Radha Soami Satsang Beas

Reminding me of myself when I was less than half of my current pushing 60, today disgustingly young Adam sent me an email about his take on Sant Mat. I replied, and got his permission to share his thoughts. Below is Adam's message, followed by my reply. I like how Adam differentiates between "liberalism" and "fundamentalism." The question in my mind (and Sam Harris') is how distinct these approaches to spirituality really are. Adam thinks that it's possible to separate out the crazily dogmatic aspects of an organized religion, while still remaining true to the group's core principles. In my…

It’s always a pleasure to hear from another heretic. Yesterday Fred, a fellow disillusioned initiate of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, sent me an email titled “Another one bites the dust.”

Well, Fred says he’s back to sipping red wine. So his un-conversion isn’t as dryly uncomfortable as that title implies.

In fact, when you read his thoughtful message you’ll see that he’s doing just fine. Real fine, in fact.

Apart from his observations about RSSB, I enjoyed Fred’s description of an orgasmic meditation session. He asked me for meditation pointers, but obviously I should be kneeling at his feet (oops, that doesn’t sound quite right, given the context).

I’ve offered up the message in three formats. It can be read as a continuation to this post. It also can be downloaded in Word or PDF format by clicking on the links below.

Word: Download note_to_brian.doc

PDF: Download note_to_brian.pdf

Last year I thought I'd said about all there was for to me say about "Who should I thank on Thanksgiving?" Existence. You can't get down to a deeper level of thankfulness than that. I am. Oh yes. Thank you, thank you, thank you. If I wasn't, there'd be no thanking. Or anything else. Well, there's always something more to say. Just not a whole lot. About thankfulness. Right now. Yesterday I was given some notes that described recent talks given by the current guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, Gurinder Singh. Glancing through them I was struck by a…

What seems to be the final newsletter that I'll be getting from my old "church," Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB), came in the mail yesterday. RSSB no longer is going to mail the newsletters. You'll have to go to meetings (satsangs) to get the information – some of which is about upcoming meetings, so go figure. I'll miss getting this publication, which comes from the Western Regional Office headed up by Vince Savarese. I read it mostly to gauge my reaction to reading it. Like lots of other people who have become more churchless over the years, I used to…

What's wrong with telling someone "Good job"? I can't think of any reason not to give out praise when congratulations are due. But religiously minded members of Radha Soami Satsang Beas sure did back in my RSSB speaking days. I suspect that not much has changed. Which is too bad. Because spirituality should start from a base of being fully human. That is, if we aren't engaging in the normal social niceties that bring people together and make everyday life flow more pleasantly, it's hard to see how we're on a path that leads to some sort of higher realization.…

Religious people often look upon death as a ticket out of this world and into a better one. Me, I'm clinging to what I've got until I have hold of something else. So I was intrigued by the following email message from a Church of the Churchless visitor. I know just what he's talking about, as during my devoted Radha Soami Satsang Beas days I encountered quite a few initiates, or satsangis, who couldn't wait to die (some who were seriously ill, some who were not). My correspondent wanted to know my thoughts on this topic. Well, to me it's…

On first reading, I didn't like the advice that came to me in an email from a Church of the Churchless visitor. After a second and third reading I came to see what the person was trying to tell me. Sort of. It's hard enough for me to understand me. Translating understandings from one mind to another is considerably more difficult. I particularly like the third and fourth paragraphs (see message below). This person is right. When I was a Radha Soami Satsang Beas true believer I did become preoccupied with rights and wrongs, do's and don'ts, rites and rituals.…

I just got the September issue of the Western USA Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB) newsletter. It made me sort of sad to see that soon I won't be getting it any more. (Starting in 2008 it'll only be available at the RSSB equivalent of "church," satsangs, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense, since the inspiration and information in the newsletter can be conveyed directly at satsang, while many "churchless" RSSB initiates stay in touch with organizational goings-on only through the newsletter). I like to read it, even though I'm no longer a RSSB true believer, because I…

