Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Bill Nye the Science Guy booed in Waco for pointing out Bible error
On May 3, 2012, at 5:41 PM, cardemaister wrote: FWIW: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/akandabaratam/message/29172 Nice find Card. Comments interleaved: Makuta, Chandrajnana and Parameshvara Agama (...) There is a major disconnect between what we read of Hinduism in the vedas, upanishads, itihasas and puranas, and what is practised today. Thats because the entire religion practised today is based on the Agamas; of temple worship, of home altar worship, of home sacraments, of festivals, pujas, homas, abishegams, of vratas and tapas, of annals of the Dieties, dikshas, gurus and birth to death sacraments, etc. This is precisely the case. There's actually very little left of Vedic religion other than some sacrificial rituals. There is not much of the philosophy of the upanishads reflected at the ground level. When one enters the temple, one is aware of the Diety, the Vahana, and the Altar - pati-pasu-pasam. One knows this is the philosophy of the siddhantist*, an agamist, a tantrik, and not anything else. When one conducts a marriage or a funeral ceremony today, one is a siddhantist or agamist. Whether one cremates or buries, one is an agamist. When one mentally focusus on the Diety in the temple or home shrine, with the eyes open or closed during pujas, one is a tantrik. Again, right on the mark. The vast majority of Hinduism as it is practiced today is from the Agamas or the Tantras. This disconnect between what is read and what is practised is serious, and served to provide an imbalanced and lopsided, nay, wrong view of Hinduism, both to the Hindus and the world at large. It distorted Hinduism. The writings on Hinduism in the last two hundred years did not contain anything on the agamas. A lot of this has to do with the inheritance of the puritanical British who armed with their own religion, assumed 'the Hindus had to have their own Bible like we do'. The most highly placed folks were likely Brahmans and so the Bhagavad-gita and the Vedas got cast as Hindu Bibles. Never mind the vast majority of what they're seeing in practice was Tantric or Agamic. When one is not talking of the agamas, one is not talking of Hinduism, one is probably talking of something else, some other religion, probably some tradition that may have existed in the subcontinent in the remote past, or existed in parallel, or some socio-cultural myths and legends, all of which has little to do with Hindus today. When the agamas are juxtaposed with Hinduism on the ground, it matches perfectly! What it says is what we practice. These shastras, the vedas, upanishads, puranas and itihasas, manu shastras, etc., and the books written about them did not reflect the Hindu religion. It talked of something else while the Hindus believed and practiced something else. Thats because the agamas were not available, in devanagiri, hindi or english. It was only recently in the last few years that is was translated into english and these reviews of it in this last three months are the very first in all time. I know of no others. This is so true. Very little of the vast literature of the Agamas, Upa-agamas, etc. have never been translated. It may be probable that when the early european indologists enquired about Hinduism, afraid that their shastras may be lost or stolen, the Hindus guided the indologists by leading them down the garden path on a goose chase with the vedas and puranas, but keeping quiet about the agamas. Then the early Indian writers followed that chase. And so on. Today we have a few thousand books that does not talk of the religion of the Hindus, but only on the fringes of it. One teaching is exoteric, one is esoteric. The only contribution from the 'vedic shastras' as mentioned above to Hinduism that is practised today are the mantras which are used in conducting pujas to the dieties. Nothing more than that. Period! Bingo. Even the vedic mantras are 'modified' in that with the addition of 'aum', 'bija' mantras as prefixes, 'namaha' as suffix and where appropriate, 'svaha', these then are now converted to agamic or tantrik mantras. TM being a good example. The agamas does not use the philosophy of the upanishads at all. To be sure, it does not conflict with the upanishads, rather praises it and the vedas, but overrides it completely and have its own philosophy which may be called agamanta or simply siddhanta. The philosophy provided in the agamas is exacting and voluminous. As explained earlier, philosophy, meditation and yoga in the Ajita Agama is more than in the 108 upanishads combined. It is this philosophy that underpins all the rituals and practices of the Hindus. Philosophy is not just for introspection and discussing as many are apt to think, but to be used in everyday life, built into our daily actions. What is the philosophy underlying the act of placing a flower at a
[FairfieldLife] Re: Bill Nye the Science Guy booed in Waco for pointing out Bible error
