Buddha at the Gas Pump

Wayne took his own life on August 31, 2017. Discussion in the Batgap Community Facebook Group. Eulogy written for Wayne by Jerry Freeman. Putting his words in the past tense, Wayne Wirs was a transparent, rational, nondual mystic. Wayne blogged about his day-to-day life as a semi-homeless, van-dwelling drifter and had been doing so before, during, and after his awakening experience in 2009. Wayne...

Recently at a Whirling Dervish Meditation in Istanbul I read how Rumi summarized his life: I was immature; I became experienced; I was consumed. I could divide this lifetime in those categories also, starting with a life driven by conditioning resulting in a very successful appearance without much satisfaction. Then the search for real happiness and peace. Decades of working with different modalit...

Until two years ago, my only interest in spirituality was self-improvement. I wasn’t interested in what was true, only to make my experience better. For whatever reason, I just didn’t care. About five years ago I turned abruptly away from any kind of self-improvement. I had felt a shift in my being, and I knew the ‘unknown’ was chasing after me. I intuitively knew that If I explored my experience,...

Bonnie is a non-dual teacher in the lineage of Adyashanti, and a transpersonal therapist who has specialized in working with spiritual emergence issues for 30 years. She has published several books and articles related to kundalini and spiritual awakening, most recently “The Kundalini Guide” and “The Awakening Guide”, available on amazon.com. These are based on assessments and consultations with o...

Peter is a leader in the Western adaptation of Buddhist wisdom. He is a pioneer in the new field of nondual psychotherapy. He was a celibate monk in the Tibetan Buddhist traditions for nine years. He has a Ph. D. in the philosophical psychology of Mahayana Buddhism and has held teaching positions at universities in Australia and the USA. He has taught workshops at Naropa University, the California...

Sri Karunamayi is revered in India as an embodiment of Divine Motherly Love, due to the love and affection that she showers liberally on all people, animals, and even plants, the spiritual knowledge and guidance that she gives freely to all of humanity, and the humanitarian works that she has undertaken. “Amma” as she is affectionately called by her followers, is simply the Telugu word for “mother...

Ellen’s deepest longing for the absolute was fulfilled when she met her teacher, Francis Lucille. In his presence, over many years, she awakened to her true nature of peace and happiness through continuous and deepening glimpses. The process of aligning and stabilizing her life to and in this beautiful non-dual understanding has never ceased to unfold since then. As a child Ellen was in love with...

John J. Prendergast, Ph. D., is a retired professor of psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco and a psychotherapist in private practice. He spent many years studying with the European Advaita master Jean Klein as well as with Adyashanti. He was invited to share the dharma by Dorothy Hunt in 2012. He is the author of: The Deep Heart: Our Portal to Presence and I...

CC’s passion for helping people awaken came to the foreground in 1989 when she had a startling vision of a star appearing near the ceiling of her bedroom and streaming forth a download. The message was clear: she was to play a role in helping humans awaken, and in paving a new understanding of spirituality for the world. But first, she had to awaken. After some years of rapid spiritual growth and...

Vasant Swaha was always a naturally free spirit, aware from an early age that life was not about accepting boundaries, but rather going beyond them. As a child, he sailed from his native Norway, exploring the world with his father and family. His visits to many foreign countries at an early age gave him a broad perspective on life. He always liked to challenge himself, ever since he was very young...

A. Hameed Ali was born in Kuwait in 1944. At the age of eighteen, he moved to the USA to study at the University of California in Berkeley. Hameed was working on his Ph. D. in physics when he reached a turning point in his life and destiny that led him more and more into inquiring into the psychological and spiritual aspects of human nature. Hameed's interest in the truth of human nature and the t...

Dorothy Rowe was clairvoyant as a child, but a rough teenage period caused her abilities to wane. After learning Transcendental Meditation in her mid-teens, the inner vision began to return. She moved to Fairfield, Iowa in 1980 and devoted herself to creating world peace by meditating with a large group of people practicing the TM and TM-Sidhi Program. She became a teacher of Transcendental Medita...

