Please Mandell , don't do this on a bhakti thread, the first step toward bhakti is developing compassion towards each other, it is not really compassion if you insult BBB. Either see the point that BBB is trying to make and agree/disagree with it and give your reasons. This is a discussion forum and has no place for insults
If you read carefully, I think, you will notice that BlackBillBlake or whatever his/her name is, is also guilty of using insult as his favorite tool in his so-called "discussion".
Actually, this is a "bhakti" thread, not the actual practice. For the same reason that an Internet Hindu forum is not an actual Hindu temple. And if you start spouting off, self-righteousness, make sure you yourself don't exhibit bias, otherwise, you are merely displaying your own lack of understanding. I am logging off for now, as there is more important work to do, than arguing with people over the Internet. Later kids.
Mandell, I am sure we will all agree that insults are not tools of discussion. Second, there is nothing wrong with saying the below: if 'all is one', all you're doing is putting down part of yourself as ignorant. -------- why? Because if all is one, then you are not recognizing the existence of the jiva as a limited entity within the one- because 'jiva' has arisen due to ignorance of this idea that "all is one". Therefore , you are putting down part of yourself (the jiva) as ignorant when you claim "all is one".
I am sure it is not practice if you simply discuss bhakti, but it keeps you going and makes you have more interest in it , so it is practice of bhakti in that way. Second, bhakti is not centered around the ego-sense, it is centered around God. Whatever you do, you do for the sake of knowing God better or simply developing your interest in God- that is a form of bhakti. therefore, if you are really interested in bhakti, then you really do not have to worry about displaying your lack of understanding, because through such lack of understanding we grow, and we try to seek and know so that we may eliminate our ignorance about God. it is all about God my friend, and not about you.
I would never under-estimate the value of this board and the Internet. I think it's a perfect place for karma to play out.
I dont know if it applies to this thread, but I found a post i liked from a guy called grover on another board,
The thing is that despite being a non underwear wearing perv, I was trying to get at a serious point until it got derailed by our illuminated freind. It isn't something that really relates to science either, but to the Bhagavad Gita, which is one of the main texts used by bhaktas. In the Gita, Krishna says 'I am the knower in all bodies'. It would therefore seem quite reasonable to me to expect that a person whose consciousness was one with god would also have this knowledge of all bodies. Also, there was the mention of 'all knowledge'. Well, perhaps I'm a simpleton, but to me that suggests that for the person with this consciousness, it ought to be easy to get information about literally anything in the entire universe and beyond (if such exists). There would seem to be two possible explanations: firstly that by the words 'knower' and 'all knowledge' something different is meant from what we think of as knowledge. However, it's hard to take this line and preserve the sense of the thing. The other option is that this is simply not true, or at least that in actuality no-one has arrived at this state of identification with the consciousness of the all knowing god, although they claim they have, or at least they've read accounts by others and decided that it applies to them too. So that's what I was attempting to get at. And needless to say, I have received no replies that have any relevance whatsoever to this question.
Well, well, indeed. Our self-proclaimed, "enlightened", "illuminated", (oh, dear!) friend, bhakta BlakeBillBlack has emphatically announced that posting his own insults in a bhakti thread is indeed the same thing as the practice of bhakti. Can't disagree with you regarding that as you obviously reek with hypocrisy. I guess, you eat your own shit and consider it the same as food also.
Yes, but you are asking the wrong individuals. We are simple people and are subject to the daily problems of samsara. Some of us may have extraordinary experiences ,but those things are not due to our doing, but are due to the higher entity who is trying to link itself to us. We are not as enlightened as lets say , vashista or Vyasa, who have linked themselves to the divine storehouse of information. Are there people like that today? - who know everything and are linked with God?- I have to say sure it is possible.
I wasn't actually expecting anyone to answer. Just trying to point out that such questions do exist, and if you search through the writings of mystics, yogis etc you generally won't find an answer. Why do I ask then? Because I observe people posting glib comments about the all-knowledge who have clearly not got an answer. Mainly they're repeating what they've read somewhere and not subjected to any kind of critical scrutiny. I think one has to guard against taking on board claims which are insubstantiable, or believing a thing is true just on the basis that it's in an ancient text, or the latest book from some contemporary guru. Once again, the only Indian writer I've come across who deals with such questions is Sri Aurobindo, who makes it clear that the Buddha for example, although he had an inner spiritual enlightenment, didn't have all knowledge. He wasn't aware probably, for instance, of the existence of the American continent - much less other galaxies. Same with Jesus - If he had all knowledge, he could have explained that it is bacteria not the devil which cause leprosy. Myself, I think that as long as we are embodoed beings, our knowledge will always be limited in one way or another. It seems that some things can only be known through the empirical methods of science, and others through some spiritual development.
But BBB, that is what aurobindo is saying. There are texts in buddhism where buddha himself states that one who is enlightened is always aware, and also gives descriptions of the mental prowess of one who is an enlightened being. Now, if one can make clones of himself from thin air, become extremely big or extremely small, or go to places just by thinking about them etc... then it is not a problem for the same individual to know what shirt someone is wearing at the other side of the world.
Consciousness can fit into any form. Or, it can exist as formlessness. Assuming no shape, but aware of all of them. x
you see, even formlessness has a form, kind of like one can only discuss non-existence within existence.
Formlessness is only a form if you stand outside of it with your perception. That would be a creation, as it has an identity outside formlessness. No man is an island. We all have roots embedded in formlessness. It is where we draw our energy from. There is a central power. The combination of all our perceptions, plus many more. This is "God". And you are a contributing member. In realizing this, bhakti becomes a clear focus. You treat others as you wish to be treated for the simple fact that you are connected to all of them. Despite the mask they wear as actors on this worldly stage, they are all the same as you inside. That is where the bliss comes from. To see all things as an extension of yourself. Not as a judge, but as a witness. x
mandell, i would love to chat...but you are banned and i cant pm you. would you mail me on denizen101@hotmail.com... :dance:
