I have been reading Dr Tim Duerden's site and was especially interested in the testimonials from several people about their spiritual path. I have also been reading Arthur Naylor's book called THE GREAT WAY: THE PATH TO ENLIGHTENMENT. What Tim and Arthur have in common is that they lived in Newcastle upon Tyne - I met Tim in Newcastle - although Tim moved to the Greater Manchester area.
I must admit that I haven't read through all of Arthur Naylor's book. Although I have read the Afterword. This takes the form of a testimonial. That's what I am interested in, not the theory or the quotations from former spiritual teachers such as Guru Nanak.
There's something odd about the testimonials on Tim's site. Nine out of the thirteen refer to 'John'. None of them use his surname. None of them use the name Ishvara. Four of them refer to him as their 'Master'. It seems as if the contributors have been told what to say.
The initials of each contributor are used instead of their names. It is easy for me to recognise who they are. Tim Duerden himself, and also Paul Taylor, Paul Mahay, Mark Helston, Ivy Angel and Fiona Placket. If they think that their Path is so wonderful why are they trying to keep their identities secret?
(Actually, to tell you the truth, it would seem to be a good idea to not let people know about an association with John Yarr. I have it on good authority that Paul Taylor was sacked from his job as a teacher in Greater Manchester because they found out he was in a cult.)
Their testimonials confirm that the Lifewave enlightenment is all about seeing everything as part of you. They no longer perceive the world as separate from them. This is how they expressed it:-
- I now know that I am eternal and everywhere
- my being one with everything around me ... I contain everything
- I could see all in me
- everything was within me
- there is only one thing and that one thing is you
- I am infinite without an end to my being and not separate from anything else
- Look at the sky, you are that and more.
- On enlightenment you realize that everything and everywhere is contained within your state.
There is no mention anywhere on Tim's site or in Arthur's book that they were part of an organisation called Lifewave. Nothing to identify 'John' with John Yarr. They want people to be recruited to the Path and it doesn't seem to matter to them that someone might have their children abused because of it.
At the beginning of Arthur Naylor's Afterword he starts by writing that he was in a car with the 'Master' and two other people. In Yorkshire. The Master asked him what he thought of the scenery. It gives the impression that John Yarr was interested in the beauty of nature. This is the first time I had read this, more often people write that he likes pornographic videos.
For example, someone calling himself or herself Jayjay wrote "I have sat in his living room in Leeds and had to sit through pornographic films with him making smutty remarks about women and sex". He or she had written:-
"I maintained a link with Yarr after the awful break up of Lifewave, I still thought that his way was the only way. At the time of the break up, I was never told the truth about child abuse. I knew both the children in question and have to say that they were frightened of this man and certainly did not want to be in his presence, which I found very confusing at the time, seeing as he was the greatest being on earth!! There were so many signs of his depravity. I know of several women who were abused by him but let him get away with it because of fear of him and his henchmen and women. We all of us colluded not to do anything about it, we all pandered to his whims. I have to say this is still going on because he is still brain washing his followers with promises of higher states of awareness."
The 'children in question' were the children that John Yarr was accused of abusing, both physically and sexually. He was accused and charged with raping a seven year old girl, among other things. I'm sure that Arthur Naylor has been to John Yarr's house in Leeds, I have been to it (27A The View Alwoodley). Did he notice the children who were frightened of John Yarr? Perhaps he was only interested in walking around with his Lifewave goggles on - thinking that the scenery is part of him. That must be quite spectacular. Pity it fades out after a while.
It isn't true that everything is part of you. I know that is your perception, but some perceptions are false. How do you know that you are enlightened? Whatever state of consciousness that you achieve, you can never be sure that there isn't something beyond that. They say that if they had been told that Second Initiation is enlightenment they would have believed it. So how do you know that this is the ultimate state? Because John Yarr told you? I don't believe that it is the ultimate state. When you have eliminated the Self forever then you have got to the end.
He says he can talk about enlightenment because he is enlightened. He does not however, in my opinion, have the same state of consciousness as the Buddha. So he's not as much an expert on enlightenment as he thinks he is. They might state that it is beyond the mind, but other people have managed to explain it well enough. The state of consciousness is one thing, what you have chosen to believe about it is another.
Your experience is that everything is part of you. You might interpret that to mean that you are part of a cosmic consciousness, but that is your interpretation. Not your experience. I can just hear you saying "Enlightenment isn't an experience!" To experience something you have to have duality and in enlightenment there is no duality. Don't pretend that you live in nonduality - it is far from being a permanent state.
The state of consciousness found in Lifewave enlightenment is intermittent. That's another thing they don't tell you. Some have said it is permanent, but it is only permanent in one way. Ken Wilber says that the state he calls One Taste doesn't last but in a way you feel that you have never left it.1
If they weren't so cagey about their state of consciousness we could learn under what conditions this state comes and goes. I suspect there are three conditions where it can arise. When they come out of meditation maybe they look around and see everything as part of themselves. When they are sitting quietly in a garden or a park perhaps it can come upon them. Or floating in the sea: Ken Wilber describes this state when he was floating in the sea.1
Maybe there are certain activities that don't require the conscious mind being active, such as driving a car. Learned actions become so routine that they are executed with minimal or no demand on active cognitive resources. Suzanne Segal experienced this state first when she was driving a car. I have seen two other accounts of people experiencing this state while driving.2
What causes the state to end? Perhaps normal mental functioning brings this state to an end.3
Another theme that comes up is the idea that they did not think that they could achieve enlightenment by themselves. Part of this is that they have no accounts of anyone achieving enlightenment except through John Yarr. Arthur Naylor mentions many spiritual teachers but he doesn't mention Suzanne Segal, Ken Wilber or Daniel M Ingram. It seems that he has never heard of them. Most people who decide to follow John Yarr have never heard of them.