Xenophaneros: Mohammad probably is a bit more certain, but that guy had a real chip on his shoulder, in spite of some spiritual clarity... Spencer does an amazing job showing that there is, in fact, no historical evidence at all that Mohammed ever existed, and that the tales about him were written long after he was dead and were often fabricated to justify one tribe's actions over another. Even the stories about Mecca being an important center of trade appear to be fabricated as its location would preclude it from serving this purpose. 'Did Muhammad Exist?' An Inquiry into Islam's Obscure Origins Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2012 http://tinyurl.com/6wtkomy
[FairfieldLife] Re: Bill Nye the Science Guy booed in Waco for pointing out Bible error
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj vajradhatu@... wrote: Meanwhile, in Mordor... Great intro line. :-) http://www.thinkatheist.com/profiles/blogs/bill-nye-bood-in-texas-for/ Bill Nye, the harmless children's edu-tainer known as The Science Guy, managed to offend a select group of adults in Waco, Texas at a presentation, when he suggested that the moon does not emit light, but instead reflects the light of the sun. As even most elementary-school graduates know, the moon reflects the light of the sun but produces no light of its own. But don't tell that to the good people of Waco, who were visibly angered by what some perceived as irreverence, according to the Waco Tribune. Nye was in town to participate in McLennan Community College's Distinguished Lecture Series. He gave two lectures on such unfunny and adult topics as global warming, Mars exploration, and energy consumption. But nothing got people as riled as when he brought up Genesis 1:16, which reads: God made two great lights -- the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. The lesser light, he pointed out, is not a light at all, but only a reflector. At this point, several people in the audience stormed out in fury. One woman yelled We believe in God! and left with three children, thus ensuring that people across America would read about the incident and conclude that Waco is as nutty as they'd always suspected. While amusing, from my POV the Waco Wackos have nothing on the people around here who have been discussing the historical Krishna as if he actually existed. Reading scripture destroys brain cells.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Bill Nye the Science Guy booed in Waco for pointing out Bible error
On May 3, 2012, at 10:11 AM, turquoiseb wrote: While amusing, from my POV the Waco Wackos have nothing on the people around here who have been discussing the historical Krishna as if he actually existed. Reading scripture destroys brain cells. The Vaishnavite Bhagavad-gita is actually mostly stolen from Parameshvara Agama - a non-Vedic Shaivite text. Reading plagiarized texts as factual is insane.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Bill Nye the Science Guy booed in Waco for pointing out Bible error
More of Alain Danielou's conjectural pseudo-scholarship. Typical Vag rant. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj vajradhatu@... wrote: On May 3, 2012, at 10:11 AM, turquoiseb wrote: While amusing, from my POV the Waco Wackos have nothing on the people around here who have been discussing the historical Krishna as if he actually existed. Reading scripture destroys brain cells. The Vaishnavite Bhagavad-gita is actually mostly stolen from Parameshvara Agama - a non-Vedic Shaivite text. Reading plagiarized texts as factual is insane.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Bill Nye the Science Guy booed in Waco for pointing out Bible error
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb no_reply@... wrote: snip While amusing, from my POV the Waco Wackos have nothing on the people around here who have been discussing the historical Krishna as if he actually existed. What's amusing is how completely Barry is at the mercy of his compulsions: to dump on anyone who disagrees with him even if it's completely out of context, as here; and to distort the truth in his favor. Only one person in the present discussion has said anything about the historical Krishna. Barry knows this, but since that isn't quite impressive enough for Barry, one person becomes the people around here.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Bill Nye the Science Guy booed in Waco for pointing out Bible error
The fool of irrelevance whores for attention and get fly-swatted again. Amusing. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jstein@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb no_reply@ wrote: snip While amusing, from my POV the Waco Wackos have nothing on the people around here who have been discussing the historical Krishna as if he actually existed. What's amusing is how completely Barry is at the mercy of his compulsions: to dump on anyone who disagrees with him even if it's completely out of context, as here; and to distort the truth in his favor. Only one person in the present discussion has said anything about the historical Krishna. Barry knows this, but since that isn't quite impressive enough for Barry, one person becomes the people around here.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Bill Nye the Science Guy booed in Waco for pointing out Bible error
