SPIRITUALITY

[ES]

by Joggi Vasadev

 

 

Special

 

For many people why a spiritual path seems to be a struggle is, their whole lives, their culture, their social situations have always taught them how to become special. Their whole effort is to become special. To be special means to have something that others don’t have. So always wanting to possess something that others do not have is not a specialty – it is a perversion. So your only joy is that somebody else does not have it. If the only pleasure in life is that other people don’t have it, we call this perversion, not specialty.

 

People can find pleasure in all kinds of things. Once it happened, two missionaries were caught, by very fierce cannibals, in Central Africa. After a meeting of the headmen they decided to eat them. So they put them in a huge tub of water and set fire. They decided to cook them alive. As the fire started burning, the water started getting warmer. One of the older missionaries started laughing, really laughing. The other missionary said, “Are you crazy? Do you know what is going to happen to us now? What are you laughing at?” The older missionary said, “I just peed in their soup!”

 

So, in trying to be special your life is going away, but there is a pleasure that somebody else doesn’t have what you have. Because we have set ourselves on this track, spiritual process seems to be difficult. Some time ago Sahaja Sthithi Yoga brochures used to say “From ordinary to extraordinary”. So people thought that they are going to become special by coming to the program. So when they came here and asked “How are we going to become special?” I would tell them you are going to become extraordinary – more ordinary than other people.

 

This is not about becoming special. This is about becoming one with everything. This wanting to become special, this disease has come to people simply because they have not recognized the value of the uniqueness of their being, simply because they have lived in the surface for so long, their whole effort is to be special. As long as this effort is on, you are working counter to the spiritual process. The whole dimension of spirituality is to melt and become one with existence, not to stand out like a sore thumb but to become one with everything.

 

The very word Yoga means to become one with everything. The more and more you try to be special, the further and further you go away from the truth. And all the suffering and mental illness have come from this, that you want to be special. So instead of deriving perverse pleasure from the fact that somebody doesn’t have what you have, if one genuinely makes the effort to become one with everything, that is first of all if you recognize your uniqueness, recognize every being’s uniqueness, you can neither become less nor more than anybody, this struggle will completely go away.

 

In so many ways the mind always wants to be special. That is the nature of the mind. Logically, it can only think if I’m one somebody is two, if I’m less than them. This is the only way it can think. So many struggles happen in the spiritual path. Many kinds of karma happen within a person when one is seriously set on the spiritual path.

[Sip]

Dear ES, welcome aboard!!!

 

I have to say it was very interesting reading although I do not agree with it at all. So according to "Joggi Vasadev", sheep would probably be very spiritual creatures since they become one with existance. No sheep tries to "stick out like a sore thumb" ... when one goes over a hill into a ditch, the rest all follow!

 

Well, sorry ... but I do like the Galileos, the Heisenbergs, the Keplers, the Einsteins, and othes like them who have stuck out like "sore thumbs"

 

I really appreciate the fact that one day one of them got up and said, wait a minute, "the earth maybe round", or "wait a minute, I think we are going around the sun". I also like the fact that someone was "far from the pack" enough to say "wait a minute guys, I think light IS effected by gravity".

 

If that means NOT being spiritual, then by all means, sign me up. I rather know the truth and have NO spirituality than be caught up in a fantasy world that makes me feel good about myself and gives me "purpose".

 

Basically, what I am saying, is that "being special" and "having something that the other does not" does not necessarily mean a bad thing as he makes it sound!

 

Never the less, an interesting perspective indeed.

[Mher]

Dear Sheaphan/ES

 

Your comments (in ES's case the introduction of the master Joggi Vasadev)

 

I found it very interesting, and who says you can't be spiritual and be a man of a science at the same time. Spirituality must raise from with in ones self; it is not a religion radar way of Live, to me at list. I have been riding George

Gurdjieff, 1866-1949, one of the great minds of modern times ( by the way he is half Armenian) never less a great human being, I’m sure Pluto, Aristotle, Dante etc....., must of been in some form of Spiritual persons in there own domain.

 

Peace

Mher

[Sip]

Hahahaha ... good one . I think if I were born a sheep, I'd just kill myself immediately. Can you imagine the boredom those poor creatures have to live with?

 

The way I understood, Yoggi is saying just that. In order to be a "man of science" you have to be special ... you have to question everything. You have to open your mind and think different. Otherwise, if you just become one with existance and disappear in the background of how nature works, you will live like a sheep ... probably a very relaxing and long life ... but to what end?

 

I always believe living for just the sake of being alive is not a good reason.

[Mher]

Spirituality/Humanism

 

It seems to me that the idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept which I cannot take seriously. I also cannot imagine some will or goal outside the human sphere.... Science has been charged with undermining morality, but the charge is unjust. A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death. • ALBERT EINSTEIN

 

I belive Humanism, in all its simplicity, is the only genuine spirituality!

 

Peace

Mher

[Rubo]

Dear Mher, I thought I was the only one…. I to have found George

Gurdjieff, teachings to be extremely “spiritual” in my life however it is too bad that he did not elaborate his thoughts well. Most of his lectures were recorded by his students such as Ouspensky's book, In Search of the Miraculous,and often with loose ends. It is simply very hard to follow Gurdjieff teachings in full swing since he took most everything with him when he died or his followers were just not on the same caliber to continue his tradition. Having said this if anybody reads Gurdjieff will at least understand our mechanical existence. I am glad to meet you.

[Mher]

Dear Rubo

 

Yes its very indeed fascinating and I have to agree with you in as far as Gurdjieff. I guess he said it the way Gurdjieff would have said it, kind of a artist in his domain, but lately I came to do research on Socrates’ and Plato's works, and not to think they (including Greek philosophy in all) didn’t contribute or spooned today’s thinkers, scientists, artists, etc... It would be a false statement to make to one who didn’t came across and really understood Plato, in his work (Plato) he expresses exactly what Gurdjieff is at list trying to say.

 

And it’s fair to recall Albert Einstein’s famous words

“God does not juggle dice”

 

And Steven Hawking

“God does juggle dice after all”

 

Peace

Mher