Friday, February 14, 2014

I, Robot


"Only if you reject all the other paths can you discover your own path" ~ UG Krishnamurti

We all seem to be the victims of conditioned cultural conformity. What amazes us is that none of the gurus who troop through Tiru and around the globe have anything new or authentic to say. Most of them robotically recite the Advaitic mantra of "Who am I?" as if it's some kind of coded Illuminati club membership. New wannabes like Saraswathi Ma blindly repeat the same formula with only the added frisson of her posh upper class accent to stir the loins. What happened? How did we all become so dumbed down? ... And if we were truly asking who we are, wouldn't we be examining some of these ridiculous spiritual assumptions and holding them up to the light of day?

Self-enquiry is all these people have to offer. Mooji is a prime example - without it he's just an empty locker. Mooji offers nothing more than the spiritual palliatives and Hindu aphorisms found in any pulp spiritual publication. He's a one-trick pony and he has to have an ancient technique to legitimate his authority. In fact it seems that everyone in the satsang game is using Ramana's investigation of his death experience as some kind of moral fig leaf with which to clothe their nakedness (or is it just plain vacancy?) But Ramana was a total one-off: his case was unique and highly nuanced. While our contemporary clowns are prescribing self-enquiry as a cure-all for every situation, he only taught ātma-vichāra in specific cases and in a host of different ways, according to the needs of his questioner. By virtue of his realisation, Ramana had the intuitive capacity to meet his audience where they were and seamlessly respond to them. He often upheld Hindu tradition simply for the sake of his cultural audience - and he was also contradictory and enigmatic. Just as often as he spoke of self-enquiry, Ramana could also be found endorsing the value of meditation, prayer, mantra and devotion. And for many, Ramana's highest teaching was Silence.

Ramana's own realisation was spontaneous and did not even come about as a result of self-enquiry - unless we interpret the term more broadly, like Michael James, as a process of discovery involving "self-attention" and "self-investigation." Self-enquiry as we now know it, is Ramana's development of the teaching given in the Yoga Vasistha by the sage Valmiki to Rama. Here it is the cure for "the long lasting disease of samsara" and "the fire which burns up the seeds of the evil tree that is the mind." But whereas Valmiki only vaguely describes "Who am I?" as "enquiry into the Self" and asking "to whom does this samsara belong?" - Ramana gave a multitude of specific explanations of its practice. Many attach themselves to this description: "At the very moment that thought arises, if one vigilantly enquires 'To whom did this rise?', it will be known 'To me.' If one then enquires 'Who am I?' the mind will turn back to its source [the Self] and the thought which has risen will also subside." Others maintain that Ramana's self-enquiry is better summed up by the spiritual instruction, "summa iru." This contains the injunction to "remain still" and simply "be as you are."

The great irony of the "Who am I?" gang is that none of them is really asking the question - they are just using it as a badge of their own "specialness" and spiritual attainment. The likes of Saraswathi Ma, Mooji and Devaji have all extracted self-enquiry out of its deeply Indian context and are mechanically employing it as a one-size-fits-all solution. Their self-enquiry is a soulless pseudo-version of what Ramana only sometimes recommended - mindlessly repeated in infinitely meaningless variations. In their greed for gurudom, they have placed self-enquiry at the centre of Ramana's teaching and projected the Self as an external object to be acquired by a single definitive means. It's a magic bullet for the masses, which diverts attention away from the sham guru at the centre of the story. And, by focusing on self-enquiry and handing it out as a tool to their accolytes, they can then act out the "fantasy Ramana" of their imaginations. Effectively they promote their own idealized version of the past - which never existed - so that they can proclaim themselves the standard-bearers of a phantom lineage that they have created.

Thus we see Mooji and Devaji promoting the image that their followers are quietly and organically forming an ashram around them, just like Ramana. This is a religious phenomenon eerily similar to that outlined in Thomas à Kempis' Imitation of Christ, which Saint Augustine prescribed as a remedy for the sins of Adam. Derived from the Pauline Epistles, the idea was to follow an example of Jesus' life in order to be like him. Inspired by Saint Francis of Assisi, some Christian accolytes would pursue a path of poverty and preaching. Others, including à Kempis himself, adopted an interior life and withdrew from the world. It's a reality insert: a fantasy image of a religious figure - constructed for others to copy - so that they can claim that person's virtues and spiritual attainment for themselves. Just as the Christians have conjured up a "fantasy Jesus," the Advaitins are now mass-producing a "fantasy Ramana who taught self-enquiry" as their guru blueprint. But if you really think the Ramana Ashram of the 20s and 30s was some idyllic enclave of pious introspection and "Who am I?"-ing, then we invite you to check out David Godman's Living by the Words of Bhagavan. This is the biography of Annamalai Swami and there you will find a colourful cast of late colonial era eccentrics involved in all kinds of back stabbing and intrigue. The story of Perumal Swami for example is classic theatre with a pantomime villain par excellence!

