Supreme Swindle
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Supreme Swindle
A Bet about an Origin of Troubles and Maladies
You seek help in yoga and meditation, and find that some things that have grown up around it stultify the help. Then what?
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| Conformity pressures hinder nudity at times. See all. |
The technology of yoga takes you within yourself by steps and stages. It requires good methods and an amount of discipline. Group mechanisms may either favour or stunt the growth of individuality or uniqueness. The odds are that conformity pressures largely hinder much of it.
Thus there comes a need to be alert to difficult circumstances and shielding a proper balance. Many try to bulwark themselves in various ways. Houses have walls and gardens for it. Fences and some ridges could be OK, and so on. There are social fences, physical fences, and other kinds of fences too. From antiquity and earlier people have used stone walls, ramparts, fences and strong hedges for the sake of safer living. God ordained garden work for Adam in the Garden of Eden. He was to work it and take care of it. Pleasant garden work, Paradisiac work, is still healthy and much appreciated. [Gen 2:15]
In India some yogis live in remote and secluded places and shielded places called ashrams to benefit from the protective measures offered. When a teacher says "Take care," to you, maybe you should consider shielding yourself better in one or several ways.
Let us say you have ignored some of the basics of the yoga terrain and floundered: Maybe your own development and gliding inside on your own, free terms is set aside for the sake of belonging to someone or something, such as a church of yoga. To the degree your life gets directed by others and also ruled over by prominent others, you are probably bound for troubles, and did not take care well enough.
- Some troubles stem from repressing yourself and your insights.
- Others stem from not being able to or not being given any good opportunity to get deeply felt findings out of your chest.
- Still other troubles stem from those around you, and the troubles and maladies
they have and often infect others with. Some may not be easy to get
rid of. Feigning is a big problem, and so is hypocrisy and corruption. Let the problems of those that are not close to you be their own problems as you help the world by being charitable to yourself and your nearest ones first. For it is best not to impoverish yourself or reduce your well-being for others, but improve yourself in a fine way, just as Buddha suggests. It is not any "either-or"; Buddha advocates a sensible "middle path", building up wealth and funds for living all right, to get time and means for developing your mind and wake up too. Such is his Noble Path in a nutshell. Milarepa accords, "One should not be over-anxious and hasty in setting out to serve others, but have the one resolve to attain Buddhahood." [Tm 271]
You are not asked to lessen or ignore yourself and your long-term needs throughout life. Since you should find ample time to assist others once you get Awakened, put first things first and contemplate. Becoming fit for such favourable priorities may be tough for gentle spirits.
Seeing Millions of Colours in a Changing World
Someone wrote and said nothing is black-and-white. However, the chessboard and the yin yang symbol are black and white, and the zebra's skin too. It is fine to know and heed there are shades of grey in between black and white, and many colours too. Painters and artists learnto blend some of them with different ends in view.When a prism breaks white light, the colours of the rainbow are seen. White, grey, and black are not of the spectrum, but come in addition. Some insects and birds can see colours that like outside the range that humans can see; some see infrared and ultraviolet too. Leaving that aside for now, according to some estimates, the human eye can distinguish some ten million colours. In determining a colour, its hue, value (corresponding to reflectance), and chroma (corresponding to purity) are to be accounted for by measurements or perhaps simpler comparisons. There are many colour atlases in use.
Our perception of colours is tricky. The eye and mind accommodate to the "redness" and "blueness" of the daylight in the morning and at noon, for example, for the sake of preserving much colour constancy in a changing, perceived world. Hence, we humans adapt to light of different wave-lengths by use of a set of mental constants. They need to be developed.
Mental constructs should likewise be allowed to be developed and nuanced. Why? For the sake of fitting in to the world somewhat better. The world does not have to be seen only as black and white. It is at times the same with gurus and their teachings. [Ebu "colour"]
- Accommodate as best you can.
