Church of the Churchless

Legal filing against Gurinder Singh Dhillon is fascinating reading

Someone sent me a copy of the legal brief filed by Malvinder Singh against his cousin, Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas; the guru's wife and children; Malvinder's brother, Shivinder; and several cronies of the guru.

It's fascinating reading that casts a dark light on the guru. Here's a 16 mb PDF file:
Download Malav EOW Criminal Complaint

This complaint has formed the basis for a number of stories in the Indian financial press (see here, here, and here). Now, obviously Gurinder Singh and the other people named in the complaint will have an opportunity to respond to the allegations of illegality. 

But the complaint is very much in line with comments left on this blog from 2010 to 2014 by someone in the know. I shared their 27,000 words in "Devastating criticism of Gurinder Singh Dhillon by a RSSB insider." So this is independent confirmation that the general tenor of what Malvinder Singh alleges in his complaint is true.

I strongly recommend reading the criminal complaint in full. Though the stories in the Indian financial press accurately reflect what is in the complaint, there's additional details in the complaint. And it is well-written in what I assume is the style of Indian legal documents of this sort.

Here's screenshots of parts of the complaint that struck me as particularly important, along with my comments on them.

Sunil Godhwani was the guru's right-hand-man/close advisor for many years. Control of companies owned by the Singh brothers passed to Godhwani at the request of Gurinder Singh. This is the first mention of how Malvinder Singh viewed the guru as a spiritual guide, father figure, and mentor. Malvinder and Shivinder are initiates of Gurinder Singh, I'm pretty sure.


This excerpt talks about how Godhwani wasn't running the companies on his own, but was in "consultation and conspiracy" with Gurinder Singh to cheat Malvinder.

To understand this excerpt, we need to remember that the RSSB guru is considered by devotees to be God in human form. Hence, his advice and guidance can be trusted as divine. Malvinder says that he trusted Gurinder as his spiritual guru and believed "he can do no wrong." Almost certainly he can, though, as we'll see in the next sections of the complaint. 

This is a central focus of the criminal complaint.

Shivinder is alleged to have spent a lot of time at the Dera (RSSB headquarters) working on a conspiracy to take money from RHC (a holding company formed by the Singh brothers with many subsidiaries) and shift the money to the guru, his relatives, and others -- leaving RHC with no assets but only liabilities, which obviously hurts Malvinder and other RHC shareholders.

Via an audit, Malvinder learns that RHC is debt-ridden and wasn't a "going concern." This leads him to investigate what happened. He learns that his brother, Shivinder, hasn't engaged in any sort of normal business practices, which the complaint argues shows the fraudulent intent of acquiring various companies held by RHC.

The complaint says that Malvinder learned that the RHC companies had loaned 1006 crores, which seems to be about $142 million US dollars, to Gurinder Singh, the guru's family, and other close associates of the guru.

After listing the exact amounts of RHC loans that total to the $142 million, the complaint alleges that Godhwani, in collusion with Shivinder and Gurinder Singh, "intrinsically intertwined" the finances of the Dhillon family with the finances of the companies -- which, as noted above, had shareholders whose interests weren't served by taking money from RHC to give to the Dhillon's.

Here's one of the motives (maybe the main motive) of Shivinder going to such lengths to funnel money into the pockets of Gurinder Singh Dhillon and his family. The guru had promised to make Shivinder the head of RSSB, taking Gurinder Singh's place, in exchange for forgiveness of the debts owed to RHC by the guru.

This part of the complaint says that Shivinder, in connivance with Gurinder Singh, his family, and close associates fraudulently acquired six companies in order to hide from RHC shareholders what was going on, and to shield the people who had gotten loans from RHC from having to repay the money.

Shivinder agrees to sign a "family settlement" that absolves Gurinder Singh Dhillon of wrongdoing or criminality. But Malvinder has objections to this, as detailed in some emails included in an appendix to the complaint. Again, Malvinder alleges that his brother, Shivinder, agreed to this "in his greed to become the next spiritual head of the Radha Soami Satsang Beas."

When Malvinder refuses to sign the settlement agreement, things get really nasty. Malvinder says that Gurinder Singh threatened that he would be eliminated by people from the Radha Soami Satsang, and warned him that the guru is a powerful person who has friends in high places.

Malvinder states that he has recordings of the death threats made by Gurinder Singh and can make them available as and when desired. He also has received "veiled innuendos and threats" from other members of RSSB. Not surprisingly, this has put Malvinder "under immense mental pressure and trauma."

He's fearful for his life, saying that if anything happens to him this will be at the "behest of Sh. Gurinder Singh Dhillon and the other accused and those working under his influence."

This is amazing. The Radha Soami Satsang Beas guru, who supposedly is a spiritual leader, is making death threats against his cousin because Malvinder won't agree to forgiving hundreds of millions of dollars of loans illegally made to Gurinder Singh Dhillon, his family, and close associates. 

