NOTE: Regarding comments in general, this new WordPress blog has a spam filter, just as my old Typepad blog did. In both cases, occasionally some valid comments are misidentified as spam, and I have to save them from the spam folder. I’m planning to check the spam folder twice a day, so if you submit a comment and it isn’t published right away, it should be soon. If you’re concerned about the comment, you can message me via the Contact form at the top of this page.
Though I’m not sure about this, I believe that if you use the same name and email address after posting a valid comment (WordPress should fill this in for you), the spam filter will be less likely to judge later comments from you as spam. Of course, email addresses aren’t published. Reportedly the WordPress spam filter has a 97% accuracy rate, with most of the 3% being valid comments misidentified as spam. Believe me, spam filters are needed. I have a WordPress guide that says blogs get ten times as many spam comments as valid comments. Currently crypto schemes comprise the vast majority of spam comments that are submitted on this blog. As before, I’m not moderating comments because this interferes with the free flow of commenting and comment conversations. Plus, moderating is more work for me.
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Here’s a new Open Thread. Remember, off-topic comments should go in an Open Thread. It’s good to have comments in a regular blog post related to its subject, and it’s also good to have a place where almost anything goes in regard to sharing ideas, feelings, experiences, and such. That place is an Open Thread. Leave a comment on this post about anything you want to talk about.
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Its nice to have concept of open threads.
I would like to share something here about phosphene Meditation.
There are two ways.
1. In the evening time when sun doesn’t strain eyes but still bright enough, stare it at for like five minutes.Then go to a dark room.Close the eyes.Let spherical shape of sun you see inside take different forms. Don’t try to force your vision on it. Just observe.
2. Don’t try this method if you are not good enough in step 1.
in dark room, rub your closed eyes and try to put bit pressure on retina.see the images that appear.
Caution: don’t apply too much pressure.it should be just comfortable to eyes.
A recent post about leaving RSSB got me thinking.
They commented that there may come a time when a satsangi asks themselves “Time to leave, or time to stay?”
I say You decide. But make sure it’s really You who are deciding.
Sometimes the most painful things are actually good for us.
Sometimes the most pleasant things can become distractions and addictions.
The point is to understand the philosophy in some depth, and to experience the process of meditation for yourself, which is the entire point of any school of meditation, including RSSB.
You will notice in the sciences that among studies of long term meditators, there are many similar and very healthy results.
And you may notice some slight differences in self-report from them.
They often claim to have a different level of perceptual experience both within meditation and normal waking life.
And science has also proven that long term meditation has very positive effects on brain health, cognitive performance and overall sense of well-being.
The effort to understand helps, so that when you reject something as false, it really is false, and not actually a denial of something that is already part of you, deep within.
People do this all the time. They project onto others things they need to address within themselves. But not always. Sometimes they do need to set better boarders so that others respect them for who they are, or at least, leave them alone 🙂
The alcoholic family member gets the attention, the blame, but a good family therapist helps each family member by pointing out that they all share in the problems, and by blaming it all upon the member they see as alcoholic, the weakest member, and while doing this claiming to be a victim, they are really using the alcoholic to deal with their own dysfunction in a very indirect and ineffective way, one that perpetuates their own dysfunction, rather than having the ego strength to deal directly with that issue they have within.
It’s not always “I should have been louder, tougher, meaner, harder, pushier towards the other”. That’s not a solution, but a form of denial. Maybe they should have been these things towards themselves, within, in exercising greater discipline and focus.
Or maybe they can be more forgiving both within and with those around them.
And when they learn to take that responsibility, to stop being a victim, to look in the mirror at the real problem, and the solution, where they actually have all the power, they stop blaming and put their energies into real self-development.
