Saturday, December 8, 2012

Danse macabre


The circle of "I" goes like this ...

Round
Like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning
On an ever spinning reel
Like a snowball down a mountain
Or a carnival balloon
Like a carousel that's turning
Running rings around the moon

Like a clock whose hands are sweeping
Past the minutes of its face
And the world is like an apple
Whirling silently in space
Like the circles that you find

With the close of the Mayan calendar there is the expectation of a new reality where even the totally fuckwitted will wake up on December 21st with their underpants over their tights, armed with nth dimensional powers and a huge lingam of power ...

Urrr ... or maybe not. Take a look around you and you will see we are still stuck with the same 80s/90s' creative manifestation; pseudo-therapy land "mindfulness" based on tired old Buddhist vipassana meditation; the Advaitins still fighting about Traditional and Neo Advaita (oblivious of the fact they're really all closet Brahmanists with a Buddhist twist); and the satsang world whoring themselves with gay abandon, protesting their many versions of Truth. (Just imagine the scenes of Foucault's promiscuity and perversion on the L.A. Bathhouse scene in the 70s: Mooji, Madhu and the gang jamming for all their worth!) ... And if you're really psycho killer qu'est-ce que c'est, why not become a Born Again Christian?!

If none of this does it for you, please take drugs ... It's simpler, cleaner and more honest ...

So where do we go from here? Because all we really have is an everlasting homage to the "I". Either the "I" exists but there is no control, it's all predetermined and we are puppets on a string being jerked around by an omnipotent entity or the forces of destiny. This is fatalism. Or there is the "I" with the power to shape its own destiny. Here the "I" can meditate or self-enquire its way to liberation, or as an all-powerful creator in the mode of the Christian God, it can manifest the perfect reality of its own choosing. This is what we call "personal autonomy". These two are both sides of the same coin and either way the "I" stays intact: an apparition of infinity like the Face of Death staring through the crowd ...

But there is no "I". And it's even worse than that. There is no "I" and yet we experience life as though there is. Further it's not just that there is no "I" (and rather weirdly, there is). There isn't truly any "thing" either! What to do?!

All of this sounds suspiciously Buddhist rather than Advaitic. The Buddha taught the doctrine of no self (anātman) which properly understood, maintains that everything is empty (śūnyatā) or "self-less" because it is interdependent (pratītyasamutpāda). Put another way, nothing has any independent existence or any substantial nature of its own. Something wholly independent such as an "I" is therefore impossible: that isolated state of pure "one" we call "identity." Equally both "person" (pudgala) and "thing" (dharma) never contain any self-subsisting entity within them. This means neither can be fixed, unchanging, ultimate or absolute realities. The question then becomes: so what exactly is the nature of the people we see in front of us and the things we smell, touch, taste and feel every day? The Heart Sutra of Mahayana Buddhism reminds us: "form is emptiness and emptiness is form." Life is a simultaneous emptiness which is also a fullness. That is, all the people and things around us, including ourselves, are both concrete happenings yet fleeting phantasms ... The paradox will drive you nuts!

This leaves us with the thorny issue of exactly what "separation" is, if there is no such thing as the "I". Basically, for Buddhists separation definitely exists but it is not an absolute reality. Rather, it is once again an empty, interdependent happening: both concrete yet fleeting. This time it is the Madhyamaka Buddhists who solve this conundrum, using a sophisticated tool called The Two Truths (Sanskrit: satyadvayavibhāga; Tibetan: bden-pa gnyis). They say there are two levels of truth. Ultimately there is no separation (in the absolute sense) because separation is empty and interdependent. But relatively, there is separation because it definitely exists and is experienced.

From the Madhyamakan perspective, there is not truly any enlightenment to be attained and no one really there to attain it. The correct term for "enlightenment" in Buddhism is nirvāṇa and just like separation, this too is empty and interdependent. Thus we have the famous statement of Nagarjuna, that there is no difference between the world (samsāra or the cycle of existence) and nirvana ... that's the "ultimate truth" (Sanskrit: paramārthasatya, Tibetan: don-dam bden-pa). But we also have the undeniable fact that nonetheless samsara exists and it is very different from nirvana ... this is the "relative truth" (Sanskrit: samvṛtisatya, Tibetan: kun-rdzob bden-pa) ...

