About me
In the first 25 years of its existence, this page had no column dedicated to the person whose work it represents. I thought my work was enough to present me, or the many texts that can be found here, and those interested in what I look like can see me on numerous video presentations. Now (2023), when I redesign my web page, people close to me tell me it is a bit “frivolous” to have a website in my name without my photo and biography.
But what can a person like me, who avoids identifying with any transitory or superficial aspect of his being, say about himself? Because all I have to say about myself is that I am Me, who I am, who I have always been, and who I will forever be. And the most original nature of my true Self would be, to put it most closely, a filling void. It means the answer to “Who is Tomislav Budak?” is “Nobody and nothing, but fulfilled with it.” Expressing myself like this is quite enough for me as a means of personal identification – I wouldn’t expect anything more from anyone else. Since there is nothing to add to this, there is no need to read further.
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But for those whose minds need to create some idea about the person they are interested in, I can also add that the most direct expression of my true Self is exactly what I present on this page as “my work” or “job.” For this purpose, here’s some necessary marketing. As I believe that marketing doesn’t have to be only manipulative, based on pumping up value to someone or something using lies, I perceive constructive marketing as a way of telling the truth about someone or something most directly and concisely. Therefore, here is the most concise truth about my work – when I am Me, then it is most natural for me to express myself through the research of consciousness or the original nature of everything that exists and its manifestations in everyday life, and then enable the same for others if they want it. And that would be it, so there is no need to read further.
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And yet, since some people are interested in information belonging to the domain of “Who’s Who in Croatia” and perhaps astrological-numerological information, I was born on December 4, 1963. As a child, I was most interested in sports and music – free movement, running in nature, listening to and playing music hits of the time. Later, I studied music and practiced it professionally, but my life path didn’t continue in that direction, except as a hobby. Here’s why – as soon as I started thinking for myself, I began searching for answers to questions like “Who am (and why am) I?”, “What is the meaning of life?”, “What is the universe for?”, “Who created God?” and similar stuff. So, I was interested in the things that all unambitious and difficult-to-understand people deal with, in precisely those fringe sciences that the establishment considers completely irrelevant. For this purpose, I started acquiring various literature, and at the age of 11, I read books in the fields of philosophy, psychology, esotericism, and spirituality. I was initiated into Transcendental Meditation at the age of 13; in high school, I started studying astrology and later Tarot. But the real, fully dedicated “work on myself” started at the age of 22 by going to the first Enlightenment Intensive, as its creator Charles Berner called them. The Intensives were led by Ž.M. Slavinski and his team, and I, after the initial difficulties, made rapid progress and wanted to enable others to have this kind of experience. I started practicing therapeutic and counseling work at 23, first as an astrologer, then leading rebirthing sessions, and finally, at 27, I also did Intensives.
As a modern variant of the direct path, the Intensives enabled me to have profound spiritual experiences, with the help of which I was able to solve all the philosophical questions that had troubled me until then. I realized who I am and what I am, what another human being is, what life is and what its meaning is, and also what God is and who created it. I enjoyed the awareness I gained for a few years, but then the problems started. Namely, getting grounded and having spiritual experiences in everyday life was not easy. All Intensive practitioners have faced this problem, not only me but also direct path practitioners belonging to other traditions, such as Zen Buddhism. Therefore, I started long-term research to discover the true causes of human blockage, whether it is the inability to move “upward” to the expansion of consciousness and the realization of spiritual experience or the movement “downward” to creative self-realization in everyday life. Many claimed they knew the real causes of human problems and that “I just do what they say” and everything will be solved. But it wasn’t like that, no matter how much the creators and practitioners of such methods wanted to believe it was.
To find effective causal therapy somewhere, I went through numerous courses and seminars for ten years (from 1991 to 2001). I studied many systems of personal and spiritual development, as well as psychological schools, and experimented on myself and with a group of friends who attended the same courses. I learned from many people and had interesting mentors. Still, only three had a decisive influence on me – the already mentioned Serbian psychologist and therapist Živorad Mihajlović Slavinski, British physicist and therapist Martyn Carruthers, and Croatian healer and psychic Vlado Turčinović.
But despite all the beneficial external influences, I would find only fragments of theoretical and practical knowledge – I couldn’t find a complete, integral causal therapy. Then, I finally realized that I would have to try to create it myself. I have already incorporated some methods created by other people into my therapeutic work. Still, since they would prove incomplete, I had to supplement them with my discoveries. The real breakthrough came with discovering the subtle dimensions of existence, the three universal and abstract forces on which the entire manifested universe is built. It is about unconditional love, manifested in our lives through interpersonal relationships, intention, expressed through human creativity and goal orientation, and consciousness, expressed through learning and acquiring new knowledge.
In parallel with causal therapy, I also deal with energy work, and in that field, I have created a new system called Intention Energetics, about which I will soon start writing my next book. Although energy work has limits, it is an unavoidable element of my life and, thus, of my work. I base my daily spiritual and meditative practice on it because the possibility of using the energy of the universal field for a variety of purposes is an extraordinary luxury that most people are not even aware of and live thirsty next to the water source. I still hold Enlightenment Intensives and am one of the longest-serving leaders of this method because few people have survived in this business for 32 years, and I have no intention of stopping. I regularly lead all the other workshops you can read about on this page, all created based on my research into the areas where the information led me, without censorship or adaptation to anyone or anything, least of all the new-age market.
As I recently turned 60, I entered, astrologically and dharmically speaking, a new cycle of self-realization, so I have many new goals. I want to prove that it is possible to live with full integrity and to be and remain a creatively accomplished person, regardless of all the ills of society and collective instability. I want to show by my example that it is possible to continuously expand awareness and acquire new knowledge, from abstract to practical. I also want to prove that mature age doesn’t have to be hellish and that older people do not necessarily have to turn into depressed, stuck-up, closed, dogmatic, or cranky persons. I know that we live on a heavenly planet, which perfectly manifests the original structure of Creation, even though there are people who are doing everything in their power to turn it into hell. I also know that we swim in the sea of a universal spirit that we can consciously contact and become fulfilled and renewed at any age, state, and issue. Since I am responsible for my own life, how I will live it depends only on me. Therefore, I also know that I have no other choice but to be successful in my endeavors.
My work is available through individual treatments and workshops that I lead together with my life partner Laura Benković, who has been working with me for over 20 years. We live and operate on the route Zagreb – Dalmatian islands, and for all domestic and international clients who are unable to work live, we are also available online.
Tomislav Budak, December 2023.