About John

John Weddepohl  |  Siddharthan सिद्धार्थन 

Deciding late in his life that what little fame and fortune had to offer was not good enough, hoping to catch a rare glimpse (darshan) of what the sages and prophets call truth, in India John found that there is only truth – we just haven’t seen it yet!

Hearing that long before we search for it Truth has already found us, and that happiness is constant, we just don’t know where to look, finding all his questions getting answered, John couldn’t stop listening.    

Finding the sweetness missing in his life was always himself, the gap in his education was filled by Self-knowledge.

Not knowing why we are here or where existence is taking us, left to fill in the blanks by ourselves, our education leaves a huge gaping hole in our lives. The size of the universe, having filled in and named all the other names for us, education fails to name the namer. Naming everything else relative to us, who is the namer naming everything? The most important thing missing being ourselves, until someone fills in the missing piece and fills the vacuum by pointing out the identity of the namer, our lives can never be complete. Filling the blackhole, the solution always easy is only pending discovery. Available 24/7 it goes unnoticed. Who is ‘I’? Who is the mystery namer? As long as ‘I’ stays hidden, the solution ever ‘closer than the closest’ is creations best kept secret. The Grand Prize of the universe being ourselves, ‘I’ being the only mystery, always nearer than the nearest, unless its meaning is pointed out, that long we can never be stay happy.

Feeling incomplete we are all that’s missing. To remove the blackhole of darkness for good, someone just has to point it out. Self, being the only thing mysterious and missing, education completely leaves it out. Self-knowledge fills the hole and completes the picture.  

Once we recognise ourselves as we are already, without name, CV, bank account, identity, the blackhole disappears. Being the perfect fit, we find perfect peace and happiness. Having always been the destination, we bring the missing piece with us and, needing no more looking, the teacher points it out and the search is over.

In the universal mystery you complete the mystery. Without you the mystery is incomplete. You also bring the only solution. Barring you, the universe is not a mystery. You are the only mystery. Difficult is not seeing or believing it. Truth being ourselves, once it is pointed out, is not difficult to see. Difficult is to accept how we missed it for so long. Accepting the Truth as it is. And, how Truth could have been us all along, ever present, so close, yet we kept on avoiding and missing it. 

Simpler than the simplest: ‘Encountering the destination of yoga in Self-knowledge, I discovered the timeless solution that is ever oneself. Already the completeness that I was looking for and destination, happiness, always ever reached and ever complete, all I needed was to have it pointed out. Once I heard it for myself, the search was over.’  

Finding yoga at nineteen, John took to yoga like a duck to water. Urged by his teacher ISHTA founder Alan Finger to start teaching, John was taking classes and leading meditation within ten days. “It was was like I’d never stopped.” Opening ISHTA yoga with Alan and his father Mani Finger in downtown Johannesburg in 1971, located on the top floor of the city’s first flea market, under South Africa’s apartheid regime, the building soon became a hotbed of anti-establishment radicalism. Forced to shut down by the authorities, John found himself looking for a job.

A talented musician from the age of seven, finding success as a singer-songwriter John started recording and performing with some of South Africa’s popular bands. After recording a number of local and international hits, John found his niche scoring music for film and television.

Awarded internationally for his work, despite enjoying the fruits of success, feeling something was missing, he started exploring African wilderness areas. Visiting Namibia and Okavango Delta,  he found the flame of yoga could not be extinguished. In 2004, after the release of Nelson Mandela from prison, the cultural boycott banning South Africans from visiting India was lifted, and John travelled to India to live as a western sadhu साधु.

Meeting his gurudev, Swamiji suggested that the only thing missing in his life was himself! Suggesting that we all carry nothing but the complete solution with us, that the perfect solution is nowhere but ourselves, hearing the words of his guru John withdrew into the seclusion of ‘Self-Knowledge Village’ in Tiruvanamalai. Immersing himself in the wisdom tradition of the veda/upanishads under the holy mountain of Arunachala, and listening to the teachings of Atma Gnanam on his guru’s ashram, he discovered the ever fresh secret talked about in the upanishads is ever oneself. Self-knowledge of the veda/upanishads, points out the fullness that we seek that is never absent. Ever full like the sun, only lost in clouds, until we gain the knowledge of completeness, we miss it. The most important piece always nearer than the nearest, is not the ‘Long walk to Freedom’ we imagine. Pointing out the beauty that is ever present as oneself, (we just don’t know it or, how to recognise it) Swamiji, removed his blind spot and, like the sun rising in the morning, Self-knowledge shining through the darkness removed all the clouds of mystery and doubt. Recognising the Self as ever reached, ever gained, John’s understanding exploded. Like a dormant volcano, discovering the Grandest Prize and creations greatest secret to be man himself, Self-knowledge erupts.