Hi everybody at Forum 8 .... may I introduce myself and say a little about my interest in this fascinating subject of self knowledge.

I live in the Northern Pennines, England... not too far from Newcastle upon Tyne, which is the place I lived during the `70s when I first encountered the Maharaj Ji cult of Divine Light Mission as it was then known. I was an art college student at the time and the premies from the ashram on Westgate Road first spoke to me down by the Quayside one bright Sunday morning. I`d been experimenting with psycadelics and meditation for a while and this seemed to be the next best thing for a seeker of truth and enlightenment. `Maharaj ji`s knowledge is better than lsd`, I was told by a sincere devotee. That seemed pretty clear to me so I wandered down to London and hung around at the Palace of Peace for a few months in 1974 where I was finally initiated by Mahatma  Krishnasukanand ( anybody remember him ?). I couldn`t see what all the fuss was about at first but I just thought perhaps I had missed something ? Well, I was just slightly confused for a while, but later it got much worse.

Anyway, I toddled back to Newcastle and tried to pick up the threads of my life and to make the whole `knowledge` thing work. There were some lovely peeps around at that time... Andy, Lyn, Ian, John, Glynne, Chris, Dick, Helen, Anne, Anth, Pat, Dave, Les, Alan, Gregg, Sally, Sandy, and loadsa lovely peeps I can no longer remember names of. I loved you all.  It was certainly a rose tinted and optimistic time, and I was the ultimate idealist. It seemed like all we had to do was to practice this `knowledge` and the world would be transformed by the wonder kid from India that I`d never yet met.

When I did eventually meet him, at Essen the following year I was not impressed. Too many things didn`t feel quite right. It seemed to contrived and staged. Nevertheless, I was determined to overcome my `mind`. I was persistant and continued to give it my best shot for 3 more (painful sometimes, blissfull occassionally) years.

After several more disappointing `darshans` I finally lost interest in the kid and sought a proper spiritual teacher. Fortunately for me, at that time there were loads to choose from. There was one highly acclaimed enlightened master who had another following of lovely peeps, all dressed in orange, so I hopped on a bus to India and stayed at the Shree Rajneesh Ashram in Poona for a few months. That was such a refreshing change and helped me to bury the DLM experiment.

However, I was by then well aware of the dangers of mystical cults from my previous encounters with Maharaj Ji and so I managed to  avoid the many pitfalls and get the best from the Sanyas experiment. Shortly after leaving India and returning to England I renounced my orange robes. Rajneesh also soon left Poona for Oregon and infamy. The rest, as they say, is history.

The best `spiritual` teacher I ever encountered was Krishnamurti, and I would recommend his legacy of work to anyone who really wants to `see it as it is`. The Dalai Lama is another wise one, though the tradition of Tibetan Buddhism does get in the way somewhat and has its own karma to unravel.

After years of study and research I finally figured out that the way of meditating  is without method or technique. Of course, sitting, breathing, and being still are fundamental, but doing any method simply gets in the way of pure awareness. Knowledge is dead because it is based upon myths and lies, but Prem Rawat lives on and ruthlessly perpetuates these myths and the lies  in order to maintain his own dubious power, status and wealth. The result is the seemingly endless suffering of many lovely peeps. He is no fool, and the intellectual arguments can not be won or lost. He figured that out a long time ago and so he won`t even engage in discussion. But people will eventually see him for what he is. That is all anybody can do.

"No one ever becomes a Buddha. One simple stops imagining that they are something else."  Siddhartha Gautama.

"May the longtime sun shine upon you, all love surround you, and the clear light within you guide your way home." The Incredible String Band.