This website provides a window to the spiritual teachings of Tim Reeves. My teachings, explained in my book Noticing Being One, are not copied from any tradition, they are based solely on my own experience and knowledge.
That said, what I have come to know matches almost exactly the Advaita Vedanta teachings, which is why I call it Advaita – but I am not affiliated, or even in contact, with any organisation. I urge people to make their own experiences, and to reflect on what they mean in terms of a world view. This is indeed the only path to actual knowledge. On my own path I have recognised, looking back, 7 different facets of spiritual maturity. The following drawing may look a bit ‘esoteric’ – if so then blame it on me, not the artist – but it does illustrate the concept of repeated experience (Yin) and reflection (Yang), to keep on expanding your perception, and your understanding, of existence:
The spiral of spiritual development Drawing by Gabriele Meischner
Seven spiritual aspects
As you can see, I recognised seven different states or facets of spiritual development. We start off in ‘Dualities’ – value judgements of ‘Polarities’ – and move on to noticing our non-separation from other beings, which I call Mutuality. From there it’s only a short step to what I call ‘Enlightenment’ – the noticing of our non-separation from all of existence. Sadly, many so-called ‘spiritual seekers’ are craving for mystical, magical ‘Enlightenment’ to save them from feeling lost and unhappy. But they don’t really have a clear idea of what that ‘Enlightenment’ might actually be – their motivation is away from suffering, rather than a voyage towards ever more perception and knowledge. What I call Enlightenment is only one of several facets, beyond it three more aspects await.
Advaita and Enlightenment
Advaita (A-Dvaita) is Sanksrit and means ‘Not two’. It’s saying that ultimately all is one, is made of the same one substance. What I mean by Enlightenment is that you have come to actually notice and perceive for yourself that everything is connected, that all is made seemingly real through it’s being witnessed by Universal Awareness. To be absolutely clear: I am not stating a belief or dogma here. What I am stating is a fact, which, by appropriate exercises, you can experience and verify for yourself. So Advaita and Enlightenment are two different words for the same thing – the former on the conceptual level, the latter on the experiential level.
Spiritual Practice: DTFE – Do The F***ing Exercises
To make an experience is to open yourself to noticing something – it’s a non-doing, a becoming still, so it has the receptive quality – Yin. To then reflect on what you have experienced, and what it confirms or rules out in terms of your world view, is something you have to do, so it has the active quality – Yang. It’s a bit like walking to get somewhere – left, right, left, right – or in this case experience, reflect, experience, reflect… But while walking is a linear thing, the path I describe is a spiral, whereby the breadth and volume of your experience of being keep expanding. Since I have identified and clearly described seven states, it was then a natural next step to put together and design exercises appropriate to helping you experience the various facets.
In my professional career I have been, for the most part, a programmer. Programmers have a saying (in exasperation with users) ‘RTFM’ (Read The F***ing Manual). In loving exasperation I have therefore called my tailored spiritual exercises DTFE – Do The F***ing Exercises. Read more at DTFE – Example Exercises and Communing with trees. I’m working towards offering these exercises in groups, initially where I live, near Hanover, Germany. If you are interested, let me know via my contact form.
You’ll find quite a bit about my Teachings and a lot of excerpts from my book here on the website. If you’d like to meet me before the Advaita Dialogues and DTFE groups are on offer (which may take some time yet), then you can visit me at my home, or meet me virtually via Skype or Zoom.