Last update : 12 / 3 / 2014
10 / 30 / 2011
Just a human being with enough knowledge and experiences to know what he's writing about
The author of this website and all his writings is not a guru, an enlightened entity, an awakening or awakened being as the word Buddha precisely means, a Jivanmukta, liberated being, a Jnani, someone who holds sacred knowledge, a spiritual guide, a sage or teacher sitting in some ways above the others, an adviser in spiritual, philosophical or metaphysical matters, a "facilitator" able to facilitate nobody knows really what or kind of supreme being for having simply lived outstanding spiritual experiences.
Spiritual experiences and Self-realization are totally different. Experiences are always kind of return ticket. On the contrary, a realization is only one way and no return. And as we all know with just a little sincerity, people who could pretend to be fully done are extremely rare, and moreover, from the standpoint of Self-realization, they would never do it because such a pretension simply doesn't make sense.
In simple terms that everybody should unfortunately understand very easily in the Western spiritual context of today, the author has "nothing for sale" - to be taken in the literal and figurative sense.
So he teaches nothing nor organizes Satsang (talks about spirituality and non-duality among other topics), workshops, retreats, spiritual vacations around the world, especially in India, in order to entertain petits bourgeois tired of themselves or completely exhausted Westerners after a year of professional harassment.
Therefore, he could rightly be considered as a "thinker", but no more than yourself with, of course, a very different life.
And he isn’t more or less "awakened" than anybody else when he doesn’t sleep in Morpheus' arms. He doesn’t pretend to be free from anything and doesn’t claim to have realized the Self even if he has very clear ideas about Self-realization. He doesn’t live somewhere in Nirvana or in a transcendental world of non-duality and perfect Oneness, and even less in a fourth dimension of pure consciousness or in heaven, but on Earth as all other human beings. And of course, he doesn't spend his life swimming in an ocean of bliss and desperately trying his best to reach the beach before sinking.
He’s actually, as far as I know and I know quite a bit about that person since I'm speaking of myself, a pretty normal and ordinary human being like anybody else, and for reasons actually very difficult to understand in Western spirituality of today, he doesn't think to be God, the Self, universal consciousness, stillness, pure emptiness or kind of superior being coming on Earth to teach a supreme and ultimate Truth. Too bad for him, I guess, he could have with all his thoughts a great career and started an excellent business like many other Neo gurus. But, sorry folks, he doesn't.
I guess some shrinks would very rightly think that he's full of neurosis and psychosis, and suffering from a huge superiority complex since he still dares to express his own thoughts instead of being politically correct and closing his mouth in order to be "positive" and so a great positive thinker in our gorgeous positive Western culture unfortunately in complete crisis. Those shrinks would have to know that they are forgiven even before to think so since, after all, those brave people do only their job, i.e. find everybody totally sick and usually more than themselves just to pay the bills like anybody else. They must also know that they will actually have very little chance to get him as a customer.
In fact, he only writes to share his experience and knowledge with other seekers of truth and what is, according to him, good for humanity because he still has personal opinions and especially on the difference between good and bad although it may seem extremely displeasing in the domain of Neo Western "nonduality". As a matter of fact, he considers himself as a seeker of truth and that’s why he doesn’t hesitate to denounce the hypocrisy, selfishness, greed and imposture of arrogant Neo gurus and the delirious abuses of their pseudo spiritual teachings we can witness today very easily in the West and on the Internet.
His initiation with Swami Girdanandaji from Uttarkashi and study of Advaita Vedanta with Mr. Brahma Chaitanya from Gangotri enable him to have a relatively clear idea of what is meant by the term "Non-Duality". And it’s precisely this subject among others that he wishes to introduce to the reader, a subject mainly based on an amazing experience he has lived and described in the section "Experience" dated the 10 / 30 / 2011.
Having nothing to promote and commercialize, he doesn't therefore have to enter in kind of "reality show", "star system" and spiritual circus so dear to the awakened and awakening Neo gurus of today and so unveil his private, professional or social life. In other words, I'm not here to speak about myself, but spirituality.
So who am I ? Who is this incredible and amazing Mel Patrick ?