While ultimately, there is not truly any such thing as separation or nirvana then, the seeker does not experience it like this. Buddhism therefore features spiritual practices for dealing with the (relative) reality of separation. From the perspective of The Two Truths, if someone uses a method, there is not really any "one" there doing this and so it couldn't be any other way ... Here we see how for Madhyamakans everything is uncaused, spontaneous and unknown. There is not truly any single thing such as a "cause" to make something happen. Events simply 'arise' and what happens, happens. And though things definitely do happen, they also just as mysteriously don't - because they were never truly there in the first place! So someone sitting down to meditate is a totally spontaneous event needing no more explanation .. There isn't really any "one" to know or any "thing" to be known ...

Advaita has completely failed to grasp these points in any shape or form. It rigidly clings to the ultimate state of the Self as a future attainment and has descended into infighting over whether practices and methods are necessary and whether there is an "I" or not. But with the cogency of Buddhist arguments, there is no room for escape into the playground of negation we call nihilism (ucchedavāda) or that absolutist mausoleum of divine authority, eternalism (sassatavāda). These are both ultimate states, between which the Buddha strove so hard to carve a Middle Way (madhyamāpratipad). For Buddhists, Advaitic statements such as "There is only the Self" and "I am That" are therefore the conceit of asmimana or "self-identification" (an "I"-centric autoerotic form of fellatio or for the unintiated, a self-pollinating blow job!) Additionally Advaitic arguments about the legitimacy of methods have entirely missed the point. There is no "one" truly there to decide whether to do a practice or not ... Practices just happen ... or they don't ...

Here all philosophies and moral maps of reality are desecrated and deflowered, leaving us with the sheer wonder and awe of pure unadulterated mystery. This is because rather than being a doctrine, The Two Truths are a deconstructionist method for opening the door to the non-conceptual. The ultimate aim of Madhyamaka is to undermine all views and reveal them as erroneous. A view can never be reality and a view is never what it seems: being interdependent and empty it is never actually true. Rather than dealing in the dirty business of Truth then, Buddhist dialectic produces a transforming crisis that destroys the "one" seeking to grasp reality. Thus we trip over the wire into a land where words and the mind are useless ... and the "I" has never been seen ...

But of course, nothing is ever so straightforward.

There are, after all, huge problems with Buddhism. For a start, it is highly political, corrupt and hierarchical. Historically Buddhism always serviced a centre of power (traditionally the king's court) not so unlike the "I" it is attempting to eradicate. Then you can add into the mix its chronic misogyny (if you're a femme better luck next incarnation!) Buddhism is also incredibly diverse and it can hardly agree on anything. You can find deity worship, compassionate action, amulets against negative entities, lineage initiations, and a whole host of abusive tantric practices for advancing your spiritual credentials. We cannot divorce the metaphysics from the murky nature of the institution ...

Meanwhile on points of doctrine, there are obvious contradictions. Some Buddhist schools claim that nirvana can be "known" or that it is an ultimate state. (Obviously they didn't understand the Buddha's teaching of emptiness!) But even more worryingly, Buddhist teachers think that their methods have the power to bring about enlightenment. But in Buddhist philosophy nothing could be further from the truth. As previously stated, Buddhist reality is without cause. Practices may arise - and so may nirvana - but it will not be the result of those methods. Nirvana is just as spontaneous a happening as everything else: it often occurs where there has been no spiritual practice whatsoever ... Buddhism is mired in spiritual arrogance and intellectual elitism. And like the Advaitins, they believe they have the superior solution to the problem of separation.

But the major issue here is that life lived in liberation is something of an anomaly. Words are not words and teaching is no longer teaching. Here there isn't a teaching and the person standing in front of you is not really a person. Their words mean nothing. And yet in their proximity ... something may happen ... or not. The seeker is reduced to suicidal despair at the sheer uncontrollability of it all (or in the case of Sister Klaus self harm and high velocity genital mutilation!)

This must be why the "I" remains centre-stage and why fatalism and create-your-own reality cosmologies are still so seductive. Spiritual practices creates a false sense of hope that there is somewhere to be going - something to be doing - and someone to do all these things. This cranks up the machinery of the ego, giving it an erectile sense of purpose and power ... (the Madhukar syndrome!) The next step is the ultimate addiction ... the conquest of illumination. The search for enlightenment is the biggest bully on the block!

The circle of "I" goes round and round ... It seems the traditional practices never left us and are constantly rebranded under new commercial agendas. There is absolutely nothing new under the sun! We are forever lost in an age of prostitution ... selling mind, body and spirit for the full market price. Never has spirituality been so rigid and rotten, eaten up with the maggots of pure self obsession. It's not a new world that awaits us, just a steroid enhanced cyborg version of an ancient nightmare!

