Know Thyself, Self-esteem, Self-respect, Self-confidence.

 Know Thyself, Self-esteem, Self-respect, Self-confidence.

"Know Thyself", said a Greek Philosopher (inscribed on the temple of Apollo at Delphi and usually attributed to Socrates).

But what does that mean and how is it attainable? Socrates was probably not the first and not the last teacher of philosopher to consider it important.

According to scriptures, many great Masters said the same, maybe their translated word different but the same.

Jesus Christ instructed his apostles to "Put first the Kingdom of Heaven" and the"The Kingdom is Within"/ Buddha told his followers to look within and find enlightenment. Nowadays many teachers to to inspire people to search within themselves, whether through prayer, meditation or even drugs.

When I hear a person read aloud a poem, a piece from a book, make a speech or sing a song, obviously I want to hear it. It requires a degree of self-confidence, self-esteem and self-respect, which come too with self-knowledge. It's not so much about whether the listener laughs or cries, but that they can hear. And after all, not everyone likes or appreciates every "performer", but the joy for the performer should come with the performance, knowing that one is heard. Or am I wrong and what people think of one is what it should be all about? Is success just about what the world thinks of us? For me, no. It is about what I think of myself, not in an egotistical way, but in a way that brings contentment.

Yet many who have written great words or songs - well - they "mumble".

I always advise people to look up and speak or sing loud enough, if without amplification, as if speaking to the person at the back of the room - without shouting! And if playing, for example, a guitar or piano, I want to hear the words above but along with the tune.

Confidence comes with practice.

I was quite shy as a teenager, especially speaking in public. Even, still somewhat shy is making first approach or contact with one person or small group. If planning to speak, worrying in advance about what to say does not help (writing it down or making bullet points does, so long as we look up when reading or speaking).

Even at University in a tutorial, when the Tutor asked a question and I knew the answer, knew i was correct, i would remain silent even if the other half dozen students did the same!

I remember watching a TV interview of Cliff Richard (remember him? Now Sir Cliff). He was asked how he managed to sing when ins hall with literally hundreds of screaming teenage girls (as was common at that time with many pop stars). He probably couldn't hear himself, most of the audience couldn't either, with a backing band, The Shadow, despite amplification. So it probably didn't matter what the words and what his voice actually sounded like on stage.

His reply was basically he didn't sing to hundred of girts, he just looked at one and sang to her; then looked at another and same to her (or maybe even him). He certainly came across as confident.

So when my time came that i wanted or felt the need to speak to an audience, I employed his technique. And it helped if I had a plant in one of the front rows, somebody i chew that i could look at and who would react, nod, smile or laugh and this encourage me. But it was really all about what was going on inside my head and my feelings.

I read a book called "Feel the fear and Do it Anyway" and that helped too. What did it matter if people disagreed with what I said, even laughed at me? The book explained that most "stars" feel nervous but are able to employ that energy to their benefit.

After all, we are all the same in what counts. Same bodily parts (mostly) same hearts, same blood, same mouths, tongues, brains. Just a little difference in what society likes to call IQ or educational level. We all smiles the same, cry the same, basically. So why should one person feel better or worse than another? We were all born, we all live, we all die, irrespective of wealth, fame, strength, glory or achievement. What are real aim should be is to feel peace, joy, love, contentment within ourselves! What are the obstacles to that? Doubt, confusion, fear, feelings of inadequacy, incompetence, over-dependence - those feelings that the world so often seems to want to put on us. There are more losers in the race than winners. People are singled out for awards and recognition.

What needs to be encouraged, on the contrary, is certainty (knowledge), clarity, equity, self-confidence in independence, self-esteem - that is self-knowledge. Know thyself!

All that is within, the good and the bad, within each one of us, to be sought and found.

"We need to know the difference between what is pleasant and what is good" (Prem Rawat)

Most of us spend our time seeking what is pleasant and often that is not so good for us!

So to sum up, how to make those changes? We need to find somebody that can show us how, beyond words, religion or philosophy, to look within and find our true Nature, our soul, our spirit, our "God" our Self. 

Courage: A Message from Prem Rawat

 

 

 

Many teachers, one Master - many signposts, one Way

Thinking today about teachers and the Master: I see that there are many teachers and many that have taught me many subjects - maths teachers, language teachers. Science teachers, religious teachers and so on, and many teachers with more than one subject. Even lifestyle teachers and teachers of good or even bad manners or skills.

But even if each teacher had 8000 students it would need a million to teach the world and even with classes of 100 a year it would take 80 years! And how many adults even have a teacher? And how many teachers would remember all their student' s names or students remember their teachers, if that is important?

And how many teachers could actually teach?

It surely takes a student to recognise and appreciate a good teacher.