How anybody can still believe in the divinity of the guru is beyond me.

Here the complaint says that Shivinder Singh has refused to try to recover the loan money as part of "his evil design to effectively  try and write off the debt of the Dhillon Family."

This isn't a victimless crime, because Fortis Healthcare will be affected, diluting the value of shares owned by investors, defrauding the public, and adversely impacting public confidence.

Lastly, Malvinder asks that a FIR (First Information Report) be filed that sets the wheels of justice in motion. It'll be interesting to see how this complaint fares in the Indian legal system. I'm sure there will be more twists and turns in this drama.

Another story about Gurinder Singh Dhillon's financial wrongdoing

It's another day, with another story in the Indian financial press about the Dhillon family's involvement in financial deals that are almost certainly illegal, and absolutely certainly unethical. 

Read the Live Mint story, "Fortis fraud may exceed ₹2,000 crore, says SFIO." Excerpts below:
Download Fortis fraud may exceed ₹2 000 crore says SFIO

New Delhi/Mumbai: The alleged funds diversion at Fortis Healthcare Ltd could add up to more than ₹2,000 crore, according to the trail of funds uncovered by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), a government official said.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), too, suspects that the total size of the Fortis fraud could be much higher than the ₹403 crore it originally estimated, a second person familiar with the development said, requesting anonymity.

Sebi has already passed an order against Fortis to recover ₹500 crore from the Singh brothers for funds diverted to the promoter and promoter-related entities in December.

“At the heart of the alleged fund diversion is Gurinder Singh Dhillon, head of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, and Sanjay Godhwani, a former associate of Malvinder and Shivinder Singh. Six promoter-related companies were used to effect the funds diversion," the first person cited above said on condition of anonymity.

Some of these facts also emerged from the complaint filed by Malvinder Singh with the Economic Offences Wing in Delhi and findings by SFIO. These depict a dark picture of a series of transactions between RHC Holding Pvt. Ltd, the holding company promoted by brothers Malvinder and Shivinder Singh, wherein RHC extended loans worth ₹5,482 crore to Dhillon family members, their associates or entities controlled by them.

...The twist in the tale came when Dhillon sought to discharge himself from the said liabilities, asking the Singh brothers to sign a family settlement that would encompass no legal proceedings or criminality in any circumstance against him.

According to the proposed settlement, Shivinder Singh was offered a position to head the Radha Soami Satsang Beas sect—one that Dhillon would abdicate. In return, the Singh brothers were to write off these loans as bad debt.

While Shivinder agreed to the deal, Malvinder did not, the latter said in the complaint.

In his complaint filed with the Economic Offences Wing against his brother, the Dhillon family and Sunil and Sanjay Godhwani, Malvinder Singh alleged misappropriation of company funds and sought ₹8,742 crore in compensation.

...“It is clear that Dhillon, in the garb of providing spiritual guidance, had gained complete trust and…amassed wealth from the financial facilities extended to the Dhillon family. The true extent of the fraud has not come to light as the entities are tightly controlled by the accused and requires a thorough investigation," Malvinder Singh alleged in the complaint.

This should further destroy the reputation of Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, as a "perfect living master."

Actually, he isn't even at the level of a normally imperfect human being. It's outrageous that Gurinder Singh would sell his position as RSSB guru to Shivinder Singh in exchange for being forgiven the massive amount of money owed to companies once controlled by Shivinder and his brother Malvinder, who are Gurinder Singh's cousins.

What kind of a supposedly "spiritual" guru is willing to do this? Only a hugely greedy one.

Most ordinary people have a conscience, scruples, a line they won't cross. But Gurinder Singh has made death threats against Malvinder Singh, and offered up his position as guru for a lot of money.

I'll have more to say about this in another blog post, since every follower of Radha Soami Satsang Beas should consider it morally unacceptable that the RSSB guru looks upon his position as something to be bought and sold rather than as the priceless spiritual legacy the RSSB teachings make it out to be.

Fake news about Sheena; real news about Gurinder Singh's unpaid debts

I've got some fake news about Sheena to correct, and some real news about Gurinder Singh Dhillon's unpaid debts to share.
First, yesterday a commenter on one of my posts, Neha, said that Sheena is back at the Dera -- which is the Indian headquarters of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, a spiritual organization headed up by Gurinder Singh Dhillon, who faces increasing legal troubles about death threats he's reportedly made and massive unpaid debts (described below). 

Someone who knows Sheena emailed me today, saying:

"Have been asked to tell you that Sheena is not back at Dera nor has she visited there. This is just not true!"

I'm assuming that it was Sheena herself who did the asking to refute the fake news about her returning to the Dera. Sheena (not her real name) wrote a tell-all book about her relationship with Gurinder Singh Dhillon during the time she lived at the Dera and worked with the guru.

She recounts a number of disturbing stories about Gurinder Singh, which you can read about here, here, and here.

