Regarding who reads the blogspot, Living in the Truth of the Presnet Moment and how far we get I admit to having a reading problem. I can't get through the whole post most of the time and I have until recently really cheated on reading the comments of others.
I can't trace my reading problem back. Maybe the PCs, maybe my tech education, maybe not getting much feedback on what I have read, maybe this is just something that has to be gone through.
Authors have attitudes. I've read Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada and boy, oh boy, does he have an attitude. His is about Vashistha and Durga and so forth. I've read others who call yoga "cults." Oh, boy they ar full of fire about how their communities are going to be destroyed by a new chanting group in the neighborhood - imagine a satellite intensive.
I went to satsang last night. First time in years. I've written about that, privately, to you. It was a good night, just 5 of us. 4 women and myself. I was able to sit cross legged on my meditation cushion throughout. Satsang. I rarely called it that and if I did I had no sense of it.
So, the leader, whose name I think was Pam but whom I really don't remember, kept referring to a place, a suite in an industrial park in North Gainesville. A little place she called it and it is, but satsang is really another place. As you have said a place in the Heart. That's not just some physical place but I think they have a feeling of that over there because they have really taken excellent care of it. I have pictures of Mayi and Baba at my apartment, big pictures and I know how they get spots and need cleaning and boy when I looked at the pics in main hall at this little meditation center I was amazed at how sparkly clean they were. Bravo to them for giving of themselves so much in seva. I'm sure that took a lot of hard work.
I had written at a Facebook group called Kirtan that it was rare that we got to do kirtan with instruments and so forth. I know of the kirtan I learned about from reading Back to Godhead and Chaitanya-Charitamrta. They are a big organization. They speak of a lifestyle. They speak of converts who prefer their lifestyle. I assume that means no illicit sex, drugs, alchohol, caffeine or tobacco and chanting 16 rounds of the mantra, Hare Krsna and so forth. They often speak of the superiority of Bhakti Yoga, but I think they mean the dualist system that Gauranga taught. They have little use of teachers outside of their sect and often call them bottle washers and such as that. I have heard the terms mleccha and yadava quite enough I think.
But, I'm a westerner and I've never really been taught about Krishna. Yogananda compared Krishna to Jesus but these devotees say Krishna is the Father and Jesus is only his son.
In many ways though these devotees and Yogananda are alike. They tell a tale, they spin a story and the stories are beautiful and you think you can actually hear these beings speak to you. Nonetheless, I had to turn away. I had never heard of Shiva so who was I to put him down, say he isn't Krishna. Whom I to believe that his devotees were dark lovers of the shadows. Why was I to believe that Brahmnirvana was in anyway superior to Nirvanakalpa that Yogananda wrote about or Sehaj samadhi that I have also learned of. I've had my ecstatic experiences but I can see that life gets serious, too. You are telling me to look out for thinking life is so serious but I am still on my awares, as I think the saying goes.
Stephan Gaskin wrote a book called Mind at Play and in it he spoke of guarding your gourd. I'm kind of there.
I may also not have read so much because of the abundance of information, the information glut made available through the modern day computer.
The Net is a wonderful plaything. It has been very hard finding things of a spiritual nature there. This is very nice this satsang here at this site but I've been on the Net since 1996 and I have seen very little that was spiritually elevating.
Gee it must have been that chanting last night. We chanted Om Guru, Jaya Guru, Satchidananda Guru.
I can't trace my reading problem back. Maybe the PCs, maybe my tech education, maybe not getting much feedback on what I have read, maybe this is just something that has to be gone through.
Authors have attitudes. I've read Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada and boy, oh boy, does he have an attitude. His is about Vashistha and Durga and so forth. I've read others who call yoga "cults." Oh, boy they ar full of fire about how their communities are going to be destroyed by a new chanting group in the neighborhood - imagine a satellite intensive.
I went to satsang last night. First time in years. I've written about that, privately, to you. It was a good night, just 5 of us. 4 women and myself. I was able to sit cross legged on my meditation cushion throughout. Satsang. I rarely called it that and if I did I had no sense of it.
So, the leader, whose name I think was Pam but whom I really don't remember, kept referring to a place, a suite in an industrial park in North Gainesville. A little place she called it and it is, but satsang is really another place. As you have said a place in the Heart. That's not just some physical place but I think they have a feeling of that over there because they have really taken excellent care of it. I have pictures of Mayi and Baba at my apartment, big pictures and I know how they get spots and need cleaning and boy when I looked at the pics in main hall at this little meditation center I was amazed at how sparkly clean they were. Bravo to them for giving of themselves so much in seva. I'm sure that took a lot of hard work.
I had written at a Facebook group called Kirtan that it was rare that we got to do kirtan with instruments and so forth. I know of the kirtan I learned about from reading Back to Godhead and Chaitanya-Charitamrta. They are a big organization. They speak of a lifestyle. They speak of converts who prefer their lifestyle. I assume that means no illicit sex, drugs, alchohol, caffeine or tobacco and chanting 16 rounds of the mantra, Hare Krsna and so forth. They often speak of the superiority of Bhakti Yoga, but I think they mean the dualist system that Gauranga taught. They have little use of teachers outside of their sect and often call them bottle washers and such as that. I have heard the terms mleccha and yadava quite enough I think.
But, I'm a westerner and I've never really been taught about Krishna. Yogananda compared Krishna to Jesus but these devotees say Krishna is the Father and Jesus is only his son.
In many ways though these devotees and Yogananda are alike. They tell a tale, they spin a story and the stories are beautiful and you think you can actually hear these beings speak to you. Nonetheless, I had to turn away. I had never heard of Shiva so who was I to put him down, say he isn't Krishna. Whom I to believe that his devotees were dark lovers of the shadows. Why was I to believe that Brahmnirvana was in anyway superior to Nirvanakalpa that Yogananda wrote about or Sehaj samadhi that I have also learned of. I've had my ecstatic experiences but I can see that life gets serious, too. You are telling me to look out for thinking life is so serious but I am still on my awares, as I think the saying goes.
Stephan Gaskin wrote a book called Mind at Play and in it he spoke of guarding your gourd. I'm kind of there.
I may also not have read so much because of the abundance of information, the information glut made available through the modern day computer.
The Net is a wonderful plaything. It has been very hard finding things of a spiritual nature there. This is very nice this satsang here at this site but I've been on the Net since 1996 and I have seen very little that was spiritually elevating.
Gee it must have been that chanting last night. We chanted Om Guru, Jaya Guru, Satchidananda Guru.
No comments:
Post a Comment