Cosmicjoker said:

Anyone had a positive experience from a spiritual teacher or guru or so on?

What did you think of the video and my experience?

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EternalCowabunga said:

Cool!

I had a guru once. He radiated pure positivity and being around him was a mystical experience. Changed my life forever!

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weshroom said:

Beautiful, thanks for sharing your video and I am very happy you got to experience a personal communion with ram dass.

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Withinity said:

I want to believe you but seriously I don't see or feel how the hundredth monkey is in effect nor do i see its manifestation , sure more people are 'getting into' spirituality or whatever you want to call it but its just worn as another label , portrayed as a statement, could just be a passing fad and another way of getting laid.

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StonedAngel said:

That's your video? I pray for a guru everyday. I'm wondering if I have one just waiting for me to realize something. I've read that book by ram das. Have you ever read Autobiography of a yogi by Paramahana yogananda? Its a bible of sorts to some people.

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all this beauty said:

Cosmicjoker said:

Anyone had a positive experience from a spiritual teacher or guru or so on?

What did you think of the video and my experience?

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Obviously your experience was powerful and transforming.  There is, however, some risk to the seeker who attaches too closely or too intimately to a guru, priest, rabbi, shaman, whatever.

The risk is that the seeker assumes that s/he the seeker is lacking in something that is obtainable only through an "enlightened" second party.  An "intermediary," if you will.

Getting involved in the "Intermediary Game" is a treacherous business, spiritually speaking.  Some can navigate it.  Most cannot.

Institutional religion has always been -- and continues to be -- the number one threat to world peace because most people involved in it surrender their innate knowledge, spiritual and otherwise, to intermediaries.

A very bad move, in my opinion.

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Excellent point. It's a case of people confusing the raft with the shore.

However, the obverse to this being an extreme form of egoism upon the realization that the individual is part of the divine. It's a type of heroic independence typical in the West that was often commented on by Alan Watts (from his experiences in the "self righteous" Bay Area). Like McKenna said to those who criticized over-reliance on the use of mushrooms to achieve an altered state, "the lesson is you cannot go it alone." Relationship is inherent in life, including the spiritual aspects.

I believe there must be a balance between mutualism and independence (I like Thich Nhat Hanh's word, "inter-being"). Of course, this polarity of Self vs. Other, inner vs. outter, seeker & guru, world and individual, gradually dissolve in certain states of mind. I would say this is what we find behind the looking glass, and to that end the paths are many. Or one...

Talib said:

all this beauty said:

Cosmicjoker said:

Anyone had a positive experience from a spiritual teacher or guru or so on?

What did you think of the video and my experience?

---

Obviously your experience was powerful and transforming.  There is, however, some risk to the seeker who attaches too closely or too intimately to a guru, priest, rabbi, shaman, whatever.

The risk is that the seeker assumes that s/he the seeker is lacking in something that is obtainable only through an "enlightened" second party.  An "intermediary," if you will.

Getting involved in the "Intermediary Game" is a treacherous business, spiritually speaking.  Some can navigate it.  Most cannot.

Institutional religion has always been -- and continues to be -- the number one threat to world peace because most people involved in it surrender their innate knowledge, spiritual and otherwise, to intermediaries.

A very bad move, in my opinion.

---

Excellent point. It's a case of people confusing the raft with the shore.

However, the obverse to this being an extreme form of egoism upon the realization that the individual is part of the divine. It's a type of heroic independence typical in the West that was often commented on by Alan Watts (from his experiences in the "self righteous" Bay Area). Like McKenna said to those who criticized over-reliance on the use of mushrooms to achieve an altered state, "the lesson is you cannot go it alone." Relationship is inherent in life, including the spiritual aspects.

I believe there must be a balance between mutualism and independence (I like Thich Nhat Hanh's word, "inter-being"). Of course, this polarity of Self vs. Other, inner vs. outter, seeker & guru, world and individual, gradually dissolve in certain states of mind. I would say this is what we find behind the looking glass, and to that end the paths are many. Or one...

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Talib said:

It's a case of people confusing the raft with the shore.

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Talib said:

It's a case of seeing both the finger and what the finger is pointing at.

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Talib said:

Lovely analogy.

An equivalent that comes to mind is the Hermetic or Gnostic traditions that extract meaning and symbolism "between the lines" of the text.

It's a case of seeing both the finger and what the finger is pointing at. With language and meaning, it can be represented as semiotics.

I believe once humans abandon some of the emotional-territorial ape and employ the frontal lobes to this effect, we'll see nations as lines in the sand, race as cultural constructs, religion as parables, money as merely an idea, and our many social identities as malleable role-playing. Could we then take better care of our Spaceship Earth? Who knows.

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Cosmicjoker said:

I feel that spot Jesus is pointing to is the actual spot of our spiritual heart, where we see all is one and merge with it all...


your thoughts on that spot?

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Cosmicjoker said:

I feel that spot Jesus is pointing to is the actual spot of our spiritual heart, where we see all is one and merge with it all...

your thoughts on that spot?

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