In many schools we have a head teacher. If the maths teacher teaches maths, what does the head teacher teach?

So what is a Master? Can a person have more than one master at a time?

Ram Dass and others have said that a teacher points the way but The Master is the way

We can surely follow many teachers at a time but maybe best to follow one way at a time to avoid confusion and make progress.

And for me a teacher may instruct through repetition but a Master by example. The student needs practice and effort. For the Master it is natural

So I come to recognise so many can teach me so much but I have only one Master (way).

 

 

1972: A Journey Within

 A Journey Within

1972: Even before my trip to India, which in a way was unintentional, I was on a search.

I was 22 at the time. I had been studying chemistry at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK. I had started the course in 1968, thinking that if I could understand the chemistry and physics of the Universe around us, I would reach an understanding of the meaning of it all, including myself.

By the time I graduated, I had realised that I was wrong. Although science consists of achieving the same results from the same observations or reactions, so much of it was and still is based on theory and belief.

Before I had left the UK in 1972, I had read books that greatly influenced me such as The Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra, in which he draws parallels between modern science and ancient religion, Aldous Huxley’s Doors of Perception and John Lilly’s The Center of the Cyclone, which discussed states of consciousness especially on hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD.

By this time I was convinced that there existed a means of heightening my consciousness to some sort of “transcendental” level. I had no guide, no teacher or Guru. I had just my own thoughts and experiences.

One other thing I did have was a copy of the I Ching, a book of ancient Chinese oracles, that I had been given by Diane in 1972, an English girl I had met in Delhi and travelled to Kabul with.

Months later, after returning to the UK, at first I went to my parents in Barry and spent a week or so in hospital, recovering.

Whilst in hospital, one day my mother came to visit and brought me a newspaper and a few letters. Neither she nor I knew what a profound effect they would have on me.

In the newspaper there was a short article with picture about a “Boy Guru” from India. He was born in Haridwar, the place where I had become ill, in an Ashram that I had intended to visit.

In 1972, he was just 15 years old. His name was Guru Maharaji, or Prem Pal Singh Rawat, and he was visiting the UK for the second time, the first visit having been a year earlier when he had spoken at Glastonbury festival.

Guru Maharaji was saying that he wanted to bring peace to the world, as he had promised his late father who, coincidentally, had been his own Guru, called Hans Ji Maharaj. The term Guru, generally understood to mean teacher, more specifically meant “One who takes us from darkness to light”. I thought the world certainly needed that.

Another letter was from Australian Paul! He told me that he and Lorraine had given up smoking cannabis and were now meditating on something called “The Knowledge” and were followers of Guru Maharaji.

What a weird set of coincidences.

I thought the Guru must be some sort of con, being just a boy. Maybe, I thought, he was some sort of prodigy for the Beatles’ guru, the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

I began to read scripture – the Bible, the Bhagavad Gita, Buddhist works and the Koran, which I admit I struggled with. I can’t say they made much sense and seemed in may ways to contradict each other, as if there may have been a secret key to understanding them.

Whilst it seemed that Christianity was about Love and Faith and a loving God, the Old Testament was about Faith and Trust for a jealous and vengeful God (Jehovah). Buddhism seemed to be about acceptance and karma whilst Islam meant Peace.

I pondered on which path I should take. Transcendental mediation, Hare Krishna, Christianity, Buddhism, drugs like LSD? Islam did not appeal to me and I could not become a Jew as that was by birth.
I started using the I Ching to guide me. I went to a Hare Krishna evening with great food, chanting and dancing. It was a great evening but that route did not appeal to me.

I went to a lecture on Buddhism that seemed quite complicated and a talk by “Jesus Freaks” that did not appeal to me at all. The I Ching also seemed to steer me away from those routes.

Then one day whilst I was sitting in my front room alone, I decided simply to ask the book to give me some guidance – a more general question. I threw the three coins six times and noted down the results which would lead me to the correct “Hexagram” to read.
I was very keen to read the advice but just then there was a knock on the door. It was Paul and Lorraine and a man they introduced as Alastair. That man was beaming and greeted me with hands as if in prayer. He sat on the floor cross-legged.

I was a bit annoyed that they had turned up just then as I knew Paul would do a lot of talking. So I asked them if they could just stay silent and drink some tea whilst I read the Hexagram.

The Hexagram was number 5: WAITING There were a few lines that maybe changed my life more than any other. They read:

‘Entering into the cave
There are uninvited guests,
Three people come.
Honouring them, in the end good fortune.’

I wondered did it mean “father, Son and Holy Ghost” or maybe “Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva” before realising it may well have referred to that very moment and those very three people in the room, Paul, Lorraine and Alistair, who were surely uninvited guests.

So I put down the book and started to listen.

Paul immediately started talking about “The Light”.

