I like much of this. Especially "Belief leads to various forms of fundamentalism and shuts down the curiosity and inquiry that are essential to open the way for awakening and what lies beyond awakening." I have recently witnessed on another forum some of the ways in which belief taken to the point of True Believerism can turn in a heartbeat into angry, persecutorial Fundamentalism, right out of the Salem witch trials. One minute a guy is waxing blissed-outedly about something and the next minute someone disagrees with some piece of dogma he believes in and the same blissed-out guy turns into Torquemada. It's kinda icky.
I still think Adyashanti uses the word "truth" too often, and somewhat inappropriately in that he seems to make an assumption that "his" truth is some kind of universal truth that everyone will someday come to recognize *as* "truth." But I may not have read enough of his stuff to know for sure if that's what he's thinking or trying to say. It's just an impression I've gotten watching videos of him -- he speaks the word "truth" as if he is absolutely, completely convinced not only that he knows what that is for him, but for everyone else. Color me unconvinced. But I have friends who have met with him and really like him, and I reserve judgment until I have seen the guy live. I really like what he says here about "riding the coattails of the teacher." That is SUCH a common trap, one that you see pretty much across the whole spiritual smorgasbord. Based on what I've seen in my life, becoming a groupie may not really be the smartest path to realizing one's enlightenment. :-) ________________________________ From: "Xenophaneros Anartaxius [email protected] [FairfieldLife]" <[email protected]> To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, October 1, 2014 5:55 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: King Tony's Pedigree I have reproduced some paragraphs below that describe the relationship of a student to the teacher and a spiritual teaching from one of the books of Zen-trained Adyashanti. This seems somewhat different than what is expected in the TMO. 'There is no such thing as riding the coattails of an enlightened being to enlightenment itself. A failure to understand this can lead (as so many have been led) to cultish fanaticism, fundamentalism, magical thinking, disappointment, disillusionment, and/or spiritual infancy. While it is understandable that many people project their unresolved parental issues, relationship issues, authority issues, sexuality issues, as well as God issues onto their spiritual teacher (and are sometimes encouraged to do so by unscrupulous spiritual teachers), it is essential to understand that a spiritual teacher's role is to be a good and wise spiritual guide as well as an embodiment of the truth that he or she points toward.' > > >'While there may be deep respect, love, and even devotion to one's spiritual >teacher, it is important not to abdicate all of your authority over to your >spiritual teacher or project all divinity exclusively onto them. Your life >belongs in your hands, not someone else's. Take responsibility for it. There >is a fine line between being truly open to the guidance of a spiritual teacher >and regressing into a childish relationship where you abdicate your adulthood >and project all wisdom and divinity onto the teacher. Each person needs to >find a mature balance, being truly and deeply open to their spiritual guide >without abdicating all of their authority.' > > >'The same can be applied to a spiritual teaching. A spiritual teaching is a >finger pointing toward reality; it is not reality itself. To be in a true and >mature relationship with a spiritual teaching requires you to apply it, not >simply believe in it. Belief leads to various forms of fundamentalism and >shuts down the curiosity and inquiry that are essential to open the way for >awakening and what lies beyond awakening. A good spiritual teaching is >something that you work with and apply. In doing so, it works on you (often in >a hidden way) and helps reveal to you the truth (and falseness) that lies >within you.' > > >'What is it to not abdicate your own authority and yet not claim a false or >self-centred authority that will lead you into delusion? I am afraid that I >cannot tell you. You see, no one can tell you how not to deceive yourself. If >in the deepest place within you, you want and desire truth above all else, >even though you go astray in a thousand different ways, you will find yourself >somehow, again and again, being brought back to what is true. And if you do >not want and desire truth above all else, well, you already know what that >leads to.' ________________________________ From: "TurquoiseBee [email protected] [FairfieldLife]" <[email protected]> To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, October 1, 2014 7:41 AM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: King Tony's Pedigree Isn't it fascinating the crap that people believe because the person they consider their spiritual teacher said it? Or even if they've only heard fifth-hand that he *might* have said it? I'm back to that moment I mentioned before jokingly -- being able someday to figure out the neurophysiology of That Moment in which the human brain says to itself, "Well, the stuff this teacher has said to me so far seems to be true, therefore I am going to 'suspend disbelief' forever and believe that *everything* he ever says to me again is true as well." THAT would be an interesting phenomenon to quantify. W.r.t. to telling someone stuff about their "past lives," there is an Absolute Requirement that the person 'suspend disbelief' and believe that the teacher *could* possibly know something about this thing he rationally couldn't possibly know anything about. Besides, when it comes to 'past lives,' everyone *wants to believe* that what they're being told is true, as long as the past personage is cool enough. ( That's why you've got so many Newagers who claim to be Cleopatra and so few claiming to be Cleopatra's manicurist. :-) I remember one time when the Fred Lenz - Rama guy did that to me, and I called him on it. We were on one of our "field trips," this time I think i the Louvre in Paris -- no guided tours or anything, just 100 or so Rama students wandering around the galleries, sometimes running into him, sometimes not. So I found myself in this Egyptian room looking down at a glass exhibit that contained a sarcophagus and a well-preserved body. I was quite taken with the bones of this guy's face, and was standing there looking at it when Rama walked up behind me, looked down, and said, "Yep, that was you, all right." Naturally, I was all ego-d out for a second, but then for some reason I caught myself and turned to him and said, "Your're just fucking with me, right?" He seemed shocked for an instant that anyone would actually doubt his Holy Word, but then laughed and said, "Right," and turned to walk away. But then he turned back and said, "You're really the guy over there in that other case across the room," and laughed again. Great moment. *Of course* there was no rational way he could have known who I was in a 'past life.' But that didn't matter to me because for that one instant I *wanted* to be more self-important, and to have been some Pharoah back in Egypt. I mention it because whether Maharishi ever said this about "King" Tony or not, the same dynamics could have been in play. Who wouldn't want to be told that you're the reincarnation of a god? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAXnikgHTK0 People will believe anything that makes them feel more important. If they've gotten to the point in their self discovery where they gain most of their personal sense of self-worth from the teacher they study with, they'll also believe anything that seems to make that teacher seem more important. ________________________________ From: salyavin808 <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, October 1, 2014 8:41 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: King Tony's Pedigree --In [email protected], <mjackson74@...> wrote : Someone recently told me that Marshy referred to Nader as Ram reincarnated, is that true? It's true that Marshy spoke astounding amounts of crap that, even if any of it was possible, he couldn't possibly have known about. But I never heard him actually say this one. Maybe I just nodded off during the "weight in gold" moment or the 96 hour introduction to his book of "discoveries" about human physiology.
