Printed in the Summer 2025 issue of Quest magazine.
Citation: Sugg, Judith, "Open to the Unknown: The Teachings of Jean Klein" Quest 113:3, pg 33-36
By Judith Sugg
While in a bookstore thirty years ago, I purchased a pamphlet containing Jean Klein’s 1989 lectures. I must have been intrigued enough to buy it then, but the booklet languished on a shelf for decades. I picked it up again only a couple of years ago, and it became my morning reading.
There are many beautiful and inspiring books, yet rarely have I had the experience of reading a work that bypassed my thinking mind and landed somewhere more arcane. Later, I read Klein’s advice not to try to hold on to the words but instead let the writing dissolve inside.
As a psychologist, I have pondered the meaning of personality and ego. Psychologically, our patterns of thought and behavior, often established very early in life, build on themselves over time. Humans are creatures of habits, predictable and stubborn, and these habits extend to interactions with others and patterns of thought and feeling. Our personality requires energy to maintain and even more to change. Our ego is a defense of who we view ourselves to be in the world, helping us navigate the stresses of life and buffering our self-image. What we call a strong ego shows up in a person’s resilience and confidence in their conviction of right and good.
Yet many spiritual texts abjure the primacy of the ego and personality. The ego obscures our understanding of our true nature and directs us toward the survival of the body and personality. In the language of yoga, the ego creates avidya: confusion about who we really are. We are deluded and trapped into thinking we are this creature of habits that needs protection, cultivation, and stroking. Spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle said it well: “All the misery on the planet arises due to a personalized sense of me or us. That covers up the essence of who you are. When you are unaware of that inner essence, in the end you always create misery. It’s as simple as that” (Tolle, 52).
If we see truth in this characterization, how do we unlock this trap? It is impossible to think our way through the confusion, since thinking itself is the core of the problem. Klein’s dialogues slice through this dilemma. Personality habits are body-mind contractions—a “defense against being nobody” (Klein, Transmission, xxvi).
The influence of Advaita Vedanta flows through Klein’s work, and many fundamental truths of Advaita have found a home in Theosophy. This article highlights some of his teachings using his phrases and themes, including Presence, thought, subject-object orientation, and integration through bodywork.
Jean Klein
Klein’s personal biography is sparse. A European medical doctor born around 1912, he had a lively intellect, spoke at least four languages, and played the violin throughout his life. He read René Guénon, Krishnamurti, and Sri Aurobindo and was introduced to Theosophy early on. His spiritual search led him to India in the 1950s, where a teacher guided him in understanding Advaita Vedanta, the nondual tradition of Sri Ramana Maharshi. He died in 1998.
According to Klein, Advaita is neither religion nor philosophy, but simply the truth. After leaving India, he began teaching the direct approach to Realization, focusing on self-inquiry and immediate experience, in both Europe and America.
The books attributed to him are transcripts of his teaching. Klein resolutely avoided taking on the mantle or attributes of a guru. What is teachable, he said, belongs to the personality, the mind. He had no technique to sell or approach for others to master.
Klein did not necessarily intend to have listeners remember his words but rather would receive their taste or flavor and note how they stimulated wakefulness. He spoke directly from his experience and rarely used religious or philosophical terminology. Students described a joyful, loving, peaceful Presence without expectations or agenda, living in the moment and unbound by personality.
Presence
Klein uses the word “Presence” to express the ultimate reality. We may access Presence through self-inquiry, but we can never know it through our everyday minds. We know ourselves as Presence by identifying what we are not, much like a sculptor removing the excess marble that hides the artistic creation. Under inquiry, the mind will eventually halt, igniting transformation. Liberation is freedom from personality and self-image. “It’s quite an explosion to see that you are nothing, and then to live completely attuned to this nothingness” (in Bodian, 7). Many of us have had a foretaste of this experience that orients us and inspires us to continue.
When the personality/ego dissolves, one is entirely in Presence, in silence. A mind tuned to truth is alert, aware, and subtle. Thought and action happen, but they are tools to be used and put away when done. This is Klein’s definition of right action: clear action and functional knowledge arising from the silence of Presence, creating no thought or memory. A person retains functional knowledge and skill, but personal memory is disengaged. We act according to the circumstance; there is no continuing internal dialogue. In other words, life is viewed without the personality’s projection. Actions are clean and natural.
It can be helpful to consider the opposite: When we are self-conscious—meaning there are layers of self-talk about our safety, status, and image—we incessantly judge our own actions. This endless self-judgment generates fear, anxiety, and more cycles of mental activity. Future action is either heavy with criticism or impulsive, to avoid the criticism. Actions remain enmeshed with the mind.