Now, as I understood it, “seeing the light” meant understanding and was not to be taken literally. Of course I knew about light and the speed of light in a scientific sense and I knew that scriptures said that “God is Light” but “God” was not so much in my realm of belief. I had also read that God was omnipresent and therefore God was “in me” although I had never see him, her or it. The only light I had seen was through my eyes. But I listened to Paul for a while and then asked him.

“When you talk about seeing the light, do you mean understanding something, like when you suddenly get the answer to a question or riddle?”

Paul explained that he did not mean that, he meant looking inside, meditating, through the “THIRD EYE”.

Paul said “If thine eye be single the whole body will be full of light.”
He explained that his Guru Maharaj Ji had shown him four techniques of meditation, ways to look inside to see the light, hear the “music”, taste the “nectar” and feel “peace”.

So I attended some Satsang meetings and then went to London a few times to listen to the Mahatmas. I did not get to see the Guru himself as he was not in the country. It still did not seem to make much sense; there was a lot of praise for “Maharaji” but not really any explanation of what this “Knowledge” was. I realised that it had to be experienced and for that one had to ask a Mahatma. Despite my University education and travels, I was still quite shy, and even though I was sometimes gently pushed towards a Mahatma, I just couldn’t ask.

By this time it was approaching Christmas. I remember one day back in Norwich, I shook my fist at the sky and said “If you are real God, I want Knowledge on Christmas Day.” Of course, I didn’t believe that was going to happen, but …

A few days before Christmas I was staying with a “Premie”, a “devotee” of Maharaji, in London. Premies are named after Maharaji’s given name, Prem, which means love. I was staying with this guy in Earls Court. In those days some Premies volunteered to accommodate “aspirants” (people that wanted the Knowledge) and I was sleeping on his floor.

I also started going to an Ashram in Muswell Hill, where a Mahatma spoke. That one was a lady from India called Prakash Bhai. I didn’t like her, she seemed rather stern and I did not want to ask her for Knowledge.

After one session, a guy came into the room and said “All those who Mahatma Bhai has said can have Knowledge, go into the other room and write your name on the list.” Well, I had not even asked but I went and wrote down my name anyway. That little bit of dishonesty did not bother me as I still though it was all a con and probably at some stage, I thought, we’d be asked for money.

Actually, that never happened.

It was December 24th that we went to a hall for Satsang in the Swiss Cottage area. Several Mahatmas spoke and at the end one of them announced that there was to be a “Knowledge Session” the next day, Christmas Day, for fifteen people. He had a list of the names of the people that could go along to the house in Muswell Hill. Maybe my demand would be met, I thought.

As he read out the fifteen names he asked the people to shout out if they were there. By the time he reached number fifteen, only thirteen of them were there and I was not one of them. So he told the people that if they knew the other two, tell them to come tomorrow, but if not then numbers sixteen and seventeen could go.

But only fifteen could get the Knowledge as Guru Maharaji had stipulated a maximum of fifteen.

I was number sixteen! Would I get Knowledge on Christmas Day after all?

I was very embarrassed when almost everyone in the hall started shouted, “let him have Knowledge” but the Mahatma said only if the others did not turn up.

The following morning, Christmas Day, I got up at about 5 o’clock and walked all he way to Muswell Hill. When I got there all fifteen of the others were there. They and I sat in a room waiting for the Mahatma Prakash Bhai to arrive. She spoke for a while and asked me to read a few lines from The Bible. I was thick with a cold, nose running and sneezing, but I read the lines which I remember to this day.

“For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.

“For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.

“What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

That was heavy stuff. Although written about the knowledge of Jesus Christ, the Mahatma said it was the same Knowledge. It was a warning!

After that she said that the fifteen named people would receive Knowledge that day but the other two would have to wait! In other words, I would not be one of the ones to be shown anything that day!

I did argue. I told her “but Guru Maharaji said not to put off til tomorrow what one can do today!”

“That’s right,” she said, “but I cannot give you Knowledge today because Guru Maharaj Ji says maximum fifteen, and if I give to you one of the others will have to wait. You must come back in three days!”

I was not at all pleased. I was quite angry. Some sort of divine joke? That God I had made my demand to had let me down.
I stormed out of the house and found my way to the start of the A11 road, intent on hitch-hiking back to Norwich, however hard it was going to be on Christmas Day.

I stuck out my thumb as the first car approached. It stopped. “Where you going mate?” asked the driver. “Norwich,” I said. “Oh I’m going there. I can take you all the way!”

The journey took about three hours and by the time we reached the outskirts of Norwich it was starting to get dark. Moreover, I was starting to feel very silly to have reacted like that. I asked the driver to stop at the ring-road roundabout, which he did. I got of the car, crossed the road, stuck out my thumb to go back to London and the first car stopped!