Deeper
Ducks may at times serve as symbols of the teachings of others, at other times as symbols of your life. Have sense enough so that you do not heed them over and above your Self that strives to get through to you from inside. You should be more worth than a duck, after all. This suggests (a) the one who considers a teaching is more worth than the teaching. He or she encompasses more. (b) Your inner Self is more than one life. Some who resolve to die for rights, serve to illustrate this perspective.Perhaps neighbours and friends are a peculiar mixture too. Maybe they serve to show how much variation there is around, and how many different sorts of life that may work together.
The basic trouble with some of us may well be: Earlier we turned outside to the extent of caring well enough for our deeper nature and its needs. Cater to it. The moment we are dead our insides (mind and soul) are there, but what else might be found as being of worth enough depends on "how winds are blowing".
So do not ignore your needs to bore into your deeper self and consolidate valuable gains and assets. In a too shallow soap opera fond culture many need to go deeper. Large amounts of persons risk a slow dwindling of the contact with the near ones as part of the conform strides of our times, as part of urban patterns. Not a few get so desperate for friends and partners that they get into strange, arranged settings, be it five-second dates or more. Hoping or begging for friendship and contact and belonging may seem to find glowing fulfilment in other than the real figures - not really natural or one's own father figures, mother figures, brother figures, friends and so on. Self-Realization Fellowship stands for all those features. It could indicate estrangement at work; if so, it needs to be assessed patently, for a marring suspicion is not quite enough to be called valid. Besides, one should avoid causing embarrassment to innocents.
- Face the facts. And don't adjust to your own loss.
Good Teachers Welcome Budding Uniqueness in Artists and Others
EFFECTIVE yoga contains methods and customs that make you deviate from the average or common unless you surround yourself with like-minded people in some decent rural community or gets shelter in other nice ways. You may see this happening if you first take up hatha yoga of body postures, and then gets gradually interested in and involved in higher yoga forms, such as meditation. Along with the calming practice, which may restore health to some and fasten it in still others, in a crisis, the interests may grow wider and deeper, and the "thing" called "my way" or "my ways" may take on momentum. In other words, significant individuality may come into the open and want a piece of the action.To be individual is to be unique, not like anyone else. Therefore be warned. Not everybody is welcoming and friendly towards those who get unique - much like artists - unique, and thereby different - yes, deviant. Sound protective measures may be called for. But be as discreet as you can, and make full use of the side of life that is called the right to privacy. It pertains to both thoughts and practices.
- Deviants may grow too - some for good, others for bad.
Learn to prepare well
Loose, very general warnings may not help you or young ones. But all-round training on top of such warnings may help.LEARN to prepare yourself well for what may come and lie ahead. It is no as easy as it sounds. To prepare well is not just to prepare for a rainy day or three, but a full-fledged hurricane and a snowstorm that last for long, for example. Most often these things don't happen, but when and if they do, your building (character) has to be calibrated to withstand and resist the harmful influences.
Murphy's Law comes in handy: "If anything can go wrong, someone will sooner or later see to it that it does." But if you learn to bulwark well, take fit precautions and be on and up in time for great things to come your way, maybe - maybe you then have learnt to expect the worst and bulwark against it so that alarming things don't happen to yourself or your next of kin, no matter how the storms may rage.
In some cases it is possible to do. In others not. So it is not always enough to live out "prevention is better than cure". Rather, stick to "expect the worst and bulwark against it in good times". That may slowly work if put to work by steps and stages.
To be well rehearsed is fine too. It often makes a difference, even in president candidate debates on TV.
In preparing and safeguarding, don't get depleted or emptied. A little eaglet doesn't have to practice flying till its wings have grown to size and the skeleton and rest of the organism are matured. Thus, it stands to reason not to rush things. Training or prevention has to rest on both readiness (including physical maturity) and interests, perhaps.
If soundness is not jeopardised, preparing for life and its encounters, dangers and things to resist may assist personal strength. If not, one may be tamed, which is not cultivated.
To create something of worth, you can let high skills assist general soundness and well-being.
