Posted inBuddhism

Claims to absolute truth lead to abuses of power

Sam Harris conducted an interesting interview with Buddhist heretic Stephen Batchelor (I consider that word to be a compliment) and shared it on his Waking Up iPhone app. Here's my transcription of a part of the interview where Batchelor talks about abuses of power in religious or spiritual organizations. I think he's correct that hierarchical institutions make it easier for wrongdoing to take place by those at the top. And I also agree that claims to knowledge of ultimate truth by a religious leader also lead to abuses of power. This is what Batchelor said. There may be a few…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Good overview of Singh brothers/RSSB guru financial mess

This LiiStudio story is about a month old, but I'm sharing it because it provides good background material on the fascinating drama surrounding the Singh brothers and their relative, Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas. There are numerous strands in the tangled web of this tale of fraud, loans gone bad, and deceit. Hopefully some of the strands will be made more clear in the upcoming November 14 hearing of the High Court of Delhi involving those responsible for payment of a $500 million award to a Japanese company that bought the Singh brothers' pharmaceutical firm.…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

How will the High Court of Delhi treat the RSSB guru?

What do you think will happen to Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, when the High Court of Delhi has a hearing on November 14 involving those ordered to repay money owed to the Singh brothers and companies they once controlled, so a $500 million award can be made in connection with the sale of a pharmaceutical firm to a Japanese company?  Dhillon and his family are part of those who have been ordered by the court to prepare documents showing their assets, though the Dhillon family has been excused from attending the hearing in person.…
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Posted inScience

Inference to the best explanation is a wise approach

In the course of reading books about modern science, I frequently come across an appealing phrase: inference to the best explanation. I like the sound of it. It makes sense to me. It's a foundation of both the scientific method and how we deal with issues in everyday life. Defining this approach in any detail can lead into some tricky philosophical territory that I'm not much interested in. This article summary from the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy is good enough for blog post purposes. Inference to the best explanation is the procedure of choosing the hypothesis or theory that best…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

RSSB guru and his family make up reasons to avoid court appearance

Wow. Big news regarding the Singh brothers/Dhillon family financial scandal drama. After being ordered by the High Court of Delhi to appear before it on November 14, along with other parties involved in what appears to be fraudulent transfers of funds that now prevent the Singh brothers from having enough money to pay an award related to their sale of a pharmaceutical firm, the family of Gurinder Singh Dhillon, guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, has made up some marvelously unbelievable excuses for not being able to make the court hearing. This is more evidence that Dhillon and his family…
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Posted inBooks Buddhism Spiritual practice/meditation

Stephen Batchelor on enlightenment and listening

Following up on my previous post about a charming little book by Stephen Batchelor and his wife Martine, which consists of talks they gave at a 2016 retreat in England based on the Korean Buddhist tradition (Son), here's some passages from What is this? that I resonated with in my pre-meditation reading this morning.  I liked this take on enlightenment, which is very much in line with Zen teachings. Son, which means "meditation," is the Korean equivalent of the Japanese "Chan" and Japanese "Zen." So once we let go of the idea that to be enlightened means to understand the nature…
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Posted inBuddhism Karma

Life is a matter of material chance, not divine dispensation

The truth can be disturbing. Yet truth is immensely valuable. These two truths about truth present a dilemma to religious believers. They don't want to be disturbed, so they choose to accept falsehoods about reality. By contrast, people like me who don't believe in religious fantasies are able to accept both truths about truth. We embrace disturbing facts such as the non-existence of God, no life after death, and the contingency of life on Earth. That last fact is discussed by Buddhist skeptic Stephen Batchelor in an appealing little book that consists of talks he and his wife, Martine, gave at…
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Posted inIndia Religions

Religious delusion is alive and well in India, as elsewhere

Here's a great example of how closed-minded religious believers are able to deny reality, an Economic Times story about how a spiritual leader is still trusted by his followers even after being convicted of rape and murder.  This is how the story starts out. SIRSA: Nothing has changed over the last two years for Baljeet Insaan. Her devotion to “pita ji” remains intact. She says prison bars cannot contain his healing effect. After all, she says, he cured her of cancer 20 years ago. There are many like Baljeet who swear by Dera Sacha Sauda sect chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

An Economic Times story discusses the failed family settlement with the RSSB guru

Yesterday India's The Economic Times ran a story that restated facts that were already known about the attempt to reach a family settlement agreement between the Singh brothers (Malvinder and Shivinder) and their relative, Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas.Download Shivinder singh : Singh bros' settlement sought to absolve Dera Chief of liabilities It's a good summary of what went on.  I suppose the story was published to provide some background prior to November 14, when reportedly the Singh brothers, Dhillon, and others involved in this complicated financial fraud saga will appear before the High Court…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Singh brothers turn on each other. RSSB guru in middle of the mess.

