Guest guest Posted March 23, 2003 Report Share Posted March 23, 2003 >What's my point? Only this and I am repeating what all the >wise masters in all spiritual traditions have said - 'don't >get hung up on experiences, keep a muster of marbles and a >full complement of court cards and ah - say your prayers'. >Thus endeth my homily for today. Michael, You are right that one must not get carried away by the sensational and pleasurable aspects of those experiences. Grasping for them is especially fatal. They should arise spontaneously as an unintended by-product of a diligent and sincere search for the truth, and one's attitude towards them must remain innocent. (I hope I remember all this when I have my first experience in the year 7000 AD!) I think Osho and Muktananda may be examples of respected teachers who apparently went off the tracks because they forgot this (or never realized it). Now I don't know if they were as bad as some people say, but some of the stories seemed credible and disturbing enough to me. And yet they said many fine and true things during their careers .... which proves that fine words alone don't make you an utterly reliable Guru! I think that many Gurus, like the rest of us, still carry a subliminal desire to 'be someone' and this can be fatal to true sainthood. Perhaps that is why God allows horrible things to happen to some of us, in order to fully purge the last traces of ego as gold is purified by fire. Om! Benjamin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 24, 2003 Report Share Posted March 24, 2003 advaitin, Benjamin Root <orion777ben> wrote: > > > You are right that one must not get carried away by the sensational > and pleasurable aspects of those experiences. Grasping for them is > especially fatal. They should arise spontaneously as an unintended > by-product of a diligent and sincere search for the truth, and one's > attitude towards them must remain innocent. ( > Benjamin Hello Benjamin, Flicking through some old files I came across some notes I had taken from a book which might be of interest to you if you don't know of it already. It's Allan Watts' 'The Supreme Identity'. His general thesis is that in fact there is nothing in Christian Doctrine which could not be yoked to a different metaphysic. The language of Religion is analogical that of Metaphysics intellectual thus they cannot be in conflict. Metaphysics deals with man as an eternal being. His concept of metaphysics is that it begins with realisation. "That is why it is always more exact to say that intellectual knowledge is realised rather than attained, because the word 'realisation' implies the discovery of something already present or given". These usages make sense within the book. He distinguishes between mystical ecstasy and intellectual knowledge in a way which is in tune with the dictum of Coleridge - Deep thinking is deep feeling. "In other words, mystical ecstasy is simply an analogy of intellectual knowledge in terms of feeling, and is in no way essential to metaphysical realisation". You could say that Ramakrishna deconstructed religion by attaining realisation in all forms of faith. However we can discern the supervenience of Hinduism in the idea that he needed a Muslim cook to seriously practice Islam. Another amusing example of such a Freudian slip occurs in 'A Critical Survey of Indian Philosophy' by Chandradhar Sharma. He says (pg.21) " There is only change and you can never bathe twice in the same river, says Heraclitus". What he really said was - you never step in the same river twice. More seriously Sri Sharma says in the first sentence of his book publ.Motilal Banarsidas (Delhi)reprinted 11 times since 1960. "The etymological meaning of the word 'philosophy' is 'love of learning'". Sorry it actually means 'love of wisdom'. A couple of sentences further down he says "Western philosophy has remained more or less true to the etymological meaning of 'philosophy' in being essentially an intellectual quest for truth. Indian Philosophy has been, however, intensely spiritual and has always emphasised the need of practical realization of truth." My comment on that is 'Sharmaji, put down that shovel now, the hole is quite deep enough'. 'The unexamined life is not worth living' said Socrates. And the unexamined text what does it show? Best Wishes, Michael. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.