Hi Michael, thanks for the thoughtful response, On Feb 24, 2011, at 3:10 PM, Michael Flatley wrote:
> Do you see him as a charlatan? I'd be reluctant to actually call him that. I cannot rule out that he felt he was sincere, nor can I rule out that many did benefit from his teaching. It's impossible to really know, so the best I can do is hope that the net result was for the better and not the worse. Having said that, IMO he was not the great rishi or yogi he wanted us to believe he was, nor really an authentic teacher, just a salesman at the right place, at the right time and with the perfect, spot-on pitch. And a really fine eye for details of delivery, packaging/presentation and just the right mixture of authenticity. I don't consider him a jivan-mukti, "enlightened". He had pretty some bad personality flaws, not the least of which seemed to be delusions of grandeur, narcissism and some considerable schizotypal and paranoid ideation as well. Of course I could be completely wrong and he could be just the right nudge, in the right direction, at the right time. > Your assessment is that money was VERY important to him. > > If that's true, then every time he said he didn't care about money, then it > was a lie, and personal integrity meant very little to him. > > > This, to me indicates a negative path, and reveals the ultimate irony. > > > And yet there are still so many hard-core robots out there still 100% > brain-washed. And not greedy, and honestly attempting a positive > orientation: to be truly helpful to others, and not willing to create > personal gain through trickery, and yet the severe brainwashing can only > result in the perpetuation of more abuse. > > > The fact that we have so much testimony from those who knew him best and also > managed to recover from the brainwashing gives some hope that forums like > this will ultimately prevail, and the majority of robots will gradually see > the hidden truth, and hopefully recover before dying. > > If they die brainwashed, then that would decrease self-actualization on the > other side, wouldn't you think? Without awareness, a soul can become a > meal, if they agree to it. Accepting our own delusions as real is only helpful if you're somehow able to step outside of them for at least a brief, insightful glimpse and then be able to just drop them when we need to, not just want to. There is a point of no return, an event horizon that you can pass that will prevent that insight from occurring. But it's impossible to know what hidden strong points we all carry within us, hidden. Married with that basic goodness is the ability to become a hero at the right time. > > Negative beings are looking to eat consciousness, and it's not a good meal > unless the soul being eaten is in agreement with the process. Once they've > been assimilated, they are now now stuck on a negative path as part of a > larger being, and actually evolving. And this large entity gives the equally > large positive entities the workout they need to continue with their growth > and development. > > That, to me is the hidden agenda of bad religion. It conditions the soul to > be absorbed by a higher dimensional entity with a negative orientation, happy > to use trickery and lies to gather power, expanding consciousness through > merging in with others in a hostile fashion, starting with the bogus > religious teachings. Does this make sense? Well that's certainly what some claim. Siddhi cultivation has a universally negative connotation in the Shankaracharya tradition IME. But many gurus are sincere from their own POV. They believe the truth of what their saying, even if they only have a sketch and are making the rest up, on the fly. One of the disappointing stories on Mahesh is the story of how he would be prepped by his students on abstract ideas, often by reading various Sanskrit translations; all backstage, behind the curtain. Then he would go out and rap on what he had just been told as the latest revelation, the next "thing", the new knowledge. The enrapt audience would swallow it hook line and sinker.
