Aziz (Anadi) Kristof

Hey Everybody,

A friend just told me about an Advaita teacher named Anadi (formerly Aziz Kristof). I've listened to several of his talks today, free for download at his website, and I think he is excellent. Highly recommended.

www.anaditeaching.com/guidedmeditations.htm

Check out this one:

www.anaditeaching.com/rec/The%20Birth%20...0the%20Universal.mp3

Notice that there isn't just one way to talk about this or just one way to model it. Different teachers will emphasize different aspects of awakening, define words differently, and draw different conclusions. The important thing is the pointing. By talking about it aloud, we point for each other and help each other to directly apprehend what is truer than our thoughts.

May you be happy.

Kenneth

Thanks for sharing this, Kenneth. I am not well versed in the pure Advaita Vedanta technologies of awakening, so this talk was eye-opening (as was the literature featured on his website).

I'm hoping that I get to interact and dialogue with more individuals whose primary practice and view come from the Advaita perspective. Perhaps your forum will attract such people. I sincerely hope that it does.

Hi, Kenneth. Thanks for starting this site. I'd love to listen to these recordings and I have an additional question: if I wanted to learn more about the Advaita teachings (I'm ignorant as yet) would you recommend any specific web sites or books beyond these talks?

Thanks!

-Chris

"If I wanted to learn more about the Advaita teachings (I'm ignorant as yet) would you recommend any specific web sites or books beyond these talks?

Thanks!

-Chris

"

Hi Chris,

My favorite meditation manual is *Be As You Are: The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi* edited by David Godman. It's my top candidate for the "if I were on a desert island and only had one book" list. It's endlessly profound and every time I open it I'm glad I did.

Along with Ramana, the other heavyweight in the division is Nasargadatta, whose *I Am That* is one of the must-read classics in the field. Another of my favorites, although much less well known, is Jean Klein. Anything by him is great as he was such a clear communicator. He spoke French, but there are English translations of some of his teachings on the web.

Here is a quote from Jean Klein:

"When we consider the knower, independently from what is known, it reveals itself as pure witness. When knowing and knower are not-two, there is no place for a witness." -Jean Klein (my translation)

This is a concise summary of the entire advaita program. By becoming absorbed in the pure witness, or "I AM", you eventually break down even that subtle duality, leaving only pure non-local awareness. This is the only true happiness. This rigpa or "clear light" is also the irreducible Reality taught by the Dzogchen masters. It is awakeness.

(cont)

(cont)

When this pure awareness knows itself, there is no witness. Awareness is self-aware, and the entire universe arises from and is not other than awareness in this instant.

"A moment will arrive when you find yourself in the observation itself, and not in the mind. Then, when all tension has disappeared, you will realize that you are the light that shines beyond the observer." -Jean Klein (my trans.)

Notice, again, the two-step program; first, be the witness, the pure subject, without an object. The question "Who am I?" leads to the pure witness experience. Become absorbed in the witness during every waking hour of your life. See if you can carry it even into sleep. Next, part two: even the pure witness has dissolved. You don't have to create this. It happens automatically, as a result of dwelling as the witness. We can't predict how long it will take for any individual, only that it will happen if one follows the instructions. When the witness dissolves into non-duality, there is only awareness, knowing itself, complete--and within it, the universe. This is the only enlightenment worthy of the name. When you see this, no king can rule you and the Buddha stares back at you from the mirror.

""A friend just told me about an Advaita teacher named Anadi (formerly Aziz Kristof). I've listened to several of his talks today, free for download at his website, and I think he is excellent. Highly recommended."
"


Getting back to Anadi, I should mention that even if he uses his own Western Advaita jargon (mostly based on Nisargadatta Maharaj's terminology ), he mainly trained in Korean and Japanese Zen monasteries. What he calls "state of presence" is our "pure witness experience". What I find interesting is that he gives very precise instructions to find it and manage it energetically in order to ground the energy that tends to rise to the head area during self-inquiry practice.

His good advice to find the pure witness experience and to make sure we are not mistaking it for a state of concentration is to think the thought 'I AM' slowly, a bit like a mantra. Then to look for the observer of the thought 'I AM'. This allows us to realize also that the real 'I AM' (namely the pure witness experience) is detached from the thought 'I AM'. Thoughts cannot erase or disturb the pure witnessing experience.

