A Wealth of Words

A woman disciple of Yogananda had a difficult decision to make . . . But no matter how much she prayed she could not get an answer.
She talked with Swami Kriyananda about it. He was sitting in an armchair and she was on the floor in front of him, with an ottoman between them. As she began to explain her dilemma, she collapsed with emotion against the ottoman, buried her head in her hands, and began to sob.
Through her tears, she said, "It is so hard to know what God wants."
Kriyananda looked calmly at her and said, "No, it's not." (Praver 2006, 62)

In Yogananda's two main fellowships there is a wealth of words. Kriyananda, "Why waste millions of years?" (Praver, 2006, 61)

Stand sincerity and live well

What matters is to get quality time for worthy enterprises in this life, if that can be had. It may do good for a human to keep grandiose-looking but unproven claims at arm's length. In reincarnation research much unverified claims count very little, if at all, just like hallucinations from drinking all too much beer and whisky [Kriya Yoga Art of Whisky Drinking]. (Dasgupta 2006, 112)

Where calls for humility smell of unsound or sinister demands for conformity, stop crying at night and move on. It may require a little planning.

~ೞ⬯ೞ~

Profoundly Pious Ideas May Help Many

All right devotees differ from the toads in many ways. A follower may or may not make a public show of feelings, and those who do so and those who don't, may be good folks, or hardly so, or bad people struggling to get it better.

It could be fit to indicate a few dynamisms at work in a toad's life through glimpses from one of his therapy sessions at a heronry. And the heron is a TA counsellor - one that is schooled and trained in Transactional Analysis. The toad here is shy, insecure, and has not been wise in his ways before the "wildwooders" took over his privacy or home life. Guess who "the woodwilders" of pledging and taking over control might be. They ask for unquestioning loyalty.

Finally some dams burst and the lowly toad interacts with the heron counsellor. This is from a TA oriented book, Counselling for Toads: A Psychological Adventure (1997) by Robert de Board:

The toad and the heron counsellor

The toad experienced a variety of emotions as he walked slowly towards the heronry. He felt some relief that, at last, the day was here when he would see the heron again, although he had very mixed feelings towards him. He was beginning to realise that he had better start to grow up.

The heron spoke: 'Well toad, how are you feeling today?' But the heron was not interested in verbal trivia. 'Let me ask you again. How are you really feeling?'

The toad felt very uncomfortable. 'How do you mean exactly, "feeling"?'

The toad had become a great 'greeter' and consequently, no one ever asked him how he was, let alone how he felt. The toad had never indulged in self-analysis.

'Let me ask the question in a different way,' said the heron. 'Suppose we had a sort of thermometer that could measure how you are feeling. It has a ten-point scale. The lowest point on the scale is one, which means that you are feeling awful and probably suicidal. The midpoint is five and means that you are not feeling too bad. Ten is the highest point and means that you are feeling euphoric. 'Where would you say you are now, toad?'

The toad put a mark on the scale, midway between one and two.

'Have you ever had suicidal thoughts?' asked the heron in a straightforward sort of way. This frightened the toad to hear. Yet at the same time it came as something of a relief.

'Yes, I have,' he replied quietly. 'I could see no way out and felt depressed, but I certainly would not do anything like that now.'

'So how do you feel now?' Again, that same question.

'I feel', said the toad, 'as if I don't have much value. I keep thinking that I have made a mess of my life. Not like the rat or mole or especially the badger, who are well respected. I'm a bit of a joke really. "Good old Toady" they say.' The toad broke into sobs that racked his frame.

The heron pushed the paper tissues towards him. After a while he asked, 'Have you always felt like this?'

'Yes, for a long time . . . familiar sad feelings. And that is how I'm feeling now.'

'So what do you think made you feel unhappy this time?' the heron asked.

'What really hurt was the horrid way I was treated.'

'Do you remember anything in particular?' asked the heron.

'Yes - I can almost enumerate each incident.'

'What's the first of these?' asked the heron.

'I told the rat all about my adventures.'

'So how did he respond?' asked the heron.

'You won't believe it. I felt as if I had been reprimanded.' And the toad's eyes filled with tears.

'What did you do then?' asked the heron.

'I did what I always do. I would promise to do almost anything to be liked.'

'Did it work?' asked the heron.

'How do you mean "work"?' asked the toad. 'I'm not sure, for the wildwooders got in control of my beloved home. It really wasn't fair.' And the toad started to sob again.

The heron sat quietly listening to all of this and watched the toad but said nothing until, 'So how did the Rat greet you after you lost much control?'

