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#1
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Pilgrimage to Buddha Boy, Nepal
It's tempting to circumvent the tedious and often dangerous 10-hour bus
ride to the 15-hour train ride to Delhi (total cost: about $20) by taking a 1-hour flight for just $80 - on Bhutan's only airline, Druk Air. Even more tempting to my crazed sensibilities is the idea of seeing Buddha Boy, the 16-year-old who was meditating and fasting for supposedly seven months in the jungles of southern Nepal. I have no illusions of seeing a halo around his head or even getting close enough to get a very good photo (thanks to his overzealous managers - uh, I mean devotees). But I just can't resist a pilgrimage to an obscure place to see freaky socio-religious phenomena. The India Diaries - http://www.sirensongs.blogspot.com |
#2
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Pilgrimage to Buddha Boy, Nepal
Sirensongs wrote: It's tempting to circumvent the tedious and often dangerous 10-hour bus ride to the 15-hour train ride to Delhi (total cost: about $20) by taking a 1-hour flight for just $80 - on Bhutan's only airline, Druk Air. Even more tempting to my crazed sensibilities is the idea of seeing Buddha Boy, the 16-year-old who was meditating and fasting for supposedly seven months in the jungles of southern Nepal. I have no illusions of seeing a halo around his head or even getting close enough to get a very good photo (thanks to his overzealous managers - uh, I mean devotees). But I just can't resist a pilgrimage to an obscure place to see freaky socio-religious phenomena. The India Diaries - http://www.sirensongs.blogspot.com It is a pity the lad gets evenings off. Seven months full on, i.e. day and night, would be some stunt. |
#3
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Pilgrimage to Buddha Boy, Nepal [ with an osho agenda ]
"Julian" wrote in message ups.com... Sirensongs wrote: It's tempting to circumvent the tedious and often dangerous 10-hour bus ride to the 15-hour train ride to Delhi (total cost: about $20) by taking a 1-hour flight for just $80 - on Bhutan's only airline, Druk Air. Even more tempting to my crazed sensibilities is the idea of seeing Buddha Boy, the 16-year-old who was meditating and fasting for supposedly seven months in the jungles of southern Nepal. I have no illusions of seeing a halo around his head or even getting close enough to get a very good photo (thanks to his overzealous managers - uh, I mean devotees). But I just can't resist a pilgrimage to an obscure place to see freaky socio-religious phenomena. The India Diaries - http://www.sirensongs.blogspot.com It is a pity the lad gets evenings off. Seven months full on, i.e. day and night, would be some stunt. rumour has it that the buddha boy will be taking over all of rama's starry eyed kool aid drinkers stay tuned.... |
#4
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Pilgrimage to Buddha Boy, Nepal [ with an osho agenda ]
boo duh wrote: "Julian" wrote in message ups.com... Sirensongs wrote: It's tempting to circumvent the tedious and often dangerous 10-hour bus ride to the 15-hour train ride to Delhi (total cost: about $20) by taking a 1-hour flight for just $80 - on Bhutan's only airline, Druk Air. Even more tempting to my crazed sensibilities is the idea of seeing Buddha Boy, the 16-year-old who was meditating and fasting for supposedly seven months in the jungles of southern Nepal. I have no illusions of seeing a halo around his head or even getting close enough to get a very good photo (thanks to his overzealous managers - uh, I mean devotees). But I just can't resist a pilgrimage to an obscure place to see freaky socio-religious phenomena. The India Diaries - http://www.sirensongs.blogspot.com It is a pity the lad gets evenings off. Seven months full on, i.e. day and night, would be some stunt. rumour has it that the buddha boy will be taking over all of rama's starry eyed kool aid drinkers stay tuned.... Our airports are ideal for renditions. Special rates for groups and parties. Book early to avoid disappointment. |
#5
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Pilgrimage to Buddha Boy, Nepal [ with an osho agenda ]
"Julian" wrote in message oups.com... boo duh wrote: "Julian" wrote in message ups.com... Sirensongs wrote: It's tempting to circumvent the tedious and often dangerous 10-hour bus ride to the 15-hour train ride to Delhi (total cost: about $20) by taking a 1-hour flight for just $80 - on Bhutan's only airline, Druk Air. Even more tempting to my crazed sensibilities is the idea of seeing Buddha Boy, the 16-year-old who was meditating and fasting for supposedly seven months in the jungles of southern Nepal. I have no illusions of seeing a halo around his head or even getting close enough to get a very good photo (thanks to his overzealous managers - uh, I mean devotees). But I just can't resist a pilgrimage to an obscure place to see freaky socio-religious phenomena. The India Diaries - http://www.sirensongs.blogspot.com It is a pity the lad gets evenings off. Seven months full on, i.e. day and night, would be some stunt. rumour has it that the buddha boy will be taking over all of rama's starry eyed kool aid drinkers stay tuned.... Our airports are ideal for renditions. Special rates for groups and parties. Book early to avoid disappointment. there won't be a problem at the airport for territory between the buddha boy's followers and the hare krishnas? i can see the bumper stickers now; 'my buddha boy can beat up your krishna' |
#6
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Pilgrimage to Buddha Boy, Nepal
http://home.att.net/~meditation/CommonLies.html
