Who it is for
For people interested in non-duality who like to listen to spoken talks and to ask questions in live meetings, mostly online.
Life and places
- In her own account she practised in a Buddhist group for five years from around 2000, and in 2005 went to a talk by Tony Parsons, whose meetings she then attended for about a year and a half. 9, 10
- She then met Ramesh Balsekar and lived for three years in Australia with Roger Castillo, a student of Balsekar, whom she names as her main teacher. 9, 10, 11
- She dates the shift from which she speaks to Bali in 2011. Recordings of her talks appear on her YouTube channel from 2011, among them talks in Tiruvannamalai, Belgium, New York, Goa and Sweden. 2, 6
- She now speaks mainly through live streams and small group events, online and at retreats in Europe. 1, 2
Where to start
Public context
- Her disclaimer says that sessions, meetings and retreats with her are spiritual in nature and no substitute for medical, psychological or legal advice or treatment. 5
- Her book For the Love of Everything (2016) is a transcription of her talks from 2011 to 2014, reworded into written form by Julie Rumbarger; her website says she is not its publisher. 3, 12, 13
Works
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What is Non Duality
Video · 2017 · Lisa Cairns (YouTube)
A talk of 18 minutes on what non-duality points to: presence and the sense of being as who one is, identification with a separate person in time as the source of suffering, and waking up as a movement back to that being, whose integration into the person does not end.
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For the Love of Everything
Book · 2016 · CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Transcriptions of her talks from 2011 to 2014, reworded into written form by Julie Rumbarger: short chapters followed by questions and answers.
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Lisa Cairns: The Illusion of Cause & Effect, & the Fall of the Separate Self
Video · 2012 · Buddha at the Gas Pump (Rick Archer)
An interview with Rick Archer in which she tells of her path from Buddhism to Tony Parsons, Ramesh Balsekar and Roger Castillo, and speaks about doership, cause and effect, relative and absolute truth and the role of teachers and practices.
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The Hardest Lesson I Have Learned in 25 years of Non duality
Video · 2025 · Lisa Cairns (YouTube)
A short talk on what she calls the hardest lesson of her years with non-duality: that it takes all of one's life and asks for a surrender of personal will, moment by moment; it ends with a story she heard Anandamayi Ma tell.
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Chauffeured through our lives,
Text · 2019 · Lisa Cairns (lisacairns.com)
A short text on how the belief in being a separate self begins to give way, and on the question of who is reading.
The short summaries are ours.
In their own words
Short passages in the words of Lisa Cairns, each with its source. Where the quoted text is not in the language of this page, a translation follows and says whose it is.
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At some point standing still, a few of us will examine the details of our experience and it will become apparent that we are not singular objects floating through a hostile world, fending off loneliness... but in fact splinters of One.
Chauffeured through our lives, · Paragraph 4 · lisacairns.com -
The suffering isn't the thoughts, the feelings, the ideas, the sensations, even if they're painful sensations or painful thoughts, that's not the problem. The problem is that which identifies with that being who you are.
What is Non Duality · 5:40–5:57 · youtube.com Recorded: Her own voice in a talk published on her YouTube channel. Our full transcription and two further runs on windows around the passage agree word for word; the channel has no subtitles by her, so the punctuation is ours. -
It really is moment by moment, like what flow wants, like what the divine, the spirit, whatever you call it, that energy wants. And it's like complete surrender of any personal will.
The Hardest Lesson I Have Learned in 25 years of Non duality · 3:34–3:49 · youtube.com Recorded: Her own voice in a talk published on her YouTube channel. Our full transcription and two further runs on windows around the passage agree word for word; the channel has no subtitles by her, so the punctuation is ours.
Documented teaching relationships
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Learned personally with Roger Castillo
In a 2012 interview on Buddha at the Gas Pump, Lisa Cairns names Roger Castillo, a student of Ramesh Balsekar, as her teacher and says she moved to Australia to live with him; in a 2024 interview she calls him her main teacher.
