Shai Tubali is a leading authority in the field of self-development and self-empowerment. His writings and teachings combine psychology, philosophy, Yogic traditions, and Eastern thought into powerful processes of inner transformation. Born in Israel in 1976, by age 19, he was an active journalist and columnist in Israel’s major newspapers. He also wrote and directed a multi-awarded short film, After The Future. He has completed his Ph.D. in philosophy in mysticism, self-transformation, and Western philosophy at the University of Leeds, UK.
Interview by Phyllis King
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You have been writing since you were twelve. How did you write about the meaning of life at such a young age?
I was driven to write without understanding what I was doing. I found myself writing poems and essays about the meaning of life. I didn’t have the psychological maturity to grasp life’s meaning or the text I was crafting. There was an innate power guiding me. I come from the world of academic philosophy. Plato talked about soul remembrance. Things that concern the soul are things you are being reminded of rather than knowledge you acquire. This calling was a drive to follow what I already knew.
Did your family cultivate this in you?
They did not understand what I was doing. They had a certain admiration and respect. They did not appreciate my passions or inclinations. I felt like a little alien observing my classmates deeply engaged in human matters while I was elsewhere.
You became a journalist at 16.
I could write in complex and sophisticated ways. At 19, a prominent publishing house in Israel discovered one of my stories. I had given one of my stories to a friend. She took it to her mother. Her mother was a professor at the university. She sent it to a publisher. Several days later, I received a call. They wanted to sign a contract with me for my short stories.
That does not happen, at least in the United States. We should mention that currently, you have 23 books, and you’re probably writing another.
Yes, there is always some work in progress. I am always writing.
You combine psychological and spiritual with ancient wisdom, philosophy, and science. Is it even possible to do?
This is a profound question because it concerns my life work. From the beginning, there was an initial spiritual awakening that has become the seasonless inspiration in my life. Soon after this initial awakening, I told a friend that spiritual enlightenment is everything all at once. I did not understand what I was saying. There was a sense that all dimensions, the essential truths, are like facets of one diamond. If you look at the diamond from one particular facet and follow it all the way, you will reach absolute reality. If you choose another facet, you will discover the absolute reality. But they are different dimensions. Because of this innate passion or vision, I found myself constantly spreading out in every direction in this lifetime. There is a sense of constant expansion with the wish to enlighten, to illuminate all imaginable dimensions of human existence. I believe that there is a concealed light in every human dimension, whether it is the lowest or the highest. It is this passion to extricate the divine essence and realize it.
I love that explanation. You said you are here, not for yourself. What does that mean?
That is a powerful point you are making. I think what took place at the age of 23 was the dissolution of my autobiography. This was an experience where my personal self discontinued itself. It has to do with my understanding of Buddhist teachings and Hindu teachings about the illusion of the personal self. The idea that we are becoming more and are continuously becoming more of ourselves is an illusion. There is no becoming. That’s an image we hold in our minds. This image shattered at the age of 23. I have been completely unable to imagine myself in a state of becoming a part of time, as a part of space.
Why would I be here? There is no reason to be in form. The Buddha says we usually take form because we have a certain grasp, a certain clinging to experiences, and the possibility of becoming something and achieving something.
For me, as I release this grasping, clinging, and achieving, it makes me available. This is the beginning because you are now starting to discover life without the obscuring personal self, and only then does life reveal itself.
That is such an extraordinary explanation of that perception. Did something precipitate this awakening?
Yes, there are certain profound positive experiences, which I refer to as ‘positive traumas’, that leave imprints in our body, mind and heart. At 21, I began to seek spirituality, and I came across the world of transcendental meditation.
Along with the teachings of Osho and the books of Jiddu Krishnamurti, I came to a basic and approachable course on transcendental meditation. The teacher abruptly mentioned that if you follow this, you will achieve oneness with the universe. These words were like a cosmic bell ringing and reverberating throughout the entire universe. I asked him to repeat what he meant by becoming one with the universe. He explained a little. I knew I had to realize this for myself. This was a question of life and death for me. From that moment forward, I did not care about anything else. I followed this so passionately and totally that after two years, I was fortunate to receive this vision.
You’re a teacher, a philosopher, an academic, a scientist. You’ve embraced all dimensions that a human being can embrace. Do you have a partner or a family, or do you just belong to people in general?
That is an important point. When I was 26, I had the urge to engage in human affairs and challenge myself by being a part of the human family and creating a family myself. I married and gave birth to a child who is now 19 years old. A wonderful girl. But at a certain point, my vocation, feeling, and drive to belong to everyone overcame these primordial urges. At this point, I live as a celibate, and I live alone. This is pure joy and bliss and beauty. My ex-wife is my best friend to this day, and she is also a student and a collaborator. We have the most beautiful relationship I could ever imagine. That is a real blessing.
I noticed you have a new course about sexuality and love. You said it is not a good time to open up to love. What is your view about sexuality and opening our hearts to love?
That’s a huge door that you’re opening. We could access it from different directions. First, it should be clear that a true spiritual path will always focus on overcoming this sense that we are just half of something and are seeking to become complete by adding another half. In the same way, we are looking for a realization to become an autonomous source that generates its own uncaused emotions and feelings.
This means that everything we’ve ever hoped to receive from our surroundings, we can grant ourselves through the power of our consciousness. We need to learn how to transform the heart and how to mature ourselves psychologically, humanly, and spiritually in a way that we are able.