I don't know how the false rumor about Sheena returning to the Dera originated. But it might relate to the guru's increasing legal problems. Perhaps the powers-that-be at the Dera want to foster an image of the guru as someone with mystical powers that can bring his critics back into his godly embrace.

Well, so far those powers haven't been on display.

Business Today in India has a new story about Gurinder Singh Dhillon, "Baba acknowledged unpaid dues that crippled the Singh empire in May, 2018; Malvinder submits evidence to EOW." (Just to be clear, it is the letter that dates to May 2018, not the crippling of the Singh brothers empire.)
Download Baba acknowledged unpaid dues that crippled the Singh empire in May 2018

Even though Gurinder Singh Dhillon-'Babaji'-the spiritual head of the Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB) has in the past refused to respond to Business Today's emails and questions related to his financial dealings with the Singh brothers, he acknowledged the unpaid dues to Singh brothers as recently as May 27, 2018, according to annexures filed by Malvinder Singh in his complaint before the Economic Offences Wing.

The complaint claims Dhillon, his family members, his close associates, Godhwanis and/or companies owned/controlled or managed by them received loans worth Rs 1,006.3 crores. The complaint also claims the "The true extent of the financial fraud has not come to light as the entities are tightly controlled by the accused and requires a thorough investigation". Total dues claimed were in excess of Rs 8,646 crore as of March 31, 2016.

Dhillon family and RSSB associates are believed to have been lured by the real estate sector, which was delivering phenomenal returns between 2008 and 2011. Recipient companies raised more loans to buy real estate. But once the realty market collapsed they got trapped.

Singh brother's inability to recover the money from Dhillon and associates is believed to be the key reason behind the brothers' inability to pay off loans in group companies. Their pledged shares were invoked by lenders, resulting in loss of control over Fortis and Religare and the collapse of the Singh empire.

Here's the letter signed by the guru that Business Today shared in the story.

This letter shows that Gurinder Singh Dhillon was aware of the billion-dollar-plus debt he and his family owes to Malvinder and Shivinder Singh. As reported in news stories yesterday, Shivinder was willing to forgive the debt in exchange for being promised that he'd become the next RSSB guru. 

But Malvinder wanted the money back, which he claims resulted in death threats being made against him by the guru. 

Regarding the Business Today story excerpt shared above, I can't resist noting that Gurinder Singh Dhillon is believed to be "God in human form" by his devotees.

I'm wondering how those devotees can reconcile his supposed divinity with the fact that Dhillon made some astoundingly bad real estate decisions, which led to the downfall of the Singh brothers financial empire. Plus, the guru now is accused of making death threats against Malvinder Singh and refusing to pay back the money owed to Malvinder.

Either (1) the guru really isn't godly, or (2) he's being falsely accused of serious wrongdoing despite solid evidence of the misdeeds. My bet is on #1.

Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the RSSB guru, accused of making death threats

Well, that didn't take long.

A mere day after I wrote a blog post ("Gurinder Singh Dhillon back in financial scandal spotlight") where I wondered how long it would take for the Radha Soami Satsang Beas guru to be directly implicated in wrongdoing, the Indian press is reporting that Gurinder Singh has been accused of making death threats against his cousin, Malvinder Singh.

And as if that wasn't enough to trash the guru's spiritual reputation, Gurinder Singh also is accused of accepting a huge amount of money in exchange for guaranteeing that another cousin, Shivinder Singh, would succeed him as RSSB guru.

I encourage people interested in this Indian financial/religious/criminal drama to read each of these stories in full. I'm just sharing a tantalizing excerpt from each, along with a PDF file of the story in case it becomes unavailable online.

From India Today via Yahoo:
Malvinder has recordings of death threats to sign agreement absolving Baba, will make available when required, criminal complaint before EOW claims
Download Malvinder has recordings of death threats

Malvinder Singh's February 5 criminal complaint before the EOW has alleged that Baba Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the spiritual head of the Radha Soami Satsang Beas, has been threatening from time to time to sign a family settlement that absolves "Sh. Gurinder Singh Dhillon of any wrongdoing whatsoever and agreeing that no liablities or legal proceedings or criminality would be attributable to Sh.Gurinder Singh Dhillon whatsoever under any circumstances". Malvinder has recordings of these threats which can be made available as and when required.

It also says that his younger brother Shivinder Mohan Singh has already signed the 'family settlement' "in his greed to become the next spiritual head of the Radha Soami Satsang Beas".

The complaint alleges when Malvinder refused to sign the settlement, "Sh. Gurinder Singh Dhillon has threatened the complainant through his lawyer Smt. Ferida Chopra that if he did not agree to the demands of Sh.Gurinder Singh Dhillon he would be eliminated by persons from the Radha Soami Satsang and that Sh.Gurinder Singh Dhillon was a powerful person who had contacts in the bureaucracy and polity at very high levels".

