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| Martin Wolff At Ramanasramam |
G. To answer this question, i called upon a fellow long-term, "nondual" practitioner, and Ramana Maharshi devotee, who has continued his practices, in the US and India, while struggling w/a seriously debilitating and potentially life-threatening illness. This is Martin Wolff's story:
...I had one or two sort of "awakening experiences" during my childhood...What impacted me the most were the words of Jesus and the sound of Gregorian Chant...where I learned of the power of sound to still and clarify heart and mind.
...I asked a lot of questions..my enthusiasm for the Truth I knew Jesus was saying, but I felt I was not quite getting...ended up withdrawing from the church and began my search in philosophy....ended up in the East, first with Lao-Tzu and Chuang-Tzu, but made its way to Shankara and Advaita Vedanta... attended the School of Practical Philosophy in New York City...for about 23 years...
...learned to read, write and sound Sanskrit....started to chant Sanskrit...verses from the Bhagavad Gita...the key principle (is) that the present moment is paramount!...all other spiritual principles and practices will come down to Being in the Present!
...learned to read, write and sound Sanskrit....started to chant Sanskrit...verses from the Bhagavad Gita...the key principle (is) that the present moment is paramount!...all other spiritual principles and practices will come down to Being in the Present!
...a dear friend and spiritual companion handed me a book...A depth of nurturing Silence seemed to come right out of the book to me. The book was "Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi." (downloadable .pdf) I was powerfully affected by it...there grew in me a desire to go...where he lived, to walk where he walked and to sit...where he once gave darshan...to go to Sri Ramanasramam...in Tiruvannamalai, India.
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| Sri Ramanasramam Entrance Tiruvannamalai, India |
...By the time I went, I had learned more Sanskrit chants and had put out my first CD "I Do Nothing at All"...had started vedic chanting training in a formal way...I was the only non-Indian...
When I went to Sri Ramanasramam...offered to chant for the president of the ashram and his wife...He asked if I would mind if some other people were also present... I chanted a couple of vedic invocations, in the formal vedic way. To my horror, many of the Indian attendees got up and walked out!..."It's just not done."...Since then, I have chanted along with the Brahmin priests and the boys in training...Now, Indians tend to come up to me, with amazement on their faces and ask how it is that I can chant vedas! It is always with respect and admiration...
When I went to Sri Ramanasramam...offered to chant for the president of the ashram and his wife...He asked if I would mind if some other people were also present... I chanted a couple of vedic invocations, in the formal vedic way. To my horror, many of the Indian attendees got up and walked out!..."It's just not done."...Since then, I have chanted along with the Brahmin priests and the boys in training...Now, Indians tend to come up to me, with amazement on their faces and ask how it is that I can chant vedas! It is always with respect and admiration...
I have been going to Sri Ramanasramam...since my first trip in 2002. I find it very special and strengthening in this process that we call "sadhana" or spiritual practice...Every year when I leave to come home, I feel like it was quite satisfying and...perhaps it is my last time...I am now 62, I struggle with a chronic illness called sarcoidosis and the trip is very difficult for me....after 6 months, I start to feel pulled again to go back! So I obey this impulse...
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| Pradakshina Martin's Favorite Practice |
I do love to go back, notwithstanding the hardness of the trip on this body...it is a VERY special place...my favorite "practice"...is to walk pradakshina...clockwise around Ramana's samadhi shrine...all are in bare feet and all are silent...I just walk with no agenda...when I see a thought, ask: "Who has this thought?" and just watch to see where this "I do" arises. Often there is no answer and only Being is Present. And if an imposter ("I") shows itself, it is just let go and there is a return to the simple no-agenda walking...
My trips to Sri Ramanasramam...have become trickier...this body began manifesting sarcoidosis, an auto-immune disorder...similarities to other auto-immune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis...the natural immune system response to infection - inflammation - is out of control. When it first showed up it caused me to lose my voice and I was horrified, thinking that I might never chant vedas again!...sarcoidosis can create a myriad of complications and can even lead to death in some cases..
I have both pulmonary and neuro sarcoidosis....it went into the brain and I lost the ability to communicate, even though...I could think fine, but the words either could not be found to express what I wanted to say or the words would simply come out jumbled. It ended with me not being able to utter anything at all and...a small seizure!
