Maharishi Sadasiva Isham

Here is a little bit about MSI, the recent founder of the Ishayas' Ascension which is the system of meditation that I practice and teach. I seem to be on a kick on Enlightened Masters and he is a great one.

About MSI

The life of every person is sacred. The revelation of that sacredness is often revealed by a person's contribution to humanity. In many cases, that contribution is only revealed after death. Maharishi Sadashiva Isham (MSI) was such an individual. MSI's life was punctuated by the desire to know. His search was not for knowledge but for Truth. Truth was most important to him and he shared that Truth in total commitment to healing the world.

Born April 13, 1949 in Seattle, Washington, MSI's early life was marked by a desire to find meaning in a seemingly lonely and cruel world. His frustration from feeling different and alone was blanketed by a firm hope that one day he would discover the purpose of life.

After graduating Phi Beta Kappa, Cum Laude in English from the University of Washington, MSI met his teacher, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of Transcendental Meditation (TM.) MSI entered into a formal teacher/student relationship with Maharishi and became a TM teacher shortly thereafter. He eventually found himself in Fairfield, Iowa, home of the TM University with a wife and two children. Content in his experience of expanding consciousness, he settled into a quiet lifestyle of writing books and designing and building houses.

His life was thoroughly shattered in 1988 when, in a matter of months, he lost his business, his money, his house and his family through divorce. Considering his loss an omen, and disenchanted with the rules surrounding TM, he began a new quest for the meaning and purpose of life. During a journey to the Himalayas, MSI found the Ishayas, an ancient order of monks founded by the Apostle John. From them, MSI learned the techniques collectively known as the Ishayas' Ascension that he would later bring to the world. His first book, First Thunder, is a fictionalized account of his journey. After 18 months, the Ishayas' instructed him to return to the outside world to share his story with the rest of humanity.

When he returned to the West, MSI knew he had the tools to change the world, yet virtually no one world listen to him. Finally, after four years of traveling the US, and authoring five books, he saw the seed of his commitment begin to sprout. He founded the Society for Ascension, a non-profit educational organization based in western North Carolina and dedicated to spreading the Ishayas' teachings. In less than two years, the first group of three teachers grew to more than one hundred. Ascension is spreading to many foreign countries, with centers opening around North America and the world.

MSI lived to see the message of Ascension firmly rooted in fertile soil and spreading throughout the world. He passed from this world on August 12, 1997. The message of his life -- that perfection on Earth is not only possible but imminent -- is gathering momentum and manifesting in the rapid growth of consciousness seen in all who practice the simple techniques of the Ishayas' Ascension.

It has now been nearly 11 years since MSI moved on from this physical realm. Time flies. His message is still very much alive and his energy is still very much part of the Tradition that he served as the custodian. There are a lot of cool and miraculous stories about him though I am not going to recount any of them here. One of the coolest things about him was that he was not in anyway interested in being a guru figure or a figure of veneration. Like all true Teachers he was simply a clear channel for Consciousness.

Consider the Lilies of the Field!

In life we have problems when we lose the forest for the trees. As children we are taught to think about things and develop our sense of ego and with it the practice of associating certain things to our self created identity. As these associations build up our vision and world becomes narrow.

Through the practice of Ascension we connect to our Pure Awareness. This inner dimension is beyond likes, dislikes, and associations; it is beyond I, me, and mine. This aspect of self is truly deathless and eternal. It has no beginning and it has no end. If one dives deep enough into Pure Awareness one finds that it is the basic substratum of everything; you, me, the computer screen. Consciousness is the fundamental building block of everything! And the amazing fact is that it is all available right Now.

The past is a dream and the future is concept only. When we attempt to manipulate either we are only playing in the world of the mind. This doesn't mean that the Enlightened do not plan. It is necessary to plan, but planning, like everything else is grounded by a connection to right Now. So, consider the lilies of the field, and be free of the 3 gunas!

