Embodying the Teaching: An Adept’s Journey with Jivanmukti

‘At some point in our human evolution we are going to ask this simple question of how to get in touch with the real knowledge and how to come across a real teacher. How can we know who is real and who is not? These questions usually arise in the heads of those who want to know yet have not matured enough to know or to come across a genuine source of knowledge that they are able to recognise as such.

A true teaching is within each and every individual, yet to open to such a possibility within one needs to spend a great deal of time refining self and realising the various motives that push one into spiritual actions and ambitious pursuits. A true teaching is not a pursuit or an ambitious venture. It is a flow of the natural being and existence through the embodied being. Once one opens up to it, being enough mature, one is able to recognise the teaching and come across a genuine teacher.

The genuine teacher is the one who is the teaching and emanates this teaching through their presence in every word and action. Such teacher’s words vibrate the being, not just full of wisdom or familiar concepts our minds may agree or disagree with, but are filled with the very essence of the teaching that these beings emanate and through whose presence each and every other being can perceive the same essence within themselves even for a glimpse.

True teachers do not need to appear as bold and charismatic or super pleasant people. In fact, such natural beings are simple and humble, and will never try to demonstrate superiority or put themselves above others in communication with them. Yet, one may perceive subtle nobility and grace in such beings. True teachers are called as such not because they know how to teach or offer academic discourses or other types of courses, but because their entire being emanates teaching and transformation in each moment. Such beings have no desire to teach or be in the spotlight. Such beings flow in life and do everything naturally and spontaneously. Such true gems are rare. Many people ignorantly choose to believe that some saints of the past or people who were put by other ignorant people on a pedestal of holiness are truly enlightened or knowledgeable, yet for some reason they all perished and died like everyone else.

This world has not been familiar with truly enlightened beings for thousands of years, and true teachings still remain occulted from the public eye or are very hard to recognise. They will definitely not be very appealing or attractive for the majority of the current day-and-age people, because they are too subtle and too simple.

The current mind is a complex mind that looks for complexity in existence. The same applies to this current day and age spirituality that is complex and does not have true power, knowledge or transmission at its core. It is so because those who represent and teach such spirituality are not the vessels of the teaching, are not the emanations of the teaching, rather they are entertainers, businessmen and distorted and or imbalanced on various levels beings. And thus, they attract beings alike. The more the better, the armies of ignorant beings swamp around the most ignorant teachers.

True teachers transmit the teaching and find a response in one or two mature adepts and pass on the knowledge to them. To pass on the knowledge to them means that these beings are equal in potentiality to the teachers and can contain the knowledge within or in other words become the vessels of this knowledge, too.
Knowledge is like existence or space, it is always there. But in order to be able to experience it and more so to contain and vibrate it, one needs to realign one’s transitory being with that of an Ultimate one. And that is the essence of true teaching and the transmission of the Higher Being in the body.

True teachers are very rare, yet those who may contain the knowledge and to whom it can be passed on are even rarer and harder to find. Yet, no one searches. The true teacher knows who is the right vessel for the knowledge and at the right time activates it within the other body. It seems as if the teacher chooses the student, yet the reality is that the knowledge itself chooses the one who is eligible, mature and pure in his/her embodied being. The same knowledge-being is operating through the teacher and through the student, yet in this physical fragmented reality it may look like one being chooses the other. No adept is able to choose the knowledge or the teacher. They may only cultivate inner purity, selflessness and trust in life. And the more they are able to let go and to remain in their core, the more eligible they become for higher spheres of knowledge.

The majority of immature people find immature teachers and dead-end paths, which fits their boxed ideas of spirituality, imagination and projections suitable to a shopper or consumer-like mentality. Such beings ignorantly believe that they may choose teachers, teachings, paths and ways/techniques to learn. And this commercial spiritual or religious industry supports their notions and offers them such an opportunity. Yet, no one can choose anything. They are subtly manipulated into a belief that they choose, yet their choices are carefully calculated, tailored and well marketed to them in order to match their ideas of spirituality or their current emotional/mental needs. And thus, all they choose is that which they need to choose in order to keep this corrupt spiritual and money-driven spiritual system going. The spiritual industry makes billions of whatever currency on people’s emotional and mental traumas, psychological imbalances and victim mentality, offering them temporary solutions, for which they need to pay handsomely. Yet, the ton of other problems remains unresolved. Similarly, to our current medical system, we are offered a drug for each symptom, yet the actual root of all our diseases is kept untreated and often nurtured by the system, and in time causes further issues, for which one needs to pay again and again.