“Where you heading?” asked the driver. “London,” I said. “Oh I can take you there! What part of London?” “Earl’s Court,” I said “near the tube station.” “Oh that’s exactly where I’m going! I can take you all the way!”
Some hours later, I was back in my mate’s bedsit in Earl’s Court, sleeping on his floor, telling him about my day, listening to his Satsang, and waiting three days to head back to Muswell Hill where I hoped to receive the Knowledge..

Being sceptical though, I was determined not to be drugged or hypnotized, so I refused to eat or drink anything and pinched myself all though the “Knowledge Session”. There were fourteen other aspirants.

She told us we had to make some promises to Maharaji and to ourselves. First was not to reveal the techniques. Second was to practice the techniques twice daily and “give yourself a chance” and third was to “leave no doubt in your mind.”

One thing I want to say is that from the first time I ever read anything he said, Prem always said that he is not a god, that he is a human being, and that he is here to show us how to find the Knowledge of God and self within. It is not his knowledge, he does not give it to us, he just shows the way to find it.

Now , in 2024, I feel fulfilled and grateful for the Knowledge that peace and love and joy are within inside of me and for the techniques for finding that place.

Taken from: My Piece of Peace
ISBN 9781838440121

50 Years with Prem Rawat and Knowledge - 28 December 2022

The Power of Thirst

What is being offered? A pathway to Peace.

PREM RAWAT offers a PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE of PEACE within inside yourself.

It is not a philosophy, religion, concept or belief.

He does not ask for payment, just that each person gives it a chance and makes the daily effort of practising the four techniques to look within, for an hour of ones time.

He does not ask that anyone believe anything, hold or change a religion. There is no mantra to learn and repeat, simply an experience to have.

Recently, Prem repeated again a promise that he made over 50 years ago: "Give me love and I will give you peace."

The pathway is simple. Prem has created a series on on-line videos, each about 5 minutes long, called PEAK, which people can watch and enjoy at their own pace, on their smart phones or tablets. At the end of the series it is possible to apply for KNOWLEDGE and then simply wait until a Knowledge session is arranged for you to attend. There are also plenty of other videos of Prem speaking available on his YouTube site and the TimelessToday website.

To watch the PEAK series, simply download the TimelessToday app. Open the app and in the drop-down menu top right click on PEAK.

Simply register and watch and enjoy. There is no fee.

 

 HEAR YOURSELF

My Prem and The Key

WE tend to chase after so many ideas that our minds and the minds of others through up under the belief that it will help up satisfy our souls.

Whether it be seeking riches, fame or glory or getting a new car, new job, new house or new partner, there we go putting so much effort into achieving what we have already done before, over and over again.

The mind is like a genie that can achieve so much yet disappoint us so much; sometimes it just won't stop, telling us this or that plan, worrying about the future or regretting the past. It can be like a genie that we can no longer control; it must keep busy for that the nature; even when we sleep! It can distract us from what we try to focus on.

And what ought we focus on?

Surely not things that we really know will not bring lasting peace and joy and a sense of real fulfilment?

Of course we need to know first is there anything that will bring us those things and that will last?

Some say follow your heart, not your head. That's not the heart that beats no more than it is the head that sits on your neck. It means the heart that feels and not the head that thinks. Of course that does not mean to stop thinking or to stop using our brains (the genie), but it means stop letting our minds control everything we do and everything we strive for.

So where is that heart, what is that heart! Our minds will of course try to tell us. It may try to think up feelings of peace or joy. It may try to build us up or tare us down, and we will go up and down with it. One day we feel good about life, one day we feel bad. One day we feel everything will be OK, next day we feel we are all doomed.

Such is life, some may say.

It's like the surface of the earth, up the mountains and down the valleys, and we go with it on our journey. Remember of course that most of our planet is sea, and that does not go up and down in quite the same way. We can, nowadays, use a helicopter or submarine, which would make our journey maybe more level. We need to fly above or float below the surface.

How lucky the human that has learned to be. How lucky the human that has found the heart, for in that place is the peace and joy we seek.

We do not need to stop living in this world or live in isolation in a cave to do that.

We just need to be shown what we once had, that knowledge of self My teacher Prem Rawat was the one that showed me.

https://www.youtube.com/premrawatofficial

https://www.wopg.org/the-keys/

Introduction to the Keys

The Purpose - What's it all about?

PURPOSE?

Recently several friends have asked the ever-asking questions? What is the purpose of life. Or why am I here? What's it all about? Where did we come from or where are we going? Why is the world like this, why the suffering? Is there a God or gods?

Of course, this asking is nothing new, it has been going on for many thousands of years, maybe since people first had the ability to even think such questions.

