Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas Science

A thoughtful “no thanks” to Radha Soami Satsang Beas

Most people give less thought to choosing a religion than to picking out a new car. Ford and Toyota owners tend to be loyal to their favored automobile company, but if they find that a different brand has a better vehicle, they’ll jump ship.

That’s the way it should be. Why stick with something that isn’t a good fit for you? Yet religious affiliation is strongly inertial. If you were born in a Christian culture, most likely you’ll end up embracing Christianity. Ditto with Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and other religions.

More and more, though, we’re moving in the direction of a global culture. Thomas Friedman says, “the world is flat.” Meaning, connected. So now there are many more choices available on the cultural menu. Religiously, you can be a Nebraskan Buddhist or a Tibetan Baptist.

It all depends on your spiritual taste buds. Take some bites of a faith that seems promising. Consider how pleasant this sample seems. Ponder the digestibility of its teachings.

In the end it comes down to a simple “Yum!” or “Ugh!” (with many gradations of liking and disliking, of course). When asked why they chose or rejected a particular religion, many people respond with little more than a “It felt right,” or the obverse.

Nothing wrong with that. Just as no reason needs to be given for hating green peppers—this comes naturally to me—it’s fine to let spiritual preferences remain unexplained.

But I enjoy a thoughtful explanation none the less. Such came into my hands recently in the form of an email from Mike Weston, with whom I’d corresponded previously. Mike has been looking into the pros and cons of becoming an initiate of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, a group that I’ve been associated with since 1970.

It was interesting to learn what he’s concluded. And why. Here, with Mike’s permission, is his story. Read on.

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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Balancing Sant Mat faith and doubt

Recently I received some emails from a fellow initiate of Charan Singh, a Sant Mat guru who belonged to the Radha Soami Satsang Beas branch of this movement. I enjoyed what this person had to say and got permission to edit the messages into a postable form. Like my correspondent, I too resonate with the Buddhist outlook. And I similarly try to retain from the Sant Mat teachings what works and makes sense. The rest is eminently discardable. Here are some thoughts about balancing faith and doubt. I found them interesting. Hope you do too. -------------------------------- “I realized at the…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas Religions

Gaining an ear for religious disharmonies

I’m not at all musical. But I’ve got a pretty good ear for theological inconsistencies. These are statements that, when I hear them, sound like an obvious off-key note. Like a loud whaaaap! in the midst of an otherwise harmonious composition. During my many unquestioning devotional years, I was able to sit through Radha Soami Satsang Beas “sermons” (a.k.a. satsangs) and pretty much tune out the disharmonies. I could do the same thing when my daughter briefly, blessedly, tried to learn to play the violin in elementary school. When you’re attached to someone or something, you tend to overlook sour…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas Religions

If a religion can’t be wrong, it surely is

According to Daniel Dennett’s new book, here’s a surefire way to tell whether a belief system is a religion: is it invulnerable to disproof? In other words, is there any way to tell whether the beliefs are wrong? For example, Jesus is the Son of God. We know this because the Bible tells us so. The Bible can’t be doubted because it is the Word of God. So is Jesus, according to St. John. Thus we have a skeptic-proof system operating here. If you doubt the truth of the Bible, you lack faith in Jesus, without which you will never…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Believers, I’m even more deluded than you think

Fairly often I hear from devotees of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB) who urge me to cease my heretical wanderings and return to the fold, as if I’d run off into a burning building and they’re standing on safe ground with a megaphone calling “Brian, get out of that crazy place and come back to us!” Well, I picture myself standing right behind them saying, “Chill out, dude. We’re both on the same page here. I’m still 100% devoted to the true RSSB teachings. We just differ as to what true means. If you don’t mind me saying so, it…
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Posted inPersonal/Stories Radha Soami Satsang Beas Spiritual practice/meditation

Wings of love fly in two directions

This afternoon I rolled out of my nap bed, glanced at the pile of overly devotional books that I’ve culled from my bookcase, and decided to pick up the topmost title: “On Wings of Love,” by Madeleine. It was published in 1972 by Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB) in South Africa. I’ve got the first (and likely only) edition, which constituted 1,000 numbered copies. Mine is #919. For that reason alone, this previously unread book is now a keeper. For another reason also: Madeleine, whose last name isn’t revealed, is a poetess of blunt words and intense passion. A foreword…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas Spiritual practice/meditation

Turn on, tune in, or drop out?