The true teaching aims at uprooting one root for all the problems and this root is one of an ignorant existence. The true teaching offers a direct experience of self beyond the bodily existence, and turns one’s awareness to the main roots/causes of self-created and propelled misery. The true teaching leads to a massive inner awakening and sets a direction towards self-refinement. Only true self-refinement leads to the natural self-born knowledge and overall transformation on all levels. The fruit of such a transformation is the transformed and enlightened or evolved body.’

 – Jivanmukti

The experience of working with a true spiritual teacher is not something that can be boxed, pin-pointed or conceptualised in any way. A real spiritual teacher is not a static being who performs rituals, stages shows, recites pithy statements or offers temporary spiritual encouragement. Rather, the real spiritual teacher is like a condensed in-the-body expression of the transformative and teaching force of Reality itself. A true teacher is like an eternal flow of life. It means that such a teacher assumes a unique role for each student – they emanate rather, and give only that experience to each adept, which they need for their spiritual advancement/learning. And whatever these teachers give, is given selflessly and automatically without any prior planning or forethought. The teacher simply lives and flows through their own being; the adept comes into that space, and through the connection that is formed therein, they begin to gradually transform and merge with the teacher’s Consciousness on a subtle level. With a true teacher, every interaction can be seen as a teaching, because it is the student’s/adept’s higher Being that teaches them through the pure, humble yet powerful presence of the teacher. The presence of the teacher is the refined form, through which the unconditional being flows and expresses itself freely. And thus, such teachers, do not teach. They are the teaching.

Whatever is written here is a testimonial based on my own experience of interaction with my teacher and through my own contemplation on the subject. Indeed, I can say now after many years of seeking and spiritual practice/refinement that the pinnacle of the spiritual path is found through the acceptance of the guidance of a genuine teacher and then keeping up a consistent flow of communication, interaction and sharing with that being.

It is important to note that life itself is the fundamental spiritual teacher. We are taught through each moment in our lives, and the way our lives take shape is always perfectly designed to allow us to learn and evolve in a way that is correct and appropriate for us. The presence of the spiritual teacher in one’s life is a catalysing force that seems to ignite that learning/evolutionary element in one’s consciousness through the interaction with them. One may notice that the more one connects with a spiritual teacher and the path within, the more the entire flow and the inner and outer trajectory of one’s life begins to change and to take on a qualitatively different form. Both the life circumstances and the teacher will point one to the same issues that one needs to see, refine and transform within self.

I will now share a little about my personal experience as Jivanmukti’s adept. After speaking with Jivanmukti for the first time, I instantly experienced a falling away of a certain thought and behaviour structure made up of multiple superficial and overinflated notions about myself and my direction in life. From that point on, and after committing to receive Jivanmukti’s guidance and to generally position myself, as much as possible, within her space of consciousness, I have been initiated into the path of real spiritual refinement and transformation, and my whole life seems to have shifted into a mode of intense and accelerated conscious evolution, as I am somehow effortlessly pulled along by this natural current of transmission and grace. Despite doing intensive earlier practices, accumulating a lot of bookish knowledge and awareness about various teachings, living in and travelling to secluded and spiritually charged places, and gathering a tremendous amount of knowledge and experience on many subjects, I could not have possibly imagined that spiritual evolution actually happens this way or leads to such an internal breakthrough.

Making such a statement does not have any marketing or promotional value. Jivanmukti is quite a discreet being and rarely accepts anyone to learn from her directly. I consider myself fortunate, yet I also see it as a result of my own efforts to let go of all the illusions that comprised my existence earlier. This motive alone led me to this opportunity to experience true teaching in this lifetime. Yet, as I see it, my advancement always depends on me and my own ability to let go and evolve further rather than be stuck at one point or find a comfortable niche in life. And so, I was able to cultivate my being and evolve along with my teacher and not fall off so far.

To come across a true teacher does not mean however that one is enough mature to recognise them for who they truly are or to walk along with them. It takes time and dedication on both sides. And who they truly are is not their personality but a deeply aligned and integrated nature of being the Ultimate in the physical form. The form, however, emanates that, which is the Ultimate and helps true adepts to recognise inner falsehood and self-destructive links with the transitory reality that drains one’s physical being and energy essence.