Common Lies of the Phony World of Mystics "There is no one there to tell you you are enlightened." U.G. Krishnamurti The ancient religions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, all started as campfire religions. The initial spark of the religion may have been a remarkable human being having an insight or a vision, but the religions themselves were formed much later by unenlightened disciples of the original teacher. All of the ancient religious myths, which strict fundamentalists accept as fact, began with disciples sitting around a fire at night and telling stories about the glory days of their long dead spiritual heroes. Imagine the world before the printing press and electricity. In ancient times nights were long, dark, and potentially very scary, with no television or radio for entertainment. Huddled around a fire, afraid of thieves, wild animals, disease, or starvation, story tellers would gain recognition by fabricating heroic tales of perfect saintly beings in order to entertain and comfort. Over the centuries religious myths became wildly grandiose and fact was lost in a sea of invention. Modern day gurus often try to market themselves as being reincarnations of ancient religious super-heroes, or at least being in a direct lineage of some infallible ancient knowledge. As in The Wizard of Oz, if you pull away the curtain of falsehood surrounding many gurus you will find an ordinary human being trying to make a dishonest living off the sincere spiritual aspirations of their followers. Below are some of the common big lies told by religious mystics to watch out for. Hold on to your wallet and your sanity and be aware that it is easiest to pick your pocket as you are being hugged by a guru selling cosmic love and compassion. Lie #1) "Surrender to me because I am enlightened and thus more intelligent and wiser than you." The Eastern esoteric definition of 'enlightenment' has nothing to do with intelligence or wisdom. The Western definition of 'enlightenment' is intellectual and artistic, as in the "enlightened age" of the great artists and thinkers. The Eastern esoteric meaning of the word has nothing to do with mind, talent, art, or wisdom. The true occult definition means to have no boundaries, thus you feel the infinite emptiness of the cosmic Void. There is no wisdom in the Void: no art, no love, no hate, no compassion, and no good or evil. The Void simply is! All of the emotional and intellectual content is in the mind, and the enlightenment is far beyond the ordinary mental level. Enlightenment is the consciousness of raw nature, formless and empty of definable content. Superconsciousness has subjective experiential benefit in that it makes you feel truly magnificent. Unfortunately, cosmic consciousness has no functional benefit and does not increase IQ or practical wisdom (see The Ridiculous Teachings of Wrong Way Rajneesh). Intelligence and pragmatic wisdom come from a complex interaction of genetics, education, and life experience. The opinion of the "enlightened ones" on politics, science, or economics is of no inherently greater value than the opinion of an unenlightened person of equal education and genetically derived higher brain function. Thus, the undemocratic theocracies of the enlightened elite have always failed disastrously in the past and will always fail in the future. The violent history of planet earth proves beyond doubt that religion and politics should never be mixed. People who reach the Void can become corrupt, but the corruption is in their human minds and brains, not in the total Void itself. The total Void is not human and thus has no mind or potential for corruption. That is why Zen Buddhists say you should live in a state of "no-mind." A more accurate term would be no-thought, as the human mind-brain has other basic autonomic survival functions that continue even if the conscious thought process stops. Interrupting the constant stream of thoughts is enough, however, to allow cosmic consciousness to enter your body. You do not enter it. It is more accurate to say that the ultimate consciousness, the Atman, enters you. You can never own the Atman or put your personal brand on it, but it can save you from the pettiness and misery inherent to the limited human mind. The world of gurus and religion is a world of big business, politics, and lust for power. The more disciples a guru attracts, the more power and income they can generate. Teachers often say "stick with one guru" (themselves) because when a guru loses a disciple he loses a potential source of power and income. As the dishonest propaganda surrounding the teacher grows more fantastic, the quality of the guru's disciples always becomes more and more immature and corrupt. People who grow up mentally know there are no perfect human beings. Children can be fooled by incredible claims of divine infallibility. Adults who have lived a long life with alertness cannot be hoodwinked by such old tricks. Lie #2) "I am enlightened and I have no ego." Some humans do become 'enlightened,' but no living human being is without ego. If you lost your ego you would physically die within two weeks, because you could not eat, drink, or have any activity other than basic involuntary movements, such as breathing and heart beat. It is the same neurological mechanism that talks, walks, eats, and accomplishes tasks that we also call the 'ego.' You can have a centralized ego, as most people do, or you can have a decentralized ego, as enlightened people attain. In the end, as far as behavior is concerned, it makes little difference. We feel a centralized ego vividly, so its suffering becomes a tremendous burden to us. Some may go on a spiritual path to get rid of ego, but in truth we can only push ego to the periphery of the mind. The human brain is vast, with many hiding places in its neural web where the ego function can hide without notice. 