Ep179: Adventures of a Sufi Mystic - Dr Yannis Toussulis
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- Опубликовано: 16 июн 2024
- In this episode I am joined by Dr Yannis Toussulis, Sufi lineage holder, psychotherapist, and author of ‘Sufism and the Way of Blame’.
Dr Toussulis recounts his upbringing in Manhattan, New York and how a childhood vision of Jesus Chris changed his life forever.
Dr Toussulis recalls several profound mystical experiences and traces his life of travel and study with gurus and sheiks, including his time at the Esalen Institute, close studies with Tibetan Lama Khenchen Palden Sherab, experiments in psychedelic assisted therapy, travel to India, personal time with Osho, and more.
Dr Toussulis also critiques new age presentations of Sufism, including modern interpretations of Rumia and early 20th century ideas of the Sarmoung Brotherhood, and considers the case of Idries Shah and the collusion between teachers and disciples to create exaggerated origin myths.
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www.guruviking.com/podcast/ep179-adventures-of-a-sufi-mystic-dr-yannis-toussulis
Also available on RUclips, iTunes, & Spotify - search ‘Guru Viking Podcast’.
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Topics Include:
00:00 - Intro
01:01 - Upbringing in Manhattan
03:04 - Inspired to attend church after a vision of Jesus Christ
04:30 - First encounter with Sufism
07:17 - Meeting first Sheikhs
08:43 - Close study with Khenchen Palden Sherab
09:32 - Return to Sufism
12:42 - A vision of Jesus Christ
15:52 - Interpreting mystical experiences
17:15 - More visionary experiences
21:55 - Realising that God is everywhere
24:09 - Psychedelic experimentation
27:16 - Psychedelic therapy in Vancouver
31:04 - Carlos Castaneda
31:39 - Travel to India and studies with Osho
39:26 - Final conversation with Osho
44:35 - What is enlightenment?
50:23 - Meeting gurus
53:15 - Meeting his Lama in a lucid dream
01:04:40 - ’Nyingthik Drak’ and learning Buddhist tantra
01:08:46 - Sarmoung Brotherhood and misconceptions about Sufism
01:13:57 - What is Sufism?
01:18:25 - Origin myths and the naive audience of the early 1900s
01:22:17 - Collusion and mystification
01:25:39 - The modern inversion of Rumi
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To find our more about Dr Yannis Toussulis, visit:
- www.itlaqfoundation.com/
For more interviews, videos, and more visit:
- www.guruviking.com
Music ‘Deva Dasi’ by Steve James 
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I'm glad to have found your channel! This is a fascinating interview. What a character! His life's major focus and activities and spiritual path are just fantastical! What a life! 🙂
And what a wonderful way to conclude, discussing Rumi. I've just binge-watched two seasons of a recent Turkish public TV series based on life of Celaladdin Rumi called "Mevlana". I would love to hear Mr. Toussulis' comments on that series!
He's right about the seeming oddity of a man describing his set of life experiences in a New York accent. It's an entertaining incongruence!
The interview felt much longer than it was, i got to know the rich and profund life of a fantastic person in just 1 and 1/2 hours. Thank you very much!
This was a super interesting interview! I'm definitely interested in hearing more about Sufism and Dr Toussulis's experience, especially how it had the staying power for him opposed to Buddhism or Vedanta.
Becoming one of my favorite podcasts much gratitude ♥️🙏
A very interesting guest as usual. Thankyou for having a conversation guys. I feel Yannis has led an authentic life. He's been true to himself. He's doing his best to help others from where he's at in his perspectives. The way this interview went, was more of an intro. Touching on a fair bit of Yannis' history. No doubt he has much else to relate. Everything has its place. Everyone can glean something worthwhile from such experiences that Yannis and all other guests share.
A very interesting interview and rather an honest point of view from Dr. Yannis
Great interview. What a spiritually trippy life! I love the lama lucid dream.
Great interview! So interesting story! Looking forward for next part about Sufism ❤
hmm you are popping up more. Looks like great content. nice
psychadelics can show you what your brain is capable of without them. You gain a tolerance to drugs but the mind is limitless
Idries Shah's lineage came from the Naqshbandis of North India and Afghanistan, he is descendent of Jan Fishan Khan. Also I don't think Shah was raised in Great Britain but in North India and travelled a lot with his father as a young man.
Check your sources. Idries Shah was raised in the U.K.
@@ytoussulis just did a bit of extra research, you are correct, born in Shimla, India but raised in the UK, I stand corrected!
As to the Sarmoung brotherhood Gurdjieff and Ouspensky mentions them rather auspiciously. Ouspensky goes on to speak of them within the context of esotericism, innermost circles of knowledge and influence on humanity. meaning it's not that the sarmoung brotherhood was meant to be taken as some new boyband, characterized by mere ego inflation as Yannis seems to be describing, These brotherhoods were presented in a kind of mythological way as very ancient by Gurdjieff and Ouspensky and other luminaries shall we say. It looks a lot like In light of what Yannis is insinuating points to the fictional nature of the Sarmoung, but I would really think this should probably raise a few serious further questions about whats these movements are really about but it never seems to occur. Either Yannis doesn't know about the principle of esotericism (unlikely) or his experience is deep and broad enough to debunk The idea of the Sarmoung brotherhood. But again, one has to really consider why this is given as bona fide source material if Yannis is right about his conclusions on the Sarmoung. The problem I keep running into is the the required critical thinking to connect all the dots, and get to the bottom of all this seems to be curiously absent in the enterprise of religious seeking.
