The Barista Who Became A Master

Recently, I read a very fascinating account on the website www.realization.org, from a younger gentleman (American, early thirties, and yes: a barista), who claims that he had achieved self-realization. Of course, it’s the internet. And the First Amendment applies. Anyone can say anything. And there is no way to verify if what he says is true. And my beautiful-beautiful wife is quite convinced he is a fraud. But I am not so sure. Call it intuition. Call it gullibility. For some reason I find him sounding authentic. It’s a fascinating read, with some good insights. And, if it’s true: self-realization can happen very quickly. Yes, some dedication is required, but it might be much easier to achieve than most spiritual seekers believe. It took him two, maybe three years. Without sacrificing too much of his daily existence.

The web article itself is a collection of posts of ‘Mr. Barista’ on a spiritual forum on Reddit, and collected by another Reddit member. In the posts, he describes which method he used.

“I practised being the “witness”, learning to simply watch and not get involved. Self enquiry became the total focus of my life, I didn’t half-ass it 😂 After around 3‒4 months I had my first awakening experience. This was about 2 years ago now. After that, I continued to enquire, knowing I was not “awake” yet I had experienced freedom so there was no longer any doubt, simply a matter of “cleaning house” and allowing that awareness to see through all my illusions I still felt tied to. My practise was very simple, I simply questioned my thoughts, watched how I acted, and kept asking myself “am I this?” whenever thoughts or suffering appeared.”

This method, ‘self-inquiry’, is described by many teachers. Ramana Maharshi, Sri Nisargadatta, and Michael Langford are some well-known examples. It’s a bit of a tricky method, I must admit. Often, Indian Masters don’t always excel in clearly explaining what they actually did to attain their spiritual state. I am still not completely sure that I fully understand the self-inquiry method myself. But maybe I am over-complicating things. ‘Mr. Barista’ explains the method he used in more detail:

“My self enquiry practise was a deliberately very simple one. Nisargadatta once mentioned to take on the role of the witness or observer and to watch and learn the patterns and habits of the mind, and this I did. By consciously taking the role of witness, I was able to watch and question my thoughts, and often the question “is this thought me?” was enough to expose the thought as a phenomenon, as from the witness position it was inherently clear that I was watching thought arise and fall only. The thought then became irrelevant, it wasn’t my self, and that after all was what I was ultimately looking for. Whenever the thought then arose again in future it was simply ignored/discarded, it no longer mattered because I had already experienced and confirmed that it was not myself, so its impact ceased completely.”

I think the method he describes more or less flows over in what Michael Langford describes as “Awareness Watching Awareness”.

Enlightenment is perfectly and easily attainable. It is after all only recognition of what you already are. It only takes earnestness and dedication. If you half ass it then thoughts will create trap after trap after trap. Use your weapon, your conscious awareness. Understand your own mental habits and they will be destroyed, no thought can win against the gaze of your observing awareness. All thoughts fall. Channel your frustration, make everything work for you, use it as a driving strength. You are not a victim to anything, you are the source of all this and more.

Constantly being a silent observer or witness requires you ‘to be aware that you are aware’. Said in a different way: ‘to be aware that you are not thinking’, or ‘to be aware that you are not lost in thought’, or ‘to be aware that your mind is still’. When you do become aware of a thought, simply observing it will make it go away. According to Langford, it’s really this ‘being aware of your awareness’ that leads to self-realization. Since pure awareness is your true identity. The Soul.

Where ‘Mr. Barista’ differs from Langford, is that he practiced this method during his daily life as a barista. He didn’t really sit down to meditate, as far as I can tell, and simply continued with his hobbies, friendships etc. Langford spent hours and hours and hours a day sitting in solitude to achieve self-realization. Langford actually advises not to practice his method during daily activities, stating that it’s not effective. Personally, I think being a ‘witness’ works well both in a traditional meditation setting (sitting, closed eyes), as during simple daily activities like walking, cleaning, biking, and driving (at your own risk).

All in all a fascinating write-down of a personal experience of this spiritual practice, which is getting more and more the reputation of being the fastest path out there.