Below is another in a series of guest blog posts from Anon, an ex-RSSB initiate. RSSB stands for Radha Soami Satsang Beas, an India-based religious organization headed up by a guru that I belonged to for 35 years, which explains my interest in sharing criticisms of the faith that I also found lacking.
I used to give frequent talks at RSSB meetings (satsangs). Having an iconoclastic slant even when I was an active member of RSSB, I’d do my best to keep people awake during my talk, even though sometimes this was a losing battle. Humor, quotes from non-RSSB sources, personal observations — that kept me interested in what I was saying, so I figured it would appeal to others also.
But most of my fellow satsang speakers were content to follow the RSSB rules. So I enjoyed Anon’s take on RSSB habitual sayings, communicated in the form of a satsang bingo game. Nicely done, Anon.
Hey Brian
Towards the end, I started playing bingo at satsangs/Q&As. I just found it was that same old RSSB word salad that made no sense. Here’s a bunch of unique RSSB Keywords you only ever hear there – I’ve never heard this anywhere else. It started with just one word and I’d count to see how many times it came up. I’m pretty sure if you type these words into an AI essay/script generator, you could generate your own satsangs indefinitely.
WHY? I was stuck and it wasn’t safe to exit, ever.
Plus, there’s not much you can do when during satsang/sermons go on forever, and there’s a tech ban, phone ban, headphones ban, devices ban, social media ban, internet ban, recording devices ban, notetaking ban, paper and pen ban, distraction/looking elsewhere ban (must sit in silence and gaze upon the master). There are few things you can do except endlessly wiggle your toes and I got creative.
I introduced this to a few other people at RSSB and they all ultimately quit too. I think to a certain extent it did the following. It made people realise how much of a joke it was. It made them realise they were laughing AT RSSB and were not laughing IN RSSB – it made them realise they weren’t happy there at satsang. It made them really want to sit with me at satsang too.
We spent more time talking about this silly game than the actual satsang/sermon being shout-preached in our faces. Ironically in a way it helped us pay more attention. It also made us realise we were bored as hell and unhappy there, because we were happier laughing about it than listening to it.
If there’s anyone else who is questioning, doubting, unsure, unhappy, not being heard, being shut down, not allowed to leave safely, not able to exit right now, planning to leave at some point (sooner or later) – this might help make this a little fun for now. If you’re there and you don’t want to be – this can make it slightly less unbearable. It worked for me.
If you genuinely start doing this game at satsang, it’s probably time to evaluate why you’re still there.
B I N G O “Listen to the Shabd” “Spiritual Path not a religion” “Vegetarianism” “Go within” *FOLD YOUR HANDS IN SILENCE “Raise Our Consciousness“ “This world is not our home” “Contemplation on his radiant form” “Focus at The Eye Center” (optional, DOT YOUR FOREHEAD) “Karmic debt” “2.5 hours daily” “Experience that inner bliss” RSSB TIME “Endless wheel of reincarnation/suffering /cycle of 84”
“If you can’t sit cross legged sit on a chair” *SHOUTING- PREACHING “Merge with the Lord” “Look brother/sister” “Huzur used to say…” “The Master tells us that…” “Do your Simran” “Do your Bhajan” “Do your Seva” “Go to Satsang” “Do your Meditation” — Anon
Discover more from Church of the Churchless
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
I hope some of you Christian satsangies who think India is so great are reading this. The American and European and South Africans that want to believe that India is a better place and want to be near the Dera. Maybe in your next life and then you can be like this person stuck in church again.. While l I’ve even assumed the physical form of the master and I don’t have to go anywhere to be near. I am he as you are me and we are all together .And once you’ve seen the radiant form you want to be near the physical form even that much more. But I don’t have to make a single move for all of that to be. Or not to be. That is the question.
” I am he
As you are he
As you are me
And we are all together
See how they run like pigs from a gun
See how they fly
I’m crying…”
I Am the Walrus
The Beatles
I myself am sometimes referred to as ” the tenth fifth Beatle” . Do the math
RSSB has some things to admire. It’s extremely well organized, for one. Especially so when compared to its sister Sant Mat group, Science of Spirituality.