You made a typo in the description. It is supposed to read “Sarmoung Brotherhood” not “Sarma Brotherhood”.
Thanks!
Ah yes, Osho, the Manly Palmer Hall of india....
I listened to the interview to the end attentively and tried not to be judgmental, but with a growing sense of disbelief. There have been many interviews here on the channel with unconventional and sometimes even strange people even in the space of the spiritual world and I love this wholeness and multiplicity. This is the first interview that makes me feel untrustworthy. As a former spiritual teacher I encountered 'spiritual geniuses' who created new spiritual paths, I met students who persisted in one religion or path all their lives and also those who moved from path to path, from one guru to another guru. Even they at a certain stage either give up on the search or devote themselves to one way. Something about this story doesn't feels or seem real to me. And what's more, despite the promising title of the interview, I didn't learn a single thing about Sufism for an hour and a half [that will wait for the next interview...]. Steve, I love the variety of colors and voices of the interviewees you bring, I really appreciate your wonderful listening ability to the interviewees but you are allowed to be a little more assertive and critical.
I believe it was the Christian monk turned Sanyasi Bede Griffith who said that the main faiths are like fingers on the hand, with all meeting in essence in the middle. So there is value in learning from all traditions. Secondly I'd be surprised if many a serious seeker stuck with the first teachers and traditions they come across. Third, you seem to ignore that his mainstay was Sufism for something over 40 years, and that he himself pointed out the necessity of devoting oneself ultimately to one tradition.
Obviously, it is not pleasant to feel wary of somebody else, and I can sympathize with that, even if (somewhat ironically) it is me who sets off that feeling in you. Putting aside the question of whether I am a trustworthy person or not I would like to respond to some of the issues you raise. You write, “Something about this story doesn't feel or seem real to me.” I agree that the whole narrative is somewhat surreal if that’s what you mean. It may also be that you believe that the experiences I relay are exaggerated or entirely fabricated. That, too, could be true -- or not. In any case, they are just “experiences.” And, as I believe I expressed in the interview, I neither take visions to be literal nor entirely without meaning. Such visions are certainly not proofs of anything. Nor is the retelling of those experiences evidence that someone is trying to convince others that one is a “spiritual genius.” That might be the case, but it might not be.
(Personally, I believe that one would have to be a fool to think of oneself as anyone approximating a spiritual genius, and especially so if one had encountered the legacy of a Nagarjuna, a Shankaracharya, or a Meister Eckhardt, Reb Nachman, Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi, or Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi - and the list goes on).
I am not entirely clear from your comments, but you also seem to assume that I simply moved from one guru to another pell-mell and that, unlike others, I neither gave up in my quest nor devoted myself to one path. Until 2018, I spent twenty-three years solely with my primary Murshid, and believe it or not, he left his legacy in my hands when he died. Before that, for nearly twenty years, I had a series of teachers from different traditions, and I am grateful for that.
Finally, you are correct that this first interview had little to do with Sufism itself. For that, I hope you will listen to the second interview.
@@locuus7 I was happy to have met Bede Griffith and spent time with his assistant John Sullivan back in the eighties. I took great inspiration from them, as well as Raymundo Panikkar and David Steindahll-Rast. Along with Thomas Merton, all of these fine Christian monks were truly ecumenical in their outlook, as were Reb Zalman Schacter-Shalomi and Rabbi Joseph H. Gelberman.
@@locuus7 1. Yes David. there is value in learning from all traditions. 2. Indeed, I also did not cling to the first path I encountered in my life. 3. I'm not ignoring the fact that this was his main path - we'll just have to wait for the second part to hear about the content and essence of this path.
@@ytoussulis Dr. Yanis. I deeply appreciate your willingness to respond to my comments! I guess the feelings that the interview evoked in me stem from my personality structure - I am both a spiritual person and a skeptic: I too had a guru for years, I followed him and loved him but I could always see his shortcomings as a person all along. I don't think you are making up a story but I had difficulty seeing a person who in every spiritual community he comes to becomes the right hand of the teacher and then goes somewhere else entirely. It seems I made the classic mistake and judged you in the light of the path I took. I believe in synchronicity and visions - for me they are not often and maybe not as clear as yours - but they are definitely a part of my life. I'm definitely waiting for the next interview - in the last thirty years I've read and returned again and again to Irena Tweedy's book. Recently he 'fell' into my hand again just as I am trying to practice deepening the opening of my heart. During meditation I sometimes have a feeling that behind my heart there is some deeper storehouse and I am looking for a way to reach it. For some reason I have a feeling that the Sufi path has an answer for me. I would love it if you would talk about this secret.
Yes, jesus is still alive in the same body he was in 2,000 years ago. This is the purpose of all religions, to achieve eternal life in the body. You become an angel by living not dying. This is Moksha. This is the rainbow body of Tibet. This is enlightenment. Just as it says in the Upanishads; once you achieve nirvana you are in your final body and will not be reincarnating again. Death is the great mistake. Going beyond death is not dying but living without death or the risk of it. The way is eternal and not in danger of physical death.
OSHO WAS A CON MAN N A BAD GUY
make all the friends you want. but are they all your “teacher”?🤣
This interview has everything and nothing
Interviewer doesn't allow himself to be curious....1. what was the psychedelic horror story that made him feel spiritual crisis?
2. What happened in the 2 sessions of psychedelic therapy that made him feel enlightened?
Islam leads to nowhere