Jim, this is a very lovely description of your experience; many thanks. Whether it has anything to do with Robin's comment about witnessing, or the accuracy of his assertion that he was in Unity, I couldn't say, obviously; he'd have to address that himself.
I think I found the post in which he made the remark you cite--where he says he was a "pure witness to all that was happening around me." I think it's *conceivable* that you may be overinterpreting it as a very specific technical description of his experience, using Maharishi's term, when he was actually referring to something broader and more general about his relationship to the drama taking place with regard to his cult and the court cases and all. IOW, I'm not sure that remark is the smoking gun that disproves his conviction that he was in Unity. I could very well be wrong; I just mention this as a possibility. As I say, he'd have to address it himself. --- In [email protected], "futur.musik" <futur.musik@...> wrote: > > Hi Judy, you wrote, "You do understand that Robin does not claim to be > enlightened and is not seeking enlightenment, that he thinks it's a snare and > a delusion, that he believes he was enlightened decades ago and has made a > huge effort since then to "de-enlighten" himself." > > After reading a lot of what Robin writes about enlightenment and his > experience being enlightened, he says he was witnessing the whole time. That > stuck out when I read it. Enlightenment as it grows, and it always grows if > it is real, eats up and integrates witnessing. > > There is a period following waking up or the stabilizing of Self Realization, > where witnessing everything, seeing the frictionless flow of life and your > silent place in it, dominates perception. Freedom! Absence of fear! A great > influx of cosmic energy as the Atman or Soul becomes a permanent flame within > and shines forth. > > If you want to stay there for awhile, then others can see your light and > respond to it. I'll not go much further into Robin's experience but I think > this is where he was during his leading of an alternative spiritual movement. > It was 100% genuine regarding the Soul carrying out its function of expansion. > > As the Atman continues to shine forth, extending one's boundaries, making > them less distinct, melding one's identity with that of the Cosmos, the unity > between us and others and everything else in our experience becomes more > obvious. As the soul continues to radiate outward from deeper and deeper > within us, that cosmic energy we become permeates everything. Everything. > > At that point, the lights seem to go out! Holy shit, what happened? The light > we (the personal and Impersonal self) are radiating becomes so pervasive, > inside and out, that life is at once transformed, becoming progressively more > interesting, captivating and beautiful, while remaining exactly as it was > before. So we no longer see the contrast between the light that we are, and > the light now everywhere else. > > We are no longer witnessing, or perhaps the witness has come out to play. > There is no longer the longing for *peak* experiences that we used to want, > but instead, it is *all* very much better.:-) > > In order to witness, there has to be something distinct from something else. > There has to be the unfettered ;-) bliss of the soul, the personal Being, > distinct from everything else, and we are residing in Being, looking out as > it were on everything else. People describe witnessing as being so free! so > weightless almost, just in a big cloud of bliss, mind almost empty. > > It is an awesome feeling, but not a complete one. Even the witness has to be > transcended in order to for enlightenment to continue, and continue it will. > There is no way to put the soul back to sleep once it wakes up, and one Day > of Enlightenment lasts a very, very, very long time! :-) >
