Interview (13-08-01)
What is enlightenment and your definition of it?
The spontaneous cognition to be prior to "Nothing and All". Entirely unprepared, in spite of and not because of the search for cognition. It is the revelation of the "Eternal Now". The absence of the "me", and thus the absence of all concepts, of separation or union, birth and death, God and world, coming and going, etc.
The ABSOLUTE is aware of ITSELF, and is thus that which is. Pure self-cognition, in cognizing that all that is cognizable is false. The absolute death of time and of all which is seemingly in time. That includes as well what I just said about enlightenment or truth etc.
These are pointers to that which doesn't require cognition or enlightenment to be that which is. And that is what "you" are. Absolute BEING in imperturbable harmony.
How did your search for enlightenment / truth begin? And what was your personal way or experience?
Already as a child I saw an absolute division in experiences. One moment I was completely detached and in perfect harmony with the world, the next moment I was in deepest depression with the wish for dissolution, to die. Heavenly happy - sad to death.
Naturally I only wanted to dwell in pleasant experience. So the search began for how to achieve this. You see, not truth or enlightenment, but unlimited happiness, the end of suffering, was the desire from the outset.
With this began the search for suitable means and tools in the world. First with sex, and the experience was that the so-called little death (orgasm) is a very fleeting fulfillment, dependant on a partner. Thus it wasn't a solution.
Then through drugs, which can create the state of freedom from suffering. But afterwards, when the effect is over, even more suffering prevails.
Affection or love, with friends, family or a partner also lost its meaning in the recognition that my wellbeing was not dependant on their behavior. This couldn't solve the problem either.
Then I began to read esoteric books, all about religions, shamans, magic etc., and for a long period I was fascinated by Castaneda and Don Juan and the idea of freedom.
Until the end of the 70's, when I became spontaneously aware in a dream, that I was dreaming. I remembered a Don Juan technique which was to observe one's own hands in a dream. So I lifted my hands and began to investigate them.
Suddenly something awoke in me that had seemingly slept and in this awakening first my hands and then my whole body began to dissolve.
I recognized death. And in this recognition sudden fear arose. I began to fight for my life as I had never fought for anything. An unexplainable force was about to extinguish me which seemed like an infinite black nothing in my perception. And although I woke up in the bed, the fight continued.
Then, after hours, there was a sudden accepting of this extinction and the former dark nothing became radiant light, with me being it. A light shining in itself.
After an eternity, slowly this light became again the normal perception of Karl and the world. Everything seemed to be as it was before this experience, but the perception was absolutely detached from what was perceived. A total distance and alienation towards the world.
This is not my home, was the only thought. The "my" lost itself in I-lessness.
With this awakening of cosmic consciousness the process of dissolution of the concept "Karl" had begun.
In the awareness of falsehood and dream-likeness of experiences, it was only a matter of time for the personal history, and with it the history of the universe, to be burned out by this fire of awareness.
This process from "individual to cosmic consciousness", from personal to impersonal consciousness, which is called enlightenment, is always unique and can neither be repeated nor imitated. Just as there is solely absolute Being, each experience is absolutely unique.
For a long time, about 15 years, this impersonal consciousness was my home. K.O. (koma) had become O.K. (amok). I was a wandering NOTHING. Absolutely identified with this NOTHING.
The owner of NOTHING. The little "I" had become very big, an overdimensional NOTHING. The background considering the foreground as an illusion. One illusion viewing another illusion. The so-called "witness". The wisdom which says "I am NOTHING".
There was seemingly something which considered this "not being" an advantage, and consequently, there was a subliminal fear to lose this advantage of clarity.
Until, the middle of the 90's, from now to now, the absolute cognition came, as a simple insight, a little aha, of being that which is. Being that which can never be anything else, nor ever was, than the "Self".
The Self is and nothing but the Self is, and that is Absolute Acceptance which was there forever. That which is the Self-cognition or the realization of the "Self".
