Porpoise

In for precious wisdom

Proverbs speak well of wisdom. There are many forms of wisdom. To live so well that your vitality does not go away, is one form of wisdom, and to create fair success is quote another. To form well-founded decisions is one form of wisdom, and to learn to tap your spiritual source is another. To support your life, dear ones, and the family well-being requires wisdom as well, and so is proclaiming this and that within safe boundaries.

To let something worn out go is also wisdom. To strip away what is utterly foolish and fruitless is too. To invest in a wonderful home with honour is good. To take just as much as you can handle is also a form of wisdom, and so on. [More tips]

"A wife of noble character ... is clothed with strength and dignity ... speaks with wisdom [Proverbs 31:10, 25, 26]." - Also, "Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding [Prov 4:7]." Wisdom is "more precious than rubies [Prov 3:15; 8:11]." [More]

The Inadequate Gardener

"To read and not to understand is to pursue and not take (German)."

Yogananda told that Jesus was a perfect master he "loved to talk of", but how perfect was the gardening of Jesus? He let weeds grow unhampered and choke good seed, and his cursing and killing of a fig tree that did not bear fruit out of season when he chanced to pass by, was too rash to be fit. Also, his ideas about mustard plants were erroneous. How could he be perfect? [Matthew 13;3, 7, 8-9,22-3]

The gospel accounts of Jesus contain a fair amount of indications of a multi-psychopath, actually. Most of his disciples left him for some of his harsh statements. And the fact is that all the remaining apostles and the Holy Spirit very soon agreed to drop the commands of Jesus for non-Jewish followers [Acts 15; 21:25]. Not to be duped by such as psychopaths and tense bosses with their power, decor and pomp, is also wise in general. [Diagnostic Clues]

As for his "sell all to follow me" teaching, we had better lean on the nearest ant-hill than lose sight of how good the villa and farm can be for man. You may see that nearly everybody who calls Jesus "Lord, lord," do not do as he demands in the matter, lucky them. I don't think they should either. According to the Apostolic Decree and the material surround it [see Act 15; 21:25], only Jewish followers are obliged to, if anyone are.

Six Words for You

I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.

- Rudyard Kipling. [Dq]

The serving-men in question are interrogative pronouns. The six "serving-men" of Kipling are taught in very many schools of journalism to help coming journalists write well enough. Applied to "gardener Jesus":

• What sort of gardener perfection was at play in the life of Jesus or his father, who owned a vineyard, sent his son into it and had him killed? What sort of all right "talent use" was that?
• Why did not the almighty one take care and produced better fruits than the Golgatha tragedy according to plan? The project had the official title "save God's Jews by letting one innocent die" (grand corruption, according to courts of law) -
• When did Jesus show appropriate gardening skill?
• How could Jesus Christ be called perfect as a teacher or master when he chose bad seed (Judas) and the rest were cowards that fled and hid in a pucker? How could he be called perfect in letting thistles take over and choke good seeds as a rule of how to do it?
• Where do we have evidence that Jesus came anywhere near a fit gardener?
• Who is OK? Is it a braggard's ideal or a sensible gardener?

The porpoise shows its wisdom by how it functions

Slavery, thistles, and Jesus

From his gardening teachings it stands out that Jesus favoured thistles, and from his sermon on the mount he helped bullies by teaching followers not to retaliate and let demaning ones get all one's property, if they demanded it, and so on. That is quite a hard part of his tidings. It happens to be like that today too, for his message has not changed. That gardener was perfect for thistles - but not for decent folks. He did not come for them either, but for sinners. [Matthew 9:13]. But "It is not good to be partial to the wicked or to deprive the innocent of justice. [Prov 18:5]"

Yahweh and Paul did not dissolve slavery, nor did Jesus [cf. Exodus 20 ff and Philemon]. What perfection is perfection as a slave-holder? It may get near the "perfection" of a bullying robber or thief.

What kind of perfection is had by cursing and letting weeds take over everywhere?

Speaking of gardening, SRF does not always let weeds choke their best plants (Yogananda words, etc) either. SRF's claim to stand for "original Christianity as taught by Jesus Christ" is doleful window dressing for wider acceptance among too-little-considering guys. Just compare:

"We do not really know what is right or real ... we are often incorrect in our judgements." - Yogananda [Ak 414]. "We find his guidelines infallible." - Self-Realization Fellowship.

Arming Yourself Well

Solomon's wisdom included, "Eat, drink and be merry". Wealth tends to bring poor "comrades" along - fatness and a too lazy, egotistic lifestyle.

To get accomplished one has to have sensible gear or outfit that matters.

In these consumerism times, one has to be tough enough to take sound measures of public benefits and maintain freedom, handiness and integrity too.