Here's something about gurus and disciples that I find intriguing. I guess you could call it a koan of sorts, because whatever conclusion you come to about it won't make sense rationally. Which could well be the correct conclusion: that the whole guru bhakti system is so full of contradictions, it deserves jettisoning. But this is just a possibility, one of many. I'm asking questions, not supplying answers. I'll describe this koan using specifics from the Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB) branch of Sant Mat. However, the basic questions are applicable to just about every guru-based faith, especially those that…

Yesterday I went to the Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB) equivalent of "church," a satsang. It'd been quite a while. I felt right at home, though no more so than at the Beanery Coffee House – our post satsang destination. Old friends Ron and Rita had come down from Seattle for their almost annual visit. They enjoy the Salem Art Fair, even when I kid Ron about a leather cap making him look like one of the Village People. Ron is a faithful RSSB devotee, though by no means a fundamentalist. Me, I'm whatever I am now. Some would say,…

Recently I made fun of keeping kosher – including the absurd practice of getting around a prohibition of lighting a fire on the Sabbath by starting an oven ahead of time and disabling its light bulb. Some commenters gave me heat for ridiculing this practice of observant Jews, even though I was careful to point out that I wasn't singling out Judaism. Every fundamentalist religious practice deserves to be laughed at. I replied to one comment with: Like I said, I'm an equal opportunity ridiculer. I particularly enjoy ridiculing my own previous unsupported beliefs. So now let's have some laughs…

Here's a mildly-edited email message that I got from a self-described Radha Soami Satsang Beas "agnostic." Like me, this person had started meditating many years ago with high expectations. The experiment of meditation was performed just as instructed. Only problem was, the predicted results weren't forthcoming. Yes, as the message starts off by saying, we're on a parallel journey. I especially enjoyed some lines near the end: "I still have a lot of respect and admiration for Charan Singh and Gurinder Singh [past and present RSSB gurus]. They may not be who we thought they were, but they are damn…

Ander's comment on a recent post has me fired up. Along with a strong cup of 100% Kona coffee that I brought back from Maui. Just used up the last bit of it. Can't think of a better caffeine-fueled activity than responding to one of Ander's baseless statements: Its funny how u even proclaim the fact that u never actually practised for a long period of time more than 2 hours of meditation. Let along 4 or 5 or 10 that would be the appropriate hours after the 30 years on the path. The fact the u complain about sant…

I used to enjoy reading the "Western USA Regional Newsletter," published by Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB), because I wanted to have my spiritual beliefs confirmed. I still enjoy reading Vince Savarese's monthly message in the newsletter. For the same reason. Whereas before I focused on how much sense the RSSB teachings (also known as Sant Mat) made, leaving blurry all of the paradoxes, contradictions, and unanswered questions, now I zero in on the absurdities. They've always been there, of course. I just did a good job of ignoring them for some thirty years. In this regard I was like…

I find the notion that reality is non-dual appealing. I used to be much more of a dualist, or transcendentalist, believing that something above and beyond the physical universe is where ultimate truth, beauty, and wisdom lie.

But increasingly I resonate with Wikipedia’s description of non-duality (though I don’t agree that Plotinus is a non-dualist):

Nondualism may be viewed as the belief that dualism or dichotomy are illusory phenomena. Examples of dualisms include self/other, mind/body, male/female, good/evil, active/passive, dualism/nondualism and many others.

To the Nondualist, reality is ultimately neither physical nor mental. Instead, it is an ineffable state or realization. This ultimate reality can be called “Spirit” (Aurobindo), “Brahman” (Shankara), “God”, “Shunyata” (Emptiness), “The All” (Plotinus), “The Self” (Ramana Maharshi), “The Dao” (Lao Zi), “The Absolute” (Schelling) or simply “The Nondual” (F. H. Bradley).

Recently I got an email from Mike, who shared some interesting thoughts about Sant Mat in general and the Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB) branch of this religious philosophy in particular. I’ve included his message as a continuation to this post.