Of course, we can engage in relationships if we want to, but we don’t have to. In the same way, we don’t have to engage in sexuality. Sexuality can be an extension, an expression of what I call our raw sexual energy. But raw sexual energy doesn’t have to be used for these purposes. This does not mean that we become nonsexual. I am a complete sexual being, while I am celibate. Sexuality, in its transformed state, is an immense life force that generates tireless joy of life, passion and love, and compassion. This is how I would approach it initially.
I think most people would feel they’re giving something up or suffering a loss to achieve these ends.
This is a perceptive point. Yes, this is the thing- true renunciation is when you’re given something better than what you had. So yes, you are renouncing something, but not because we are letting go of one thing, but because we prefer something higher, more tremendous, more authentic. I usually recommend that people not renounce it as a form of a spiritual ideal.
I shouldn’t engage in sexuality, for instance, because sexuality is low. If you focus on increasing your spiritual awareness and your meditative capacity and spend more time with spiritual masters, at a certain point, you will realize you have renounced without attempting to do so.
This is natural, spontaneous renunciation. I have never chosen to be celibate. I’ve never thought, oh, now I want to be a monk because I will become admirable. I simply looked at sexuality and realized my body didn’t want it anymore. Why? Because it was now suffused with bliss. It was steeped in such immense bliss and satisfaction that I did not need physical touch, you see?
You explained it perfectly. Why do we resist meditation?
I think it’s wise to start with the negative because when we understand the negative, the positive is revealed by itself. We resist meditation because we maintain a certain ideal about meditation. When it becomes frustrating in actual practice, we become disappointed or disillusioned. We sit for meditation and quickly become distracted. We say, “Meditation is not for me. I’m not the type that can meditate,” and so on. What we don’t understand about meditation is that the process of struggle, the conflict that we have with meditation, and the distractions, are all a part of the practice and not outside of the practice. We are not thrown out of the practice. We are practicing meditation. What is meditation in actuality? It is the understanding of the mind, the understanding of the way the mind works, including the way the mind creates its imagined problems.
If you enter meditation embracing whatever the practice will bring and invite the difficulties and obstacles gladly, it will enable you to study your mind. By studying your mind, you will liberate your mind. That is a whole different approach, which includes the difficulty of meditation.
The resistance is part of it. The struggle is part of it.
Exactly. Your resistance is part of what you’re observing. Suddenly meditation becomes associated with learning more about yourself, and it becomes fascinating. It’s not a form of discipline for quieting the mind down, but it is a form of learning more about yourself. Then you can understand perhaps I resist because I cannot imagine myself existing without the world or without relating to something or to certain objects. Without being engaged in the world, I am nothing.
Perhaps I am afraid of this nothing. I’m afraid of this, of having no anchor, having no place to put myself or to identify myself.
I think this is why we continuously engage in action because we don’t know who we are without action. Remove relationships, remove actions. And who are we?
Another area you teach about is the chakras. Why do you focus on the chakras?
When I was 33, after seven years of studies with an American yogi, I was initiated into a certain Hindu tradition called the Nityananda tradition. Its founder was Bhagawan Nityananda, a great yogi who lived at the beginning of the 20th century. Its main practice is the understanding of the subtle body and the role of chakras, and the activation of Kundalini. After this initiation, I began to realize that chakras are so much more than these energy centers. When awakened, they lead us to spiritual liberation because that’s the traditional role of the chakras. You climb the ladder of these energy centers until you reach the 7th chakra, and that is the completion of your Kundalini awakening. Aside from that, chakras are the ultimate map for navigating our emotional and psychological maturation process. Chakras show us a way of life.
One of the most fascinating things about the chakras is that chakras even tell us what our personality type is. In other words, chakras are a typology of personalities. And this is my book. The Seven Chakra Personality Types.
You have over 23 books on your website in addition to the chakra books. Are you currently teaching these as courses?
Well, there is a reservoir of online courses, which are programs that I’ve taught in the past. I usually do not repeat myself. I don’t teach the same course or the same subject. Every year there are new courses about different dimensions because there is so much to reveal and so much to fulfill. If you want to embrace life with all your heart with all your mind, I think one lifetime is not enough.
I assume you’re always expanding into yourself.
That is correct. Always with ten books in mind! Sometimes I need to relax because I do need to respect the body’s limitations and the brain’s capacity. I do teach publicly. I teach continuously. I speak to groups. I don’t work one on one because that is just too much. But I did make a certain significant step lately, and it was to create a practicing community. It is open to everyone. This community practices the different practices that I’ve taught and developed throughout the years. Anyone can join and register on the website. This is an online community.
You have a YouTube channel as well. Is there something you’d like to share with EDEN readers we haven’t touched upon?
A message of encouragement. I would like to say that sometimes we are thrilled about visiting different countries and different exotic places. We think that external life, the life of objects, is a fascinating place to be. We are right. But we do need to understand that the inner universe is just as vast and, in fact, infinite. There are so many inner doors we can open. I’d encourage everyone to begin this journey into themselves in whatever way or form. Our work on the unconscious is the tip of the iceberg. Even if you begin your journey into yourself, you will discover that there is no end to this journey. You can travel and travel and never find the edge. You are infinite.
Shai, it has been my honor and pleasure to be with you today.
Thank you, Phyllis. Your questions have been so intriguing. So delightful.
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