The blaming was of no value, the claim of being a victim only weakened their connection to their own strengths. And strangely enough, blaming anyone else, or even oneself, not only didn’t help, but got in the way. They were blaming things they themselves had some responsibility for, and escaping dealing with themselves through blame, all distancing themselves from the very power within to overcome these things. A power which is all mercy, forgiveness and love. There may not be enough ego or confidence within anyone, but there is enough love. We can become completely confident in our place within Love. Confident enough to accept things as they are. Confident in that inner love, to forgive everyone, including ourselves. Confident enough to submit our entire selves to something greater that we find within, in service to humanity. In becoming nothing, we may find the greatest strength. Not to own it, but to participate in our role in it.
But maybe you are not a fan of family systems theory (Murray Bowen).
And yet that is also a lesson for development within.
The organization itself is filled with people and their personalities. They are like students in a school. Or members of a big family. The school may be great, but some of the students may not. If you can find some fellow students who are decent people, you may have a chance to learn something in that school. If not, if it’s just all bullying and toxicity, then of course, a change of venue may be in order for you. Just make sure the bully isn’t the one in the mirror. Just make sure you are not taking your personal growth tasks and transferring that into a list of unmet expectations on the organization. Don’t externalize what is and can be handled directly within.
Or you may be one of those students who realizes the trappings of a university are just to provide tools for self-education, and that you are indeed doing it yourself, with whatever powers you uncover with practice within you, that you discover are there for you to build a relationship with. One day you may discover they were placed there for you.
It’s a personal matter. Is this challenging to me, and can I find the strength within myself to rise to this challenge? Can I grow stronger on what is really important to me, while learning not to take everything that happens around me, nor all the things people say, with so much reaction?
Even a difficult place can be the place for your own greatest personal growth. You decide. Indeed, that is generally where real personal growth happens. Kites rise against the wind, not with it.
If you need to blame someone for your personal situation, be careful, because the world is filled with people who choose to become passive victims and blame, and this makes them bullies, and others around them very unhappy. People who can smile in the midst of difficulty are a true resource to those around them. Can you be that person?
Can you be a person who believes what they believe right in the middle of RSSB?
Last summer a man publicly said to Baba Ji, “I’m gay. I’m in love with another man. I intend to marry him, and we intend to be happy together. Does this mean I can’t get initiated?”
And Baba Ji answered, “Of course you can get initiated. This doesn’t mean anything. Yes, if you are interested seriously in this path and can follow the vows, yes you can get initiated. Where you start is not so important as where you choose to go, and your commitment and effort to do so.”
The real path of Sant Mat is spiritual. The outer conditions are the limitations of a human organization attempting to support growth on the path. And that means each person will have their own idea.
RSSB is not one “religion” nor one “philosophy”. It becomes a little different for each person as each of us tries to define it for ourselves. We each have a personal relationship to our Master.
We each have our own version of RSSB, and you don’t actually need to prove yours is “right” to anyone. See Baba Ji’s comments above. At different stages of personal progress, the path will be understood to be a little different. And it may be. What you are going through at any given time is going to be uniquely yours. But you might be able to share the joy and the pain a bit with your brothers and sisters because they are all going through their own issues. And each must find their own way forward. There is no single approach, though the destination is identical. We are all taking different classes at different levels in this school. That identical destination is the destination for all paths seeking Truth in any form.
In spirituality, we seek to become truth, not just label something on principle, belief or mere evidence. It’s not enough to speak truthfully. Belief in anything is just a placeholder and no destination for a Satsangi. We want to merge with and become that pure truth that pervades and is the foundation of everything. And that requires a natural withdrawal from everything derivative into what is pure and direct within. That’s a life-long process of personal development through meditation and the life of meditation.
But you can find that goal in most spiritual, and to some extent scientific pursuits. Even artistic pursuits. The artist wishes to become one with their art, the art inside themselves. And what they produce are merely the byproducts of that direct internal and external experience. The canvas is just their journal, which they use for more and more introspection.
And that also means that what RSSB is for you ten years from now will be something different than what it appears to be today. It isn’t the same as it is for someone else. Don’t get stuck in anyone else’s thinking. Our own thinking is enough of a prison cell which we work daily to take leave of.
