What does American Buddha actually mean?  Is it a book about Buddhism?

American Buddha literally means Practical Awakening.  It is not a book about Buddhism.  American Buddha is a book about experiencing the consciousness of a Buddha or a Christ while living comfortably in the western world.  It is a book about Grace, Miracles and Enlightenment.  So we are all potentially “American Buddhas”.

Spiritual people often use the term Enlightenment or Awakening.  What do these terms mean to you?

These are terms to describe an experience that is so extraordinary that language fails to be able to describe it.  Yet, it is so ordinary, that you could be experiencing this state of consciousness and not even know it.  To me, Enlightenment is a state where the “I” sense ceases to exist.  It is a state of eternal freedom.  Enlightenment is the normal state of human functioning and I believe that some sort of neurobiological anomaly is all that is preventing us from permanently experiencing this state.  Because each of our nervous systems are different, there will be six billion completely unique Enlightenments.

You say in your book that our thoughts are not our thoughts, our mind is not our mind and we have no core personality.  Can you explain this to our listeners?

We all commonly experience that, “these are my thoughts.  They came from my mind.  This body, that I am in, is mine as opposed to yours.  And my personality is the unique expression of me.  I oversee and am the core of these thoughts, the core of this mind, body and personality.  They occur within me and they are under my conscious control”.  But the truth is that there is nobody here.  I am not here.  You are not here.  The readers are not here and this planet is completely devoid of individuals.  This mind is not your mind.  It is a universal mind which pipes an endless stream of thoughts whose source could be anything, anywhere.  Your body is not your body.  You are not conscious of repairing your cells or digesting your food or building a baby.  The body has its own intelligence.  This body is part of the body of the universe.  Your personality is not fixed.  Your point of view is in constant motion.  There is no core you.  Or, as I stated in the beginning, there is nobody here.

What is Grace and why do you feel that it is so important to spiritual growth?

Grace enlightens.  Grace is that which transforms ignorance into eternal bliss.  There are many spiritual technologies in this world.  There are many paths but just one goal.  Grace is that Divine quality which shifts us into the goal.  This shift corresponds to an actual shift in the functioning of our brain chemistry, that is, Grace produces a measurable change in the brain.

How do we obtain Grace?  Are there some useful techniques to obtain it?

Grace descends upon us.  We cannot climb to it.  There are ways to obtain Grace.  Prayer is a wonderful way.  Receiving the blessings of the holy is another time honored method.  I personally believe that the “Oneness Blessing” is the most efficient systematic current method of obtaining Divine Grace.

You speak about miracles a lot in your book?  Exactly what is a miracle?  How is Grace related to miracles?

A miracle is a non-logical, unexplainable event which can’t possibly happen but does.  Grace provides the fuel for miracles.

Are miracles related to Enlightenment?

Enlightenment is the ultimate miracle.  I sometimes define Enlightenment as an unbroken string of miracles.

Is Enlightenment a kind of controlled thinking?

Enlightenment is out of the control of thinking.  In Enlightenment, the mind becomes Disengaged from the process of experience.

Is Enlightenment a physical process?

Chemistry and consciousness are one.  We experience through the chemical soup floating in the synaptic cleft between each nerve cell in our brain.  Enlightenment is a soup with perfect ingredients. Only Grace can provide the secret recipe.

You often speak of the worm’s eye view and the bird’s eye view of a problem.  Would you explain their importance to our viewers?

In Enlightenment, there are actually two points of views;  the worm’s eye view and the bird’s eye view.  In our normal consciousness, we are usually working only from the worm’s eye view. In the worms eye view we are constantly taking a position on an issue.  Conversely, in the bird’s eye view, we experience the same issue but in a larger context.  In the birds eye view, all positions are seen as co-created, co-existing expressions of the same experience.  In the Enlightened, the opposing positions of the worm and the coexisting positions of the bird exist as one.

Is the materialistic life in the west opposed to the spiritual paths of the east?

Absolutely not!  The eastern philosophic traditions were primarily interested in an internal path and they put tremendous emphasis on mapping out the internal landscape of Consciousness.  And they did a great job.  These traditions mapped out what I refer to as the territory of Self Realization.  To me, Self Realization is personal Enlightenment.  In Self Realization, one is Enlightened inside but the external world remains untouched by the experience.  But I wish to distinguish Self Realization from God Realization.  God Realization is an advanced version of Self Realization.  In God Realization, ones personal Enlightenment extends out into the physical world.  Most eastern traditions stop short of God Realization.  They are content with the pursuit of a personal fulfillment.  I mean, who wouldn’t be.  But I am here to say that the world needs help and God Realization is an essential step that must be taken by all traditions, both east and west to relieve the suffering of mankind.

Finally, what is your prediction for the future of mankind?

I see our present way of existing changing radically over time.  The values of society will shift to a more compassionate mode.  People will begin to experience life on a deeper level and they will become quiet inside.  Fewer thoughts will result in a marked decrease in wasted personal energy.  Following this shift in mental activity, the population of the earth will spontaneously begin to experience that there is no separation between themselves and their environment.  This singular experience will heal mankind.  It will mark the beginning of the end of suffering.  I am purposely hedging on a specific timeline for this.  All I know for sure is that it will happen.

Do you have any healing stories that you can share with us?

In the course of my work, I have healed many people.  Their problems may have been physical, like a cancer.  They may have been psychological, like a depression.  Their problems may have been existential like, “What is the meaning of life.”  There is a common thread to all of the problems.  All of the individuals with the problems saw themselves as individuals.  That is their true illness.  It is their archetypal dis-ease.  There is a sense of ownership in their illness.  To many, it is sort of a full time occupation.  They go round and round to every treatment specialist trying to heal their suffering.  And even if the suffering goes away, there is this sense of foreboding that it might come back.  Why does the suffering leave?  Simple!  They have released it.  I just set up the conditions that allow them to let go of the suffering.  They are not actually letting go of the suffering, rather, they are letting go of the “I” sense that was holding onto the suffering.  They are no longer allowing the suffering a home.

Today, I healed a lovely woman who was suffering a rare form of blood disease.  As I looked into her eyes, I could see that her life force, which is the energy which animates the body, had begun the process of shutting down.  Her energy had begun its final retreat back to its source.  The time left after the retreat begins is no longer than one year.  Could I change this?  I could ask God to change the outcome but it is her call.  There is a lot going on here than just the needs of the individual.  There is a universe that is creating, maintaining, and destroying all of the time and this process occurs in perfect harmony.  So a change from death to life would entail a Divine intervention.  Even if the request for the change is not accepted there is much to be gained from Healing Grace.  Healing Grace can solve the fundamental problem which caused this birth in the first place.  The death is not the main problem.  The sense of suffering every moment that we are alive is the problem.

So, what is suffering?

My definition is that suffering is not feeling the moment completely.  Suffering happens when we are not completely our pain.  If we were completely in the pain of the moment, we would notice that it contains a joy, a great joy just below the pain.  The joy is very powerful and it actually contains the Healing Grace that is necessary to remedy the pain completely.  But we are all frightened to the intensity of the pain and we yearn to escape it.  Remember, if you can’t withstand the intensity of the pain, then you will not be able to withstand the intensity of the joy that is available to be experienced.  Life is full of pain triggers.  We encounter them all of the time.  I encourage you to make an intent not to avoid them.  The pain triggers are a valuable healing tool and they are also a direct vehicle to higher states of consciousness.  Please know that you did not cause your pain.  The pain exists of itself and is part of a universal hurt that extends back to Adam and Eve.

***