Jesus is my guru; He is God
- Is spirituality cultural - is the means to "spiritual experience" cultural? (because there are different ways of achieving religious experiences: fasting, drugs, intense music - working up the emotions)
- Experiementing with LSD: excited that he could take a pill and have the same experience that Moses had
- Is identity separate from the roles lived in day to day life? Where does identity come from?
He came to find that the drug-induced "religious experience" isn't satisfying. He went to India and saw Hindus worshiping and experiencing the same ecstacy without drugs; having the same self and observational awareness - disassociative self-identity - without drugs: Is enlightenment, then, WITHIN him? He met Maharaji ji (Nirim Karoli Baba) who renamed him Ram Dass (servant of god) and became his guru.
Maharaji was/is to Ram Dass what Jesus is to me - EXCEPT (and that's a big except) Jesus is God, and lives. Maharaji was a man, and he's dead. write about this
M's followers bowed to touch his feet as he laid on the ground. Jesus washed His disciples' feet.
M knew the lives of those who came to see him before they told him. one of the speakers compared it to Jesus knowing the life of the woman at the well. M knew all the sin of RD's past life and loved him anyway - RD's first experiencing of unconditional love. RD calls M his "map" leading him to the divine. When RD asked M "how do I get in line [with the divine]?" M replied, "Serve people and feed people." Reminds me of Jesus asking Peter, "Do you love Me? Then feed My sheep." But the Christian serves and feeds out of obedience to and worship of his God, not for furtherance of the self, or greater enlightenment.
M advises RD to "always trust your inner voice." Sort of like our culture's urging to "follow your heart" - but as struck me in Voddie Baucham's sermons on love and marriage, the human heart is wicked and full of deceit; it is to be guarded and searched for hidden sin, not trusted or followed.
posted by Amanda @ 11:44 AM
8 comments
8 Comments:
Unlike the....interesting person who posted above, I really do think you're funny.. In a good way, heheh. You have had some interesting past few days! Keep me posted and keep in touch!
mmm...yes...
Interesting...seems a bit of an understatement...I'd love to read the paper that you write for this class...perfect opportunity to witness.
Dear Veganerd,
I deleted your comment for the sake of those who may follow the link to your blog and be offended by the profanity.
Feel free to email me directly.
Seek Truth and question everything. That which is valid will stand.
~Amanda
Friends,
Thank you for caring about me, but please be respectful of all commenters, whether or not they are respectful.
When all people think alike, no one thinks very much. You have to moderate comments? What paranoid grip on power! I truly believe that when someone has a firm stance in what they believe, they welcome differing opinions. I think that when people close others out in the name of "God," they are truly close-minded themselves.
Not a Hipster,
Thanks for your comment. Rarely do any people think alike, even if the core of their beliefs are the same. I definitely welcome differing opionions, opposing opinions, and similar opinions... we need to challenge our own and each other's thoughts and beliefs as part of growing and understanding.
I moderate comments not to weed out those that oppose my views or challenge me; I will delete comments that will not add to the readers' understanding. By all means, disagree with me and state your views respectfully - question me, be skeptical, find inconsistencies and hold me accountable for them... I would appreciate that!
But if the purpose of a comment is simply to give a blanket, negative statement using foul language, I am not going to post that.
Again, thank you for commenting.
Amanda,
You said, "I will delete comments that will not add to the readers' understanding." I may be wrong, but that sounds to me that you'll delete comments that won't add to beliefs dealing with god.
Although I do not believe in god as an "all mighty ruler," I'm not trying to insult people who do. Many of my closest friends are what you would call religious. (I say "call" because I have yet to meet anyone in my life -- including my friends and people I meet along the way in life -- who is not a cafeteria-religious person.)
If people want to believe there is a being that loves them but will smite them for not following the rules, who am I to stop them? But the same goes for religious people. You are a rare one, Amanda, to say that you welcome disagreement and challenge in your beliefs. I feel the same way. I love finding out what people believe in, what makes them happy, what makes them tick.
One question I recently posted on my own blog was about Pat Robertson. He has called for an assassination and declared that Sharon's stroke was divine punishment. He also warned people in Florida that god would probably smite them with a hurricane for holding a gay pride festival.
I then asked someone to explain to me how fundamentalists like Robertson can reconcile their belief that god has a hand in tragedies such as these and yet is not the author of suffering? Would you be able to answer that?
I look forward to hearing from you,
Pascha
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