Make your own RSSB if you like, because you will, because you have no other alternative. And see if you can create an environment to live in that, and encourage those around you to accept your version for you now, as you accept theirs for them. Be open minded. That’s how the old version morphs into the new one. Open minded within, in meditation, and among your friends and family.
Now you have a portable philosophy. You can go anywhere with that. Why not build it here first?
The Satsangis from India, raised in the tradition, sometimes have a difficulty separating family tradition and very old cultural superstitions that have become their family member’s version of RSSB, with the actual teachings.
And some Satsangis from America and Europe raised in our traditions here have a difficult time separating the cultural surroundings of “independence” with the Sant Mat reality that we are all connected. And so they reject RSSB with the cultural trappings of India and ancient supersition, throwing the baby out with the bath water. They inadvertently reject principles that are quite universal and current, even within mystic traditions in the west. It would have been so simple to dedicate some time to serious meditation, so that they could find that inner connection. That would have been more efficient and much less disruptive.
You can leave behind all the cultural trappings and be a great Satsangi, if you understand the difference. If not, if you need to define your spirituality by rejecting one culture for another, then pick your culture. It will still contain human personalities and their limitations right alongside the infinite inconceivable truth of existence and all that is behind it and beyond it.
while I was cleaning a deep fryer and listening to the sound of al jazeera in the background, I got to thinking of one of the many lessons, understandings, advices etc I took away from the association with the path of the saints:
“Never fight evil as you are going to lose the fight”
EVIL, can be anything from negative behavior, feelings and toughts, to evil in the society and culture.
MCS in order to explain it used the example of a glass of water pollutes by ink. The only way to get ink out of the glass is by pouring more and more clean water into it.
Now transport that idea to what is going on in the middle east by now ..AND … think for a moment what would be the situation today if the Israeli, government, its citizens and all others involved, would have look after the indigenous Palestinian people as they gave done and do for themselves?!!
JUST have some coffee and think it over.!
What if the Israeli government had seen to it that the indegenous Palestenians would have received the same:
-housing
-education
-health care
-political rights
etc what you can come up with.
Do you believe after pondering and sipping your coffee, that what is now going on would have had an chance to develop???
The evil of wealth, material, mental and spiritual will ultimately led to un acceptable degradation of ever growing groups of people.
Let me give another example to make it understandable:
France has a rather wealthy elite. Wealth in all imaginable forms. One of these forms of wealth is the “medal of honor”that goes with benefits for the whole family, the degrees of the Sorbonne University and the material wealth of the old elite.
They ALSO have the “French revolution” the revolution of the people against the elite that made them suffer from the “EVIL of WEALTH” to an degree that it was no longer bearable.
So what was the answer to prevent that from happening again … HONOR you working class, your artisans etc that do the work for you and they came up with an highly respected prize to be get for the best among them in 128 different forms of artisanale work MOF = Meilleur Ouvrier the France”…. they may, for the rest of their life have the french flag on their working clothes. An institution protected by law what brings the person respect etc for the rest of his life.
America first, dear readers, in all fields, material, mental, spiritual, will ultimately make ever more groups degrade into an underclass and if the pain if the degradation is strong enough they will … attack … attack your social and cultural wealth ..because you degraded them not with weapons but with your WEALTH.
You used wealt as a weapon
And…
And if you think you can enjoy your wealth, wealth that was and IS accrued by making others work for it under mostly inhumane circumstances and play volley bvall on the beach of this or that resort, while those that have been mis-used are sitting by, through the means of the modern media than you are making a huge misstake …. as … NATURE itself will turn against you
If you think your weapons, your intellectualis superiority will be enough to subdue the masses, marginalized to a lower degree that the pets you have in your house .. that you will bear the consequences of your arrogance….your evil of wealth
All mystics have warned you .. but you didn’t and do not want to heed their words
Venerable Lao Zi, in the darkness if the night flew to hide himself for that reason, leaving behind the warning ..not to openly display your wealth before the tobers.
Mind you “robers” are not the evil people you think of but the ordinary human being that is turned into a rober by your own actions