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jstein@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb no_reply@ wrote: snip While amusing, from my POV the Waco Wackos have nothing on the people around here who have been discussing the historical Krishna as if he actually existed. What's amusing is how completely Barry is at the mercy of his compulsions: to dump on anyone who disagrees with him even if it's completely out of context, as here; and to distort the truth in his favor. Only one person in the present discussion has said anything about the historical Krishna. Barry knows this, but since that isn't quite impressive enough for Barry, one person becomes the people around here. And then Judy following her compulsion comments on Barry's compulsion, and then Xeno's compulsion impels him to write some aimless, drifting comment, nothing in particular... ... ... ... Where has Curtis been? He hasn't posted since April 8. We have a short stack here. Father, Son, Holy Ghost. The Godhead of Ultimate Evil (in some opinions). Where is Curtis? Lurking, expired, lots of gigs, bored with us? The historical Xeno, a guy who wrote posts here in the past. Did he really exist? In the Xeno scriptures, which contains the accurate truthful records of my birth say I was born on Mount Olympus, and Zeus smiled upon me. Probably because Zeus was drunk. But then no one here seems quite in their right mind either. The historical Jesus, the historical Moses, the historical Buddha all have historicity problems when attempting to prove they existed. Mohammad probably is a bit more certain, but that guy had a real chip on his shoulder, in spite of some spiritual clarity.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Bill Nye the Science Guy booed in Waco for pointing out Bible error
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Xenophaneros Anartaxius anartaxius@... wrote: Where has Curtis been? He hasn't posted since April 8. His pattern is to take breaks from FFL. He's still subscribed, and I bet he'll be back at some point.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Bill Nye the Science Guy booed in Waco for pointing out Bible error
Hope so. Miss you Curtis...you are unique. I will pray for you today :) If you expand your geographic world and decide to come to the west coast, I'm betting you could drum up an audience. Anne might come see you as would I, although I would likely stay anonymous - hiding is becoming my specialty. Although my friends are on me to get a job and get back to earning an honest living. I'm listening. From: Alex Stanley j_alexander_stan...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Thursday, May 3, 2012 9:44 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Bill Nye the Science Guy booed in Waco for pointing out Bible error --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Xenophaneros Anartaxius anartaxius@... wrote: Where has Curtis been? He hasn't posted since April 8. His pattern is to take breaks from FFL. He's still subscribed, and I bet he'll be back at some point.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Bill Nye the Science Guy booed in Waco for pointing out Bible error
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, emptybill emptybill@... wrote: More of Alain Danielou's conjectural pseudo-scholarship. Typical Vag rant. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj vajradhatu@ wrote: On May 3, 2012, at 10:11 AM, turquoiseb wrote: While amusing, from my POV the Waco Wackos have nothing on the people around here who have been discussing the historical Krishna as if he actually existed. Reading scripture destroys brain cells. The Vaishnavite Bhagavad-gita is actually mostly stolen from Parameshvara Agama - a non-Vedic Shaivite text. Reading plagiarized texts as factual is insane. FWIW: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/akandabaratam/message/29172
[FairfieldLife] Re: Bill Nye the Science Guy booed in Waco for pointing out Bible error
Excellent essay, Carde. Thanks. *** --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, cardemaister no_reply@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, emptybill emptybill@ wrote: More of Alain Danielou's conjectural pseudo-scholarship. Typical Vag rant. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj vajradhatu@ wrote: On May 3, 2012, at 10:11 AM, turquoiseb wrote: While amusing, from my POV the Waco Wackos have nothing on the people around here who have been discussing the historical Krishna as if he actually existed. Reading scripture destroys brain cells. The Vaishnavite Bhagavad-gita is actually mostly stolen from Parameshvara Agama - a non-Vedic Shaivite text. Reading plagiarized texts as factual is insane. FWIW: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/akandabaratam/message/29172