I’m not an RSSB member, but I’ve visited their satsangs over decades. I can’t think of even a small detail of RSSB being sloppy about anything. But Science of Spirituality is the polar opposite in terms of organization, on all levels of that organization. Everything about it tends to be a bit messed up.
But organization isn’t everything when judging a religious movement. I’m not the only one who’s noticed that RSSB has a dry and legalistic character. All the RSSB books read as if corporate lawyers wrote them. The RSSB satsangs also have a legalistic tinge. Almost every satsang leader I’ve heard recites RSSB boilerplate concepts like a corporate PR flack, seemingly to remind everyone (Party A) of the terms of the contract they entered into (initiation) and their responsibilities in the terms of that contract with Party B (the Guru), and to likewise remind them that Party B (the Guru) is not bound by the terms of the contract unless Party A (the initiate) lives a perfect satsangi life.
That’s how it strikes me anyway. But what do I know? Clearly, given their respective membership numbers, far more people find RSSB appealing than they do the Rajinder Singh group.
I’m just saying that if you find RSSB rather dry, you’re not at fault and you’re not alone.
“The sheer efficiency of a certain organization attracts millions who find comfort in order, authority, and massive infrastructure, that very same machine-like perfection strips away the intimate, humble “Life-Impulse” that characterized the early days under previous Masters.
High membership numbers and flawless logistics are metrics of corporate success, not spiritual depth”.
“High membership numbers and flawless logistics are metrics of corporate success, not spiritual depth”.
I never implied they were. My point is that I’m owning that my opinion of the RSSB satsang is subjective, and that the fact that more people attend the RSSB satsangs than attend satsangs of a rival Sant Mat group shows that mine is the minority opinion.
If there is such a thing as “spiritual depth,” I wouldn’t know how to objectively define it. I only know what I like and don’t like. Per this topic, I don’t like the RSSB satsang.
Why do I make mention of this? Because I spent a good deal of time thinking I should like the RSSB satsang. But I’ve concluded that trying to like something you don’t like is usually a waste of time. And the RSSB satsang, though correct in its legalistic way, just rubs me the wrong way.
The same goes for the current guru of RSSB. He is legally the guru; he was duly appointed by Charan Singh, and he apparently is fulfilling the role of RSSB guru in the same punctilious manner as his predecessor. But despite all my efforts at receptivity, I can’t feel a thing for Gurinder Singh. This despite watching many of the Gurinder Q & A videos. Almost nothing Gurinder says in the videos I find objectively wrong, and yet my opinion of him stands: I find something off about him.
No question, RSSB is full of satsangis who are in a love-fest with Gurinder. That’s a lot of satsangis, a lot of people. At times this made me question my feelings about Gurinder; maybe they are seeing something in this guru that I’m refusing to see. I think this is a valid question to ask. But I feel it would be a mistake for me to keep trying to see Gurinder as a “real” guru. There comes a time to honor one’s own instincts over what some book or other person says.
By the way, that’s not what RSSB teaches on the matter. Charan Singh often said, in so many words, that if you don’t love the appointed RSSB guru, it’s because you haven’t done enough meditation. I suppose that could be true. But it’s of a piece with what I wrote about in my previous post: As I see it, the overriding character of RSSB is to offer the guru as life’s ultimate remedy, and at the same time blame the satsangi as a failure. A rather tedious and frustrating cycle.
Again, given RSSB’s vast membership, many people are very content with the RSSB brand. I’m just saying that I’m not one of them, and that if anyone else feels as I do on this, they are not alone and, dare I say, not at fault.
The people on this blog who deserve the most credit are those who are honest about their views and how they feel about a philosophy, even if this is not in line with the majority.
The bingo board like the quantum universe begins as a 3D object created out of your limited thinking, with symbolic words, created as a joke. Words you may never have understood. Words that you reflect but only in a fragmented way, derivative, like the projection of this creation, seen as a single reality viewed from a single location in time, but something entirely different viewed from any other location and time. And quite different still seen beyond time and location.
