Ep346: Tantric Scholar-Practitioner - Dr Christopher “Hareesh” Wallis
Dr Christopher “Hareesh” Wallis is a Sanskritist and scholar-practitioner of Classical Tantra.
Available on Youtube, iTunes, SoundCloud & Spotify – search ‘Guru Viking Podcast’.
Christopher recounts his unusual upbringing, early meetings with Osho and Muktananda, early shaktipat experiences, and powerful spiritual awakenings.
Christopher traces his educational journey under professors such as Douglas Brooks and Alexis G. J. S. Sanderson, offers his opinions about optimal pedagogy for Sanskrit language study, and questions lineage claims made in Tibetan Buddhism.
Christopher also considers the tension between religious faith and academic skepticism, explains why he thinks it is possible to receive spiritual benefit from corrupt gurus, and descries why he believes spiritual awakening leads to a deep trust in the unfolding of life.
00:00 - Intro
00:57 - An unusual family of origin
03:28 - Mother’s conversion to Hinduism
03:50 - Meeting Osho and Swami Muktananda
05:17 - Awakening experience at 16 years old
05:55 - Attraction to Tantric Shaivism
07:35 - Academic training and intellectual infatuation
09:00 - Multiple teachers
10:13 - Seeing through intellectual ego
12:57 - Teenage rebellion and psychedelics
14:44 - Love of sci fi and fantasy
17:05 - Siddha yoga shaktipat
18:33 - Gurumayi Chidvilasananda
20:33 - Heart opening shaktipat
24:01 - Saint or psychopath?
28:26 - The guru’s shadow
30:18 - Transmission from a disgraced guru
32:25 - No single objective reality
35:32 - No doubts despite guru’s flaws
38:18 - Has Christopher missed the point?
39:53 - Parsing subjective certainty
41:55 - A belief but not really
43:21 - Innate intelligence and trusting the unfolding of life
46:50 - Harmonising with the pattern
50:17 - Don’t pretend to be more enlightened that you are
51:56 - The same awakening as the Buddha’s
54:22 - Waking up out of your tradition
55:32 - Agnosticism about reincarnation
57:29 - BA at Rochester
01:00:53 - Alexis G. J. S. Sanderson
01:05:40 - Great professors at Rochester
01:08:22 - Learning Sanskrit
01:11:12 - Art of translation
01:13:27 - Sanskrit pedagogy
01:16:42 - Christopher’s approach to teaching Sanskrit
01:21:19 - Why learn Sanskrit?
01:24:10 - Parallel primer method
01:26:06 - Does academia ruin religious faith?
01:30:39 - Mantra disillusionment
01:34:40 - Disillusionment with saints and siddhas
01:38:10 - Religious professors
01:39:13 - Debunking tantric lineage claims
01:42:05 - Did Tibetan Buddhists fabricated their lineages?
01:43:10 - Tantric Shaivism as a living tradition
01:46:16 - Is Christopher a lineage holder?
01:48:04 - Critique of lineage holders and lamas