The toad struggled to control himself. 'How did the rat greet? He was angry with me again! He called me a "trying animal".'

'So how did you respond to that?' asked the heron.

'In the same way, trying to placate him. I remember grovelling and saying that I had promised the wildwooders to be humble and submissive in the future. When I think of that now, I cringe with embarrassment. How could I ever have pledged it.' Here the toad paused.

(de Board 1997, 18-23, extracts)

The heron's input comes from an arsenal of thoughtful therapist questions that may be adapted throughout life. The above is a fraction of them.

No more in the fog

There are three main approaches in counselling, says Aileen Milne (2010).

The psychoanatytic/psychodynamic approach concentrates on unearthing deep-rooted experiences that have led to various defence mechanisms or manoevres, as the case may be. Sigmund Freud ideas have since been developed, modified and adapted by different psychodynamic theorists. Erik. H. Erikson is one such, and Carl G. Jung is another. Jung came to regard Freud's theories on the human sexual drive as limited and restrictive to his own work and they parted ways. Jean Piaget's cognitive stages are included in this grouping too.
The humanistic/person-centred approach, which is far more growth-oriented. Abraham Maslow regarded psychoanalysis to be overly concerned with the neurotic and disturbed and preferred to work with healthy, creative individuals. Maslow was heavily influenced by European existentialists and phenomenologists, and so was Erik Berne, who developed Transactional Analysis, TA. Many ideas of the person-centred approach of Carl R. Rogers have been widely integrated into other approaches.
The behavioural/cognitive behavioural approach. The cognitive behavioural approach, CBT, is considered a branch of behaviour therapy but its roots are also in cognitive therapy, CT. In contrast to psychoanalytic thinking, the cognitive approach considers problems to arise not [just directly] from unresolved childhood events themselves but from how the individual interprets and creates meaning at large. Also, while psychoanalysis considers thought to be dictated by emotional needs, cognitive behaviourists think cognitive processes may amount to govern emotions somehow.
Aaron Beck is one of the founders of cognitive therapy, CT. He started his professional life as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist. He considers that thoughts, feelings and behavior are interconnected, and that individuals can move toward overcoming difficulties and reach goals, by developing skills for testing and modifying little functional beliefs, identifying menial thinking, and relating in more fulfilling ways to others.
Albert Ellis, also trained as a psychoanalyst, is regarded as the other founder of cognitive therapy. He established rational emotive behaviour therapy (REBT or RET), which challenges 'irrational beliefs' and 'crooked thinking' governed by 'shoulds' and 'musts'. In the opinion of Ellis, they can cause emotional problems and maladaptive behaviour.
The CBT stragegies include ways to alleviate anxiety and stress and help keep stress levels down to a manageable level. The end goal is to give the client not only an understanding of the maladaptive behaviour, but also ways of coping with it. At the end of the therapy, an individual will often have learned the cognitive therapy skills well enough to "be their own therapist." (WP, "Cognitive therapy")

Counselling and psychotherapy converge in some ways and differ in other ways. Aileen Milne's Understand Counselling (2010) is a straightforward and clarifying book about counselling, even counselling yourself to some degree, or for becoming a better communicator. It is a very helpful introduction.

Armed with sound knowledge and main skills that study gives, for example in handling problematic faith and various forms of "crooked thinking", there are many topics that may draw our attention.

A problem to solve

Insincere people can harm sincere ones terribly. So-called devotees who make a show of being devotees, how they sicken Jesus, if he ever has anything to do with that sort of humbug followers of him. He told followers not to make a show or spectable of praying, but be discreet or private about it (Matthew 6:5-6), and sometimes prayed alone in other places.

Here is a problem to solve: Jesus also says (e.g. Matthew 15:24) that his teachings are for Jews only - his only fit followers. The Bible scholar Geza Vermes sums up his work and teachings this way: The teachings, salvation and kingdom of Jesus were for Jews only (Vermes 2010, 37, 41). Again:

During his days of preaching, Jesus of Nazareth addressed only Jews, "the lost sheep of Israel" (Matthew 10:5-8; 15:24). His disciples were expressly instructed not to approach gentiles or Samaritans (Matthew 10:5-8). On the few occasions that Jesus ventured beyond the boundaries of his homeland, he never proclaimed his gospel to pagans, nor did his disciples do so during his lifetime. The mission of the 11 apostles to "all the nations" (Matthew 28:19) is a "post-Resurrection" idea. It appears to be of Pauline inspiration and is nowhere else found in the Gospels (apart from the spurious longer ending of Mark [Mark 16:15], which is missing from all the older manuscripts). Jesus' own perspective was exclusively Jewish; he was concerned only with Jews. (Vermes 2012)