But look into even one of those phrases or words, let that phrase sink into your consciousness, and what was a joke becomes something undescribably sacred.
You were looking at the surface. And that’s ok, to start. But keep your attention there a bit, let your thoughts of jokes, derision, angst, anger, laughter evaporate. Let your thoughts subside. Let the voice of that phrase be heard for itself, not the label you have painted it with.
Love something greater than yourself. Even a phrase has it, within, ready for you to discover.
Then you move from the decoherent universe you have created painting everything over with your situation, reducing everything into your tiny view, where time passes, and instead emerge into a timeless infinity of experience where every word is a sacred doorway.
Whatever you attend to collapses the wave function of this infinite reality down to a single hard conclusion: what you think you saw: a single static judgement. But the world is much larger than that. The probability of which world your are collapsing reality down into, shrinking reality down into, could just be your particular proclivities, your desires and resentments, not reality at all. You see in all things the beauty and the horror you are conditioned to see, over and over again. Isn’t that a bad joke? Just your reality, the one, by addiction, you keep going to, keep rebuilding, keep choosing, however difficult, dysfunctional and painful. But that’s how addiction works.
When you speak or write a single word, even when you read the words of others, you constrain reality, collapse the infinite possibility down to a world of fixed place and the passage of time. Of course, this makes motion along that path possible. But distance never existed before, you were the totality, except and until you chose to become the words you read, invented or were told.
When the whole world praises you for being this way, or the whole world condemns you, this is your proof that you make the tiny, tiny reality you live in.
So, if you are living in that duality of a projected space and time, which you actually chose, what you actually projected, and thus created, (where both aren’t real when you return to the source), then just let a sacred word or sentiment be your doorway back.
Our universe is a three-dimensional cake that exists as a static, pre-baked whole, but its entire recipe and structure are written as a sheet of sacred phrases, on a 2D paper, a flat Bingo board at the edge of reality. There is no gravity or depth on that 2D board—only flat quantum data. The vibrant world we experience, along with the sensations of movement, distance, and time, is a holographic projection generated by the ink of those words. As our consciousness slides through the cake one slice at a time, we experience a flowing reality, even though the past, present, and future are already permanently coded onto the timeless surface of that Bingo board.
Spence, I would appreciate it if you could comment on this: The Sant Mat teachings tell us that we have accumulated a huge store of sinchit karma that we must burn (by meditation) in order to make spiritual progress. There are 8,400,000 species of life, and we are told we have been in all these life forms. Only humans have buddhi (intellect). All lower life forms function on instinct. Since they are functioning on instinct, how can they incur karma? Moreover, the teachings tell us that we have no free will, but that we should act as if we have free will – in order to incur as little kriyaman karma as possible.
Hi No Kool-Aid!
I’m not a representative of RSSB, just a follower. However, yes there are longstanding answers to your questions from within the theology.
1. Only humans create karma. All the sinchit karma you have is built from your cycle in the human form. All the other forms are paying off debts incurred in the human form…Otherwise, you are still a product of your environment, conditioning etc with no capacity to do otherwise.
2. The influence of Spirit, being drawn to the Master, is what gives you the wiggle space to choose differently. Sawan Singh said you can’t change your destiny overall, but you can make decisions to accellerate or decelerate your progress. That would be the tiny fragment of conscious awareness we have. It is much smaller than we give ourselves credit for. But of course, we should always use it for our own benefit. The problem is that at our level, faith and trust are crucial elements. However, they are the most noble elements, because they lead to submission and sacrifice. We can’t really do anything on our own, but we can become aware of it. And so these four are the stages of “death and dying” we go through to liberation:
Acknowledgement – Yes, we see what we are doing now.
Acceptance – We accept that we could not have done antything differently, though we also see we want to. That if we had acted differently, if somehow we had understood, we would have acted in a way that didn’t harm anyone.
Submission – in that humbling knowledge we submit ourselves entirely to our Master, to the higher power within us. We know we don’t have the vision or strength to turn things around. But He does.