Each breath offers the opportunity to approach Presence. If we wait, there is a pause at the end of the exhalation before the inhale begins naturally. During this pause, if we pay attention, the mechanics of the mind are quieter. Yoga teachers sometimes call this pause a look into eternity.
Subject-Object Orientation
In our personality and psychology, we are subjects perceiving objects—people, things, thoughts, aspirations, goals, memories. We are fascinated by desire, yet when we attain our goal, the relief and joy are brief. We may wish to be admired, so we focus our desire on a fancy car, an award, or some other indication of status. In doing so, we become bound to this object. We might even desire a state of peace or tranquility, but these states are still temporary and still objects of desire. In response, Klein poses the question: don’t we really want to be without longing or striving—to exist in desirelessness?
Achieving our desire, be it a new car or a calm state, brings a moment of respite. It is a moment of relaxation and satiation mirroring openness and Presence. However, it doesn’t last; something else glitters and attracts our attention. Klein suggests that we make note of these brief respites as a way of witnessing our patterns.
The opposite of the ego cycle is nondirectional openness, where the mind and body are profoundly relaxed and free of grasping. This comes through understanding the cycle of desire, which stops the mind from its looping. Energy is dispersed, no longer focused on the desired object, and we find ourselves in openness and spaciousness.
Is this attention the same as mindfulness? No, since mindfulness is mindful of an object or environment. Pure consciousness has no object and is free from intention. Attention is free from direction and location; it is open and welcoming.
Thought
In its proper place, thought is a tool to be used and put away when done. Our essence is Silence, and what arises from Silence is real. Whatever surfaces from everyday thought is ego-based. This stream of words and images combines comparison, judgment, habitual reactions, and memory. It is defensive, defending the ego, and aggressive. “The mind is incessantly looking not only for food for thought; it is looking for food for its identity, its sense of self” (Tolle, 27).
Thought arises from memory, and memory creates our understanding of time. Yet in actuality, a memory is not in the past. The memory is happening now as we think or experience it. Reactions are automatic, based on similarities from the past. We are built from habits; thus we rarely experience present time.
One theory of aging says that we stop truly experiencing the moment and only recall our conclusions or judgments of a similar time or experience. For example, we mindlessly eat a food we “know” we like without really tasting it. Our thoughts are rarely grounded in current perception—they’re grounded in habit.
Thought is mainly about judgment, what Klein calls qualification. It begins with naming and instantaneously moves to evaluation. We like or don’t like. We criticize or praise. We compare and compete. What is left without analysis, judgment, ego-boosting comparisons, or criticism? William James, the early American psychologist and philosopher, coined the term “stream of consciousness” to describe how we link our behavior patterns to form our sense of self. Removing judgment, comparisons, competition, and criticism leaves little in the stream! “When you are free from thinking, you find the seed of love” (Klein, Book of Listening, 251).
Klein avoids techniques. Instead, he speaks of self-inquiry and understandings or insights that cause the mind to halt its production. As we observe our reactions, we see how the mind jumps from sensation to naming, then to judgments, comparisons, and criticisms. Evaluations are frequent and often consistent – I like this, I don’t like this; that’s better or worse; that is right or wrong; they should have or not have. Some of these thoughts are overt, but many are subtle, especially those about one’s own behavior. In observing what we are not—the thinking, the contractions, and the judgment—we remove the false coverings of the mind.
The witness is an intermediary that assists in dissolving habits. I have found that when I observe the mind in its judgment, I can say, “Not this.” If I start to judge myself for judging, it is “not this.” If I begin to resist because the appeal for judging is strong, it is “not this.” The mind eventually fatigues, and attention becomes more spacious.
Many meditation techniques aim to quiet the mind through focus or concentration. For Klein, this is neither meditation nor enlightenment. Meditation is being in Presence or silence, not practicing and creating an object of meditation states. In one conversation, he explains that “when we find out that the meditator, the one who looks for God, for beauty, for peace, is only a product of the brain that there is nothing to find, there is a giving up. What remains is a current of silence. You can never come to this silence through practice, through achievement. Enlightenment—being understanding—is instantaneous” (Bodian, 4).
The Yoga Sutras tell us that the purpose of yoga is the stilling of the fluctuations of the mind. Is this the same as stopping the mind? I think not. Klein might note that we are already back in the ego when we set a goal to stop the thought stream. The direct approach is not progressive; there is no hierarchy or ladder to climb. When we are in silence, the mind-body structure will think and then return to silence. When we are in ego, stopping the mind is like building a dam; when meditation stops, the thoughts come rushing back. Haven’t most of us had the experience of a deep meditation where the experience of peace fades five minutes after the bell rings?
