advaitin Neo Advaita

[Guest guest]

Hello Alan and Chittaranjan,

 

Very good question!

 

Yes, "pseudo" is a good descriptor. Having met scores of these teachers and

seen their satsangs, I came to the conclusion long ago that they are really

doing feel-good psychology-cum-celebrity-worship, using a garbled metaphysical

language that sounds more "sophisticated." The "I am consciousness" that is

rehearsed in these satsangs is shorthand for "I feel very spacious right now."

Then, when the attendee gets out to the parking lot, the flip-flop occurs, and

they are back to their normal feeling contour. "I was consciousness for like 2

hours, and now I'm not." It sets them up for the next satsang.

 

Unlike the teachings of the great ones you mention, the teachings of the

travelling satsang teachers pivots on the feelings. By that I mean that it is

not Knowledge that is sought, but rather a certain ongoing detached feeling

state, along with the absence of certain kinds of thoughts (the ones in which

the person themself is the object of that thought). You can read the

transcriptions of the satsangs and see that what is quite prevalent is the

encouragement not to get involved with what might upset you. Instead of

Knowledge, it is this non-involved feeling state which is regarded as the

criterion of success.

 

Another thing about the criterion of success in pseudo-advaita that confirms

that it is only a psychological state that they're aiming for, is that it is

sometimes acknowledged that enlightenment can be lost if one is not vigilant.

One must always be watching over the mental-emotional reactions to check for

involvement, and detach from it at the earliest opportunity. Of course this

creates a monitor-character, which is just the ego kicked upstairs to a higher

level of subtlety, so that it is not recognized as such.

 

And to me, the one thing that most obviously makes that form a "pseudo" rather

then a "Neo" advaita is its total disregard and disdain for advaita-vedanta's

magnificent written tradition.

 

Best regards,

 

--Greg

 

 

On 8/02/04 03:45 am "Alan Adams-Jacobs" (alanadamsjacobs) wrote:

Dear Greg and Sri Chittaranjan,

 

Thank you for your invaluable postings on this topic which help

me clarify my understanding of this new movement purporting to

be Advaita.Perhps Pseudo would be a better term than Neo .it is

rampant in the West and delays many young people from

making the effort to dig deeper into the teachings of great Sages

like Sankara, Ramana, etc.

 

Every best wish and warm regards, Alan