Once established in this state, one is just to relax in this pure witness experience (with light abdominal breathing to ground the energy). It then becomes pure 'just sitting' or Shikantaza. For Anadi, it is awareness that is just sitting - relaxing into its own unborn source. The seated posture is convenient but not necessary.

This method is central in the Zen tradition. For instance, in his general instructions for Zazen (Fukanzazengi) Eihei Dogen instructs one to "learn the backward step that turns the light [of awareness] inwardly to illuminate its source, body and mind naturally drop off, and the original face appears'. However, since Western as well as Asian Soto Zen monasteries have become huge mushroom factories, no one seems to insist on this important point anymore.

Alex

Hey Kenneth and all!

Off to a great start! I'm very pleased to see this new forum - great work Kenneth! Aziz is great. Some find him a little wordy.

For those interested, check out Ed. Another authentic living enlightened adept. Very profound. Very approachable. An academically trained philosopher and clinical psychologist. With a few decades of retreat experience. The kind of awakening that is profound in the extreme. And Kenneth, he agrees with you. Happiness ought to be found as a base-line presenting as evidence in progress of effective meditation in ever deeper realization of our essential nature. Enjoy!

itisnotreal.com/

In kind regards,

Adam.

"Getting back to Anadi, I should mention that even if he uses his own Western Advaita jargon (mostly based on Nisargadatta Maharaj's terminology ), he mainly trained in Korean and Japanese Zen monasteries. What he calls "state of presence" is our "pure witness experience". -Alex"

Thanks, Alex, for this summary and clarification of Anadi's teaching. It's fitting that it should come from you as it was you who introduced me to Anadi earlier this week!

Here again, we see the two-step program advocated by Ramana, Nisargadatta, and Klein: 1)Identify and dwell as the witness until it dissolves. 2) Rest in the non-dual awareness.

1) "Once established in this [witnessing] state, one is just to relax in this pure witness experience (with light abdominal breathing to ground the energy)."-Alex

2) "It then becomes pure 'just sitting' or Shikantaza." -Alex

As you point out, Anadi is synthesizing Zen and Advaita terminology, which is not surprising given his background. It's gratifying to see, once we decode the bewildering array of vocabulary used by non-dual teachers, that these teachers are remarkably consistent in their main points. We are to identify a reality that is prior to or upstream from our thoughts. Then we are to surrender to it.

I also like the way you tie it together with Dogen Zenji. And if we look at the Tibetan Dzogchen teachings, we see that the rigpa they point to is none other than Anadi's "divine shikantaza." I can only guess that Anadi adds the word "divine" in order to distinguish recognition of primordial awareness from some of the looser meanings of "shikantaza," which can include sitting around aimlessly, trying desperately not to think--an altogether futile exercise, at best.

Kenneth

"For those interested, check out Ed. Another authentic living enlightened adept. Very profound. Very approachable. -Adam"

Welcome, Adam, and thanks for the link! I'd not heard of Ed before. I took a quick look at his website just now and was delighted to find this:

"In fact, there is no looking within. Within and without only arise with thoughts which are the world which create the conceptual duality of within and without. There is no beyond either, as the concept implies the opposite of not-beyond, or here. You are neither beyond, nor not-beyond. You are not real or unreal. You are not mortal or immortal, because immortal implies eternal presence or existence. You have nothing to do with either. You are beyond all measures, beyond all dualities and opposites, beyond even the concept of beyond, beyond freedom and enlightenment. This you must grasp at some point." -Ed

As my friend Chris Marti once said, "All I can say is 'ha'!"

Kenneth

Thank you Adam for this interesting link.

I see that many like Anadi or Adyashanti started with Zen Buddhism to end with a form of neo-Advaita. The problem with that is that they tend to create their own new tradition that is neither Vedanta nor Buddhism. The risk in then to fall into a form of New Age mysticism.

