“One day, I was taken by a stunning stillness, and without resistance I disappeared into Silence. It was more than an epiphany, more than grace, more than mystical union: It was my soul’s homecoming, my heart’s overflowing love, and my mind’s eternal peace. In the world of Silence, my twin questions – the ones that had grown within me as renegade cells – dissolved and disappeared. In Silence, I felt my core identity, my essential nature, as a unity-in-love with all existence. I experienced freedom clarity, and joy as being intrinsic qualities of my authentic self. I realized I lived in time and eternity. I was composed of physical matter and spiritual energy in equal measure …” ~ Robert Rabbin, from his book Sound Bites from Silence: Scouting Reports from the Frontier of Consciousness.
Robert Rabin is a contemporary mystic who lived with Swami Muktananda for 10 years, until his death at his Ashram in India. Swami Muktananda, a disciple of Bhagavan Nityananda, was deeply rooted in Vedanta and Kashmiri Shaivism.
In January 2012, Robert Rabbin was diagnosed with “stage 4 terminal lung cancer with a prognosis of six to nine months to live.” After that diagnosis, Robert moved to Los Angeles and spent four years in what he calls an “… unfathomable cocoon of death, transformation, and rebirth …” – which was his response to Cancer. Robert recovered fully in early 2016 to begin a new phase of life … and he now says: “Yes, I am thriving well past the use-by date predicted by doctors, owing to my contrarian nature and who knows what else …”
Incidentally, Chris’ video dialog coincided with some of Robert’s formal cancer treatment at Cedar Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. Chris’ initial intent was to discuss fear of death with him, but, after meeting him, it was clear that no such fear was present. Later, as they grew to know each other, Robert humbly shared with Chris that, the “terror of extinction” had occurred, and resolved itself, prior to their initial meeting.
So, their conversation became an intimate look at death. But, that was only the beginning. Subsequently, on film they discussed another timely subject: the “integrity of being,” or how does our understanding play out in our daily embrace of life?
You can read about the advaita vedanta (nonduality) tradition now and Kashmiri Shaivism and Vedanta traditions will be added in future. Advaita Vedanta (nonduality) is a sub-school of Vedanta. Bhagavan Nityananda, Swami Muktananda, and Robert Rabbin will all have their own teachers page in the future. Below is some information about Robert in lieu of his teachers page – which will include comprehensive information about his life and work.
Robert Rabbin was interviewed for the book The Awakening West: Conversations with Today’s New Western Spiritual Leaders – here’s an excerpt from the interview transcript: “Robert has had a lifelong interest in the nature of the human mind and consciousness. He studied with Swami Muktananda in India, and subsequently his spiritual inquiry has been profoundly influenced by Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj.” ~ Here’s a downloadable PDF of the interview transcript.
Robert Rabbin has written numerous books (14 at the time of this post), including The 5 Principles of Authentic Living: How to Live an Authentic Life in 10 Words and Speak Truthfully: Speak Your Way to an Authentic Life with Awareness, Courage, and Confidence. Below is a sampling of remarks about Robert from others:
“I’ve read your book and it’s spiritual food for my heart.” Ram Dass, author of Be Here Now.
“Robert writes and teaches in such a way that the readers/listeners can have their heart opened in one moment. Bam! He teaches through his being and thus inspires us to enter our own being and drink our own essence.” Rabbi Avram Davis, Ph.D., founder of Chochmat HaLev, author of Judaic Mysticism.
“Robert offers an extraordinary perspective on being human. He writes as he speaks, with a truth and directness that can be matched by few others.” John Renesch, business futurist, author of Getting to the Better Future.
“I’ve worked with countless spiritual teachers, self-help gurus, therapists, and coaches and I can say with complete certainty that Robert is the real deal. He is his teachings. His books and our two conversations gave me the balls (breasts) to do what I had been avoiding for most of my life, which was not only to speak my truth, but to take creative action as my truth. So I did. And my life changed dramatically. Check him out, but prepare yourself. Living authentically ain’t easy. It kicks ass and then some. Robert is definitely here to disturb the Universe and this is a good and necessary and beyond brave thing to do.” ~ Sera Beak, Harvard-trained scholar of comparative world religions, author of Red Hot and Holy: A Heretic’s Love Story.
We highly recommend visiting Robert’s website.
Image credit: NASA/ESA/ESO/Wolfram Freudling et al. (STECF), Public Domain.
I would like to know how I can contact Robert directly (email or phone) to work through my own issues on death.
Janet,
First our sincere apologies for this delayed reply – we are very short staffed and email/comment catch up is a bit slow … but that will change in the near future.
We had noted Robert’s website at the bottom of the post …. so you can contact Robert directly via his website”Contact” tab .. here’s the URL for that: http://robertrabbin.com/contact/
Thanks for stopping by … and our best wishes as you work through this subject.
Hi Janet,
I just happened upon this page! Please do send me an email, and we can arrange a time
to discuss things and see what we might create together. My email: info@robertrabbin.com