Today someone emailed me a link to a MSN story about the Singh brothers, Malvinder and Shivinder, and their tangled relationship with their relative, Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas in India.Download Shivinder Singh likens Malvinder Singh to 'Bhasmasur' Read on for the latest developments in this fascinating drama. It'll be interesting to see what conclusions Indian authorities draw after investigating the complex web of fraudulent financial transactions involving a bunch of individuals, public companies, and shell companies. I've boldfaced the mentions of Dhillon and RSSB. Shivinder Singh likens Malvinder Singh to 'Bhasmasur'; Malvinder says his…
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Posted inBuddhism

I disagree with Stephen Batchelor about Buddhist truth claims

A couple of days ago I wrote, "I like Stephen Batchelor's take on Buddhism." In that blog post I said that after I listened to the end of Batchelor's lengthy discussion with Sam Harris that Harris shared on his Waking Up iPhone app, I'd share anything interesting that I heard. Well, what I heard Batchelor say in the last five minutes does strike me as both interesting and highly debatable. Harris asked a good question of Batchelor: currently, what are your most important disagreements with Buddhist doctrine? To his credit, Batchelor started off by saying that he can't stand dogmatic…
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Posted inBuddhism

I like Stephen Batchelor’s take on Buddhism

Over the years I believe I've read all of Stephen Batchelor's books about his somewhat heretical attitude toward Buddhism. Some blog posts about his books can be perused here, here, here, and here.  Batchelor correctly argues that for Buddhism to make sense and be useful, its religious/supernatural aspects need to be set aside.  Stephen Batchelor So no karma extending over multiple lives, no reincarnation, no mythical entities inhabiting non-material realms of existence. In this regard Batchelor agrees with Sam Harris. Both Batchelor and Harris have many years of experience with Buddhist meditation and teachings. So I've been enjoying listening to…
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Posted inConsciousness Science

How the brain fools us into believing consciousness is immaterial

I love it! Because I loved The Matrix movie. There's something wildly appealing about our consciousness being deceived about the nature of reality in such a fashion that it is very difficult to escape the bounds of that deception. The "it" that I'm loving is a book by Michael Graziano, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Princeton University. Rethinking Consciousness: A Scientific Theory of Subjective Experience is one of the best books I've read about the nature of consciousness, and I've read a lot of them. Here's a 13-minute video where Graziano describes the key aspects of his Attention Schema…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

A blog post from the past: Sant Mat cartoons

In the course of browsing through some old blog posts (I'm gathering material for another book based on my Church of the Churchless posts), I came across a fond memory: "RSSB cartoons show lighter side of Sant Mat." Which started out this way. While perusing a Christian web site that pokes fun at evangelical fundamentalism, today I suddenly thought Cartoons! Back in 1999 I'd worked with a talented artist, Bart Goldman, on cartoons aimed at deflating the balloon of Radha Soami Satsang Beas seriousness (RSSB is a branch of Sant Mat). Bart and I both were RSSB initiates. We met…
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Posted inDeath/Rebirth Personal/Stories

Love hurts. But the pain of love also is pleasure.

Last Tuesday our older dog, ZuZu, had to be put to sleep. Which is another way of saying, euthanized. Tearfully, I was able to write about her last days on my HinesSight blog in It was a good day for our dog to die. Of course, it wasn't a good day. Not really. I wanted ZuZu to live much longer. What I meant was explained in the first part of the blog post. Don't get me wrong. I didn't want our beloved older dog, ZuZu, to die. But she did last night, put out of her misery by a dose…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

RSSB guru and his family played large role in Singh brothers’ downfall

Indian journalists continue to do an excellent job of reporting on the complex, Bollywood'ish drama of how Malvinder and Shivinder Singh's business empire disintegrated, in part because of their ties to a guru relative, Gurinder Singh Dhillon, who heads up the Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB) spiritual organization. Here's some excerpts from a well-researched Outlook story. I've focused on the passages that mention Dhillon and his family, which are boldfaced. Keep in mind that Sunil Godhwani was the guru's right hand man, personal treasurer, and reportedly once managed the finances of RSSB.Download Riches To Rags: How Billionaire Ranbaxy Brothers Malvinder…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Read Malvinder’s messages to the RSSB guru about repaying money

Given recent developments in the financial fraud scandal involving the Singh brothers (Malvinder and Shivinder), Gurinder Singh Dhillon, their relative, who is the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, and some other people, I thought it'd be good to point out my June 2019 post, "Malvinder Singh's message to the RSSB guru is moving." (See here, here, here, and here for those developments. Malvinder, Shivinder, and the guru's right hand man, Sunil Godhwani, have been arrested. Dhillon, his family, the Singh brothers, Godhwani, and others have been ordered to appear before the High Court of Delhi on November 14.) Actually…
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Posted inOpen Threads

Open Thread 25 (free speech for comments)

Here's a new Open Thread. I appreciate that off-topic comments have been going in a previous Open Thread. As noted before, 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. Remember that I'm moderating comments, so it could take a while for your comment to be published. Almost every comment submitted to an Open Thread…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

RSSB guru ordered to appear before Delhi High Court on Nov. 14

UPDATE: A commenter shared a link to another story by Business Today on this subject that contains more information. There's a Delhi High Court order for all those involved in the financial fraud investigation to appear on November 14. Daiichi case: Delhi HC orders RSSB chief Dhillon & family, Singh brothers, Ghodhwanis to be present in court on November 14 BusinessToday.In on March 12 reported Singh brothers could only pay the $500 million order against them to compensate Daiichi, provided the money owed to them by RSSB chief Gurinder Singh Dhillon and his family is recovered BusinessToday.In Delhi High Court…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Delhi police following money trail that could lead to RSSB guru and his family

Here's some fresh news on the Singh brothrers/RSSB guru (Gurinder Singh Dhillon) financial scandal saga. A commenter on this blog just left a link to an Economic Times story that shows authorities are having success in tracing where the money ultimately went that was siphoned out of companies once controlled by the Singh brothers, and into companies that were partly or mostly controlled by the Dhillon family and their close associates. Here's what the story says. I've boldfaced the mention of the RSSB guru. A district court in Delhi extended the police custody of businessmen Malvinder and Shivinder Singh by…
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