However ... it is only when we are faced with the full hypocrisy of the "I" that we can finally unmask it. In Roger Corman's 60s' camp horror - Masque of the Red Death - Prince Prospero (played by the leering Vincent Price) throws a grand ball. There he finally discovers the identity of a mysterious red-cloaked figure who has been pursuing him. When Prospero asks to see the figure's face, it tells him: "There is no Face of Death until the moment of your own death" ... and with this the ball is transformed into a Danse Macabre. Prospero rips off the figure's mask .... to reveal Prospero's own blood-spattered face. The figure is the Red Death and none other than Prospero's own hell ... the end of his own life!

The Danse Macabre is a pageant of life and death with the omnipresent threat of our own mortality stalking us through the crowd. An ancestral reminder of the Black Death in the 14th century, its symbolic purpose is to show that we are all equal in the face of death. Kings and Queens consort with harlots and villains (or in this case gurus!) The irony is that even in our diversity, we are all the same ... There are no special ones ...

The Face of Death appears and this could be the end ... Or it might be just the beginning. For the Buddhist there never was an "I" to eliminate. For the Advaitins there definitely is an "I" and all it needs to do is disappear ... As the Red Death said to Prince Prospero: "Each man creates his own God for himself - his own heaven, his own hell."

Meanwhile the horror of the Black Death heralded the destruction of the feudal system and provided the seedbed for the flowering of the Renaissance. The catastrophe of those times is the blood-soaked midwife attending our present reality. Apparently we are on the cusp of a new age where the frequency seems to have been turned up. Maybe we are going through the birth pangs of a Brave New World but will we have the pain-free entry into the E.T. assisted utopia that our New Age pals predict?

It seems unlikely. The historical process will probably mutate into forms we least expect. The price to pay could be unimaginably high. Blood, sweat and tears are back on the menu ... and that's just the hors d’œuvre ... Betcha can't wait for the main course!



28 comments:

  1. As Orson Wells put it in The Third Man: "In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace – and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock!"

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  2. Or as my old chum Mr Iggy Pop mused while reflecting on our glory days of rapine and pillage: "If you wanna stir up real mud, you gotta pay with real blood!"

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  3. Around the same time as "Windmills of Your Mind" was released (some time in 69), the band Blood, Sweat and Tears released "And When I Die":

    And when I die
    And when I'm gone
    There'll be one child born and a world
    To carry on
    To carry on

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  4. If events just arise and what happens, happens spontaneously, then it doesn't matter if there are 2 or 6 or infinite truths. If you follow this or that path or no path at all; if you move or stand still; if you are a fatalist, a nihilist, a Buddhist, a Mormon, a Neo Advaitin or just a plain old Advaitin; if there is an I or not; if there is separation or not ... everything doesn't matter because it will happen or not anyway. And even that doesn’t matter - and it doesn’t matter what the idiot seeker’s experience is either. Methinks that this comes very close to Ramesh Balsekar's statement that life is happening but there is no individual doer of life. However he still talks about the will of God and that consciousness is all there is, so we can say goodbye to him!

    So why say that relatively samsara exists and is very different from nirvana? It is not that Nagarjuna’s "ultimate truth" is not right, it simply doesn’t matter if it exists and is different. It doesn’t even matter whether the circle looks round, square or is just a spot before my eyes (with thanks to planet Gong).

    Basically we know nothing and assume a lot. We crawl around in the dark hoping for a spark of light and when we see it, it always turns out to be an ignis fatuus! So what the fuck are we doing here? As I said some time ago, life seems to be absurd and we can only enjoy the mystery of that. And if that is not enough for you, yes there are a lot of very nice drugs! And if you don’t like that, the ultimate way out is to commit suicide ...

    So Lucrezia, do you really think that the cuckoo clock has less value than the Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance? That is really bizarre and totally silly ...

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  5. Dearly Beloved Sister
    Only a Teutonic imbecile would value the anally retentive precision of the cuckoo clock over the glories of the Renaissance. As for Ramesh, we did say goodbye to him a couple of years back: he died! And his oft used quote: "Events happen, deeds are done, but there is no individual doer thereof," is from ... the Buddha ... It's not Ramesh's own homespun philosophy!