Zen, Mahamudra and Dzogchen are based or related to Yogachara Buddhism. Interestingly Shankaracharya borrowed a lot from Yogachara Buddhism to revive the Hinduism Vedanta, creating what we know as Advaita Vedanta. I therefore think that Buddhists interested in Advaita Vedanta should take a look at Yogachara. This would give them a firm coherent doctrinal base to integrate Theravada Vipassana with self-inquiry and non-dual practices. Since Yogachara is based on Abhidharma, the two integrate very well, provided that one accepts the idea of a 7th and 8th Vijnana (within the Consciousness Aggregate). A good start might be to read the "The Awakening of Faith Shastra", a short but major treaty that was quoted by most Tang and Song Dynasty Zen masters. The impressive synthesis of the Chinese Zen and Huayen master/scholar Zongmi is actually based on the Awakening of Faith. The Koran master Chinul was a great fan is Zongmi. Interestingly, those who have read "Tracing Back the Radiance" collecting three important texts written by Chinul with find that he also divided Zen practice into 3 gears: Samatha-Vipassana, Koans and self-investigation, and pure objectless meditation expressing the total essence and function of the Mind.

Hi Alex!

Thanks for the very interesting reply. I follow your argument concerning the link between various traditions and Yogachara Buddhism. I think on your advice, I will re-visit Yogachara Buddhism myself, and take a closer look. Good stuff, thanks for that!

The important thing, I think, is after years and years of genuine and sincere practice in a legitimate tradition of one kind or another, that realizations will eventually arise, and it will then be time to take the training wheels off and stand on your on two feet - autonomous and independent of thought and realization, yet supported by personal realization and connection with past and present practice; and 'traditional' understandings giving context to your personal realization. Keeping in mind tradition is not truth itself, that is something we must realize for ourselves.

Thanks for sharing!

In kind regards,

Adam.

Hi Alex,

Thanks for the tip about *The Awakening of Faith Shastra.* I haven't yet read it, but look forward to it.

Very astute observation about the similarity of my teaching and that of Chinul; several years ago I set out to restate Chinul in modern language and in my own words. His teaching, as presented in *Tracing Back the Radience: Chinul's Korean Way of Zen* (ed. Buswell) was very influential for me in forming a holistic view of enlightenment. Even more important, Chinul's advice to trace back the radiance of your own mind to its source was instrumental in my own awakening. That one pithy phrase is a powerful meditation instruction. There is a passage in "Radiance" that opened a door for me when I first read it in 2003:

"There are many points at which to enter the noumenon. I will indicate one approach which will allow you to return to the source.

Chinul: Do you hear the sounds of that crow cawing and that magpie calling?
Student: Yes.
Chinul: Trace them back and listen to your hearing-nature. Do you hear any sounds?
Student: At that place, sounds and discriminations do not obtain.
Chinul: Marvelous! Marvelous! This is Avalokitesvara's method for entering the noumenon. Let me ask you again. You said that sounds and discriminations do not obtain at that place. But since they do not obtain, isn't the hearing-nature just empty space at such a time?
Student: Originally it is not empty. It is always bright and never obscured.
Chinul: What is this essence which is not empty?
Student: As it has no former shape, words cannot describe it.

"This is the life force of all the Buddhas and patriarchs--have no further doubts about that" (p. 104, *Tracing Back the Radiance: Chinul's Korean Way of Zen*, ed. Buswell, Univ. of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1991).

Highly recommended for those who don't yet know Chinul!

"The important thing, I think, is after years and years of genuine and sincere practice in a legitimate tradition of one kind or another, that realizations will eventually arise, and it will then be time to take the training wheels off and stand on your on two feet - autonomous and independent of thought and realization, yet supported by personal realization and connection with past and present practice; and 'traditional' understandings giving context to your personal realization. Keeping in mind tradition is not truth itself, that is something we must realize for ourselves. -Adam"

I agree with your assessment, Adam. There are great scholars who faithfully reproduce the old texts, and I believe we are all in their debt. At the same time, I think those who have seen deeply into the nature of things have a responsibility to synthesize the various teachings as they understand them and add their personal observations to the mix. This keeps the dharma alive and makes it more accessible to each new generation.