I came of age in the 60’s, so “turn on, tune in, drop out” resonates with me. But now I’m more interested in exploring the spiritual, rather than psychedelic, implications of these words. It’s always dangerous to reduce complexities to dualities. But I’m always ready and eager to try. It seems to me that most spiritual seekers are either turn-on’ers or tune-in’ers. I belong to the latter camp, so if my description of these options seems to favor tuning, that’s the reason. Tune-in’ers are trying, obviously, to tune in to something. God. Spirit. Cosmic truth. Ultimate reality. Buddha nature. Tao.…
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Posted inBooks Personal/Stories Radha Soami Satsang Beas

Who’s afraid of this big bad blog?

This Church of the Churchless weblog doesn’t strike me as scary. Not like a big bad wolf. Pretty much all I do is say it as I see it. My most frequent utterance is “I don’t know.” For variety I try to express this un-profundity in alternative ways, but they all end up pointing at my metaphysical cluelessness. My musings wouldn’t be threatening if it weren’t for a secondary theme: “I don’t know, and there’s no proof that you do either.” It’s the sentiment after the comma that strikes at the heart of organized religious pretension. I have to assume…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Top ten signs you’re a fundamentalist Satsangi

I enjoyed reading “Top ten signs you’re a fundamentalist Christian.” That stimulated me to jot down my own list for Satsangis, a.k.a. followers of the contemporary Sant Mat movement. It’s a work in progress. If you're acquainted with this philosophy, feel free to add on to the list via a comment, if you like. I need to point out that when I say “you,” a few years ago I could have said “I.” For I know whereof I speak with this list, having been a fundamentalist Satsangi myself for many years. Now I’ve seen the light. And I like to…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas Reality

Saying “the end” to Sant Mat fairy tales

I’ve got nothing against fairy tales. But there’s a time and place for them. Like, when my daughter was a pre-schooler and she was ready for bed. They don’t belong in religion, as comforting as they may be. Of course, some would say that religions are nothing but fairy tales. Faced with the ogres of death, suffering, and meaninglessness, humans have conjured up magical spiritual “princes” who ride to the rescue of the soul. All you need to do is believe. I’m open to the possibility that there is more to spirituality than fantasy. Yet I’m also convinced that before…
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Posted inBuddhism Christianity/Jesus Radha Soami Satsang Beas

Buddha enlightens Jesus about the self

A meeting between Jesus, the Christ and Siddhartha Gotama, the Buddha. I’d love to be able to sit in a corner and listen in. Maybe even throw in a question or two. Obviously so would Carrin Dunne, who wrote “Buddha & Jesus: Conversations.” Carrin said that she is a Christian with a growing interest in Eastern religions, particularly Buddhism. I enjoyed this short (112 page) book, which was loaned to me by Warren, my Taoist marital arts teacher. He said that he felt Gotama gets the better of the arguments. I agree. Dunne’s book was published in 1975. I note…
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Posted inBooks Radha Soami Satsang Beas

How I wrote a holy book

Did you know that I wrote a holy book? Yes, indeed. Brian Hines, the unpastor of the Church of the Churchless, is the author of “Life is Fair.” It was published in India by Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB) in 1999 with a first printing of 25,000 copies. When I first got a copy of the book I enjoyed looking at the back page. There was “Life is Fair” listed in the Books on Sant Mat in General category, right along with such classics as “The Path of the Masters” by Julian Johnson. I wrote the book because I was…
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Posted inDeath/Rebirth Radha Soami Satsang Beas Religions

