tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30383786063568032392024-03-21T17:17:30.239+00:00Chi-Ting ApocalypseGuru gossip and cultural cataclysm in Tiruvannamalai, South IndiaChi-Ting Masterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13888421252904281860noreply@blogger.comBlogger96125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3038378606356803239.post-70500764395726181802018-04-09T16:41:00.001+01:002018-04-09T22:09:41.082+01:00Explosive sexual politics from the court of King Tony!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW-Tz1EybrLP54f85A-Ws4kJEKdLrY5JDGYOMSRPl678cTOyQmvlzVwNNDOaWhL504OKCsppODrWN6n_GnKjjQXyEhsKAtUg7fy7hjvhQSngs-Uv1s5QYmCqxZxrCbu0LsPIjLV5M-0dI/s1600/0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="460" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW-Tz1EybrLP54f85A-Ws4kJEKdLrY5JDGYOMSRPl678cTOyQmvlzVwNNDOaWhL504OKCsppODrWN6n_GnKjjQXyEhsKAtUg7fy7hjvhQSngs-Uv1s5QYmCqxZxrCbu0LsPIjLV5M-0dI/s400/0.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<b>From the Comments section of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXN988y4DSs&t=5sments" target="_blank">Who is Mooji?</a></b><br />
<br />
<<<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Aga G 7 months ago (edited)</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I remember when I was freaking out when I found out he is sleeping with those young girls, he was saying : "hush, this is fine, this is fine, guru may share love with many"</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ales Dostal</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ales Dostal 7 months ago (edited)</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
On the Mooji] baba returns to the home of his Master Papaji at 0:40, Krishnabai says to Mooji “everything I have I have given to you… I loves, I love you, I love you”… .They should tune it down at least a bit. <u>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIcSqVSPKlY&t=112s</u>, By the way Mathu, the spiritual name of previous Mooji’s girlfriend was Radha she is now back in London (2014), I think the other dark haired young and beautiful girl is Mooji’s other girlfriend Mirabai at 2:35, Mooji baba in India at Rishikesh satsangs 2016, <u>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxjE9sTqPq4</u>. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
pardeep parkash </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
pardeep parkash 7 months ago Aga g ; </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
he said this to you,personally ?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Aga G 7 months ago</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
yes, and me too I'm sure he is just a person, not a god, like he is referring to himself. Once he told me, with his soft voice that this is such a torture for him, because I do not want have a sex with him. In my opinion it's odd, that 60 years old man is so horny. But for me he is just old guy with really big belly. I do not get what those beautifull girls living on monte sahaja are seeing in this guy, they could have anybody.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Aga G 7 months ago</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ales Dostal, yes Mooji was her first lover, she gave him her virginity. I believe that was all she has. When she has come to monte sahaja she was only 16 years old and did not brought mach stuff then. Now is more rich, mooji's fame is helping sell her music products.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ales Dostal 7 months ago (edited)</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Thank Aga G for your confirmation, finally someone an insider begins to speak about Mooji's girlfriends, actually I am not surprised at all what is going on there,. Mooji has become a king and Monte Sahaja is his kingdom. Mooji would like to be the second Osho and spiritually has not given up almost anything.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Aga G 7 months ago</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mooji feels like monte sahaja is his kingdom, with his princess Krishnabai, everyday they ride (on this little white vehicle) around their kingdom. They checking how much work free workers did. And sometimes they are walking around while they holding their hands, like every couple in love...</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Aga G</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Aga G 6 months ago</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
no, he is fucking just Krishnabai, but he likes giving attention to other ladies. He has problem with boundaries thing. He may fuck them all, I do not know this for sure</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ales Dostal 6 months ago (edited)</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pardeep, It’s very difficult to find someone, an insider, who is willing to share, what is going on in Monte Sahaja even using the nickname. It may take years to see the first hand testimony about Mooji’s sex life like here. Everything is about to prove or not that Mooji lives or does not live according to his pointing out, or he is a fake or not, only for myself or perhaps also for other people. What Aga G said, it’s not a rumor, Mooji asked her to have sex with him, it’s the fact, I could make the deduction, that Mooji have asked a lot of other girls the same question and he has perhaps had sex with them. Mooji is a public figure, spiritual populist, and all my questions, assumptions, and conclusions are legitimate….</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Aga G</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Aga G 6 months ago</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mooji use to say a lot to girls, "I'm going to buy the biggest bed to wake you up"- with this look of happy dog on his face. Ales Dostal 5 months ago (edited) Alicia, Krishnabai had waited several years to become the first Mooji’s concubine and an assistant in one-person, but she must accept the second Mooji’s lover and servant in one-person, Lakshmi. In addition they both must make a place sometimes for another young drop in visiting girl for couple months in Monte Sahaja. Everything is the “big love” there, but not for me. (R) Krishnabai, Lakshmi and jealous Shree beyond, 3/2017 <u>https://mooji.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/week3_flow_0538.jpg</u> (also read Sam, Aga G’s threads here)</div>
</div>
Chi-Ting Masterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13888421252904281860noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3038378606356803239.post-67235322430348255222015-01-03T14:50:00.000+00:002016-10-16T18:06:23.203+01:00Special anniversary edition of Chi-Ting!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">After a decade of in your face abuse, Chi-Ting is fast approaching adolescence. But do not fear, that won't stop us ... nonduality is an endless feast of satire! Read the whole story on the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ChiTingApocalypse/photos/a.537209209648184.1073741828.531974113505027/772962546072848/?type=3">Facebook post</a> ...<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBMfb1JP3G0A1k4cU99WsneWjCavj4dUFFJCK4bI9BF0pPoA-4HRqvz_hIVPbxFItBmpglUEglHjYdNJR45VJtvgFhuks9Ek-4WDEvRxcBTCruuRCis7Y00-cMk0kTwWyKEp-DwvtmOjY/s1600/Celebrating10Years+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBMfb1JP3G0A1k4cU99WsneWjCavj4dUFFJCK4bI9BF0pPoA-4HRqvz_hIVPbxFItBmpglUEglHjYdNJR45VJtvgFhuks9Ek-4WDEvRxcBTCruuRCis7Y00-cMk0kTwWyKEp-DwvtmOjY/s320/Celebrating10Years+%25281%2529.jpg" width="460" /></a></div></div>Chi-Ting Masterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13888421252904281860noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3038378606356803239.post-62142599500596612832014-05-18T11:46:00.001+01:002015-01-03T15:00:01.902+00:00Sister Klaus ... in hell!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho3Lofekn2bEcgiwyfqIhW856omcPk3JXn0T8R6cy3rIx63a5EcO0kvyEUTn4npzABqO8sOx05ef3RZU5F60bTCgUylDuWYNaEa3zIbNuJQgFfu2P4BZYctjHLK9rCx4N49e9oaxUrgcs/s1600/Sister+in+Limbo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho3Lofekn2bEcgiwyfqIhW856omcPk3JXn0T8R6cy3rIx63a5EcO0kvyEUTn4npzABqO8sOx05ef3RZU5F60bTCgUylDuWYNaEa3zIbNuJQgFfu2P4BZYctjHLK9rCx4N49e9oaxUrgcs/s1600/Sister+in+Limbo.jpg" height="360" width="460" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>A whimsical tour of Dante's Inferno with the late great Sister Klaus </b>...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">We always thought the Sister would end up with all those pederast Popes and naughty demons with red hot pokers. Unfortunately this might be construed as a pleasure when it's meant to be a punishment! It turns out the grumpy tranny got parked in the First Circle of Hell - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferno_(Dante)" target="_blank">Limbo</a> - with a whole gaggle of confused, disorientated philosophers and Advaitins. And they all find their beliefs and expectations totally confounded in a weird Christian layer cake of eternal damnation!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sister Klaus: <i>Greetings to all my friends, foes and other plebs, still plodding along the road called Life. After my unfortunate passing away, I found myself surprisingly in Limbo: to be more correct, Dante's Limbo. That sounds a bit of a surprise right? - since none of you unbelievers, intelligent and spiritual people actually thought this place could be real or more than a mere fairytale. But here I am together with all other unbaptized pagans lacking the hope for something greater than rational minds can conceive. But that aside ... it's great here. There are green fields and a castle with seven gates to represent the seven virtues. The castle is the dwelling place of the wisest men and women of antiquity. In the long evenings there is drink and good food and we all dance the Limbo Rock [<a href="http://youtu.be/-wHqvSko2vo" target="_blank">see here</a>] til the early hours. You might recognize all those great souls of old like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato" target="_blank">Plato</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotle" target="_blank">Aristotle</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer" target="_blank">Homer</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orpheus" target="_blank">Orpheus</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electra" target="_blank">Electra</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penthesilea" target="_blank">Penthesilea</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socrates" target="_blank">Socrates</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucretia" target="_blank">Lucretia</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laozi" target="_blank">Lao Tse</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucius" target="_blank">Confucius</a>, various bodhisattvas, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adi_Shankara" target="_blank">Adi Shankara</a> and many more ... along with the newcomers <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramakrishna" target="_blank">Ramakrishna</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anandamayi_Ma" target="_blank">Anandamayi Ma</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisargadatta" target="_blank">Nisargadatta</a> and of course, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramana_Maharishi" target="_blank">Ramana Maharishi</a>. Don't they look happy and blissful frolicking about like children at a birthday party?</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>I have to admit that I was a little shocked at first to see Ramana's gentle face in the crowd. Then it dawned on me that even though Ramana was possibly an enlightened being, he was never a Christian. Being unbaptized, he is stuck here in Limbo forever! So we were all wrong the whole bloody time and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dante_Alighieri" target="_blank">Dante Alighieri</a> (that miserable little wretched freak from Florence) was right! That whole charade of Advaita Vedanta, liberation, awakening, nirvana - the whole satsang circus with all its teachers good, bad and worse - was just a scam. I knew this even while I was alive, but now I am in Limbo, I can see it's actually true!</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>I had many wonderful conversations amidst the merriment and dance, but I especially enjoyed meeting Ramana and his friend Nisargadatta Maharaj. One evening we were sipping an excellent red wine brought in from the castle and talking nonsense together (because that's what you do in Limbo when you've been wrong about Life all the while) and suddenly Ramana's face lit up. He said:" I might have been a venerated Enlightened Sage who got it all wrong, but I was right about one thing." Maharaj looked up from his newly lit beedie wondering what this could possibly be. "I always told my devotees that the Bliss experienced during deep sleep [sushupti] is the pure state. Here, there is full awareness while in the waking state [jagrat], there is total ignorance [ajnana]. This ignorance only exists in relation to the false jnana prevalent in the waking state. Really speaking, jagrat is ajnana and sushupti is prajnana [wisdom]. It is everybody's experience that nothing in the waking state compares with the Bliss and well-being derived from deep sleep when the mind and the senses are absent." I looked at him in awe and said: "So if people practise the art of sleeping and expand this until they sleep most of the time, their feeling of Bliss will continue into when they are awake. Just as a fire keeps on burning after you stop feeding it with fuel ... ignorance will have no chance to spoil the beans!" Ramana looked at me in admiration. "Exactly! Spot on!" he shouted.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>But then I hesitated: "What about the world if everybody is asleep?" Ramana answered pityingly: "You know what I think of such foolishness! The world can take care of itself. It doesn't need you!" Then he frowned and mumbled: "But if you are unlucky enough to live in the US, you still have to become a Born Again Christian, vote for the Tea Party and sing Hallelujah all the time. Praise the Lord that I don't have to do that ... so embarrassing!" Ramana turned to Maharaj and asked:"Do you think that Jesus would agree with this?" Maharaj looked dumbstruck, then burst out: "Christ Almighty, why oh why did I not recognize you as 'You are That' when I had the chance? I was stuck in all that crap about being 'prior to consciousness' and it was complete bullshit!" Ramana looked at him with a benign smile. He said: "There are good wines and gorgeous women in the First Circle. There are far worse horrors here than hanging out with virtuous non-Christians and the torment of a slow internet connection. After this, there are eight more concentric zones of punishment for deliberate transgressions! In the Ninth Circle, we could join <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cain_and_Abel" target="_blank">Cain</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordred" target="_blank">Mordred</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judas_Iscariot" target="_blank">Judas Iscariot</a> who are all guilty of betrayal. And at the centre is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satan" target="_blank">Satan</a> and that great homunculus - <a href="http://www.premanandasatsang.org/en/index.php" target="_blank">Spermananda</a> - condemned for committing the ultimate sin of personal treachery against God [and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papaji" target="_blank">Papaji</a> - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG-8RRHrIWk" target="_blank">see here</a>] ... We were lucky not to be thrown into the very pit of Hell!"</i></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Sister Klaus says that we don't actually know anything. Even the things we totally despise might turn out to be right - turning our whole worldview upside down. There is no universal truth! What applies to one will not apply to another. And, we are lazy. We slavishly follow the religio-cultural mindset that suits us. In a world fit for replicants, we prefer to live by any old hearsay rather than finding out for ourselves!</b></div></div>Chi-Ting Masterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13888421252904281860noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3038378606356803239.post-60915984961966215612014-03-10T13:28:00.000+00:002014-11-16T14:21:14.616+00:00Radha rides out ...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/0rk0FxGmrO0" width="460"></iframe></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The Beginner's Guide to Hindoooo-ism sees jobbing thesp <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Nicholls_(actor)" target="_blank">Paul Nicholls</a> arrive in Tiru with the intention of "Getting God"!!!</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Unfortunately he fucks up from the get go, linking up with local celebrity bad boy, Hapi, as his guide to all things spiritual (17 mins 24 secs onwards). Urrr Paul ... Hapi is really good at deflowering posh upper class English girls and getting wasted, but that's about the limit of his repertoire! The video goes on to show rare footage of the forgotten Tiru of yesteryear and it's a must see if you've never been there. But then dim but nice Paul takes some very bad advice and ends up at <a href="http://chi-ting.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/suicide-in-bunker.html" target="_blank">Radha Ma's</a> psycho-satsang. The highlight of this exchange comes when an openly irritated Paul tells satsang wannabe and touchy feely Life Coach, <a href="http://www.perfectpitch.eu/MarkHans.html" target="_blank">Mark Hans</a>, "you just seem quite egotistical, you seem like you need to know more than everyone else - and that to me seems the exact opposite of what this is supposed to be about." Radha gleefully cackles to herself while Paul comments that he doesn't feel comfortable around these "spiritual travellers." We say: out of the mouth of babes and sucklings come pearls of wisdom! Paul may be clueless, but he's got their number. Of course what Mr Nicholls doesn't know is that a few years later the supposedly "enlightened" Radha will commit suicide in spectacular fashion by burning herself alive ... <i>deliberately planning</i> her own death and choreographing all the roles her husband and devotees will play in the ensuing events ... including leaving a note blaming 4 of her ex-devotees ... who will then be tried for manslaughter and a jumped up charge of sexual molestation ... face 10 years' imprisonment <i>up to life</i> if they are convicted ... spend 2 years being dragged through the nightmare of the Indian judicial system ... and be largely abandoned by so-called Advaitic 'friends' who don't want to get involved with their "negativity" and "bad karma" ...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ironically, at the end of the video when Radha takes Paul on retreat, she encapsulates spirituality as "just being honest with yourself." - Never a truer word spoken, but we'd love to know exactly what brand of honesty she was talking about! The essence of the spiritual search in Tiru involves people who are lying to themselves and others. It attracts seekers who take no responsibility for their actions and who through the clever intellectualism of Advaita claim an instant state of perfection without ever having to look at themselves or acknowledge their abusive behaviour. In this town devoted to Shiva, it is people and their lives which are destroyed - not the self - because they destroy each other through acts of egotistical elitism, arrogance and emotional withdrawal. Substituting authority figures and abstract theories of reality for genuine self-reflection, they are incapable of nurturing real human bonds. Meanwhile Radha herself was a "classic psychopathic power monger guru" (to coin a phrase of <a href="http://guruphiliac.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">Jody Radzik's</a>). Despite her heaving breast and flirty giggles Radha was playing off her devotees, one against the other, in a vicious game of cat and mouse. She defrauded them all in dodgy land deals and that's how she earned her nickname, Real Estate Radha. This was to be the cause of the internecine dissension that eventually brought her down. Add in her dabbling in tantric practices and other occult weirdness and we have the highly volatile mix that led to her horrific self-immolation. Paul Nicholls also visits a Kali temple where a goat is ritually beheaded. If he had stayed with Radha a little longer, he may have found that he was the goat having his head sheared from his body ...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Paul, you may have thought all of this was deeply spiritual, but unfortunately you ended up with Satan's sister in a re-run of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Wheatley" target="_blank">Dennis Wheatley</a> novel, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Devil_Rides_Out_(film)" target="_blank">The Devil Rides Out</a> ...</b></div></div></div>Chi-Ting Masterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13888421252904281860noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3038378606356803239.post-25409529465378134942014-02-14T19:13:00.000+00:002014-02-14T20:53:56.456+00:00I, Robot<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTJ7Zagtrw9IiNKDFyNWJCoCJUuMwsilBLKCTFNrAENVysmsT8dSAun4ewdTgZGrEQuhKC1fqq5ILi8kd52htoPoP_0eblV4tWkvXo0xPQC6U6lTLhq8znpLAs22VmnY3an7Ij_Naacag/s1600/113178.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTJ7Zagtrw9IiNKDFyNWJCoCJUuMwsilBLKCTFNrAENVysmsT8dSAun4ewdTgZGrEQuhKC1fqq5ILi8kd52htoPoP_0eblV4tWkvXo0xPQC6U6lTLhq8znpLAs22VmnY3an7Ij_Naacag/s1600/113178.jpg" height="360" width="460" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>"Only if you reject all the other paths can you discover your own path" ~ UG Krishnamurti</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">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 <a href="http://www.saraswathima.org/" target="_blank">Saraswathi Ma</a> 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 <i>examining</i> some of these ridiculous spiritual assumptions and holding them up to the light of day?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-enquiry" target="_blank">Self-enquiry</a> is all these people have to offer. <a href="http://www.mooji.org/" target="_blank">Mooji</a> 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 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramana_Maharshi" target="_blank">Ramana's</a> investigation of his death experience as some kind of moral fig leaf with which to clothe their nakedness <i>(or is it just plain vacancy?)</i> 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.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">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, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oR2KvWOSPVU#t=4264" target="_blank">like Michael James</a>, 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 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga_Vasistha" target="_blank">Yoga Vasistha</a> by the sage <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valmiki" target="_blank">Valmiki</a> to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rama" target="_blank">Rama</a>. 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."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The great irony of the "Who am I?" gang is that none of them is <i>really</i> 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 <a href="http://www.davidwaldman.org/" target="_blank">Devaji</a> 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 <i>sometimes</i> 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<i> they</i> have created.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">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 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_%C3%A0_Kempis" target="_blank">Thomas à Kempis'</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Imitation_of_Christ" target="_blank">Imitation of Christ</a>, which <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Augustine" target="_blank">Saint Augustine</a> prescribed as a remedy for the sins of Adam. Derived from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauline_Epistles" target="_blank">Pauline Epistles</a>, the idea was to follow an example of Jesus' life in order to be like him. Inspired by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_of_Assisi" target="_blank">Saint Francis of Assisi</a>, 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 <a href="http://davidgodman.org/" target="_blank">David Godman's</a> <a href="http://davidgodman.org/books/livingbywords.shtml" target="_blank">Living by the Words of Bhagavan</a>. This is the biography of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqwebTmlocw" target="_blank">Annamalai Swami</a> 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 <a href="http://davidgodman.org/rteach/atiasrami1.shtml" target="_blank">Perumal Swami</a> for example is classic theatre with a pantomime villain par excellence!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Who am I?" spirituality is <i>simulated</i> enlightenment sold as an authentic attainment. Instead of investigating the <b>"I"</b> as a human being, it is investigating the <b>"I"</b> 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 <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ChiTingApocalypse" target="_blank">our Facebook page</a>: <i>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 ...</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">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 <i>spiritual</i> universe of what has not been thoroughly <i>physically</i> 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. <i>They are illusions and do not truly exist</i>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">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 - <a href="http://www.gangaji.org/" target="_blank">Gangaji</a>, <a href="http://www.madhukar.org/" target="_blank">Madhukar</a>, Mooji, <a href="http://www.isaacshapiro.de/" target="_blank">Isaac Shapiro</a>, 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.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>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, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prisoner">The Prisoner</a> and its legendary battlecry: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0LaT6qVRpg" target="_blank">I am not a number, I am a free man!</a></b></div></div><div id="fb-root"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><script>(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1";
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script><br />
</div><div class="fb-like" data-href="http://www.facebook.com/Chi-TingApocalypse" data-send="true" data-show-faces="false" data-width="450"></div><br />
<a class="twitter-share-button" data-via="Kevinandaji" href="https://twitter.com/share">Tweet</a><br />
<script>!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');</script></div>Chi-Ting Masterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13888421252904281860noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3038378606356803239.post-36918290453641858862014-02-02T12:01:00.000+00:002014-02-14T19:01:02.235+00:00Food of the gods<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI2uwuI8F7sc7WhPDpJmb23oD1iAqqDYcgdEn27qgnBs2_iKgFVKVpDC7uerO9QKxogBfq4_XRmHlBxdUuT9QC8kGa1ohrIvOb01qgbECozz-tJC8iuXJMnfUPSDipjXYUNMl7zaCoZwk/s1600/710_Food_of_the_Gods.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI2uwuI8F7sc7WhPDpJmb23oD1iAqqDYcgdEn27qgnBs2_iKgFVKVpDC7uerO9QKxogBfq4_XRmHlBxdUuT9QC8kGa1ohrIvOb01qgbECozz-tJC8iuXJMnfUPSDipjXYUNMl7zaCoZwk/s1600/710_Food_of_the_Gods.jpg" height="360" width="460" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>As the seasonal invasion of Ramana Wannabes, Papaji Pretenders - and even an Imitation of Christ - reaches its climax, we invite you to chew on this ...</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Is there any excuse for even going to one of these talks or trying out the methods they suggest, when all of these things bring you to exactly the same end: absorption into somebody else's cosmic superstate with the complete annihilation of your own personal autonomy?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">All gurus encourage you to be a consumer. They invite you to a banquet of dependency, part of a pyramid type structure where you are energetically devoured by a superior über being. When you worship from afar, you will always be fleeced and sold on the slab come market day. If you ever actually meet any of these people, you will discover that you are a bit-player in their story of self-aggrandisement: a disposable accessory in their Movie of Me. We hate to burst your bubble, but that's just how it is.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Think about it. We all complain these days about being "slaves" to society ... <i>The definition of a slave is "no personal autonomy"</i> ... At <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Restaurant_at_the_End_of_the_Universe" target="_blank">The Restaurant at the End of the Universe</a>, there is not enlightenment, but you ending up on somebody else's plate. It ain't rocket science: enter the ring with one of these psychos and YOU are the sacrifice on the altar!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Serve yourself up to a guru and you will be eaten alive. You are the pig on the platter: apple in mouth - chestnuts up ass!</b></div><div id="fb-root"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><script>(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1";
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script><br />
</div><div class="fb-like" data-href="http://www.facebook.com/Chi-TingApocalypse" data-send="true" data-show-faces="false" data-width="450"></div><br />
<a class="twitter-share-button" data-via="Kevinandaji" href="https://twitter.com/share">Tweet</a><br />