Self-reported · youtube.com , batgap.com , mysticmag.com
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Learned personally with Tony Parsons
In a 2012 interview on Buddha at the Gas Pump, Lisa Cairns says she went to a talk by Tony Parsons in 2005, then spent a year to a year and a half with him, going to his meetings and reading his books, and had an awakening in that time; in 2024 she names his teachings among those that led her to her main teacher.
Self-reported · youtube.com , mysticmag.com
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Personal encounter with Ramesh Balsekar
In a 2012 interview on Buddha at the Gas Pump, Lisa Cairns says she met Ramesh Balsekar about a year before she met Roger Castillo, and that Balsekar told her that if she wanted peace of mind she had to listen to Roger.
Self-reported · youtube.com , batgap.com
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Teaching influenced by Nisargadatta Maharaj
In a 2024 interview, Lisa Cairns calls Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj her teacher although he died before she could meet him: his message reached her through her own teachers, which she realised when she read his book. Her website's home page opens with a saying of his.
Self-reported · mysticmag.com , lisacairns.com
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Teaching influenced by Eckhart Tolle
In a 2024 interview, Lisa Cairns says a fellow member of a Buddhist group introduced her to Eckhart Tolle's book The Power of Now, which opened her eyes to non-duality; in 2012 she said she had been so in love with Eckhart Tolle when she was younger.
Self-reported · mysticmag.com , batgap.com
Teaching relationships are documented statements. They confer no trust and do not attest realisation.
Sources
- Lisa Cairns Her own website: home page with her retreats, the Sages Book Club and her weekly live talk on YouTube. accessed 19 Oct 2026
- About Lisa · Lisa Cairns Her own account of a shift in Bali in 2011, of the places where she has spoken and of how she speaks today. accessed 19 Oct 2026
- Book Store · Lisa Cairns Page of her website on For the Love of Everything and its translations, with the note that the book is a transcription of her talks from 2011 to 2014 and that she is not its publisher. accessed 19 Oct 2026
- Join Live Stream · Lisa Cairns Page of her website on her live streams, a WhatsApp channel for updates and a Telegram group for questions and non-recorded sessions. accessed 19 Oct 2026
- Disclaimer · Lisa Cairns (PDF) Disclaimer linked from every page of her website, on what one-to-one sessions, meetings and retreats with her are and are not. accessed 19 Oct 2026
- Lisa Cairns · YouTube Her own YouTube channel, linked from her website: recordings of her talks since 2011, interviews she leads, her channel description and the subscriber count. accessed 19 Oct 2026
- What is Non Duality · Lisa Cairns · YouTube Recording of a talk by her (18:06), published on her channel on 19 February 2017; heard in full through our transcript. accessed 19 Oct 2026
- Lisa Cairns · Buddha at the Gas Pump Episode page of an interview series hosted by Rick Archer: her interview recorded in January 2012, with a summary and chapters. accessed 19 Oct 2026
- Lisa Cairns Transcript · Buddha at the Gas Pump The interview series' published transcript of her 2012 interview, edited for readability; read in full. accessed 19 Oct 2026
- Lisa Cairns: The Illusion of Cause & Effect, & the Fall of the Separate Self · BatGap Interview · YouTube Recording of her 2012 interview on the channel of Buddha at the Gas Pump (1:40:12); the part on her teachers (13:00 to 21:30) heard through our transcript. accessed 19 Oct 2026
- The Separation Between 'Me' and 'You' · Lisa Cairns · MysticMag Written interview with her by Sarah Kirton on a website about psychic services, published on 19 April 2024; her answers in her own words. accessed 19 Oct 2026
- For the Love of Everything (2016) · Open Library Catalog record: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 22 June 2016, 240 pages. accessed 19 Oct 2026
- Uit liefde voor alles (2020), opening pages (PDF) Opening pages of the Dutch edition offered by the Dutch book trade's data service, with the imprint naming the original title, its editor Julie Rumbarger and the copyright. accessed 19 Oct 2026
Compiled by us from the sources listed. Last checked 19 Oct 2026.