I do worry about those who awaken spontaneously or with very little grounding in tradition, as they have great potential to confuse, mislead, or even deliberately take advantage of others; so, there is an important interplay between traditional teachings and direct experiential knowledge. Alex's point about New Age Mysticism is well-taken; Eckhard Tolle, for example, whose enlightenment I do not doubt, has nonetheless drawn what I consider to be questionable conclusions about the future of humanity and the Earth. I would like to believe that if he had come to his awakening within a contemplative tradition, he would not be so quick to sell what I consider to be feel-good fantasy (in addition to the excellent instructions he gives on how to awaken). On the other hand, I don't know that; he might have gone this way anyway, depending on his personal proclivities. A third possibility is that we really are headed for a New Earth!

Hi Adam,

Glad you found it interesting. I have a friend who is both an advanced Zen practitioner and deep Buddhist scholar who introduced me to classic Chinese Buddhism 12 years ago. I then discovered a whole new universe that I still find absolutely amazing. And I think that this is the great thing about a living tradition: each great yogi adds his contribution, to the edifice, explaining the same truth from different angles and perspectives.

Of course, traditions and systems are only maps and words can only point to the moon. But they are nevertheless necessary, since the path is not always smooth. If we take the example of vipassana, I don't think that one could complete the path without a map telling what to expect at what stage of practice. Even the Buddha relied on the Indian yoga tradition before adding his own contribution to the edifice (even if his disciples eventually created a new religion).

I noticed also that traditions build a connection between past and present practitioners. I have read and heard of many great Tibetan or Chinese Buddhists received advice and teachings from past masters through dreams and visions. I guess it also happens in Burma, Thailand or Sri Lanka.

Seeing the high level of accomplishment of Western Buddhists like Daniel or Kenneth, I have hope that there we will one day be able to contribute to the creation of a serious Western tradition (not like the I'm ok you're ok pop Buddhism that I see everywhere).

Just a few thoughts'¦

Kind regards,

Alex

Thank you Kenneth for the very good illustration of the point I was trying to make. I guess we all agree.

Getting back to Anadi, I regret his strange vocabulary but I find his technical analysis of non-dual practice very deep and practical. What he calls divine shikantaza integrates three forms of awakening. What he calls awakening is a sudden shift of identity. First to pure awareness, then to the unborn source of phenomena, finally to the "divine" dimension of the heart. These three dimensions integrate as Sat-Cit-Ananda (the opposite of Anicca-Dukkha-Anatta). Abiding in this pure state is what he calls divine shikantaza.

What is interesting here is to realize that returning awareness back to itself can produce a sudden shift of identity where everything becomes a display of pure awareness. Anadi Kristof considers that many Avaita teachers only reached this first stage. However, Nirvana or Huineng non-abiding mind lies at the source of consciousness, beyond consciousness (which is still a aggregate, namely Vijnana Skandha). Consciousness cannot reach its own source through willpower or effort. It must ultimately surrender to the great mystery and go through the Great Death. Self-inquiry stops and we move towards what Kenneth calls the 3rd gear.

"What is interesting here is to realize that returning awareness back to itself can produce a sudden shift of identity where everything becomes a display of pure awareness. Anadi Kristof considers that many Avaita teachers only reached this first stage. However, Nirvana or Huineng non-abiding mind lies at the source of consciousness, beyond consciousness (which is still a aggregate, namely Vijnana Skandha). Consciousness cannot reach its own source through willpower or effort. It must ultimately surrender to the great mystery and go through the Great Death. Self-inquiry stops and we move towards what Kenneth calls the 3rd gear.





"

Hi Alex,

This is good stuff.

Surrender is definitely a necessary component to awakening. The decision to take the illusion of a separate self head-on feels a lot like a preparation to walk into on-coming traffic. You know that "you" will likely die. That's the surrender moment: you allow Wisdom to expose the root of the illusion so it can be expelled.

If it weren't for the testimony of others who went through this process and came out enlightened, I don't think we would have the courage to go through with it. A major component to surrender, I think, is a good measure of trust: trust in our teachers, trust in the process, trust in the Truth itself.

To get back on topic, I think this is where the Advaita Vedanta teachers may be especially skillful. The teaching is presented in such a way that it appears to be trustworthy, and that can be a powerful catalyst for the awakenings of their students.