To clarify these matters still further:

Jesus reserve his teachings and salvation for Jews (Matthew 15:24; 10:5-8; Vermes 2012), but only depraved Jews: those of sound moral and spirit are not called by him, and the healthy do not need him (Mark 2:17; Matthew 9:12-13; 12.11). Jesus further puts his sheep on a path to perdition in that he teaches his sheep what is opposed to sound self-preservation. Thereby eyes, limbs, property, fit living-conditions and life itself soon enough are at risk (Matthew 5:29-30; 39-42). Finally, marring losses come to those who call him 'Lord, Lord' without doing as he tells. (Luke 6:46)
For Gentile followers, all the disciples and the Holy Spirit dispensed with all but a few laws for Jews. And not a word by Jesus for ill Jews was included in the Apostolic Decree from 50 CE either (Acts 15:19-29; 21:25). The four requirements for all Gentile Christians include no to eating blood sausages (blood food) and wrangled chickens and other poultry (choked animals)
The healthy man does not torture others. - Carl Gustav Jung

What's the fuss about teachings of Jesus among non-Jews? The gospels say his teachings are for Jews only. If you are not a Jew, there is one good reason not to be devoted to them. It does not show true respect of Jesus to blatantly disregard his word. Should the gospel teachings be a closed book for all non-Jews, then, and Jesus teachings forbidden teachings? It would be good in the right circumstances, but who are they?

If you are a non-Jew the teachings and condemnations of Jesus do not apply to you. Those are gospel teachings. Acts 15 and Acts 21:25 seem to confirm it in a way too, by the four requirements for non-Jews. The teachings of Jesus are not included there. There is little new in the teachings of Jesus. Most of them are said to be contained in older Jewish teachings. As for the four requirements for Christians, not to eat wrangled poultry and blood food are two of those four: so many live precariously. There are good reasons to get informed adequately rather than going along gullibly - blindly trusting against that core of Christianity.

What real Jesus followers are up to and the pray-in-public guys too

The rest of those who call him Lord and Christ, what are they? Let us try not to become dogmatic about it; let them prove themselves by throwing mountains into the sea, as Jesus said his real followers would be able to. "The proof of the pudding lies in the mountain-throwing" . . .

Non-Jewish fellows who pray in public because they are not Jews and not listening to Jesus, but seek to look good and endear themselves to others, could have a long walk ahead of them, and at the end of the road they might meed Jesus. He is gospel-presented as someone who so intensely dislikes religious, parading hypocrites that he denounces them to hell.

Now, if luck is on a pray-in-public-for-show person's side, he or she could escape from the claws of wasted time and efforts - could escape from wasting most of their lives in foolish devoteeishness and twisted soap opera practices and learn to get sanely pious. That could help.

Piousness of Shankara and a Way Out

Shankara: "Piousness suggests intentness of the soul on its own nature.* [from The Crest-Jewel of Discrimination, "the Four Perfections"]. One could learn how to do it from a benevolent guru, with the needed luck. Shankara advocates finding a wise teacher and discerning well too (ibid.)

"Devoteedom" is unfit if it goes against such inward-turning methods or combined methods and the ride inside they can bring. Moreover, the outward-turned devoteeishness can lead to the folly of a cramped fare. And cramped fares are bad, in that they make some persons neurotic, others stunted; and make good guys suffer in their hands too. All in all it does not seem too good to watch one's steps and avoid becoming a victim of "vanity devotees" marked by persuasion, shows (for money), and public prayer services in the name of Jesus who said no to that sort of stuff, and especially for spreading his teachings among non-Jews (Matthew 10:1-6; 15:24).

At any rate, we are free to decide on many things for ourselves, and be comforted that the gist of his teachings is in older Jewish writings, and some in the Old Testament. As for how to enter heaven and all the heaven-turned sayings, there is Nyingma Buddhism . . . and some good, delicate yoga methods and ways to try out carefully in freedom. One is to probe well as to what does good at first, in the middle term, and in the long run also. There is meditation research to check and compare methods by today. And note that not all who are told of as gurus are good and helpful gurus. Some may make their followers their victims. There are many ways.

Mishmash contributions of Yogananda followers

Contrition - deeply felt remorse - is at times a good idea. To feel remorse for going for Jesus while not a Jews, can be a reasonable cause of great remorse. The commands to give away all your belongs and give to the poor: a mistake for non-Jews! The command to turn the other cheek and thereby passively assist bullies to get property, slaves, and much else, may become another cause of great remorse. The sayings of not planning for the morrows, is equally a source of great agony and misgivings to some. And what about maiming your limbs or even eyes for just feeling desires? Just for Jews, he teaches in the New Testament. If we do not respect the words in the Bible before we get old, it might be a great cause of remorse.