The teacher is like a beacon of light or a reminder of the Ultimate unconditional Being. Yet, one should not foolishly imagine that a true teacher has to act within the norms of human, religious, cultural and social morale or as one wants them or within the limited frame of someone else’s ideas of holiness. The true teacher will destroy such hypocrisy right away in a blink of an eye, and strip one of any nonsense. In order to meet such a being, one has to be already free from certain constraints as well as to be aware of the ways falsehood and delusion manifest. It does not mean however that a true teacher is immoral or evil. True teachers are highly evolved in their spiritual intelligence and wisdom, which is beyond our limited human understanding. True teachers are genuinely universally moral, kind and knowledgeable, yet they are not ready to share all that with the immature beings or the beings who propel illusions within themselves. And thus, such genuine teacher’s presence alone is able to strip such delusional beings of hypocrisy, falsehood and other illusions instantly or gradually. True teachers are powerful, yet they would never demonstrate their might to the public. They are humble and joyous beings, devoid of pretension, falsehood and entanglements.

Working with Jivanmukti, I have experienced three things in particular that seem to contribute to an individual’s development on this path. Firstly, there is a constant deepening sense of contentment, stillness and equanimity that runs parallel with a direct recognition of what Reality is and is not. Realising the essence of Reality as neutral, equanimous, unconditional and content being leads one towards an indescribable inner commitment to the path, that is not based on desperation or longing, but rather on a direct experience of what one is and what one is not. Then one can truly commit to what is real, and gradually forego the current of what is unreal, ultimately insubstantial and evanescent.

Secondly, alongside the deepening sense of contentment, there is a rougher side: a continuous unfolding of challenges in life that push one to see the corruption within the self. For me, if I am left in a room to myself, with only my own needs to worry about, I can be quite content and sit blissfully all day. But through my interaction with Jivanmukti, I have been encouraged to go down certain different avenues in life that have naturally brought up everything corrupt, distorted, victimised, fearful, selfish and narcissistic within myself – everything that I had spent my whole life unconsciously trying to hide behind, avoid or sweep under the rug. The further I go into blissful absorption and equanimity, the deeper I realise the layers of buried emotional material that arises and that I am forced to face and refine on a subtler level.

Every distorted subconscious program that originally overpowered my awareness and led to a misperception of reality and a deeper fall into illusion seems to flash back into my face through life-scenarios. These aspects naturally come to the surface to be perceived and consciously digested in a wholesome way, to be seen through the equanimous and content Being. When one refines through such a perception, one’s actions and expression are also naturally transformed, as one begins to act from that being, and one’s expression becomes natural, unobstructed and spontaneous; one’s mind does not cling to anything and thus one acts through freedom instead of inner contraction or stagnation. Through this process of a very intense psycho-spiritual therapy, gradual healing and eventually, evolution happen. The entire conditional basis of one’s existence in this world is rebuilt from the position of the equanimous Being.

Thirdly, there is that spontaneous manifestation of spiritual knowledge. This knowledge seems to be a natural result of the connection between a teacher and a student/adept – Param-Para. It also seems to naturally result from the refinement process: as one perceives reality from an equanimous position, one gradually begins to see the way the reality and illusions are projected and dissolved, constructed and deconstructed. Ever since the beginning of my interaction with Jivanmukti, I feel the path as elucidated in her book, is being slowly rewritten for me through my own being, and every day a statement or a passage from the book confirms itself within, through my own lived experience, and I am awed to say, ‘Yes, it is exactly how you said it. This is the path as you have described it’
Working with a true spiritual teacher and being connected to their presence is tough. Everywhere I try to internally hide, and whatever conditional position my mind tries to take habitually, Jivanmukti points it out to me, or it is made apparent through our interaction or through various scenarios that I face in my own daily life. Everything within me that is hypocritical, stagnant and rigid is unravelled through the presence and the invisible presence of my teacher. Even if that presence seems to be on the periphery, that direct invisible link in the space of Consciousness, does not allow any conditioning or falsehood within me to survive.

If I am living in a box and I am acting through hypocrisy then I will naturally impose this onto the other. And those others might not even notice or be aware of it, and apparently for the same reasons, that they are themselves on the same wavelength of falsehood and hypocrisy. Yet, with Jivanmukti, appearing totally real, lively, nothing special on the outside and very human, this is impossible. Nothing can be left unnoticed and nothing can remain hidden in her presence. That is why, in my observation, many cannot simply face her or they have uncontrollable fear before facing her or talking to her first time. I assume that they are afraid of reflecting their own limited being through that presence. Or that presence alone reminds them of their own conditionings and limitations. My experience is that she constantly escapes every box and every limited frame of reference that I naturally try to put her in through my own limited perspective, and to be honest, I am sometimes left frustrated. It is very difficult to keep up with such a being that is so absolutely fluid, direct and free-flowing in their expression. She doesn’t act through the usual patterns of social hypocrisy, mad codependency and dishonesty, and thus she exposes and reflects these aspects in the world and in the beings all around her.