Thoughts?
~Jackson

Hi Jackson,

I fully agree with you. Trust, surrender and courage are required.
Some Advaita masters like Rama Maharishi did not have a teacher, but they had an unshakable faith in Shiva and were ready to die in the process (Ramana awakened when he was 17 and thought or imagined that he was dying).
In this tradition, some form of energy transfer (shaktipat) is also used to give a push to the student. Awakening is therefore an act of grace (guru kripa). One must however be cautious with the neo-satsang culture that seems to degenerate these days.

Here is the link to an interesting article written by Aziz Kristof on the "Dangers of pseudo-Advaita" that you might find interesting:

www.raysender.com/anadi-advaita%20dangers.html

Christopher Titmuss seems to share this concern in an article echoing Kenneth's above comments:

www.dharmafacilitators.org/index.php/welcome/eng/now

I would suggest to those interested by Advaita Vedanta to study Shankaracharya (reformer of Vedanta and founder of the Advaita Vedanta tradition) as well as "Man and his becoming according to the Vedanta" by Rene Guenon.

Best,

Alex

Hey Alex,

That article by Anadi ("The Dangers of Pseudo-Advaita") was fantastic! He really drives it home near the end'¦

We would like also to create a few practical anti-pseudo-advaita statements:
"You are not awakened unless you awaken.''
"You are not That, unless you reach unity with the Absolute Reality."
"There is no path, but only for those who completed it."
"There is nobody here, but only when the somebody has dissolved."

The last one is especially relevant, I think. Just believing that there is no self, or knowing "there's no self" at the rational or intellectual level, doesn't mean that the fundamental delusion has vanished.

Thanks for the link.
~Jackson

A great Zen master asked one of his monks, '˜Can you get hold of emptiness?' '˜I'll try', said the monk and he cupped his hands in the air. '˜That's not very good' said the master, '˜you haven't got anything in there'. '˜Well, master', said the monk, '˜please show me a better way'. Thereupon the master seized the monk's nose and gave it a good tweak. '˜Ouch', said the monk, '˜that hurt!' '˜That's the way to get hold of emptiness', said the master.

I take the liberty to get back to the first thread posted on this forum, because it addresses one of the most problematic issue that we have discussed lately, namely the relationship between Rigpa and Emptiness as described in Daniel Ingram's book in the chapter "was that emptiness?".

If Aziz was in his heart a disciple of the Advaita Vedanta teacher Nisargadatta Maharaj whom he never met, he mainly studied Dzogchen, Mahamudra, Zen and Sufism. As a matter of fact, his most active years of form training took part in Korean and Japanese Zen monasteries.

In a Buddhist environment, the fact that awareness is only one of the five aggregates and therefore not Nirvana did puzzle him for years until he realized how one lead to the other.

Hereafter is a link to a good summary of Aziz Kritof's system:

myanalyses.com/aziz.html

As you will see, he does address this topic in an interesting manner.

Hey everyone!
So after giving that last link a quick read Aelx it looks like Aziz's three-fold enlightenment integrates physioenergetic experiences from three traditions: Presence = Advaitic witnissing/ ajna chackra; the Absolute = Shikantaza as grounded through the hara; and the Heart of course is a sort of Sufi take on the heart chakra as the center of the Personal individuation of the Absolute Ground.
That's a lovely teaching but one thing which concerns me is a throwing around of the word Rigpa, particularly if the equation of Presence and the Witness earlier on this thread is accurate (seems to be!) and the further equation of Presence and Rigpa on the link you just gave accurately reflects Aziz's teaching. If these equations are accurate, then the word Rigpa has just been used to refer to the Witness which is simply false. The Witness is the eighth vijnana, not Rigpa. Dzogchen could be looked at as an ontological critique of epistemological Yogachara; it specifically critiques mahayana doctrines of awakening as involving a transformation or conversion of the eighth consciousness.
That's not to say that the Tibetans aren't confused about this too, they clearly are. Partly to blame is the conflation of Completion Stage in the Tantric System and Great Completion, i.e., Dzogchen and the conflation of Madhyamika, Mahamudra and Dzogchen by many contemporary teachers. All of this can be traced through the history of the Early and Later translations in Tibet and the social effects of the accompanying shifts in institutional power-- i.e, the coming to power of a monastic (non)theocracy!
Why does it matter? Because it can confuse people and turn them off! Especially since from what I can see Aziz is offering a real non-dual teaching which allows for the Personal individuation of the Absolute. In my opinion, that's where post-Axial spirituality is at.