- To be richly prepared, learn to bulwark in ample time against the worst things that could happen, so that they probably won't happen anyhow. Lots of practices ought to be derived from that sovereign norm.
Crossbred Teachings
The Crossbred Yoga and Christianity of Paramahansa Yogananda's Self-Realization Fellowship, Is It a Plot?
Can some of Yogananda's teachings lead astray?
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| Focused attention fosters one's finest potential. |
Yogananda thus teaches that his teachings are swindles, that is, not real at all, impossible to find in reality - since all Yogananda's teachings appear in the universe, which is fraud according to him. And sawing off your legs to stand safer seems like teaching in the way he does: Let us face it: That the universe is not real, is even the basic teaching of his - yet is is a fraud. We hope you can see it.There is no material universe; its warp and woof is . . . illusion. [Paramahansa Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi, ch. 30 [LINK]
Now I hope you see that you cannot see that Yogananda's teaching is anything but an illusion he shares - seemingly - since it's all false play or something like that . . . That is a lot to think of, but the wise think only seemingly (Oops! One more secret left out).
You want more seemingly notorious evidence? Look into this:
Yet, if the earthly realm is illusory, the divine realm would not extend into it, we may gather. See also such as Pa 319.Babaji observed. "The divine realm extends to the earthly, but the latter [is] illusory". [Autobiography of a Yogi, ch. 34, LINK]
So the guru and founder of Self-Realization Fellowship at times tells us that the universe is lila (Skr: play, sport). He also uses words like "illusion" and "dream" in some of his books. And all this may remind us somehow of words by the fabled Chuang-tzu of ancient China, when he spoke of the world:
Back to Yogananda and his Supreme Swindle teachings: To the degree that what Yogananda and some of his gurus maintain in the matter is correct, and hence false, a little "Gulp!" could fit in.This is all a great dream. Yet the stupid believe they . . . understand things . . . When I say you are dreaming, I am dreaming, too. Words like these will be labelled the Supreme Swindle. [Co 47-48]
The Supreme Swindle teaching yogi set up Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF). It is a hybrid society that preaches overarching Hindu teachings and keeps Jesus as one of its gurus. You decide how fit that be. There is much evidence to build your conclusions on in this Gold Scales archive.
The yoga society that the Hindu emissary founded in or around Boston in 1920 has an international headquarters in Los Angeles, and there are perhaps the most members in southern California.
Not everybody appreciates that a guru enterprise - a modern decoction-religious society - is likened to a farm with its pigs and cattle and other animals to be herded and made use of in time, but see how far it fits!
We may bear in mind something Jesus said about sheep and shepherds. He also held that proper investigations are fit, and false judgements - well, sent him to the cross.
- If the world is not real, to be crucified is no big terror.
Deep and Mysterious Self-Realization Fellowship: A hybrid or something cross-planted
To the shallow, all tends to seem shallow. To the deep and mysterious, the Self-Realization Fellowship tends to seem deep and mysterious like a hybrid, perhaps.CAN SOME Hindu teachings and the teachings of Jesus be well aligned unless as part of Supreme Swindle teachings? Maybe - but do remember the over-arching guru teaching is that the universe is a swindle, an illusion, a dream, and those who form part of it - your brother and old folks, perhaps - are in dreamland - sort of.
Then, if the world is unreal, an illusion, which Yogananda teaches - and his teachings are in the world and found to be part of the world outside too - you cannot say a lot if you mean something. Does it matter to know that Yogananda went on and on as a lecturer anyway? That he also preached of a Way of awakening? It should! But lots of persons may suspect this teaching forms part of the universe, the Large Container, and thereby the teachings are notoriously false teachings (found in the world).
To put it with Chuang-tzu, adjusting to Supreme Swindle teachings is done by swindles. Id (zest) is for that too in this thought up Supreme Swindle teaching. So swindle and feigning gives the Way and kriya yoga, the favoured method system of Yogananda.
