Early Life and Spiritual Experiences
Nome was born on January 23, 1955 in Long Island, New York and spent most of his childhood in New Jersey. Though not from a religiously oriented family, Nome as a child had memories and a vivid familiarity with places, images, and words that he came to know later as associated with Sri Ramana Maharshi and Advaita Vedanta.
Nirvikalpa Samadhi
His first spiritual experience came at age 16—without previous spiritual questing (in this life), one day in a park. It was nirvikalpa samadhi, in which the meditator makes himself free from all thoughts and distinctions, free of all differentiations such as the knower, knowledge, and the known, and in which the mind ceases to be active.
After this samadhi he sought out the solitude of mountains and woods, and spent much of his time in the forest meditating. While others were building their personalities, he took his down—for good. He lost interest in worldly acquisitions and activities. He saw that the source of happiness is within. There were further instances of samadhi.
Seeking Self-realization
After his 17th birthday, before completing high school, he left his family without telling them he was going. When asked by a friend why he was going, he said, “To attain Self-Realization.” He got an airplane ticket and flew to San Francisco.
In San Francisco he met Swami Swanandashram, who introduced him to the Vedanta teachings of Sankara, and the Upanisads, in which Ajata Vada is revealed. This is the Sanatana Dharma (the Eternal Teaching, called in the west, Hinduism) teaching of the Uncreated, where there is only Brahman, only the Absolute, only God. Nome recognized this teaching as his actual experience.
Introduced to these teachings and finding materials to help deepen his practice, Nome kept the focus of his life within. He found wisdom in such books as Talks with Ramana Maharshi, the Avadhuta Gita, the Astavakra Gita and Sankara works such as Atma Bodha.
He lived in a renounced fashion, meditating, intensely practicing Atma Vichara (Self inquiry). If in line at the supermarket, he would meditate. Waiting, he would meditate. He had no documentation, and worked at the kind of jobs where none is required, rough physical labor.
Turning Inward
Nome continued to inquire, realizing that the Truth revealed by the Maharshi cuts the imagined knot that seems to tie our true being with a bodily form. During this period of practice, Nome saw that “Whoever we are, Bliss is within, and can no more be apart from us than we can be separated from our own existence.”
Now, how to turn the mind inward, and to turn it inward steadily? The answer was the Maharshi’s steady inquiry, revealing the Bliss of the Self. The search for happiness is really the search for the Self, which is Reality.
Nome realized that turning inward is essential. He felt that by the Grace of the Maharshi, this is accomplished. Self-effort is needed. When self-effort meets with Grace, the highest good results. Turning inward, how to go outward is forgotten. Accustomed to detachment, one forgets how to be attached. “Who am I?” becomes the only true question.
Asthma and the desire for Liberation
While practicing, Nome’s body was afflicted by asthma, intensifying the desire for spiritual liberation. He felt, “If I do not fully awaken to the Truth, I will live and die in an unreal world. If I practice right through the last breath, it will all be worth it; and if the Truth is realized even at the last moment, the Liberation from samsara (birth and death) will be for all eternity.”
Pictures from Sri Ramanasramam
Sri Ramana Maharshi
At this time, pictures arrived from Sri Ramanasramam. There had been no picture of any kind in his home for months. Then they arrived from Ramana’s Ashram on the other side of the world, beckoning Nome to leave the world altogether.
Nome felt on this day filled with a profound joy. It was the joy of devotion, of faith, of being blessed with the guiding light of the Guru’s Presence. The whole place seemed sanctified by Sri Bhagavan.
Reliance on the Guru
He placed himself in Sri Bhagavan’s hands, feeling that when the heart’s consecration is made, Grace is always present. Nome saw what the Maharshi revealed—thought’s utter unreality, and that the real Self is all. He saw the objective nature of all thoughts, and the existence of That which is formless and always nonobjective. Only the nonobjective is who we are; we cannot be a thought of which we are aware.
The senses do not determine Reality, nor does the mind.
For whom is the world?
Nome came to know experientially that the world, including the body, is the sensory experience, the sensory experience is entirely in the mind, and the mind is but “I” in different guises or forms. So he inquired, “Who am I?”