I was struck by Mike’s assumption that Sant Mat is a non-dual spiritual practice. Having been initiated into RSSB about the same time Mike was (1971), and being familiar with the teachings of decidedly non-dual mystics such as Ramana and Nisargadatta, I’ve never thought of Sant Mat in this fashion.

Ken Wilber is a modern non-dualist. In his magnum opus, “Sex, Ecology, Spirituality,” Wilber sums up his philosophy as: (1) the Many are illusory, (2) the One alone is real, and (3) the One is the Many. Thus reality is illusion, and illusion is reality.

Could be. Unity is what most of us are looking for in one way or another, and non-duality is even more of a piece than monism—which ends with a One that transcends the maya of Manyness. I like the non-dual wrinkle that ultimate reality is right here and now, not only far off in some other realm.

I just don’t see Sant Mat as being authentically non-dual. To the extent that it is, non-dualism is very much de-emphasized in comparison to the thoroughly dualistic aspects of the meditational and devotional practices I was taught.

For example: body, mind, and soul are considered to be separate and distinct. The goal is to leave body and mind behind, and become pure soul. “Heaven” (a.k.a. Sach Khand) is an actual place, another dimension of being, not a modification of present consciousness.

The guru is to be worshipped and obeyed. He isn’t merely an exemplar of what the disciple can become, but rather is thought to be a son of God who has been sent by the Creator to retrieve lost souls. While the highest manifestation of “God” in Sant Mat is formless, the disciple is supposed to rely on the guru’s various forms (physical, astral, causal) during a long spiritual journey from many to the One.

So there’s a lot of duality to be discarded in Sant Mat before attaining the nondual. Other practices such as Zen, Advaita, and Taoism take a much more direct route to non-duality.

Still, Mike correctly points out that if the overtly ritualistic and religious aspects of Sant Mat are discarded, you’re left with a spiritual practice that could indeed be viewed as falling into the non-dual camp. Of course, this could be said of anything: if you take away the fluff, you’re left with the essence.

What I wonder is, “Why not dive right into the essence, rather than spending time and energy wading through the fluff?” But that’s a matter of personal preference, as Mike says. For some people, during some periods of their lives, dualistic supports—authority figures, congregations, holy books, worship services—are needed.

Here’s Mike’s message:

Catherine's questioning of Sant Mat, including the possibly detrimental consequences of "mitti seva" (volunteers moving dirt by hand at India's Dera Baba Jaimal Singh), brought to mind the two weeks I spent at the Dera in December 1977. "Seva" means service. Serving the guru was a big part of the daily routine both for Western visitors and Indians. While I was there, mitti seva was in full swing from about 3:30 to 5:00 in the afternoon. In Radhasoami Reality, Mark Juergensmeyer describes the scene: One of the most dramatic examples of ritual humiliation in Radhasoami is mitti seva, the service…

Here’s some thoughts from Catherine, all the way from South Africa. Like me, she’s a Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB) initiate. Also like me, she’s come to look upon this faith with fresh eyes.

I’ve shared several of her email messages below. They’ve been mildly edited, mostly to correct a few typos and inject some explanatory links. I’ve also generally Americanized her English, to keep my spell checker happy.

Many people who read this blog are familiar with the RSSB philosophy and practices. Many others aren’t. I realize that some of what Catherine writes about will elicit a huh? from the latter group.

But the broad issues she addresses should be of interest to everybody concerned with being churched vs. churchless; with accepting religious authority vs. choosing for oneself; with remaining firm on a chosen path vs. meandering off to greener pastures.

Click on the continuation link to read Catherine.

Sam emailed me today from the United Kingdom. He has an interesting perspective on Sant Mat and Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB), looking as he does from the outside rather than as a true believer. Myself, I’m sort of in the middle. I used to be a true believer and so can’t say that I’m able to view Sant Mat and RSSB from as detached a position as Sam can. So I found his ideas interesting. He left them as a comment to a post, which I’ve copied (and mildly edited) below. He makes some excellent points. Even in the…