You get the point: there are pros to be counted in here too. All the apostles and the Holy Spirit agreed that non-Jews were to have it easier, and the Apostolic Decree was brought into being around 50 CE, if it was not that year exactly. Sources differ - some say 49 CE and others 50 CE (AD). The exact year is not all important; it is the Deal that is - a Deal for non-Jews, without any words of Jesus in the package.

We had better not revert to Jesuan ways, for our good.

Now, followers of the Americanised guru Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952) may not think they have problems with the teachings of Jesus, since the swami Yogananda interpreted them to suit his furtive claims and visions, and purported to preach "Original Christianity as taught by Jesus Christ".

Self-help for the indoctrinated guys may not help much

The id system does not easily let go of teachings that matter to the member. One part may sthe cultish, largely unverified teachings. Some want to be dominated.

To be indoctrinated by a swami against the teachings of Jesus as presented in the New Testament, amounts to be subjected to much erroneous - and to counsel others with that much wrong luggage on board does not seem well.

Counselling oneself and others may work for bad or good or in between bad and good. It helps to maximise sound pleasures (kama) along with dharma (being righteous), and solidify a home by artha (wealth - of many kinds). These are three main life goals in Sanatan Dharma, or Hinduism. The fourth rides over them, and stands for getting more and better freedom, even Great Liberation (that inner freedom). There are many self-help books on counselling oneself and other on the market. A page about Transactional Analysis, TA, has some references to books with tips about other essentials added: [A brief TA summary]

By developing ourselves further, we actively contribute - though in small measure - to the evolution willed by the gods. - Rudolf Steiner (1997, 200) [There is more]

Being devoted to Rudolf Steiner, Anthroposophy, and so on (i.e. of bhakti-yoga) in a nice way may be good, and questioning a guru might be fit in a very decent way, at the right moment, and so on. Yoga allows it. Regardless of that, a certain standardisation of thought in some circles might complicate a sound, questioning approach to yoga and gurus. But compare Shankara's teachings on asking the gurudev for the sake of clearing doubts. in the Crest-Jewel of Discrimination (1946):

When one steadily examines and clearly sees a rope, the fear that it is a serpent is destroyed. Knowledge is gained by discernment . . . Success demands first ripeness; questions of time and place are subsidiary. Let the seeker after self-knowledge find the Teacher (the Higher Self), full of kindness and knowledge of the Eternal. (From verses 10-15]) [More]

Buddha teaches we are helped by great discernment, and that doubting does not have to be bad, but may even be cultivated. [Cf. Kalama Sutta]

The doubt-sensation is fit for being cultivated in some forms of Zen (Rinsai Zen and its Chinese origin, where the "doubt-sensation" is used as a means to cultivate one's mind in Hua Tou training. (Chang, 1970, 75-79 ff)

Note Buddha's will to clear possible or lingering doubts of followers even up to the moment he passed away. Buddha:

"It may be, bhikkhus [Buddhist monks, also devoted laypersons], that one of you is in doubt or perplexity as to the Buddha, the Dhamma [Buddhas's teachings, even dharma], or the Sangha [community], the path or the practice. Then question, bhikkhus! Do not be given to remorse later on with the thought: 'The Master was with us face to face, yet face to face we failed to ask him.'"
A second and a third time the Blessed One [a translation of Bhagavan] said it, but the bhikkhus were silent. Then the Blessed One said to them: "It may be, bhikkhus, out of respect for the Master that you ask no questions. Then, bhikkhus, let friend communicate it to friend." . . .
None said anything.
Buddha: "The Tathagata [the "Thus come" (Awakened One), i.e., himself] knows for certain that among this community of bhikkhus there is not even one bhikkhu who is in doubt or perplexity as to the Buddha, the Dhamma, or the Sangha, the path or the practice. . . .
"I exhort you: . . . Bring about completion by being heedful.!" Those were the Tathagata's last words.
(Maha-parinibbana Sutta 6:5-8 extracted. The translations of Sister Vajira and Francis Story, and the one of Thanissaro Bhikkhu are blended)

If others don't want to be counselled, or won't heed your counsel, there could be a good reason to take to self-counselling and far better. If you want to have been "born to win" somehow, the literature at bottom of the linked page offers some tips.

✑ Counselling tips and books