Robert Rabbin - Buddha at the Gas Pump Interview

Chapters:
00:00:00 - Introduction to Buddha at the Gas Pump
00:06:15 - A Journey Through Education
00:10:50 - Adventures in Watershed Management
00:14:12 - A Journey to India
00:18:11 - Healing and Meeting Baba
00:21:24 - An Encounter with Baba at the Ashram
00:25:24 - Shaktipat Experience and Leaving the Ashram
00:29:21 - Stories of Gurudev and Maharishi
00:33:32 - The Mechanics of Creation
00:37:26 - Reverence for the Body
00:41:09 - Living in Perpetual Astonishment
00:45:41 - Profound Transformative Experience
00:49:41 - The Ashram Experience and Letters to Mother
00:53:49 - Lessons from Cutting Carrots
00:57:39 - Managing Other People's Money
01:01:36 - Acknowledging Devotion and Contribution
01:06:18 - The Significance of Human Feelings and Worth
01:11:13 - Transitioning into Political Activism
01:14:45 - Personal Reflection on Attending an Orgy
01:19:36 - Fear of Being Found Out
01:23:31 - The Terrifying Immensity of Muktananda
01:27:21 - Inner Growth and Making a Positive Difference
01:31:30 - Personalization and Open-mindedness
01:35:40 - The Experience of Silence, Shakti, and Action
01:40:46 - Pony Rides to Oblivion
01:47:03 - The Experience of Silence and Language Collapse
01:53:40 - The Source of Questions and Language in Spiritual Path
02:01:08 - Speaking your Inner Truth
02:10:40 - The Five Principles: Be Present, Pay Attention, Listen Deeply, Speak Truthfully, Act Creatively
02:19:08 - Following the Path of Mastery
02:26:42 - Supporting the interview series

Robert was struck by a strong curiosity about life when he was 11, which propelled him into years of globe-trotting adventures. In 1973, Robert met Swami Muktananda and spent the next 10 years studying with him. Since 1985, Robert's professional motto has been Have Mouth, Will Travel, and he is known as an iconoclastic self-awareness facilitator, speaker, leadership adviser, and mentor to people from all walks of life. He is currently available to lead "Conversations on the High Wire" and to present programs in "The 5 Principles of Authentic Living" and "Speaking Truthfully."

Robert has published eight books and more than 250 articles on the themes of meditation, self-inquiry, leadership, authentic living and speaking, and spiritual activism. In the early 1990s, he wrote a pioneering column for The New Leaders executive newsletter entitled “The Corporate Mystic." He contributed original essays to three leading-edge anthologies and was interviewed for The Awakening West, a collection of conversations with contemporary Western wisdom teachers.

His résumé of speaking engagements includes more than 350 of his distinctive inquiry-based seminars, and talks to such organizations as State of the World Forum, California Institute of Integral Studies, Institute of Noetic Sciences, International Conference on Enlightenment, Inner Directions Conference, and International Coach Federation.

In January of 2012, he was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer and told he had nine months to live. However, consistent with his contrarian nature , he is still alive and kicking it in Los Angeles.

Books:

The 5 Principles of Authentic Living: How to Live an Authentic Life in 10 Words
Sound Bites from Silence: Scouting Reports from the Frontier of Consciousness
Speak Truthfully: Speak Your Way to an Authentic Life with Awareness, Courage, and Confidence
Invisible Leadership: Igniting the Soul at Work
The Sacred Hub
RealTime Speaking: YOU Are the Message!
Radical Wisdom: Living from Silence while Rocking the World

Interview recorded 8/1/2015

[sandrarabbin]

What a wonderful conversation! I have been on my spiritual journey for 15 years, always open to hearing what others have to share. There is nobody that peaks my interest or causes me to ask more questions, than Robert. I find his speaking manner to be quite unique and I greatly appreciate his humor as well as his wisdom. Well done Rick on having Robert as a guest.

[ivy.lee.ivana.]

Very lively and modern (in a sense of beautiful openess)... Like a fresh breeze. Reminded me of Alan Watts. Thank you!

[LaurenDelsackAstrologer]

Thank you Robert for sharing with a great sense of humor, and recognition that one's beliefs govern one's experiences, and giving no power to anything external to one's self in the outer world. There is only one power, the Invisible Divine Source. Seek the Kingdom within. Without practice, how can you learn to play the piano? ;-)

[jaimeo]

How could this guy be single? He's delightful. Thanks for keen insight and wise words.

[Callmeoldfashionedshop]

Awesome interview! Love me some BATGAP. Thanks for all you do, and for helping me on my journey!

[beerman]

Robert is super in my opinion. The variety of his life experiences and hard earned insights and sense of humor and his way of dealing with serious illness all suggest a very worthy traveler on his own creative path...

[mimisapphire]

A wonderful interview, thank you to you both.  Listening to this brought to mind one of my favourite songs  "The Whole of the Moon" by 'The Waterboys".  Mike Smith's brilliant, spiritual, lyrics make me think of Robert!

[hansmenck]

I like what Robert said about the electotial process. Well done for doing that!

[kwixotic]

I found this to be one of those more rare instances in which I was somehow "hooked" by what Robt. was may have been the manner in which he said it as much as what he actually said.  And he certainly responded quite perceptively to Richard's own perceptive commentary.