And there has been no shortage of people trying to give answers. Whole religions have been founded based upon the teachings of those that have tried to give answers. Billions of people now follow those religions and billions don't. Others follow philosophies or science.

The problem persist because we then have another problem. what to believe, who to believe.

And people argue over their beliefs, even fight wars.

It's like if a woman has several children and the children are fighting over which one has the best mother, even though they have the same mother; they don't know they have the same mother, they don't even know their mother, they just believe that theirs is the best!

I cannot myself answer those questions for anyone but myself. But I do know two things:

Firstly, we need to truly understand the question, for if we do not know the question, how will be recognise the answer as true? How will we be able to distinguish the truth from the lies? All we will be left with is a choice of beliefs and those beliefs can change.

Secondly, we need to KNOW, not just to believe.

Until we know, we live in darkness, doubt and confusion, that brings fear and even hatred.

What will happen if we have to live our lives like that?

Just look at what is going on in the world to see. The newspapers and media are full of it, spreading their lies and fear, enabling control of the masses. Where is the good news about you?

So I would say that if those questions are important to us, should we not be prioritising finding the answers and stop being distracted by the world where we know the answers are not in?

We KNOW we are alive - even those that argue that maybe it's all an illusion or dream, know they are in the illusion or dream, that they exist, for a while at least, between those two walls of birth and death kept apart from the breaths we cannot buy. The Greatest Truth of All - You Are Alive.

That life, that spirit, that who-we-are, lies within inside of us and we just need to be shown where and how to look. That, to me, should be the priority, the purpose within itself, to enable us to enjoy our lives, to live in peace and joy.

THE PURPOSE OF LIFE

So what is the purpose of life?

Is it to find a husband or a wife?

Is it to send our children forth to multiply,

Or the problems of the world to rectify?

Is it to find glory or to get incredible rich,

Before they burn is or throw our bodies in a ditch?

Is it to travel round the globe

Or find the perfect house along our road?

Is it to leave behind a glorious name,

Or whilst alive earn yourself a glorious name?

Is it to seek out medals and a soldiers glory,

Is it to write a glorious story?

Is it to taste the finest of wine,

Or is it to find the true divine?

The Divine brings peace.

The Divine brings joy.

The Divine brings love.

The Divine brings thanks,

And understanding.

The Divine brings birth,

The Divine brings death,

And in between,

The Divine brings breath.

 

The purpose of life is to find yourself,

The self beyond the earthly wealth.

It's found within inside of you,

A feeling undeniably true.

What is this life, so many ask.

Make finding the answer your priority task.

 

50 Years of Practising Self-Knowledge

 Taken from My Piece of Peace by Alun Buffry
ISBN 978-1838440121

One of the many things that I have learned is that it is more important how one reacts to the events in the world around us than the events themselves, in particular events that we cannot control or avoid. Obviously it makes sense to get out of the way of a car that is speeding towards us, to look both ways before crossing the road, to take precautions, look before we leap or whatever. Whilst it makes sense to try to avoid illness and injury, we cannot avoid the inevitable.

Prem talks about the two walls we encounter. The wall of birth and the wall of death. We have been born and we will die. It's the bit in between that is called life and that is the bit we should enjoy.

In the present we experience the point where the future becomes the past. Rather than wallow in the past in regrets, guilt or sorrow, rather than fret and worry about the future, it simply makes more sense to enjoy the present, as “the present is the gift".

That is not to say that we should not learn from our mistakes or make good plans for the future. It is to say that everything is really about now, the eternal now.

In one of his recent talks, Prem mentioned the finite and the infinite. To summarise, he said that we were not, we are and we will not be, but the universe was, is and will be. We are the finite and the universe is the infinite and our life is the time when the finite and the infinite meet. What is more sensible than seeking the infinite. Prem never speculates or tries to tell us what will happen when we die, just that we will.

When he was still quite young, somebody asked him precisely that “What will happen when I die?” “Die and find out,” he answered.

Another thing I have realised is that the answer is mostly in the question. That is, if we can really understand the meaning of the question, what the words mean and what is behind them, we will often see the answer. I think that is how the likes of books such as the I Ching work.

I have met many people that ask questions such as “Why are we here?” “What is the purpose of life?” “How do I find peace and fulfilment?”

Well it seems to me that if somebody is thirsty then they need a drink. Yet even when a drink is offered, people may refuse it if they lack trust. They need to trust whoever is offering the drink that it is not poisoned. The more thirsty and desperate they may become, the more likely they may be to accept the drink.

Likewise those people unable to find their answers need to trust someone offering the answers. There are certainly a lot of people offering answers in this world, some genuine and some not. There are many different paths to peace or enlightenment being offered. Some offer immediate sensory gratification whereas others tell us we will get what we want in heaven or some sort of afterlife. My thoughts are that it is a shame if we have to live our lives in ignorance, dissatisfaction, confusion and fear, just so we can get to heaven when we die.

