Wisdom in unexpected places
When I hunted for that timeless wisdom that would bring serenity, I never found it sitting cross-legged repeating a mantra late into the night. Nor in big auditoriums with robe- wearing gurus surrounded by misty-eyed disciples who revered them.
Instead, I found it in unlikely spots off the spiritual grid, away from the workshops, weekend seminars, and enlightenment intensives. It was there in face-to-face meetings with simple people who didn’t recruit followers or hint at some future enlightenment.
It was there on the website of a one-time Australian sailor whose tattooed arms were reminiscent of his brawling days in the bars of Melbourne; with a technical writer at a Silicon Valley computer systems company who in so many words said enlightenment is a fiction; with a former Army captain who led combat infantry troops in some of the bloodiest battles of the Korean war.
They spoke not of samadhi and darshan, satsang and chakras. Yet in plainspoken words each said the same thing: The real teacher is within you—you are That.