There are obvious dangers in saying "(It is true that) there is no difference between truth and untruth". You may see that tenet in a postmodern book by a certain Ericson, by the way.Mere bleating could be better than insisting on telling the truth by teaching there is no difference between it and untruth, you see. This could eventually bring us back to the guru dilemmas revolving around deep and penetrating scams rooted in the universe, you may think. But no, if the world is an illusion, so are guru teachings. They won't be found anywhere else, then, as far as I am aware of. There you have it: "Sharpen your axe (thinking)."
Only in a Supreme Hoax (universe) can Supreme Swindle teachings liberate. Only in a Supreme Hoax or Scam can the teachings of early Christianity be fully aligned with or called in harmony with general Hinduism, wide and vast and diversified as it is. In a swindle or Supreme Hoax the teachings may be said to express the same divine truths. Note too that terms like "divine" and "God" in the relative plane may fully err, as they are parts of the Big Hoax, or Supreme Swindle. Many people appear to be tricked into believing or accepting scam teachings as genuine instead of something false and often preposterous - Just don't be taken in by guru hoaxes and insider jokes among them any longer.
Further note that Hinduism "can be anything" and often comes close to the soap opera: Gurus tend to interpret sayings of Jesus as they want, to accommodate Christianity to their brands of Hinduism, mainly, and not the other way round. It may not be fair and fit, and that needs to be pointed out, to see to that bluffers don't get a straight path to beginners' hearts. There are other, far better ways to bring about agreements than faking and bluffing.
- Domesticated whales and fish may soon get much unfit for natural living.
Speaking of cross-planted guru lore
Speaking of cross-planted guru lore and hybrid plants: Do we deal with brambles or vines? In some respects it pays to know it, for grapevines have no thorns; brambles have a lot of them.Before you bleed to death or do better than that, take a look and find out the difference between the plants and learn to deal in handy ways with whatever you have to deal with to make juice.
Good wine (that tricky, figurative term) can be made of both, and "in wine lies a lot of verity swimming around". Compare the Latin "In vino veritas (". It may not be as easy as that, however - Hold on to your own Fertility Garden: Make your own life prosper - that's what it means, basically.
- Good old ways with words can work like music on a family.
"Double Tact" of Paramahansa Yogananda
We are not all alike; there ARE some that don't like our Guru Farm discourses. To begin with, have a look at this:The double quote could make sense in a wider context or setting ... Paramahansa Yogananda was also fond of saying that life is just a dream, unreal, an illusion, you see. You can look it up - so try our FreeFind site search, and if it should not work, Google may be a help if you write something like [kinnes yogananda life dream illusion]. Thus you may come across:
In the first edition it is "Never admit that you live" - [Check]
The 'Ak' after the two somewhat juxtaposed quotations stands for the book Man's Eternal Quest by Yogananda. The quotations are commented on too at this place: [Link].
"Never believe that you live" calls for the dumb fare, the next, "Never admit that you live", calls for goofy denials. That's how it most often is.
One should also note that one of the Hindu guru's stands was:
However, there is plenty of evidence on the Internet now to substantiate that his society has deteriorated into a cult, one more "guru farm", and that not everything is full well beneath the public facade. Now, an aside:
I had steadfastly refused to join any society because I didn't find in them demonstrable truth. But when I found my guru and this path, and saw through my own experience that it worked [Paramahansa Yogananda, in Man's Eternal Quest].
- The highest wisdom and the highest genius have been invariably accompanied with cheerfulness. [Thomas Love Peacock, a Romantic satirist - LINK]
There is much to read or browse in what follows
SOME LIKE to read a lot, others not. Some have the time for it, others haven't made those priorities, and so on. Some like the reading to be manly, others like it soft, and we can't please everyone full well.Be that as it may. Years of study went into the findings in this Self-Realization Fellowship focused archive. There is much food for thought in it. There could be enough content for forty books. To read the first twenty pages first could be fine; they are more concise that the others in the archive. Some do get pleasant insights, like the lady cited above.
Feel free to see for yourself, enjoy as you please. See the section survey below for browsing and much else.