Sacrifice – We sacrifice our life, give it entirely, to inner Master in meditation, which is really just freeing ourselves of our lower nature, getting in touch with Spirit. Sacrifice isn’t actually “sacrificing” as is the common understanding of giving things up. We own nothing, can give nothing. It is actually conversion of our life into something Sacred. The conversion of our thinking, our attitude, through exposure to the Holy Name, through Meditation practice, and along with that changes in our behavior. Changes we were entirely helpless to make before. But in that environment of humility and inner joy, the presence of the Master, the environment of Satsang, change happens, happiness and balance happens. And that benefits ourselves and those around us. We are beginning to act in allignment to our own heightened ethics, rather than twisting our ethics, deprecating them to allign with our current or old behavior.
We are told that the four ages – Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron, have been rotating, and continue to rotate, ad infinitum. And that we have been here since the start of creation – making karma. History tells us that homo sapiens (humans) have been here for about 300,000 years. What to believe?
Hi again No Kool Aide
I think science is your best source to find evidence of history.
Spiritual teachings have only one purpose. To encourage spiritual meditation. That offers evidence of itself aplenty.
No amount of theology can substitute for your own experience., nor for science. Understood correctly meditation is a science, if you approach it that way, if you practice it that way. And in that way, it is s way of knowing.
And you can evaluate the results. If you put in sincere effort you will accomplish something. You will experience what science has already pricey to be unique: deep meditation. And you may experience what that really is, the joy and peace, the sanctuary of that. More valuable than any book of history.
I hear you. Since the middle of March I have been going through very heavy karma. I am doing my best, but I am disillusioned. I received Nam more than 54 years ago. I have done my best to follow the teachings and meditate every day. I just don’t know how to deal with this. Any words from you will help.
BINGO TIME
I got 10 from this one!
Thanks Anon:
New score: Spence 10/Anon 0…
But it’s a dream only. To actually get 10, well, that’s a lifetime’s work. But I’m on it. Join me.
Anon, it’s not about me, and it’s not even about you.
It’s about something inside both of us, something wonderful…wait a minute, do I get extra credit for retreads?
Let’s leave behind Spence and Anon, at least as long as we can, and meet in that place. I promise you, it’s good.
OK I admit it. I’m not a new tire. I’m a retread. But a retread has a job too!
Hi No Kool-Aid,
In 1973 I used to go to Sunday satsang in a small meeting room at the Lawson YMCA in Chicago. I had just read the Path of the Masters in a local library. Maybe your experience is somewhat similar as we were initiated at about the same time. The book was placed there by the lady that would become one of my sponsors back when you had to have two sponsors vouch for you. Today I believe it’s a bit more complex. But I wouldn’t know as I haven’t attended satsang regularly for a number of years. Group activities related to spirituality don’t interest me much anymore.
In 1976 I was able to go to the Dera for 3 months, thoroughly enjoyed it, but haven’t been back since. Not that I didn’t want to go back but I was a teacher and it wasn’t open during the summer. Over Christmas I was always too worn out to even think about flying there and back in 2 weeks time.
I got to see Charan Singh up close and personal quite a bit over those 3 months even though he would occasionally leave the Dera to give initiations in other towns and cities. He had a great sense of humor and an infectious laugh. Had I not seen him I probably would have given up on the meditation years ago.
Probably one of the things that kept me plugging away was at one of the evening meetings someone asked Professor Bhatnagar “Will the Master appear at the time of your death if you haven’t been doing your meditation?” He said “Yes, he will come but his back may be turned.”
Having gone to 12 years of Catholic school that struck a guilty neural network chord and probably kept me from abandoning a task that I think for most humans is just about impossible. I can only speak for myself, others who comment here have differing views. Maybe there is a way of keeping the body motionless for 2 hours while trying to keep the mind focused and non- thinking. Sitting through all the satsangs in the world and reading all the books can’t help you with that. But don’t listen to me, you have to decide for yourself. My 8th grade nun once told me that she didn’t like my attitude because I made sly comments about what she was teaching so I could get the other kids to laugh. I guess I haven’t changed much over the years because I would have to bite my tongue if I went to satsang today to keep from doing the same thing.
