The myth of Enlightenment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IX0qEcZYVw

This is just something interesting. But i think the guy just realized that finding enlightenment does not mean "go sit on your ass and meditate".

 

Looks like this character is very much on a learning curve. Hence myself I think the title 'teacher' is probably misapplied here.
I agree with his point that we need to move beyond dogma etc......but the problem is not quite so clear cut as he makes it seem.

'Get off your ass' is a familiar refrain I've been hearing from infancy - and yet the world continues to plummet ever closer to disaster....maybe if more people didn't just assiume that getting off their ass is the answer, we'd be better off. Like John and Yoko's bed peace idea. If we all stayed in bed for a week, the world would be a much more peaceful place.

IMO probably one who went too far in the wrong direction - ie becoming a monk, and is now going through a kind of opposite phase. Action and reaction. The thing is to find a balance where one can have an active life and belief in improving the world, but also to come to a deeper awareness. Otherwise you end up with the blind - be they never so idealistic - leading the blind.

Once more, this makes me question the wisdom of western people trying to adopt traditional Asian spiritual practices wholesale.

 

What you should question is whether or not wisdom is eastern or western. is there wisdom the "asian" way?
Bhagavad Gita teaches that we shouldnt identify with exteriors.

Why not be humble and learn from someone? is it so hard? who cares if they are asian?

 

concern about the ideas and beingness...

 

Maybe you need to become less dependent on external 'authorities' and learn to think for yourself.

 

Bhagavad-Gita is 100% correct on this point.


Agree...if you don't know something, you go to someone who does, listen humbly and respectfully, and ask questions. If you don't like what you hear or the person speaking, get up and leave. The trick is finding the right person.

What jedi is saying: that it's all about consciousnsess...A Vaisnava doesn't care if he or she's in heaven or hell, as long as they never forget Krishna.

No way anyone can knock this advice...in this world, you have to be wary.

 

Thanks Brother Joseph.
I'd just add that certainly, one can learn a great deal from other people, books, studies - and of course, one has to be open minded to learn anything. Modesty is a great virtue, and I'm not knocking that. But modesty means truth - and it means doing one's best according to one's gifts and capacities. It means seeing things as they are without applying any gloss. It certainly doesn't mean kow-towing to things with which one disagrees just to avoid seeming confrontational or arrogant.
It is not to be confused with false modesty, which is a learned and cynical thing, often adopted by the 'proffesionally' religious as a kind of front, or a way to attack any kind of criticism.

I think also that we have to learn from life, and our own experience of life. My experience has taught me that one has to exercise a certain level of critical awareness, and learn to sift the wheat from the chaff in the case of many spiritual systems and philosphies. As well as some who proclaim themselves spiritual teachers.

 

I'm not so sure. C.G.Jung for instance thought that things are different on a deep psychological level in the east and the west. Different sets of childhood cultural imprints lead to a different structuring of the ego.
He thought that some practices which have evolved in the east could actually have a harmful effect on westerners. They could increase, rather than decrease the hold of the ego.
Given some of what I've seen over the years with various western followers of Indian gurus, I'm sure he was at least partly right about that.

I tend to take a half way position. I don't believe that western people can or should abandon their own cultural roots, but they may get some benefit from adopting some selected practices drawn from various eastern systems.
It is quite impossible in my opinion for a western person to become a 'hindu' in all but a tiny number of cases.

If you were thinking that I have a racist attitude, I'm sorry I didn't express myself clearly enough. I can assure you that I am in no way racist or against asian people.
I'm sure the other regulars here would agree that racism is one thing I can't be accused of.

Bhagavad Gita is itself an 'external' BTW.

 

Bill's not a racist, that's for sure...the farthest thing from it.


Bhagavad-gita exists both internally and externally...externally, as a guide to the internal.

 

This is just something interesting. But i think the guy just realized that finding enlightenment does not mean "go sit on your ass and meditate".

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Not much of something to realise, the most famous man of enlightenment the buddha spent 40 years after enlightenment spreading his message in a life of total worldly interaction. Maybe if he read about the life of genuine enlighted beings he may have realised most of them never sat on their ass.

yes i posted again, cant help myself

 

That didn't take long...you outlasted me by 3 days or so.

 

translation: shut up and everyone do it my way

 

not my way, Krishna's way

 

Not necessarily...is that the attitude to have toward any teacher or prof from who you are learning something essential?

Agree..But does who you're hearing Krishna's way from know Krishna's way "In Truth"?

 

Meditation is an ancient Indian technique, and if you want I can show you scientific research on the benefits of meditation physically, mentally,intellectually , emotionally and socially. (I am not adding spirituality to this.).

It is true you don't need to sit on your ass to get enlightened. Janaka of ancient India who was a karma yogi ( yoga of action) ,was an enlightened person who attained enlightenment through action.

However there are also people who attained enlightenment by sitting in the yogic posture of padmasana.
And Buddha, Mahavira, Guru Nanak, the Zen masters are among them. And no one disputes their enlightenment.


****Maybe if he read about the life of genuine enlighted beings he may have realised most of them never sat on their ass.*****

Just out of curiousity , can you mention who these genuine enlightened beings are.....

 

yes... i don't think someone can teach the truth...

 

that would be all fine and dandy if you knew krishna's way

 

I meant they didnt just sit on their ass.

They became enlightened and then spent their life afterwards in near constant action.

Jesus and Buddha are two off the top of head.

I was assuming (I couldnt be bothered to read the article) that he was inferring that enlightened ppl have only sat on their ass and done nothing else. If he didnt mean this then forget all i wrote.

 

yeah ignore it all, was late at night, i was tired and totally misunderstood the first post in the thread

 

Well, then there's no chance that any of us will ever know it.