In the latter connection, if you guys aren't familier with it have you checked out the Diamond Approach of A.H. Almaas? Also relevent to this conversation might be Adi Da; I don't think I've heard anyone mention him on this site yet but surely some are familier with his teachings? The distinction between three kinds of realization and their attribution to the great traditions and the notion that he offers an unprecendented threefold awakening of light/consciousness, bliss/life energy, and the self/Heart/Divine Person are pretty similar to Aziz's teaching.
Anyway, again and again there seem to be contemporary realizers breaking from tradition to offer "complete" realization that is "unprecedented" or at best hinted at by tradition. I really think this reflects a shift into a post-Axial age spirituality and one thing I really like about you, Kenneth, is that you are approaching this shift in a very egalitarian boots on the ground sort of way and completely sidestepping the whole "Founding Revealer of the Greatest Way to Complete and Perfect blah blah" trap!

(Here's another lurching-out moment: I was involved with/a serious student of [in a wallflower-ish sort of way, which kept me fairly 'safe' in that dangerous environment] Bubba/Da Free John/Adi Da from 1975-1981.) So I have a much more extensive analysis of his 'school' than can possibly be useful. In a nutshell, pluses are: he was the most masterful and extreme auto-didact syncretist around at the time. Anyone paying attention back when he produced his map of stages of enlightenment and was pulling together a master syllabus of spiritual traditions owes him a debt of gratitude. His early work encouraged study and practice, seemed to propose that 'Understanding' was as possible to contemporary Westerners as to more traditional Asian practitioners; and his background in writing helped make him one of the earliest teachers to break the Victorian/Theosophical language barrier. And-- no small matter-- he could be funny as hell and pithy as a proverb. ["Dead Gurus can't kick ass" comes to mind]

BUT: He suffered from the solipcism that self-schooled genius can succumb to. He himself never bound himself to any living teacher past the point of 'taking the enlightenment (experience) and running.' The greater the inflation he suffered, the more idiosyncratic and impenetrable became his writing, and the more fundamentalist, and cultically guru-centric became the practice he proposed to his 'devotees.' And that's just the polite-company version that bypasses mention of deeply pathological behavior in the smaller in-group with which he kept himself surrounded. That's all over the web; no need to recap. If "Saints and Psychopaths" had given equal time to male exemplars of psychosis cloaked in spirituality, surely Adi Da, and Swami/Zen Master Rama would have merited a good deal of ink,

(cont.)

In my own life, he remains a most vivid exemplar of what dangers there are in attempting powerful Tantric practices without a competent and trusted teacher. A LIVING competent teacher who is empowered to tell you what's wrong with what you say and do. And of the limitations of a brilliant mind untempered by even more brilliant compassion. Trick is to KNOW 'brilliant compassion' when you see it. Intellectual genius is easier to spot and in greater supply.

"That's a lovely teaching but one thing which concerns me is a throwing around of the word Rigpa, particularly if the equation of Presence and the Witness earlier on this thread is accurate (seems to be!) and the further equation of Presence and Rigpa on the link you just gave accurately reflects Aziz's teaching. If these equations are accurate, then the word Rigpa has just been used to refer to the Witness which is simply false."-jhsaintonge

I couldn't agree more, Jake. I've written some commentary on van der Hut's summary of Kristof's teaching (link below) and I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

kennethfolkdharma.wetpaint.com/page/Comm...mary+of+Aziz+Kristof

I was joking with Chris Marti last night about how discussions about "high level" teachings can devolve into "Emperor's New Clothes"-type comedies, but upon due consideration I decided that the van der Hut essay had plenty of good material to base a discussion on, even in spite of vague and confusing language. (Alex, thanks for posting the link!)

Kenneth