<script>!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');</script></div>Chi-Ting Masterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13888421252904281860noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3038378606356803239.post-63649424555790745912014-01-11T12:30:00.000+00:002014-02-14T19:00:29.268+00:00The last temptation of Christ<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcz_WneNvm34-_iuzN9YO-axP1QnxM8Eiw6KfQnt63lg0FuzcmZloxqwcMW84FbpMeCQ3ZXw5gvC8Leufk2H3YLUKTtsRA7iV9AMl9GByVDjTpOWB8V2JiCz6-qmvL9vOU7-aRYqT1QNs/s1600/johnderuiter1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcz_WneNvm34-_iuzN9YO-axP1QnxM8Eiw6KfQnt63lg0FuzcmZloxqwcMW84FbpMeCQ3ZXw5gvC8Leufk2H3YLUKTtsRA7iV9AMl9GByVDjTpOWB8V2JiCz6-qmvL9vOU7-aRYqT1QNs/s1600/johnderuiter1.jpg" height="360" width="460" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>This Anon comment on the last Chi-Ting post was so good we had to repost it:</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Don't be fooled by John de Ruiter. He has has own special take on everything which he calls his "knowing". He is completely in love with his tender Christ like image sprinkled with serious academic philosophy. He will weave a poetic rhetoric that sounds impressive but has no meaning at all. He promises everything and gives nothing. His true message is: he loves himself and he wants you to love him too. Coming from an orthodox Dutch Christian community (Amish Style) in the Canadian mid west, he dropped out of priest college to the shock of his bible ranting family and decided to become his own "fisher of men and women". He has his own unique mystical ideas about Ramana and the mountain but his domain is firmly established in Edmonton, Alberta where he keeps his cult following on a very short leash. His regular trips around the world are recruitment drives for his cult. John realized that most of his loyal followers will have a use by date when they finally get to see that its all only about John and his Edmonton home. So its important for him to always keep a flow of fresh followers coming in to keep the wheels rolling smoothly and his position and status asurred. He only came to hear about Ramana and Arunachala from a group of disgruntled Osho disciples who advised him that if he wanted to expand his little Edmonton Christian bookshop cult, he should go visit Pune and later on Tiruvanamalai. So he took the advice, he went forth and multiplied. It is no surprise that a decade later, John is returning to his old hunting ground. So watch out readers, he could be hunting for you!</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>At the end of this month <a href="http://johnderuiter.com/" target="_blank">John de Ruiter</a> is returning to Tiruvannamalai. We think this tells you all you need to know.</b></div><div id="fb-root"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><script>(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1";
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script><br />
</div><div class="fb-like" data-href="http://www.facebook.com/Chi-TingApocalypse" data-send="true" data-show-faces="false" data-width="450"></div><br />
<a class="twitter-share-button" data-via="Kevinandaji" href="https://twitter.com/share">Tweet</a><br />
<script>!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');</script></div>Chi-Ting Masterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13888421252904281860noreply@blogger.com27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3038378606356803239.post-2875483681432840682014-01-07T22:37:00.000+00:002014-02-14T18:59:52.989+00:00The man who would be king<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4vhhuLV95Y4Q1FrkoHVRRm8qSg2aGU4cFePddKG1fJPJkB0qIEnc4BdZ6EdycZAScfCiN4vG6BAt5LHlLJftMq568m4BOjJ2DEGRO_tdo2JC4QoQrvav5fhZQ6-kehNcUOyv6ilISRIo/s1600/DevarBlueLiteBack2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4vhhuLV95Y4Q1FrkoHVRRm8qSg2aGU4cFePddKG1fJPJkB0qIEnc4BdZ6EdycZAScfCiN4vG6BAt5LHlLJftMq568m4BOjJ2DEGRO_tdo2JC4QoQrvav5fhZQ6-kehNcUOyv6ilISRIo/s1600/DevarBlueLiteBack2.jpg" height="500" width="360" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Now that Mooji has been banned from the States - due to his excessive consumption of illicit Jamaican fried chicken - a new name is being whispered by junkie satsangers in the region of Mount Shasta: <i><a href="http://davidwaldman.org/" target="_blank">Devaji</a> ...</i></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Devaji (aka David Waldman) specialises in the "come fuck Daddy" look. With gravelly voice, trimmed beard and mogadon eyes, it's all powered stillness and pregnant pauses complete with narcotic stare. He's an exponent of the slow-motion school of enlightenment: deliberately reined-in speech used for maximum intensity. It's a hypnotic style which was formerly used to great effect in the late 90s by that Evangelist of Shagadelic, <a href="http://johnderuiter.com/" target="_blank">John de Ruiter</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Devaji claims his lineage from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramana_Maharshi" target="_blank">Ramana</a>. It says <a href="http://davidwaldman.org/About_David.html" target="_blank">on his website</a>:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Devaji's spiritual awakening was experienced through the direct transmission of his guru, Sri Ramana Maharshi. This connection began with early visions of the great sage. With time, Ramana’s presence was felt almost continually, and eventually his transmission became internalized. The edges that had separated the student and teacher now have melted into a wedding of one.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">For residents of Tiru, this will be an all too familiar tale of self-aggrandisement. Lineage is the phallus of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osiris" target="_blank">Osiris</a> for any aspiring Advaitic guru, as it provides a rush of blood to an otherwise flaccid organ. The need to authenticate oneself in somebody else's name is always the sign of a charlatan. It's a deliberate attempt to establish authority where none exists - by claiming the mantle of a deceased sage who can no longer speak for themselves. <a href="http://mathrusrisarada.org/Sri%20Lakshmana%20Swamy.htm" target="_blank">Lakshmana Swamy</a> and <a href="http://www.mooji.org/" target="_blank">Mooji</a> are just two of those who trace their attainment back to Ramana. But the fact is, Ramana never appointed a successor and would have nothing to do with lineage. The only person that he acknowledged as realising the Self - was his mother - at the time of her death.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Robert Adams of <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/83002.Silence_Of_The_Heart" target="_blank">Silence of the Heart</a> fame confirmed this. He said that Ramana never named a successor and that he should know since he was there. Strangely enough Devaji is an offshoot of Robert Adams and his <a href="https://www.facebook.com/intheheartofsilence?fref=ts" target="_blank">Facebook page</a> is coincidentally named "In the Heart of Silence." But rather curiously, there is no mention of Robert Adams on Devaji's website. -Was it because Adams clearly stated there is no need for a line of succession? Apparently he laughed at the idea and said: "What’s the point?" Adams saw the whole concept as the ultimate joke: imaginary succession of imaginary students within an unreal mental space!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">So Devaji is not a fully paid-up member of the Papaji Pretender Club since he comes to the table via a slightly different route ...but unfortunately he sings from exactly the same hymn sheet. (If you really want to bore yourself senseless: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdM7jm35AEE#t=0" target="_blank">click here</a>). His meetings are totally indistinguishable from the likes of Gangaji, Mooji et al. Same patter - self enquiry - slightly more louche delivery. But despite all of this, Mooji is absent from Tiruvannamalai and Devaji is a serious contender for the crown. In contrast with Mooji's outwardly benign, cuddly image, Devaji lends immediate gravitas and his latent sexual undertone will convince many of his power to be the prime vehicle for their fantasy of enlightenment. This potentially makes him a new male icon for American brand Advaita, pressing all the requisite social and sensory buttons ...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Since Mooji scuttled off to pastures new - after threats were made linked to his illegal earnings - a succession of counterfeit clones have attempted to move in on the Advaitic real estate. Devaji may play the humility card, but does he secretly covet the summit of Arunachala? Will the crowd succumb and proclaim him the new King of the Hill?</b></div><div id="fb-root"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><script>(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1";
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script><br />
</div><div class="fb-like" data-href="http://www.facebook.com/Chi-TingApocalypse" data-send="true" data-show-faces="false" data-width="450"></div><br />
<a class="twitter-share-button" data-via="Kevinandaji" href="https://twitter.com/share">Tweet</a><br />
<script>!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');</script></div></div>Chi-Ting Masterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13888421252904281860noreply@blogger.com34tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3038378606356803239.post-50121433067474283442013-10-24T08:45:00.000+01:002013-11-09T14:48:20.595+00:00Babylon's burning<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9kUl3b8gIVNChNSI3lSMh2nHNDf-lXc1TTtmTDsHLtYXBRw6j8vF1RbLTXDp2jJTN1A3zG2zTX-OYzDf1TqJNhXAq0io48UFQcBIW95ylwR-vjvqCytwBADLU5BmosFzVh_XCTkcWNOc/s1600/Babylon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9kUl3b8gIVNChNSI3lSMh2nHNDf-lXc1TTtmTDsHLtYXBRw6j8vF1RbLTXDp2jJTN1A3zG2zTX-OYzDf1TqJNhXAq0io48UFQcBIW95ylwR-vjvqCytwBADLU5BmosFzVh_XCTkcWNOc/s1600/Babylon.jpg" height="360" width="460" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Karma is the drug of moral supremacy. It's a long and winding road that leads back - not just to Hinduism, Buddhism, the <a href="http://upanishads/" target="_blank">Upanishads</a>, or the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedas" target="_blank">Vedas</a> - but to non-Aryan peoples and before the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indus_Valley_Civilization" target="_blank">Indus Valley civilisations</a> ...</b></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
What we know today as "karma" originated in a radical cultural change during the period of the Upanishads. These texts reveal that what was in the Vedas - a simple notion of "action" linked to solar cultism and the positive spiritual outcomes of sacrifice and ceremonial rites - was later reinterpreted as holding lasting negative consequences, which had to be mitigated at all costs.</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
What happened? It was particularly the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shramana">shramana</a> who were responsible for this development: a non-Brahmanical, non-Vedic, non-Aryan, ancient religious movement. The shramana impacted on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indus_Valley_Civilization" target="_blank">Indus Valley civilisations</a> of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohenjo-daro" target="_blank">Mohenjo-daro</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harappa" target="_blank">Harappa</a> - and there is now definitive evidence to say that their tradition preceded and ran parallel to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_Vedic_religion" target="_blank">historical Vedic religion</a>. Although generally associated with asceticism, sramana practices also included extreme materialism. The tradition embraced a wide range of beliefs spanning self-mortification to the unashamed pursuit of a luxurious life. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga" target="_blank">Yoga</a> originated with the shramana - and they also introduced the notions of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moksha" target="_blank">moksha</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsara" target="_blank">samsara</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmigration_of_the_soul" target="_blank">transmigration</a> into <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanta" target="_blank">Vedantic</a> society, which would later become major doctrinal features of both Buddhism and Hinduism. </div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Most of the shramana were not of the Indus Valley civilisation. For example, the oldest strand of the movement, the vratya (now known as the Jains), were the forerunners of Indo-European-speaking peoples who entered northern India from Iran. They were possibly even <i>non</i>-Indo-European in origin. The shramana lived alongside the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rishi_Muni" target="_blank">rishi</a> - the yatis, munis, vaikhanasas and mundaka - a pre-Hindu, earth-based Indus Valley peoples who practised self-cultivation. The rishi sang the nature hymns and directly received the divine wisdom of the universe, which was later written down in the Vedas. Meanwhile the Vedics were Indo-Aryan pastoralists. The ancient texts reveal that they held the ascetics of the Vedic age in considerable contempt. But the same texts also show that from the time of the composition of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samhitas" target="_blank">Samhitas</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmanas" target="_blank">Brahmanas</a> onwards, the Vedics were deeply influenced by the non-Aryan and pre-Aryan cultures. After phases of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henotheism" target="_blank">henotheism</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheism" target="_blank">pantheism</a> - because of the shramanic influence - the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropomorphism" target="_blank">anthropomorphism</a> of the Vedas became the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monism" target="_blank">monism</a> of the Upanishads ...</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
During the time of the Upanishads, shramanic thought began to exert a much stronger influence on Vedic society. Protest against Brahmanical sacrifices, the inequalities of the Vedic caste system and a degenerated brahmin priesthood meant that it was more open to radical streams of opinion. Shramana culture was non-hierarchical and believed that each person was responsible for his own deeds. It had always objected to the Brahmanical emphasis on a world creator and omnipotent deities; the authority of the Vedas as revealed texts; and the complex ritualism of the Brahmanas. In stark contrast, traditional Vedic beliefs upheld the importance of ceremonies and sacrifices performed by a privileged elite to assure the good will of the gods. For them the ideal was an active and ritually punctuated life, without more meditative contemplation until the final stage of life. Man was obliged to study the Vedas, perform sacrifices, and produce male offspring. These ideas were now challenged and the Vedic brahmins abandoned their sacrifice of animals. Developing the notions of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahman" target="_blank">Brahman</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%80tman_(Hinduism)" target="_blank">Atman</a> out of the Vedas and the Brahmanas, they formulated new doctrines from non-brahmanical sources. Between roughly 500 and 300 BCE, the brahmins incorporated shramanical concepts into their religious texts - such as karma, transmigration and samsara - and moksha through <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahimsa" target="_blank">ahimsa</a>, renunciation, austerities and solitary contemplation.<br />
<br />
It was particularly the shramana we now know as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jainism" target="_blank">Jains</a>, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha" target="_blank">Buddha</a> and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%80j%C4%ABvika" target="_blank">Ajivikas</a> who introduced the notion of karma into Vedantic society. There were three main definitions. The vratya (Jains) argued that karma is the fruit of one's action conceived as material particles which stick to us and occlude our natural omniscience. The historical Buddha said that karma was a chain of causality, leading to attachment to the material world and hence rebirth. (He was in fact forging a "middle way" between the extremes of opinion within the shramana). Meanwhile the ascetics who became the Ajivikas were fatalists, pronouncing karma as pre-ordained and inescapable.</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
What we now call "karma" then, is an evolutionary mixture of the Vedic notion of "action" linked to sacrifice and ceremony <i>and</i> the shramana concepts of "action" bearing notions of negative result. The Vedics had no need for theories of salvation. They were invested in "timelessness" (aja) and existence as the "unborn" at the hub of a world perpetually in time and motion. For them, "action" was linked to the idea of "non-dying" (amrtam), which originated in the cycles of the sun. The sun continually died and was reborn: this sequence needed constant renewal through the action of sacrifice. Applied to the human individual, man therefore needed to perform ceremonial rites which ensured his life continued. And just as in life, the human existence needed constant renewal through sacrifices and ceremonial rites, life <i>after</i> death also demanded the same type of action to avoid repeated dying.</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
With the impact of shramanism, this completely changed. Now the continuity of life and the afterlife was thought to happen <i>necessarily and automatically</i> as the cycle of samsara - without sacrificial action and the performance of ceremonial rites. And, it was an individual's religious duty to<i> escape </i>this cycle. This was a profound shift away from the Vedic conception of man operating as the 'stillpoint' of a turning world of time. No longer did man as the "timeless" and "unborn," experience "birth" and "death" in continual succession, throughout this life and the next. No more was his activity completely interwoven with nature, perpetuating its cycles and exerting a profound and unique influence upon them. Now man had become, solely, a creature of time. He was born and he died. According to the new way of thinking, man was a separate individual who needed to <i>regain</i> his status as something timeless and unborn.</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It's important to understand that from a timelessness that was inseparable from the procession of time - and was in fact its expression - Indian society now moved to something that was the union of the timeless and time <i>as two separate entities</i>. Here the timeless as the dynamic of time itself was left behind in preference of a "one" that was a "two": a static, ultimate state devoid of the pulse of life. These two concepts were entirely different. While timelessness-as-time was an infinite endlessness with which man was entirely interwoven, the Upanishadic notion of Brahman was timelessness as the <i>opposite</i> of time: an ultimate superstate beyond's man's reach. As agro-pastoralists, the early Vedic peoples were seamless with nature and embodied its cycles. They <i>enacted</i> timelessness through moving with their animals across the seasons and performing their rituals in concert with the sun. This was completely different from the later reinvention of Brahman. Now man was lost in an odyssey of rediscovery, where he would only recover timelessness as another separate entity. In effect, man and his original relationship with timelessness<i> - as experienced in nature - </i>had been ruthlessly carved out of the equation.</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The Upanishadic Brahman had two forms. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maitrayaniya_Upanishad" target="_blank">Maitriyanya Upanishad</a> says that food is the source of the world; time is the source of food; and that the sun is the source of time. So the first form of Brahman began with the sun, was time itself and possessed "parts" (kala) - as opposed to the second form of Brahman - which was prior to the sun, timeless and without "parts" (akala). Thus we see the necessity for a redemptive theology. For liberation to occur, man had to transcend the dualism of time and timelessness and realise Brahman as a non-dual "one." This concept of moksha was therefore <i>constructed</i> by the brahmins and fixed in place using the shramanic notion of <i>karma</i>. Positive actions would see one's identification with Brahman. Negative actions would see one confined to the individual self and unable to attain liberation.</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Clearly, the notion of karma is <i>not</i> Buddhist since Buddhism (like its antecedent Jainism) grew out of the shramana movement as a whole, spearheaded by the radical thinking of the historical Buddha. <i>And, karma cannot possibly be Hindu either</i>. Later forms of Brahmanism in conjunction with Buddhism provided the foundation for what was subsequently named "Hinduism" in the medieval period of Indian history. Nevertheless Hindus have done many things with the three notions of karma put forward by the Jains, the Buddha and the Ajivikas. Buddhism formulated karma as a cycle of cause and effect linked to the 12 stages of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prat%C4%ABtyasamutp%C4%81da" target="_blank">paticcasamuppada</a> or dependent origination. Some Hindus support this and some do not. Theistic schools of Hinduism such as Vedanta suggest that the personal will of the Supreme God, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishvara" target="_blank">Ishwara</a>, is directly involved in the forces of karma. Or a devotee may hope that their <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satguru" target="_blank">satguru</a>, acting on a god's behalf, will transmute or work out some of their karma for them. The meaning of karma also further differs depending on which of the Hindu texts you look at. For some Hindus, karma is the performing of yagya - uniting the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%80tman_(Hinduism)" target="_blank">atman</a> with the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramatman" target="_blank">paramatman</a> - as described in the Upanishads or prescribed by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krishna" target="_blank">Krishna</a> in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagavad_Gita" target="_blank">Bhagavad Gita</a>. For others, karma is a more general, dispassionate and intelligent action undertaken in the broader appreciation that what we do always influences the future.</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The first thing to notice is that nowhere in Hinduism is karma attached to the notion of reward and punishment. The Hindu has free will over their actions. Karma is simply the extension or expression of what they choose to think, say and do: whether Ishwara presides over this process or not. Additionally, the effects of any one action can always be offset by other actions. There is no pre-ordained single experience in the future - which could be any punishment or reward - as the direct, one-to-one, corresponding outcome of a single act in the past. Nor is there any such notion of retribution in the Vedas. Latest translations of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigveda" target="_blank">Rig Veda</a> show that the brahmins believed the individual went backwards and forwards between Earth and the realm of the ancestors. Here moral behaviour had no bearing on the afterlife. <i>It is only the shramana religious movement that introduced the idea that morality influences the quality of one's actions</i>.</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The other thing is that with these varied understandings of karma, we move straight out of the realm of "truth" into that of simple "opinion." Karma is a concept - not an actuality - and once you pick one of its many definitions over another, you are operating according to subjectivity, preference and an individual's own belief. Karma is an<i> interpretation</i> of reality, not reality itself. All concepts are built up by <i>someone: </i>they are <i>manufactured </i>and they are only<i> personal </i>truths. The establishment of the belief in karma in early Indian society was therefore a<i> political act</i>: an attempt to establish a hegemony of knowledge where none existed. There is no single "truth" handed down through the aeons: <i>only a constantly shifting alliance of ideas supported by political expediency and power!</i></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A concept is just a concept: it is never an absolute fact. In Tiruvannamalai however, the "universal truth of karma" has become the calling card of religious fetishists and spiritual drag queens.<i> (Why do you think we invented the character Sister Klaus as a satirical device with which to lampoon these people?)</i> Clothing themselves in its conceptual embrace, certain people declare that Arunachala is a punishing moral arbitrator. According to them, the mountain rewards the chosen few, striking down all who morally transgress. In South India, these ideas intensified with the advent of the Christian missionaries under British colonialism. The Advaita on the streets of today's Tiru is a dualistic Hindu-Christian hybrid ... often laced with a strong dose of Indian nationalism ...</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The insistence of a few local residents that Arunachala stands in judgement of those of us who dare not to believe in karma - has nothing to do with Hindus or Hinduism. <i>It is the product of an extremist, fanatical mindset born of ignorance, discrimination and a lack of personal power. </i>It's like trying to explain the early history of Christianity and gnosticism to a Born Again Christian. However cogent your argument, they will always claim that you have been hijacked by dark powers. For them, it is purely a matter of blind faith not open to any form of discussion, let alone a rational argument. We have even been described by some in Tiruvannamalai as "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asura" target="_blank">asuras</a>" (demonic entities). It seems that apostates of every generation are denounced in a similar manner. Even the historical Buddha was described as such by the brahmins of his day.</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
What we find most fascinating is that those who make these claims are so often the victims of their own moral mindset. Many of those passing judgement are the ones engaging in 'immoral' activities <i>themselves</i>. Outward displays of piety hide adultery, same sex liaisons, occult tantric practices, alcoholism and drug abuse ... <i>you name it, any of the so-called vices!</i> In Tiru, the "religious" are furtively indulging up to their eyeballs behind closed doors. Morality always goes hand-in-hand with immorality: prescription breeds addiction. With the adoption of a set of rules, what has been excluded casts a long shadow. It's all talk, no action; saying, not doing ... <i>Truly, this is the homeland of the hypocrite!</i></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Karma ... it's a killer</i>. It's up there with original sin as one of the premier search-and-destroy monsters that cripples our collective mindset. Guilt, fear and oppression are all by-products of our mindless consumption of its pernicious ideas. Mired and trapped in concepts such as karma, the underlying assumptions of religion are never examined and blindly parroted as a form of Über Truth. If you use the building blocks of a collective delusion - even if they are universally accepted - without deep self-reflection, that is where it all goes horribly wrong ...</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This blog is satire and employs mockery, research, challenge and personal opinion to prompt that self-reflection. It is not for those who wish to uphold the status quo. Satire is a deadly serious business. It is how each generation calls to account the powers that be. If you don't like what we write, don't read it - as we've said numerous times before. Take responsibility for your own opinions and create something better! You can always start your own blog and say whatever <i>you </i>think. <i>(Just don't blame us if nobody reads it!)</i></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>We </i>don't mind other views. <i>But don't expect us to agree with them or to not say what we think</i>. Our view is that it is vitally important to examine each and every religious assumption to see if it squares with lived reality. We hold that there is no such thing as karma except in somebody's personal belief system. Anybody can see with just a little investigation, that the cause of an event is an ever-shifting paradigm. It is only an egoic tendency which distills a single reason out of an endless interconnection of events. If we follow our own experience, in connection with the body, we find that understanding is not necessary for events which just unfold. What actually happens is a mystery and we don't even need to know ... The "teachings of enlightenment" make us follow rules other than our own. They have been imposed upon us by history's winners, disconnecting us from our intuition and direct perception of reality. Karma is a fairy tale concept divorced from the very essence of timelessness. What we have enshrined in our collective belief systems is completely ungrounded. No more than a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_Dal%C3%AD" target="_blank">Dali</a>-esque dream sequence, it's a bad fantasy made real. <i>A collision of ancient worlds which took us away from our natural state!</i></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Isn't it absurd, that in this day and age, a difference of opinion is considered a hanging offence? Stating your own opinion is not a threat to others, unless somebody somewhere is quietly sponsoring "truth." In the absence of the demand for only one set of beliefs, contradictory opinions can quite legitimately co-exist. But when the urge for conformity and suppression of dissident views takes over, we have an open bazaar of personal tyranny - which condemns its friends and neighbours - and then patronises them with pity and asinine compassion. "Truth" and being "right" turns people into little gods. Is the religious identity in Tiruvannamalai - <i>so brittle and so needy</i> - that it needs to eradicate all opposition in order to reign supreme?</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Babylon is a metaphor for a harlot's nest of corrupt religious ideas, especially karma. It's an imagined realm of ivory towers and castles in the sky that masks a profound lack of embodiment. We say burn it down. Its day is done!</b><br />
<div id="fb-root">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<script>(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1";
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script><br /></div>
<div class="fb-like" data-href="http://www.facebook.com/Chi-TingApocalypse" data-send="true" data-show-faces="false" data-width="450">
</div>
<br />
<a class="twitter-share-button" data-via="Kevinandaji" href="https://twitter.com/share">Tweet</a><br />
<script>!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');</script></div>
</div>
