Mike Snider

“…I wanted to know God…I had glimpses…along about my 16th year, I was walk’n through the house, and I heard a voice that said, ‘go read the bible.’ …so I started read’n it, I didn’t understand most of it…but there was a real fire, get’n hotter ‘n hotter, wanting to know God… so, I read the bible till I was blue in the face and I went over to the church, listened to ‘m preach…there was something bad wrong with that preach’n…I could’n buy that, they say you’ve got to get saved, so I gets saved. Went up to the front of the church and done all that. I realized that that wudn’t the ticket…I was just as sincere as I could be with it. I was a’pray’n and a’pray’n taken one step at a time, whatever I could do, whatever I was led to do…I had this feel’n inside that I was be’n guided, that I was go’n to find what I was look’n for, God was go’n to reveal himself to me…I kept pray’n ‘show me the way, show me the way’... My wife had the tv on and Oprah Winfrey was on, and Deepak Chopra said something about the Course in Miracles…that sounded like something I need, I need a miracle…So I got that…It’s a garganu’n outfit…It’s like try’n to read the dictionary…I took out after it…just like they said you’r supposed to…by the way, while I was do’n the Course in Miracles, I was do’n about 650 shows a year…that’s ridiculus, I was do’n several a day…I was run’n wide open, burn’n the candle at both ends…I didn’t understand a thing that the Course in Miracles was say’n, just a very few things made any sense at all to me…there was this feel’n inside to keep go’n, keep go’n…It took a whole year…I got close to the end and I thought somethin’s go’n to happen. I finished it all up and noth’n happened. And I thought, Oh no, I went through all this and got noth’n. I went to pray’n again, ‘God, show me the way, I want to know who you are…I’ll do anything.’ I went along with nowhere to turn…One day I was driv’n home from Nashville, I looked up in the Pine trees and it clicked, I saw what I am in those pine trees and I saw what God is in the Pine trees and I looked to my left and there’s an old dead snag with a hawk sitt’n in it, and even in the dead snag, it doesn’t have to be alive, God is everywhere. And I looked at the cars going down the road and all the colors, it’s in everything…As soon as I realized this there was a voice inside me that said,’This is it.’ I just knew it. And I realized what Jesus meant in the Bible when he said, ‘Before Abraham was, I am.’ I knew exactly what he was talk’n about…Beyond time and space. And I realized that day that God is not a him, not a her and not an it, there’s noth’n else but that. That seems like it should be the end of the story. The only problem was, there was still a me left that could see all this…
Later on, it showed up in taste buds, everything I tasted was it. Then it showed up in the smell...then every sound, then everything I touched was it. The only problem I had, there was just a me in there…”
I realized there’s not a me in here, but there’s a sense of a me. So a spent the next 12 years (laughter) grind’n it out baby…I come up on some good teachers and I realized they done realized the same thing I have, but they'r more clear about it…”

This good ole boy who plays the banjo is a realized being.
Mike Snider calls his sharing, "cutting through the crap". 
He hails from Gleason, Tennessee, and is a musician extraordinaire, a regular performer on the Grand Ole Opry.
Mike tells silly hillbilly jokes on stage. He is billed as a “banjer funnyman” yet when he has done satsang, the beauty of the truth in him echos from his voice. He is vibrant, alive, amazing. He was on Hee Haw 20+ years ago. He has been asked by Adyashanti to share his deep realization of the truth of awakening.  If you've ever wondered whether nondual realization is possible in this lifetime, or how it plays out in lived experience, Mike Snider will blow your mind.

(I can't find anything about Mike sharing his awakening these days. There are recordings of his Satsangs with Adyashanti.
Mike still performs with his String Band.)

http://www.themikesnider.com/index.html

http://www.opry.com/artist/mike-snider