All I know is what I’ve read in the books, stories I’ve heard from others, and satsangs I have attended. Basically other people telling me stuff. I know all of the rejoinders to what I’ve just written and no, I’m not going check my Chase (the guru) Bank account and see all of the hours that I have supposedly stored up to my credit waiting to be redeemed when I kick the bucket that holds the list.
Hoping you and I both find answers to our questions. (not looking for any answers supplied by others, been there done that as in check out “Lonesome Valley” performed by Mississippi John Hurt or Woody Guthrie)….
“You gotta walk that lonesome valley,
You gotta walk it by yourself,
Nobody here can walk it for you,
You gotta walk it by yourself.”
Hello Elric, good to hear from you. I will reply to your message later today, just heading out to an appointment.
Hi No Kool-Aid,
Sounds like we have similar RS backgrounds from the early days. I was 26 when I spent my 3 months at the Dera and now I’m 76, and that should tell you all of the changes that we’ve both experienced since we saw Charan Singh.
Sorry to hear about the “liability” issue. Something doesn’t sound quite right about that if it’s coming from the local organization. But then again, not surprising considering the spread of bureaucracy and top down management in the organization. In this day and age of incessant requests for surveys and constant pleas to answer “how are we doing?” questionnaires, no such trend in RS.
But it all comes down to individual people. You either sell your soul to the organization or step back a bit to keep your sanity. 🙂
Hi Elric, In October/November of 1973 I spent time with Maharaj Ji at the Dera. The memories are as if it was yesterday. That is the only time I saw him in the flesh. When I was at the Dera, I knew I would never return. I have the letters he wrote in reply to my correspondence – I treasure them. I have a photo of Sawan Singh reading his correspondence. His secretary is sitting close by, ready to write down his replies to his disciples. For me, the personal touch makes all the difference. Today if you write to Gurinder Singh, you get a reply from someone who does not even give their name, just Correspondence Sevadar. I have Sant Mat books printed in the 1990’s – most are the exact words of the Guru. On Gurinder Singh’s watch, the books have been ‘revised’ – in other words dumbed down. I have compared my old copies to the new publications, and the words of the Gurus have been changed. As I see it, since Gurinder’s arrival, Sant Mat has regressed into a Cult. I cannot dismiss all the scandals surrounding Gurinder – the Ranbaxy missing millions, the fact that the money was in his wife’s name – on and on. Gurinder’s wife became so disillusioned that she abandoned the Sant Mat teachings and followed Buddhism. Then she made the timely trip to England for surgery – in order to avoid being called to appear in the Indian Courts. Surgical complications lead to her being on her deathbed in an Engish hospital. Gurinder did not travel to be at her side when she passed away. The scandals go on and on. I am from South Africa, but emigrated to Canada decades ago. Mostly Indian expatriates organize the Sant Mat group meetings here. When I was young and had a car, I gave people rides to the meetings, I didn’t think twice about it. I have asked if people can help me by giving me rides to and from the meetings. I have been told no, because of the liability factor. Thanks a lot guys. I have not been to a meeting for years. I appreciate that Brian has this website, as it gives me the chance to connect with others trying to follow Sant Mat.
Hi Elric,
That’s the thing, under Gurinder Singh, RSSB has become an organization. I always refer to him as Gurinder Singh. They people who arrange the meetings fiercely correct me – Baba Ji!!! During the Covid Hoax, I refused to wear a mask to the meetings. People rolled their eyes and avoided me, reaching for the hand sanitizer! Taking their lead from GS, they all got the jabs – not me. When GS visits this part of the world, I don’t go to see him. I remember how things were when Charan Singh was alive, and that keeps me going.
And you’re never going to hear the Sound . I’d be initiating if I had any hope for you. Find the corner ceiling of the room and let that be your higher power. I’m busy for the next two millenniums keeping perfectly still. Unless you just want something greater than yourself it’s too late because that pimple on John Wayne’s butt has faded into black. Bingo!!