The world seemed to Nome as an unreal dream. Detached from this unreal dream, he did not take it to be the source of happiness. The inquiry “Who is bound and who desires liberation?” becomes the way the Truth is realized.
Making permanent the state without thought
Thought ceased. Then it resumed, again it ceased. And again it resumed. The focus of practice for Nome then was “How can I extend and make permanent this state without thought?”
Following the Maharshi’s teachings about the three states (waking, dream, and deep dreamless sleep), Nome saw that which is continuous, in which the states seem to appear, the one thing that does not change. “It is perpetual Existence. What is that? It is perpetual Consciousness.”
Elimination of all Vasanas
Nome would look at recurring experiences, examining them to see what brought them about, and what brought samadhi to an end. “What takes one up, and what brings one down?” was the investigation. It helped to eliminate vasanas—misidentifications and attachments. The Maharshi’s revelation of the Truth eliminated the entire field, “Who is the knower?”
Questions about samadhi were difficult to raise, for one could not expect an accurate answer in any less expansive or more formed state of mind, and in samadhi itself the questions do not arise. Meditating with Sri Bhagavan’s guidance, Nome saw that what is experienced in samadhi—the essence—does not come and go; the boundaries constituting the before-the-beginning and the after-the-end appear and disappear, for they are composed only of illusions. “Who goes up or down?” “Who enters into or merges with what?” “Who realizes what?” He cut each knot, vanquished every illusion, and dissolved every vasana.
Absence of Individuality
Nome came to know that the utter absence of individuality (called “an ego”) is Realization. The ignorance seems to rise with the ‘I’-thought and is identical with the ‘I’-thought. “I want to be free of individuality. I may be free from its appendages in the form of various characteristics, etc. but the ‘I’ itself must also disappear. How is the elimination of the individual ‘I’ to be brought about?” Like this was Nome’s meditation. Sri Bhagavan’s instructions, “Can ‘I’ eliminate itself?” and “Find out that the ego does not exist,” revealed, upon inquiry, the answer that the ego does not exist.
The Maharshi’s teaching lays out the direct path—Who am I? —and this is the ultimate guidance. “Are there two selves, one to realize the other?” This instruction blows away the dust of dualism and reveals Sri Bhagavan’s silent presence. This is what Nome’s inquiry revealed.
Final Realization
May 14, 1974, at 19 years of age, waiting in the office of an oral surgeon, meditating on a small Ramana pamphlet Self Realization (later reprinted by SAT), Nome realized finally and completely that the notion of “I” does not refer to any actually existent ego entity, and is itself unreal. This “I” does not come from the real Self, does not come from “anything else,” and is not self-generated. He realized that there was “no me,” no individual, there is only the vast Absolute, and I am That. This was the revelation of Truth, without these words or ideas. Everything objective disappeared, never to return.
This is what Ramana referred to as Sahaja Samadhi, pure, uninterrupted Consciousness, transcending the mental and physical plane, yet (to an observer), with awareness of a manifested world, and full use of mental and physical faculties.
“The Self is only Being—not being this or that. It is simply Being. Be, and there is the end of ignorance.” Meditating on Sri Bhagavan’s revelation of Reality—realizing its meaning, supremely profound—the “I” does not survive.
Speaking now about the period of practice, Nome says that persistence was important. Clearly the deep desire for Liberation was also key, as was his surrender and devotion to Sri Ramana Maharshi.
The writer observes that Nome was not satisfied with nirvikalpa samadhi at age 16. Rather this brought him to look deeply and intensely within to find the Truth that is within, to look beyond what comes and goes for what is changeless and eternal. Finding That as his identity, then to stand in Sahaja Samadhi.
After Realization
In 1978, after four years spent mostly in silence, Nome started answering questions of sincere aspirants, first in a house in San Bruno, CA, then Boulder Creek, and finally Santa Cruz. Around Nome a group of spiritual seekers formed, and was first called “The Avadhut Ashram.” Satsang was held in Santa Cruz and San Francisco.