From Business Today:
Malvinder Singh drops death threat bomb, sues Baba, Shivinder, Godhwani brothers for alleged 'cheating', 'siphoning', 'collusion', seeks Rs 8,742 cr
Download BREAKING: Malvinder Singh drops a death threat bomb

The curious case of the missing Rs 22,500 crore from the erstwhile Ranbaxy, Fortis, Religare empire has taken another ugly turn with Malvinder Singh filing a criminal complaint against 'Baba' Gurinder Singh Dhillon-the spiritual head of the Radha Soami Satsang, Beas-his wife, sons and associates; his brother Shivinder as well as the Godhwani kin-Sunil and Sanjay. The complaint filed before the Economic Offences Wing claims Baba Dhillon through lawyer Ferida Chopra threatened Malvinder would be eliminated. Malvinder has sought Rs 8,742 crore owed to him by the alleged accused.

This is the first time ever that either of the brothers has openly accused  the Baba to be cause of their financial misery. This is also the first time Malvinder has accused Baba Dhillon of financial impropriety. The brothers' previous barbs have been directed at Dhillon's former confidante Sunil Godhwani. The differences, which were talked in hushed tones all this while, are now public.

From The Hindu Business Line:
Malvinder: For spiritual seat, Shivinder allowed Dhillon to siphon off ₹8,646 crore
Download Malvinder: For spiritual seat Shivinder allowed Dhillon to siphon off ₹8 646 crore

After years of speculation that Gurinder Singh Dhillon, head of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB), a North India-based spiritual commune, received thousands of crores from the Singh brothers of Ranbaxy, Malvinder Singh has now detailed how money allegedly flowed from his companies to the ‘spiritual leader.’

In a complaint this month to the Economic Offences Wing (EoW) of the Delhi police, Malvinder accused his younger brother, Shivinder, the Dhillon family and the former head of Religare Enterprises, Sunil Godhwani, of criminal conspiracy, cheating and fraud for allegedly siphoning off thousands of crores from RHC Holdings, the group’s holding company that once promoted Fortis Hospitals and Religare.

...“Shivinder initiated these actions and permitted siphoning and malfeasance of funds with the ulterior motive of gaining control of the seat of the spiritual head of RSSB, which was promised to him by Dhillon in lieu of the financial gains,” the complaint states.

From The Tribune:
Malvinder files complaint against brother Shivinder, spiritual leader
Download Malvinder files complaint against brother Shivinder spiritual leader

Former Fortis Healthcare promoter Malvinder Singh has filed a criminal complaint against his brother Shivinder Singh, spiritual head of the Radha Soami Satsang Gurinder Singh Dhillon and others alleging financial fraud and threats to kill him.

The other people who are named in the complaint include Gurkirat Singh Dhillon, Gurpreet Singh Dillon, Shabnam Dhillon, Godhwani kin -- Sunil and Sanjay.

Malvinder Singh, who filed the complaint before the Economic Offences Wing here, alleged that Gurinder Singh Dhillon or Baba through his lawyer Ferida Chopra has threatened to kill him.

“Gurinder Singh Dhillon has threatened the complainant through his lawyer Ferida Chopra that if he did not agree to the demands of Gurinder Singh Dhillon, he would be eliminated by persons from the Radha Soami Satsang,” the complaint said.

The complainant also charged of receiving veiled innundoes and threats from various other satsangis about listening to the demands of Dhilion.

“...Shivinder Mohan Singh, in collusion and connivance with Gurinder Singh Dhillon, Gurpreet Singh Dhillon, Gurkirat Singh Dhillon, Sunil Godhwani, Sanjay Godhwani, Rajveer Singh Gulia and Pramod Ahuja misused his position, by aiding in concealment of the illegal acts of shiphoning off the funds...,” the plaint alleged.

It's hard to see how Gurinder Singh Dhillon and his cronies can avoid a criminal investigation, given the seriousness of the allegations against them. 

Hopefully this is the beginning of the end for the RSSB guru, who has a long history of abusing his supposedly "spiritual" position by amassing vast amounts of wealth while serving as the head of Radha Soami Satsang Beas.

Unless Google is misleading me, the amounts of money involved in the stories above is astounding. Malvinder Singh is seeking damages of 8,742 crore rupees, which apparently is well over a billion dollars. This is almost exactly the amount that Gurinder Singh Dhillon reportedly siphoned off from companies once controlled by the Singh brothers, Malvinder and Shivinder.

This is an accusation of massive financial fraud, which comes from somebody who seemingly should know what happened: Malvinder Singh himself. And if he has recordings that prove Gurinder Singh Dhillon made death threats against him, seemingly the RSSB guru could find himself in prison.

As regular readers of this blog know, I've been writing about Gurinder Singh's misdeeds for a long time, quite a few years. These posts appear in the Radha Soami Satsang Beas category of this blog (see right sidebar, or click on preceding link). 

