Astus wrote:Indeed, it is his straightforward manner of teaching that grabbed me in the first place. It is difficult to find teachers who don't just repeat the common terminology all the time. Perhaps it is also an advantage that he can teach directly in his native tongue, thus breaking down those cultural and linguistic difficulties.
Agreed, I think any nondual teaching can be a great supplement to ones understanding and some teachers are definitely more clear than others. There might be an aspect of Buddhist teachings whether dzogchen, mahamudra etc that could seem unclear that can all of a sudden click by hearing someone put it a different way. Using the teachings as a tool and being able to implement various tools for the job is key, in my eyes.
Other good teachers who helped me are
Tony Parsons
Jeff Foster
Adyashanti
Greg Goode
Scott Kiloby
Rupert Spira
Nisargadatta Maharaj
Ramana Maharshi
Ramesh Balsekar
Atmananda Krishna Menon
I took bits and pieces of everything they say and found the correlations within buddhism and dzogchen and the traditional texts and teachings and then came at it from the position of Buddhism and dzogchen in the sense of what does it say about what these other teachers are saying.. How does it critique their views.. Do they mesh... What works.. What doesn't work. And it's helped my view and experience tremendously.
It's wild, even so called "advaita" teachers like nisargadatta for example; his advice for practice is the exact same as the dzogchen method of being present at all times. He just uses different terms like "staying in the I AM" and he says forget Brahman and all that, it's useless.
It's interesting stuff.