Self Recognition & Consequences - Colin Drake - (Self-Realization, Advaita, Non-duality)
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- Опубликовано: 10 сен 2024
- Colin was born in a staunch protestant family into the war torn east end of London in the aftermath of WW2, where austerity and food-rationing were the norm. At the age of 11 he was sent to a Methodist boarding school and from there went to Sheffield University. So by his early twenties finding himself in Earls Court, West London, in the late 60s when the ‘hippie revolution’ was in full swing he was fully ready to break out of the narrow confines that had dogged his life up until then. He discovered the power of high dose LSD to break the barrier between the subconscious and conscious allowing decades of religious (and social) conditioning to pour out, leaving him feeling totally cleansed as if his brain had been truly washed! He also experimented with mescalin having read Aldous Huxley’s ‘The Doors of Perception’ and had many experiences which felt deeply spiritual in nature including ‘sitting’ above his body for hours and observing the world (and the body itself) from this vantage point. It was this that gave him glimpses as to what could be achieved by natural means which raised one’s consciousness to a ‘higher level’. He was reading Ouspensky at the time and could see that many of these experiences tallied with those that he described. He was fully convinced that Awakening was the purpose of life but Ouspensky made the whole process sound so onerous that Colin decided to postpone the attempt and enjoy life while he was young and living in such a vibrant environment.
Then about ten years later Janet, his wife of then (and now over 40 years later), persuaded him to accompany her to a yoga class given by an ex Jesuit priest who inspired them by quoting passages from the Upanishads, Dhammapada, and other scriptures during the class. He also emphasized the importance of relaxation and meditation. There followed a few years of investigating various spiritual paths including a prolonged dalliance with the Brahma Kumaris (Raja Yoga) whose meditations were wonderful, but whose dogma they found very hard to take. They then moved into the country to start a pottery and immersed themselves in Satyananda Yoga, an organization which had no dogma but taught a wide range of yogic practices. They were both initiated into karma sannyas by Swami Satyananda and adopted a yogic lifestyle consisting of asanas, pranayama, yoga nidra, meditation, kirtan and vegetarianism. During this time Colin was at a silent retreat when he happened to pick up a volume entitled The Gospel of Ramakrishna which introduced him to this amazing being who practiced many spiritual paths, within Hinduism and also Islam and Christianity, discovering that they all lead to the same result, and was then approached by many devotees from these various paths all of whom he was able to teach in their own path, whilst emphasizing the harmony of religions.
After ten years of meditating on Ramakrishna, having been initiated by a nun of that order, he encountered a disciple of Sri Ramana Maharshi, Gangaji, who said ‘Stop! Be still, you are already That’. The message being that the effort and search were masking that which is always present; all that was required was to ‘stop’ and see what is always here. After many years of struggle and effort this news came like a breath of fresh air and he glimpsed the essence, that undeniable ever-present reality. This was followed by a seven day silent retreat, in 1996, which resulted in his first ‘Awakening’, and also in an ecstasy that slowly faded over the following year. During this time he began to be aware of the utter simplicity of the process, especially as it became more established through repeated self-inquiry. This created the desire to put the matter in the simplest, most straightforward, way so that anyone could understand it … and through repeated inquiry (or investigation) ‘get it’. At the time he was attending satsang with Isaac Shapiro and writing the occasional article for his email group and it was the collection of these plus a few new ones that became his fist book ‘Beyond The Separate Self’. He also completed an honours double-major degree in Comparative Religion and Philosophy and his honours thesis, which considered self-identity in the world’s major religions, became the basis of his second book ‘Humanity - Our Place in The Universe’. For the full list visit / beyond-awakening-publi... They can be purchased in paperback and .pdf formats from www.lulu.com, in kindle from www.amazon.com . You are all welcome to visit his FB page / colindrake108 where he post poems, new articles and photos of nature taken in his natural environment of sub-tropical rainforest with ocean views. Finally all are invited to join his email group by contacting him at colinj108@gmail.com
Colin Drake is excellent. I wish he would have some retreats.
Very insightful. Thanks for doing this.
Thx for the feedback!
i stumbled upon your channel not too long ago and watch your videos here and there. Your such a great interviewer. Your a great listener and ask intelligent questions. I love your demeanor. I hate RUclipsrs who spew out there ideas and make radical claim's just to get attention. Your the total opposite. Keep it up 🙂
Thank you so much for your kind feedback! I surely want to keep improving :)
Greatly appreciate you taking the time.
Best wishes to you.
Great great interview, thank you! Much love!
Thank you Brent.
Suma thanks ❣️
Thank you Bama!
Nice interview lot of info... Thank you 🙏
Thank you too Manjunath.
She's smart, beautiful, and has a curious mind. Does it get better than that?
An excellent engaging exchange. So many things coinciding in this talk. Both Parties (Suma & Colin) presented themselves with aplomb. Suma’s work and her specific incarnated, manifested Energy/Being bring value beyond measure. This is a repeated viewing video. Not because it is dense, rather because it is resonating & accessible.
Thank you friend!
I think this is your best interview, Suma. Well done.
I appreciate your feedback Conor. Thank you.
Awareness or observer or Brahmana or shiva or God Christ allah is the same
I don't think he quite gets it. He thinks he does but what he perceives as the absolute is an illusion. I disagree with him on his very first "would you agree with that...". Conscious awareness most certainly isn't ever present. That which he perceives as seeing the thoughts and experiencing the sensations is, in itself, an experience too. Look to see who's looking. There's nothing really there that is separate from the experience itself experiencing it. There's just the experience. Duality is a convincing fraud.
His method is a great tool for beginners to realize awareness. They can then get into meditation and experience awareness.