Devotees of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (of which I was one for 35 years, before I saw the light and jumped off the RSSB ship) have done their best to excuse the guru's behavior, even going so far as to view what Gurinder Singh has done wrong as a test of their faith in him. 

Hopefully these new allegations by Malvinder Singh will cause people to see the guru for what the evidence says he is: a master manipulator with poor ethical values who acts more like a Mafia boss than a spiritual leader.

Gurinder Singh Dhillon back in financial scandal spotlight

It's been a while since the financial misdeeds swirling around Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, have appeared in the news. 

Now, though, The Hindu has a story, "Whistle-blower makes fresh charges in Fortis matter."

It opens up new avenues for investigations into how Dhillon, his sons, and one of his closest aides may have benefitted from some loans that previously were thought to have been directed elsewhere.
Download Whistle-blower makes fresh charges in Fortis matter - The Hindu

Here's the story. I've boldfaced parts for emphasis. 

The Fortis Hospitals matter, in which the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) ordered the company to refund over ₹400 crore in December 2018, has taken a new turn, with the regulator receiving a complaint alleging that the real beneficiaries of the money were some of the top officials managing different businesses of the Religare Group. Initially, the money was believed to have moved from the listed entity to a subsidiary and thereafter to three borrower entities.

In a letter submitted to SEBI on January 17, a whistle-blower has named brothers Gurpreet Singh Dhillon and Gurkirat Singh Dhillon, along with Sunil Godhwani and Sanjay Godhwani, among others, as the main beneficiaries of the fund transfer.

Mr. Sanjay Godhwani is the brother of Mr. Sunil Godhwani, the former chairman of Religare Enterprises. Mr. Gurpreet Singh Dhillon is the CEO of Singapore-based Religare Health Trusts. Both, Mr. Gurpreet Singh Dhillon and Mr. Gurkirat Singh Dhillon are sons of Shabnam Dhillon and Gurinder Singh, the head of Radha Soami Satsang Beas.

This assumes significance as the SEBI probe that was initiated in February 2018 was based on reports that the promoters of Fortis Healthcare took out ₹500 crore from the company.

The SEBI probe further found that Fortis Hospitals had given loans to three borrower entities – Best Healthcare, Fern Healthcare and Modland Wears. The ultimate beneficiaries of the three entities, as per the SEBI probe, were RHC Holding and Religare Finvest, with the former being controlled by Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh, the original promoters of Fortis Healthcare.

The whistle-blower, in the letter, alleged that an advance of ₹155 crore that Best Healthcare received was disbursed to the Dhillon brothers. Further, Modland Wears is also alleged to have transferred ₹133.36 crore to a few people, including the Dhillon brothers. Meanwhile, Fern Healthcare, which received ₹114 crore from Fortis, transferred the money to the Godhwani brothers and Dhillon brothers, among others.

he Hindu has reviewed a copy of the whistle-blower’s letter to SEBI.

An email query sent to Religare Health Trust on Thursday remained unanswered till the time of going to press, while attempts to contact Mr. Sunil Godhwani proved futile. “While one cannot deny sensationalism through anonymous or whistle-blower complaints route, in some cases, SEBI in the past was able to identify possible fraud and other violations only because of information submitted by third parties,” said Sumit Agrawal, founder, RegStreet Law, who had earlier served as a law officer with SEBI. “SEBI usually wants these complaints to run it past by audit committees of listed companies as a first-check,” added Mr. Agrawal.

“Unfortunately, SEBI investigation has conveniently forgotten and overlooked to collect and put out information about the dealings of well-connected Satsang Beas and moneys flowing from the Singh Brothers to the Dhillon family via an assortment of mysterious financial instruments,” the whistle-blower’s letter stated.

“To the best of my information, around ₹488 crore has been extended to the Dhillon family as loans whereas around ₹70 crore has been extended to the Godhwani family,” the letter stated.

So this adds to the intrigue of the shell companies that funneled money to the guru's relatives and business associates through decidedly shady means. Some Googling appears to reveal that 488 crore in rupees equals about $68 million in U.S. dollars. That's a lot of money.

This reminds me of the scandals involving President Trump and many of his closest associates. So far Trump himself hasn't been directly implicated in the investigation being led by Robert Mueller and his team of FBI agents. 

But when a politician, or a guru, is surrounded by people who lie, cheat, and steal, it makes sense to wonder if the Top Guy is equally involved in wrongdoing. Investigators typically work from the bottom up. Now that the guru's sons have been implicated in possible financial misdeeds, how long will it be before Gurinder Singh Dhillon becomes the focus of an inquiry?

Hard to say. Maybe never. Maybe tomorrow. For now all this simply points to the fact that religious leaders like Dhillon are just as imperfect and flawed as anyone else, if not more so.

On living an atheist life: nothing special, not feeling alone

As I've done in previous posts, here's an email interchange I had recently with someone who visits this blog regularly and likes to share ideas with me. 