Siddhars

I recently came across an interesting little book called "Babaji and the 18 Siddha Kriya Yoga Masters" by Marshall Govindan. Anyhow, it has brought Siddhars to my attention again. These are Masters who were (are) prevalent in the Tamil Nadu area of India (south east). One of the most renowned is Agastya who in many circles is held to be an Avatar. Here is the wikipedia on Siddhars.

Siddhars are saints in India, mostly of the Saivaite denomination in Tamil Nadu, who professed and practised an unorthodox type of Sadhana, or spiritual practice, to attain liberation. Yogic powers called Siddhis are acquired by constant practice of certain yogic disciplines. Those who acquire these Siddhis are called Siddhas.[1] Siddhars are people who are believed to control and transcend the barriers of time and space by meditation (Yoga), after the use of substances called Rasayanas that transform the body to make it potentially deathless, and a particular breathing-practice, a type of Pranayama. Through their practices they are believed to have reached stages of insight which enabled them to tune into the powers hidden in various material substances and practices, useful for suffering and ignorant mankind. Typically Siddhars were saints, doctors, alchemists and mysticists all at once. They wrote their findings, in the form of poems in Tamil language, on palm leaf which are collected and stored in what are known today as Palm leaf manuscript, today still owned by private families in Tamil Nadu and handed down through the generations, as well as public institutions such as Universities the world over (India, Germany, Great Britain, U.S.A.).
In this way Siddhars developed, among other branches of a vast knowledge-system, what is now known as Siddha medicine, practised mainly in Tamil Nadu as Traditional native medicine. A rustic form of healing that is similar to Siddha medicine has since been practised by experienced elderly in the villages of Tamil Nadu, and is popularly known as Paatti Vaitthiyam, Naattu marunthu and Mooligai marutthuvam They are also founders of Varmam - a martial art for self-defence and medical treatment at the same time. Varmams are specific points located in the human body which when pressed in different ways can give various results, such as disabling an attacker in self-defence, or balancing a physical condition as an easy first-aid medical treatment.
Siddhars have also written many religious poems. It is believed that most of them have lived for ages, in a mystic mountain called Sathuragiri, near Thanipparai village in Tamil Nadu
One of the best-known Siddhars was Agasthyar or Agasthya, who is believed to be the founding father of Siddha culture.
Abithana Chintamani states Siddhars are either of the 9 or 18 persons enlisted, but sage Agastyar states that there are many who precede these and follow 9 or 18 persons. Many of the great Siddhars are regarded to have powers magical and spiritual.

I get excited even reading the wikipedia about these Masters. One thing that certainly wasn't stressed in the wikipedia is the physical immortality of some of these Siddhas (course I am not aware of personally meeting any of them, so I can't attest). I do however feel this is so and that immortality is a possibility for every human being. There is nothing that says our cells have to age and die, there is nothing that says they have to lose their functioning. It is our thoughts that kill us (self judgment, fight or flight off the charts, useless unproductive self defeating thinking). Anyhow an interesting book on that subject is entitles the Immortal Cell and a wonderful book (that personally opened me up to the notion that the path of Expanding Consciousness could be filled with Love) to read about different Saints, Masters, and Yogis is Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi. That is it for this post!

Ramana Maharshi

I've known of Ramana Maharshi for some time and of his empahis on Self-Enquiry, but I never really checked him out. Anyhow, I just read Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth and was inspired to look him up some more. What a story he has. . . . It didn't stick into my head well enough to ably account except for 2 minutes of self enquiry and, boom, enlightened, so I will put a little bit from Wikipedia on here and then let you do the rest! To the sage of Arunachula!