Autobiography of a Yogi Online - It would be a mistake
to think it is Christian.
Catholic Father Mateo at variance with important SRF
teachings
Misleading too - Maya-tomfoolery
Parable Features
Learn to Assuage Well
SOME PARABLES forewarn in that they tell in metaphors about important things that could happen so that these things may not happen. That is, those who have ears to listen or take heed may be warned, and thereby escape much pain and suffering in the long run. Much depends on that, including happiness of life.Skilled storytelling combines some sorts of distance making with entertaining, structured layout of the tale, so that young and old ones derive benefit.
- Avoid and minimise pains in life through good stories - old narrative ways have regained even academic prestige in our time, and are "hot" discourse takes.
Some Roundabout Takes on Figures of Speech and so on
GREATER teachings - or fun teachings - are not for everyone; great teachings
often look bizarre to many commoners. Look to the teachings of Jesus and see what
happened.Or lend ear to Lao-tzu in the Tao Te Ching - he signals quite a lot of the same in various places:
And the apostle Paul had to spell it out too: what looks wise to worldly or religious-looking tense ones, may be folly to God, is a summary.When the highest of men hear of Tao [the Way] and truth they put it into practice quite diligently.
When the common types hear of Tao, they seem to be in two minds about it, half believing, aware and unaware of some.
When the lowest types hear of Tao, they ridicule or laugh loudly - but if they did not laugh, it would be no Tao. [Tao Te Ching, Ch. 41 LINK]
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. [1 Corinthians 3.19]And in addition, here's a new slam:
"First inside, next plots on top of that [and judicious tenet may resemble proverbs]".There are parables of Buddha and others. It is an old tradition [LINK]. Parables are teaching stories that can have many pregnant and relevant messages, depending on what you put into them. and there is also reason to allow for that Buddha tells delicate "stuff" and saw no way that was more fit at the time. We let those hints suffice at this place.
You may also have noted that Jesus talked of animals when he meant humans. He once talked of king Herod as a fox. And the lost sheep of Jesus is not just a sheep, it is a lost human. Matthew (chapter 13) informs that to the general public Jesus always told important stuff in metaphoric ways - and let future men and women in on this: Those who later called themselves Christs, were not to be thanked, but to be dealt with like hungry wolves of murderous intent. That's in the Bible too.
- Peals of loud laughter suggest "No Way!" in some way or other.
New, Indian Christs and Some of Their Teachings
TODAY we find New Christs hailed in the United States and elsewhere. Some of them have been written about at length by Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952), who was a kriya yoga guru and who set up Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF). Some erroneously think he established SRF in Los Angeles in 1920. But at that time he came to Boston from India, and in Boston he stayed. There is ample evidence. SRF was started in or near Boston in 1920, then.Your referrals have been very helpful. I appreciate your assistance. - CP
Based on the answer: Good yoga is [also] investigative on the basis of propositions handed over.
I became aware that Yogananda lore was at variance with Christian teachings.
Yogananda who at first said selfishness was fine and to be cultivated, later "forgot" significant parts of his teachings from the 1920s, got troubles with many others of his Fellowship, and turned it into a church in Los Angeles, California, 1935.
This suggests his society was formalised, not as free-flowing any longer. Some Yogananda students became monks and nuns, and those who remained, took over the Fellowship after 1952, when the guru passed away. And if Rousseau has it right in the first few words of the novel Emile, "Everything deteriorates in the hands of men."
That seems like putting the blame on disciples for what has happened to SRF before and after the guru's passing, but "The Lord . . . does everything [SRM, Spring 1972, p. 20] and "God is the Sole Doer," is his teaching, and not "The Bear is a Sole Walker". The latter is true. [Ak 240; cf. Pa 344]. The Sole Doer teachings are taught by others in Yogananda's line too. Shyama Lahiri writes, "No one does anything; all is done by God [Gle, ltr 12]." Ramakrishna teaches the same thing. If that teaching be true, somehow it is God who has made these pages and in 2000-2001 made one third of the SRF monastics leave the premises. And it is God who has made SRF better known for cultish features and practices. There is one more spin to this: "The world is nothing more than a cosmic dream — this life is a dream," says Yogananda [Ak 237, 240]. This should mean that God does nothing worth selling unless you master selling dreams to others . . . Be allied with dreams, then.