21st century science knows that the brain is highly adaptive. If one portion of the brain is damaged, it is often possible for another area of the brain to adapt itself to take over the lost function. If a centralized ego comes under fire from the brilliant light of meditation, it can simply shift its location to an area of the brain unaffected by the torch of consciousness. In fact, a hidden back-up peripheral ego center already exists, and this is because the ego function is essential to human survival. There is no such thing as total self-knowledge of the human brain. Even fully enlightened human beings have blind spots where they cannot see. Just because you do not feel an ego does not mean that you do not have an ego! The East deluded itself into thinking ego could be destroyed, but the entire East was wrong. The East has never been good at combining subjective feeling with objective provable fact, and thus the East was not the birthplace of real science and the scientific method. "Part of the guru is "enlightened," wise, knowledgeable, and he's mentally living in this enlightened part of himself. He believes that he *is* that part exclusively, ignoring the other parts which have been cut off and dissociated from his conscious awareness. He becomes identified with the guru aspect of himself exclusively. The other parts, however, do not disappear. They still exist, but are simply disowned and regulated to the unconscious." - Charles Morrison Objectively, by any measurement, enlightened people are as egocentric as anyone else. Quite often they become even more egoistic if they allow themselves to be put on a pedestal. Totally enlightened humans have become corrupt, self-indulgent liars, murders, and thieves. Do not accept the big lie of the egoless master. They do not exist now and they have never existed in the past. There was no "Lord Buddha," only an enlightened Siddhartha Gautama. There was no "Lord Jesus," only a carpenter who made extravagant claims. The only way to be egoless is to physically die and not come back into this world. If you are here, you have an ego. Do not fool yourself or allow yourself to be fooled by others. Lie/scam #3) "Do not judge the great masters. They are on such a high level of consciousness that they cannot be measured by normal standards of good behavior." This is a convenient old lie used by gurus to cover up lie #1 and lie #2 and to turn naive disciples into mental eunuchs, thus making them more useful as slaves. Of course gurus do not want to be judged by normal standards, because that will destroy their business. The corrupt spiritual teacher always wants a blank check. If he seduces your wife, it is for your own spiritual benefit. If he robs your bank account, it is a test of your state of spiritual surrender. If the guru murders someone, it is for the victim's own good and the guru should not be prosecuted. When spiritual teachers start acting like pharaohs, "enlightened" or not, they have crossed a line into the world of criminals. Lie #4) "Read my new book and it will help you find enlightenment." The German and Austrian Nazis of the 1930s were wrong to burn books. Books are a great way to learn about history, science, and art. Unfortunately books can also be an obstacle when it comes to matters of existential truth. Books often turn the search for truth into dogma and give people the false impression that by reading them you can know something about meditation without actually meditating yourself. In my opinion, the world would be better off if most of the books written by the famous mystics were used for fuel to keep us all warm at night. Meditation is basic good-clean-fun. It can make you feel filled with light and highly euphoric, but it will never turn you into a pedantic reservoir of borrowed intellectual knowledge. Reading and religion are both polar opposites of meditation. In meditation you clear yourself of thoughts and become more detached. Reading and religion fill your head with other people's thoughts, which are often more idiotic than your own thoughts, and you become attached to dead teachers, dead philosophies, dead shrines, and dead rituals. Meditation, by contrast, is thrilling real life, right here and right now. Meditation, like gardening, is a relatively simple affair that requires honest effort and patience. It is not a highly complex intellectual task, as the study of DNA or astrophysics. You can read all you need to know about meditation in just one hour. A few simple pointers are enough to get students meditating and on a path to growing awareness. You cannot read your way to enlightenment, but you can read your way to the loony-bin. Books stimulate the thinking function of the brain, making your mind spew out more thoughts at an even faster pace. Meditation means transcending the conflict and limitations of the world of thought and entering the naturally serene state of no-thought. Christopher Calder Sirensongs wrote: It's tempting to circumvent the tedious and often dangerous 10-hour bus ride to the 15-hour train ride to Delhi (total cost: about $20) by taking a 1-hour flight for just $80 - on Bhutan's only airline, Druk Air. Even more tempting to my crazed sensibilities is the idea of seeing Buddha Boy, the 16-year-old who was meditating and fasting for supposedly seven months in the jungles of southern Nepal. I have no illusions of seeing a halo around his head or even getting close enough to get a very good photo (thanks to his overzealous managers - uh, I mean devotees). But I just can't resist a pilgrimage to an obscure place to see freaky socio-religious phenomena. The India Diaries - http://www.sirensongs.blogspot.com |
#7
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Pilgrimage to Buddha Boy, Nepal
"Julian" wrote in message ups.com... Sirensongs wrote: It's tempting to circumvent the tedious and often dangerous 10-hour bus ride to the 15-hour train ride to Delhi (total cost: about $20) by taking a 1-hour flight for just $80 - on Bhutan's only airline, Druk Air. Even more tempting to my crazed sensibilities is the idea of seeing Buddha Boy, the 16-year-old who was meditating and fasting for supposedly seven months in the jungles of southern Nepal. I have no illusions of seeing a halo around his head or even getting close enough to get a very good photo (thanks to his overzealous managers - uh, I mean devotees). But I just can't resist a pilgrimage to an obscure place to see freaky socio-religious phenomena. The India Diaries - http://www.sirensongs.blogspot.com It is a pity the lad gets evenings off. Seven months full on, i.e. day and night, would be some stunt. If he dies they'll just tie him to a stake next to the tree. The show must go on! |
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