Perhaps Arthur Naylor had heard of them but didn't rate them as teachers. Ken Wilber though is a greater intellectual than Arthur Naylor. Another thing he doesn't seem to know about is nondualism, the sort of thing that Sam Harris explains. There are people who believe that enlightenment does not come through many hours of meditation, but comes suddenly.
We know that many people in Lifewave continued to meditate after the cult ceased to exist. Some of them achieved enlightenment, with no contact with John Yarr or any of his Adepts. Some people in Lifewave achieved enlightenment before John Yarr sat them down for enlightenment. He didn't like that. Some people in Lifewave were sat down for enlightenment but despite their best efforts they didn't make it. He didn't like that either.
If someone meditates for many hours a week for years they will get results.4 As long as their meditation is working for them. Everyone is different, for some people it just doesn't work. There's no point just sitting there being bored. You might think that this cannot be, but why do you think that?
John Yarr doesn't enlighten people, he takes the credit for people enlightening themselves. He is not my Master. I would not have someone like him as my master.
NOTES. These are all quotations that don't come from the testimonials of friends of John Yarr, which are not particularly enlightening.
"There is no time in this estate, although time passes through it. Clouds float by in the sky, thoughts float by in the mind, waves float by in the ocean, and I am all of that. I am looking at none of it, for there is no center around which perception is organized. It is simply that everything is arising, moment to moment, and I am all of that. I do not see the sky, I am the sky, which sees itself. I do not feel the ocean, I am the ocean, which feels itself. I do not hear the birds, I am the birds, which hear themselves. There is nothing outside of me, there is nothing inside of me, because there is no me - there is simply all of this, and it has always been so.My ankle hurts from dancing last night, so there is pain, but the pain doesn't hurt me, for there is no me. There is simply pain, and it is arising just like everything else - birds, waves, clouds, thoughts. I am none of them, I am all of them, it's all the same One Taste. This in not a trance, or a lessening of consciousness, but rather an intensification of it - not subconscious but superconscious, not infra-rational but super-rational. There is a crystal-clear awareness of everything that is arising, moment to moment, it's just not happening to anybody. This is not an out-of-the-body experience; I am not looking down; I am not looking at all; and I am not above or below anything - I am everything. There is simply all of this, and I am that.Most of all, One Taste is utter simplicity. With mystical experiences in the subtle and causal, there is often a sense of grandeur, of ominous awesomeness, of numinous overwhelmingness, of light and bliss and beatitude, of gratefulness and tears of joy. But not with One Taste, which is extraordinarily ordinary, and perfectly simple: just this.I stay here, neck deep in water, for three hours. How much of it I spend as ego, as Witness, or as One Taste, I don't know. There is always the sense, with One Taste, that you have never left it, no matter how confused you get, and therefore there is never really the sense that you are entering or leaving it. It is just so, always and forever, even now, and even unto the ends of the world."
"In the midst of a particularly eventful week, I was driving north to meet some friends when I suddenly became aware that I was driving through myself. For years there had been no self at all, yet here on this road, everything was myself, and I was driving through me to arrive at where I already was. In essence, I was going nowhere because I was everywhere already. The infinite emptiness I knew myself to be was now apparent as the infinite substance of everything I saw."
"Travelling in a car was also interesting, especially as a passenger. My body was still, and I was still, but there would be all this scenery moving within the stillness. And I could see that I was already at the end of the road, but my body had to move through me to get to where I already was."
“As I drove over the top of a hill my whole consciousness and sense of self exploded and became everything I could see. I clearly remember looking at the trees, the road, the other cars, the fields and the sky…each in turn was pulsating with a kind of light that made everything brand new. In that sense there was no difference between any of the objects I gazed at.I began to laugh to myself because I realised that although I was in a car speeding down the road, I was going nowhere. I was moving but paradoxically this energy that pervaded all that I was aware of, never moved. There was light emanating from all these objects and each one demonstrated, what could best be described as, a heavenly glow.The experience/awakening lasted the rest of the afternoon and evening. This was the proof I needed to realise that there was far more to existence and human consciousness than we are generally led to believe.By the way, in case you were wondering, I wasn’t on drugs, I have never been tempted!”
"Enlightened people will often talk about Oneness and give the impression that they are constantly aware of it. This has to be completely false! All it takes is a thought, a feeling or a sensory impulse which are manifestations of duality to interrupt the State. So by the fact they are talking to you means that their awareness is limited. They might say, “Yes but although I am not aware of the Oneness right now, that is what I am because of Enlightenment."
"After some time in the thought-free state, my awareness expanded. I became my entire surroundings!I was the bed, I was the closet, I was the door, I was the air. I was everything! I felt like I was awake for the first time in my life! I thought, How could I ever have mistaken myself to be that little body and that little mind?"
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