Reichenberg-Ullman Judyth - Mystics, masters, saints, and sages: stories of enlightenment

PRAISE FOR
MYSTICS, MASTERS, SAINTS, AND SAGES

A fascinating collection of first-person accountsacross centuries and across religious traditionsof the experience of awakening, all held together by the common denominator of Surprised by Joy.

Sylvia Boorstein, author of It's Easier Than You Think: The Buddhist Way to Happiness

Each time you read of one of the encounters with the infinite you feel the tug for your own realization.

Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, past holder of the World Wisdom Chair, Naropa University

Equanimity of the mind, contentment, self-reflection, and association with spiritual seekers are the four ways to spiritual enlightenment. An aspirant of the spiritual path can choose any one of the four. Association with spiritual seekers includes reading the life histories and teachings of saints and sages, spiritual masters, and God-intoxicated people who are merged in their devotion to God, both historically and in the present. Through this book, Bob Ullman and Judyth Reichenberg-Ullman have helped others fulfill that need of association with spiritual seekers, saints, and sages of the East and West, historical and present. I wish them success in their efforts to serve people by various means.

Baba Hari Dass, author of Silence Speaks from the Chalkboard of Baba Hari Dass

Finally, a beautifully concise and readable overview of the enlightened condition as it is expressed through a wide variety of personalities, both historical and contemporary.

Adyashanti, Open Gate Sangha, author of The Impact of Awakening

Mystics, Masters, Saints, and Sages offers a myriad of reflections of the profound potential we have for awakening to our true nature. These inspiring life stories of personal transformation inspire us to discover and embody a truly universal spirit at the heart of our humanity and to live in a way that honors it.

Dr. Joel and Michelle Levey, authors of Living in Balance and Simple Meditation & Relaxation

Copyright 2001 by Robert Ullman and Judyth Reichenberg-Ullman

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles or reviews. For information, contact: Conari Press, 2550 Ninth Street, Suite 101, Berkeley, CA 94710-2551.

Conari Press books are distributed by Publishers Group West.

Cover Photography: Kamil Vojnar/Photonica

Cover and Book Design: Claudia Smelser

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Ullman, Robert.

Mystics, masters, saints, and sages : stories of enlightenment / Robert Ullman and Judyth Reichenberg-Ullman.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 1573245070

1. Religious awakening. 2. Spiritual life. I. Reichenberg-Ullman, Judyth. II. Title.

BL476.U55 2001

291.420922dc21 2001002853

Printed in the United States of America on recycled paper.

01 02 03 DATA 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

We dedicate this book to Baba Hari Dass, a silent yogi who has patiently guided and inspired us and is a living example of what it means to be liberated.

From Suffering to Nirvana

From Illiterate Woodcutter to Sixth Zen Patriarch

Lady of the Lotus-Born

Intoxicated with the Beloved

Kabbalah: The Secret Names of God

The Bride of Christ

Beyond Dogma to Divinity

Poems of a Mad Dalai Lama

Transcending the Dark Night of the Soul

Falling Down Laughing

The Heavenly Hasid

In Bondage, Yet Free

The Ecstatic Lover of Mother Kali

I Am Not the Body, I Am the Self

There Is Only Ram (God)

Bringing Cosmic Consciousness to the West

The Universal Love of an Avatar

I Am God Intoxicated

Pathways Through to Space

Walking for World Peace

The Awakening of the Kundalini

Releasing for Ultimate Freedom

From Individual to Impersonal

It Had to Happen

The Silence of the Heart

The Journey to No-Self

Becoming the Cosmos Without Leaving Home

Who Are You? You Are THAT!

The Power of Now

Finding Essence through the Diamond Approach

The Cannery Enlightenment

Embraced by the Divine Mother

Collision with the Infinite

WE THANK all of those beings, known and unknown, who have had the sincerity, courage, and unfaltering dedication to put finding God above all else. We express profound gratitude for having the exceptional fortune to have met personally or to have sat with the following spiritual teachers.

Adyashanti, Ammachi, Avatar Adi Da, Baba Hari Dass, Byron Katie, Chagdud Rinpoche, His Holiness the Dalai Lama for his wonderful foreword, Deepa Kodikal, Eckhart Tolle, Gangaji, Guru Mayi, Jean Klein, Kalu Rinpoche, Karunamayi, Kriyananda, Tsering Everest, Mother Hamilton, Mother Teresa, Pir Kalimi, Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, Ram Dass, Ramesh Balsekar, Reshad Feild, Sant Keshavadas, Satya Sai Baba, Seung Sahn, Shantimayi, Sheikh Suleiman Dede, Shlomo Carlebach, Shree Maa, Shri Shivabalayogi, Shri Shri Anandamurti, Swami Chidananda, Swami Ganapati Satchidananda, Swami Krishananda, Swami Muktananda, Swami Satchidananda, Tony Parsons, Yogi Bhajan.

Special thanks to Mary Jane Ryan, who believed in this project from the start, and to Leslie Berriman, Heather McArthur, Claudia Smelser, Brenda Knight, and the rest of our Conari family who helped bring this book to fruition. Also to Satprakash of the Piccadilly Book Stall in New Delhi, who has the most complete yet compact spiritual bookstore in the world.

AS HUMAN BEINGS, we all want happiness, peace, and release from suffering. We often think that the enlightened ones are somehow special, different from us, with a state of mind that is unattainable to an ordinary person. And yet, each human being has an equal opportunity to attain wisdom, happiness, and enlightenment by cultivating a correct motivationa sincere aspiration to benefit all sentient beingsand engaging in diligent practice.

Whether in the course of one lifetime or many, it is possible for each of us to overcome ignorance and delusion and find release from the cycle of life and death. The Buddha, like many of the individuals described in this book, was born an ordinary person. He was brought up as a prince, married, and had a son. Then, after observing the suffering of human beingsthat they grow old, fall sick, and diehe totally renounced the worldly way of life in his determination to find a solution to human suffering. Having undergone severe physical penance, he purified and illumined his mind through intense meditation, and attained supreme enlightenment.

In this way the Buddha set an example for his followers. Purifying the mind is not easy. It takes time and hard work. But this is true of any human enterprise. You need tremendous willpower and determination right from the start, accepting that there will be many obstacles and resolving that despite them all you will continue until you have attained your goal. But having attained enlightenment, the Buddha did not retire into isolation. Moved by a spontaneous concern to help others, he spent the rest of his life as a homeless monk, sharing his experience with everyone who wished to listen.