Posted inGod

Atheism isn’t a belief. It is the absence of a belief.

I don't know why it is so difficult for religious believers to understand that atheism isn't a belief. But during the 14 years I've been blogging here on the Church of the Churchless, I keep hearing, "Atheism is just another belief system." No, it isn't. Atheism is the absence of a belief in theism, which means believing in a god or gods. (See here and here.) Below is a recent comment on this subject by Osho Robbins. I liked the way he described the atheist position, and how he related this to a not guilty verdict by a court. If…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Gurinder Singh Dhillon’s lawyer excuses him in a weird “mud platform” way

I've grown accustomed to lawyers saying strange things, especially in this age of Trump, but this message from Gurinder Singh Dhillon's lawyer is especially weird. Dhillon is the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB), a spiritual organization headquartered in India. Recently several Indian business publications have published detailed stories about how the guru and his family, plus RSSB followers, are deeply implicated in shady financial dealings involving the Singh brothers, Malvinder and Shivinder, who are the guru's nephews cousins. [Someone emailed me with a genealogy analysis that seems to show they're the guru's first-cousins once removed.] (See here and…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Business Today reports about Gurinder Singh Dhillon’s suspicious financial dealings

Following in the journalistic footsteps of a Bloomberg story about the Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB) guru's connections with the financial problems of Malvinder and Shivinder Singh, now Business Today India has released "The Baba, Singh Brothers, and the Squandered Rs $225,00,00,00,000." Download The Baba Singh Brothers and the Squandered Rs 225 00 00 00 000 "Baba" is a term of respect that's often used with spiritual leaders. According to a couple of currency converters I found online, Rs (rupees) $225,00,00,00,000 equals about $3.2 billion in U.S. dollars. So we're talking some real money that was squandered.   Gurinder Singh…
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Posted inOpen Threads

Open Thread 16 (free speech for comments)

Leave a comment on this post about anything you want to talk about. Though I haven't been doing too well on this, I'll try to remember to always have an Open Thread showing in the Recent Posts section in the right sidebar. If one isn't showing, I've added an Open Threads category in, naturally, the Categories section. You can always find an Open Thread that way. So if you're a believer in some form of religion, mysticism, or spirituality, this is where you can put your "praise God," "praise Guru," or "praise _______" comments. And if you want to use…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Sheena’s “Memoirs of a Seeker” throws light on Gurinder Singh Dhillon

After someone told me about a book, "Memoirs of a Seeker," that described a woman's relationship with a guru, I purchased the Kindle version. Because I'd been told that the guru was Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the leader of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB), an India-based religious organization that I was a member of for 35 years, I was perplexed that Sheena, the author, apparently never mentioned the guru's name, from what I could tell from a quick browsing of the book. But the person who recommended the book knows Sheena (not her real name), and separately another person emailed me…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Bloomberg story has led to many more Church of the Churchless visitors

Thank you, universe! You work in mysterious (and also non-mysterious) ways.  After I was quoted in a Bloomberg story that described the shadowy connections between Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the Radha Soami Satsang Beas guru, and the Singh brothers, Shivinder and Malvinder, the number of people visiting this blog has gone up a lot the past three days. This blog has gotten about 13,000 page views in that time, whereas usually it would get about 3,000. Good karma! (if I believed in karma) Here's a link to the post I wrote about the story, "Bloomberg story shows Gurinder Singh Dhillon's shady…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Bloomberg story shows Gurinder Singh Dhillon’s shady business dealings

Today Bloomberg, a business publication, published a tell-all story about Gurinder Singh Dhillon's hugely complicated, and ethically dubious, financial dealings with Shivinder and Malvinder Singh, nephews of the Radha Soami Satsang Beas guru. The Billionaires and The Guru: How a Family Burned Through $2 Billion - Bloomberg Ari Altstedter wrote the story, "The Billionaires and the Guru: How a Family Burned Through $2 billion." I spoke with Altstedter by phone about the 35 years I spent as a RSSB devotee, and was quoted in the piece. Still, Dhillon hails from a family of major landowners in Punjab, and was himself…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Gurinder Singh completely upends Sant Mat dogma

It's decidedly weird that... (1) Many commenters on this blog are devotees of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB), an India-based religious organization headed by a guru, Gurinder Singh Dhillon; and (2) these same commenters refuse to believe that Gurinder Singh has completely changed the traditional RSSB teachings that they defend so strongly. Hopefully the following will change some minds. Today this message was emailed to me by Osho Robbins, who has previously shared his take on what can be called Sant Mat v. 2.0 and v. 3.0, to distinguish the new RSSB teachings being promulgated by Gurinder Singh from the…
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Posted inComments

Blog commenters have different styles of making their point

People are different. This is a truism that bears repeating, because we all tend to think that other people think like us. After all, the only mind we're directly acquainted with is our own. And even that mind we know only imperfectly, since most of what goes on in our cranium happens subconsciously, with only the tip of the iceberg of our psyche rising into conscious awareness. After fifteen years of blogging, which has entailed reading many thousands of comments on my posts, I continue to be intrigued by the various ways people use to make a point about something.…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

Embrace beautiful imperfection. Push away judgement.