Chi-Ting Masterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13888421252904281860noreply@blogger.com87tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3038378606356803239.post-67097292771695334462013-09-17T15:30:00.002+01:002013-09-17T16:45:13.060+01:00The prostitution of the dead<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI_KvpoVGY9XjAhIxkuNFJbtU_mf0j3KZaNbyOfMwlE_ZbPSfrOUqcz203_WXsfYxUTJ8xd8wk4HVlpN8ZSbgK7p4ij9bNs_NCgvbQM1tUfeb6TH1IBWffB6KZ1_JGaxkdFQWBSEaRAlM/s1600/GreekTragedyMask.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI_KvpoVGY9XjAhIxkuNFJbtU_mf0j3KZaNbyOfMwlE_ZbPSfrOUqcz203_WXsfYxUTJ8xd8wk4HVlpN8ZSbgK7p4ij9bNs_NCgvbQM1tUfeb6TH1IBWffB6KZ1_JGaxkdFQWBSEaRAlM/s1600/GreekTragedyMask.jpg" height="420" width="460" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Ye gods, please save us from the many headed hydra that is Facebook! If this is the modern age, maybe we deserve a re-run of the Dark Ages ...</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Trawling through my timeline, I'm gobsmacked by a quote from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kahlil_Gibran" target="_blank">Kahlil Gibran</a> which goes like this: <i>"If your heart is a volcano, how can you expect flowers to bloom?"</i> OK, let's get something clear here: Gibran was an alcoholic who died of TB and cirrhosis of the liver. Now if you're a drunk, surely there's a lot of anger there and booze was his pain-killer of choice. - Yet still he managed to produce reams of so-called inspirational prose and poetry. My second point is that volcanoes have some of the most fertile land on Earth and lots of flowers grow on their slopes. So it's a totally hypocritical and bullshit quote: anger and emotional dysfunction was the fuel that produced <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prophet_(book)" target="_blank">The Prophet</a> not LURV 'N' LITE!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And we're not talking about the Love and Light of the 90s here, which involved Star Trek style channellings and wacky ideas of planetary ascension. The Lurv 'n' Lite crowd of the new millennium are the confused progeny of <a href="http://www.louisehay.com/" target="_blank">Louise L. Hay</a> and <a href="http://www.shaktigawain.com/" target="_blank">Shakti Gawain</a> whose trite moral calling cards banish all negativity and confirm what a good person you are <i>(usually at the expense of the proles beneath your feet!) </i>21st century spirituality is supine, soporific and saccharin sweet: a totally insipid consommé of neatly manicured sayings stolen from those who have long since shed this mortal coil. Nothing is new and everything is a borrowed simulation - it's all sound bites - emblematic of the banality of popular culture. The irony is that the dead are not only being prostituted - but also the living - <i>because they have become the living dead</i>. Everything is wet and weak and ersatz feminine. A politically correct, emasculated techno-spirituality is the new male principle! How do you ensure a yin-yang dynamic when the balance is so distorted? No one says what they truly feel: they hide behind superficial platitudes that wreak of craven moral cowardice. Now half of the Facebook feed is flooded with this aspirational spiritual dross, parading quotes from the likes of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumi" target="_blank">Rumi</a> and numerous Zen masters we've never heard of. By posting some fluffy quote from a dead person, it's safe and secure. You know they're not gonna embarrass you in public (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inB-6R1-4ng&feature=youtube_gdata_player" target="_blank">à la Russell Brand</a>) - <i>cos they're eating worm!</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Everybody thinks that they are oh-so spiritual - when this is the most cynical form of neo-liberal capitalism yet. In Tiru no one does <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-enquiry" target="_blank">self-enquiry</a> anymore or retires to a cave on the hill <i>(well, except for the legendary sex saddhu, Sven, but that's another story!)</i> They retreat to their designer shag pads, watch Youtubes and download movies from Pirate Bay - launching their new company on the internet while doing Facebook! These twitching zombies of consumption do their sadhana online <i>(and play the guru too!)</i> in a world of Shares, Comments and Friend Requests. Steeped in gross material and emotional parasitism, they are selling a pretend version of their lived experience. This is patently a lie, but it is legitimated by the economic machinery of the society it serves. No longer required to be honest in everyday expression, our emotionality is simply a commodity to be bought and sold. Spirituality has been privatised and depoliticised so that you can formulate a role-playing version of yourself, which earns you future reward. In this Greek drama, the persona bears no relation with reality. <i>No one dares look at the Gorgon beneath the mask ...</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The tragedy of this spiritual affectation is an addiction to temporary pain relief rather than the permanent cure of personal annihilation - <i>cos that's too high a price, right?!</i> It seems to be the modus operandi to commodify the words of the dead and wear them as a badge of one's own attainment and piety. Of course, unlike the Middle Ages, you don't actually have to buy an annulment from the church to remove all your sin. You can just hit the Like button or post another Sufi poem and everything will be all right ... <i>you'll be guaranteed a place amongst the saintly!</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Delusional and deeply dishonest. But if it gives you a moment's respite from your inner demons - why not give it a whirl?!</b></div><div id="fb-root"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><script>(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1";
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script><br />
</div><div class="fb-like" data-href="http://www.facebook.com/Chi-TingApocalypse" data-send="true" data-show-faces="false" data-width="450"></div><br />
<a class="twitter-share-button" data-via="Kevinandaji" href="https://twitter.com/share">Tweet</a><br />
<script>!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');</script></div>Chi-Ting Masterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13888421252904281860noreply@blogger.com90tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3038378606356803239.post-28982090969327710362013-08-25T15:34:00.001+01:002013-08-29T08:23:31.807+01:00Les fleurs de mort<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeGPYq0ltxoNGB_23rVXDFlluHwKL0So7JlWEJucpv62TfJj6e1ANJueozDZWiMgRadBb7UzYNtHialsci_ICiuOcKBLEUbPljTEjR7SKdOwRT4JKNvsRqzFpuwbVHm9kYKwLUTHBM1Q0/s1600/Flamingos-008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeGPYq0ltxoNGB_23rVXDFlluHwKL0So7JlWEJucpv62TfJj6e1ANJueozDZWiMgRadBb7UzYNtHialsci_ICiuOcKBLEUbPljTEjR7SKdOwRT4JKNvsRqzFpuwbVHm9kYKwLUTHBM1Q0/s1600/Flamingos-008.jpg" height="360" width="500" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Sister Klaus is dead!</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">We are bereft - a true giant of the sacred art of Chi-Ting has left the stage - and we mere mortals are left to pick up the pieces and carry on. The Sister was found at 9am this morning by her cleaner, Kuti, in a deathly slumber. The Divine IT appeared strangely serene with ice blue lips and a beatific rictal smile<i> (kind of Mona Lisa on crack!)</i> with an electric cattle prod rammed up her errr ... well you get the picture!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hordes of grief-stricken Klausian flagellants have gathered outside the samadhi mandir of Steve (Ibn Al Haq) Woodman at the Manna Cafe. Tempers frayed and the mob became volatile, screaming: "Steve, you're still a wanker even if you're dead!" Steve and Sister Klaus had been involved in a vicious vendetta after Steve's refusal to be the Sister's Facebook friend. He subsequently bad mouthed the Sister in an endless stream of homophobic put-downs <i>(which was a bit rich, considering Steve's background as a London rentboy!)</i> Steve's former partner-in-crime, Suresh, was so freaked out that he barricaded himself in and made an emergency call to his brother-in-law - Shanti Kumar of Shanti Cafe - who arrived post haste in an attempt to calm the baying crowd.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">We phoned Inspector Venkatesh of the Dept of Transsexuals And Miscellaneous Perverted Orgiastic Narcissists (otherwise known as T.A.M.P.O.N.) to ask for his advice since the Sister was beginning to get a bit smelly in the midday heat. His reply was forthright and to the point: "Thank God that weirdo has left this plane of existence. This Klaus was an azuric entity of the worst kind! You must perform the Rites of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osiris" target="_blank">Osiris</a> so that it cannot rise from the dead. Dismember the body into 7 pieces, give them to various villages known for their occult practices, and they will consume the flesh. If there is anything left over, just bury it under the patio."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">So the big question remains - who dunnit? The suspects are legion: Garbage Gal Bobbie, Kali Baba, Raging Rosie, Divakaran from the Rip Off Supermarket, Colonel Mustard or the most evil woman in town ... Charlotte Psycho-Sister. Charlotte's chief apologist, Werner von Lick-Spittle, said: "Well, if Charlotte did do it, then she was obviously divinely sanctioned by the deified Radha Ma. So that makes it OK!"</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>At this point we got so pissed off with Werner's sanctimonious inversion of reality, that we clubbed him around the head with a baseball bat. After he had been reduced to a bloody pulp, we decided to bury him under the patio, next to the Sister ...</b></div><div id="fb-root"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><script>(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1";
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script><br />
</div><div class="fb-like" data-href="http://www.facebook.com/Chi-TingApocalypse" data-send="true" data-show-faces="false" data-width="450"></div><br />
<a class="twitter-share-button" data-via="Kevinandaji" href="https://twitter.com/share">Tweet</a><br />
<script>!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');</script>Chi-Ting Masterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13888421252904281860noreply@blogger.com40tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3038378606356803239.post-21263884976857481262013-07-20T00:17:00.001+01:002013-07-20T11:22:52.620+01:00The day the world turned dayglo<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_iCGRg8avuIaYNZZEBjk6xrGaLK_mGu04h8EZpRm2M9JRztZuMLg-1jcCobXebFjhfHcqPVsoQ_P8GoN2xT2v4YhiRN6ls4sjBYSUuSTe5Gy5KBY4FrGmSAqMybPfszsAPQLSAsIAW1o/s1600/skeletalspectacle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_iCGRg8avuIaYNZZEBjk6xrGaLK_mGu04h8EZpRm2M9JRztZuMLg-1jcCobXebFjhfHcqPVsoQ_P8GoN2xT2v4YhiRN6ls4sjBYSUuSTe5Gy5KBY4FrGmSAqMybPfszsAPQLSAsIAW1o/s400/skeletalspectacle.jpg" width="360" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Ho hum, another day, another apocalypse!</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">We received this link from our cosmic chum, <a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/11208348951699865754" target="_blank">Aghori</a>:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koodankulam" target="_blank">Koodankulam</a> nuclear plant went critical this weekend despite stinging criticism from both pro and anti-nuclear experts. Shouldn’t we be terrified that the plant has been dealing with Russian conmen suppliers, missing wiring and electrocution deaths? Shouldn’t we be scared that the nuclear establishment itself admit that they have no disaster management plans? </i><br />
[from <a href="http://dianuke.org/">dianuke.org</a>, July 16 - <a href="http://www.dianuke.org/never-worried-about-a-nuclear-disaster-in-india-do-it-now-koodankulam-has-started/">see more here</a>]</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Basically on July 13, the green light was given for a new nuclear plant to start operating in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirunelveli_district" target="_blank">Tirunelveli district</a>, Tamil Nadu. This is despite vehement objection from nuclear experts concerning its risky location close to villages and tsunami resettlement colonies; use of substandard equipment, materials and components; flouting of safety protocols; and serious technical flaws. None other than the former Chairman of India's Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), Dr Gopalakrishnan, has warned that these shortcomings are a literal time bomb waiting to happen. He has highlighted multiple defects and deficiencies: Indian inexperience in handling pressurised water reactors; substandard parts; electro-magnetic interference; and all the kilometres of power cables that are errr ... 'missing' from the plant’s framework.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And it gets even scarier ... Dr Gopalakrishnan says that once the reactor has been operated for a time, it's inevitable that parts of it will catastrophically fail. <i>Incredibly, detailed, design-specific drawings and documentation supplied by the Russians, were never followed</i>. The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) proceeded with instrumentation and control work before receiving the instructions! Rather damningly he declares:<br />
<br />
<i>Russians are very well-organised and systematic, and they rigidly follow the rules and expect others also to do so. While Indians, too, have rules and regulations on paper, to expedite work or to minimise cost, they would not hesitate to bend or break rules.</i> <br />
<br />
Meanwhile the government ignores, dismisses or criminalises anyone who asks questions ...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It sounds like a Bollywood re-make of the 60s' Bond classic, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._No_(film)" target="_blank">Dr No</a> and has all the hallmarks of a huge box office hit: dodgy Russian gangsters and corrupt, paunchy Indian bureaucrats twiddling their <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_Dal%C3%AD" target="_blank">Dalí</a>-esque moustaches! Everyone has their snout stuck in the trough and it's a feeding frenzy of envelopes stuffed with cash. Imagine the hammy dialogue: "Who cares if South India is a nuclear wasteland, I will be rich, ho ho ho!" It's a guaranteed parable of greed, stupidity and the fuck up factor so prevalent here ... that will probably make Tamil Nadu go Chernobyl ... and then some ... <i>No wonder Aghori is rumoured to be building a nuclear bunker in his back garden!</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">As for The Papaji Pretenders and satsang clowns of all denominations - please return to Tiru immediately and prepare for final annihilation. Once you've done the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshima_mon_amour" target="_blank">Hiroshima Mon Amour</a> and dropped the body, we will boil up your remains and make some nice <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soylent_Green" target="_blank">Soylent Green</a> doggy biscuits, which we will feed to the local sadhus.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Rejoice! You will at last be serving a valuable social and economic purpose. You'll have finally transcended your lumpen and parasitic nature!</b></div><div id="fb-root"></div><script>(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1";
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script><br />
<div class="fb-like" data-href="http://www.facebook.com/Chi-TingApocalypse" data-send="true" data-show-faces="false" data-width="450"></div><br />
<a class="twitter-share-button" data-via="Kevinandaji" href="https://twitter.com/share">Tweet</a><br />
<script>!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');</script></div>Chi-Ting Masterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13888421252904281860noreply@blogger.com67tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3038378606356803239.post-90987274816595962452013-07-14T12:40:00.001+01:002013-07-19T23:35:09.602+01:00Rise of the clones ...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0ovahSAOMHRM8Tg1yn2LvtfNS7TBRgwgguLqHz7Z_Uarug3E1NAm4rjIxE18F5r27qKWIPT7pMsbdwC5I4CrebuRiaeC7Kql1PRMd4z7JY7RYdkWM816R9w-xPBaKI0-cp1rlyTSiA54/s1600/oblivion-clones.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0ovahSAOMHRM8Tg1yn2LvtfNS7TBRgwgguLqHz7Z_Uarug3E1NAm4rjIxE18F5r27qKWIPT7pMsbdwC5I4CrebuRiaeC7Kql1PRMd4z7JY7RYdkWM816R9w-xPBaKI0-cp1rlyTSiA54/s1600/oblivion-clones.jpg" width="460" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Another listless day at the Chi-Ting office - there is absolutely no news. Even our favourite street troll Kali Baba cannot find any one-legged women to molest. Sister Klaus is so bored that the Divine IT is reduced to smearing prodigious amounts of snot over the furniture in an attempt to transform them into bizarre objets d'art. Then suddenly out of the blue, this whinging missive from Neo Advaitin <a href="http://www.lifewithoutacentre.com/" target="_blank">Jeff Foster</a> arrives in our inbox ...</b></div><br />
---<br />
<i>Hi!<br />
<br />
A friend sent me a link to your '<a href="http://chi-ting.blogspot.in/2013/01/baby-ben-and-jeff-love-story.html" target="_blank">Baby Ben and Jeff: A love story</a>" blog. I have to admit, it was funny. <img alt=";)" src="http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/emoticons6/3.gif" /> Good to see you have a sense of humour around all this stuff....<br />
<br />
I was a little intrigued to read your 'bio' of me! It's amazing what Chinese whispers can produce....<br />
<br />
Where did you get the idea that I'm a 'failed Cambridge academic'? I studied there, for sure, and graduated. Never, ever wanted to be an academic. Ugh! Or that I'd secretly lurk at the back of Tony's meetings?? Or that I told Tony about my 'story' and he laughed in my face?? I only ever attended one of Tony's meetings after my 1st book came out. Must have been 6 or so years ago now. Tony had called me and wanted to meet me in person, and invited me to come to his Hampstead meeting and say hi, so I did. I never remember him laughing in my face at all - he was warm and funny and very welcoming and I enjoyed the day.<br />
<br />
I find it so funny how these rumours spread halfway across the world.... Amazing.<br />
<br />
Anyway, keep doing what you're doing, my friend. Some of your stuff is absolutely hilarious. A guilty pleasure. Hey, spiritual teachers can't take a bit of fun, a knock on the chin, you have to wonder....<br />
<br />
By the way, it's a shame you didn't speak to me at the meeting you came to. Might have been fun if you'd challenged me on the spot. Sorry you had to make your own tea! <img alt=";)" src="http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/emoticons6/3.gif" /><br />
<br />
Best wishes,<br />
Jeff</i> <img alt=";)" src="http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/emoticons6/3.gif" /><br />
---<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">Oh oh Jeffy! It's not "Chinese whispers" - it's straight from the horse's mouth - <a href="http://www.theopensecret.com/" target="_blank">Tony Parsons</a> himself! He said you sought him out. He was very disparaging about your so-called realisation, calling it a "nice story." If you're disappointed with his supposedly revisionist version of events, why don't you phone him for a little tête-à-tête?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">We also notice that you have totally avoided addressing the main point of our post, which was that you sound exactly like Parsons. You are yet another "Tony clone" - a pale imitation of a teacher you don't acknowledge. Your talks are dull, insipid, and uninspiring. Just like all the others: <a href="http://www.nathangill.com/" target="_blank">Nathan Gill</a> (the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Caine" target="_blank">Michael Caine</a> of Neo Advaita - "Not a lotta people know that"); <a href="http://richardsylvester1.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Richard Sylvester</a>; <a href="http://www.rogerlinden.com/" target="_blank">Roger Linden</a>; <a href="http://nothingexistsdespiteappearances.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">Suzanne Foxton</a> et al. And you all regurgitate the same Tony-isms! ... The Open Secret becomes The Elusive Obvious (Roger). You keep on saying: "This is it!" (Jeff, Nathan, Richard) and "All there is, is this!" (according to the witless Suzanne who is still noticing that her ego creeps in!) <i>Devoid of the pulse of life, you are tailor's dummies wearing someone else's clothes! </i>And what's so special about Tony Parsons? All he's done is a Buddhist makeover of Advaita - after he got <a href="http://www.advaita.org.uk/discourses/trad_neo/neo_advaita.htm" target="_blank">scorched by Dennis Waite for being a Neo Advaitin!</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Your gang is not the only one in town playing this game. You're just the latest in a long line of banal impersonators flaunting their pseudo-realisation. Sadly it seems to be the leitmotif of our times! The worst offenders are The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papaji" target="_blank">Papaji</a> Pretenders: <a href="http://www.gangaji.org/" target="_blank">Gangaji</a>, <a href="http://www.mooji.org/" target="_blank">Mooji</a>, <a href="http://www.madhukar.org/en/index.html" target="_blank">Madhukar</a>, <a href="http://spiritual-visionary.org/" target="_blank">Pratima Sephton</a>, and <a href="http://www.isaacshapiro.de/" target="_blank">Isaac Shapiro</a> (to name but a few). <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Warhol" target="_blank">Andy Warhol</a> proclaimed that everybody would have 15 minutes of fame. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowie" target="_blank">Bowie</a> said: "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Phf0WWlfbF8" target="_blank">We can be heroes just for one day</a>." But all we see are imitation zeroes, shoddy counterfeit copies who worship at the altar of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_Idol" target="_blank">Pop Idol</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_X_Factor_(UK_TV_series)" target="_blank">The X Factor</a>. It's a school of lame karaoke sing along that pretends it has a franchise on the real thing. <i>The recycled wreckage of modernity played out against a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kraftwerk" target="_blank">Kraftwerk</a> electro soundtrack!</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Also Jeff, a failed Cambridge academic is not someone who completes their course, but someone who struggles to get through because they can't handle it. You openly admit you suffered from depression at Cambridge. The whole ethos there is to be a mental superman who can deal with anything and everything. Weakness is seen as the ultimate crime. It's a bit like being a Bond villain from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPECTRE" target="_blank">SPECTRE</a>! You are straight out of the <a href="http://www.eckharttolle.com/" target="_blank">Eckhart Tolle</a> school of Cambridge fuck-ups. A prime example of extreme repressed head-wonkery, released on to the world in a spasm of epiphany!<i> (In my school we called it jerking off!)</i> All that elite education to make hideously stupid remarks about "the ocean and the wave" ...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">There's not a shred of honesty in your letter. It's all politically correct platitudes without any emotional integrity. A touchy feely response which is contrived and utterly disingenuous.<i> (Just like your books, which read like a teenager's diary!)</i> Jeff, you are saying what you <i>should</i> say to appear unruffled, chummy, and embracing of "all that it is." But your laughter is nervous and hollow. And we've heard a whisper ... that a spiritual heavyweight recently told you that you were "not finished." Apparently they hinted that you're not enlightened and you were extremely rattled ... Would you like to write in and tell us about that?<i> You have put yourself up on a pedestal and now the demons of self-doubt are snapping at your heels.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Jeff, one last thing ... </b><br />
<b>When dealing with the likes of you there is NO guilt - it's ALL pleasure!</b></div></div><div id="fb-root"></div><script>(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1";
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script><br />
<div class="fb-like" data-href="http://www.facebook.com/Chi-TingApocalypse" data-send="true" data-show-faces="false" data-width="450"></div><br />
<a class="twitter-share-button" data-via="Kevinandaji" href="https://twitter.com/share">Tweet</a><br />
<script>!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');</script></div>Chi-Ting Masterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13888421252904281860noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3038378606356803239.post-9625361046100868722013-06-27T08:47:00.000+01:002013-07-07T14:52:50.136+01:00The lull before the storm<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGRyewpXYse2Zl-pQ7qICyJYfKhDfuOg70c0pgAo7lLy5wSd0RA0zFd-okb5ZMng_twwTmxRU_y_YWrTzpcGXQxONHcl_GSvamgU2Fs980NNRoqU3IWQejkdK9ffXks1GwTPyDTDH6gG8/s1600/yellowsky.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGRyewpXYse2Zl-pQ7qICyJYfKhDfuOg70c0pgAo7lLy5wSd0RA0zFd-okb5ZMng_twwTmxRU_y_YWrTzpcGXQxONHcl_GSvamgU2Fs980NNRoqU3IWQejkdK9ffXks1GwTPyDTDH6gG8/s400/yellowsky.jpg" height="360" width="460" /></a></div><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>It's been a long, hot summer. Brains have been boiled and many hardcore Tiru-ites have collapsed into a permanent state of delirium ...</b><br />
<br />
So it is with trepidation that we report dark rumours that our favourite pet monster, <a href="http://www.mooji.org/">Mooji</a>, may be returning to Tiru. The Rice Mill, scene of his previous visitations, has been refitted and freshly painted. Have Mooji's cronies paid for this refurbishment and will the Lumpy Leviathan be returning to our shores? The last year has been blissfully idyllic without him and his avaricious plague of locusts <i>(or errr ... "devotees" depending on your level of delusion!)</i> Unfortunately it's only been a temporary remission from a fatal disease: Mooji is a parasite who will return with greater virulence to kill its host. No one who lives in Tiru wants him to come back and top of the list of disapproval are the bigwigs at Ramana Ashram. But for Mooji, his attempt to appropriate Ramana's legacy and lineage is what gives him legitimacy. His is a dubious addiction that covers up his profound absence of authenticity and originality. <i>The bottom line is that Tony Moo ain't got no soul!</i><br />
<br />
And then we come to that harbinger of hell, the bypass, which is apparently a done deal and will be finished by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karthikai_Deepam" target="_blank">Deepam</a> <i>(as predicted by local astrologer, <a href="http://richardarunachala.wordpress.com/2013/06/14/update-on-road-project-nh-66-to-tiruvannamalai/" target="_blank">Richard Clarke</a>).</i> Fat chance! - but it will come soon enough, bringing congestion, pollution and more building, which will place greater stress on the infrastructure and resources of the area. Projects like this never resolve the inherent problems. They only inflame them and make the core issues worse. The new road will make Tiruvannamalai bigger, open to more visitors and traffic, further ravaging the landscape and bringing environmental destruction and mayhem in its wake. As it is, at night machinery can be heard grinding away as construction workers illegally plunder the bedrock in the neighbourhoods alongside the road. They have ravaged the plain around the Lake: every morning yet more massive holes appear that have been gouged out of the ground. The area has become a pockmarked abomination, which until only very recently, was a wide expanse of pastureland for the local goat herders. The company overseeing Project NH-66 is <a href="http://www.transstroyindia.com/nationalhighway.html" target="_blank">Transstroy</a>, which local wags have taken delight in renaming, <i>De</i>-stroy, in homage to the great <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lydon" target="_blank">Johnny Rotten</a>.<br />
<br />
The Tiruvannamalai section of the ring road encircles the south side of the town - stretching from the Vellore Road in the north to the Bangalore Road in the west. Easier access to the town promises huge development opportunities. Carloads of Indian real estate prospectors have been seen sizing up the back field due east of the Bund where plots have been pegged out since plans for the bypass were first announced. Unlike Adiannamalai on the west side, where there has already been a huge amount of building, the south side of the mountain remains relatively undisturbed. With the advent of the road, a whole new suburb will spring up. Ideally positioned for direct access to Ramana Nagar and the Ashram area, the mud track alongside the Lake has already been widened and compacted. But there is a problem. <i>No water</i>. The place is drying up and we have been told that in only 5 to 10 years, the whole of Tiru will be a desert. Already a victim of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaveri_River_water_dispute" target="_blank">ongoing Kaveri River water dispute</a> with Karnataka state, this month the <a href="http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-06-12/news/39925614_1_water-availability-biligundulu-tamil-nadu" target="_blank">Cauvery Panel rejected Tamil Nadu's latest demand for water</a> because of the shortage of inflows after last year's almost non-existent winter monsoon. Rain-bearing winds meant to hit the Indian subcontinent every year between May and September (the summer monsoon) and between October and November (the winter monsoon) are bringing progressively less precipitation to Tiruvannamalai ...<br />
<br />
This summer for example, locals in the Lake area have been desperately contracting borehole companies to come to their plot to search for more water because their wells have dried up. All to no avail. Multiple test points have yielded nothing and early morning, villagers are forced to bicycle water in huge plastic containers to their houses from further away. Once again the Lake itself has disappeared <i>(up to 2009 everyone was happily swimming in it and catching <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leptospirosis" target="_blank">leptospirosis</a> from the rat urine!)</i> and locals recall how only 30 years ago, they were able to catch eels in the marshland near the soap factory (now designated Paurnami Nagar-II). Local floral fetishist and author <a href="http://davidgodman.org/" target="_blank">David Godman</a> <i>(otherwise known as <a href="http://chi-ting.blogspot.in/2008/12/thus-sprecht-david-godman.html">Godot</a>)</i> residing due south of the Lake has no longer being able to drench his exotic botanical garden because his compound is running dry. Houses at the back of Ramana Nagar close to the Perumbakkam Road have had no water at all for the second year in a row. In both May and June, long lines of women were observed queueing up at the standpipe near the Animal Shelter having walked in from their villages to meet basic drinking and cooking needs. And perhaps most prophetic of all, this season the well at Ramana Ashram filled to the lowest level ever seen.<br />