The Absolute "IS", in the personal as in the impersonal experience, always the Absolute Self and it never has the necessity of any enlightenment.
The Self is ever realized and what appears as consciousness in the realization (implementation of reality) will never realize itself. In that sense there was never any unenlightened one, and consequently, no necessity of enlightenment.
Did anything change in your life since the discovery of truth?
The fundamental is that there is no MY or YOUR life nor has there ever been. That which solely is neither lives nor lives not.
The so-called life changes continuously. The dream and its dreamlike states are subject to constant change. So changes the body that appears in the dream, the world and the conduct in it.
But however it shows itself, it was, is, and will always be that which is. In endless variations, in an eternal realization of the "Real". Undisturbed peace of being. And I am that.
Did you have a teacher? Is it important to have a teacher / Guru? What is the relationship between teacher and disciple? Do you have disciples?
No, I didn't have a personal teacher. And for that which is not in time to become aware of itself, nothing is required which is in time. It is always a spontaneous awakening, out of no necessity. It is also called the divine accident. It cognizes itself, not because of, but in spite of everything which comes and goes. The question about important or unimportant is therefore obliterated.
The Self is the only Master I know. It realizes itself in losing and in finding. In this sense it is teacher and disciple and always gives itself absolute lessons.
The Self reveals itself to itself, in its Omnipresence, in the eternal Now. A disciple co-appears with a teacher like a question implies its answer. Out of desirelessness a desire arises in time and dissolves itself in its fulfillment, just as every question finds redemption through an answer. This is the karmic law of consciousness. So, no teacher and no students, only questions and answers.
Is there any necessity of inner work or development (for instance to work with the dark side, etc.)? Some teachers say there is none, you are entirely free, nothing needs to be done. What does that mean?
Yes, for being what you are no work or development is required. All concepts, of way, development and even cognition, appear with the first I-thought. This first idea creates time, space and thus the entire universe. And as long as this I-thought appears to be real, which means separation (twoness, suffering), there appears the desire for unity and herewith the longing for a way out, for an end of suffering.
The first false idea, the one of "I", conditions everything false which follows it. Therefore only the absolute cognition of being prior to the I-thought, and thus recognizing the false as false and removing hereby the root of all problems, is to be what one is.
By being what you are, or better, as you are, absolute, prior to all and nothing, all concepts are destroyed.
Can you say something about the relationship between man and woman? It seems to promise so much but contains so much pain. Is there any possibility of a true liberation through relationships?
The question is: Is there one who has a relationship and the necessity of liberation? The desire for every union (oneness) is based on the idea of separation. Can something which originates from a lie lead to truth? Can that which is dependent, by its nature dead, subject to time, make you what you are? Where the idea of oneness arises, there is twoness; by uniting is separated, and all comes and goes with something false, the "I". So, back to the root, to the question: To whom or in what does this "I" appear?
Do you have a teaching, and which one?
Recognize everything as a lie, specially the one who recognizes everything as a lie.
Why are you giving these talks?
They are part or aspect of being. No-one is talking and no-one is listening. Without sense and reason. For the question of why there is only one answer: why not?
How can we integrate this in our daily life?
That which is requires no integration, and that which is not will never be integrated. Recognize the perfect realization of Reality and be what you are. Everything is exactly the way it is, because Being has manifested itself this way and not otherwise.
Can you say something about death, some say "die before you die"?
The only possible death is the death of the ego (the idea of separation). And the question is, how can something die which is not? How can that die which is appearance and only presents itself in perception as sensation? By what can the lie of being separate disappear? For what or for whom has to go "What Is Not"?
Only in the absolute Self-cognition of being that which is, and thus nothing is but inseparable Being, Truth and nothing but Truth, the Self and nothing but the Self.
Where Truth perceives only itself in perception, where only that is what you are, where dream and dreamer are one in the Absolute.
For the Absolute, nothing has to go because the Absolute is the only reality. Recognizing the ego as fleeting shadow in the eternal Now voids its apparent reality.
