By Rivka Attal
I met Andrew when I was 25 years old through a school friend whom I respected a lot. I was studying accountancy in Israel. He had then been a student of Andrew for two years and even though I thought one day he might return to ‘being normal’ (leaving behind his spiritual teacher), I appreciated some of the views he shared with me regarding the true nature of thoughts and feelings, which later I learned were coming from his association with Andrew. At the time I didn’t know if I wanted to meet Andrew because of these views, which I found compellingly interesting, or whether I was just looking for a way to get close to my ex-first boyfriend again!
The first time I met Andrew I didn’t like him as a person; he seemed to be overly confident and laughing at people, yet the little I did understand of his talk (I never heard of Enlightenment before, nor did I know of meditation or anything ‘spiritual’), made a lot of sense to me. In fact I had reached some of the same conclusions myself. So I decided to stick around his students and started visiting the centre in Tel-Aviv on a weekly basis.
I always found these meetings very interesting, not so much because of Andrew, the teacher, but because these were intelligent individuals who were looking into/investigating life in a serious and meaningful way. I enjoyed their company and found our discussions and thoughts provoking. I always wanted to know ‘why’: why are things the way they are, why am I here, what is the purpose of it all? I wanted to understand Life. This was a drive in me for as long as I remember. Here I found other people with whom I could explore some of these questions.
Six months later, January 1995, I joined them on a retreat held in India. I was meant to come back after one week for accounting exams but ended up postponing my return as I couldn’t leave behind what I then recognised as being the most important and meaningful experience I have ever had. By the end of the retreat I knew ‘this is what I was looking for’ even though I didn’t consciously know that I was even looking for anything.
What is the ‘this’ that I’m referring to? What did I find that I was so convinced of? Purpose, depth, common sense, my whole life falling into place like never before. Beyond the thrill and excitement I had experienced, I found a deep place inside myself that ‘knew’ that I could relax into on a deep level to the extent that, when I went back home, people commented that I had changed. I wasn’t aware of a change but people around me said I was emanating a depth that was very unlike the character I was up until this point. Clearly something significant had happened during the retreat.
Indeed that retreat was a turning point in my life, after which nothing was ever the same. I embarked on a journey that would end up taking me much further than I had, or ever could have, anticipated.
How Did I Change as a Result of Meeting Andrew?
I am grateful about so many things Andrew gave, the list is endless and it seems impossible to summarize everything in few words. Every aspect of my life has been influenced for the better. For example, the degree to which I know myself, my inner strength, my relationships with others (family, friends, work colleagues) and more. One thing I can say for sure, every bit of time I spend with Andrew and EnlightenNext was worth it and more. If tomorrow my children (not that I have any) were to tell me that they would like to engage with Andrew, I will support them 100%.
My years with Andrew were and still are the most beautiful part of my life and I am so grateful to him for everything he gave me and everything he taught me. A big part of who I am today is a result of his doing. Andrew ‘introduced’ me to who I am beyond the body. He deconstructed me and reconstructed me anew. Was I brainwashed? If yes then it was very successful as it sure doesn’t feel that way! He ‘gave’ us the experience of the spiritual dimension of life as ourselves and he taught us how to live in this world embracing this realisation and taking responsibility for it.
Being with Andrew one learns through direct experience about the forces of the universe in the most scientific and human (not cold) way. The privilege of learning about human evolution, not as a object but as oneself being the subject, is the most delicate/dangerous experience. It is like playing with fire and the results have huge implications.
There are many ways to describe what is it that Andrew is teaching, one way of putting it is that he is teaching a perspective. When I joined Andrew’s community I had never asked myself what is most important to me in life. This was one of the first questions I was asked (by Andrew) to answer for myself. It was a very important moment in my life, to consciously realise from within what was the most important thing in life. I experienced it as a drive to grow, to learn, to evolve, to be conscious, not for my sake but for the sake of Life itself. This recognition was the anchor for what would follow and established the context in which I made choices. What do I mean by ‘context’? The clearer one is about what is important in one’s life the more a straight line can be walked. That line becomes your guide, your reference point. Any decision that is made is ‘checked’ against that. Will it, whatever ‘it’ is, take me closer to being more conscious and serving the evolution of the whole? From a certain perspective life becomes easier to live, because one is more aware of what is important and one is clear about what one wants. Andrew taught us to think in a ‘different way’ by asking us to come to terms with questions like this. He gave us the tools to live a truly spiritual life in today’s material, narcissistic world.
Before I met Andrew I didn’t know that I was seeking. In meeting him I became aware that I had found what I was unconsciously looking for. After a few years of being with Andrew, going on long retreats, living with other students of his and immersing myself in the pursuit of Self knowledge, I came to recognize that I wasn’t a seeker anymore – I was a “finder”. I can never be lost again. What does that mean? I have seen through my own eyes (not the physical ones) that LIFE is who I am, and LIFE is always becoming ever-new. Even though the future appears to be known, it really isn’t. I always related to LIFE as something I needed to adapt to, as if ‘it’ already existed and I had to learn how to survive within it. When I realised that nothing is already there and that I am a free agent who can consciously contribute to the process of LIFE, because that is who I am, it scared me to death and thrilled my soul at the same time! This is THE most exciting and liberating discovery Andrew opened my eyes to see – I am not a victim of circumstances but an actual player in the big drama of Life & Evolution. Andrew takes it even further by saying that the Life process is in fact depending upon us, as awakening humans, to consciously guide it. Humans are the vehicle through which Life can see itself and grow and evolve. To engage with our fellow human beings in this awareness of who we are in the biggest sense is the most thrilling and deeply satisfying experience one can have.
Andrew gave us the experience of direct seeing: seeing that I (in the egoic sense) am not the centre of the universe. In that he awakened in me the most beautiful and profound human experience – humility.
Rivka Attal can be contacted at free.bird@live.co.uk
