is simply an attractive seeker story

[deckchairs1]

@deckchairs1 Just as each person's maturation process is imperceptible, and might still freak out over the same things and it might still be neurotic a reaction, you might get back on the horse a bit faster than you would have when you had no experiences of fundamental unity and warmth with the world.

You might know consciously you are losing it, but you might know now you can ride it out and come out the other side and allow yourself to do it without needing to change it.

[deckchairs1]

Yes. Richard Sylvester is right in my experience with 4 decades of meditation etc., practices.

You're still you only you have the bone deep sense of unity and warmth, many differing possibilities in how this could be a balm to fragmented sense of being, or how each individual might come into this is unique to the person..

It's not as though a person solidifies that and hangs onto it, but you never forget it as a touchstone in your perspective on the human dilemma.