I WROTE:

Yes, giving up the feeling of being special is indeed a relief. As you’re probably aware, I’ve written about this from the perspective of index investing. Trying to beat the markets both takes a lot of work and has been proven to usually be a waste of time, since investors typically buy high and sell low, rather than the reverse.

Likewise, so is believing that you can beat the God market. As I’m sure I’ve noted before, now I simply say, “God, if you exist, it’s up to you to show yourself to me, since there are so many ways people have used to find you, they can’t all be correct.”

 

Even if it can be argued that God likes all of these ways, seemingly God also would like my attitude of “I want to know you, but it’s your job to make the connection.”

 

To me this is much more logical and scientific than picking one way to know God, which statistically speaking is almost certain to be wrong. So I just sit in as much inward silence as my meditation allows, and wait for God to show up. So far, nothing. Unless God is that nothing, in which case I’m decidedly enlightened.

 

THE OTHER PERSON REPLIED:

Hi Brian, thanks for writing.  I really like that last paragraph.  “Unless God is that nothing, in which case I’m decidedly enlightened”.  Awesome.  

I really enjoyed the post, Here’s a positive sign of my (mini) enlightenment.

And I can totally relate to much of it.

This part really got me thinking:

“But now I've come to feel something different, and seemingly more attainable. I simply want to be as fully aware as possible of whatever it is I'm doing until I take my last breath. What that whatever is doesn't matter a whole lot in the grand scheme of things.”

Good stuff! 

I was thinking about something sort of similar recently.  I was listening to someone talk about things they want to do before they die.  Like the bucket list you mentioned.  This person happened to be a Christian, so the list consisted of things they believed God wanted them to do, and some of their own desires. 

Funny how those are separate.  And they felt like if they didn’t accomplish the God stuff, they wouldn’t get their full reward and all that.  Sounds exhausting!  But I get it.  I used to think the same way. 

I’ve noticed that, after practicing mindfulness to varying degrees for the last few years, that I don’t really have a list of things I want to do, anymore.  I’m mostly content to live day to day.  That doesn’t mean that I don’t have a few things I’d like to do in the near future, but they aren’t things that are on an important list. 

Even if I did have a list of cool stuff, and was able to do most or all of them, the memories and emotions tend to fade pretty quickly.  Especially when living mindfully.  I was kind of laughing thinking that when we die, assuming there is nothing after all this, we won’t remember any of the cool stuff because… well, we will be dead.  LOL 

And if there is some kind of afterlife that’s anything like what people think, it will probably be cooler than the cool stuff we did here, so the stuff we did here will pale in comparison. 

I don’t know if this sounds nihilistic or not, but I don’t think of it that way.  It doesn’t mean that I don’t plan fun activities.  Like this summer, my wife and I will celebrate 25 years of marriage and we will go to Florida for a week.  I’m sure it will be great.  But I’m not driven to cram in as much stuff into my life as I can before I die.  It just seems more relaxing that way.

I’ve noticed something interesting going on with me.  I don’t have any atheist friends.  And I only have a couple of friends who would probably be considered agnostic.  I’m finding myself feeling, I guess lonely, for lack of a better word.  I know for a fact that is why many people go to church.  It’s part of their social life. 

Christianity is so prevalent in this part of the country that it permeates everything.  So it kind of changes how people view the world and life.  I know my views on most things have changed drastically since I left religion behind. 

I was meditating with a Buddhist friend on Sunday mornings for a while and we had some really good conversations after our meditation time.  But we stopped meditating because his schedule changed.  I didn’t realize how much I enjoyed being able to talk to someone about my current views without judgment until recently. 

So I find myself reading blogs and listening to podcasts.  Not really to learn something new, but I guess it’s that human need to hear other people say things similar to what I believe.  It’s interesting to hear people talk about going from a religious life to an atheist life.  Lots of similarities in their stories.  I guess that kind of makes me feel not as alone as well.

I hope you and yours are well.

Talk to you again soon.

George Carlin jokes about absurdity of religion

In an email message, a regular Church of the  Churchless visitor recommended that I check out a George Carlin video about Christianity. 

When I searched You Tube, a pleasing variety of videos popped up where Carlin bashes religion. So I picked the one that's gotten the most views, 11 million. 

Enjoy.

Carlin hits on a lot of great points, including the crappy job that God is doing with the world, the ridiculousness of combining the threat of hellfire with God's love for us, why praying makes no sense, and the insatiable demand of religions for money, money, money.

Here's a positive sign of my (mini) enlightenment

I was really proud of myself tonight. So proud, I'm thinking that what I did could be a tangible sign of my enlightenment, mini, or even micro, variety.

After finding a parking spot a couple of blocks from my 6 pm Tai Chi class in downtown Salem, I walked away from my VW GTI without going back and checking if I'd locked the car via a button on the door handle.