[MichaelMaitri]

One thing I would like to point out is ~ If we go beyond our beliefs ~ We then realize that we are not a who but a “ What “ ~ In order to describe “ What “ we are ~ We need to use words that describe all of the elements that make up the “ What “ ~ We would then run out of words because are language is limited and the “ What “ we are trying to describe is infinite ~

[MichaelMaitri]

One thing I would like to point out is ~ A master would never try to manipulate you ~ By showing up in your dreams ~ It is the student that is sub consciously tuning into the masters energy ~ I once saw a picture of “ Red Tara “ ~ At the time I didn’t know anything about “ Red Tara “ nor did I care to ~ But every time I tried to meditate after seeing the picture “ Red Tara “  kept showing up in my head ~  I would close my eyes during meditation and “ Red Tara “ would bounce around in my head like a giant screen saver ~ I then decided to do some research into “ Red Tara “ and noticed that I had a strong identification with her ~ It was this strong sub conscious identification with her that made her appear ~

[creativezebra]

Left at 23.6 where he starts to get into miracles.

[TransferOfAwakening]

Without clearly recognizing, understanding and describing who you truly are - all talks of "progress", "refinement", awakening, oneness and enlightenment are just imaginations. 

Who you truly are?

Right now - in this very moment - without relying on your thoughts or memory - without relying on what you have read or heard - who you truly are?

Close your eyes. Experience and feel deep within you - without thoughts and memory - feel - who I am - experience - who I am. All the "ideas" about awakening, progress, enlightenment, liberation, reincarnation can only be understood by first trull realizing - who you are - right in this moment - without your thoughts - without your memory.

[stevenvictordaigle]

Caught, In a Thought Sream? What value, will it bring? Depends, on the quality of infoformation precieved, and the ability ro act on it.

[stevenvictordaigle]

Of course, your the Wave, bur not only the Wave, you are also the Ocean, simultaneously. Ya, You. Metaphorically, of course. For those indivduals unable to precieve directly, which is most, for now. No Condescension, meant or implied. I am from the One, so are You. We each pass energies through are Flesh/Mind/Experience, Filters. Producing our perceived, Reality. Our ability to adapt and change/grow is near endlessness, for sure.

[TheSoteriologist]

A *2.2 on the new -3 to +3 scale. Disclaimers at the end of the comment.*

Very nice interview with a very mature, pleasant, modest, humorous and interesting guest. Too tired to say much else. The extra 0.2 points due to cosmologically relevant originality somewhere in there even if just negatingly so.

_About the rating: anything below and including 0 means by and large a waste of time, and anything below 0 is not only worthless but damaging to the world. For comparison, on that scale, Francis Bennett would be a +2 or more and Harri Aalto would be roughly a tentative +2 to +2.5. Not coming up with original, independent cosmological insights bans any interviewee from > 2.0 ratings as a matter of principle._ *General Disclaimer:* the rating _pertains to an interview, not to the interviewee_. If the rating is high it means merely and exclusively that I consider the interview to be of high value relative to the stated purpose of the channel, and that it is therefore no waste of time to listen to the interview. It would _not_ imply that whatever the interviewee speaks is the truth (as if I was the arbiter over that) or that you should follow him/her or accept whatever that person offers. _That is particularly in need of emphasis if that would be an expensive enterprise_ !

[jazzsnare]

[What is that annoying sound each time the screen changes? Jeesh. We can see the change: no need for stupid sounds, please.] Now for the interview. My first thought is that I wish he said more about the "immensity" of Muktananda; the metaphor of the burning bush just didn't do it for me, without more elaboration. The interview for me came alive in the exchange near the end where they discuss their own experiences and thoughts about silence. I have some reservations about the issue of when one has transcended a question as opposed to having given up and saying it has been transcended. that is an area for more discernment, I think. We can even call not-knowing a type of knowingness, like many people do, but at what point are we kidding ourselves and calling ignorance wisdom?
What strikes me also is how little anyone knows. No one ever shares with us how manifestation arises from the Silence; that's something I would really like to know. If the Silence is so damn full, why is there any need for manifestation? Is there anyone who ever really turned things upside down, and identified with the ocean rather than the wave ... to the point of not identifying with the wave? by that I mean, we can all say we identify with the ocean, but what good is that if it can't cut the mustard when it counts, say like when that woman in Japan fell into the workings of an escalator and it took four hours to get what was left of her out? Does anyone realize the Self, realize the ocean, to the point that it would make a difference in that situation, or any horror, like being thrown in a tiny dungeon, or being tortured? I am not sure how deeply any one of us, including the speaker has reached. Our imaginations in meditation or riding the pony or whatever are not the same as meeting these criteria.
In sum, all these gurus are always saying they are beyond it all, and they always are found to be having sex with their devotees and taking their money in the end, not to be cynical or anything. Is it even possible to get beyond embodiment and be the Silence or the ocean or the Absolute, and how come the realizer always remains identified with his own body, and not that of all bodies, once he is the ocean anyway? Why would he only possess, or be possessed by, that body-mind, and not all equally? I need some real wisdom, if such even exists, which at this point I very much doubt.

[TransferOfAwakening]

... Breathing out Meditation ...

Pay attention…

...each time… you breathe out… ...try to think…

Do it for about three minutes…

...report back...

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[TransferOfAwakening]

The real question is:

Are you the creator - the dreamer - of your dream or, are just a dream character trapped in the dream that you yourself create and sustain?

Answer that question and you are done.