    You asked: "So why say that relatively samsara exists and is very different from nirvana?" My dear friend, to say otherwise would be Neo Advaitin. Clearly there is a difference between the appearance of an enlightened being and the appearance of one still subject to the wheel of rebirth. AT THE SAME TIME, they are both empty, so they are also identical - this is why we only say that samsara "relatively" exists ...

    Sister, there are also rumours that you have been initiating your acolytes into the joys of autoerotic fellatio. Ribald sniggers about Sven's chubby bald pate furiously bobbing up and down while slurping on his groin region have begun to circulate amongst the rickshaw drivers. Is this a new form of yoga? And is it true that famed mystic poet Kevan M failed his tantric initiation because he was too fat to get to grips with the matter in hand?

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  6. Advaita Vedanta's limited utility was recognized by India's ancient acharyas. It is suitable for those who are for whatever reason, innately and spontaneously combusted by it ... For the vast majority of seekers, 2 diluted forms became prescriptive. Visishtadvaita, where subject-object, worshipper and worshipped were given a qualified nod, a contingent affirmation of this pseudo separation. And Dvaita, to suit those with a strong devotional side, to whom deity cannot seem to be as anything but a separate 'other'. The 3 doctrines are not contradictory, mutually exclusive or inconsistent as may appear upon a superficial examination. They are different paths winding up at a point where they merge.

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  7. The Archangel GabrielDecember 9, 2012 at 10:10 PM

    Spot on Kevji! The never ending circular arguments of Advaita have been well exposed, as well as all the New Age crap. It's always been the same and is likely to be the same or worse in the future. Bottom line: as separate beings, we can only really be at war with each other. So the New Age means more war. Advaita, Buddhism etc don't really help in my experience. Xanax, which I take nightly, actually works ... i.e. it removes misery for a few hours. Never ending circular arguments do fuck all. Xanax and some form of exercise diminish the suffering at times. The rest I don't know. Praise the evasive Lord!

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  8. The problem isn't that certain parts of the dharma teachings are wrong or unprovable. The problem is that one doesn't understand what the dharma is, meaning its function. I mentioned in another thread, unlike "religion", the dharma isn't a belief system per se. It is more like a box full of tools, the purpose of which is to liberate oneself from suffering. If you need a hammer, you grab a hammer and if you need a screwdriver, you grab a screwdriver. If you need to cut some wood, you grab a saw. But if you have no wood to cut, you don't need to decide that there is something wrong with the tool box because it has a saw in it and come up with a new tool box, one without saws. You just have to use the tools you need.

    What do you propose to do with all of those people throughout history, and today, for whom gods and realms and hungry ghosts are "real" or whose level of understanding of "real" includes things that a limited or confused mind does not yet grasp? The problem isn't that Buddhism refers to gods and demons and various realms. Whether they "exist" or not, in any provable sense, is totally irrelevant. The only reason to prove something exists is so you can believe in it. The Dharma has nothing to do with the duality of belief and non- belief both of which merely reinforce clinging to a "self".

    The motivation for wanting to make the dharma more accessible is good but the understanding is flawed. Stop trying to believe what the Buddha taught and you'll have no problem with practice using what is already there. If you are skeptical, use that as a tool.

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  9. Dear Mr Motivation
    Thanks for the dharma lecture - but the post says that Madhyamaka Buddhism is a "sophisticated tool", not a belief. It does not say the dharma teachings are wrong or unprovable - this seems to be something you are worried about. Rather, it says there are contradictions on points of doctrine. We also did not say deity worship in Buddhism was a problem - just that it is incredibly diverse and it can hardly agree on anything. Aren't you a good example of this?! We are also not interested in your beloved "motivation" and have absolutely no interest in "making the dharma more accessible". This is your own hobby horse - and very obviously the agenda of a chronic "religionist".

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  10. Again a difficult story, the Missus and I were really struggling to understand an iota of your probably sublime writings, but alas to no avail. Maybe it is a good idea to make a kind of Chi-Ting for children and the feeble-minded: something like Sesame Street or The Muppet Show perhaps. There should be lots of pictures, because it is important that your message (whatever it is for God's sake) reaches the little ones. Please don’t leave us suffering on the side on the road.

    However the Missus thinks she understood one thing .. Since she has some basic understanding of music and went to Sunday School - and we do have a CD of the Saint-Saëns Danse Macabre - she finds it striking that the piece opens with a harp playing a single note, D, twelve times (the twelve strokes of midnight). This is accompanied by soft chords from the string section. The solo violin enters playing the tritone (or "Devil's interval") consisting of an A and an E flat in an example of scordatura tuning. The violinist's E string has actually been tuned down to an E flat to create the dissonant tritone. She said that the scordunata tuning is especially intriguing.