<br />
Local government officials have made assurances to those eager to invest in bricks and mortar here, that water can easily be brought in by tanker. <i>(You can just imagine the chaotic dogfight that's going to break out over the ever-spiralling prices!)</i> The last ten years have seen an unprecedented real-estate boom that has spread like a virus across all areas of India. It's a global phenomenon that has finally brought rapid urbanisation to our dusty temple town and pushed land prices through the roof. The most grotesque example of this morality tale was <a href="http://chi-ting.blogspot.in/2011/03/suicide-in-bunker.html" target="_blank">the suicide of Radha Ma</a> after Vijay of <a href="https://www.facebook.com/dreamingtreecafe" target="_blank">Dreaming Tree</a> fame exposed her fraudulent land deals. Speculators know that if they buy the plots situated close to the bypass now, later they will be able to sell them on to property developers at vastly inflated prices. But it is actually the Indian middle classes from Chennai and Bangalore (many of them Arunachala devotees) who are coming en masse to Tiruvannamalai. They are looking for cheaper land than in the cities for their retirement or a second home. Meanwhile despite the noise and pollution, the Tamil families already living close to the new road are pleased, because the value of their house will rise. The logic of capitalism is more production and more consumption, but we live in a world of finite resources. In T.V.Malai the basic fact is that water is running out. No water; no life. <i>End of story!</i> <br />
<br />
Until that moment dawns, every willing shark will try and screw the last shekel out of a game that will inevitably go bust. The sad thing is that no one has an economic Plan B and only catastrophe will force change. As usual our glorious leaders are drunk at the wheel. It's a pyramid of corruption where everyone has their hand in the cookie jar and they will continue looting the store until the lights go out. All that will be left is desolation and a wasteland. It is indeed a strange and savage irony that so many who come to pay homage to a simple man clad only in a loincloth (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramana_Maharshi">Ramana Maharshi</a>) end up building temples to their own egos and feeding a cycle of greed. In Mooji's case, it is the adulation of his gullible and naive congregation that he needs for his fix. For others it is the actual buildings of sand, cement and high fashion design. But if you're a simple sadhak, do you really need to spend endless <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakh">lakhs</a> constructing a fantasy home, all for a premium view of Arunachala? And is Tiru really the best venue for an economic diaspora from India's urban centres, merely in search of investment opportunities?<br />
<br />
Everybody assumes that it is the spiritual tourism that is ruining Tiruvannamalai. It definitely is - and for most of us it is obvious that the invasion of bikini-clad bimbos and their stoner boyfriends straight from the beaches of Goa is not sympatico with the deep religious conservatism of Tamil Nadu. But this is only a cultural invasion. It is the cherry on top of the cake: Mooji, <a href="http://www.madhukar.org/" target="_blank">Madhukar</a> and their ilk are just the symptomatic rash of a much deeper malaise <i>(the syphilisation of spirituality!)</i> There are several convergent strands feeding into this equation. Tiru is a microcosmic melting pot of the religious and socioeconomic contradictions currently challenging Indian society. In its rush to modernise and exploit its resources, India has succumbed to the fatal embrace of neo-liberal capitalism. But at the same time the religious culture of India despises the moral and spiritual values of the economic model it is aspiring to. Unfortunately these cannot be separated. Further, this is all happening at a point where the West is having to re-examine its economic foundations because its entire system is failing. <i>It's a race headlong into the abyss!</i><br />
<br />
In the quiet of this year's sweltering heat, there has been a long pause pregnant with possibility. There have been many waves of change here and the bypass is just the latest chapter in an ongoing story. We could be on the cusp of a seismic shift. Will Indians do something different with the Western economic model in Tiruvannamalai or will we see yet another round of development and desecration? This is the last moment before modernity and consumerism finally smash through the door. <i>Is it just a disaster movie in the making?</i><br />
<br />
<b>It's that 1914 feeling: except this time it won't be machine guns and howitzers which are coming, but drought and mass migration. As <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacitus" target="_blank">Tacitus</a> so wryly commented: "They make a desert and call it peace!"</b></div></div><div id="fb-root"></div><script>(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1";
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script><br />
<div class="fb-like" data-href="http://www.facebook.com/Chi-TingApocalypse" data-send="true" data-width="450" data-show-faces="false"></div><br />
<a href="https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-via="Kevinandaji">Tweet</a><br />
<script>!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');</script> Chi-Ting Masterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13888421252904281860noreply@blogger.com27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3038378606356803239.post-12912736498851410392013-06-07T06:30:00.000+01:002013-07-07T14:55:03.573+01:00The love that dare not speak its name<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJgQ7DFHr3FFviR11cKrL-80AVT-eShLuwBHIiAP1w-v4ckIol5e_llmLPR406ZgTIrGHdpyc3r_wWfsfNKSk8TqLB4U3NCT7ypJVdoIIrRPMVPA8pDNZgX2UutY192E4sA7z7PRlW82M/s1600/ShunyaSteffi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJgQ7DFHr3FFviR11cKrL-80AVT-eShLuwBHIiAP1w-v4ckIol5e_llmLPR406ZgTIrGHdpyc3r_wWfsfNKSk8TqLB4U3NCT7ypJVdoIIrRPMVPA8pDNZgX2UutY192E4sA7z7PRlW82M/s400/ShunyaSteffi.jpg" width="460" /></a></div><div id="fb-root"></div><script>(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1";
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script><br />
<b style="text-align: justify;"> </b> <b style="text-align: justify;">The world of Chi-Ting has been rocked by scandalous and salacious news ...</b><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/17069042992324478464" target="_blank">Sister Klaus</a> and local <a href="http://gameofthrones.wikia.com/wiki/Drogo" target="_blank">Khal Drogo</a> look-a-like, Shunya, have become ensnared in <i>un amour interdit</i>. <i>(Shunya is famed as one of the legendary Gang of 4 who were dragged through the courts by psychotic <a href="http://chi-ting.blogspot.in/2011/03/suicide-in-bunker.html" target="_blank">Radha Ma</a> loyalists for supposedly causing her to commit suicide).</i> The Sister's former paramour, Sven, has been seen in Ramana Nagar renting his clothes while wailing and lamenting the cruel vicissitudes of fate. It had been noted of late that Shunya - despite his macho visage and raunchy mega-Enfield bike - has taken to riding around town in a dress with a suspicious hint of eyeliner and mascara. Rumours have also been circulating about him after Sister K's brief foray into the twilight world of Facebook. Apparently Shunya has been bombarding the Sister with multiple "Friend" requests. <i>(Facebook as is self evident to every common or garden imbecile is the portal to all infamy and perversion!)</i> Shunya's <a href="http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Liebchen">liebchen</a>,<i> </i>Sexy Steffi, has been so distraught at these ugly rumours that she has immediately booked a flight from Frankfurt to confront her lover about his alarming sexual metamorphosis.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Sister Klaus, when cornered by the growing media firestorm, enigmatically said - <i>"je ne regrette rien"</i> - and refused to comment further ...</b></div></div><div id="fb-root"></div><script>(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1";
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script><br />
<div class="fb-like" data-href="http://www.facebook.com/Chi-TingApocalypse" data-send="true" data-width="450" data-show-faces="false"></div><br />
<a href="https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-via="Kevinandaji">Tweet</a><br />
<script>!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');</script> Chi-Ting Masterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13888421252904281860noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3038378606356803239.post-61286668038841436672013-05-18T17:18:00.000+01:002013-07-07T14:55:44.181+01:00Anarchy and "I"<div id="fb-root"></div><script>(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1";
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMuokjiEfHlLi0VE7oScZLU5TaoAeuQIGg77EnlNZ7xjJKFH87DYKgKu_MqCVKDIwAW8zK3O0BVr4jF3TpaSmn0vOV-23cE3NbJ8qbJejXgi_XU1CkQmTbPqlTqTJQL_k5v-fPhRtkFbw/s1600/anarchy.fire_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMuokjiEfHlLi0VE7oScZLU5TaoAeuQIGg77EnlNZ7xjJKFH87DYKgKu_MqCVKDIwAW8zK3O0BVr4jF3TpaSmn0vOV-23cE3NbJ8qbJejXgi_XU1CkQmTbPqlTqTJQL_k5v-fPhRtkFbw/s1600/anarchy.fire_.jpg" width="460" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Advaita has been described as the ultimate anarchy: no "I", no boundaries, and a vista of total sensory liberation ...</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchism" target="_blank">Anarchism</a> is perpetually dismissed as the ideology of choice for zit-raddled teens as they car crash through adolescence ... Our corporate media trots out the usual fear-based nightmare scenarios, spun from movies like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Max_2" target="_blank">Mad Max</a>, as an example of the hell world that awaits us if we succumb to this dangerous and immature ideology. But what if anarchism is not a political "-ism" but a way of being where all the barriers of conditional existence have fled the stage and totally cease to impinge on our lives?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Some cite <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taoism" target="_blank">Taoism</a> as the earliest form of anarchism, particularly in the figure of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhuangzi" target="_blank">Chuang Tzu</a> who famously remarked that the world does not need governing. He said it should be left alone to allow natural and spontaneous order to flower. Chuang Tzu lived during the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warring_States_period" target="_blank">Warring States period</a> (4th century BCE) when China was in one of its peak phases of disintegration. The Taoist classic of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao_Te_Ching" target="_blank">Tao Te Ching</a> also roughly dated to this time states: "The world is ruled by letting things take their course. It cannot be ruled by interfering" (verse 48, lines 4 & 5). The core of Taoism is to focus on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_wei" target="_blank">wu-wei</a>, often translated as "non-doing." This is not the total absence of action. Rather, it is action wholly in accord with nature. In the early societies of ancient China, survival would have depended on intuiting and co-operating with the forces of nature in order to successfully grow food. Plants were found to grow best if they were left to follow their own nature. In the same way humans would flourish when least meddled with. In his Inner Chapters (No.11 entitled "Let It Be, Leave It Alone," verse 1), Chuang Tzu tells us that governance can even be dangerous:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>I have heard of letting the world be, of leaving it alone; I have never heard of governing the world. You let it be for fear of corrupting the inborn nature of the world; you leave it alone for fear of distracting the virtue of the world. If the nature of the world is not corrupted, if the virtue of the world is not distracted, why should there be any governing of the world?</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Here the prevailing ethos was not to forget the interests of others. This was not a sullen selfishness but a pursuit of personal good, which involved a concern for general well-being. The more a person does for others, the more he has. The more he gives to others, the greater his "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_(Chinese)">dé</a>" (德) or virtue ...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The similarity between wu-wei in ancient Chinese culture and an-archos in ancient Greek is quite striking. Wu-wei is being without "wei": that is, an absence of contrived behaviour. In the political context, the imposition of authority would be entirely absent. Meanwhile an-archos means "lack of a ruler." But anarchism is much more than this. Not just seeing governance as undesirable, unnecessary and even harmful, it entails opposing authority and hierarchy in human relations as well as politics and big business. Anarchism is therefore a reaction to the ego as represented by the machinery of society and the state. In the popular imagination (often encouraged by right wing discourse), this has fuelled images of rioting in the streets and violent insurrection. In fact anarchism is <i>subtle</i>, because it is so entirely anti-dogma. It does not offer a fixed doctrine; it draws on multiple currents of thought; and it weaves and flows as an ever evolving philosophy.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Modern anarchism as it is espoused by contemporary advocates such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_chomsky" target="_blank">Noam Chomsky</a> is usually a form of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_communism" target="_blank">libertarian communism</a>. Here the needs of the individual and the collective flow seamlessly and organically together. Common ownership of the means of production predominates in a society whether there is neither state, capitalism, wages nor private property. Critically however, production and consumption are based on each person's precise needs and abilities. People still retain personal items and engage in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_democracy" target="_blank">pure democracy</a> (voting directly on political policies without a political representative). These ideas developed out of the radical socialist currents of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution" target="_blank">French Revolution</a>. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proudhon" target="_blank">Pierre-Joseph Proudhon</a>, was the first to call himself an "anarchist." He favoured workers' associations and co-operatives over nationalization of land and the workplace and is famous for the slogan, "property is theft." Meanwhile the Russian revolutionary, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proudhon" target="_blank">Mikhail Bakunin</a>, laid down the foundation of collectivist anarchist theory. For him, workers should directly manage their own means of production with "equal means of subsistence, support, education, and opportunity for every child, boy or girl, until maturity, and equal resources and facilities in adulthood to create his own well-being by his own labour."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">What would a libertarian communist society look like? During the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_civil_war" target="_blank">Russian Civil War</a>, in late 1918, a stateless society known as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Territory" target="_blank">Free Territory</a> operated in the southeast of the Ukraine under the protection of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestor_Makhno" target="_blank">Nestor Makhno's</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutionary_Insurrectionary_Army" target="_blank">Black Army</a>. This was organized according to the theories of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Kropotkin" target="_blank">Peter Kropotkin</a> with voluntary associations and a type of free exchange occurring between rural and urban communities. He expanded the definition of libertarian communism by developing its pro-organizationalist and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurrectionary_anarchism" target="_blank">insurrectionary anti-organizationalist</a> aspects. In particular, Kropotkin emphasised co-operation over competition alongside the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gift_economy" target="_blank">gift economies</a> and non-accumulation of private property practised by the indigenous peoples of Siberia. There were also the anarchist territories that operated during the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Civil_War" target="_blank">Spanish Civil War</a>. A social revolution in 1936 saw much of Spain's economy placed under worker control. Factories in the stronghold of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchist_Catalonia" target="_blank">Revolutionary Catalonia</a>, most of Aragon, and parts of the Levante and Andalusia were run through worker committees; agrarian areas were collectivised and run as libertarian communes; and even shops, restaurants and hotels were managed by their workers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
These two examples were birthed during the stress of war. One played out against the backdrop of the collapse of imperial power in Russia while the other was the product of the fight against <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism" target="_blank">Fascism</a> in 1930s' Spain. This was a clear battle for dominion between known forces. Our globalist quagmire today is born of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_boomers" target="_blank">Baby Boomer</a> culture of narcissism. This is a society of supposed individualism where Freudian psychoanalysis has been used for decades to give the illusion of choice and freedom. In his documentary, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Century_of_the_Self" target="_blank">The Century of the Self</a>, the polemicist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Curtis" target="_blank">Adam Curtis</a> exposes how from the 1920s onwards, the ideas of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays" target="_blank">Edwards Bernays</a> were used first by governments and then by big business and the CIA, to control "the dangerous crowd" in an age of mass democracy. Bernays invented public relations. He took the theories of his uncle <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmund_Freud" target="_blank">Sigmund Freud</a> and showed America's corporations how to make people want what they didn't need by linking mass produced goods to their unconscious mind. Freud introduced us to the notion of the control-complex named the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Id,_ego_and_super-ego#Ego" target="_blank">ego</a>. He believed that man had a monster lurking in his psyche in the form of hidden passions and dark instinctual drives, which must be repressed. His ideas were born out of a deep pessimism which only intensified with the mass slaughter of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I" target="_blank">First World War</a> and they were taken further by his daughter, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Freud" target="_blank">Anna Freud</a>. She said that not only should the ego be strengthened in order to help repress our inner drives for the good of the individual and the stability of the society, but that those drives should be removed. Bernays therefore suggested that as passive recipients of material goods, man's irrational and aggressive tendencies could be managed and eventually eliminated. By stimulating the people's inner desires - then sating them with consumer products - they would be made happy and thus rendered docile.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This was the start of the all-consuming self, which has come to dominate our present world. In a later development in the history of psychoanalysis, the ideas of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Reich" target="_blank">Wilhelm Reich</a> came to the fore. Once a devoted disciple of Freud, Reich believed that rather than being bad, man's animal instincts were <i>good</i>. It was their repression by society that distorted human consciousness and made people dangerous. This led him to teach that sexuality was the primary energetic force of life. He named this <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orgone" target="_blank">orgone</a> and said that if the libido was released and allowed to express itself, the human being would flourish. In the 1950s, Reich and his students were condemned as a "cult of sex and anarchy." But his ideas ultimately provided an even bigger opportunity for the political and corporate elite. Now there were unlimited feelings and desires, these could be satisfied by unlimited products. This cycle further intensified with the protests of the American Student Left against the illegal <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War" target="_blank">Vietnam War</a>, segregation and Western consumerism. When the state proved simply too powerful and the activists were ruthlessly put down, they again invoked the Reichian self. The idea was that they would change society by changing themselves. Using new forms of therapy such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestalt_psychology" target="_blank">Gestalt</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erhard_Seminars_Training" target="_blank">EST</a>, they would unleash their "true self" and produce an "I" capable of overthrowing the old order. This fed the corporations <i>even more.</i> With the further expansion of the parameters of emotional expression, a much stronger sense of personal identity emerged. Now the companies could design more targeted products linked to people's values, attitudes and lifestyle (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VALS" target="_blank">VALs</a>). Today the battle lines have become blurred and we are led by the nose, victims of a sinister "engineering of consent." <i>(What do you think Starbucks and Facebook are up to: quality coffee and a nice cosy chat?)</i> The 60s was supposed to be a radical epoque, but gave birth to a ruthless Counter Reformation led by corporate elites fed on the milk of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayn_rand" target="_blank">Randian</a> cult of supreme selfishness. <i>Now all the old hippies have become rightwing CEOs!</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The novel, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_(novel)" target="_blank">Q</a>, by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luther_Blissett_(nom_de_plume)" target="_blank">Luther Blissett</a> <i>(a pseudonym for a collective, bizarrely named after the Watford and A.C. Milan footballer!) </i>offers us a potential anarchist response to today's neo-liberal hegemony. The book has been interpreted as an allegory of the decline of European society after the 1960s and 1970s, based on what occurred during the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anabaptist" target="_blank">Anabaptist</a> Revolts and the Catholic <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter-Reformation" target="_blank">Counter-Reformation</a>, which repressed any heretical theological current or alternative social movement. This is a metaphor for the vengeful rebirth of conservative ideologies towards the close of the 20th century. An <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Monetary_Fund" target="_blank">IMF</a>-driven corporate globalization of the economy has been ruthlessly deployed to rout any form of resistance. The story chronicles the journey of a nameless Anabaptist radical across Europe in the first half of the 16th century. Over a 30 year period, he joins numerous causes which have grown out of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_Reformation" target="_blank">Protestant Reformation</a> and each time adopts a new name. This is because he is constantly being stalked by a Catholic spy named "Q" who has infiltrated these revolutionary movements in a deliberate attempt to undermine them. Here the anarchist is a collective "phantom" of dynamic, transformative capacity with a subversive, shifting identity. The protagonist has no name. His influence reaches every part of society. He incites rebellious acts and organises hoaxes, swindles and mischief to undermine authority and its institutions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The emphasis here is on <i>anonymity.</i> It is the act which is important - not the actor - and this act could be done by <i>anyone</i>. In contemporary terms <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiLeaks" target="_blank">Wikileaks</a> is a prime example, publishing secret information, news leaks, and classified media from anonymous sources. <a href="https://twitter.com/wikileaks" target="_blank">Its Twitter account</a> provocatively promises: "We open governments. Everywhere." This is the world of the cyber attack and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hactivism" target="_blank">hacktivism</a>: the work of the faceless saboteur who continually pokes our moral conscience. It can also be no coincidence that the Luther Blissett collective writing the book Q, later changed their name to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Ming" target="_blank">Wu Ming</a>. In Mandarin Chinese (无名), this translates as "without a name" or "nameless." It can also mean "<i>anonymous</i>." In China the term is used to pay tribute to dissidents and as a rejection of the machinery by which an author becomes a celebrity. It is also employed by Chinese citizens to demand democracy and freedom of speech. Further, in Literary Chinese, wu-ming (無名) alludes to the beginning of heaven and earth, mentioned in verse 1, line 3 of the Tao Te Ching (無名天地之始 - wúmíng tiāndì zhī shǐ). The collective may also be claiming a metaphysical status for their work, where <i>writing itself</i> is seen as an anarchic act.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But does anarchism <i>really</i> work? The evidence suggests not. First of all we are not ready for anarchism. In his current state, man cannot even engage in a simple act of sharing. One of the most persuasive descriptions of an anarchist world is provided by the science fiction writer <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursula_Le_Guin" target="_blank">Ursula K. Le Guin</a> in her novel, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dispossessed" target="_blank">The Dispossessed</a>. But even this puritanical and selfless utopia is riddled with jealousy and the corruption of subtle hierarchy. Le Guin writes of a planet named Urras and in particular its moon Anarres, where there are no government or coercive authoritarian institutions. The main character, Shevek, discovers that the revolution which brought his world into being, has resulted in massive stagnation with power structures relentlessly starting to creep back in. Meanwhile both the anarchist societies formed out of the Russian and Spanish Civil Wars were transient flashes in the pan, lasting in both cases no more than two or three years. Even the legendary Spanish anarchist, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buenaventura_Durruti" target="_blank">Durruti</a>, was rumoured to have been murdered by one of his own men for imposing too much discipline on his militia.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In fact anarchism is a <i>reaction</i> to the state and subtly reinforces it. The two are hopelessly intertwined. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yin_and_yang" target="_blank">yin-yang</a> symbol of Taoism expresses this dynamic. It depicts seemingly contrary and opposed forces as inseparable with one never being found without the other. This can be seen in the ironic juxtaposition of how an agent of the Catholic Counter-Reformation has become the modern cultural image of anarchist insurrection. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes" target="_blank">Guy Fawkes</a> unsuccessfully plotted to blow up the parliament of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_I_of_England" target="_blank">King James I of England</a> but his mask - spawned by the 2005 movie, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_for_vendetta" target="_blank">V for Vendetta</a> - has become the accessory of choice for both the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupy_movement" javascript:void="" target="_blank">Occupy Movement</a> and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_(group)" target="_blank">Anonymous group</a>. Separated from religion, Guy Fawkes' image has been usefully inverted from that of a traitor to a modern-day hero fighting an unjust state. But there's an even more ironic twist ... The mask is licensed by Time Warner, which <i>released</i> V for Vendetta. So anti-big-corporation protesters buying these masks are helping to <i>enrich</i> one of the targets of their demonstrations! Any attempt to challenge social and economic inequality is found to be hand-in-glove with the capitalist state. <i>Who's fooling who?</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Additionally, we seem to be confined to an endless swing between "inner" versus "outer" solutions to state domination. <i>Neither solution seems to work</i>. There are those committed to transforming the world through working internally on their fixations and emotions, while others attempt to build externally, the sustainable communities and cashless societies of the future. Anarchism offers an <i>outer</i> solution: a practical political alternative to the madness of a system which installs an all-powerful elite in order to force (so-called) democracy and capitalism on to the populace, ensuring they will never think or act for themselves. But exterior political forms reflect our interior worlds: so where shall we start, on the outside or on the inside? One thing is for sure: past revolutions have created a greater tyranny than the ones they replace. This sees us back once again with institutional oppression and the reinstatement of kings. As it is, in a world where everyone is reduced to being buried alive under the bullshit of hierarchy and authority, people retreat to their own private fascist universes, sculpting themselves in the image of <i>exactly</i> the same mindset of oppression ...