Living in the now

What if this is all that there is? This. Right here, right now. A succession of moments in the physical world. After we die: nothing. No more “this.” As I so often repeat here at the Church of the Churchless, I don’t know. I sure hope there is life after death. As Woody Allen put it, “I don't want to achieve immortality through my work I want to achieve it through not dying.” But here’s another Woody Allen quote: “You can live to be a hundred if you give up all the things that make you want to live to…
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Posted inFundamentalism Radha Soami Satsang Beas

Eastern fundamentalism

Last night someone said to me, “So you were part of an Eastern form of fundamentalism.” For a moment I was taken aback. Me, a fundamentalist? On this weblog I like to foam at the mouth about the dangers of fundamentalist religious attitudes. (By the way, did you hear the one about a man who walks into a bar and sits down between an alligator and a born-again Christian woman?) Fundamentalism takes many forms, and is defined in various ways. Scott Bidstrup says: In my view, a fundamentalist religion is a religion, any religion, that when confronted with a conflict…
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Posted inGod Radha Soami Satsang Beas

Does God play favorites? I doubt it.

It’d be wonderful if God favored some people over others. So long as I was among them. Otherwise, I’d be on the outside of God’s Favor Party, wishing that I was part of the in-crowd. As I’ve noted before, and surely will again, it’s amazing how almost every religion believes that its adherents are the only favored ones. Jews are a chosen people. Christians have been singled out for salvation. Muslims are beneficiaries of the ultimate revelation. Eastern religions are less prone to believing in favoritism, but even in Buddhism there is the assumption that following the Buddha’s teachings is…
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Posted inPersonal/Stories Radha Soami Satsang Beas

A nasty truth, naked and rough

I want to share some thoughts from a woman who emailed me from Europe. Like me, she’s a Sant Mat initiate (satsangi) in the Radha Soami Satsang Beas line. Also like me, she’s gone through some intense soul-searching. I’ve mildly edited her words for clarity, but left her English style intact. (Believe me, she writes infinitely better in my language than I can write in hers). Here’s her first message: Hello, I just found your site and have lovely laugh when I was reading some of your stories. I am your spiritual sister, a so called satsangi. A year ago…
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Posted inGod Radha Soami Satsang Beas

Going beyond religious concepts

Here’s one of the handful of passages from countless spiritual books that I’ve read which truly resonate with me. As I said in “Start erasing your spiritual blackboard,” I’m a believer in writings that say “Don’t believe in me.” This is one of those. It comes from a well-thumbed book of mine, “The Master Answers.” Published by Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB), the book consists of verbal questions directed to Charan Singh, an Indian guru, and his off-the-cuff answers. Near the end of my RSSB speaking career, I kept coming back to the following question and answer about the nature…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas Spiritual practice/meditation

The downside of guru bhakti

Devotion, or “bhakti” in Sanskrit, is admirable. But it can be taken to extremes. It seems to me that when a human being is worshipped as God, this is taking bhakti too far. I appreciate the thoughtful comments I’ve gotten on my previous post, “God-man or Asshole? The guru conundrum.” My wife also has thrown in her two cents on the subject via some conversations we’ve had. When Laurel was a practicing psychotherapist she had quite a bit of experience with domestic abuse. The man often wants to be treated like a god. His woman is supposed to do whatever…
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Posted inMystics Radha Soami Satsang Beas

God-man or Asshole? The guru conundrum.

Ever since I met her, I’m been trying to convince my wife that I’m God. It just seems so obvious: I understand Windows XP and can fix her computer when something goes wrong; back when we used a VCR, I could program it to do whatever we wanted; I know how to hang a picture so it is centered perfectly over a piece of furniture. Yet my husbandly divinity remains unrecognized. For some reason Laurel focuses more on such things as: my inability to put the kitchen sponge in its holder, rather than on the bottom of the sink; my…
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