    Now, I am not a music lover, though I personally do like a bit of Dolly Parton (isn’t she gorgeous?) The Missus thinks that her observation might be a clue to the problem postulated in your undoubtedly magnificent post. Makes no sense to me, but then I am a notorious but happy idiot.

    With humbleness and devotion,
    Your O.F.

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  11. Dear Jabba the Hutt
    Actually this was a mid-range Chi-Ting with adolescent inserts - like an early episode of 'The Young Ones' on DMT. Surely your Missus can marvel at the wonders of "Madhukar syndrome" and its "erectile sense of power and purpose" while she supplicates at your newly found lingam of power (that's if she can find it amidst all those folds of blubber!) I would get right to it before she moves on to pastures new, as she seems to be light years ahead of you in terms of her appreciation of the cosmic symphony and the cuming galactic climax on the 21st of December 2012. Bon voyage and have a happy crash landing in the 5th dimension!

    Yours His Holiness Sri Sri SRI Kevinandaji

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  12. Lucrezia
    Your knowledge of history and geography is appalling. The Teutons, my dear, originated from Jutland, Denmark and are usually associated with the aggressive Northern German culture. We Bavarians are soft hearted, sweet tempered and easy going. We love food and drink, yes a bit like the Swiss actually. That the rest of the world mistakenly calls all Germans Teutons makes us feel sad and dismayed.

    But how could you completely miss the gist of my comment? How understandable it is in your position, but nevertheless sad to see. You are degenerating under the influence of you own poison. Your mother always told you: "Don’t take too much for yourself from what you serve others, Lucrezia" - but you would never listen ...

    The gist is "it doesn’t fucking matter". It doesn’t matter if the cuckoo clock has more or less value then the Renaissance or the latest hit by Lady HaHa; or that there might clearly be a difference between the appearance of an enlightened being and the appearance of one still subject to the wheel of rebirth. They might be empty or full, identical or not. It really doesn’t matter, because we simply don’t know anything about these things. You and I we just guess, we assume, we have an opinion and with that we kill the mystery of the essence of life.

    You might call this Fatalism, or whatever you like, but even that doesn’t matter ... It is my version of the mystery. Take it or leave it. There is no solution to the mystery of life. It is not a riddle or a puzzle which has to be solved ... Enjoy it ... Don’t waste your life trying to demystify it. It is not possible.

    And who is this Teuton Sven you are rambling on about? You seem to know him better then I do. Is he one of your old lovers who you poisoned and changed into a zombie? That would explain your ongoing interest in him!

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  13. Most Reverend Sri Sri Kevinandaji, Chi Ting Master,

    I should like to propose a “Winter Solstice toast” to the great Bulgarian Spiritual Master and visionary Peter Konstantinov Deunov who died 68 years ago.

    For many days before his death he staggered about in a profound mediumistic trance amongst his startled devotees describing visions of the coming transition from the Piscean to the Aquarian Age. All this he foretold with no access to the sacred Mayan calendar which was discovered and deciphered only subsequent to his death.

    He saw that “during the passage of time, the consciousness of man traversed a very long period of obscurity. This phase which the Hindus call “Kali Yuga”, is now on the verge of ending. Your present life is a slavery, a heavy prison. Everything that is around you will soon collapse and disappear. Nothing will be left of this civilization nor its perversity; the entire earth will be shaken and no trace will be left of the erroneous culture that maintains men under the yoke of ignorance.

    Earthquakes are not only mechanical phenomena, their goal is also to awaken the intellect and the heart of humans. So that they liberate themselves from their errors and their follies.” [Was this a premonition of the Magnitude 9 earthquake at Fukushima, followed by the devastating tsunami, 8 months ago?]
    “Our solar system is now traversing a region of the Cosmos where a constellation that was destroyed left its mark, its dust. This crossing of a contaminated space is a source of poisoning, not only for the inhabitants of the earth, but for all the inhabitants of the other planets of our galaxy. Only the suns are not affected by the influence of this hostile environment. Our planet was enclosed in this region for thousands of years, but finally we are approaching the exit of this space of darkness.