What is called God by Yogananda is basically ever-new joy. It is the Sanskrit concept of "Sat-Chit-Ananda". Sat is Being, Chit is consciousness itself, and Ananda is gladnesses. That is the definition. To be glad you have to be (Sat), and know (Chit) how you feel (here: Ananda, great joy and also bliss). Thus, all three parts of Satchitananda are there, although two of the core elements are hidden. His 'Self-realisation' is linked to it. The definiton:

Self-realisation is the knowing on all levels of our being - body, mind, and soul - that we are now in possession of Divinity ... we are not merely near God at all times but . . . His omnipresence is our omnipresence ... He is just as much our essential life now as He ever will be. All we have to do is improve our knowing." [Spa 34; Ak 480]

Yogananda further:

I have come to teach you India's spiritual science ...

It is your duty to do your part to bring God's kingdom on earth (. . .).

A state of joy. That state is God. ... God is joy itself. [Ak 110]

Those who get into the states where Self is experienced directly, may look stupid or catatonic or something like that, and at times their conduct may deviate from "all the rest" quite a lot. There are good stories about these these things.

There are more sides to Yogananda's definitions too. Gladness, humour and decent fun can help:

"The purpose of life is to attain ... tremendous happiness." [Ak 445].

"I do not take life seriously at all." [Ak 219].

"My smile comes from a joy ... that you also may attain." [Ak 172].

"Do not be like those who, day in and day out, take life so seriously they are afraid even to smile. ... enjoy life." [Ak 353].

"In ... eternal joy ... nothing else matters" [Ak 439]

A sound life is led on an even keel on top of probability estimates. The good life is marked by ease of living.

"Don't be afraid of hard work; it has never hurt anyone," decrees Yogananda. However, it is not true, nor is it true for all sorts of hard, calm work either, of course. We should not be taken in by mere oratory.

Frenchmen and Sex

You may have seen that Yogananda decrees massive moderation when it comes to copulation. Example: "Married couples should practice moderation, and single persons should observe abstinence [Jse 14]." What did he mean by moderation? Once a month or once a year - something like that. Medical expertise sees differently. And a fair amount of people want sex more often. Statistics reveal it. [Sex]

Frenchmen have got a reputation for being good at making love. Statistics may confirm it or moderate the stereotype, since the numbers you will get depend to some extent on where you look, who was asked, and how they were asked. Also, to count the number of times does not say much about the quality of the love-making either. So beware; there are caveats around. Also figure: Some couples could be having more sex than you do, some may be having less, and if you want to improve your sex life, statistics may not help a bit.

Anyway, here is a bit from an article in The Sunday Times, from 2006,

Forget the perception of France as a land of sexual fulfilment. The sad truth exposed in a new report shows that when it comes to performance in bed the French have nothing to crow about ...

[A] study, published in January's Journal of Sexual Medicine by a group of French sexologists, confirmed other research showing that for all their reputation as serial seducers, the French are far from "swimming", as one commentator put it, "in libidinous ecstasy".

Instead, only half of men and even fewer women (45%) expressed "relative satisfaction" with their sex life. Only one-third of men did not wish to change their sex life and a quarter complained of a "diminution of sexual desire". A pitiful 5.6% of men (and 8% of women) expressed satisfaction with the "frequency of intercourse"...

For all their strutting ... [a]ccording to an opinion poll taken last spring, sex is considered to be an important part of life by only 17% of French people, well below the European average...

Marie-Hélène Colson, one of the sexologists involved in the latest survey, said ... the frequency of sex – 1.8 times a week – ... was "pretty much the same" all over Europe. [1]

Black pudding and Good Christians

Black pudding, or blood pudding, is a type of large dark sausage made from such as pig's blood, fat and grain. In lots of countries it is served at Christmas time as traditional food to enjoy through the celebrations. However, take a look at what Acts 15 and the Old Testament say about it and start shivering: Good Christians treat the requirements of all the apostles and the Holy Spirit as something between a joke and baah. However, blood food is stark forbidden - it is put en par with adultery as two of four requirements of the church [Acts 15; 21:25]. [Black pudding in the Old and New Testament] [Wikipedia, s.v. "Black pudding"]

Swami Narayanananda

Swami Narayanananda's convent nuns (ashram nuns) in Denmark were visited by him, and we are told he wanted to be closer to one or more of them than what harmonised with his severe celibacy teachings. Breaking them would make one insane, was one of his repeated warnings. But then news of the guru and his secret life with his Danish "harem" was made known ...

Johannes Aagaard sums up how Denmark had been influenced by gurus in the 1970s, first and foremost by Swami Narayananda, who got one of the greatest meditation movements in the country. His organisation had created a Hindu monastery at Gylling. There he lived for some months each summer.

Annelise Dressler was one of the two Danish women who had visited Narayanananda in India more than a decade earlier. In 1974 she was president of Naranayananda Universal Yoga Trust, but in July 1974 she called others for help, telling that her guru, Narayanananda, would kill her. While she was driving away from the monastery in a car, she said, "Now the 'old one' has discovered that I run away, so now you are in grave danger. He sends magical mantra against us, but I know some strong mantras, which may mitigate his."

