About Pete Sumner
Pete grew up in Melbourne, Australia, and was training as a high-school teacher when he had an accident which caused the loss of his sight. After rehabilitation, he retrained and worked as a welfare officer and teacher of blind and deaf-blind adults.
Pete married Pearl in 1966 and together they founded and served in an aid and relief organisation, now known as CBMI (Australia), which supports projects in the fields of education, vocational training for people with disabilities and of prevention and cure of blindness.
In 1997, Pete and Pearl concluded their work with CBMI and presently reside in the historic port city of Fremantle, Western Australia. They named their home and teaching/counselling center, Gurukula.
In 1998, Pete established the Peter's Pearls Web site and commenced a daily inspirational email service which presently sends to interested subscribers around the world gems of insight from the wisdom of noted enlightenment teachers.
In his fifties, Pete began to study the writings of the Christian mystics and developed an intense longing to know the ultimate reality that the great spiritual masters had found.
The search was long and at times agonising, but eventually, awakening came suddenly one morning as he mounted some steps on his way to work in West Perth. Since then he has enjoyed the immense liberation and understanding that only the realisation.of Oneness can bring.
"I said Oh no! Help me! And that Oh no! became a rope let down in my well. I've climbed out to stand here in the sun. One moment I was at the bottom of a dark fearful narrowness, and the next, I am not contained by the universe. If every tip of every hair on me could speak, I still couldn't say my gratitude. In the middle of these streets and gardens, I stand and say and say again, and it's all I say, I wish everyone could know what I know."
~ Rumi.
Pete has written more about his spiritual journey >Here.
About that time, Pearl also had a similar awakening, so together they now rest and delight in knowing That which can only be indicated but never defined by words. This shift of consciousness seems to be happening to more and more people in our time and below, you can read an account by Bruce Nagle of his awakening.
In 1991, Pete had recovered some useful eyesight as the result of a successful corneal transplant and was eventually able to read ordinary print with strong magnifying glasses etc. This enabled him to deepen his understanding by studying the works of seers such as Meister Eckhart, Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta Maharaj, Ramesh Balsekar, Jean Klein, Eckhart Tolle, Adyashanti and others.
With Pearl, Pete now hosts a range of activities at Gurukula to give those interested opportunities to hear acknowledged contemporary spiritual teachers who assist inquirers to discover the divine Teasure within -- the Treasure they are.
Pete also offers spiritual direction for serious inquirers -- a process that directs their attention to Who or What they really are and enables them to live in Presence Awareness with deepening freedom, joy, peace and love.
The counselling, spiritual direction and prisoner support work operates under the name of Clearsight. Clearsight's Internet services include this Web site, Peter's Pearls and The Seer.
THE SEER -- is a non-duality blog and weekly newsletter maintained by Pete. It features spontaneous spiritual direction, articles, poetry and humor from a variety of sources. To subscribe or see the latest postings, >Click Here.
You may also like to read of Philip St. Romain's similar 'awakening'.
Arrived at his goal, the truly Awakened one is, in fact, not Christian in any ordinary sense. He has broken loose from his parent tradition and become universal, above all distinctions whatever.
But on his way there he has had a hard time of it. It's no easy task to reconcile his direct vision with his inherited faith.
His intuition of the One, his dawning identification with the One, his clear sight of that One as the Light or Emptiness within, his resulting freedom from all desire and emotion and even love for man or God, his inability to meditate in the prescribed fashion (visualising, for instance, the Passion of Christ), or to pray, or to think good thoughts, or even to think at all -- these sure evidences of his Enlightenment must at first seem to him grave spiritual defects.
To his spiritual counsellors or former co-religionists they may seem downright sinful.
All the same, it is his direct experience, his original contact with the Real -- ignored by the majority, condemned by the orthodox -- which is the heart of this religion, as of all other religions. It is what makes Christianity true.
Because he gets to the Root, becomes that nourishing Root, he becomes also the whole tree with all its leaves and fruits.
Ultimately, the Mystic or Realised Christian has no preferences, no personal opinions.
He doesn't pick and choose among the innumerable sects and doctrines of Christianity.
Because he rests in their common Source, he is free of it all, and it is all very good indeed.
From Religions of the World: A handbook for the open-minded. by Douglas E Harding, page 68.
See also Richard Woods' article on: Meister Eckhart.
To read more on the deeper non-dual teachings of Jesus that awakened and inspired the Christian mysics, >Click Here.