"Who am I?" spirituality is simulated enlightenment sold as an authentic attainment. Instead of investigating the "I" as a human being, it is investigating the "I" as a robot. This is a cynical cyborg reality - devoid of a beating heart - ruthlessly delivered on to equally droid-like followers. All of the pretenders to the Advaitic throne are engaged in a vigorous form of religious autoeroticism using self-enquiry as the magic button. By creating a false image, they have created a false god. Every religion has a cult of the image around its founding father, which becomes a template for mind control, because it's a subset of reality cut off from the mainframe. As Sarah Oliver comments on our Facebook page: It's the cultic overlay. Sophie [Saraswathi Ma] is still in there but her true authenticity is hijacked by the programming ... "whatever transformed her" is called a convergence experience and every single religion manufactures this experience ... She is just spewing mind control. She is telling you how it works, i.e. dissociating, cutting out the emotional intelligence of the human being ... She is telling you how she keeps herself in the trance ...

The killer point here is that the awakening and enlightenment offered by these gurus are finite states of dissociation divorced from the body. Fully embodied existence is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, not some promise of a permanent beatific state. As we see it, most people only want happiness. They are not prepared to accept suffering - and you can't have one without the other. When we can't get past pain, we seek perfection externally, which is then mirrored back to us in the intoxicating philosophies and experiences of Oneness, Supreme Self, bliss and love without end. But these are outward projections in a spiritual universe of what has not been thoroughly physically integrated. There is no need for the spiritual drag show of non-duality: only for a profound acceptance of duality. And when we embrace duality, we go past ultimate states and re-enter the pure visceral excitement of life ... Awakening and enlightenment are not the end of the road. They are illusions and do not truly exist.

It's at this point we see that gurus and followers alike are participating in an ancient and collective delusion. What is so deeply dishonest here is that all the "Who am I?" teachers - Gangaji, Madhukar, Mooji, Isaac Shapiro, Devaji and Saraswathi Ma - are not giving us enlightenment at all, but a contrived formula for what is someone else's dead, personal experience. It dismisses the fact that each of us has our own unique journey, which cannot be preprogrammed and repackaged for consumption. However persuasive you find another's path, in the end you have to drop it and walk your own. This is where teachings and teachers fall away. All the rules of the game are broken: there was only ever your own experience, which fits no other paradigm.

So in this hall of mirrors, who are you? Man or machine? Do you wish to be encoded and chipped, regurgitating a brand of mass-produced spirituality? Or do you want to stand up and claim your humanity whatever the price? We refer you back to the 60s' cult series, The Prisoner and its legendary battlecry: I am not a number, I am a free man!



26 comments:

  1. Dear Kevanandaji,

    The relevance of your today's post to today's date has not escaped our attention: this being the 14th day of February, an amorous day of the romantic heart in many first and second-world countries of the world, if not so much in Tamil Tiru. One might miss the irony of St. Valentine's day from a perusal of this day's international headlines, yet surprises do still abound, as you may judge by clicking here.

    Yours as ever, from


    Myles O'Blarney

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  2. Such a good posting. Well written.
    It reminds me of the great devotee Echamal who would not eat a morsel before she served food to her beloved guru Ramana. Echamal would fall into a trance 'alaya' that could last for days and yet the indications are that Ramana knew she was stuck in a cul de sac. The 'path' to enlightenment is so so subtle that Echamal living for years under the protective umbrella of Ramana's influence still was unable to break through. Such are the vagaries of contemplation and meditation that ripeness just seems to happen to a rare one. From our logical point of view there appears to be no rhyme or reason to awakening. You can sook and ask 'why him and not me?' This is wasted energy as you cannot mentally unravel this profound, universal conundrum,

    summer

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    1. Yes, yes Echamal ... along with Keerai Pati (Green Leaves Mother) Mudaliar Pati, and Akhilananda (Desur Ma). They expressed their love and devotion by offering food even if it entailed walking and carrying it very long distances (as was the case with Desur Ma). When Mudaliar Pati became very old and almost totally blind, the sarvadhikari tried to dissuade her from coming saying: "Why come when you can hardly see him?" - To which she replied (without missing a bit): "It does not matter if I don't see him, what's important is that he can see me." In Ramana's case "summa iru" encapsulates all that can be said - instead of skirting around speculative notions, which are fruitless and superfluous.

