Padma & Torsten
“We had a very clear commitment right from the start
that our relationship is in the service of Truth.”
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Full Interview with Padma & Torsten by John David
Deva Setu, who runs Jetzt-TV and is thus something of an expert on masters, suggested I interview Padma and Torsten. I liked this idea as they are younger, a couple, have a direct connection to Papaji and have translated for Gangaji and Eli. We met twice and I enjoyed the challenge of interviewing two people and dialoguing about their relationship in Truth.
– 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 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?
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?
Sri Ramana proposed the fundamental question, ‘Who am I?’- Who are you?
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?
Padma & Torsten`s teachings
Padma Wolff and Torsten Brügge teach from a nondual understanding shaped by the lineage of Sri Ramana Maharshi, Sri Poonjaji, Gangaji, and Eli Jaxon-Bear. At the center of their teaching is self-enquiry: the turning of attention away from objects, thoughts, feelings, and personal story, back toward the source of awareness itself. For them, the essential discovery is that no separate self can be found, and that what we truly are is prior to mind, identity, and experience.
At the same time, they do not present awakening as a rigid or purely transcendental path. Their work integrates spiritual enquiry with psychological awareness, acknowledging that conditioning, emotional patterns, and relational dynamics continue to surface and can become part of the path. They emphasize that awakening is not about becoming a special person, but about surrendering the illusion of separateness and allowing old structures to be seen through.
Their teaching also gives an important place to devotion, honesty, silence, and trust. They speak of the guru as both an outer and inner reality, and of practice as useful only when it points back to what is already present rather than reinforcing spiritual ambition. Whether in meditation, relationship, daily life, or moments of fear, their invitation is the same: to stay open, enquire deeply, and allow Truth to reveal itself in the immediacy of this moment.
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
“The mind is only a bundle of passing thoughts; when closely examined, it has no real substance of its own.”
– Torsten
“If your main interest is Truth, then everything is in service to that.”
– Padma