curtisdeltablues wrote: > In a recent posting exchange about Andrew Sullivan's beliefs, I was > struck by his claim that Jesus loves him. Since that time, I have > seen about one thousand bumper stickers on neighbor's cars proclaiming > that Jesus loves the driver or that the driver loves Jesus. > > I've been in a few sketchy relationships in my day, but I am pretty > sure that anytime you don't actually ever see your partner, you are in > a fantasy relationship. (no offense meant to my online fantasy Thai > wife Toi with whom I have 3 beautiful fantasy kids) > > After 3 years of almost continuous rounding at Sidhaland, I had some > experiences concerning Guru Dev's image that caused me to believe that > I had developed a relationship with him as if he was a living person. > I am sympathetic to such claims by others because it was extremely > compelling, and although I don't view the experiences with the same > value I did then, it did open my eyes to the power of mystical > experiences and how detailed the experiences can be. > > Stevie Ray Vaughn once claimed that the Spirit of Jimi Hendrix had > taken him over and he began wearing a lot of the tacky hippie colors > that Jimi did in his shows after that. MMY claimed that Vaishistha > "came onto him" one night and afterwards he came out with some new > concepts. (the details of those concepts have faded, but I will > never forget, or fail to chuckle at, his provocative wording)In the > movement there is the concept of Guru Dev guiding us and it may be > just a poetic way to describe the movement's relationship with him or > it may be a more mystical claim. I remember a recent post about > Sattyanand claim that Guru Dev appeared to him after death to get him > to stop blubbering about his passing. > > The phrase "Jesus loves you" is totally mainstream and doesn't raise > an eyebrow anywhere. I don't suppose that people are all referring to > a mystical vision of Jesus although I'm sure some are. But the > conviction that a historical person can have a relationship with you, > beyond their use as an inspirational force, is really intriguing to > me. It is taken for granted in society as if it is the most natural > thing in the world. In my creative life I value trance induced states > in which imagination conjures rich experiences in detail. But I don't > come out of them thinking that I have contacted a dead person for real. > > So I throw out this bone for insightful gnawing from anyone > interested. How do you relate to this topic? > > (In case anyone does have a hotline to the dead I am interested in > inquiring form a certain Robert Johnson what fret he placed his capo > on in "Crossroad Blues". Although I am not up for his "coming on to > me" I am not adverse to the idea of a little "courtesy of reach > around" for the blues legend. But only if he really loves me. About two years ago I had a lucid dream where "Jesus" came to me. He looked more like Naveen Andrews than the convention European looking guy that was painted as Jesus a few centuries ago. So he looked more like someone would have looked coming from that area and at that time. Funny thing is I had been making statements that most likely such a person did not exist and was a myth drawn from some political activist against the Roman invaders and the work of a mystic known to exist around that time. In the dream there were people stuck in the ground shouting at me that I couldn't talk to him or didn't deserve to. They were apparently fundamentalists and regarding them he looked annoyed and said "just ignore them." He told me that things were going to get "really bad" soon and I might want to "get out of here." About a month later the Indonesian tsunami hit and of course things haven't been too good in the world since.
Either it was some release of stress or some celestial experience. I can't say either way. But in meditation I frequently see faces of beings which have been described in various texts on meditation. These are more stable than a hallucination so I take it that I am experiencing some other realm such as the astral plane which much has been written about. BTW, the advice is that you don't try to communicate with these beings. They may the spirits of those who have passed on from this plane and are in limbo. Ghosts I do believe exist and have had some experience with them which is not uncommon in the tantric field. As for the Guru Dev thing, in India they will tell you they made the impersonal personal through personifying it. Thus you get the various aspects of the transcendent as gods and goddesses to make the philosophy to the common folk. Likewise I would say that the same is often true of gurus who have passed on but some spiritual energy remains. But current science is way too crude to prove any of this.
