Satsang Teachers M - O

Franklin Merrel-Wolff - Profoundly influenced by Shankara, Franklin Merrell-Wolff is a Master of transcendental awakening as viewed through a western mindset. The Franklin Merrell-Wolff  Website provides an excellent introduction to his life and work. An outline of his philosophy is provided along with his "Aphorisms on Consciousness Without an Object". All of his books may be purchased along with audio taped lectures.

"The movement of consciousness toward experience as an end in itself is equivalent to a growth of spiritual poverty. The ultimate effect of this movement is a complete slavish bondage to the object, in which the entity becomes a mere appendage to appearance. Consciousness in this state is quite without depth; that is, it is a soulless state in the sense that all values connoted by soul are completely unconscious. Even so, the unconscious depths of the individual are by no means inactive simply because the individual consciousness is not aware of them. Thus it follows that anyone in this state is completely at the mercy of autonomous psychical forces. Individuals and nations in this state are continually drawn into impossible and tragic situations wherein what is done, or has to be done, one would prefer to have been done otherwise. The conscious individual or national will has no control over the factors that are unconscious to it."

Philip Mistlberger - has been a transpersonal therapist, group leader, and spiritual teacher for close to twenty years and is the author of the book "A Natural Awakening: Realizing the True Self in Everyday Life" (see Recommended Book section). He is also a qualified teacher in 'A Course in Miracles' (listen to a very good talk on the subject here). He is based in Vancouver, Canada. Read several essays at this site.

"All spiritual methods are eventually realized to be useless, and yet they are useful at the same time. They are useless becasue consciousness is already the case. They are useful because they help clarify and calm the mind so that we can more readily recognize that consciousness is already the case. "

Satyam Nadeen - influenced by Osho, wrote his first book, 'From Onions to Pearls', in a federal penitentiary in1996. Details of satsangs, including week-long intensives at the Pura Vida retreat in Costa Rica, books and tapes, and excerpts from a newsletter 'Living in Freedom', which has ceased publication. His latest book is called 'Enlightenment - Myth or Shift?': -
"There is nothing that you can do as a spiritual discipline that will cause your own 'Shift'. If and when it occurs, it happens in spite of you and never because of you. So just be! Do nothing! Understanding is all!"

His best-known book is 'From Onions to Pearls: A Journal of Awakening and Deliverance'. 9 sample pages may be viewed at Amazon.

Alternatively, here is the link to Amazon UK.

Neelam - Neelam was a polish teacher and a pupil of Sri Poonja. There are details of her retreats etc., principally in California and New York but there is a trip in January 2003 to Tiruvannamalai in India.
"You are free - naturally! In a moment of silence you can taste and recognise yourSelf: the limitless boundless being that you are. Happiness, joy, peace and beauty are the qualities of your natural being."

Nirmala - Nirmala is a student of Neelam and Adyashanti, influenced by Ramana Maharshi and Sri Poonja. He offers satsangs at various locations around the US and Canada. Excellent free Ebooks can be downloaded from his site. There are also audio and video links.
"A very simple but useful definition for ego is the tendency to fixate, or grasp, either by trying to hold on to something that was here or by grasping after something that isn’t here. What I am calling the ego is the movement within consciousness to do that. This tendency to grasp is the source of all suffering."

Read the extracts from Nirmala's books.

OM C. Parkin - a disciple of Gangaji, contributes regular articles to the twice-yearly 'Advaita Journal' (only in German at present) and has retreats in Europe. The Java-powered site contains a number of interviews, articles and responses to questions.
" The thinking mind can only conduct research within the boundary of time. Enlightenment, however, is the crack within time. This crack opens in the gap between two thoughts. Welcome to the unknown! "

Osho - The Osho Foundation site has details of the 'Osho Meditation Resort' at Pune in India; fifteen minutes flight from Mumbai (formerly Bombay). To quote from the site: "With its white marble pathways, elegant black buildings, abundant foliage and Olympic-sized swimming pool, it is the perfect setting to take time out for yourself." The website offers, amongst other things, continuous broadcasting of his talks. His complete oeuvre, consisting mainly of his dialogues over the years, is online and may be accessed via a search engine for a fee (currently $50 per year).

"God has not created the universe like a poet creates a poem, the relationship is just like a dancer and the dance: they remain one."

A very slick website, this, with a clear eye on commercialism. Books, videos, etc. may be purchased and you can even have a free Tarot reading based on his Zen Tarot pack! The Osho organisation is still active in many countries, though much less in the news since the death of its founder, Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh, aka Osho aka OM.

"Be aware, the one who stands still, in his stillness finds God. The man who runs after God never attains to him because the running is of the mind, and that highest spiritual element can never be obtained by the mind."

He very clearly revelled in his notoriety, quite intentionally going out of his way to upset the establishment in order to expose the false notions at the base of their opinions and beliefs. His daily talks to his followers were recorded and much of the material has now been transcribed into books. Many of these are extremely readable and full of profound and thought-provoking observations, as well as many very funny jokes!

"A tradition is nothing but the footprints of enlightened people in the sands of time - but the footprints are not enlightened."

The Friends of Osho contains links to Osho sites in various locations around the world.

Osho World now has ebooks freely dowloadable of most of Osho's writings. Also many discourses can be heard in realaudio format.

Message From Masters has many sections of quotations and extracts from Osho as well as other spiritual masters from various traditions. There is also an extensive list of recommended books and links to related downloads and to other websites. All of his English language Ebooks are also avialbale for free download in PDF format.

A few discourses may be found here.

There is also a considerable amount of information, links, audio discourses etc. at The Flower.

Many details of his life are provided at this site. These are in English though the rest of the site, which contains extracts from books and talks, is in Polish (?).

Finally (?) Osho Pulse contains articles from several editions of the magazines dedicated to Osho.