672. Rick Archer Interviewed by Angelo Dilullo

 I was interviewed by Angelo Dilullo, who has been on BatGap. Angelo's: BatGap interview YouTube Channel Points discussed: My spiritual history. The TM program The importance of integration and stabilization on the spiritual path. The value of spiritual development in unfolding our full potential. About Amma (Mata Amritanandamayi) The masculine and feminine aspects of spirituality. Compassion, kindness, generosity, and such qualities as expressions of holistic spiritual development. The Association for Spiritual Integrity and the importance of ethics on the spiritual path. What is the best spiritual practice? Are there any detrimental practices? (Psychedelics? Neo-Advaita?) Harmful teachers? The qualifications for being a spiritual teacher and the importance of discerning between qualified and unqualified teachers. The importance of humility and genuineness in teachers. We all have different roles to play. Awakened people aren’t necessarily teachers and don’t necessarily use spiritual terminology. The relevance of channeling, mediumship, etc. to spirituality. Different dimensions of reality. “God” as an unbounded self-interacting ocean of consciousness. We are characters with some improvisational latitude in the Divine Play. The playwright has our best interest in mind. Staying aligned with the Divine “stream”. Trusting your instincts. Global problems are symptomatic of the quality of collective consciousness which is trending toward awakening, perhaps as a response to the dire nature of these problems. The cumulative nature of spiritual practice. Recommended books. The importance of where you put your attention. The complimentary relationship between knowledge and experience. The importance of taking the first step on the spiritual path, and one thing will lead to the next. Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group Summary and transcript of this interview Interview recorded December 20, 2022 Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.

Om Podcasten

The implication of the title - Buddha at the Gas Pump - is that ordinary people are experiencing higher states of consciousness once thought to be rare and difficult to attain. People everywhere are undergoing a shift or awakening to their true nature. For some, this shift has been abrupt and dramatic. For others, it has been so gradual that they may not have realized it has occurred. Such shifts, or awakenings, are not new: Christ spoke of the Kingdom of Heaven within, Buddhists speak of Nirvana, Zen masters of Satori, Hindus of Moksha, but these traditions generally regard these states as rare and difficult to attain. Many people are therefore skeptical of claims of higher states of consciousness. They find it hard to believe that apparently ordinary friends and neighbors might be experiencing something extraordinary. Maybe they expect Enlightenment to look as remarkable on the outside as it is reputed to be on the inside. This show will attempt to dispel skepticism and misconceptions by week after week, allowing otherwise ordinary people to relate their experience of spiritual awakening. The terminology is tricky, because there are no universally agreed upon definitions to describe this experience. So please forgive us if we use some unfamiliar terms. We will try to clarify our definitions as we go along. Perhaps, after a while, those listening will become convinced that genuine and permanent spiritual awakenings are not just a pipe dream, but are real and are becoming relatively commonplace. These podcasts are the audio track of a weekly interview show which may be seen as videos on our YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/buddhaatthegaspump). Also see the main site: https://batgap.com. For search purposes, I will add the following to this description - batgap, Buddha at the Gaspump, Buddah at the Gas Pump.