Annelise Dressler was installed in Aarhus town, and in the following weeks nearly all of the inner circle in the Gylling-Ashram left it too, as they had become aware that their guru had had a series of erotic activities going with a large number of female disciples. The guru had had erotic, but not sexual contact with them, maybe as part of a Tantric practice. It had "turned them on", away from sexual abstinence. Over twenty young women told of abuse from the elderly Hindu monk.

The disciples shouted and screamed in their disappointment. They said he had abused their trust. [◦Link]

How to Avoid Sexual Pitfalls and Dangers by Swami Narayanananda

From Swami Narayananada's book Brahmacharya, Its Necessity and Practice for Boys and Girls (Rishikesh, 1958): "When you have sexual desires and thoughts, you should know that there may be something wrong with your stomach ... Therefore you must act wisely . . ." [◦Link]

A Frenchman I knew, completely stopped having sex with his wife, faithful to master dictates. As parts of the Gylling scandal (above) leaked out, it made the Frenchman nervous, and he and his wife split up.

❖ It is sad when gurus do not live up to their own teachings, isn't it?

❖ It is fit not to exploit people's naivety and credulity.

Yogananda and Sex

"I hate Yogananda. He ruined my marriage," said the wife of an SRF member I knew. She referred to his have-next-to-no-sex teachings, which her husband devotedly obeyed.

Better forewarned than getting a maimed sex life as an innocently dwarfed member of a biased guru. Yogananda's sex teachings are here: [More]

A monk who preaches no sex and embraces women, and a monk who preaches no sex and does not embrace women, may both disappoint many people. But do not let it bother you.

The Cards on the Table

In humanistic psychology and humanistic education there is a basic belief that runs contrary to the teaching of Jesus, that some are sons of the evil one [Matthew 13;38,39]. Who are they? Some are openly evil, others are feigning good and put snares along the path of men to catch and make use of them, and "God" serves to legitimate much of such business.

Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow are two among the psychologists that hold that at bottom, deep in our hearts, we all are good and lovable. However, other people may get unable to reach such a bottom, if it exists. Thus, the Norwegian psychiatrist Tollak Bakke Sirnes, finds it fit to warn in a good book, . . . at vi skal elske hverandre [Toh], against thinking that psychopaths may change, since they tend not to.

You should note the difference of basic beliefs, then. Our core beliefs about human nature determines how we handle and respond to people and situations.

Good persons naturally think others are good at bottom too. But there are some who "I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed" and even throws a lazybone and "worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Ask yourself if that is being too hard. Also ask why it is called righteous to sacrifice innocents - even one's own son - to help many sinners. It is not true righteousness, it is grand corruption. [Matthew 25;19-30].

The Christian God helps criminals. Also, Jesus says those who have a sound moral, do not need him; he did not come for them [Matthew 9:13].

Further, economical and ecological gardening has dropped the standard of allowing weeds all the way.

A society has not a chance if bad ones are helped on and up at the cost of good and decent ones that often get nipped in the bud by bullies and wicked ones and the like. The reason why a society has law and order and some means to effect it, is to counteract vile doings.

Thus, good and brave people need protection, kind children likewise, and self-defence is a good thing too, opposed to sayings of Jesus of turning the other cheek, of letting aggressive intruders have your watch and home if they demand it, and so on. His teachings just do not work for fair and good ones, and is naturally damaging for a society in the long run.

Try to stay fit, protect your home by walls and bars and whatever - that is what many do. Gated communities have become a part of the American society too.

❖ It is not enough to say, "Life is not always fair." Inspect and be candid to find it out, for unless you do, how can you handle key sides to living?

Remain Well

Distill what is the most useful from stories you come across.

The tamed one gets nowhere.

Make leeway enough in time.

Many a cult can be considered an establishment which helps evil to reign.

The right sort of sagacity is sagacity to remain and remain well.

Normal rights and one's own villa go hand in hand.

Back-up core

You may wonder who are good leaders. They do what they say and say what they do (Buddha), for one thing. They do not seek to impress by demagoguery and great-sounding phrases, or kissing ass insincerely. And they do not make their followers degenerate in time either.

Now who are good people, people of most worth? Interestingly, it may not be those who dress up in swaggering clothes for giving a great-looking impression, or have their bragging self-confidence tied to a swimming-pool, status cars, and bank-accounts to name a few things. Worldly esteem is not a very good indicator. Good people help others, plants, animals, humans, and in a wider perspective, as Buddha reveals many keys of. Basically they are friendly and harmonious souls who seek to live well. Sometimes they may be self-help-minded reclusive too, as part of it. And they delight in flowers - in living ones.

Buddhism offers great help to good souls. (1) Buddha's teachings, (2) sound meditation practices, and (3) good fellowship, a sangha:

1. The teachings comprise the eightfold path, which give an essential overview of what 'good' means in actual practice.
2. The teachings include self-help practices, first and foremost meditation.
3. Buddha also explains who are good friends, what company to avoid, and what company to go for, and very much else of highest value.

After pointing out a fair, long-term way to go, Buddha teaches it is you yourself who will have to get going and keep going.

I do not tell all this because I am a Buddhist; I am a Buddhist because I have come to this - and I am very grateful for TM too.