    “But still there will be floods, hurricanes; gigantic fires and earthquakes that will sweep away everything. Blood will flow in abundance. There will be revolutions;” [Tunisia, Egypt, Syria ? ] “terrible explosions will resound in numerous regions of the earth.” [Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria?]

    The liberation can no longer be postponed. Humanity must prepare itself for great trials that are inescapable and are coming to bring an end to egoism. Under the earth, something extraordinary is preparing itself. A revolution that is grandiose and completely inconceivable will manifest itself soon in nature. God has decided to redress the earth, and He will do it. It is the end of an epoch; a new order will substitute the old, an order in which Love will reign on earth.”

    We excitedly await news of the huge land mass arising from the Pacific Ocean, which he predicted also.

    With all good wishes from the Emerald Isle, yours as ever,

    Myles O'Blarney

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  14. Dear Sister ...
    How comforting it is to hear you quote my own points back at me. Confirmation is always most pleasing! Yes, it doesn't matter - this point has been made a thousand times now on this blog: the whole thing doesn't matter because being uncaused, life has no purpose, intention or set of rules. This point was once completely new to you and now you try to cleverly introduce it as your own to gain the upper hand. This is just a tawdry reappropriation to justify your own vanity! Sister Klaus wants to "win", to catch Lucrezia out and give her a good kicking. Soon you will be leaving "clues" in your comments like that fool Obesity Fighter, who (apparently) understands it all far more than anyone else. You are lost on a mental merryground and nobody is interested in these assinine games!

    As for that corpulent pig Sven, you know EXACTLY who he is. The rickshaw drivers Satish and Anand saw you doing giripradakshina while holding hands and exchanging "loving glance". They also added that you two were "very perverted people". And for myself, I always rather preferred Yhamo to Sven - until he cut off all his hair that is. (Now he looks like rather a pretty boy) ...

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  15. Myles,
    You introduce us to another Nostradamus guy who is the father of the White Brotherhood, a fascist club based on Christian and Theosophical principles, in my view associated to Jehovah Witnesses and the Ku Klux Klan. That this bloke had also some visions and more silly predictions of the coming of a new golden age and the new World Order (yawn, yawn) seems more important to you then his racist statements.

    Just 3 quotes……

    “In the future Christianity – but not the external, official, Christianity, but the mystic, Christianity – will become a world religion for the whole humankind. Christ will be placed in the centre of the new culture”.

    "There is no epoch in human history when Christ has worked like now. Now Christ is working harder than ever. Several centuries ago Christ was up there in the supreme worlds, and now He has descended lower, into the Astral and Ether Worlds, closer to the material world”.

    "All the races - the black, the red and yellow, must pass through the white race. The advanced souls of the other races will be reincarnated through the white race and the advanced souls of the white race will became the sixth race"

    So only white Christians will become the sixth race of the Uebermensch; sounds a bit like what Hitler intended to establish.

    O boy, O boy, what are you drinking at the moment?

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  16. Today - 12/12/2012 - has been interpreted by many to be a day that could bring catastrophe to the world. From all I have heard over the years, from the USA and Europe to the Himalayas and now in the deep and mystical south of India, it is not a major catastrophe that is likely to happen (there are thousands of minor ones happening all over, and the planet has almost always been in a sorry state to my critical mind), but a polar shift in human consciousness that is anticipated. The shift is predicted to be a positive one - one that counteracts the awful corruption evidenced all over and all around us. Mainly it begins in one's own heart, where all the trouble starts - if one does not shine the indwelling spirit by starting each day afresh, free of the baggage of the past. Nevertheless, no matter what happens in the external world, I wish for each of us a peaceful, joyous and productive life - now, tomorrow, for eternity.

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  17. So Lucrezia ... if somebody arrives at the same conclusion as you after struggling on a long and winding road - your deduction is that this is just a tawdry reappropriation to justify his/her own vanity - with the goal just to "win" and trample on you in the mud! In no way did I cleverly introduce it as my own invention to gain the upper hand! What a preposterous accusation. Instead of being happy you are just vixenish and can't stand it that somebody agrees with you. What a strange and childish attitude and what awful poison is it that you apparently took to come to such a conclusion. Is it the same you gave to that poor old sod Sven?

    Are we finished now and can we move on to new and green pastures?

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  18. Firefly,

    I quite agree with you; so it would appear that I have failed to demonstrate what I intended: namely the preposterous nature of all of Sri Sri Duenov’s hyperbolic claims.