The Self, of course..., noblesse oblige, but only as my true nature, the one of pure consciousness that everybody has since birth and which obviously makes us "conscious" beings, and before all else, an ordinary person blessed by the Gods with a very ordinary and also sometimes quite extraordinary human life that quite often gives me the impression to stand above it as if I was sitting at the bottom of a volcano.
And so the river of life goes by, right toward an unknown destiny. And I've to say that I love it !
11 / 30 / 2011
Why to write ?
Who knows ? Who am I ? And blah blah blah..., my pleasure !
The truth has already been told and written a long time ago. It can only be repeated and updated if we want to. But sincerely speaking, it would be much better for you to read sacred scriptures than mine which are not sacred at all.
If you really to know what non-duality is all about, study Sri Shankaracharya, the Upanishad, the whole Vedanta, go to India and study with real Swamis, read the Rama Krishna and Advaita Ashrama publications, there are thousands of excellent books on that subject. But please, forget the mumbo jumbo of Western baboons who pretend to be gurus, teachers or spiritual guides.
Playing the cosmic game is not a choice nor an obligation, it's a pleasure. And the game here is purely intellectual and conceptual. It's nothing more than thoughts about a topic I love and harsh criticism of Western impostors who claim to be Neo gurus.
That game is a ludic exchange between the past and the present in order to remember and not forget.
It's never the same mountain, so why not to describe the one I see.
Have a good reading !
12 / 6 / 2011
Different purposes
As far as I am concerned, I write to better understand spiritual experiences, which sincerely speaking don't make sense at all.
It has been and still is a great intellectual adventure and to tell you the truth, I still cannot explain those experiences. Words, logic and reasoning are simply inadequate to speak about.
But I confess that it's still a great pleasure to remember them and ask myself what did really happened.
How was it possible ? Why don't we all live in that state of bliss absolutely perfect since it's our natural state ? There are too many questions and no answer, which could satisfy the mind. Mystery goes on, we can only interpret and describe it according to our personal evolution and spiritual maturity that cannot be defined either.
As far as the readers are concerned, the real purpose of all those writings is very simple, to make them understand very clearly that spirituality is not a joke nor a trendy entertainment, and even less a new opium of the people.
You will never find anything more sacred and precious in your life than the spiritual meaning of it in a world getting completely mad. I'm not asking you to believe me, just try, find a path and practice. Introduce a spiritual life in your ordinary life, that's all you have "to do".
12 / 8 / 2011
Words, suggestions and advises
To be alone, to watch carefully, to search and find by and for yourself is your real practice of spirituality, meditation and path of knowledge.
What you read might be good and true or absolutely wrong for you.
You will always be the only one to know what's really good for you.
Rely on yourself and nobody else, you're the one treading your own spiritual path and no one can walk for you.
"Trust yourself" or in other words, the Self, consciousness and your conscience, will be the message on the noble path of knowledge.
You should not believe anybody and especially not any Neo gurus in this age of complete decadence and corruption.
You have to stop believing in anything if you want to know the truth.
The truth is not a new belief. It's even not an experience. If you want to know it, realize it. No one can tell you the truth.
1 / 5 / 2012
Crazy is crazy
With some good dictionaries and a lot of patience, you could write all the books on every subject you wish. You just need to try every possible combination of words starting by A to Z.
But the true genius will always be in the book that has not been written yet.
And most of all in the person who can understand it because the writer will never truly know how and why he wrote it.
So do I really know why I'm writing about ?
If I knew, I guess I would immediately stop writing.
Some people would say that it's just an ego-trip, and somehow they are incredibly annoying because they are inevitably right. Unless to be free from the mind, no one can go beyond the ego.
The Self doesn't write books, true Gurus are the Self.
Upanishad means "sitting near", next to "that".
"That" doesn't write, only those sitting around at its feet can.
1 / 24 / 2012
Why sacred knowledge has always been the privilege of an elite ?
Maybe because the truth can be more harmful than do good if misunderstood.
Maybe because, if you cannot inquire deeply inside yourself, you are going to take this knowledge in a very wrong way.
Maybe because "Knowledge is power" and this power is going to destroy your mental health before to free you from body and mind.
Maybe because "Karma" also means "Everything has a price". And you're maybe not ready to pay it.
Whatever the reason, if you get hooked by this knowledge, it means that it sounds true, and sooner or later, you will know why. Just keep on treading your path and take it easy, it might very quickly become a chaotic spiritual trip.