Bramble Farm is one nickname for a cultish setting marked by leader dominance. Brambles can be handled and made use of. In some cults and sects there are good points to pluck like yummy bramble berries too. But unless you know just how to deal with brambles, and are equipped for garden work, there is a good reason to stay away and take care. There may be men-hunters and men-fishers around in the US Army and Navy and churchist circles, but first things first. Is man-fishing fit for men? Is maddening slavery good or bad and ugly?
- A cult deals in fishing people too. Manipulation and indoctrination could be part of the "game".
It may be hard to be a fished someone
"A man that is fished is treated as less than the man he was supposed to be." Jesus said he would make Peter and friends fishers of men - and asked Peter to feed his sheep. At Joppa (Jaffa) Peter was also told to feed on Gentile followers, seemingly [cf. Acts 10.9-23; 11, 7-18; etc]. If so, that's in part what shepherds do unless they are vegetarians. Jesus was not. It is customary that both shepherds and hunters eat sheep, and shepherds herd them in order to benefit from sheep in other ways too - milking and shearing them, and so on. Hunters and some beasts of prey do not take all the trouble to lead and feed the animals they live by more or less. And it has its good sides. One of them is of genetics; in the wild the sloven and defective ones will seldom pollute the gene reservoirs for long. Another assets of wildlife centres on the wide favours of non-dependency and in a wider scheme of mutual dependency.Nowadays at least, "being turned into a herd animal has some dark sides." You may find ancients hints of such dark sides in the story of Circe in Ulysses by Homer, for example. It could be good to reflect a long time on these themes: "How necessary is it to live like a fished fish or a herded sheep instead of the human you should be from the hands of the Creator?" Rise to significant freedom degrees as a human being, then for that is a part of the tradition of Jesus: His apostles became friends, and rose into more freedom (while being persecuted and killed and so on). Well, he said it. And growth suggests freedom for growth in the first place.
Many Westerners have no mental schemes to figure on top of in matters like these; they may be called much authoritarian too. Instead many millions seem to imagine that being fished is good. Is it? And millions are also led to have faith in Hindu gurus of many sorts.
- Wolves kill sheep to feast on blood and meat. There may be saner ways.
Idealization and other Neurotic Selfishness-Fulfilling Manoeuvres
The Hindu swami-monk and guru, Yogananda, claimed he brought real Christianity in no small way, that gurus hand out of the best gifts and helps in the universe for free, and don't cheat or make blunders, never are inwardly confused and never really are just as dictatorial as some of their main activities tell. But the ancient Aryans mention these topics in their handed-over literature, and the simple point that lovely-looking masters may be horrible, disastrous fiends of their disciples in the first place, could be one ancient Hindu-lesson to learn from. It pays to be forewarned; an entertaining story is handed out here: [Ref.].There is much wishful idealisation and gullibility around in many states on the planet, and very many cults and sects with fangs. Nearly half of all students in the San Francisco Bay area have been in contact with cult promoting activities, according to Philip Zimbardo, an US professor who has specialised in cults or sects. It is also revealed that many more students are deeply insecure. Millions of young individuals have become cult members and sect members [LINK].
The term we love is not member, but farm animal. It is to be read figuratively. There are many happy farm animals in the world, and maybe there is no better alternative than living in peace on a good farm for docile-made animals. The purport of farm animals can be extreme, outrageous.
One of the indoor plots of living is to look happy and successful, after all, come what may. And yet, many tamed birds in their cages in their rooms in their houses, seem to sing merrily, though they may not be so happy as it seems to innocents. The same often goes for dogs as well. Some "wolf smiles" on their lips is nearer to fang-grins than many pet owners like to think of at any time.