    On several occasions I offered examples ostensibly in support of his prophesies, which I naively hoped would serve as a means to expose their preposterous absurdity. I deliberately avoided mentioning his theories of cosmic rhythms with the assigning of ethno-cultural identities to stellar positions in the precession of the equinoxes; viz.: his assigning pre-Aryan Dravidian culture to Cancer; Ancient Persian to Gemini; Pharonic Egyptian to Taurus; Greco-Hellenistic to Aires; the Dark Ages of Europe to Pisces, to be followed, in the age of Aquarius, by a supreme elevation of consciousness expressed by the Slavic peoples, with, of course, Master Duenov as the Slavic prophet and leader. Theories all safely to be ignored I thought.

    I also avoided Duenov’s scheme of racist evolution through directional metempsychosis with its hierarchy of racial types, which you have mentioned. I felt this also unworthy to be mentioned. His over-simplified model shows that Duenov was completely unaware of the alien abduction and breeding programme now well underway with a substantial integration of its hybrids into positions of power and control throughout the world. In the light of this hidden takeover Duenov’s cosmology seemed merely childish and fanciful. For a recent update on the current state of the hybridization programme you may wish to have a look at The Threat by Professor Dr. David M. Jacobs.

    At the moment I am sipping a cup of steaming hot chocolate with freshly whipped cream on top. A small spoon is required to hold back the cream to allow sipping, in the beginning.


    Yours, as ever,


    Myles O'Blarney

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  19. Dear Myles
    So you are taken us for a ride and to my utmost joy you are on the satirical side of life as befits a proper upper-class Irishman; that’s good. This is the way to deal with all this nonsensical rubbish that is flying around in the cosmos. Better to have a good laugh about it than try to avoid all these phantasmagorical objects.

    So I probably don’t have to tell you that this idiot Jacobs got his childish ideas straight form John Wyndham’s SF classic "The Midwich Cuckoos". He most probably was also familiar with the "Works of the Supernatural" by the Welsh mystic Arthur Machen and the famous Cthulhu cult of HP Lovecraft, whose name is still honored by some die-hard fans here in Tiru through the infamous Club Cthulhu (see last year's Chi-Ting post).

    Anyway it seems that you fully trust the professor and his hybridization programme. Or is he against it or part of it, I can’t make it out! But I really hope you already bought a couple of Alu hats so these aliens can’t scan your most intimate and obscene thoughts. They probably send them to planet Pluto where they will be showed in a theater for porno loving Plutonians under the title “Hidden Obscenities and Bestialities from Tipperary” starring Myles O’Blarney as himself.

    Be on your guard old man.

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  20. In reply to Myles O'Blarney's comment and the work of Professor Jacobs, we are all galactoid starseed aliens in human spacesuits. The problem is that we have forgotten this and think that we are all humans, slowly discovering that we are aliens. It also explains why we are obsessed with the thought of "star visitors". Those star visitors were ourselves many aeons ago ...

    Meanwhile there are some malevolent alien races here who - knowing that they are truly visitors rather than Earth's original, indigenous star seeded race with the human spacesuit - are trying to win control of Earth. These are the aliens that Professor Jacobs is referring to. They are attempting to hybridise themselves with humans to infiltrate the planet. And via technology, they are trying to create the illusion that we are all subject to dominating forces which attempt to enslave us.

    These malevolent aliens are the minority. Their influence is being pushed back. But their influence is huge because most of the galactoid starseeded aliens in human spacesuits are ASLEEP and still don't know who they are. They think they are "human" and define themselves by their body, i.e. their spacesuit.

    Earth's frequency is now rising. You can call it ascension, pole shift, end of the Mayan calendar, whatever you like. But geophysically, Earth's vibration is speeding up. The galactoid starseeded aliens are awakening and realising their body is just a spacesuit, not their identity. They are not really "human" and the aliens who are coming to save us ARE ALREADY HERE. These galactoids - that's you and me - are still the majority by number and if we wake up quickly enough, the malevolent visitors among us will not stand one chance.

    Waking up to the body as just a spacesuit is synonymous with the search for enlightenment which has been hijacked by all the religions. Enlightenment, which is a very limited idea, is simply the shift from what people are calling 3rd to 5th dimensional consciousness. This 'liberation' - which is truly a very limited concept - is just the beginning. We don't need religion. We don't even need Ramana. The shift is happening as part of our everyday lives whether we like it or not. Soon mind and heart will be one and then telepathy will slowly take over. We will no longer need or want the technology which is isolating and imprisoning us and we will use it for more positive outcomes. The internet as it is, is encasing us in an illusory world where our reality is controlled and we are made to think this is the world we are really living in. Just like Julian Assange is saying: our very thoughts and feelings are being logged, stored and surveilled. This is what we need to be on our guard against!