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But isn't the biggest problem, <i>fixed views</i>: attempting to apply a formula to what is essentially, a mystery? Anarchism still presents us with a theory and a set of rules for solving a problem. Any formula is an imposition and not an organic arising (i.e. free from control and hierarchy). Returning to the Tao Te Ching, we have its timeless first line - 道可道非常道 - dào kě dào, fēi cháng dào. It means that anything which you can speak of, tell, express, describe or explain can never be living or eternal. That is, to attempt to encapsulate or grasp something is to lose it. Verse 1, line 9 describes life as 玄之又玄 - hsuán zhī yòu hsuán or "mystery and again mystery" - pointing to its wonder and the total impossibility of it ever being understood. The human tendency is always to form hierarchy and modes of dominance out of spontaneity and immediacy, fuelled as we all are by self-interest and personal ambition. While life is dynamic, fluid and ever changing, to be an anarchist is to preside over that dynamic and demand that certain things or actions do or do not occur. There is a belief system in place; a given way of thinking. Surely this is the act of violence: <i>insisting that the world sees everything the same way that you do!</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Anarchism is engaging in an act of oppression similar to that of the state. But despite its fundamental flaws, anarchism is an expression of what is best in us, an invocation of our hopes for a more open and inclusive society. It is an outburst of idealism in a dark world where nothing seems to be working and the relation between domination and subjugation is becoming ever more extreme. Anarchism is simply an outer materialist expression of an inner knowing: our fumbling attempt to know what cannot be known. Critically, from birth the human psyche is inducted into social and cultural straitjacketing. Layer upon layer of mental and emotional conditioning breaks our connection with the primal source. We've never had a chance: what <i>links</i> the inner and the outer and flows across them has never been left alone to flower. In the ancient Vedic cultures, for the first 40 days, a newborn baby was reared in nature <i>without any human contact</i> beyond that of its natural parents. This allowed the child to become strong in an unbroken communion with itself and the raw universal forces by which we are all shaped. <i>The need for liberation was never envisaged because we were already born free.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Advaita also offers the promise of eternal freedom. Its strategy is to focus on the inner world at the expense of the outer. Through an internal journey of contemplation and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-enquiry" target="_blank">self-enquiry</a>, it negates the external world in order to surrender to the ultimate reality of the Self. Even <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramana_Maharshi" target="_blank">Ramana</a> upheld the basically Hindu belief in fatalism where everything unfolds according to a pre-ordained script. Steeped in predestination, he had nothing to say about the inequality of the caste system or the prolific sexual violence against Indian women. This was because as far as he was concerned, these things did not need to be any different from what they were. For him, political action constituted a conscious turning away from the Self in order to pursue a self-centred agenda, entirely ignoring the Self's plan. Change was only necessary or possible at the personal level, with Self realisation being the sole means of helping the world. This fission between politics and spirituality is well known in Indian society. The famous anecdote of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi" target="_blank">Mahatma Gandhi's</a> 'non-meeting' with Ramana is a good example. In the 1930s, Gandhi was scheduled to give a talk some 400 yards from Ramana Ashram and it was hoped he would first visit Ramana. But when the time came and the car stopped near the ashram gate for a few minutes, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._Rajagopalachari" target="_blank">Rajagopalachari</a>, an accompanying congress politician, ordered it to drive straight on. Ramana himself said that Gandhi had wanted to visit him but that Rajagopalachari had prevented him from doing so. Knowing that he was an advanced soul, Rajagopalachari feared that Gandhi would fall into <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samadhi" target="_blank">samadhi</a> and fail to fulfill the political destiny of the Indian nation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This 'split reality' is symptomatic of the problem inherent in both Hinduism and Advaita. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahman" target="_blank">Brahman</a> alone is real so the rest of the world is unreal. Effectively this is saying that things like maiming Indian beggar children in order to make money doesn't <i>really</i> matter. Not only is this a clever control mechanism for diffusing dissent, it's a mandate for a dangerous passivity and enforced victimhood. It's a pitiful exploitation of the human being. Because the Self is an ultimate, unchanging state, it is the individual self which must always change - necessitating a theory of man's worthlessness and inner corruption to be corrected by spiritual practice. Advaita is rooted in a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manichaeism" target="_blank">Manichaean</a> mindset of moral dualism where the key to heaven is a stark choice between the forces of good and evil. Man is deeply flawed and nothing is ever perfect. Everything is hopeless and beyond salvation, derived of a dark, pessimistic mindset where only the internal spiritual world has value. This is the crucible in which <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustine_of_Hippo" target="_blank">Saint Augustine's</a> ideas of original sin were formed: these have travelled to South India via British Colonialism irrevocably shaping 20th century Advaita. Thus today's Tiruvannamalai exhibits a highly disturbed blend of extreme Hindu moral conservatism. Upper class Indians and wannabe <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C4%81dhaka" target="_blank">sadhaks</a> alike, sneer at "low caste locals" and "inferior Westerners." Then they dismiss everything with their mantra of supremacy: "But who is the one who is doing/saying this?" <i>You only have to take one look at the fucked up fanatics in town to see the future ain't so bright!</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Advaita is a schizoid religious response born of a beguiling paradox: in order to be free we have to submit to the narcotic glamour of yet another control regime of domination, hierarchy and subjugation <i>(a bit like a Stalinist dictatorship!) </i>We're back in the sadomasochistic world of states of spiritual attainment and the deviant pleasures of sadhana and self-denial (see <a href="http://chi-ting.blogspot.in/2013/04/a-prison-without-bars.html" target="_blank">A prison without bars</a>). Advaita will <i>never</i> be truly anarchic. It exists only to <i>uphold</i> the authority of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanishads" target="_blank">Upanishads</a>: it is a secondhand philosophy featuring a set of rigid rules to be followed without question. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adi_Shankara" target="_blank">Shankara</a> was far from being a radical: he merely systematised <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaudapada" target="_blank">Gaudapada's</a> earlier attempts to patch up <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanta" target="_blank">Vedanta</a>, which was badly in need of rebranding. And he stole these ideas from Buddhism, corrupting them for the purposes of his new super-theology. Today's Advaita is actually produced out of <i>two</i> control regimes conjoined: the world of ancient Indian philosophy and spirituality <i>and</i> the modern corporate world of individualistic, commoditised desire. Just look at the cross-cultural disaster of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagwan_Shree_Rajneesh" target="_blank">Rajneesh's</a> famous <a href="http://www.osho.com/Main.cfm?Area=MedResort&Language=English" target="_blank">fuck factory/ashram</a> in Pune, which has successfully manufactured some of the most self-obsessed, sociopathic entities in the known universe! Back in the tight assed world of Advaita, with its focus on the inner world so similar to the Freudian model, desire originates internally and is objectified as something evil and immoral. The Self is found within and Advaita's version of the ego - the small self - oversees final realisation. In the hell-hole of our hidden urges, we must repress our sexuality and turn celibate or risk succumbing to a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionysus" target="_blank">Dionysian</a> orgy of excess. <i>According to Reich, all those dried up sadhaks need is one hell of a good orgasm!</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Freedom can never be born out of oppression, whatever form it takes</i>. Anarchism and advaita are not so different: they are both caught in the jaws of the infrastructure of the "above" and the "below." But surely the issue is no longer about coming up with new political or religious theories: in the end <i>both</i> are an epistle of "<b>I</b>" beholden to the apparatus of state domination. This is not about filling the never-ending inner void with the light of spiritual fixation. Neither is it about the feeding of our limitless desire for enlightenment in the outer world. <i>It is about an end to the system of hierarchy and imposition which keeps these activities in place</i>. The question is whether we wait for the inevitable collapse of the machine which so obviously enslaves us or whether we initiate for ourselves, a new way of being. To make the switch away from hierarchy and imposition, we are speaking to a different kind of human impulse. One that finally leaves behind the cacophony of mad ideas all serving to build up the illusion of a separate self, which must then be done away with. This would be to abandon the vicious circle of bondage and liberation:<i> to never enter into it</i>. It would require a quantum leap in consciousness with anarchism becoming a <i>metaphor</i> for primordial freedom - rather than a collectivist solution to the ills of society. All it takes is the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100th_Monkey" target="_blank">100th monkey</a> ... <i>What will be the evolutionary tipping point?</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>It's a glorious endeavour even if it is doomed to failure ... But just like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Quixote" target="_blank">Don Quixote</a>, is it not better to dream the impossible dream than live a sham shadow life as slaves to the self? We may be chasing windmills but in our imaginations we are slaying dragons. When one fire is lit, it can start a conflagration ...</b></div></div><div id="fb-root"></div><script>(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1";
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script><br />
<div class="fb-like" data-href="http://www.facebook.com/Chi-TingApocalypse" data-send="true" data-width="450" data-show-faces="false"></div><br />
<a href="https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-via="Kevinandaji">Tweet</a><br />
<script>!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');</script>Chi-Ting Masterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13888421252904281860noreply@blogger.com33tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3038378606356803239.post-88723047738315256312013-04-27T15:17:00.000+01:002013-07-07T15:00:21.358+01:00Neverland<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKOVBmKJKyKGln4dKvP4iiGYdNV54v_7R-dMi933RjDqhgzXyqU2OQKeZgwfnH0iwYjcetrBRigBlRm57t7_ZJvRsnYYyN8XSt8Aomm59MaHAWiAVVGBG-3Qu-STZOdsDf2G4qEjOzSlA/s1600/Surreal-landscapes-Genesis2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKOVBmKJKyKGln4dKvP4iiGYdNV54v_7R-dMi933RjDqhgzXyqU2OQKeZgwfnH0iwYjcetrBRigBlRm57t7_ZJvRsnYYyN8XSt8Aomm59MaHAWiAVVGBG-3Qu-STZOdsDf2G4qEjOzSlA/s400/Surreal-landscapes-Genesis2.jpg" width="460" /></a></div><b><br />
</b> <b>Now that the season is over and the seasonal flotsam has been flushed out of Ramana Nagar only a few hardcore residents are left to sweat it out in the 40 degree heat ...</b><br />
<br />
Even the famed Shanti Cafe is closing for the month of May and Chi-Ting favourite <a href="http://youtu.be/4-rS4lihdlE">Kali Baba</a> <i>(alias Ali Baba and the 40 Personalities!)</i> is now homeless and left bereft of Bambi-esque victims to molest. Kali Baba is the founder member of the T.V.malai <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%BCnchausen_syndrome" target="_blank">Münchausen</a> Society and is renowned as a world heavyweight champion fantasist. <i>(His claim to the title is disputed by <a href="http://chi-ting.blogspot.in/2013/02/gott-im-himmel.html" target="_blank">Karl Renz</a> who is a direct descendant of the legendary Baron and the two of them were involved in a no-holds-barred bun fight that ended with spittle and invectives flying in all directions!)</i><br />
<br />
Kali Baba spins fantastic webs of reality for the gullible while pretending to be the Anglo-Siberian, "<a href="http://mayok-shamaan.com/intro.html" target="_blank">Mayok Shamaan</a>." Apparently he regularly travels the world ... yet hasn't left India in years. <i>(Must be his amazing shapeshifting skills!)</i> His fake mobile conversations have become legendary. Recently the boys at Shanti decided to phone Kali Baba during one of his monologues broadcasting his latest land deal in Tiru. Of course there was no one on the end of the line and his mobile rang in the middle of his fake conversation! And even more bizarrely, he has recently been overheard saying that one of his students complained that he had not even attempted to rape her! <i>(Standards must be slipping!)</i> The Black Clad Wonder announces to all and sundry how he is purely devoted to service and saving the planet ... <i>Mirror, mirror, on the wall who is the biggest liar of them all?</i><br />
<br />
But Kali Baba does not hold the franchise on fantasy and self-delusion in Tiruvannamalai. In Adiannamalai, a select group of ex-pats host endless dinner parties in a re-run of some neo-colonial twilight zone. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Austen" target="_blank">Jane Austen</a> Society Queens bitch and pontificate, compulsively meddling in each other lives to give themselves a frisson of excitement. Here cruelty dresses as kindness. It's a game of musical chairs with each of them waiting for the slightest hint of vulnerability: an upper class dog pack getting ready to tear apart the weakest <i>(they are vicious in a way that would make even a sexual predator like Kali Baba blush!)</i> In this magic realm of therapy, psychic predictions, and Hindu moral conservativism, the privileged and the effete discuss philosophy and enlightenment at closed circle luncheons. Like an out-take from a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_Ivory_Productions" target="_blank">Merchant Ivory production</a>, this is Club Sari with its anti-sexual morality of celibacy and denial. It's a cult of purity where the moneyed, 50+, born again virgins buy land and set up their esoteric empires. <i>Living off the funds of rich daddies, divorce settlements and capitalist investments, they are all the spoilt children of the system who have washed up on these shores to purify their souls and join the elect in heaven!</i><br />
<br />
Here the celibates hang out with the tantrics and it's all very feminised. Even the men are like girls: Peter Pan figures and clean-cut devotees in freshly pressed linens, frolic in the meadows of Arunachala, drinking and dining their way through a never-ending programme of social niceties. But while everyone looks very white and crisp and clean, there's an undercurrent of extreme moral violence. This is a bastardised Hindu-Christian mindset laced with the explosive cocktail of rightwing elitism. Behind the polite veneer of all-loving friendship there is the ever-present threat of expulsion. If you do not conform to the code, you will be cast out of Eden. The unspoken rule is that you do not associate with the hoi polloi as you may be polluted by their grubby sins. Safe in their bubble of specialness, the Dinner Party Set have retreated to their secluded villas in order to avoid contamination ...<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>This is the land of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Boys_(Peter_Pan)" target="_blank">Lost Boys</a>. Trapped in a parallel reality of narcotic fairy glamour, both the boys <i>and </i>the girls suffer from a dissociated male energy. This is because the active principle has been forbidden. Religious prohibition prevents expression of the sexual instinct in the world at large. This leads to the creation of an etheric pseudo-realm, where this repressed male energy can only wreak havoc and become self-destructive. There is a twisted inversion: a sublimation of sexuality where celibacy, homosexuality or a furtive promiscuity goes on behind closed doors ... Ageing women with dyed hair attempt to look like young Indian girls who have never been touched. Supposedly celibate career marriages espouse the cult of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmacharya" target="_blank">brahmacharya</a> as a higher principle than lower chakra lust. Designer French sadhus who believe it is the dharma of every girl to give them head while their apparently enlightened wives take refuge in the family home ... It's a crucible of stunning hypocrisy and sexual angst. In this pleasure garden of enlightenment, vanity cases reign supreme and the beautiful is abhorrently ugly. <i>Innocence has been lost like a crushed flower!</i><br />
<br />
<b style="text-align: left;">The beautiful people from Adiannamalai would be outraged at the comparison to a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubu_Roi" target="_blank">Père Ubu</a> grotesque like Kali Baba. But in Neverland, Peter Pan goes hand in hand with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Liar" target="_blank">Billy Liar</a> and both whistle the same tune ...</b></div></div><div id="fb-root"></div><script>(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1";
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script><br />
<div class="fb-like" data-href="http://www.facebook.com/Chi-TingApocalypse" data-send="true" data-width="450" data-show-faces="false"></div><br />
<a href="https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-via="Kevinandaji">Tweet</a><br />
<script>!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');</script>Chi-Ting Masterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13888421252904281860noreply@blogger.com47tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3038378606356803239.post-49381575580417410172013-04-03T09:50:00.001+01:002015-06-22T17:30:40.370+01:00A prison without bars<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5lLnsPXmCHomHZdvi-HP-_ry3gvIUX-PiCfhbY5i6wTjRgUu-TaB6-ec15rsHWAFJ6VeM38hbV1Zhj1GtnDuVaMWzywJY9LAGuS4llEaVKM-gz0XJ2RtTnIqU335W6xNJdorsbv_kFqA/s1600/bars.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="340" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5lLnsPXmCHomHZdvi-HP-_ry3gvIUX-PiCfhbY5i6wTjRgUu-TaB6-ec15rsHWAFJ6VeM38hbV1Zhj1GtnDuVaMWzywJY9LAGuS4llEaVKM-gz0XJ2RtTnIqU335W6xNJdorsbv_kFqA/s400/bars.jpg" width="460" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<b><a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/17069042992324478464">Sister Klaus</a> in an exclusive extract from The Confessional Comments:</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>The Master-Devotee relationship is basically sadomasochistic: the Master gets a kick out of the suffering of the slave and the slave rejoices in the suffering to please the Master. Both seem to be happy with that and so it’s a pretty harmless game as long it is confined to sex. But cover this with a slimy sauce of spiritual abracadabra and put in some words like devotion, Advaita and Self-realisation etc and then you have the game played by Radha Ma, Saradamma, Nithyananda, Mooji, Madhukar and Karl Renz, just to name a few of the worst. This is a game where the Master is always the winner and the devotee always the loser. The devotee is never able to see this because he is “locked up” inside the play that the Master directs. He also feels safe together with the other devotees and so is unable to see the catastrophe the Master has set up.</i></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
An experience of surrender is a magic key to multiple realms of experience. Those, in innocence, who have been a victim of abuse suddenly find refuge in another world in the midst of extreme pressure. This is a spontaneous opening, which can never be revisited or recreated. Yet the temptation is to try and find it, to claim it and make it permanent. Some choose a spiritual path to do this, complete with guru-teacher, while others become lost in deviant sexual practices. Both are calculated strategies: a surrogate mechanism for claiming that which cannot be claimed. Neither is morally superior. <i>They are an expression of love gone wrong.</i></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Everyone has had a taste of the nectar whether it has come by meditation or masturbation. In S&M, a control drama is used to recreate a psychological breaking point. In the spiritual search, sadhana, ritual and practices are used to approach the same place of existential meltdown. The core assumption is that through compliance, something beyond reach will be attained. Someone who feels powerless tries to be powerful. In so doing they give away their power, leading to their domination, which once again confirms their powerlessness. The character profile in both cases is exactly the same. Both are junkies seeking a fix to ease the pain of the world.<i> Each simply uses their preferred technique to try and take them home ...</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In the world of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadomasochism" target="_blank">sadomasochism</a>, punishment and penitence are the gold standard. A dominatrix in a torture chamber assumes the position of absolute power. She must be utterly obeyed - even if it means being ordered to eat dog food, excrement, or to jerk off in the corner. The key point is that the client never has sex with the dominatrix but she may have sex with them. The person of the dominatrix is inviolate: she cannot be touched. The slave may be buggered with a strap-on while restrained in a dental chair, their feet in stirrups, but this is completely at the will of the woman in charge. Here very powerful people (often judges, policeman, politicians; the people who rule our material destiny) are imprisoned in a cage of their own making. Driven by their own insatiable lust for power, only the opposite can turn them on. They have a secret desire to be utterly powerless. Locked into a relationship of dominance and submission, this is a drama of abuse and physical torture. It is not actually about sexual satisfaction. Pain and subjugation give a perverse type of self-gratification. The slave may masturbate or ejaculate in the midst of their ritual humiliation, but there is no mutual exchange. This is about creating the <i>fantasy</i> of complete release. <i>The slave is fucking in their mind: all they can achieve is an orgasm of the imagination!</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The realm of the guru-disciple relationship is little different. Powered by their thirst for enlightenment, the spiritual seeker enters into an agreement with an all-powerful master who can never be disobeyed. There is only the will of the guru who exercises complete control. Within a hierarchical system of belief and righteous conduct, the devotee must totally surrender and hand over their personal power to a higher authority in exchange for liberation. Here they are lost inside an enclosure and cannot see the walls. This is a prison <i>without</i> bars. The devotee may come and go but their devotion or self-enquiry takes place within a closed circuit completely divorced from reality. They operate within an inner world - or the hermetically sealed walls of the ashram - where the rules of everyday life no longer apply. This too is a rigged game where the devotee is always the loser. Only the grace of the guru can bestow Self realisation: the gulf between the ego and the Self can never be bridged. The seeker with their practices is stuck on a treadmill, forever going nowhere. <i>We're back in the land of the medieval flagellant who cannot hope to appease their vengeful Creator God!</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Temporary relief can be permanently painful. Whether it's the S&M torture chamber or the guru-devotee relationship, both fuel a self-destruction where the law of diminishing returns is king. This is love within the confines of an insane vision where you wake up in a complete madhouse. Ever more bizarre storylines are needed to fill the chasm-like emotional void. In this prison of the ego, real love can never been found. The one who is superior quite literally forbids mortal physical love and so the search takes the most extreme forms. The dominatrix conjures up more and more stimulating games to reinvent what is only, a staged release. Meanwhile the guru delivers harder and harder tests. Yet any spiritual attainment is never real. This is because it emerges out of extraordinary suffering, all within an imaginary paradigm. It is totally contrived. The ever soaring heights of religious ecstasy make it seem as though the final goal is coming closer, but this is part of a simulation more akin to self-abuse. In reality the devotee is going off the deep end.<i> It's an endless descent into oblivion ...</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
These themes are exquisitely explored in the 1970s' cult classic, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night_Porter" target="_blank">The Night Porter</a>, which examines the psychological condition known as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_Syndrome" target="_blank">Stockholm syndrome</a>. Thirteen years after the Second World War, a Nazi SS officer named Aldorfer and a woman called Lucia reconvene their sadomasochistic love affair, which first began in a concentration camp. Crippled by the shame of his past, Aldorfer is afraid of the light and so works as a night porter. He is part of a Nazi sleeper cell, which in the political malaise of postwar Europe, continues to believe in the supremacy of the Third Reich. The cell members do their utmost to protect themselves by conducting Nuremberg-like trials on each other to discover any Holocaust survivors who might potentially expose them. Aldorfer is in love with Lucia ("light") and fearing that his fellow Nazis will murder her, he tries to hide the fact that he has met her again. It is in this context that the pair compulsively repeat their past relationship to even greater extremes. Because their emotionality is linked to fear, real love between Aldorfer and Lucia is impossible. Their sex is confined to a violent autoeroticism absent of actual physical penetration. Then the sleeper cell finds out about Lucia. Aldorfer refuses to surrender her to them, leaves his job and barricades them in his flat together. The cell's response is to cut off their means of survival, reducing the two to living without electricity and food. Starving to death, delirious, and helped by no one, while attempting to flee the couple are finally executed in the dark on a bridge, miles from home.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In this scenario the aggressor eternally dominates and the victim is perpetually hamstrung in ever more disturbing cycles of abuse. This pattern also characterises Advaita. The small self is divorced from the totality named the Self, thus it is declared flawed and inherently evil due to the presence of inborn negative tendencies known as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C4%81san%C4%81" target="_blank">vasanas</a>. This denies man's interrelatedness with the universe and sets up an artificial division between the two, confining the spiritual seeker to an impoverished vision of a deviant self infinitely in need of moral correction. The devotee is always innately "wrong" in just the same way that the Christian suffers from the stain of original sin. They are now enslaved by a life of sadhana essential for their deliverance. It's a cruel and vicious trap where the self-delusion only deepens. The more the devotee does their practice, the greater their desire for liberation. The pain of separation only increases. Spurred on by their suffering and intoxicated by the virtue of their devotion/self-enquiry, the seeker starts to believe they are morally superior and on the right path. Sadhana is the opposite of what it seems.<i> It is the gateway drug to full-blown, spiritual addiction ...</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This may come as a surprise to the earnest spiritual seeker who believes that by practice and correct moral conduct, they will eventually gain personal salvation. By seeking heaven, the aspirant is actually putting themselves in hell. This is because within the Advaitic vision, powerlessness is written in from the very beginning. Given the static entities of an underself and an overself, we have a small self which must bend the knee in order to be annihilated by a big Self. Placed in opposition with an all-powerful ultimate reality, the devotee has no personal autonomy. The small self has no value: in this equation it has no worth. There is no room for an individual with its own way of being: <i>a self that is distinct yet simultaneously indivisible from all of life</i>. If this was the case, love would be freely available and expressed in all its forms. The perfection of the small self would be obvious and it would never require liberation since it was never truly separate. The Advaitic search is hardly non-dual.<i> It is rooted in dualism and stems from a lack of self-love!</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This contradiction is cleverly resolved at the end of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabharata" target="_blank">Mahabharata</a>. Here we find that the key to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yudhisthira" target="_blank">Yudishthira's</a> entry into heaven lies in honouring his wife, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draupadi" target="_blank">Draupadi</a> <i>(a metaphor for the self)</i>. The story goes like this ... Burdened by the weight of their past misdemeanours <i>(i.e. the belief in original sin)</i> Draupadi and Yudishthira's brothers, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandava" target="_blank">Pandavas</a>, fall to their deaths while making their final ascent of the Himalayan peaks. They descend into <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naraka_(Hinduism)" target="_blank">Naraka</a> (hell) where Yudishthira himself is sent, because before entering heaven, he refuses to abandon his dog who has shown him unflinching loyalty. Yudishthira's dog is in fact his father <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharma" target="_blank">Dharma</a> <i>(the correct way of seeing, and acting in, the world)</i> and Yudishthira decides to remain with his family in hell. There he discovers it is preferable to live where the good people are - rather than in heaven - which he finds is full of his mortal enemies. <i>(Joined by Yudishthira whose dharma is impeccable, the 'bad' self plagued by original sin is now 'good').</i> Suddenly <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indra" target="_blank">Indra</a> and Krishna appear telling Yudishthira that this has been a final test. By deciding to stay in hell with Draupadi, he has atoned for sacrificing her honour during the infamous <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabharata#The_dice_game" target="_blank">dice game</a>. <i>(<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duryodhana" target="_blank">Duryodhana</a> loaded the dice against Yudishthira who lost all his wealth and his entire kingdom. As a result he had no choice but to sell his wife and brothers into servitude).</i> Yudishthira has penetrated the final illusion and now he can wake up. Indra and Krishna tell him that Draupadi and the Pandavas are already in heaven ... <i> The self is always without flaw!</i><br />