Now, this may not seem like something that distinguishes an enlightened being. It pales in comparison to what supposedly happened with the Buddha under the Bodhi Tree. 

But given how often I do return to my car to peer into the driver's side window to see if the red "locked" light is flashing, I was decidedly pleased that even though doing this did pass through my mind, tonight I recalled hearing the clunk sound my GTI makes when a door is locked. 

Thus this time I'd managed to be mindful of a habitual action: locking my car. 

Many other times, way too many to count, I'd started thinking of something else I needed to do while my finger was pressing the lock button. Since the human brain has limited bandwidth, and really is able to do only one thing at a time skillfully, my lack of attention to what my body was doing at the locking-car moment often leaves me unsure if I'd done it.

Now that I've reached the age of 70 (which seems astoundingly old whenever I see it in writing), I'm paying more attention to the few pearls of wisdom I might be able to pass on to the young'uns. Here's one pearl, as prosaic as it may seem:

Try to keep your mind and body on the same page of reality.

This is Mindfulness 101, of course. Others have said the same thing, and better, in the many books I've read about meditation and mindfulness. For example, here's a passage from Thich Nhat Hanh's wonderful little book, "The Miracle of Mindfulness."

Our breath is such a fragile piece of thread. But once we know how to use it, it can become a wondrous tool to help us surmount situations which would otherwise seem hopeless. Our breath is the bridge from our body to our mind, the element which reconciles our body and mind and which makes possible one-ness of body and mind. 

Breath is aligned to both body and mind and it alone is the tool which can bring them both together, illuminating both and bringing both peace and calm.

Life is short. The older we get, the more this becomes obvious. Some people deal with this fact by making a Bucket List of things they want to accomplish before, as the saying goes, they kick the bucket. 

I used to embrace that sort of attitude.

But now I've come to feel something different, and seemingly more attainable. I simply want to be as fully aware as possible of whatever it is I'm doing until I take my last breath. What that whatever is doesn't matter a whole lot in the grand scheme of things.

By which I mean, there's an unbridgeable gulf between (1) existing as a living being, and (2) dying and not existing at all.

(I'm an atheist, so I don't believe in life after death. However, even religious people should admit there is no solid proof of this, so my point holds for everybody in my decidedly personal opinion.)

So let's say I write a best-selling book -- which previously was on my Bucket List. So what? How does that change my life? How does it affect my everyday existence? I still need to fix my breakfast, wash dishes, walk the dog, and, yes, lock my car. If I'm thinking of how great an author I am while doing those things, I've lost part of my living.

Again, Thich Nhat Hanh makes this point way better than I can.

If while washing dishes, we think only of the cup of tea that awaits us, thus hurrying to get the dishes out of the way as if they were a nuisance, then we are not "washing the dishes to wash the dishes." What's more, we are not alive during the time we are washing the dishes.

In fact, we are completely incapable of realizing the miracle of life while standing at the sink. If we can't wash the dishes, the chances are we won't be able to drink our tea either. While drinking the cup of tea, we will only be thinking of other things, barely aware of the cup in our hands.

Thus we are sucked away into the future -- and we are incapable of actually living one minute of life.

Science is never certain. Religion should do the same.

For a little light reading today (I'm being ironic) I picked up my copy of physicist David Deutsch's "The Fabric of Reality: The Science of Parallel Universes -- and Its Implications."

Thumbing though a chapter I'd already read, The Nature of Mathematics, I came to this passage. It made me wish that religions, mystical paths, and other varieties of supernaturalism were as wise as science.

Mathematicians are rather proud of this absolute certainty [that mathematical proofs are true], and scientists tend to be a little envious of it. 

For in science there is no way of being certain of any proposition. 

However well one's theories explain existing observations, at any moment someone may make a new, inexplicable observation that casts doubt on the whole of the current explanatory structure. 

Worse, someone may reach a better understanding that explains not only all existing observations but also why the previous explanations seemed to work but are nevertheless quite wrong.

Galileo, for instance, found a new explanation of the age-old observation that the ground beneath our feet is at rest, an explanation that involved the ground actually moving. 

Virtual reality -- which can make one environment seem to be another -- underlines the fact that when observation is the ultimate arbiter between theories, there can never be any certainty that an existing explanation, however obvious, is even remotely true.

It isn't difficult to think, "I don't know for sure." Religious believers should give that thought a try, rather than considering that 100% confidence in a faith is the only way to go.

Since religions believe in dogmas that often contradict each other, clearly not all religions can be true. (Of course, my position is that none of them are true.) So it makes sense for followers of a religion to entertain the possibility that what they believe could be untrue.

Science makes progress by embracing challenges to current ways of looking at the cosmos. Unfortunately, religions are locked into rigid belief systems that make it impossible for them to come steadily closer to truth like science is able to do.

That's why I love science and reject religion.  

Atheists like me are by far the most disliked religious minority

Minorities tend to be misunderstood by majorities.

