The Myth of Enlightenment: An Interview with OM C. Parkin
OM C. Parkin
Dec 2023 · GD Publishing · Narrated by OM C. Parkin
5.0star
1 reviewreport
headphones
Audiobook
49 min
Unabridged
family_home
Eligible
info
reportRatings and reviews aren’t verified Learn More
Want a 4 min sample? Listen anytime, even offline.
Add
About this audiobook
"All desires are a disguise covering up one real desire: the desire to be free." In this conversation, the biggest misconceptions about enlightenment are exposed. OM talks about the distinction between awakening experiences and enlightenment, which are often lumped together. The essential focus is to distinguish whether something is a fleeting, short-lived experience, or an enduring, permanent state. He shares from his wealth of experience about his own awakening process. He names various pitfalls that spiritual seekers repeatedly fall into on their quest. "All practice is directed into the future, but Enlightenment is NOW!" Why are there so few truly awakened people? It is true that the awareness of suffering has always been the great driving force behind the search for realisation. It is also true that since the beginning of the great religions there have only been a handful of enlightened people. The so-called New Age movement and its various forms of expression are also scrutinised. It shows that most people are simply interested in feeling good and having intense, mystical, angelic experiences of happiness. The catch is that these experiences are not permanent. And, unsurprisingly, they have nothing to do with true bliss. Light is also shed on the guru. Who actually is the guru? In what form can he manifest himself? And how do I recognise a true teacher from a false one?
Ratings and reviews
5.0
1 review
ladymary73
- Flag inappropriate
January 16, 2025
I have been interested in the topic of awakening for some time. Then I came across this interview with OM C. Parkin, which immediately appealed to and touched me. He answers questions that I had been asking myself for a long time: What is enlightenment really? Do I need a teacher to walk this path? What is an inner path anyway? I realise that I have many misconceptions about enlightenment and have also been quite critical of the need for a teacher. This interview is making me look deeper.
About the author
As a spiritual master of the silent tradition, OM knows how to unite the Western and Eastern streams of wisdom teaching. The radical nature of his work, with which he teaches and serves the path of human awakening, is a rare treasure in this day and age. The encounter with OM deeply questions what you are not and lets you fall into what you have always been. OM passes on his knowledge of the absolute in the form of talks about being (darshan) and inner work, as well as in his work as an author and in lectures. He is the initiator of the OM Foundation Inner Science and the publishing house for wisdom literature advaitaMedia, founder and director of the mystery school Enneallionce - School for Inner Work and the Gut Saunstorf Monastery. As a result of a serious car accident in 1990, he crossed the threshold of death at the age of 27 and awoke egoless into the reality of the nondual Absolute. His teacher Gangaji, whom he met shortly afterwards, supported him in integrating his fundamental transformation, which went completely beyond the world of everyday experience. She showed him the way to her advaita teacher H. W. L. Poonja, a direct disciple of Ramana Maharshi, who gave him the spiritual name OM and inspired him to teach from the vision of advaitic reality. OM C. Parkin's spiritual teaching of the silent tradition, also referred to by him as inner science, is based on the one hand on the Eastern advaita tradition (teaching of non-duality, the best-known representative in the West is Ramana Maharshi), as well as on the teachings of integral yoga by the Indian sage Sri Aurobindo, and on the other hand on Western paths of experience (e.g. Christian mysticism, Georges I. Gurdjieff: The Fourth Way). He also uses modern psychological and psychotherapeutic methods in his teaching. The aim is self-knowledge through inner work, which ultimately leads to the realization of the true nature of man. He himself says: "In the innermost heart of the religions of the East (advaita, zen, etc.) we find the ripest fruits of the philosophy of BEING. The mystery of the dissolution of the world. The spiritual culture of the West has brought forth the knowledge of the evolution of consciousness - the philosophy of becoming. The highest teaching is the unification teaching, which unites the paths of love and truth (small marriage) and BEING with becoming (great marriage). Thus, what was never separate is united in the highest realization." OM C. Parkin
Rate this audiobook
Tell us what you think.
Listening information
Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can read books purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