Psychology has several techniques for effectively clearing intrusive thoughts, and these bring a modicum of peace. Yet the mind is always looking for the next shiny object, and if we are still patterned in thought and action, the silence is momentary. I have found that, psychologically, letting go is positive and valuable but insufficient.
Thoughts impact the body. When we think, there is some subtle reaction or contraction in the body. Deep relaxation assists in dissolving automatic responses. Klein suggests that we can even learn to relax the brain. Thinking primarily stems from the front of the brain, the frontal lobes. Moving thoughts to the back of the head changes and drastically reduces their production. What happens when you experiment with relaxing the face, scalp, and head and allow thoughts to move to the back of the mind?
Bodywork
Klein taught a subtle bodywork process based on Kashmiri yoga, emphasizing the sensations and feelings in the body without naming or evaluating them. The awakening of subtle energies purifies the body. This process reveals the tensions and holdings— the mind-body structure of personality.
The contractions and patterns of our body-mind complex give us little access to the pure sensations of the body. In subtle ways, our body memory reminds us of our lacks, hurts, and wants. As a yoga teacher, I find that beginning students often have simple scales of sensation: this is bad, this feels good. Discovering the connections and patterns and learning to release these energies can result in subtle exploration, deep relaxation, and insight.
The body is a warehouse of memories, tensions, and contractions. If you relax your body and then think of a minor negative interaction, do you feel a contraction somewhere in your body? Klein says that we have to know the body—understand these contractions—before we can understand who we are not. “One could say that the I-image is a contraction of the body. Feeling the expansion of your body in space eliminates the hold of the I” (Klein, Invitation to Silence, 5).
Try this experiment: Notice a part of you that hurts or aches. Notice a part that feels good or neutral. Focus on that sensation—the feeling of health or neutrality—and transfer that sensation to the part of you that hurts. I recently broke my wrist, and when I read this suggestion, I immediately transferred the sensation of the left arm (neutral, alive) to the sensation of the right (achy and stiff). Try your own version!
Endgaming
Endgaming encompasses mental movements toward a goal or desire. Psychologically, this might include overt goals such as “I want a new job,” yet even something as complex as a new job can have layers of desire. I want a new job to feed my family, gain status, or avoid a bad boss. The layers of what we want or don’t want, and our approaches to quenching the desire, result in a labyrinth of thoughts and behaviors. I may want a new car, but that car is often more than transportation. It involves how I feel about my worth, safety, and self-worth. “Searching and wanting to achieve something are the fuel for the entity you believe yourself to be” (Klein, Invitation to Silence, 14).
Endgaming takes up much of our mental activity. When I think about what I wear, I hope (endgame) for a particular response from others. In a way, I’m trying to influence other people’s reactions or responses, build self-image, or avoid negative judgment—all of that in just picking the shirt to wear! We endgame in relationships, direct or manipulate conversation, and position ourselves to be noticed or avoided—the list is endless.
Psychologically, these convoluted and unconscious paths of thought and behavior are old patterns and habits. We long for attention, safety, and love and have found strategies to help us achieve those goals. Klein often asks, “Who wants this? Who is bored? Who is scared?”
Spiritual search itself can be a form of endgaming. We believe if we do enough, learn enough, and achieve enough, we will earn our freedom. This strikes me as one of my own deeply embedded beliefs. Yet it is still all about ego and mind, and is still psychology, not freedom.
Personal Impact
Things have changed over the two years of reading Klein’s work daily. I have sensed peace and openness in my daily life, and I’m amused by my own reactivity. Really, who is that person who just said or did that? As a planner by inclination, I have observed the layers of endgaming that accompany even small actions. In noticing, it is easier to detach, and I find a sense of spaciousness and love. There is more just being here.
Sources
Bodian, Stephan. “Be Who You Are: An Interview with Jean Klein”: www.stephanbodian.org, 2020.
Klein, Jean. The Book of Listening. Salisbury, U.K.: Non-Duality Press, 2008.
———. Invitation to Silence. Salisbury, U.K.: New Sarum Press, 2023.
———. Living Truth. Oakland, Calif.: Non-Duality Press, 1995.
———. Open to the Unknown: Dialogues in Delphi. Salisbury, U.K.: New Sarum Press, 2020.
———. Transmission of the Flame. Salisbury, U.K.: New Sarum Press, 1990.
———. Who Am I? The Sacred Quest. Longmead, U.K.: Element, 1988.
Tolle, Eckhart. Stillness Speaks. Mumbai, India: Yogi Impressions, 2003.
Judith Sugg, PhD, is a counselor, psychology instructor, and yoga teacher. Her graduate work was in the psychology of yoga and the Samkhya, and she wrote the Study Guide for the Yoga Sutras for the Theosophical Society.