Everything living thing creates karma. How do you think you got to be a human from the lower species if it wasn’t for creating good karma. Man might be at the top of creation but cause and effect applies to everything. That’s what karma is. Cause and effect. If a wild bear kills for food or for sport it hardly matters. They must be killed in return. Have you ever seen two bulls fighting over the same cow. That’s karma being created. And the little calves that they have, that’s their karma to have those. I can’t believe you would think that only man creates karma. I don’t even know where you get that. You can also return back into a loader species. Karma
Lower species
Hi Ron
The law of karma is absolute, so I understand your thinking.
However it is just the theology that I’m explaining, not your logic.
If we all started as human beings then naturally we would certainly get into trouble and be in the best position to do so from our own actions. All other animals are innocent from that perspective, but they carry what s earned when human.
It is entirely logical, If counterintuitive.
My intuition tells me that you’re stupid. Animals are innocent my ass. They might not have the convoluted warped mental sense ( The sixth Sense )that you seem to be fighting but karma is karma and if they run in front of a car they’re going to get hit. We’re not talking about Dante’s inferno. That seems to be the intellectual hell most of you people exist in. Your impurity reeks of pseudo intellectualism. Grok karma for animals then.
And I do speak for rssb. I started the damn thing. Free Will is different than karma. But even animals have free will to an extent. They just don’t experience karma in the same way as humans but the law doesn’t change. But there’s no such thing as good karma or bad karma. It’s just karma. The reason rssb is not Hindu and not Christian is because the Masters make it up as they go along so that’s why you need a living master in case the rules change. Stick around, they might.
Hi Ron
Why not go to that place within where there are no rules. The point of the rules is to help you get there. Once you are there, no more rules, no conditions, no judgments, just bliss in the presence of a loving God. I believe that is the most important truth. And the most important place.
The rules do change a lot once you understand that these changing rules are the rules as people choose to believe them. Everyone has their own religion, which is their best effort to understand whatever they choose to believe. And that choice isn’t really up to them. We are what we are. The good news of every sincere theology is that we are not alone. There is a benevolent and all powerful consciousness within each of us. To me that alone is the greatest truth. What we do with it reflects our own limitations, and then we need rules to get beyond that.
Hi No Kool Aide
54 years of effort is a good start. Very admirable.
If we took eons to dig ourselves into this ditch it will take a little effort and patience, and faith. Let’s say 1/20,000th the effort and just 2/100,000,000th the time. Thanks to Master.
So. then faith is what we end up practicing all the way through, because we aren’t there yet to see for ourselves. Even if we are seeing much.
Swami Ji shares so much detail about each stage. Why? To encourage everyone to get to the place where they realize however far they have traveled that they still have their next step. The triumphant marathon runner isn’t the one on the awards platform. They are the one still running.
We have to go through so much.
The rocks come with the farm, No Kool Aide.
But soon you won’t have to worry about me and mine anymore. Liberation. It’s pure joy, No Kool Aide, even amidst the horrors of living in these bags of decaying chemicals. So what? That isn’t you. It never was.
For all these years I have been content and carrying on. But since the middle of March, the karma has knocked the wind out of me. I feel despondent and it is a huge effort to get through the day. I read that Kali Yuga ended in 2025, and that there will be a period of chaos before Sat Yuga starts. Looking at the state of the world, this makes sense. I have a psycho neighbor who preys on me – really creepy.
Hi No Kool Aide
It isn’t easy to go through those things.
I don’t know if some promise can hold anyone for long.
I think it’s what you get from the meditation. It’s what holds you when you have nothing left to hold on.
Then if that helps, you don’t need to worry about anything else, just getting your daily healing in meditation.
The only cost is letting go.
So maybe you’ve practiced doing this in meditation so much you can do this even in stormy times.