Sri Ramana Maharshi (December 30, 1879 – April 14, 1950), born Venkataraman Iyer, was an Indian sage. He was born to a Tamil Hindu Brahmin family in Tiruchuzhi, Tamil Nadu. After having attained liberation at the age of 16, he left home for Arunachala, a mountain considered sacred by Hindus, at Tiruvannamalai, and lived there for the rest of his life. Arunachala is located in Tamil Nadu, South India[1]. Although born a Brahmin, after having attained moksha he declared himself an "Atiasrami", a Sastraic state of unattachment to anything in life and beyond all caste restrictions[2].
Sri Ramana maintained that the purest form of his teachings was the powerful silence which radiated from his presence and quieted the minds of those attuned to it. He gave verbal teachings only for the benefit of those who could not understand his silence[3]. His verbal teachings were said to flow from his direct experience of Consciousness as the only existing reality[4]. When asked for advice, he recommended self-enquiry as the fastest path to moksha. Though his primary teaching is associated with Non-dualism, Advaita Vedanta, and Jnana yoga, he highly recommended Bhakti, and gave his approval to a variety of paths and practices.

Teachings

Sri Ramana's teachings about self-enquiry, the practice he is most widely associated with, have been classified as the Path of Knowledge (Jnana marga) among the Indian schools of thought. Though his teaching is consistent with and generally associated with Hinduism, the Upanishads and Advaita Vedanta, there are some differences with the traditional Advaitic school, and Sri Ramana gave his approval to a variety of paths and practices from various religions[44].
His earliest teachings are documented in the book Nan Yar?, first written in Tamil. The original book was published by Sri Pillai[45], although the essay version of the book (Sri Ramana Nutrirattu) prepared by Sri Ramana is considered definitive as unlike the original it had the benefit of his revision and review. A careful translation with notes is available in English as 'The Path of Sri Ramana, Part One' by Sri Sadhu Om, one of the direct disciples of Sri Ramana. Selections from this definitive version follow[46]:
As all living beings desire to be happy always, without misery, as in the case of everyone there is observed supreme love for one's self, and as happiness alone is the cause for love, in order to gain that happiness which is one's nature and which is experienced in the state of deep sleep where there is no mind, one should know one's self. For that, the path of knowledge, the inquiry of the form "Who am I?", is the principal means.
Knowledge itself is 'I'. The nature of (this) knowledge is existence-consciousness-bliss.
What is called mind is a wondrous power existing in Self. It projects all thoughts. If we set aside all thoughts and see, there will be no such thing as mind remaining separate; therefore, thought itself is the form of the mind. Other than thoughts, there is no such thing as the world.
Of all the thoughts that rise in the mind, the thought 'I' is the first thought.
That which rises in this body as 'I' is the mind. If one enquires 'In which place in the body does the thought 'I' rise first?', it will be known to be in the heart [spiritual heart is 'two digits to the right from the centre of the chest']. Even if one incessantly thinks 'I', 'I', it will lead to that place (Self)'
The mind will subside only by means of the enquiry 'Who am I?'. The thought 'Who am I?', destroying all other thoughts, will itself finally be destroyed like the stick used for stirring the funeral pyre.
If other thoughts rise, one should, without attempting to complete them, enquire, 'To whom did they arise?', it will be known 'To me'. If one then enquires 'Who am I?', the mind (power of attention) will turn back to its source. By repeatedly practising thus, the power of the mind to abide in its source increases.
The place where even the slightest trace of the 'I' does not exist, alone is Self.
Self itself is the world; Self itself is 'I'; Self itself is God; all is the Supreme Self (siva swarupam)
Sri Ramana warned against considering self-enquiry as an intellectual exercise. Properly done, it involves fixing the attention firmly and intensely on the feeling of 'I', without thinking. It is perhaps more helpful to see it as 'Self-attention' or 'Self-abiding' (cf. Sri Sadhu Om - The Path of Sri Ramana Part I). The clue to this is in Sri Ramana's own death experience when he was 16. After raising the question 'Who am I?' he "turned his attention very keenly towards himself" (cf. description above). Attention must be fixed on the 'I' until the feeling of duality disappears.
Although he advocated self-enquiry as the fastest means to realization, he was also known to have advised the practice of bhakti and self-surrender (to one's Deity or Guru) either concurrently or as an adequate alternative, which would ultimately converge with the path of self-enquiry