If people want to believe that, then so be it. I think whatever, we should try to enjoy our lives so long as we do not deliberately harm others or the environment. We all make mistakes but out of those mistakes should come wisdom, not regret.

Prem often talks about gratitude. That’s not just saying thanks but something deeper.

For instance, a child that wants a specific item as a gift for a birthday may well say “Thank you” for anything that is given but will feel real gratitude for the gift he or she really wanted. A person may say “Thank you” for a drink or a bite to eat whenever it is given, but a person dying of thirst or hunger will feel true gratitude for just one cup of water or morsel of food. When a person takes their last breath what would most give for another.

I am not saying that we need to be dying to feel gratitude, but that we need to appreciate this life and the fact that we get each breath without effort, as if it is a valuable gift (which it is). Appreciation of that above all else, above all our ambitions, desires, memories, possessions, beliefs – well, in my experience that does bring inner peace and a sense of fulfilment. Just being thankful that we are still alive. Gratitude not fear of what may happen or guilt over what has happened, or wishful thinking for how we would like the world to be. Simply feeling gratitude for the next breath! Without gratitude what else is there?

I remember going on holiday, for example to India. At one stage we were on a coach going from Delhi to Kashmir. I cannot say it was a comfortable ride. It was jerky. It was hot. It went on and on.

Whilst some of the views were incredible, for many hours it was dark and I got little sleep. Then, during the night, the bus broke down. We had to sit on the bus for ten hours in the middle of nowhere with just a small chai shack nearby, whilst they brought another bus from Delhi.

So, did I enjoy the bus ride? Did I enjoy India. On the whole, yes, but overall I was glad we went. I think life is like that. I wrote a poem about that bus ride.

RAM RAM BUSES

From Delhi on an Indian Tourist bus,

We left thinking they'd take care of us.

An Indian video humbly plays and we're

Told in 24 hours we'll reach Kashmir.

The journey goes into the darkest night,

As jungle and hills slowly dodge our sight,

The road now is just long and straight,

No bumps and bends or jerks to hate.

We're speeding along, ever so fast,

As if this journey is our last,

The road the driver's trying to keep,

Me - I'm just trying to fall asleep.

Suddenly, we swerve, a crash, a jolt,

Us thrown around, bus comes to a halt,

We look through windows only to see,

We hit a small tractor and just missed a tree!

Spite driver's brave efforts to curve and sway,

One side of the bus has been torn right away!

Amidst cries of Oh God!" - in Hindi "Ram Ram",

And in my own mind "Oh shit, oh damn!"

No one here seems able to tell,

Whether we're earthly or in heaven or hell.

But nobody's hurt, so we all get out,

A policeman a sweeper's given a clout.

For without thought he's just learned that he'd officially signed

A statement unread because he was blind.

There's nothing to do now but sit and wait,

Arriving Kashmir we know we'll be late.

Then mosquitoes surround us and all rush in,

"There's three dozen humans in a half open tin!"

They must have shouted and told their friends,

"We can buzz all about them and insanity send!"

Well I know it's our blood they are trying to drink,

And "Kill the bastards" is what I think,

And now the sun has gotten bright,

People are gathering to smile at our site.

Apparently the tractor driver was drunk,

The cop wanted baksheesh or he'd be sunk.

Ah, now they're trying the bus to fix

With hammers, wires and broken sticks!

It'll be midnight tomorrow before we arrive,

If just 36 hours more we can somehow survive.

But surprise, surprise we weren't there all day,

For two hours later we were on our way.

I read somewhere that as they die, many people think or say something like “Oh shit!” or “Oh God!! or the equivalent in their religion or language, such as "Ram Ram!” How much better if it was “thanks!”

How much better to appreciate life than to feel bitter about it. Gratitude that we were still alive and that we had reached our destination was better than worrying about the next bus ride or moaning about the last. That does not, of course, prevent one from telling the tale and enjoying the telling of it!

So, it seems to me, how important to seek the source of love, peace and joy. Obviously in those times we feel those feelings, we feel them inside ourselves, not in the other person or the sunset or good meal. It may be that those external things stimulate the feeling temporarily, but the feelings themselves are within.

In fact, they are always within. So it makes sense if we could somehow “tune in” to them despite outside events.

It’s obvious that riches, fame, even health and glory, what the world thinks of us, having a good job or family may help, yet some people with those things live in misery and confusion, even kill themselves, or stop caring even about themselves. They play roles, we all do, but in public they may seem happy and successful. In private maybe not.

It took the Universe almost 14 billion years to make you and you are a success. Success is not about reputation, fame, achievement or the opinions of others. It is recognition and acceptance of who you are. That does not mean that we should not make effort to improve ourselves or the world around us, just that we ought not be controlled by those things.