The disease is not...well understood, but there is some amount of treatment that is effective...these "work" by suppressing your immune system. This way, the inflammation response is curbed...you then are more exposed to opportunistic infections and things like shingles...tend to induce Type 2 diabetes...Just to show what you can deal with when you get a call like I get to go back to Sri Ramanasramam. My doctors always want me to stay here (NJ)...very sick twice during these trips...I just need to go. I can't even really say why, but it is some kind of primal pull and I don't really think about it a whole lot...
...I am on disability, due to fatigue and cognitive problems...But sadhana continues. The goal of my life is still the same: to become free of the notion of a separate "I"...I find vedic chanting helpful, and meditation as well...they sometimes break through the habitual thinking that breeds the thinker and bring me to the present - the only place that the true "I" really is...when I am completely in the present, then only NOW, only HERE, only BEING is PRESENT....necessary thoughts that are relevant to what is happening can come through; bodily movements and sounds will occur...but there is no need for the construct "Martin."
Doing sadhana while being ill...challenges come more from the drugs...feeling like you are on a drug similar to methedrine, while being exhausted...mind is in a non-stop circling thoughts mode...very little sleep...it mostly makes me pay attention more in the moment-to-moment experience of life. Life is NOW. Life is HERE...
...anyone who pursures their sadhana with some honesty will begin to appreciate those who have come into their life. How much has been given to us so that we can eventually come to know who we really are?!?...sarcoidosis has its place in this life. It has raised the stakes and continually seems to spur me to look deeper...everything is connected. The universe is one thing happening, in the same sense that the myriad of activities at even the cellular level of our bodies is all part of the unity of the body, not really separate cell activities. So this sarcoidosis in this body is part of the unfolding manifestation. It's not an error in the script. Given all the above, then, I just do my best to "get on with it." It is the same for everyone else.
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| Ramanasramam Offices and Bookstore |
In the light of this conversation, I offer some pictures from India to share in some small way, my experiences there...I hope the pictures give some feel of both the ashram and life, more generally, in that area...I feel this group might convey some of the beauty, extremity, mystery and sublimity of what I find in India.
Martin can be reached at: vedantin@aol.com. Martin's CD "Shakti~Bhakti" is available on CDBaby.com and Amazon; it can also be directly ordered. The title of Martin's first CD "I do nothing at all" (now out of print) is one of the most useful Bhagavad Gita verses. It is also in my "Dancing Beyond Thought: Selected Bhagavad Gita Verses for Awakening" e-book and "You Are Not In Control" video.
Knowing this blog, Martin also suggested his favorite cognitive neuroscience/quantum physics video, "Athene's Theory of Everything"; worth watching...many "cool" and helpful graphics, and solid science; 1.8MM views.
A thousand gasshos, Martin.
Knowing this blog, Martin also suggested his favorite cognitive neuroscience/quantum physics video, "Athene's Theory of Everything"; worth watching...many "cool" and helpful graphics, and solid science; 1.8MM views.
A thousand gasshos, Martin.
Gary,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing Martin's story. The auto-immune aspect of sarcoidosis provides a poignant counterpoint here. Typically auto-immunity would be thought of as "my" immune system is destroying "my" body. But the sense of ownership is an illusion in both cases, just as "my" thoughts and emotions have no real identity. At some point, minds and bodies fail us. Despite all, Martin has kept the clarity to see through the illusion.
Metta,
Ron
Many thanks for the moving and downright heroic testimony. It may help remind us that all of us have a terminal illness that we would not trade for any other: Life. Without non dual experience, we risk identifying with our bodies, which are no more permanent than the latest iteration of the about-to-be-obsolete operating system with which you post. IMHE, non dual experience can itself be healing of our body/mind. Perhaps it was precisely by learning that "I" am not my body that I was able to be healed of severe life long asthma and severe whole body eczema. My challenges were of course meager compared to Martin's, but perhaps it is significant that the very etymology of the word "healed" is "to be made whole". It was by realizing that "I" was the Whole that I was set on my healing path, which continues!
ReplyDeletehttp://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1556-3537.2012.01055.x/full
A thousand Gasshos to Martin and Gary. May we all be made whole through surrender to non dual experience!