Enlightenment Blues. Andre van der Braak

opposed to gurus. He claimed the whole enlightenment business was nonsense. That’s why he was called the anti-guru guru. I took a walk through the mountains right up to his porch. There he sat in his garden and invited me in. He seemed absolutely unsurprised to see me turn up like that. We talked for half an hour about meditation, spiritual practice, and enlightenment, and then I was on my way. Since that time I had been a fan of U.G.

      Andrew, still in Boston, is furious. A community meeting is set up where Luna is declared a persona non grata. I find it impossible to understand why Luna has left Andrew in such a bitter way. Of course there are shortcomings in the community, but in all revolutionary movements there are mistakes made and things to be learned. I know she must still love Andrew. She shouldn’t listen to the objections of her mind. I try to phone her to tell her that, but she doesn’t want to speak to anyone from the community. I am sad to see her leave. I write her a letter: how could she hurt her beloved son and Master so much? A few weeks later Luna sends me a short note in return. The community has become a fascist organization, she reiterates, and everyone lives in fear of Andrew. She doesn’t want to have anything to do with it anymore. I have lost her as a friend, but there is nothing I can do. I tell Andrew about Luna’s note to me, and he says he is also deeply unhappy about how his own mother has turned against him. He’s happy that I’ve written to Luna and that I stand by him in these difficult times.

      2.5. Birth of a Formal Sangha

      In the summer of 1989, satsang starts in Marin, in the Corte Madera yoga center. Marin is a focal point of spirituality, like Totnes in Devon, home to a large number of spiritual seekers, meditation teachers, gurus, psychics, healers and therapists. Andrew, by now, has a reputation of being a controversial spiritual teacher who is out to shake up the contemporary spiritual scene. His message of enlightenment here and now is heresy for some of the western Buddhist meditation teachers who advocate spiritual practice and gradual improvement over time. His renunciate stance based on clarity of intention goes against the prevailing views of many transpersonal psychologists who say you have to integrate enlightenment into your personal life rather than giving your life over to enlightenment as Andrew says. So when Andrew starts satsang, quite a few of the local experts come to check him out. They like Andrew, they like the blissful experiences that satsang gives them, but they don’t like us, Andrew’s hundred and fifty, mostly European, students, that silently attend satsang, adoring our spiritual Master, writing him love letters. The Californians, used to an individualized and sophisticated lifestyle, are turned off by this European crowd of neo-hippies, who are content to clean houses for a living, live in groups of ten in three-bedroom houses, don’t mind a life without privacy, and generally seem like rather simplistic followers. They feel we behave like sheep. “Androids,” they call us.

      We don’t mind. Life in Marin is still mostly paradise. There’s beautiful scenery all around. On the weekends we go to beautiful beaches or for long walks on Mount Tamalpais. We’re one big spiritual family on a continuous high. Four nights a week we go to satsang and spend a long time afterwards speaking about Andrew’s talks, his profound dialogs with people. We work two or three days a week, just enough to support ourselves, and for the rest of the time we hang out together.

      There’s a hushed silence in the Corte Madera yoga center. A hundred and fifty of us are sitting cross-legged in a U-shape around a platform decorated with flowers, waiting for Andrew to arrive. Another twenty people or so, mostly newcomers, are sitting on chairs in the back. There’s a sense of anticipation in the room. The doors open and Andrew walks in. He’s dressed in smart black pants and a gorgeously colorful short-sleeve shirt with elaborate patterns, no doubt a gift from one of us. He sits down and closes his eyes. We sit in silence together for about twenty minutes. Then Andrew starts to speak. He welcomes everybody and asks if there are any questions.