Guest guest Posted August 13, 2001 Report Share Posted August 13, 2001 Welcome Eric, And thanks for the interesting, detailed introduction! Om! --Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 13, 2001 Report Share Posted August 13, 2001 Welcome Sri Ericji! Where ever you go, there we are! :-). Love Harsha EBlackstead [EBlackstead] Monday, August 13, 2001 3:37 PM advaitin A Little about Myself Friends, I read about your list both on NondualitySalon and Harshasatsangh. I belong to both lists although I'm a relatively new arrival to each of them. I've been interested in spiritual life since I was 13 or so, initiating my involvment with an interest in D.T.Suzuki and japanese Zen. Around 1976 I took Saktipat initiation from Baba Muktananda. I spent 1/2 a year in India with him, and joined him in his 2nd and 3rd world tours, although only at the East and West coast locations here in the States.I had a final personal darshan to discuss an overwhelming experience I had had in meditation that had bled over onto my waking life. He certified that it was a high and valuable experience and that I could proceed ahead firmly in the knowledge that I was in the hands of the Inner Guru and the Shakti. That was the last that I saw of him before his Mahasamadhi. When the ashram changed hands and Gurumai and her younger brother,Swami Nityananda, took over things began to change. With the expulsion of Nityananda, there was a general housecleaning involving many of the Western Swamis that had taken initiation from the Mahamandeleshvar under Baba's supervision. I was already such an independant figure that my own status wasn't brought into question, but aside from the Guru Gita and the bhajan's, I had only a tentative connection with the new order of things. I felt that my own affiliation with Baba and the Sakti was ongoing and sometimes overwhelming, so I felt no need of further personal guidance from his heirs. Further, I had very bad feelings about George Afif, the ashram Manager under Gurumai who had become almost a suffogate Guru, well before his sexual troubles with minors, and I was unwilling to submit to his direction. All of this took place between 1976 and 1983-4. Since that time I've had a very active sadhana on my own. I lived in Ithaca,NY for a time, and considered myself an outboard member of Anthony Damiano's Wisdom's Goldenrod. As a result of my affiiliation there I was graced with two small private darshan's with HH the Dalai Lama, which have been the external highlights of my yogic career since Baba's passing. During Baba's lifetime I also participated in the 16th Karmapa's Black Crown ceremony, another highpoint in my spiritual career. For the last 20 years or so I've been on my own. Final realization has elluded me and I feel that I've good reason to know that I won't achieve it in this lifetime. My connection with the Sakti and the"inner Guru" is ongoing and intense. I hope this answers your concerns, and that I haven't bored you with too much detail. Sincerely, Eric BLackstead Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 14, 2001 Report Share Posted August 14, 2001 > > For the last 20 years or so I've been on my own. > Final realization has > elluded me and I feel that I've good reason to know > that I won't achieve it > in this lifetime. My connection with the Sakti and > the"inner Guru" is > ongoing > and intense. In advaita there is real aloneness...kaivalya... and if you insist that you will not achieve whatever it is that you are seeking in this lifetime then maybe you never will. Advaita teaches 'Come out of what you are not' which implies that we are to give up all this seeking... renounce all dharmas, the teaching is simple and great fun enjoying the play of it all, even seeking that which already is, Happy times to you on this site, Ken Knight Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Messenger http://phonecard./ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 14, 2001 Report Share Posted August 14, 2001 Lord ways are mysterious. All one can do is surrender at his infinite wisdom. Welcome fellow traveller Shree Eric Blackstead. Hari OM! Sadananda -- K. Sadananda Code 6323 Naval Research Laboratory Washington D.C. 20375 Voice (202)767-2117 Fax:(202)767-2623 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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