Just keep going on and you will understand. Don't lose your mind if you want to free yourself from it.
You just need to understand and be sensible if you want to be free from your own illusions and crazy spiritual dreams. But that kind of understanding goes far beyond the intellect and thinking process.
Illusions, dreams or sufferings, there is no difference.
2 / 27 / 2012
"You are never better served than by yourself"
If you cannot find the book you'd really like to read, the magic book that is going to tell you everything about the truth, just write it !
That's what I'm doing for my own pleasure and maybe yours too. But let us be clear, that kind of pleasure requires many years of meditation. And the more you're getting old, the more you will enjoy it.
I would never call that a selfless action, but it could be a source of inspiration.
A book doesn't think, letters and words neither. So someone has to think them. But nobody knows where they really come from because nobody truly knows what the mind is and how the intellect works.
An author writes words for the others to read them. But to read them is, in fact, to think them before to understand their meaning. So who is really writing what, right now ?
When you listen to someone speaking, the mind works in another way. You cannot identify yourself with a voice, which is not yours and especially with a person in front of you.
Written words having no voice, they become yours when you read them. The Self is yourself without body and mind. But can it express itself with words ? Does the Self need to express anything if it's already you ?
Know that the mind never forget anything, not a word, not a perception, an emotion, a sensation or a thought, not a data, not a situation, not the past and anything you could figure out about the future, absolutely nothing even if we often have the impression to forget many things. So be always very careful to what you are reading.
Now imagine the power of sacred knowledge, kind of neuro programming, which would aim at the destruction of the mind. Advaita Vedanta has no other intention than to annihilate all your illusions, especially those you have about yourself, in other words, to destroy you personally by canceling out every possible identification so that you can see yourself as you are without body and mind. That would be a true release. It's even called "liberation and Self-realization". That kind of knowledge is not a joke and the practice of it even less.
It might take some time, and even some lives, but once you start treading this path, you will never be able to leave it. What for ? It's too beautiful.
9 / 27 / 2012
Money is the acid test that will never lie in spiritual matter
Free of charge is not proof of quality. But you won’t at least lose money if you didn’t like it. Nowadays, it’s already a rare privilege, very rare indeed !
Here, there is nothing for sale, it doesn't mean that what I write is good for you. You don't like it, leave it. Life is too short and too precious to waste your time with what you don't understand. And if you don't understand that "positive thinking" is the least of my concern, what could I tell you ? Flattery, demagogy, the lovely pseudo metaphysical blah blah blah we can hear in every Satsang today ? No thank, it's not because I'm not a Guru that I have to be a jerk. A good old-fashioned human being with a brain and still able to think will be enough to explain what I understand.
1 / 29 / 2013
"When you know quite absolutely that everything is unreal, you then cannot see why you should take the trouble to prove it." Cioran
Communication is an exchange of thoughts, which have nothing to prove.
"I'm right, you're wrong" is complete lost of time, it's just childish, but very trendy today.
The dance of Shiva is absolutely free. Communication is like eating, taking a shower, thinking, sleeping, dreaming... It's necessary and it could be a very fruitful pleasure too for you and the others.
4 / 7 / 2013
They tell you what they think
"Optimists write badly." Paul Valéry
"The important thing is not to convince, but to give to reflect." Bernard Werber
1 / 5 / 2014
Who's that ?
A voyager... in space and time.
And like anyone else, not for a very long time.
Writing about spirituality is just a cosmic trip.
12 / 3 / 2014
No way !
"I will never belong to any spiritual group that would have me as a member."
(Adapted from a great Groucho Marx's saying)
Be a free thinker, never think like others if you wish to keep relatively sane. "Like the others" has no meaning anyway, we are all absolutely unique.
Nothing else, nothing more and nothing less
The most important as far as I'm concerned is that there is nothing important about me because, in fact, I really think that everything is extremely important.
Should I call that a revelation ?
Not really, I hope ! I was born like that and like anybody else.
What about you ?
Are you the exception that would prove the rule ?
If self-importance is not at the origin of all your personal problems, where are you going to find it ?
In the mind of others ? Good luck, my friend, I only hope you have a lot of time to lose.