I had my first conscious spiritual awakening aged 18.
Everything was seen to be one, the sense of personal self fell away and I had a deep sense that I truly was not the limited being that I commonly took myself to be. This experience was short-lived and further fueled my seeking. I wanted to try to re-experience it. I think because this experience happened in the context of reading a book, I subsequently developed a voracious appetite for reading spiritual texts. I read books on everything such as on Buddhism, Zen, Taoism, Mystic Christianity, Vedanta, Dzogchen, and the core texts of each, as well as many self-help and new-age type books.
I also had a keen interest in science and mathematics and my studies took me along this route in school, eventually leading me to study medicine and become a doctor. I later got married and now have two amazing and lovely children. Alongside my studies, career and home life, the spiritual seeking continued for 15-20 years.
Now the sense of a ‘me’ living a life and the dissatisfaction that fueled my spiritual seeking have both disappeared, leaving behind an ordinary life ‘being lived’ or living itself. I call it Freedom.
Tom is a medical doctor who lives in London UK with his wife and 2 children. He holds regular meetings in London and on Skype to share this wonderful teaching with anyone who is interested.
To learn more about him and his teachings see www.tomdas.com.
Transcript of this interview
Interview recorded July 23, 2016
YouTube Video Chapters:
00:00:00 - Introduction and Support
00:06:25 - Teenage Interest in Spirituality
00:11:25 - The Relationship between Spirituality and Science
00:17:06 - Awakening and Freedom
00:21:58 - The Fourth State: Turiya
00:26:10 - The Fourth State
00:29:57 - The Continuum of Awareness and the Notion of Doership
00:33:48 - Transformation in His Presence
00:38:05 - Skepticism vs Cynicism in Spiritual Teachings
00:43:27 - Subjective Experience and Suffering in Spirituality
00:48:36 - The Nature of Hypotheses and Possibilities
00:51:46 - The Blurred Lines of Different Functionalities
00:56:09 - The Illusion of Duality and Non-Duality
01:02:39 - The Illusion of Individual Self or Doer
01:08:12 - The Interpretation of Life's Experiences
01:11:32 - Difficulty of Expressing Experiences in Words
01:15:25 - The Complexity of Spiritual Teachings
01:19:07 - The Progression of Enlightenment
01:22:35 - The Potential of Each Individual
01:25:28 - The Concept of the Universal Doer
01:29:18 - The Concept of Self in Eastern Traditions
01:32:46 - Different Ways of Transmitting Knowledge
01:39:15 - The Importance of Developing Clarity
01:43:52 - Understanding the Vasanas
01:47:48 - Devotion and Appreciation
01:51:48 - The World is Brahman
01:56:18 - Realizing Brahman
01:59:27 - The Value of Teaching
02:02:36 - The Key to Experience
02:05:44 - The Balance of Knowledge and Experience
02:10:11 - Music