An apology

[Guest guest]

Dear members,

 

I wish to apologize if my second post to Sandeep offended

anyone. (I believe my first query to him was totally

respectful and earnest and without rancor.) As a newcomer, I

certainly meant no disrespect to the group. Indeed, I felt my

second response was in defense of the group that I had been

quietly enjoying for over a week as an observer

 

In my second response to Sandeep, I must admit, I

forcefully conveyed my distaste for what I continue to see

as his childish disrespect and self-justifying "not this,

not that" word and mind games. The latter especially seems

such a travesty of the genuine sense of non-duality I felt in my

first encounter with Ramana, as I explained in my initial post.

 

In my tradition, when someone glimpses something of the

divine, and then concludes he can do or act as he pleases,

because that intellectually grasped divinity is beyond all

categories and differences, he is termed a "moral idiot."

Many of the early Gnostic Christians fell into this error,

believing that it didn't matter how they acted, or what

they did, because whatever happened in the material world

never touched their divine selfhood. To some degree it's

moral idiocy I feel we are seeing here.

 

Nonetheless, although I still think my critique is

on-target, I lost sight of some wisdom from my own

tradition: "Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest

thou also be like unto him." In reflecting back at him,

however truthfully, his own mortal image, I lost sight of

the divine image, and for this I am sorry. I came to this

group to listen, learn, ask questions, with the hope

there'd be mutual respect, civility, and love of Truth. I

look forward to this in the future, and hope to be able to

ask the many questions I have after reading Ramana's

collected works.

 

Most respectfully,

Steve

--

"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the

process he does not become a monster. And when you look

into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you." Friedrich

Nietzsche