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  21. I remember Crazy Horse as Neil Young’s band a long time ago. He and his band were a bit weird at that time (for a Dolly Parton fan like me) but the Missus liked it. Even a feeble minded couch-potato like me can understand that this Crazy Horse is a seriously mentally disturbed lost soul. He is completely disappointed with his useless life and now dementing rapidly into a state of psychotic delusions, crying out loud for attention just to make at least something of his wasted life (he thinks).

    The Missus adds that he and Dr Jacobs and thousands other dangerous idiots must be the malevolent aliens or pretending to be galactoid starseed aliens in human spacesuits (OMG). Their goal is to distract us Sadhaks from our journey to the inner Self - although what she means by that I am not quite sure, being a simpleton and happy already with a few minutes of Bluegrass and a bottle of cold beer on the couch. Methinks that the best way out of this crisis is to collect all these loonies, put them in a large space vehicle and shoot them in the direction of the Andromeda galaxy. There some superior alien race might pick them up and use them as guinea pigs to improve their science or they might as well just eat them.

    Now my head is aching after so much mental action. I have to cool down a little with Dolly’s "I Will Always Love You" and another cold beer.

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  22. Who does this foolish and very greedy woman think she could mentor? What lineage is she refering to? "Arunachala Grace is offering a Mentor programme for individuals and groups who wish to visit Tiruvannamalai and need assistance in arranging transportation and accommodation. In addition Arunachala Grace will arrange talks and tours for those who want to learn more about the history and mythology of Arunachala, its unique and extraordinary Temples, and its lineage of saints and seers."
    Blah blah blah!

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  23. Why, Meenakshi mummy (Arunachala Grace) was very helpful to us when we first came to Tiru. Thanks to her, we avoided many of the pitfalls like false gurus and other scams. I hate it when you diss everyone, like you are SO perfect.

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  24. Firefly, I was in Tiruvannamalai recently and couldn't spot you. I looked hard but didn't see any one with a crow on his shoulder. Sigh!.

    But thanks for asking. I had a great trip. I loved it that there are now traffic lights outside Ramanasramam (they don't work but they are there).

    Loved it that there are loudspeakers playing mantras from the main temple on the girivalam path. Loved it that there weren't so many other loud speakers on the path.

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  25. Dear Scary Chum
    These days I avoid the Ramanashramam area, because it seems there is an outbreak of the bubonic plague among the Western tourists in Tiru South. Scores of them are affected. They wander aimlessly around, show symptoms of extreme weirdness and are dazed and confused - bordering on psychotic characteristics - most probably caused by a lack of satsangs since none of the satsang clowns have shown up so far. So I hope some idiot will arrive soon to line the sheep up. Hopefully they will put some order back into this chaos of madness and unhappiness.

    Pity we didn’t meet: you could have announced your arrival. We could have had a nice rendezvous. But maybe next time? Anyway I am happy you enjoyed your stay here.

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  26. Dear Firefly,

    Maybe I will be back soon and we will meet after all. I love the Ramanasramam area. I keep my awareness within, so as not to bump into these clowns :-)

    Anyway, I must explore the other areas of Tiru. Will do so some day.

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  27. All teachings are conceptual. Being concepts, they are contradictory. No teaching: not Buddha's, not Shankara's, not Christ's, is beyond this essential limitation. How can a 'True' teaching arise, when what it arises from is itself beyond description? Thus, contradiction and disintegration is the ultimate fate of all conceptual teachings, as well as all concepts.

    Ultimately, no teaching can prepare us for the mystery which is beyond concepts. These paths were created to bring us beyond the teachings, not to hang on them. They are merely used as a way to share that unspeakable insight. No teaching will ever do justice to the mystery. Neither eternal, nor non-existent - it is completely beyond grasp.

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  28. It's important to note why Nagarjuna said that nirvana and samsara are the same: because both are empty. He did not mean they were literally the same in their characteristics, qualities, and so on. They are only the same in that both are empty of content.

    One could also say that the difference between the two is that someone lost in samsara is not aware that samsara is empty, whereas the realizer of nirvana knows that both samsara and nirvana are empty.

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