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Here it is revealed that both awakening and enlightenment are illusory objects attained within an inverted framework of hierarchical power. Escape from suffering - be it temporary (awakening) or permanent (enlightenment) - is born out of suffering. Freedom is rooted in bondage. Each is its own mirror image. Meanwhile the notion of a mutually exclusive, powerless self stays intact. The event of enlightenment is therefore an egoic psychodrama without substance; completely devoid of any reality. <i>There is no such thing as enlightenment and the self has never "not" been free!</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>In conclusion, we echo the words of that infamous 18th century libertine and free thinker, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giacomo_Casanova" target="_blank">Giacomo Cassanova</a>: "Man is free, but he is only free if he believes himself to be … The only system I have had ... is that of letting myself go where the blowing wind took me."</b></div>
</div>
<div id="fb-root">
</div>
<script>(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1";
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script><br />
<div class="fb-like" data-href="http://www.facebook.com/Chi-TingApocalypse" data-send="true" data-show-faces="false" data-width="450">
</div>
<br />
<a class="twitter-share-button" data-via="Kevinandaji" href="https://twitter.com/share">Tweet</a><br />
<script>!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');</script></div>
Chi-Ting Masterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13888421252904281860noreply@blogger.com33tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3038378606356803239.post-17350891353352452852013-02-27T10:40:00.000+00:002013-07-07T15:01:28.838+01:00Gott im himmel!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiphPE15fSzjS0IpJqL_fcD_NS9H8BsY6nJILyfWkRZYLVgMIrFZKOALnFaagdnBUaym9n3xI-nx3vz1WK4nyKV4S8Q6Jx515CVeHdHgaCOYNERjymcMzKiVAmkxmsbIG1uIJ5PW5Y5aoI/s1600/tumblr_m7684aAQdY1rutx6lo1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="420" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiphPE15fSzjS0IpJqL_fcD_NS9H8BsY6nJILyfWkRZYLVgMIrFZKOALnFaagdnBUaym9n3xI-nx3vz1WK4nyKV4S8Q6Jx515CVeHdHgaCOYNERjymcMzKiVAmkxmsbIG1uIJ5PW5Y5aoI/s320/tumblr_m7684aAQdY1rutx6lo1_500.jpg" width="420" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>"Gurus play a social role, so do prostitutes" [UG Krishnamurti]</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Führer of Neo Advaita, <a href="http://karlrenz.com/" target="_blank">Karl Renz</a> has left Tiru abruptly for a new bolthole in Goa. Karl had been lurking near the village of Adiannamalai with his chum Kalidas for 10 days and was planning to stay for a full month, but suddenly he fled the stage. Are there no plans for the Deutsche Top Gun to unveil his latest verbal pyrotechnics? <i>We know a mouth that big cannot be shut for long!</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Karl had been sighted touring the fleshpots of Tiru, perched precariously on his 50cc moped<i> (affectionately known as Der Übermensch)</i>. Karl is a spiritual colossus whose jutting jaw and clean cut profile announces his unquestioned supremacy. We asked him for an interview but unusually he was overtaken by a strange reticence. Like that fabled movie star of the silver screen, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greta_Garbo" target="_blank">Greta Garbo</a>, Karl replied: "I want to be alone!" It seems the mighty one has been overtaken by existential doubt: even his latest <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neti_neti">neti neti</a> - <i>"I am NOT a wanker, I am NOT a wanker!" - </i>has failed to restore his Teutonic pride. Will a Goan beach babe be able to put the lead back in Karl's pencil? As Elvis so eloquently put it: "Are you lonesome tonight?"</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Karl has avoided Tiru for a number of years now, since he was unceremoniously ejected from his Advaitic throne by that rapacious rastafarian <a href="http://www.mooji.org/" target="_blank">Mooji</a>. So he went on to Plan B which involved playing lots of computer games and hanging out at an infamous brothel on Koh Samui. In recent years he has muscled in on the Mumbai scene, jumping into the dead man's shoes of <a href="http://www.rameshbalsekar.com/" target="_blank">Ramesh Balsekar</a>. <i>Has the ghost of Ramesh come back to haunt Karl and is this the source of his malaise?</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Anyway according to Ramesh, "Who cares?" ... If Karl gets his just deserts for being a jumped-up headfuck merchant, it's all God's will. Karl certainly deserves a good kicking. These days he sounds just like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisargadatta_Maharaj" target="_blank">Nisargadatta Maharaj</a> and has even revised his famous catchphrase of "That Which is Prior" to "That Which is Prior to Nothing and Everything." Sounds like a swipe at <a href="http://www.theopensecret.com/" target="_blank">Tony Parsons</a> to us, whose territory in England Karl has said he is studiously avoiding because he wouldn't win the turf war ...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Both Karl and his estranged cousin Tony are failed stand-up comedians, the stars of their own philosophical talking-shop. They claim their lineage from the Godfather of Neo Advaita, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U._G._Krishnamurti" target="_blank">UG Krishnamurti</a>, but it's highly doubtful whether UG would have endorsed either one of them. Parsons is lost in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dzogchen" target="_blank">Dzogchen</a> world, which rather curiously, he labels 'Nondual Buddhism.' Just like his 8th century forebear <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaudapada" target="_blank">Gaudapada</a> who twisted the Buddhist theory of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajativada" target="_blank">ajativada</a> to revive the fortunes of the Upanishadic <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahman" target="_blank">Brahman</a>, Parsons has sneaked in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_truths" target="_blank">Two Truths doctrine</a> of Buddhist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madhyamaka" target="_blank">Madhyamaka</a> to allegedly reacquaint us with the "essential essence of Advaita." Meanwhile Karl has fallen into telling pretty stories about an intentional Consciousness which is perpetually trying to know and find itself. Both have endlessly sophisticated explanations for the way that the world works, whereas UG stated that after the death experience he called <a href="http://www.milestree.com/notion/found/ug-krishnamurti-calamity" target="_blank">The Calamity</a>, such concepts would simply not arise.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">During The Calamity, swellings of various shapes and colours appeared along UG's torso, neck and head. These resembled the hard blue chest medallions found on Krishna, the traditional cobra-headed image of Shiva in the form of a throat-ring, and the lotus-style lumps found on the crown of the Buddhist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhisattva" target="_blank">bodhisattva</a> statues. As his third eye (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajna" target="_blank">ajna</a>) took over command of his body, his nervous system churned, causing torturous pain. This transformation was not the product of a fevered imagination (à la Karl & Tony) but involved gross physical changes that went right down to the cellular level. UG even developed breasts and all sexual activity ceased. When questioned near the end of his life whether someone could take his sperm to make a UG clone, he famously replied that 'nothing came out anymore' <i>(if you catch our drift!) </i>Over the years Karl has become synonymous with a highly misogynistic attitude towards his sexual playmates, even going so far as to humiliate one of his ex's by miming fellatio in front of her in the midst of satsang. <i>After all his bullshitting and nondual posturing has Karl finally succumbed to his own Calamity and become the Alchemical<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Androgyny" target="_blank"> Androgyne</a>?</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>To quote David Bowie, has Karl been going through "<a href="http://youtu.be/pl3vxEudif8" target="_blank">Ch-ch-changes</a>" and is this the real cause of his angst? How will he behave now he's grown tits and his wiener and baubles have dropped off?</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: start;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>[BREAKING NEWS: We have just discovered that Karl Renz is a direct descendant of world-renowned fantasist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baron_M%C3%BCnchhausen" target="_blank">Baron Münchausen</a>. Is Münchausen syndrome a genetic or a contagious disease? ... See the <a href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3038378606356803239&postID=1735089135335245285" target="_blank">explosive Firefly comment</a> for the full disclosure!]</b></div></div></div><div id="fb-root"></div><script>(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1";
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script><br />
<div class="fb-like" data-href="http://www.facebook.com/Chi-TingApocalypse" data-send="true" data-width="450" data-show-faces="false"></div><br />
<a href="https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-via="Kevinandaji">Tweet</a><br />
<script>!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');</script>Chi-Ting Masterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13888421252904281860noreply@blogger.com49tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3038378606356803239.post-29483165534510538052013-02-19T05:15:00.003+00:002013-07-07T15:24:43.435+01:00Satan is divine<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCfIHZKbcSDE1IiuPK6iHrNTgnYc2cygjRceVlz88X458GRhyphenhyphen9nld4Es5pouKCZLE5NhGqZKrU9iElQ4_eaRmXAjgk5NNhiJDOl3l4D7fJygK7fvYTv3Jw0zJATghyHrWlarraEI44Cjw/s1600/satan-devil-x-hd-jootix-266550.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCfIHZKbcSDE1IiuPK6iHrNTgnYc2cygjRceVlz88X458GRhyphenhyphen9nld4Es5pouKCZLE5NhGqZKrU9iElQ4_eaRmXAjgk5NNhiJDOl3l4D7fJygK7fvYTv3Jw0zJATghyHrWlarraEI44Cjw/s400/satan-devil-x-hd-jootix-266550.jpg" width="460" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>This blog has often been described as a pustulential carbunkle on the backside of Arunachala. The main complaint is that the posts we write are "nasty" and the Chi-Ting Master is consumed by rage and lots of other bad stuff ...</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Most of these comments come from people with a Christian mindset, which pits good against evil and is rooted in the very dualism that Advaita allegedly seeks to transcend. So pervasive is the instinct to reject the dark in favour of the light, we witness our critics falling into a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavlovian_reflex#Reflex_system_research" target="_blank">Pavlovian</a>, kneejerk moral absolutism again and again!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Love and Light Club that exists in Tiru is fake and frankly nauseating. These bliss bunnies are just junkies in search of spiritual <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soma" target="_blank">soma</a>. The attainment of "<b>I</b>"-centric states seems to be the name of the game. This is an egocentric selectivity that reaches for comfort and emotional gratification: a one-sided view of life which constantly affirms the nice and fluffy while jettisoning the harsher realities of the world. <i>Where is the anger which is also a part of life?</i> -It has been suppressed and denied in favour of an unsustainable utopia that never was and never will be. It's a ridiculous rule-bound fiction that sows the seeds of extreme violence in its confused platitudes. The shadow side of the psyche has been rejected and remains unintegrated. <i>But this is essential for there to be true spiritual insight!</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>This blog is not about purity to the exclusion of the ugly and coarse. It does not preach heart over mind or the angelic triumphing over the demonic. It is about a non-attachment to both poles of existence where each are given full rein and neither leaves a trace.</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Dichotomy and competing binary pairs are found in all the religions to some degree. From what we know of recorded history, it began with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroaster" target="_blank">Zoroaster</a> and the war between the omniscient, uncreated <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahura_Mazda" target="_blank">Ahura Mazda</a> and his evil rival, the destructive spirit named <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angra_Mainyu" target="_blank">Angra Mainyu</a>. <i>(This is the world against you, with a malevolent force out there trying to do you in!)</i> As a result the demonic 'other' is excluded from the company of the faithful. This polar opposition is by now so widespread and insiduous that its proponents do not even question the basis of their beliefs. Dualism pervades the collective psyche, its baseline assumptions are unquestioned and set in stone. <i>The children of Ahriman skulk in the shadows, the lepers of our imaginations!</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">These themes have continued through Judaeo-Christian monotheism and Islam. The Jewish patriarchs recast their opponents as an evil 'other' named Satan. However this was a political perversion as <i>the satan</i> was originally one of God's angels: a helper sent to block or obstruct human activity and prevent man from harming himself. <i>(Satan was not an animal or a monster then, but a superhuman being of superior intelligence and insider status!)</i> Numero Uno conspiracy theorist <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GdyH2cpmbU" target="_blank">David Icke interviewing Zulu sangoma Credo Mutwa</a> gives this seminal event an interesting twist. He tells us that such satanic images derive from a far more ancient source: the horned reptilian race called the Chitauri. Dwelling in underground caves and being cold blooded, the Chitauri warm themselves beside huge cooking fires which they stoke in the bowels of the Earth. These stories have bled into the human psyche as the Devil and the Fires of Hell. Apparently this was the impetus for later Christians projecting the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horned_God" target="_blank">Horned God</a> on to folk wisdom and indigenous religious practices - and denouncing them as "pagan."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Whether these ideas and images are allegorical or pure fantasy is besides the point. While philosophy debates the existential status of evil, this archetypal drama looms large in the collective unconscious. Even in our dusty temple town we have the example of <a href="http://chi-ting.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/suicide-in-bunker.html" target="_blank">Radha Ma's occult suicide</a>. Then there are the persistent rumours of whole villages around Tiruvannamalai dedicated to black magic - and the undoing of the various curses that can be cast upon you. And what about the terrors of psychic attack? In the Book of Ieou, one of the apochryphal <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnostic_gospels" target="_blank">Gnostic Gospels</a>, Christ describes a pair of obstructing <a href="http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/vida_alien/alien_archons02.htm" target="_blank">Archons</a> named Samaelo and Chochochoucha which, on reaching the fourth aeon during the stages of spiritual ascension, seek to derail one's spiritual evolution at its most critical point. The Archons in general are alien predators and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nag_Hammadi_library" target="_blank">Nag Hammadi texts</a> describe them as heavy, elusive shadow-creatures. The Gnostics taught that the true mind of human beings (<i>nous authenticos</i>) is part of the cosmic intelligence that pervades nature, but due to Archontic intrusion, this native "genius" can be subverted and even occupied by another mind. They warned that the Archons invade the human psyche and may also confront us physically as well. Their main impact though is on our paradigms and beliefs.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Castaneda" target="_blank">Carlos Castaneda's</a> Don Juan Matus similarly describes how in the past, entity-like "predators" (also called "flyers" or "mud shadows") infiltrated us with their belief systems, ideas of good and bad, and social mores - making us think they were our own. Don Juan relates how they struck at a point in the past when man was a 'complete being' with incredible levels of awareness. The predators came from the depths of the cosmos, gave us their mind and thus man became sedated and enslaved. In <a href="http://leschroniquesdaragonne.wordpress.com/2012/06/12/the-predator-mind-by-carlos-castaneda/" target="_blank">The Predator Mind</a>, he explains how the predators continue to use religions and ideologies to engender fear and fuel the ego. They then eat our divine energy - the glowing coat of awareness around our bodies - and we become their food:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>By playing on our self-reflection, which is the only point of awareness left to us, the predators create flares of awareness that they proceed to consume in a ruthless, predatory fashion. They give us inane problems that force those flares of awareness to rise, and in this manner they keep us alive in order for them to be fed with the energetic flare of our pseudo-concerns.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The evil described here is, for sure, full of unpleasant outcomes. But Don Juan also makes it clear that the flyers are an essential part of the universe and the means by which it becomes aware of itself. Crucially, the evil of the predator is a "challenge" which can be overcome. The sorcerers discovered that if they taxed the flyers' mind with inner silence, eventually it would leave. The flyers' mind flees forever when we succeed in grabbing on to the vibrating force that holds us together as a conglomerate of energy fields. If we maintain that pressure for long enough, the flyers' mind withdraws in defeat because it has little concentration. With the discipline of perpetual serenity and an unflinching awe at the episodes of 'energetic flare' engineered to ensnare us, our glowing coat of awareness becomes unpalatable to the predator. In fact it grows, enabling our continuity in the universe. This evil is therefore friend as much as foe. Seen as grist for the mill of spiritual practice, it is more a type of complementary "anti-force" that can accelerate and liberate us.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.johnderuiter.com/" target="_blank">John de Ruiter</a> is perhaps the most renowned advocate of this view. In his dialogue "<a href="http://www.davidicke.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1043" target="_blank">What is evil?</a>" he speaks of an alternate dimension which has exhausted its reserves of Truth and taken over the Earth plane, entwining itself with our reality. Apparently we are mined as a source of food through tension, which is calculated to pull us out of what we are. Our mental and emotional reactions to this pressure yields an energetic output which can be fed upon. Further, many of us are expanding in consciousness, so an ever higher amount of energy can be mined from us. The energy we are capable of putting out becomes irresistible and because that energy is so high, the tension attacks us more since we pose a threat to it and promise even greater energetic yields. The idea is that as we begin to integrate what we are, we understand more and are able to see what is going on. The tension therefore only gets bigger until we die. We are a perpetual focus until we are shut down.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But de Ruiter says we can be "awesomely OK" with this force which attempts to separate, hurt and destroy. For him, the solution to all of this is to be what you honestly are, which is not a reaction, but a response to our 'innermost.' This is very painful and uncomfortable but it is easy. By not reacting, we will not give our energy away in response to tension and pressure. Energy will not be released outside of us but within us. When we surrender to what we are, we begin to awaken. This involves being highly responsive and making no move to alleviate that tension. That tension must be allowed to go anywhere inside of us and do anything with us that it wants. So it’s not extending ourselves outwards to stop something because it’s affecting our happiness, but the opposite. It’s completely opening up to what is and ‘what is’ being allowed to go inside and have free rein. When we are unconditionally and warmly OK with being devoured and destroyed, then the force of evil can do nothing. <i>It cannot touch you.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">From these descriptions it seems clear that while evil definitely exists, it can be transformed. It is not remote or separate from existence, rather, it is an indisputable part of it. Perhaps the only evil here then, is the suggestion that evil is something fixed and unchanging - something absolute and totally independent - that is inherently or externally immutable. If we accept this, we are permanently stuck with Satan as a negative adversary and the world falls cleanly apart into an irreconcilable battlefield between good and evil. Advaita gives us another option. Evil exists but because everything is the Self or Brahman, evil is also divine. The danger here though is that we resurrect the spectre of ultimate states by saying that there is always some "thing" that everything 'really' or truly is. By this token, evil is one thing posing as another, which revives the endless dualism that lies at the heart of the problem.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Perhaps we would be better off saying that while evil can be experienced, it is transient. Just like the flyers, the demons of our minds are merely fleeting phantasms. There is not really any Satan - or any divinity either -<i> but whether we realise this depends entirely on</i> <i>who is looking.</i> To the critics of the Chi-Ting Master we therefore say:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The great saw him as great</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>While the small him as small</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>To the angels he was an angel</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>And <u>to the devils</u> he was a devil ...</b></div></div><div id="fb-root"></div><script>(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1";
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script><br />
<div class="fb-like" data-href="http://www.facebook.com/Chi-TingApocalypse" data-send="true" data-width="450" data-show-faces="false"></div><br />
<a href="https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-via="Kevinandaji">Tweet</a><br />
<script>!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');</script>Chi-Ting Masterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13888421252904281860noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3038378606356803239.post-11005605633183205632013-01-12T14:21:00.001+00:002013-07-07T15:25:25.038+01:00Girlfriend from hell!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAidoCCCbgrb2tmKXeE5sGzuBetXww1l2DIbfsJobsfRtRgsdWTz8hgvPLA77e3bAdYt0S_B1vFIW1cJka9lVtbF95yWeyUnJx73AP3UJcuCdjU46cnM1pgso_w4bqhaGgDusJGR6VQoE/s1600/Unmani2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAidoCCCbgrb2tmKXeE5sGzuBetXww1l2DIbfsJobsfRtRgsdWTz8hgvPLA77e3bAdYt0S_B1vFIW1cJka9lVtbF95yWeyUnJx73AP3UJcuCdjU46cnM1pgso_w4bqhaGgDusJGR6VQoE/s320/Unmani2.jpg" width="360" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Dearly beloved Chi-Ting devotees</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://youtu.be/8TVvbswZJ9Y" target="_blank">His Holiness Sri Sri <i>SRI</i> Kevinandaji</a> would like to refute in the strongest possible terms the defamatory and disgusting rumours that have been circulating since the New Year Chi-Ting office party. It's true that he was last seen wearing only a satanic face mask and a leather double headed cod piece screaming: "<i>I wanna fuck Babylon!</i>" and then howling like a wolf. But it is a total fabrication to suggest that His Holiness has ever shagged <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anunnaki" target="_blank">Anunnaki</a> satsang psycho <a href="http://www.not-knowing.com/" target="_blank">Unmani</a> <i>(she of the very scary <a href="http://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/bell-caligula-1998-s.jpg" target="_blank">Margaret Thatcher eyes</a>!)</i> A full meeting of the Chi-Ting Politburo has been called to find out exactly what illicit substances were put in the party punch. A rather sheepish <a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/17069042992324478464" target="_blank">Sister Klaus</a> has admitted to lacing the brew with some very scary hallucinogenic compounds in revenge for certain noxious comments made about her former lover Sven. A full confession will be forthcoming ... His Holiness has acknowledged knowing Unmani's guru <a href="http://www.dolano.com/" target="_blank">Dolano</a> from their junkie days in the Görlitzer Straße squat, Kreuzberg, Berlin in the late 70s. However Kevinandaji categorically states that even though there were reports of an unnamed woman screaming and shrieking as she was chased at gunpoint from the Chi-Ting compound, he has never <i>ever</i> had any form of sexual congress with that monstrous harpy Unmani ...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Yours <strike>Bill Clinton</strike> Sri Sri <i>SRI</i> Kevinandaji</b></div></div><div id="fb-root"></div><script>(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1";
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script><br />
<div class="fb-like" data-href="http://www.facebook.com/Chi-TingApocalypse" data-send="true" data-width="450" data-show-faces="false"></div><br />
<a href="https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-via="Kevinandaji">Tweet</a><br />
<script>!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');</script> Chi-Ting Masterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13888421252904281860noreply@blogger.com54tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3038378606356803239.post-70926732292174918252013-01-05T22:41:00.000+00:002013-07-07T15:25:57.620+01:00Baby Ben and Jeff: a love story<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="355" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/jCH1EkpEwnU" width="460"></iframe><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Boring, self-indulgent wankery ... we couldn't agree more ...</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><br />