Then, what about farm animals, such as cattle? You "never know" that full well unless fit inspections have been done, is the bet. There is ample, good and sound reason to go for them.
- Is man-fishing fit for gentle humans?
Farm Animals May not Have a Bad Time at First
Even with all these sensible reservations in mind, there can still be good and sound reason to go for aligning oneself first-hand and deeply to the jolly humour, brightness, vivacity and happiness of everyday life and behind that too, through linking up well with a savoury inner sensing or depth feeling that one has all. Meditation is often used for that. We call it inner diving at times. Successful climbers in these areas are said to be willing and somehow able to share such good feelings and godly happiness with many others, if not everyone. But marrying is often looked on as too bad for them.What has been denied to old farm animals may make them little fit for freedom later. We have to be rather alerted to that fine point in our so-called finer deals with old farm cattle, possibly feeble ones. They live out their life spans by "come what may - never think much of freedom and married life in conditions like these".
In fact, both pets and farm animals may evoke a sense of uncomplicated contentment. Most people turn their gaze another way and manifest: "Their slavery under humans doesn't look bad at all." That very common attitude reflects a sort of smug superiority that must be mightily offensive to chimpanzees and pigs to be slaughtered, and it may go along with even a vast number of more or less social rules to obey as well. One is perhaps "Refrain from idle chatter, as the boss has decreed - you can't compete with that." (#2)
- If figurative mentions carry lots of meaning, they serve higher mental functions.
Farm Animals don't like big talk, but like being caressed by the owner
INTRIGUOUS, camouflaged plots and cover-up operations may ensnare and bring on unsettled disputes and topics that few really want to get out in the open after a while. It happened among followers of the guru Yogananda. This outlook may or may not go along with "To sense oneness with everything can engender a deep joy and rather unruffled, uncomplicated contentment - that doesn't bother us." Still, the sorely under-debated or overlooked topics in Yogananda's fellowship may breed nervous troubles, just as lack of all right care may endanger farm animals, however fed and content they seem -For all that, neither deep, staunch joy nor advancing contentment needs to bother one. Nor should very accomplished, pregnant and widely successful divination - the great one of the Old and New Testament took to divination, as you may see. What is the issue in that context must be just how to learn and handle proficient divination full well. It could really help. And that is the real message of the Bible, the gladdening message from above.
Another point deserves mention: A kept superiority-silence that breeds nervous troubles in a farm animal or pet, is not as good as it seems on the surface - and both a vet and a friend of animals know that.
A stupendous old teaching is: One had better refrain from men and circumstances that take freedom degrees away - in the long run such men and conditions may enslave, not just mar. Some gurus appear to look on humans as if they were cattle or farm animals to allure and make their own one way or another, perhaps not unlike like cows and calves in the (allegorical and) flute-playing Krishna's footsteps. We have noted that according to Homer, becoming one of the goddess Circe's magically converted pigs instead of remaining as a man, was not a fit solution for Ulysses.
Handsome-looking tricks and schemes of plotting experts and certain gurus may act to the loss of their followers. That's in the old tales as well. And more: progressing or religious-like smugness in one or more cloaks may not be so good as men think it is. And in fact, Jesus condemned religious hypocrites, but never harlots.
Thus, have a heart yourself and keep it. The half-masked star teachings that we bring, may eventually or possibly help, but we bring neither baits nor all-round guarantees that seem big. Often big talk mars; all the same, big talk may or may not help others. [#3]
- Guru Farms have humans. One must study the freedom degrees of single persons to gauge whether or how far their individual sides are sheltered and fostered, and whether they are held back or dwindling there.
Shelter from the Storm
In several cults and sects it has been found after some time that despite fine-sounding words and facades, what the leader or leaders really were up to, was to gain control over duped others, use them for money, prestige, and power (whatever), and harvest their followers.Knowing this, it pays to be wary, at least circumspect. It may take years to see behind the mask of the leaders, and exposed leaders may turn extra destructive as a response to being exposed.