Today's Daily Calm guided meditation on my iPhone app was called "Beautiful Imperfection." Below is a transcript I made of how it ended. I really liked the call for less judgement and more connection.This is tough enough to do in real life. It's considerably more difficult on the Internet, where we form judgements about people without having even seen them, much less understood them. That's why I thought what follows is a good reminder that while informed judgement often makes some sense, uninformed judgement should be engaged in cautiously, if at all. It's so often that our mind falls into…
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Posted inGod

Why God is a psychological illusion

Billions of people believe that God is real, even though there is zero demonstrable evidence of God's existence. So there must be something in the human mind that produces the illusion of God. In his engrossing book, "Finding Purpose in a Godless World: Why We Care Even if the Universe Doesn't," psychiatrist Ralph Lewis quotes evolutionary psychologist Jesse Bering on why people are so prone to supernatural beliefs.  Theory of mind is mentioned in the quotes below. Heres's how Lewis succinctly describes what this is. Part of people's belief in a higher power stems from our ability to form a…
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Posted inOpen Threads

Open Thread 15 (free speech for comments)

Leave a comment on this post about anything you want to talk about. Though I haven't been doing too well on this, I'll try to remember to always have an Open Thread showing in the Recent Posts section in the right sidebar. If one isn't showing, I've added an Open Threads category in, naturally, the Categories section. You can always find an Open Thread that way. So if you're a believer in some form of religion, mysticism, or spirituality, this is where you can put your "praise God," "praise Guru," or "praise _______" comments. (Take note, commenter who goes by…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

The RSSB guru likes to see naked women on the beach

Well, Gurinder Singh Dhillon and I have something in common: we both enjoy looking at naked women. But the difference between us is that Gurinder Singh is the Radha Soami Satsang Beas guru, so supposedly is "God in human form," and I'm just ordinary me. Here's an email message I received from a woman who found Gurinder Singh's behavior at "satsang" (a spiritual meeting) in India to be appalling. Again, it isn't unusual to hear men talk in this fashion. However, one expects something different from a guru who is purported to have elevated his consciousness to an enlightened level.…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

The Singh brothers are in deep trouble, which involves Gurinder Singh Dhillon

It looks like the financial misdeeds of Shivinder and Malvinder Singh, nephews of the Radha Soami Satsang Beas guru, Gurinder Singh Dhillon, are catching up to them. This morning someone emailed me a link to this India Business Today story, "Delhi High Court summons Singh brothers for first time in Daiichi case."  Here's some excerpts: According to The Business Standard, the high court asked the Singh brothers to personally appear in the court on August 10 to explain the reasons for discrepancies in their statements over their holdings in FHL. The court wants to understand that whether the Singh brothers…
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Posted inGod Humor

Thanks to Ariana Grande, I now believe God is a woman

Hey, I've become a believer. In God. Who is a woman. The lyrics explain this profound theology: You, you love it how I move youYou love it how I touch youMy one, when all is said and doneYou'll believe God is a womanAnd I, I feel it after midnightA feeling that you can't fightMy one, it lingers when we're doneYou'll believe God is a woman I don't wanna waste no time, yeahYou ain't got a one-track mind, yeahHave it any way you like, yeahAnd I can tell that you know I know how I want itAin't nobody else can relateBoy,…
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Posted inDelusions God

Why God is an illusion, along with other supernatural stuff

Here's a perplexing question: Why are so many people convinced that they've had an experience of God, or some other supernatural entity, when there is no demonstrable proof that these things exist? Are these people lying? Some probably are, but not all. So the most likely explanation is that they've fooled themselves into believing that their divine experience was real. How this happens is one of the subjects psychiatrist Ralph Lewis discusses in his fascinating book, "Finding Purpose in a Godless World: Why We Care Even if the Universe Doesn't."  I've just started reading this book,  but can tell that…
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Posted inPersonal/Stories

I’ve got a new non-religious “mantra”

I don't believe in mantras any more, having found the wisdom to deconvert from an Indian philosophy that espoused repeating some supposedly holy words silently in one's head not only during meditation, but as much as possible throughout the day. Looking back, this was a ridiculous thing to do.  A mantra essentially mesmerizes the brain, distracting the repeater of a mantra from being fully aware of what is happening both in the world outside and inside of them.  It's a way of denying reality. Often a mantra is believed to have some sort of supernatural power, which of course is…
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Posted inBuddhism Spiritual practice/meditation

Thoughts about enlightenment from a Church of the Churchless visitor

I like to hear from people who read my blog posts -- especially when what they say is supportive of my churchless un-preaching. Here's an email message that I got today from John. After I asked if I could share his message, he said "sure." I like John's perspective on things. He and I carry on a fairly regular correspondence.  Hey Brian.  Wow.  I really enjoyed reading your latest post on enlightenment!  To me, that is so freeing!  I’ve pretty much come to the same conclusion. There is a lot of pressure involved in trying to become “enlightened”.  You know…
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Posted inBuddhism Spiritual practice/meditation

“Enlightenment” is a meaningless concept

Over on this post of mine there's been a comment conversation about enlightenment. "JB" left this cogent comment, which I agree with. Tim Rimmer said: "Wasn't that the nature of the Buddha’s realisation? - All is Dukkha, yet ‘one’ is able to remove/get past it?" That one is able to remove/get past suffering is unadulterated mythology. The hero, the savior, the enlightened person- these are all variations on a theme. This is the mythical theme that has encapsulated humankind's greatest hope. It is a dead giveaway that the "enlightened masters" are all from the ancient past. Those that claim to…
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Posted inBuddhism Spiritual practice/meditation

“Teaching is impossible.” An excerpt from The Wooden Bowl book.

People often make spirituality into something complex, argumentative, esoteric. They consider there's a right and wrong way to meditate, to worship, to live life.  I used to be one of those people. I'm a lot less dogmatic now.  Recently, like today, which is pretty damn recent, I've been both entertained and bemused by a rash of comments on this blog where people have been arguing about this and that.  I enjoy those sorts of interchanges. Except when I don't.  In those latter times, I try to remind myself of how simple spirituality can be. And how it really isn't necessary…
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