Personally I don’t think we should spend time trying to change what we cannot change.

For example, we may not be able to dig everyone’s garden, but if we can dig our own (or get somebody to do it for us!), maybe it will influence our neighbours and they will dig their own. In that way it may be possible to change the neighbourhood.

I hope I am not sounding like a preacher, by the way, just telling you about what I think and how I feel!

Then there is greed. We all know about greedy people. Not just people that want more and more, but people that want more at the expense of others, Yet they are seldom satisfied.

There was family living in a tent. They had few possessions. They got their food day-to-day. Nobody tried to steal from them. They had little to steal.

One day the father got a job, He was better able to provide for his family, Eventually he managed to build a hut and get some items of furniture, some toys for the children and some jewellery for the wife. They built a fence around their hut and put a lock on their door, There were thieves about. That man became an oil mogul millionaire. He moved into a mansion, sent his children to a good school, was driven around in an expensive limousine. He hired body guards, bought security systems, lived his life in fear of being robbed or conned. He was seemingly more comfortable but was he really more content? Was he so truly happy knowing that one day time itself would take away everything he had? Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. All that he had was just dust. In truth he never ever had anything except his life and he only had that for a while. Did he appreciate life for what it was, or was he distracted by all that dust?

Now I am not saying that one should not have ambitions or try to improve the quality of life. I am saying that maybe we should understand what the priorities should be. If only the priority is to appreciate more the life itself. That is one thing that Prem has taught me through The Knowledge.

My friend asked me what it’s all about. I say maybe he should focus more on enjoying it than asking questions that only he can answer. He says he does. He asked me what is the purpose, then tells me there is a purpose in everything he does. He tells me he can look after himself. So why does he ask me questions? It is obvious to me that he doesn’t want to listen to what either I or Prem says. To me he seems to be living in confusion. He says he is just waiting til he dies. I have learned that all I can do is listen.

Don’t fret because on cannot change what one cannot change or that you cannot have what you cannot have!

Television can be fun, entertaining even educational and inspirational. It can also be fearful, annoying, misguiding and indoctrinating. What I dislike is the news, which usually consists of fear-mongering, and advertising which creates dissatisfaction. So I try not to watch that. I don’t mind fiction that claims to be fiction but I detest fiction that claims to be fact.

Prem recently said that most of us look for the truth in the lies and the lies in the truth.

Decades ago, people talked about war in Europe or war in Vietnam. More recently war in Iraq or Ukraine. Years ago people talked about the ozone layer or nuclear radiation. More recently it’s about pollution or Covid19. We all know about overpopulation and world poverty. Many people run their lives on credit cards and mortgages. Every country in the world is in debt, well maybe not some of those that own all the oil. Many young people live their lives like there’s no tomorrow as many don’t think there is. I didn’t when I was at their age. Many older people live in fear of streets (their world) full of drugs and thugs, whilst others find solace in alcohol or antidepressants. Few seem to realise and appreciate or accept the availability of a practical way to get above all that. Most people want to blame the parents for the way the youth can behave or the Government or even God or Devil for their problems. Talking about positivity makes one weird!

POSITIVITY (2015)

by Alun Buffry

Always to be found in this the same place,
Throughout our universe of time and space,
On I will travel, at my own pace,
Can you now see it, in my face?

Never to question how or why,
Upon this earth I find I,
Content and amazed beneath earth's sky,
Yet soaring above white clouds on high.

Hidden within us there is a clue.
It looks like I, it looks like you
For once we were one and that is true,
Now one of so many amongst quite a few.

There is a Love, there is a Light,
Forget any guilt, ignore any fright,
Focus within on a wondrous sight,
The future is now and it's ever so Bright.

How can one find positivity? Positivity and negativity are attitudes. They are inside us, always. So we need to look within. That is what Prem has helped me to do. Not just in my head but in my heart. I am forever grateful for that.

Smoke.

Well I cannot deny that cannabis has played a major part in my life. I smoked and enjoyed it for most of fifty years. It was through cannabis that I met Australian Paul and Lorraine in 1971, and it was through them that I heard about Knowledge. Through cannabis I met probably thousands of people in many countries, all sorts of people, different ages, cultures, jobs from the unemployed to the criminals, from drivers to doctors, lawyers and of course musicians. All sorts. That incudes Premies.

I don’t regret any of that, even the time in prison. I stopped smoking in February 2020, out of choice, first for two weeks, now it’s been over two years. I do not miss it at all. The only difference is that I get and remember more vivid dreams, some good, some bad; it depends on my day and to a large extent the TV! I don’t regret stopping smoking (I stopped using tobacco in 1999 and that did me good) and I would not say I will never smoke (toke) or eat it again. It’s just that right now, I don’t need it.