Sects and cults often give their members problems. Some problems are severe problems. Now, let us talk about beginner yogis and their problems. At the onset, all may look fine. They may be enthusiastic and write loving or yodeling letters of appreciation, such as can be found on many boards online. Strict censure may weed out letters that pour some bitter into the common sweetness drink.
After some time, some find they get destructive in certain ways that may embarrass them too much to talk about. The reason why old sect members and cult members may turn seductive or destructive in other ways, may tie in with loss of self in some important way or ways. First, mental yoga methods are for getting to terms with one's self, one's higher self, as it is called. If you get caught up in the conformism of a group (cult, sect, whatever) to the degree that being yourself and facing yourself turns into an embarrassment, the inner worth is at stake.
And thus we get a glimpse of something that could be at work in sect and cults alike: Members give way to enthusiasm to outer things more than to facing one's self in contemplation and so on, more than in letting the self grown and letting uniqueness blossom. Inner sides that lie dormant and that are repressed, suppressed, hindered by gangs groups and conformity measures, may easily turn destructive. And in so doing the value of the person can be severely reduced. He or she may further think deep inside (it may be unconscious) that only by having an enthusiastic facade he or she can have worth - now as member of some group (or cult, etc.).
If you do such things, you are probably reducing your self-esteem and own worth. It seems better to carefully use the gang or group as a crib or platform or basis for further growth and expansion. Here a "sweet" paradox appears: Whereas good yoga methods may help and foster inner growth as suggested, conformity measures - in yoga circles and other flocks - may hinder that, and often by dirty and mean tricks. One is ridicule. Another is freezing out the "troublemakers", and so on.
One should learn to heed the self inside and its wants. Do that in the first place; get your priorities right. That could save you from terrible embarrassments and an unfulfilled life as a "crew" or - well "farm animal". At best it suggests such as "much unrealised".
There are many sorts of people in this world, and many sorts of needs. A Guru Farm has to take care to fulfil all the needs of growing members as far or high as it can, and not stultify those who are called from inside to things that lie outside or above that of the common groundwork, if significant ideas of the psychologist Abraham Maslow carry weight and relevance. In various book he speaks openly of deviants, common persons and needs of growth and fulfilment. Average people may not be much worth as norm-givers of what is sane or of great worth, Maslow finds. Others too. Plus-deviants are generally saner than the average, and with sane outlook on things. According to Maslow such people show standards in many ways and walks of life. However, useful as his lists of properties may be in some cases, they do not seem complete: One should be alerted to that. [see Pusb, Rvl, Zun].
To sum up: Living unfulfilled lives instead of going on works like a punishment - and going on - progressing in a good way - is the thing to do.
Literature
Ak: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Man's Eternal Quest. Los Angeles: SRF, 1975.
Ap: Mieder, Wolfgang (main ed.), Stewart A. Kingsbury, and Kelsie E. Harder: A Dictionary of American Proverbs. (Paperback) New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Ay: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi. 1st ed. New York: Philosophical Library, 1946. Online. [oaks.nvg.org/pv6bk12.html]
Co: Watson, Burton tr: The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu. Columbia University Press. New York, 1968.
Fu: Lund, Hjalmar, og Gunnar Lid, redr. Norges fugleliv. 3. utg. Oslo: Det Beste, 1979.
Ha: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi. 12th ed. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF), 1981.
Pa: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi. 11th ed. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF), 1971.
Pusb: Maslow, Abraham: Motivation and Personality. 3rd ed. HarperCollins. New York. 1987.
Rvl: Maslow, Abraham: Religions, Values, and Peak Experiences. Ohio State University. Columbus, 1964.
Say: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Sayings of Yogananda. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1958.
Tas: Ramakrishna: Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna. 5th ed. Ramakrishna Math, Madras, 1974.
Zun: Maslow, Abraham: Toward a Psychology of Being. Van Nostrand Reinhold. New York, 1968.
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