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  3. Excellent post! Just one point: without devoted sheep, there is no guru. So who is actually to blame in this game and who is the joker? The problem with The Prisoner from this series was that he could not and would not accept that he actually was a number and so he never became a free man. And that happens to all of us ... If you are stupid and want to become wise, first admit that you are stupid instead of pretending otherwise, then something might happen. Alas! This is the Age of the Pretenders in all sizes and forms. Gurus, devotees, politicians, consumers, reptilians, you and me etc etc - so we all are stuck in limbo. Let's celebrate!!!

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  4. Nailed it again Chi-Ting master. Your reputation and Ph.D in exposing spiritual bullshit well deserved. 'Who am I?' doesn't seem to know who it is anymore. Merely an Advaita-by-numbers placebo, used to administer and reinforce confusion, numbing, and dissociation. And who knows, perhaps for also joining the psychiatric wing of lobotomised enlightened mentalists. In fairness though, being past it's sell-by-date, some merely pay lip service to it, so as to still belong to the saintly Ramana club. Deep down, everybody knows that being with your experience is much more real and helpful than trying to do metaphysical backflips, and avoiding what's really going on.

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  5. The guru's purpose and passion have remained the same: to deepen his own vision and to assist others to awaken and realize the integration of Body, Mind, and Market, thus enhancing financial and spiritual fulfillment for all humanity....
    Yep, its a cosmic joke!
    summer

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  6. I hasten to point out that there are two types of integration: vertical, where the guru sees his profit (and conceit) go skywards - and horizontal, where the devotees' tears and anguish mingle with their wasted cash and expectations. What is the Chi-Ting Master's take on the market of the body-mind organism? ... Are there shades of the oldest profession in it? Supply-demand theory applicable? Regulation called for? Health warning perhaps? What about price gouging? Should devotees be penalised to tackle the issue on the supply side? Is stoning the pseudo-guru an option?

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  7. This little ditty from the sharp end of the 70s says it all: click here.

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    1. Kevji, the Iron Lady's credentials as a harlot speak for themselves. Her Babylonian master (mad Rupert) trained her to be an obedient courtesan and afterwards she acted the role of a good time girl for various Sabbatean bankers and their IMF wankers. Alas, a cheap prostitute she never was: her approach to the oldest profession reflected her ideology - deny services to the poor and marginalised - and offer them instead to the exclusive Molochs on the high street. Her gun running son was an unintended by product of such encounters.

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  8. Maybe its something to do with capitalism, and particularly American capitalism. It will seize on any kind of idea, spiritual path and try and 'productize' it - turn it into a craze, like the Frisbee. Then all kinds of possibilities present themselves for marketing it and exploiting from mindfulness to advaita.

    summer

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  9. Go by the lampposts of Tiru and and see all the posters advertising the new guru's cheesy faces wilting in the sun.. Sometimes the teachers style is gritty, and voice impersonal. Sometimes a pretence of soothing, sweet harmony....but they all fall under the umbrella of predatory capitalism.
    summer

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    1. Some of the lampposts in Tiru display as many as a dozen posters about providers (and provision) of enlightenment. These lampposts must be enlightened by now. Meanwhile, there's silly me shining my torch under one of these lampposts in the vain search for the Self - which they keep reassuring me I never lost!

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  10. Kevji, you make a good case and argue well ... all though the only thing that does not sit well with me is your quoting UG Krishnamurti (presumably to bolster your viewpoint). This is a man who stridently rejected all gurus and denied them validity and legitimacy, while for all intents and purposes relished the very role he denied others. Mahesh Bhatt, a leading Bollywood flim flam director, referred to him as 'my guru' and lavished on him gifts galore. A similar gimmick was employed by his namesake Jiddu, who carried on with his designated title (world guru) bestowed on him by H.S. Olcott and Annie Besant. It then gets convoluted and disingenuous when not long after dissolving the 'Order of the Star in the East', Jiddu reinvents himself as a torch bearer out to extinguish all other competing torch bearers. Poncing around the globe in all his sartorial elegance, he then fathers a child with his secretary's wife, which may or may not be consistent with the conduct of a good guru ...

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  11. thinking the chi-ting writers are missing mooji ... the chi-ting facebook page is full of him .. thinking of inviting him back to tiru? ...

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    1. Gregory, the only thing the Chi-Ting Facebook page is full of are those who gave Mark Zuckerberg a blow job and wiillingly added to the fortune of this billionaire who managed to hoodwink half the planet into becoming I-Robots. The tragedy and irony is that Kevinanda plays it unwisely by subscribing to Facebook, he becomes indistinguishable from the sheeple already led by the nose.