Jim Dreaver, originally from New Zealand, began his search for freedom in the mid-Seventies with the teachings of yoga, Zen, and J. Krishnamurti, and then met European Advaita Vedanta (the nondual or direct path) master Jean Klein in 1984, who guided him to seeing the truth in 1995. His mission now is to guide others to the realization that awakening is centered in the heart, and is ever and only...

Craig Pearson is Executive Vice-President of Maharishi International University (MIU) in Fairfield, Iowa, and a leader in Consciousness-Based education. He has spoken around the United States on this unique approach to education as well as on Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's programs to create world peace. He has held a number of positions at MIU, including Dean of Faculty, Dean of the College of Arts and...

Stephan Bodian is a teacher in the nondual wisdom tradition of Zen, Dzogchen, and Advaita Vedanta and the founder and director of the annual School for Awakening, an intensive six-month program of exploration and study. His offerings are noted for their humor, warmth, spontaneity, and intimacy and combine direct pointers, lively dialogues, silent sitting, and guided self-inquiry. He’s the author o...

Kenneth Folk is a personal meditation trainer known worldwide for his innovative approach to secular Buddhist meditation. After twenty years of training in the Burmese Theravada Buddhist tradition of Mahasi Sayadaw, including three years of intensive silent retreat in monasteries in Asia and the U.S., Kenneth began to spread his own findings, successfully stripping away religious dogma to make med...

Ram Das Batchelder passed away in 2023. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1961, had a spiritual awakening in his early twenties, and spent most of 25 years in India as a devotee of Amma, the “hugging saint.” He wrote four children’s books, which have been translated into several European languages, and also a novel in rhyming verse, three full-length plays, and 40 original songs. In 2012, he and his...

Sandy Jones is the Literary Executor to the William Samuel legacy.  In 1996, she was given his entire catalog of works and today is the spokesperson for William Samuel’s message- publishing and promoting the entire William Samuel catalog. In addition to being the registered agent for the works of William Samuel,  she is the owner and mentor of the Woodsong Center for Self-Discovery located in Ojai...

Craig Holliday is both a Nondual teacher and Licensed Professional Counselor, offering Nondual Therapy and Meditation workshops, retreats and Satsang. His work is dedicated to the discovery of our innate Divinity through embracing our Humanity. He works in a way that addresses our everyday suffering as a doorway to our inherent freedom. He meets with individuals in Durango, Colorado and from aroun...

Mary O’Malley is an author, counselor, and awakening mentor in Kirkland, Washington. In the early 1970s, a powerful awakening set Mary on the path to changing her whole relationship with the challenges of her life, freeing herself from a lifelong struggle with darkness. Since that time, Mary has taught extensively throughout the United States, Canada, and Denmark. She is an inspirational speaker w...

Marie Manuchehri, RN, is a nationally known energy intuitive and Reiki Master who first discovered her gifts for energetic healing while working as a registered oncology nurse. In addition to her private practice in Seattle, Washington, which includes thousands of clients from across the world, she leads popular workshops and hosts “The Marie Manucherhri Show – Where Energy and Medicine Meet.” Mar...

Dale Borglum founded and directed the Hanuman Foundation Dying Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the first residential facility in the United States to support conscious dying. He has been the Executive Director of the Living/Dying Project in Santa Fe and since 1986 in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is the co-author with Ram Dass, Daniel Goleman, and Dwarka Bonner of Journey of Awakening: A Meditato...

Leonard Jacobson is an awakened spiritual teacher, healer and mystic who is deeply committed to guiding and supporting others in their journey towards wholeness. In 1981, he experienced the first of a series of spontaneous mystical awakenings that profoundly altered his perception of life, truth, and reality. Each of these enlightenment experiences revealed deeper and deeper levels of consciousnes...

Nukunu was born in Odense, Denmark 1947. He left school 13 years old. He was declared hopeless so he was given no education certificate. He worked and trained as a house painter for the next 4 years. After 9 months of military service he started to study again, first secondary school, then college and the University. He holds a Bachelor in Philosophy and a Master in Psychology. In the end of his M...

In February of 2003, Tom published the My Big TOE trilogy (MBT) which represents the results and conclusions of his scientific exploration of the nature of existence. This overarching model of reality, mind, and consciousness explains the paranormal as well as the normal, places spirituality within a scientific context, solves a host of scientific paradoxes and provides direction for those wishing...