Also over those years I campaigned for a change in statue law to stop the punishment of people that have done no harm to others and to protect their Human Rights and Freedom of Choice. I believe in “No Victim, No Crime”. I even founded a single issue political party in 1999, called the Legalise Cannabis Alliance, which had candidates in over 80 elections in seven years; I stood for Parliament myself in 2005 gaining 620 votes in Norwich South. I spoke at many events including Hustings, at Universities and a girls school. I debated at the Oxford Union, testified before a Parliamentary Select Committee and spoke on radio and TV. It was a tremendous experience. Having the Knowledge helped me cope with all that too. It also helped me let go when the time came. No regrets.

I have also always wanted to help spread Prem Rawat’s message and the Knowledge, believing that it will make the world a better place by bringing peace and fulfilment to more people. Of course not everyone listens, it seems that Knowledge and its practice is not for everyone, at least for now. What to do about those that do not even want to listen?

In the Gospel of St Mark in the New Testament, one version says quite clearly, quoting Christ (as it has been interpreted) “And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.”

For me, having been one of those people who, for a while, did not listen because I did not understand, I am not sure I go with that. In fact, in one version, it said to leave a curse!

Then there are people that received Knowledge and never practised, or practised and stopped. There are even people that have turned against Prem, or Guru Maharaj Ji as many still call him.

There are even ex-Premie websites on line. Mostly written by people that criticise his personal life or got caught up in the concepts of what sort of life he or they should be living.

Yet Prem himself has never said, as far as I have heard, how to live one’s life, what to do or not do, whether or not to eat meat or smoke cannabis or take drugs or get married; he has just said that true peace is not in those activities and lifestyles, that we should see peace inside first, that we should give Knowledge time, trust it and be focussed. In fact many people have said that Prem drank alcohol, ate meat and took drugs. We know he got married and has had four children. Many times, since his first speech at Glastonbury Festival in 1971, Prem has said quite clearly that he is a human being, not a god!

Prem’s marriage, at the age of just 16, was announced thus:

“On May 20th 1974, at 8 pm, Guru Maharaj Ji (Prem Rawat) was wed to Marolyn Lois Johnson in a small chapel in the Colorado Rockies.”

That did cause quite a stir, not just because he was so young and it was not expected by most people but also because she was American and several years older than him.

It didn’t really bother me, but I heard that his mother (who was referred to as Mata Ji or Holy Mother) was upset as were many of the early Mahatmas. I heard a story that one Mahatma took a plane back to India but upon his arrival took a plane back to the US.

The couple went on to have four children. Prem has continued in his efforts to spread peace throughout.

“"I am simply offering an experience of life. God is in you. You can experience the Knowledge of God, you can enjoy it. It's a practical thing. Incredible. Life. And there's an experience to it. There is love of the Creator to enjoy.”

For me that is indeed simple. Knowledge is not about the world around me. It is about an inner experience. Like everything we do, if the experience is enjoyable, do it; if not stop. I know a lot of people that have stopped and they all told me that they found something beneficial in it. For whatever reason they stopped or maybe just distracted for a while, bless them so long as they do no harm to others. There are many routes to London, some direct, some can go many miles even in the opposite direction. The key is in the journey. London is still there, even if you go via Sydney.

Well maybe that’s enough preaching from me for now, not that I set out to preach, even if it comes across as that.

Now, 2022, we are (hopefully) coming out of the lockdowns and misery created by the way the Governments have handled (or mishandled) the so-called Corona virus pandemic (Covid19) and people are talking instead of the fear that the Russian invasion of Ukraine could lead to nuclear war, here I am writing this. It’s not the first book I have written. In the last twenty years, in fact mostly in the last eight, I have written many, including poetry, for want of a better name. Many of them are about places I went to, people I met, along my pathway. Some include elements of fantasy or Science Fiction. Although I do of course hope that many people will read them and be inspired to travel think or write their own books or poetry or even seek Knowledge, but the joy has been in the writing. I have heard about many many writers, artists, musicians, that have produced some wonderful work but had no desire to share it widely or be published, many that shun fame. I decided to publish mine of Amazon and Kindle and one can find them there; they are hardly best sellers. To do that I have had to learn how to format a book and set myself up as a publisher, which has enabled me to offer the service to others. That in itself has been a distraction from writing. But I enjoy it, so what!

So that has been my story of my time with Prem Rawat, my personal memories of my experiences.

Now I feel fulfilled and grateful for the Knowledge that peace and love and joy are within inside of me and for the techniques for finding that place.

I have written this, not to sell books, but for the joy of expressing my feelings in the hope that maybe, just maybe, it will help others to find their own piece of peace and enjoy their lives as much as I have enjoyed mine.

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