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    2. Actually the one I miss the most is Karl Renz. He was much more fun than Mooji and brighter too. Unfortunately Münchausen Syndrome has taken a heavy toll.

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    3. mr renz is parked in tiru atm .. low profile, sweet as ever

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  12. My Dear Chi-Ting Master, Most Reverend Holy Guardian of the Rock,
    Arunachala Shiva, Enemy of Cant, Protector of Wisdom,

    It will not have escaped His Holiness’s royal notice that the revolution now taking place in central square Kiev, referred to as the “Maidan Revolution”, successor to the “Orange Revolution” of 9 years ago, is pregnant with possibilities for the future.

    I write Sir to confess being distracted from my meditation practices and purification rituals by these events, and I offer for the amusement of His Holiness a profane and pathetic video which uses maps and animal images with the inimitable music of His Satanic Majesty in an attempt to explicate what I see as taking place.

    Yours, as ever,


    Myles O’Blarney

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    1. Myles ... "profane and pathetic" ... I couldn't agree more! The profanity is well illustrated by the perennial warmongers (pitting one against the other) depicted as grotesque Nibiru lizards out to provoke, loot and pilfer; slash and burn; maim, plunder and profit. It's pathetic for the reason that they seem unstoppable. Unless Mick Jagger's appeal to these devils to back off is successful, we're all doomed. They've hijacked the global gravy train for their own exclusive use while relegating everyone else to an austere Beggars' Banquet. No wonder Keith Richards looks like a dead man walking; completely sucked dry by them.

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  13. Dear Chi-Ting Master,

    There is a rumour going around Tiru and the much revered satsang groups that you are on the payroll of the Ramana Ashram management. Your mandate is to knock down any guru / ashram / chai shop that can be and is a threat to $$$ that Ramana ashram rakes in. (The said ashram management believes all donations in Tiruvannamalai should go to it).

    Chi Ting Master, please confirm or deny this rumour!

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    1. There is also a rumour that the Ashram is secretly controlled by the Jesuits. It depends what bullshit you want to believe!

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    2. So you are confirming this rumour? The Jesuit one is considered a fact because Ramana Ashram did turn to foreigners for support when Tamil groups opposed its ambitious desires of 'owning' Arunachala and all of Tiruvannamalai i.e. all the foreign $$$$. Too bad the Ramana Ashram President's peacock wings got clipped. Then he tried bringing UNESCO in by declaring the mountain a heritage site. That didnt work either.

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    3. It is true that the Jesuits have infiltrated this institution. They have wielded considerable influence over the editorial content of its flagship publication since the early 90s. They even had a so-called "goodwill ambassador" in residence - in the form of one Michael Highburger - who must have had a foot in each camp. Going further back in time. The French Jesuit, Benedictine (or whatever) who called himself Abhishiktananda remained a consummate Christian sadhu. Again a foot in each camp. That Kevji carries any weight with the apparatchiks of that establishment is as preposterous as accusing him of giving bad press to the German Bakery in a bid to increase the takings at Manna Café on the assumption that he holds a controlling interest ... That can be ruled out!

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    4. How did you know about my controlling interest in Manna Café?

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  14. Just watched the Feb 25 clip showing 7 truck loads of slaughter-ready herds of geese of European appearance crowding the new-hall to capacity ... so close to the sanctum-sanctorum. This bizzare scene, recreating the 90s' satsangs of Lucknow, left me dismayed, aghast, disconcerted, and almost tearful with sadness and anger. Their harmonium player looked so immersed in his own self importance I nearly puked! Master-Chi-Ting, is this an experiment in collective mind control? Is this some spurious New Age cult - that once gained access to - will set out to undermine and subvert? Who in the management allowed this mob to rampage so close to the hallowed place and should they, once identified, not be marched to the local Calvary? Kevji, there is an escalation in the brazen and shameless manner in which they go about big noting themselves with their pushy, arrogant, insensitive demeanor! It's getting increasingly hard to fend off their constant onslaughts ...

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  15. "And when we embrace duality, we go past ultimate states and re-enter the pure visceral excitement of life ... Awakening and enlightenment are not the end of the road. They are illusions and do not truly exist."

    Problem with that is sometimes duality fucks off and I'm left with just a singular I in all my environment. Nothing wrong with embracing duality for it's thrills, though, if you're into the duality-fetish scene... but you do risk permanent scarring from your jollies :-) All that I-thou perviness, makes you want to stay like that forever.

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