</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We switched off after 5 minutes, how long did you last? Baby Ben looking like a freshly squeezed zit with a scary rictal grin, sitting next to that horse-faced bloke from Brighton. In this Youtube they tell us "Awareness is Nothing and Everything" as they giggle and stroke each others' egos. <i>Wot a pair of girls!</i> ...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">We've had our beady eye on <a href="http://www.free-awareness.com/about-us/teachers/57-bentinho-massaro-founder-teacher" target="_blank">Bentinho Massaro</a> since he turned up in Tiru in Feb 2011 with his now ex, <a href="http://karen-richards.com/" target="_blank">Karen Richards</a>. He pursued that well-worn path to gurudom, a debut satsang on Ragini's Rooftop <i>(following in the hallowed footsteps of <a href="http://www.karlrenz.com/" target="_blank">Führer Renz</a> and <a href="http://www.mooji.org/" target="_blank">Mooji</a>!)</i> Baby Ben is spiritual ambition incarnate and his determination to be a star in the firmament was obvious from the start. He was weaned by <a href="http://www.virtuescience.com/candice.jpg" target="_blank">Candice O'Denver</a><b> </b>who fed him on the mother's milk of her <a href="http://www.saieditor.com/stars/odenver.html" target="_blank">Great Freedom Teaching</a>, itself a blatant rip-off of the work of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dzogchen_Ponlop_Rinpoche">Ponlop Rinpoche</a> and certain <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dzogchen" target="_blank">Dzogchen</a> teachings. Even worse, Candice was rumoured to have a "satsang machine": a device with an electromagnetic pulse possibly affecting DMT output of the pineal gland, which radiated theta and alpha rays to keep her audience in a blissful etheric state <i>(certainly everybody in the seminar room in Tapovan Resort, Laxman Jhula, Rishikesh in early 2006 had a big grin on and shiny eyes as if they were on drugs!)</i> We heard Baby Ben cribbed all the Great Freedom Teaching and copy-pasted it on to his own website, <a href="http://free-awareness.com/">Free Awareness</a>, before being ordered by Candice's gang to remove it and do his own homework instead. <i>This boy is so gauche, so full of himself, he doesn't even get the irony of asking the punters on his site to donate to "free" awareness!</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Meanwhile <a href="http://www.lifewithoutacentre.com/" target="_blank">Jeff Foster</a>, a failed Cambridge academic, blatantly stole his manifesto from <a href="http://www.theopensecret.com/" target="_blank">Tony Parsons</a> and gave him none of the credit. Jeff has denied going to see any teachers but would secretly lurk at the back of Tony's meetings in Hampstead. After his so-called epiphany, Foster went to see Parsons to tell him what had happened and get confirmation of his newly arrived spiritual status. Apparently Parsons laughed in his face and told him it was "a very nice story" <i>(i.e. implying that Foster was totally deluded!)</i> Jeff was gutted and stormed off in a tantrum never to forgive or forget this affront to his dignity. This didn't stop him however from setting up shop almost immediately. But while his book <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/871894.Life_Without_A_Centre">Life Without A Centre</a> has even made it to the fabled Ganapati Library, his meetings are an absolute disaster <i>(he has all the personality of a wet fish!)</i> An arena for safe, cosy enlightenment, yoga mums endlessly emote about their spiritual search while Jeff just listens, nods and grins. Any radical edge has been emasculated and he is totally devoid of charisma, warmth or insight. The session itself is aimless and dead. Jeff goes from banal statements about "the ocean and the wave" to even lamely agreeing with hecklers that his words are dry and lifeless. We were desperate to get to the interval but then we had to make our own cup of tea! <i>At least Tony Parsons has <a href="http://richardsylvester1.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Richard Sylvester</a> as his official chai wallah!</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">We asked <a href="http://chi-ting.blogspot.co.uk/2008/12/news-from-tvmalai.html" target="_blank">Chi-Ting Reporter Satsang Barbie</a> for an informal tête-à-tête with Karen Richards who has recently arrived in Tiru. They met at the deluxe Shanti Internet Cappuccino Bar for a Girls' Own Gripe <i>(there's nothing better than getting all the dirt from a jilted lover!)</i>:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>SB:</b> So Karen, what happened?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>KR:</b> Bentinho sacked me in California and made off with a blonde 20 years younger!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>SB:</b> How terrible, you must have been devastated!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>KR:</b> There was always something of the night about him. He is a bestial homunculus!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>SB:</b> I see ...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>KR:</b> And his friendship with that Jeff was distinctly dodgy!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>SB:</b> What exactly are you saying?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>KR:</b> Frankly some of his sexual demands verged on <i>The Greek</i>, if you know what I mean!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>SB:</b> You think he is just using that blonde as a cover for his depravities?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>KR:</b> I was used and then thrown away like a disposable tissue!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>SB:</b> So what do you say to people who say your satsang is like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listen_with_mother">Listen With Mother</a> on mogadon?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>(Karen sobs into her latte. Satsang Barbie then offers more sympathy and a range of competitively priced therapies at her next California seminar! ... )</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><br />
</b> What do Baby Ben and Jeff have in common? They are a divine union of plagiarists who have complete contempt for their audience. Bentinho is Mr Awareness parroting corporate Buddhist mantras while Jeff feeds on the carcass of Tony Parsons, unashamedly pocketing his catchphrases, "This is it!" and "Nothing being everything." Together we get the no-brainer: "Awareness is Nothing and Everything." <i>It ain't rocket science!</i><br />
<b><br />
</b> <b>No wonder they are bosom buddies with their hands down each other's trousers! Both are shoddy second hand salesmen devoid of any vestige of originality. For them non-duality is just a career move for their own greater glory! It's a marriage made in heaven!</b></div></div></div><div id="fb-root"></div><script>(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1";
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script><br />
<div class="fb-like" data-href="http://www.facebook.com/Chi-TingApocalypse" data-send="true" data-width="450" data-show-faces="false"></div><br />
<a href="https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-via="Kevinandaji">Tweet</a><br />
<script>!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');</script>Chi-Ting Masterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13888421252904281860noreply@blogger.com48tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3038378606356803239.post-82228596815337624752012-12-25T15:46:00.000+00:002013-07-07T15:26:25.143+01:00Fuck the Mayan calendar!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisLeYodE_p9vz1W4c5yXQBdnC9y-ZfIwMBIkbGc2BhMylZ-gTT4LkQIO7qwJrORe56vczwgSCkqVJxaoVpmwa4ZGnzTCiI7SLjCzjQECc_X6mKd6TZ2_is5YyO_Ll12lQicTYE0MZhTAc/s1600/Chi-Ting+++Dos+Equis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisLeYodE_p9vz1W4c5yXQBdnC9y-ZfIwMBIkbGc2BhMylZ-gTT4LkQIO7qwJrORe56vczwgSCkqVJxaoVpmwa4ZGnzTCiI7SLjCzjQECc_X6mKd6TZ2_is5YyO_Ll12lQicTYE0MZhTAc/s400/Chi-Ting+++Dos+Equis.jpg" width="420" /></a></div><b><br />
</b><b>Dearly beloved Chi-Ting devotees</b><br />
<b><br />
</b> Never mind about the Fifth Dimension, the End of Time, imminent cataclysm and the deliberate extermination of the human race which is so obviously under way ... <a href="http://youtu.be/8TVvbswZJ9Y" target="_blank">His Holiness Sri Sri <i>SRI </i>Swami Kevinandaji</a> is pleased to announce the joyous advent of a new revelation:<br />
<br />
During the annual Chi-Ting party, a newly indoctrinated Chi-Ting devotee <a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/10230980297633998598" target="_blank">Commander Alkar</a> <i>(the renegade progeny of Ashtar Command)</i> was found writhing in ecstasy beneath an apple tree shrieking: "<i>This is it! This is it!</i>" Having just partaken of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimethyltryptamine" target="_blank">DMT</a> Pipe of Peace - offered round by our beloved <a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/17069042992324478464" target="_blank">Sister Klaus</a> who deigned to leave her cave for the festive season - the Commander duly departed in his fleet of ships; saved the universe by destroying the reptilian threat once and for all; and returned for a celebratory cheese fondue and a line of coke somewhere in the region of the Swiss Alps ...<br />
<br />
<i>So rejoice!</i> While the forces of materialism continue their rapacious bout of seasonal gluttony (like the parents in the manga movie <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirited_Away" target="_blank">Spirited Away</a>) ... we no longer need to fear that the Mayan calendar has come and gone. <i>What happened? Nothing or everything? And is it the same thing?</i> All this apocalyptic frenzy is an integral part of the human psyche. It's a cliff hanger: just another story to tell ... a potboiler plot with all the momentary thrill of a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Brown" target="_blank">Dan Brown</a> novel and the added anti-climax of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foucault's_Pendulum" target="_blank">Foucault's Pendulum</a>. A veritable tale of expectation followed by inevitable disappointment, we have been kindling our fire for millennia with the heroic myth of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilgamesh" target="_blank">Gilgamesh</a> and the likes of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odysseus" target="_blank">Odysseus</a> with his dodgy wooden horse. Even the smiting and smoting of the Old Testament has a certain base and bestial allure. The human imagination craves entertainment and this is the biggest game in town. We at Chi-Ting may snipe from the sidelines with our own brand of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Swift" target="_blank">Swiftian</a> mockery but that too is part of the pageant -<i> </i>the colour and flavour of the fickle mob brought to riotous life with a sharply penned phrase or two!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>The corridors of time converge and the clock stops</i> ... Perhaps during this momentary and pregnant pause in the collective psyche, the battered remnants of the counter culture will make their last stand along with any other fellow passengers on the Spaced Out Enterprise. A new vista beckons. Could there be a sea change from the spectacular freefall into Corporate Nightmare World that we are currently witnessing? Maybe we will live to see some form of 60s' Star Trek socialism all trussed up in camp velcro uniforms! <i>(Let's just call it the Neue World Order!)</i> Has our long promised shiny new utopian world actually arrived? Or have our ET chums been indefinitely delayed at customs? Time is allegedly no more yet we still seem to be here resplendent in all our 3D glory: lumpy, grumpy, warts 'n' all! Are we destined to be forever stuck in the same 'ol game of charades - <i>and ultimately does it matter?</i><br />
<br />
<b>The bottom line is who gives a flying fuck. The time for contemplating our navel is over ...</b><br />
<b>Just seize the day. It's bold and beautiful out there!</b></div></div><div id="fb-root"></div><script>(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1";
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script><br />
<div class="fb-like" data-href="http://www.facebook.com/Chi-TingApocalypse" data-send="true" data-width="450" data-show-faces="false"></div><br />
<a href="https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-via="Kevinandaji">Tweet</a><br />
<script>!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');</script>Chi-Ting Masterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13888421252904281860noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3038378606356803239.post-38247391440285302182012-12-08T18:12:00.000+00:002013-07-07T15:26:50.151+01:00Danse macabre<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAQ8-g_YPk-0Vw75oXQhIOPYrBL1XsEHD-4Z7hE344kUhjTrjRvMXxeZkofQhvk00gSUzUDfidC2PFNU8W1oA7QQmB5bNtzANnzVyrhu5VjnsFXJMFEo3E0aDlrNK7cmQ9j_jogK9KAeY/s1600/Bonfire-procession-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="335" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAQ8-g_YPk-0Vw75oXQhIOPYrBL1XsEHD-4Z7hE344kUhjTrjRvMXxeZkofQhvk00gSUzUDfidC2PFNU8W1oA7QQmB5bNtzANnzVyrhu5VjnsFXJMFEo3E0aDlrNK7cmQ9j_jogK9KAeY/s400/Bonfire-procession-5.jpg" width="460" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The circle of "<b>I</b>" goes like this ...</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Round</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Like a circle in a spiral</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Like a wheel within a wheel</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Never ending or beginning</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>On an ever spinning reel</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Like a snowball down a mountain</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Or a carnival balloon</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Like a carousel that's turning</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Running rings around the moon</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Like a clock whose hands are sweeping</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Past the minutes of its face</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>And the world is like an apple</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Whirling silently in space</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Like the circles that you find</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>In the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEhS9Y9HYjU" target="_blank">windmills of your mind!</a></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">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 ...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">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 <i>still</i> fighting about Traditional and Neo Advaita (oblivious of the fact they're really all closet <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_Vedic_religion" target="_blank">Brahmanists</a> with a Buddhist twist); and the satsang world whoring themselves with gay abandon, protesting their many versions of Truth. <i>(Just imagine the scenes of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Foucault" target="_blank">Foucault's</a> promiscuity and perversion on the L.A. Bathhouse scene in the 70s: Mooji, Madhu and the gang jamming for all their worth!)</i> ... And if you're really <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O52jAYa4Pm8" target="_blank">psycho killer qu'est-ce que c'est</a>, why not become a Born Again Christian?!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>If none of this does it for you, please take drugs ... It's simpler, cleaner and more honest ...</i> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">So where do we go from here? Because all we really have is an everlasting homage to the "<b>I</b>". Either the "<b>I</b>" 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 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatalism" target="_blank">fatalism</a>. Or there is the "<b>I</b>" with the power to shape its own destiny. Here the "<b>I</b>" can meditate or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-enquiry" target="_blank">self-enquire</a> 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 "<b>I</b>" stays intact: <i>an apparition of infinity like the Face of Death staring through the crowd</i> ...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>But there is no "<b>I</b>".</i> And it's even worse than that. There is no "<b>I</b>" and yet we experience life as though there is. Further it's not just that there is no "<b>I</b>" (and rather weirdly, there is). There isn't <i>truly</i> any "thing" either! <i>What to do?!</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">All of this sounds suspiciously Buddhist rather than Advaitic. The Buddha taught the doctrine of no self (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatman" target="_blank">anātman</a>) which properly understood, maintains that everything is empty (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%9A%C5%ABnyat%C4%81" target="_blank">śūnyatā</a>) or "self-less" because it is interdependent (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prat%C4%ABtyasamutp%C4%81da" target="_blank">pratītyasamutpāda</a>). Put another way, nothing has any independent existence or any substantial nature of its own. Something wholly independent such as an "<b>I</b>" 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 <a href="http://www12.canvas.ne.jp/horai/heart-sk.htm" target="_blank">Heart Sutra</a> 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, <i>including ourselves, </i>are both concrete happenings yet fleeting phantasms ... <i>The paradox will drive you nuts!</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This leaves us with the thorny issue of exactly what "separation" is, if there is no such thing as the "<b>I</b>". 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 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madhyamaka" target="_blank">Madhyamaka Buddhists</a> who solve this conundrum, using a sophisticated tool called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_truths_doctrine" target="_blank">The Two Truths</a> (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 <i>is</i> separation because it definitely exists and is experienced.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">From the Madhyamakan perspective, there is not<i> truly</i> any enlightenment to be attained and no one really there to attain it. The correct term for "enlightenment" in Buddhism is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana" target="_blank">nirvāṇa</a> and just like separation, this too is empty and interdependent. Thus we have the famous statement of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagarjuna" target="_blank">Nagarjuna</a>, that there is no difference between the world (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa%E1%B9%83s%C4%81ra" target="_blank">samsāra</a> or the cycle of existence) and nirvana<i> ... </i>that's the "ultimate truth" (Sanskrit: paramārthasatya, Tibetan:<i style="font-style: italic;"> </i>don-dam bden-pa). But we also have the undeniable fact that nonetheless samsara<i> </i>exists and it is very different from nirvana ... this is the "relative truth" (Sanskrit: samvṛtisatya, Tibetan: kun-rdzob bden-pa) ...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">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 <i>truly</i> 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 <i>truly</i> 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 ...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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 "<b>I</b>" 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 (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternalism" target="_blank">sassatavāda</a>). These are both ultimate states, between which the Buddha strove so hard to carve a Middle Way (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_way" target="_blank">madhyamāpratipad</a>). For Buddhists, Advaitic statements such as "There is only the Self" and "I am That" are therefore the conceit of asmimana or "self-identification"<i> (an "<b>I</b>"-centric autoerotic form of fellatio or for the unintiated, a self-pollinating blow job!)</i> 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 ...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">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 "<b>I</b>" has never been seen ...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But of course, nothing is ever so straightforward.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">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 "<b>I</b>" it is attempting to eradicate. Then you can add into the mix its chronic misogyny <i>(if you're a femme better luck next incarnation!)</i> 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. <i>We cannot divorce the metaphysics from the murky nature of the institution ...</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">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. <i>(Obviously they didn't understand the Buddha's teaching of emptiness!)</i> 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 <i>where there has been no spiritual practice whatsoever</i> ... 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.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">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 ... <i>something may happen ... or not. </i>The seeker is reduced to suicidal despair at the sheer uncontrollability of it all <i>(or in the case of <a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/17069042992324478464" target="_blank">Sister Klaus</a> self harm and high velocity genital mutilation!) </i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This must be why the "<b>I</b>" 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 ... <i>(the <a href="http://chi-ting.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/yoga-of-silence.html" target="_blank">Madhukar</a> syndrome!) </i>The next step is the ultimate addiction ... the conquest of illumination. <i>The search for enlightenment is the biggest bully on the block!</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The circle of "<b>I</b>" goes round and round ... It seems the traditional practices never left us and are constantly rebranded under new commercial agendas. <i>There is absolutely nothing new under the sun!</i> 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. <i>It's not a new world that awaits us, just a steroid enhanced cyborg version of an ancient nightmare!</i></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">However ... it is only when we are faced with the full hypocrisy of the "<b>I</b>" that we can finally unmask it. In Roger Corman's 60s' camp horror - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Masque_of_the_Red_Death" target="_blank">Masque of the Red Death</a> - Prince Prospero (played by the leering <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Price" target="_blank">Vincent Price</a>) 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 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danse_Macabre" target="_blank">Danse Macabre</a>. 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 ... <i>the end of his own life!</i></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">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 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_death" target="_blank">Black Death</a> 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 <i>(or in this case gurus!)</i> The irony is that even in our diversity, we are all the same ... <i>There are no special ones</i> ...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Face of Death appears and this <i>could</i> be the end ... Or it might be just the beginning. For the Buddhist there never was an "<b>I</b>" to eliminate. For the Advaitins there definitely is an "<b>I</b>" 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."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Meanwhile the horror of the Black Death heralded the destruction of the feudal system and provided the seedbed for the flowering of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance" target="_blank">Renaissance</a>. 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 <i>seems</i> to have been turned up. Maybe we are going through the birth pangs of a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_New_World" target="_blank">Brave New World</a> but will we have the pain-free entry into the E.T. assisted utopia that our New Age pals predict?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>It seems unlikely. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_materialism#Historical_materialism_and_the_future" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank"> historical process</a> 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 ... <i>Betcha can't wait for the main course!</i></b></div></div><div id="fb-root"></div><script>(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1";
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script><br />
<div class="fb-like" data-href="http://www.facebook.com/Chi-TingApocalypse" data-send="true" data-width="450" data-show-faces="false"></div><br />
<a href="https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-via="Kevinandaji">Tweet</a><br />
<script>!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');</script>Chi-Ting Masterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13888421252904281860noreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3038378606356803239.post-69123346136698248752012-11-04T13:09:00.001+00:002013-07-07T15:27:31.720+01:00The darkness before dawn?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgllAh1YTBxWzXzHMZw6Pgi05gFzPrpQUOV_ZGdcIDpGtEbbPPHyn-Ywq0ap0g5zEb6p7W0TSdL6Qfrrs521QDWhR816fyUKl362uFvwFYscqXYmkPhabZIEDa3eweAPT3mfbhXp5ACCis/s1600/Earth-Changes4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="335" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgllAh1YTBxWzXzHMZw6Pgi05gFzPrpQUOV_ZGdcIDpGtEbbPPHyn-Ywq0ap0g5zEb6p7W0TSdL6Qfrrs521QDWhR816fyUKl362uFvwFYscqXYmkPhabZIEDa3eweAPT3mfbhXp5ACCis/s320/Earth-Changes4.jpg" width="460" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>2012 theories and the revelations of Siva Sakthi Ammaiyar ...</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We live in interesting times," as the enigmatic Chinese saying goes. Extreme weather conditions, economic meltdown and an elite oligarchy who do not even bother to hide the fact that they are robbing the coffers blind ... A population so stupefied they don't know or don't care as long as they get the latest iPhone and their hit of reality TV ... Add to this mixture the magic numerology of 2012, a few apocalyptic messengers and the promise of ET disclosure - <i>and you have a potent bitches' brew of End Time eschatology!</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In Tiruvannamalai, the deluge of Cyclone Neelam has just drenched the streets. Local sage <a href="http://www.sivasakthiammaiyar.com/" target="_blank">Siva Sakthi Ammaiyar</a> has published <a href="http://www.sivasakthiammaiyar.com/about_amma.html" target="_blank">numerous predictions on her website</a> for the seismic changes now upon us:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>At the end of 2012, there will be lots of chances for having ‘natural calamities’: earthquakes, heavy rain, etc… all over the world. In Tamil Nadu, it will be less. In Western countries it will be a lot more. There are a lot of saints and siddhas who have meditated in Tamil Nadu. That’s why the impact of ‘natural calamities’ will be less here.</i></div><div class="style11"><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><br />
</i></div></div><div class="style11"><div style="text-align: justify;">Siva Sakthi explains that in 2012 the Earth is going to rotate faster and then slow down again - because of the weight of humanity's karma. Our planet is not able to tolerate <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adharma" target="_blank">adharma</a><i>, </i>the path against nature or the 'truthless path'. So this is causing the atma jyothi - the light of atma or light of the spirit - to come to the centre with a 'jerk' <i>(perhaps a major vibrational change or axis shift?)</i> In March 2011, she gave her one of her most detailed predictions of the troubles to come:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>There are more 'natural calamities' waiting to happen throughout the world by way of water, earthquakes and tornados. Natural calamities will happen in India. There will be loss of lives. Tamil Nadu will also be affected: wind and heavy rains; extreme heat. There will be a small, but felt, earthquake in Tamil Nadu. Rameswaram and Kanyakumari will get heavy rain and wind, which will cause the wave surge on the beaches in Rameswaram to get higher. People living on the coastline need to be very alert and careful. Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka will get heavier winds and rains and more destruction ...</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Siva Sakthi then advises that these 'natural calamities' can be mitigated through <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C4%81dhan%C4%81" target="_blank">sadhana</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhakti" target="_blank">bhakti</a>. If we close our eyes and meditate, she counsels, focusing on the Diamond Light (manickam) inside for ten minutes each time, this light will then travel upwards and clear our personal karmic blockages in the head.<i> (Basically if you're pure enough, you will survive these troubled times!)</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Siva Sakthi's 2012 predictions take the form of an End Time scenario involving morality and environmental disaster. The indigenous wisdom of particularly North and South America and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogon_people" target="_blank">Dogon peoples</a> of West Africa foretells major Earth changes and contact by "star beings" (i.e. extraterrestrials) who they say, have always been in contact with their ancestors, elders and shamans. <a href="http://www.crystalinks.com/chippewa.html" target="_blank">The predictions of Chippewa medicine woman No Eyes</a>, recorded from the early 1970s by Mary Summer Rain, point to the earthquakes, nuclear accidents, extraterrestrial visitors, and economic meltdown to come. Perhaps most famously she says that when the Phoenix Days come - the time of the world's regeneration - there will be a greenish hue in the sky. Robert Morning Sky's <a href="http://www.humanitywinsilluminatilose.com/?p=2374" target="_blank">Terra Papers</a> give an elaborate galactic history, revealed by an ET named Bek' Ti to his (alleged) Native American grandfather. The <a href="http://www.crawford2000.co.uk/famous-hopi-indian-prophecies.htm" target="_blank">Hopi Prophecies</a> have also long spoken about the emergence of the Fifth World making reference to World War III and the time when Saquasohuh - the Blue Star Kachina - will dance in the plaza <i>(presumably an alien landing of some sort or the arrival of a star or comet)</i>.<br />
<br />
Non-human races are a huge feature of Endtime predictions both old and new. Some commentators think that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostradamus" target="_blank">Nostradamus</a> predicted how the existence of ETs will be revealed. In <a href="http://www.spiritual-knowledge.net/human/nostradamus-quatrains-4.php" target="_blank">Century 4-28</a>, he says that with the event of Venus covering the Sun, a previously "hidden form" will come into view. Broadly interpreted, the quatrain possibly hints that world leaders will take an aggressive, warlike stance at this discovery. Additionally, as early as 1448 we have the detailed <a href="http://www.alien-ufos.com/armageddon-end-times/36607-mother-shipton-prophecy.html" target="_blank">Mother Shipton Prophecy</a>. These few lines are particularly striking:<br />
<br />
<i>And before the race is built anew, a silver serpent comes to view </i><br />
<i>And spews out men of like unknown, to mingle with the earth now grown. </i><br />
<i>Cold from its heat and these men can, enlighten the minds of future man. </i><br />
<i>To intermingle and show them how, to live and love and thus endow </i><br />
<i>The children with the second sight. A natural thing so that they might </i><br />
<i>Grow graceful, humble and when they do, the Golden Age will start anew.</i><br />
<br />
