Christopher Titmuss
The world just comes and it goes. I don’t have to destroy the world; I don’t have to end the world. It’s quietly, easily ending from one moment to the next without me.
I don’t have this incredible task and responsibility of trying to end this world in order for realisation to happen. World is ending itself every moment.
– Christopher Titmuss
Full Interview with Cristopher Titmuss by John David
While with Papaji in Lucknow in 1993 I heard about Christopher giving talks in Bodhigaya, India, and at Bodhi Farm, Australia. I had wanted to meet him and my chance came in Tiruvannamalai in 2009. He immediately agreed to an interview and although busy with his retreat he met me the next day. He is very English, funny, playful and profound. We just had that delightful, joyful interview time together.
– John David
Questions and Answers
You have given us a profound discourse on awakening. When you meet a passion for awakening, what would your short advice be?
Seekers often have curious ideas about the enlightened state. Please describe your typical day and how you perceive the world.
Sri Ramana’s devotees had tremendous devotion to him, and he to Arunachala. Please say something about bhakti, devotion, in the pursuit of awakening.
It appears essential to meet a guru and stay with that guru. Who is the guru? What is the guru’s role? How to recognise a true guru?
What about Destiny? Do you expect things to simply happen or are you expressing your free will and choosing?
What about vasanas, the tendencies of the mind? Must these be removed before Self-realisation can become permanent? Is it enough to achieve a sattvic (calm and peaceful) state of mind and to know one’s vasanas so that they no longer bind? How to remove the vasanas?
It has been suggested that the mind must be destroyed for liberation to occur, Do you have a mind? Sri Ramana used the term manonasha to describe the state of liberation, meaning destroyed mind. How to destroy the mind?
When Sri Ramana was asked, ‘When will the realisation of the Self be gained?’ he replied, ‘When the world which is what-is-seen has been removed, there will be realisation of the Self which is the seer.” What is the true understanding of the world? How to remove the world?
Sri Ramana said that Self-enquiry is the most direct route to realising the Self. What do you say about Self-enquiry? How to conduct Self-enquiry?
Are there any qualifications for enlightenment? Is sadhana (spiritual practice) necessary? If yes, what form do you advise?
Many Western seekers come to India looking for enlightenment as if it is an experience, What is enlightenment?
Sri Ramana proposed the fundamental question, ‘Who am I?’- Who are you?
Christopher Titmuss's teachings
Christopher Titmuss teaches a grounded path of awakening through honest self-inquiry and freedom of being. He emphasizes that enlightenment is not a dramatic event but a natural unfolding, and warns against the Western fixation on achieving special states. The sense of ‘I’ is seen as a temporary landing, and true enquiry reveals that what we take to be self is not who we really are.
He values practice but only when it arises authentically—not from striving or ego. The mind is not an enemy to be destroyed, but a tool that becomes harmless when not identified with. Vasanas, or mental tendencies, don’t need to be eliminated for realization to occur; what matters is spaciousness and clarity.
Titmuss rejects rigid ideas of destiny or free will, seeing life as an unfolding process beyond control. He sees the true master as Truth itself, not a person, and prefers spiritual friendship over devotion to a figure. Devotion is respected, but only when paired with enquiry and free from projection. His core message is to live with presence, love, and freedom—not as a goal, but as our natural state.
appears in
Blueprints for Awakening – European Masters
European Spiritual Masters
John David has been interviewing fourteen European Spiritual Masters. The result is a compendium of astonishing wisdom about the biggest secret of all times: the Nature of our True Self and how to realise it.
This book answers all questions of the spiritual search and is for everyone who has an inner passion to find out who they are.
Other Ramana Maharshi Books
Aham Sphurana – A Glimpse of Self Realisation [Volume 1]
Fascinating dialogues and stories of Ramana Maharshi recorded by Sri Gajapathi Aiyyer in the summer 1936, at Ramana Ashram.
Vichara – Self Enquiry,
Who am I? [Volume 2]
Vichara offers a fresh and focused exploration of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi’s most profound teaching: Self-enquiry.
Sharanagathi – Surrender,
Letting go. [Volume 3]
Sharanagathi explores Bhagavan’s direct and powerful path of dissolving the ego through surrender.
Biography
Christopher Titmuss is a spiritual teacher, author, and former Buddhist monk, born in London in 1944. After a deep period of inner searching, he spent a decade in Asia—six of those years as a monk in Thailand and India—studying closely under Ajahn Dhammadharo and Ajahn Buddhadasa. These years shaped his grounded, insight-based approach to freedom.
Since the 1970s, he has taught internationally—in Europe, Australia, and India—guiding seekers toward liberation through mindfulness, honest self-inquiry, and a life free from spiritual clichés. He champions what he calls the “freedom of being,” a natural state beyond ego, concepts, and striving. His teaching is direct yet compassionate, encouraging individuals to recognize the unconditioned Self within the simplicity of everyday life.
Freedom of being lets love and wisdom manifest itself.
– Christopher Titmuss
We’re not trying to make ourselves perfect. A lot of that tendency just seems like a daydream, and one wonders, ‘What happened to that tendency? The things that used to make me mad or give me sleepless nights just seem to have gone!
– Christopher Titmuss