Your Solace might just be the inner peace you help build with Master, and rebuild as often as you need to, day by day, moment by moment. We do get knocked down, we do get thrown off, we do fall. But the exercise of getting back up, rebuilding that peace, renewing that devotion strengthens that peace, that happiness until we become bullet proof. We get to turn on God-mode.
Adversity is the final course of study for an initiate.
Kites rise high against a stiff wind.
Hi Spence, I am just heading out to an appointment, will reply later.
The thing is, the psycho neighbor who preys on me has figured out my daily routine. With meditation, of course she doesn’t know what I’m doing, but she knows I am in a certain place for a certain time each day. She stomps around above me, drops heavy things and does everything she can think of to disturb me. The result is that I sit in meditation very tense, ready for the next heavy object to be thrown overhead. I do the meditation, but I’m nervous and stressed. At night, the psycho is wide awake and bouncing off the walls. I think she is on drugs. The result is I’m sleep deprived. My landlord is aware of the problems and tells me she is working on it. Sorry to spill my guts – I’m just at the end of my tether. Canada is so woke that there is no point in going to the cops to deal with a problem like this. Medical services only ‘help’ people who ask for help!!! On page 111 of Spiritual Gems, Sawan Singh writes: I sympathize with you in your wish to have a small home of your own, where you can enjoy privacy and solitude, and make progress on the Path.
Hi No Kool Aide. Thank God the problem is someone else. Difficult neighbors can be excruciating because we have zero control over them. But they are also an opportunity to consciously hand this to Master. It is an exercise in refocus, not to get away from your neighbor, but to hand each disturbance to Master when it happens. If you are doing your Simran you are staying ready. Then, at some point you will burst out laughing, realizing this is His game all along, training you to return to Him the instant the disturbance is over, practicing letting go. It’s a great exercise and yeilds mental resilience, reliance in Master. Now you will look forward to the next interruption because it is a chance to exercise handing it over to Master in meditation.
Don’t mind adversity. Handling it within through Simran, by giving it to Master IS the point, and it will persist as long as needed to tighten your discipline in submission and surrender. Be patient, work the process, trust it.
When you do this. It won’t be long before you are grateful to this neighbor, as Master’s practice coach.
It’s just a game, No Kool Aide, but one that will build up your mental flexibility and focus.
All life is just a school, and each life has an individualized, customized lesson plan, just for you. One made by Master. We are here to learn.
Once you see this, once you realize you can get better at letting go, then your time in those quiet moments with Master becomes rich with nectar. Then the disturbances of thinking also subside. And there is joy.
Practice, practice, practice. What else can be said? You already have the basics, now time to build on them through a tiny amount of adversity.
Thank you Spence, when someone is prepared to listen to what you are going through it really helps.
Perhaps, You all should read about First Sikh Guru Baba Nanak dev ji. Or better still read The Bhagvad Gita. Bhagvad Gita will answer all your questions.
Hi
I read this a few mornings ago – I’ve subscribed to email notifications for new posts – and this made my day! The concept of RSSB bingo is bloody hilarious and brilliant! Anyone who is unable to take the piss, is either terribly dull, unobservant, or simply takes themselves far too seriously (hello there ego). I didn’t get a chance to comment then as I intended to, but coming back to re-read this gem, I saw the litany of sermons I’d well expected to find – looking at you Spencer.
Anyway thank you Brian and Anon for this – absolutely brilliant!
Hi ExRSSB
It’s really like politics. How can two educated people, exposed to the same information, believe entirely different things?
Their conditioning.
I thought the Bingo card was funny, too. After all, it’s the same message Satsang after Satsang. Why do I still need to hear the same message over and over?
But it’s like the lyrics of a Mick Jagger song, like the lyrics of a new Dylan tune, to me.
Isn’t that true for all of us?
What’s really hilarious is watching people pass by a stack of gold bars sitting in the street. They avoid it year after year having no clue what they just walked past.
Conditioning, whoda think it!
One person’s treasure is another’s trash.
And vice versa. 😉
It’s all ok. That gold is there for a reason, for some, and the ones passing it by are actually protecting it for the others. All is good.