To work with an evolved spiritual teacher is not predictable, rather it is surprising, because through that interaction, instead of encountering some beautiful mystical reality, one encounters the hidden aspects of the self and the illusory fabric of hallucinatory reality that plays itself out through one’s being, until one is free from that and the very beautiful and mystic reality is seen as nothing more than oneself, flowing there without any projections, separation or analyses and the teacher and the teaching are all one in that flow of self-being. Only as one begins to thin out the projected and distorted aspects, does one begin to perceive the blissful and equanimous nature of reality itself.

During my time working with Jivanmukti, there have been little to no typical spiritualised actions, techniques or ‘teachings’ as the majority would imagine it. Rather, what she has been consistently pointed out and revealed to me, is the specific ways that distorted and unresolved issues and tendencies within my consciousness play out through my actions, expression and general response to the world, other beings and the Reality as a whole. And by having the courage and determination to let them go, I have gradually been able to realise my own being and perceive the constant never-ending transmission of her being – teaching – knowledge inseparable from my own. And yet, life continues and new subtler levels of existence keep on unfolding and being refined.

I have observed spontaneous pearls of wisdom naturally and effortlessly coming from Jivanmukti through the mundane situations with adepts: her spontaneous remarks about and observations of nature, beautiful natural sceneries captured through her photography, and the teaching that flows through it silently, profound statements of spiritual wisdom and powerful life-changing (almost therapeutic) transmissions during simple conversations, through one-on-one sessions, during retreats, or group interactions.
I truly realised that those transmissions that are done verbally by her and those writings and explanations are rather a low form of teaching for those who still need explanations and details about the path. They are for those who need to hold onto something to map out their journey. The higher form of teaching, however, happens through a simple connection with the presence of an evolved being that keeps on evolving and keeps on pulling the others alongside, provided one is able to keep on refining, and thinning out and letting go of the subtler and subtler constraints of the self-created and self-sustained false reality, to only embrace more and more that vast space of unconditional existence – blissful awareness – knowledge – being. I was fortunate enough to dive into the very core of the teaching beyond words and explanations. At first, however, I had to consciously dive into the very turmoil of my own torments and illusions, to eventually keep on refining and one day to emerge as a simpler, content, and more selfless being. My journey is on-going and I daily learn about life through my own and other beings.
I have never had any sense that Jivanmutki thinks that she is a teacher or is anyhow special, different, ‘enlightened’ or ‘spiritual’. Rather I see that there is no thought of being anything in particular, but there is just Being itself in absolute simplicity, purity, freedom of expression and radical honesty to self and others. I cannot say that Jivanmukti is this or Jivanmukti is that. Even if I were to say that Jivanmukti is purity – then what is purity? When we use words, we create notions and have our own ideas of what things mean. Yet, true being is beyond words and words then would only be a means to box something that is free at its essence, in its core. It is just Beingness itself.

When I contemplate on Jivanmukti’s essence, I am immediately returned to that Space within the self. Through her mirror I see both my own and the collective’s distortions, hypocrisies and limitations; through perceiving her essence, I perceive the Ultimate Being that is beyond form, time or any conceptualisation, and is forever blissful and supreme in every sense. This is how I have come to perceive, and this is why I call Jivanmukti my Guru and Being. For the rest of the world, she appears as an absolutely ordinary being, devoid of anything special or extraordinary. Simple, friendly, joyful like a child, with a peculiar sense of humour, witty and hard to grasp sometimes, friendly yet very straightforward and sharp, direct and honest, extremely concentrated when engaged in certain activities, and very fluid, deeply aware of various aspects of life and highly knowledgeable about various aspects of existence, extremely selfless and very strict with selfish beings, generous and sharing, absorbed and silent. Being in touch with Jivanmukti, I have discovered multiple sides of her supposed personality, yet with time, I realised that these are facets of life that manifest through her being and reflect or adjust to the beings of those she interacts with. And thus, there is such a range of qualities that are only reflections that manifest through that blissful equanimous emptiness and thus, are hard to describe and put into one limited personality framework. Jivanmukti’s qualities of selflessness, child-like simplicity and pure self-expression are among those that showed me the true subtle and hard to notice for the majority direction in my spiritual journey, the pillars of her true personality that are always there and that made me realise the essence of her earthly being. For me, this utter simplicity in this corrupt day and age is already unique and hard to find. I am genuinely grateful within myself to have been able to come across and learn through Jivanmukti’s presence.