Some think the "silver serpent" Mother Shipton mentions is an alien ship - and in the minds of many, these older and more ancient references make the existence of extraterrestrials an indisputable fact. As a result these narratives have been linked to the end of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_calendar" target="_blank">Mayan calendar</a> and also modern spiritual teachings of ascension, which state that under extraterrestrial guidance, mankind is currently moving to a higher dimensional (or fully <i>inter</i>-dimensional) reality. Thus today we have multiple websites sporting the channelled messages of <a href="http://www.ashtarcommand.org/" target="_blank">Ashtar Command</a>, the <a href="http://www.galacticfederationoflight.info/" target="_blank">Galactic Federation of Light</a> (as channelled by Sheldan Nidle, Mike Quinsey, Greg Giles, Wes Annac, Steve Beckow etc), the <a href="http://www.andromedacouncil.com/" target="_blank">Andromeda Council</a> and many more. All speak of a battle between the forces of light and dark, the better of which are fighting for control of the planet and the coming of mankind's Golden Age.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.davidicke.com/" target="_blank">David Icke</a> who has visited Tiru as a guest of <a href="http://www.cosmicairport.com/" target="_blank">Jacqueline Marie Longstaff</a> has long championed claims that an offworld race is controlling Earth via an organisation known as the Babylonian Brotherhood (the Illuminati, Bilderbergers, the IMF, the UN, etc etc). His infamous theory is that a reptilian intelligence called the Anunnaki from the Draco constellation is drinking our blood and has imprisoned us in a low vibration holographic reality, having seeded itself in an elite bloodline including that of the Rockefellers and Rothschilds, the Bush family and the British monarchy. These days the mockery has truly worn off since many of his outlandish predictions have come true (e.g. the Gulf of Mexico/New Orleans hurricanes; the attack on New York in 2001; the corporate Orwellian nightmare scenario and the New World Order; an engineered economic crash in 2008; and the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL972JihAmg" target="_blank">paedophilia of Jimmy Savile linked to the British government </a>and Prince Charles).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The progenitor of Icke's vision is Pleiadean channeller <a href="http://www.pleiadians.com/" target="_blank">Barbara Marciniak</a><b> </b>(she encouraged him to discuss reptilian bloodlines). In her cult classic <a href="http://www.ebooksoneverything.com/extraterrestrial/bringers-of-the-dawn.pdf" target="_blank">Bringers of the Dawn</a>, she explains how - 300,000 years ago - Earth was wrested from the hands of the Original Planners of the Family of Light and taken over by "space beings" who were part reptilian and part human. "The Lizzies" as she affectionately calls them, temporarily inserted themselves on Earth via a portal in the Middle East and proceeded to biologically engineer forms of life. Critically they downgraded human DNA from twelve strands to two in order to control mankind - and continue to this day, to feed on human emotions such as fear and violence as their source of nourishment. <i>Further, these "Creator Gods" are set to return.</i> It is therefore the spiritual task of humanity to throw off its reptilian shackles and activate the Living Library of Earth: to restore Earth and humanity to the forefront of creation. Apparently, at this time in history the Lizzies are losing control of the planet and our DNA helix is retooling. Additionally, just like the Pleiadeans, we are Game Masters who have the capacity to orchestrate reality in order to learn the value of life. By using our sexuality as a bridge to higher consciousness and restoring the feminine principle within each and every one of us, we can reclaim our cosmic birthright ...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The master narrative on which these modern contemporaries draw is the work of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zecharia_Sitchin" target="_blank">Zecharia Sitchin</a>. He translated the ancient Sumerian clay tablets which in the Babylonian creation myth, the Enûma Eliš<i>, </i>speak of a non-human race called the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annunaki" target="_blank">Anunnaki</a>. Sitchin said their name means "those who from heaven to earth came" and identified the Anunnaki with the Biblical Nephilim (the "Watchers" of the Book of Enoch). Then he sensationally declared that 450,000 years ago these aliens had come to Earth from the Planet Nibiru to mine for gold and minerals. However, they also mutinied in protest at their working conditions <i>(sounds a bit like our so-called free market!)</i> and as a result, head honcho Enki decided to outsource labour to improve production. With his half-sister Ninhursag, he genetically engineered a hybrid slave worker: a crossbreed of Anunnaki genes with <i>homo erectus. </i>The Anunnaki 'Gods' then departed after some seriously fratricidal in-fighting but left a genetically pumped up hybrid - a blue blood/reptilian elite - in charge to mind the shop <i>(hence that famous nonsense the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_right_of_kings" target="_blank">Divine Right of Kings</a>!)</i> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Meanwhile an important alternative cosmology comes from the little known Welsh psychic surgeon, Chris Thomas, who claims to be hardwired into the Akashic records. On his <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Zf7scVDQ1g" target="_blank">two recent Youtubes</a>, he reveals that the reptilian influence came from a group called the 14th Faction who have systematically attempted to eradicate free will in our universe. His idée fixe involves something called the Human Plan where the population of the planet must complete their "soul reintegration" by the end of 2012. In the last 300 years however, an alien race called the Velon (with their 6 subtribes including the Hathor and the Anunnaki) have attempted to sabotage the Human Plan via their acolytes, the Illuminati, and claim Earth for themselves. He therefore suggests that the work of Marciniak and Sitchin <i>plus all channelled material</i> is a product of the Velon agenda: a reality insert meant to confuse mankind and make them think the Velon are their saviours and creators (i.e. the Gods incarnate). In a similar vein, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=acLnHsPhihs" target="_blank">Peggy Kane</a> exposes the dark underbelly of both angelic consciousnesses <i>and</i> media depictions of blood, horror and war. Through her use of extensive <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_speech" target="_blank">reverse speech analysis</a>, she maintains that these are simply reptilian strategies for feeding on human emotions. But she goes even further. She says that these entities are energetically raping us while we sleep. They are torturing humans and literally consuming their flesh in hanging pens on Orion and Mars <i>(like a particularly grisly meatlocker scene from the TV series "V"!)</i></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">Where does all this leave us? Perhaps with a lot less than we might imagine ...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Take Barbara Marciniak. On closer inspection, she goes little further than <a href="http://esotericonline.net/docs/index.php?dir=L2RvY3MvbGlicmFyeS9DaGFubmVsZWQgTWF0ZXJpYWwvU2V0aCBNYXRlcmlhbA==" target="_blank">The Seth Material</a> by Jane Roberts, which inspired her. This series of channellings, which began in the early 1960s, focuses on creative manifestation, which via the work of <a href="http://www.shaktigawain.com/" target="_blank">Shakti Gawain</a>, <a href="http://www.abraham-hicks.com/lawofattractionsource/index.php" target="_blank">Esther Hicks</a>, and Rhonda Byrne's <a href="http://thesecret.tv/" target="_blank">The Secret</a> (and many more) has become the callsign of the New Ager and their comrade-in-arms, the modern therapist. The message here is that you can shape your life. By the use of focused thought, visualisation, and positive affirmations you can transform the world. This is what we in the Chi-Ting office like to call the moral fascism of <a href="http://www.louisehay.com/" target="_blank">Louise L. Hay</a><i>. </i>That is: if you are not having the happy, problem-free life that you want, it's your own fault! Or put another way: if you have problems, you created them and there's something wrong with you!<br />
<i><br />
</i> <b>This is nothing more than a tale of purity and spiritual betterment. </b><br />
<br />
The built-in assumption here is that the world (and oneself) is bad, wrong, flawed or somehow deviant and must become something else. Further, this transformation will naturally be desired by someone who is spiritually and morally 'correct'. Basically it's a rightwing consumerist guilt trip built on the legacy of original sin, flaunting a consummate belief in free will: the power to choose (or not) and control your own reality. David Icke spins the same line: we can make this world the way we want it: YOU can do it. Here we have a massive dose of personal autonomy - someone with the intrinsic power to achieve something - injected into the architecture of Christian dualism while climbing the Stairway to Heaven. <i>It's good versus evil time again folks and only the elect and pure of heart will be saved!</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">All these jaded cosmologies offer us is a composite domination myth across a polarised battlefield of light versus dark. Nothing much has changed since the time of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroaster" target="_blank">Zoroaster</a>! What's especially worthy of note is that the Bible sounds very similar to the Sumerian cuneiform record ... <i>and 2012 theories tend to mirror both.</i> So perhaps the religions we see today originate in and mirror the mechanism of power and control, <i>which existed in the Anunnaki times</i>: set up across the hierarchy of Creator God, spiritual intermediary, and human subjects. Meanwhile within the new alien cosmologies we see today, across a modern-day hierarchy of spiritual power, we see aliens replace (or consort with) angels; nature (the original indigenous peoples of Earth) has once again been destroyed by culture (the technologically advanced, extraterrestrial Creator Gods); and the "higher" must for the billionth time, subsume or overcome the "lower". And as for the aliens coming to save us ... errr isn't that the Second Coming?! <i>This is nothing more than</i> <i>an "<b>I</b>"-centric attempt to redeploy the divisive forces of Judaeo-Christianity in the name of "freedom" and "spirituality"!</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It is easy to see, then, where the notions of the "higher self" come from which pepper New Age literature and 2012 theories. In both the Sumerian cuneiform record and the Bible, we have an authoritarian male Creator God from, or in, the heavens who is perfect and must be obeyed by the lesser mortals on the earth. Meanwhile these lesser mortals exist only to serve God yet rather curiously, perpetually go off-program. These themes have been translated into the higher and lower nature of man - the spiritual nature versus the animal nature - the latter of which must bow down to the former. Judaeo-Christian salvation lies in overcoming the animal nature, which inspired by the Devil (Satan) constantly conspires to tempt us.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It's equally unmistakable what these ascension parables really are. In Christian theology those who are good and obey will go up to Heaven, while those who don't will get left behind and descend into the fiery realms of Hell. Look at the hugely popular Ra material<b> </b> - <a href="http://llresearch.org/library/the_law_of_one_pdf/the_law_of_one_pdf.aspx" target="_blank">The Law of One</a> - which originates in the Orion Group and rather creepily mentions a "harvest" of ripe souls around 2012. Watched over by angelic consciousnesses, the Confederation and the Guardians, apparently those operating according to the "violet ray emanation" will undergo a transition from the third to the fourth density. <a href="http://divinecosmos.com/" target="_blank">David Wilcock</a> who now speaks and writes prolifically on "soul growth, ascension and the evolution of consciousness" - and had the No.1 video on Youtube, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsjxjmcbO3I" target="_blank">The 2012 Enigma</a> - started off with the Law of One. Then there is <a href="http://www.davidwolfe.com/" target="_blank">David Wolfe</a> the self-proclaimed raw foods guru - and the newly re-invigorated Breatharian movement. In both cases, via our food choices (or lack of them), we can steer ourselves to a higher spiritual level and fall in with the agenda of good ETs who are battling bad ETs in a bid to save the planet. Interestingly David Wolfe and David Wilcock are friends: they have <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy2ICjtcouY" target="_blank">appeared together on Youtube</a> talking about "Earth changes", a "transformation of the human spirit to a higher evolution" and welcoming in "visitors" while this shift comes into being. Wolfe is also deeply involved with the modern-day Essene movement. Meanwhile Breatharianism draws on the 90s' channellings of Charmaine Harley (made famous by faux Australian avatar <a href="http://www.jasmuheen.com/" target="_blank">Jasmuheen</a>) and the <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/777628.Ascension_Handbook" target="_blank">Ascension Handbook</a> by Tony Stubbs. The principle ethos here is that we must move away from the <i>poison</i> of cooked food to the <i>purity</i> of raw food, liquids and even just saliva, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prana" target="_blank">prana</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qi" target="_blank">ch'i</a> or light. In so doing we gain access to a higher dimension; get lighter and less dense; and become more spiritual rather than material.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Suspiciously many of these endeavours end in the attempt to become 'superhuman' or even the gods themselves. But surely this is just the Anunnaki's semi-divine intermediaries - the genetically enhanced slaveworkers they left behind - and the very Creator Gods themselves <i>all over again!</i>. Now <i>we</i> must defeat the old gods, replacing them with ourselves, the <i>new</i> gods. Or even better, we must return ourselves to the state of those from whom the planet was stolen by the Annunaki. Fascinatingly, Sitchin's translation indicates that when they engineered their gold mining slave workers <i>(i.e. US!)</i>, the Anunnaki or "Elder Gods" also spliced their own DNA with the prior, indigenous race of Earth (the "Ancient Ones") whom they had defeated:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Man is born of sadness, for he is of the Blood of the Ancient Ones, but has the Spirit of the Elder Gods breathed into him. And his heart goes to the Ancient Ones, but his mind is turned towards the Elder Gods, and this is the war which shall be always fought, unto the last generation of man; for the world is unnatural.</i><i></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Here the battle is between the natural ancient/indigenous and the unnatural Elder Gods/reptilian influence. This is a war between blood and spirit, also heart and mind. And once again, we must restore ourselves to an original pristine state, which has always been a part of us, but has been masked by an interfering, alien "other".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This type of spiritual reinvention is common at critical junctures in history when there is endemic fear, confusion and doubt. For example, at the time of the sack of the Jerusalem Temple in AD70, the centre of the Jewish world disappeared, its community scattered and the position of the followers of Jesus became highly polarised in relation to other Jews. An eschatology of angels and demons could explain these catastrophic events, which the Jews and the virtue of their religion had been powerless to prevent. A newly transformed concept of "satan" (which was originally a superhuman agent <i>of God</i> sent to protect humans from harm) allowed New Testament writers to account for the misfortune of the Jews as the forces of "evil" acting through certain people. In a similar vein we see the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essenes" target="_blank">Essenes</a> - identifying themselves with "Israel" - calling themselves the "Sons of Light" in contrast with the remainder of the Jews who they refer to as the "Sons of Darkness." Their sacred texts invoke secrets of angelology allowing for the identification of themselves from evil 'others' within the Jewish faith. <i>This is a veritable tale of the dispossessed: a way for the disenfranchised to put themselves back on the top of the pile!</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In just the same way, today we have never been so unsure. Our economic system seems to be collapsing, it appears that certain powerful elites are squeezing off our food supply and in the mind of conspiracy theorists, there may even be a deliberate attempt to substantially reduce the global population. From this we can see it would be unwise to consider 2012 cosmologies and predictions apart from the politico-economic context in which they arise. These must in part be a counternarrative to the unfairness and inequality of the prevailing culture: an act of resistance by the socially disaffected. They are the cry in the wilderness of the victims of society: the lame, the holt and the blind. <i>The God Kings of the market have failed and the roof is about to fall in!</i><br />
<br />
This also reveals the nature of prophesy and psychic messages. Regardless of whether they are accurate (which is nearly always impossible to tell), such predictions play the all-important role of staiving off fear and providing temporary relief from hardship, pain, and not knowing. These elaborate doomsday stories are merely attempts to manage uncertainty and their future prognostications are only ever <i>projections</i>, rather than truth. Nevertheless they give space for an injection of hope and the possibility of a brighter future. <i>A brighter future that in fact, may never come ...</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
You may think from all of this, that we at Chi-Ting are against ETs, don't believe in an alternative history of Earth, or think that there are no natural disasters to come. Not so. We don't doubt that there are extraterrestrials and that there is far more to the story of this planet than has been officially recognised. Additionally our species is constantly evolving and adapting to its environment. We know that man only uses a fraction of his brain capacity and that the field of DNA and human consciousness has barely begun to be explored. As <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurobindo" target="_blank">Aurobindo</a> said: "Man is a transitional being. He is not final. The step from man to superman is the next approaching achievement in the Earth evolution."<i> </i>But we do suggest that these alternative cosmologies may not be all that they seem ... and that they can be hijacked for other, less than pristine agendas ...<br />
<br />
Firstly, the thirst for an alternative account can lead innocents into the lair of wolves. Look at the cocaine-adled lunacy of the likes of <a href="http://benjaminfulford.net/" target="_blank">Benjamin Fulford</a><b> </b>and his chums the White Dragon Society, the Gnostic Illuminati and the rightwing gun lobbyist <a href="http://americannationalmilitia.com/" target="_blank">Drake</a>. All of these characters take some version of the Illuminati tale for granted and their conspiracy theories linked to everyday global politics have swollen to epidemic, fantasy proportions. <i>(Apparently the new Messiah is none other than Vladmir Putin and the Pope was supposed to resign back in April!)</i> Many of the "truther" websites inculcate far more fear and negativity than the original scenarios they are reporting on. Further, literally millions of internet readers were waiting and waiting this year for the infamous "green light". This was when the long anticipated mass arrests of the Global Cabal/Illuminati were supposed to occur alongside extraterrestrial intervention, prior to actual alien disclosure (commonly referred to as The Event). Of course nothing happened and it was all postponed to some imaginary date in the future with a host of 'good reasons' given. This is just another playground for psychosis. <i>Cast adrift in a mental projection which has little crossover with everyday life, this world is just as illusory as the one beamed out by state-run/corporate media!</i><br />
<br />
Secondly, there are other accounts apart from the Sitchin-inspired version which remain somewhat overshadowed and marginal. These also need to be considered especially as Sitchin - alongside his peers <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_von_D%C3%A4niken" target="_blank">von Däniken</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanuel_Velikovsky" target="_blank">Velikovsky</a> who pioneered <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_astronaut" target="_blank">Ancient Astronaut Theory</a> - have been much criticised for their literalism, sloppy research and/or wide translations. The <a href="http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/serpents_dragons/boulay-index-en.htm#menu" target="_blank">work of R.A. Boulay</a> for example, may present a more coherent account of the reptilian/saurian saga, while the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nag_Hammadi_library" target="_blank">Nag Hammadi Codices</a> are particularly important for presenting a more female-centred story. In Origin of the World 116, the Gnostics talk about the Archons (extraterrestrials uncannily similar to what today we call the greys and the reptilians) who they say were sexually attracted to Eve, wife of Adam. The text describes Eve as a "luminous woman": the Archons planned to rape her in order to obscure her inner light but she was aware of their plan and easily outwitted them. In this case alien intrusion into the affairs of Planet Earth was <i>unsuccessful</i>; Eve was smarter than the aliens; and the human race <i>was never genetically corrupted by ET forces</i>.<br />
<br />
Thirdly, if Sitchin's interpretation has been questioned, what about the Sumerian clay tablets he was translating - or for that matter the Nag Hammadi Codices? Religious texts are always highly political and these would have been written by elite scribes to present a certain view. Here truth and fiction hardly come into it. What was the purpose of these texts and what did their authors intend us to think or believe as a result of reading them? Further, if there really are extraterrestrials, these texts may be the trance writings or direct channellings of these non-human intelligences. What would be the intent behind giving such information and would that information necessarily be true? As <a href="http://www.johnderuiter.com/" target="_blank">John de Ruiter</a> once remarked, channellings are 'lower beings talking about higher things' ... Would a higher being engage in the mutually parasitic activity of channelling in the first place? What is the status then, of the messages received in recent times, which so often suggest the superiority of alien beings, a certain unsubstantiated worldview, and even a preferred American presidential candidate? These are questions which must be asked but seldom are ... Cui bono?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">All of this information potentially leaves us floundering in the dark. Symptomatic of an "<b>I</b>"-centred state of mental agitation, we are left with more questions than answers. <i>Is this really the darkness before dawn as the likes of Barbara Marciniak promise or a prelude to a fall into the abyss?</i><br />
<br />
Perhaps Advaita can help to answer this question ... We started this post with Siva Sakthi and her revelations of natural disasters. Advaita tells us that all of this Endtime drama is shadow-boxing with ghosts of our own making: a wholesale projection of the terror engendered by the death of the ego. Further, because the world is both real and unreal, while debating which version of Earth's history is "true" is completely valid, for Advaitins, there is more to this than meets the eye. According to Advaita there is no time. History is only an 'apparent' happening. Nothing <i>truly</i> ever exists or occurs. On the one hand then, because these environmental disasters and the corruption and murderous intentions of the elite are definitely real, Advaita urges us to take these happenings very seriously. But on the other, because it also says that these events are <i>equally unreal</i>, Advaita reminds us that there is an additional dimension to economic meltdown and the impact of extreme weather conditions such as Hurricane Sandy and Cyclone Neelam. Essentially life is not quite what it seems: anything that happens is undeniable yet an empty, transient drama of unknown quantity. Advaita therefore fully acknowledges what is going on in the world today in all its profundity, while at the same time underlining its ephemeral nature.<br />
<br />
This makes Siva Sakthi's predictions all the more fascinating and engaging. We seem to be in the midst of the Earth changes she speaks of and yet, this remains the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_(illusion)" target="_blank">maya</a> of existence. Here perhaps we have the clothing for the skeleton of Advaitic philosophy. What can often be a very dry, abstruse form of Indian intellectuality springs to life when applied to what amounts to a new history of the planet; a galactic shift in human consciousness; and the possibility of other types of being. Is perhaps the attainment of the Self found in Advaita, the self-same "ascension" described in 2012 theories? Where do they cross over, if at all? After all, many of the modern-day writers and theorists we have mentioned in this post speak of Oneness and the end of separation. Is this the same as "enlightenment" described so often in the Eastern religions?<br />
<br />
There <i>are</i> obvious correspondences but there are also substantial differences ... And, to get too drawn into this line of enquiry, overlooks the fact that Advaita has at least two serious problems:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<b>1) Advaita is simply another calcified religious belief system. </b>It seeks to dominate the human individual and place their spirituality at the feet of a divine being or the promise of a future realised Self. We already know for example, that the power structure of Christianity may build on the Anunnaki setup remarked upon within the Sumerian cuneiform record. The theme here seems to be "as above, so below". In ancient India, were there also gods descending into or interacting with their divinely appointed intermediaries on Earth: the priest-kings and their religious teachers? Does Advaita also originate in a hierarchy of power and control based on a long forgotten episode buried in the ancient past?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<b>2) Advaita has not yet got to grips with the issue of personal autonomy. </b>While talking about the Earth changes to come, Siva Sakthi pays homage to the god Siva and displays the predominant Advaitic fixation on purity. She operates within the moral framework of karma and advises turning inward to fix on the light of the Atma. Strangely, this makes Advaita appear not so different from Christianity since apparently, the Advaitin also has the power<i> to choose</i> to better themselves spiritually. But this is not actually the case when we look at Advaitic philosophy. Whereas personal autonomy is the lynchpin of Judaeo-Christian theology, Advaita purportedly questions this inbuilt assumption and instead, analyses its status. In Advaita, no single entity or thing has any absolute existence or non-existence. An "<b>I</b>" is therefore impossible (and so is the intrinsic essence of any object). So there is always free will but rather than it being "real" (as in a concrete, permanent entity), it is both real <i>and</i> unreal (as in a temporary appearance). Put another way, it is not that there is "no" free will. Rather, it is that there is no "one" to have it.<br />
<br />
However virtually all of Advaita's proponents are caught up in the inane argument of whether there <i>is or isn't</i> free will. Just like Christianity, they too are stuck in the belief that there is (or isn't) the personal autonomy to do something. So when Siva Sakthi advises us to focus on the Diamond Light, there is a huge problem. <i>There is no one truly there to do this and this means that whether it happens or not cannot be controlled</i>. The Advaitic gurus who instruct their devotees to engage in spiritual practice are simply reinforcing the belief in an absolutely existent "<b>I</b>" WHICH HAS NEVER, EVER EXISTED! Here they are reinventing the notion of an all-powerful self with the ability to achieve something <i>(the Judaeo-Christian Creator God again in a personal form!)</i> This is the Gordian Knot explored in the recently republished <a href="http://www.advaita.org.uk/discourses/trad_neo/humanism_moller.htm" target="_blank">Spiritual Humanism vs Neo Advaita</a>. Convoluted verbal gymnasts <a href="http://www.advaita.org.uk/discourses/trad_neo/not_twoness_stoltz.htm" target="_blank">Alan Stoltz</a> and <a href="http://www.nonduality.com/moller.htm" target="_blank">Möller de la Rouvière </a>engage in a tortuous discussion with a slightly bemused <a href="http://www.theopensecret.com/" target="_blank">Tony Parsons</a> about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-enquiry" target="_blank">self-enquiry</a> - and who there is to do it. After a while it becomes a trilateral exercise in banality. Each of them argues ad nauseam and only succeeds in eating their own tail! Where is the wit, vigour and aliveness in all this verbiage? <i>This is the graveyard shift locked in an endless loop of déjà vu!</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<b>Advaita - just like the New Age agenda and 2012 theories - is a promise to nowhere. All it has to offer is a perpetual cycle of extreme spiritual disappointment. And it's exactly the same fixation on purity and spiritual betterment we've been hearing about for eons! Meanwhile the rest of us are no better off. We are left with rising food bills and the struggle to afford petrol and heating: in other words full throttle existential meltdown.</b> <i><b>Perhaps this is the biggest apocalypse of all ...</b></i></div></div></div><div id="fb-root"></div><script>(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1";
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script><br />
<div class="fb-like" data-href="http://www.facebook.com/Chi-TingApocalypse" data-send="true" data-width="450" data-show-faces="false"></div><br />
<a href="https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-via="Kevinandaji">Tweet</a><br />
<script>!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');</script>Chi-Ting Masterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13888421252904281860noreply@blogger.com51