Title: Gaia Explorer

Gender: Male

Age: 37

Sun Sign: Gemini

Chinese Sign: Water Rat

Location: London

Roots and shoots

I always end up giving this information to most people I meet because they always seem to ask… Parents born in central India, moved to Pakistan in 1947, father came to the UK in 1968 and settled with his brother in Bradford, Yorkshire.

My brother and I were born there, later joined by two younger sisters when we moved down south and entered the smoke and East End of London, finally ending up living in the great and vast spiritual heartland called Essex i.e. the South East of England, the bit which sticks out and hints at a relationship with Europe.

A sort of homecoming

…. but still in Essex the world DOES penetrate, and I can honestly say that my brother and sisters had some kind of awakening experience watching Live Aid back in 85. Watching the global event and suddenly knowing that the world is bigger than the suburbs, larger than ones concerns, and that the experience of life for most people on the planet is so much harder than I will ever know in this lifetime had a profound impact. We watched the video of the concert pretty much constantly in our high-school years, indeed it was the first event in which the Earth truly become one connected soul, to be alive when the world became conscious of itself in real time for a real need!  not too bad an experience for someone aged 13! And this was the beginning of a journey that's only getting more wild and challenging as well as profoundly soulful.

I went to university studying Development along with Computer Science and learned about the need for real change and studied the effects of post colonial development in Africa as well as stumbled across the remnants of the tough and beautiful culture of Ladakh. I completed my dissertation by studying the change in (or rather lack of) identity between first and second generation Muslims… a theme that means far more to me now than I could ever have imagined back in 92.

What is Enlightenment?

At this same time I went back to see an old friend who had been a mentor to me back at college, he was into what I called ‘New Age' when I had last seen him he'd been into wood carving and some form of Shamanism. I must say it wasn't the kind of spiritual evolution that I found attractive, he had seemed too absorbed in his own process, which often meant speaking about how he felt. Anyways to cut a longish story short, he was totally different when I visited; he said he'd met a real spiritual master by the name of Andrew Cohen. He gave me the address where Andrew was teaching for several weeks. He had a copy of What is Enlightenment? Magazine, it was the first issue and at that time was a five sheet newsletter. Anyways without understanding what it all meant I felt compelled to see this ‘teacher'. I went a few days later to see Andrew who was speaking about cultivating Radical Objectivity, indeed I had no clue what it meant to sit in the presence of a teacher of Enlightenment, but what impressed me about him was how utterly straight he was. He was serious, very serious and yet I felt something very important was happening. It was not the self focus that I had always seen in so called 'spiritual' seeker in the past. There was a seriousness born from interest in something more important than oneself - I had something inside of me go YES! - this man is making utter sense, he's talking about the human experience the way it is… and yes I realized I had found my teacher without ever really looking.

I have been a IT  Consultant for 7 years and currently work with charities and corporates. 

I'm also the Operations Director at EnlightenNext in London.

Member Since: Saturday, February 18 2006

Last Visit: 139 days ago.

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