Whites don't really know what it is like to be African American. Heterosexuals don't really know what it is like to be homosexual, or more broadly, LGBTQ. And religious believers don't know what it is like to be atheist.

(Note: I was a religious believer for 35 years, Eastern mysticism variety, so I'm very familiar with both religious belief and atheism -- having deconverted from my previous belief about 14 years ago.)

So as an atheist, I haven't been surprised by the response of many to my also-atheist wife, Laurel, using the public comment period at a Salem (Oregon) City Council meeting to complain about the Mayor's 2019 State of the City address being preceded by a Christian pastor calling upon God/Jesus to bless the Mayor, and for everyone in attendance to pray.

I wrote about this a few days ago in "Praying shouldn't be part of public meetings." That blog post attracted the attention of KATU news in Portland, which interviewed my wife and Mayor Chuck Bennett as described in this KATU story and accompanying video. 

On Facebook I've seen numerous comments along the lines of, If you object to praying, just don't do it and You should leave religions alone to do their own thing. 

While these sorts of attitudes roughly reflect how my wife and I also feel, they miss a crucial point: Atheists in the United States aren't only bothered by religious beliefs that are unscientific, non-factual, and often appallingly political. We also object to a long history in this country of atheists being discriminated against, a prejudice that continues to this day.

Though  I don't believe in heaven or hell, I do think this familiar movie phrase applies to me, my wife, and many fellow atheists: "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!"

Meaning, since the founding of the United States atheists have been wrongly put down as immoral, un-American, and elitist. A book by two emeritus Cornell professors, R. Laurence Moore (history and American studies) and Issac Kramnick (government) explains this in great detail. 

Here's an overview of "Godless Citizens in a Godly Republic: Atheists in American Public Life" via a Publisher's Weekly review:

From the pages of state constitutions to the seats of Congress, Moore and Kramnick (The Godless Constitution: The Case Against Religious Correctness) search for places for the godless in American politics and find few.

Beginning with the country’s roots in England, with its official state church, the United States’ protection of religious liberties excludes one group: nontheists and their nonbelief in a religion or deity. The authors explain that 18th- and 19th-century Americans associated morality with religion, so eschewing one was considered a rejection of the other.

The tensions of the Cold War reinforced this historical bias, with rhetoric tying communism to atheism and implying a corresponding relationship between belief and patriotism. The concept of the dangerous, un-American—or worse, anti-American—atheist paved the way for the addition of “Under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954 and “In God We Trust” to America’s currency in 1957, and constrained nontheists’ chances at public office and judicial seats.

Synopses of pivotal Supreme Court cases demonstrate how atheists, agnostics, humanists, secularists, and nontheists are frequently cast as an amoral minority. Through cautious and sensitive comparisons between nontheists and other marginalized groups, the authors present the marginalization of nontheists as an equal rights issue.

This accessible and sincere book usefully makes explicit often-unspoken currents in American political life.

The Pew Research Center says that 31% of people in Oregon, where I live, are unaffiliated religious "None's" -- 5% atheist, 8% agnostic, and 18% nothing in particular. However, that last category is made up of 12% for whom religion is unimportant and 6% for whom religion is important. 

Thus let's subtract those "nothing in particular" people who don't consider religion important.

That still leaves 25% of Oregon's population as decidedly non-religious. Is it possible that a quarter of the citizenry deserve these sorts of discriminatory attitudes, as described in the Godly Citizens in a Godly Republic book? (Boldfacing added for emphasis.)

-- "Of the respondents to a Pew Research Center survey question on attitudes to specified religious groups in 2009, 49 percent scored atheists negatively, while the unfavorable response to other groups was dramatically lower: Muslims, 32%; Mormons, 26%; Hindus, 21%; Buddhists, 20%; Evangelical Christians, 17%; Jews, 11%; Catholics, 11%.

-- "A 2011 Gallup poll that asked, 'If your party nominated a generally well-qualified person for president who happened to be atheist would you vote for that person?' found that only 49% of Americans said yes. Responses for other similarly well-qualified nominees: black, 94%; women, 93%; Catholic, 92%; Jewish, 89%; and Mormon, 76%."

-- "An earlier iteration of the 'willingness to vote for your party's nominee' in 1999, which included homosexuals among the choices, ranked them at 59%, higher than atheists at 49%."

-- "When asked into what group they would least like their children to marry, nearly half of Americans list atheists first, significantly higher than Muslims, African Americans, and Jews." 

-- "So too, when asked to name 'the group that does not at all agree with my vision of American society,' 40% of Americans put atheists on top, followed by Muslims, 26%; homosexuals, 22%; conservative Christians, 13%; recent immigrants, 12%; Jews, 7%; African Americans, 5%."

The book's authors ascribe this distaste toward atheists as reflecting three foundational features of American sociocultural belief: (1) A conviction that one can't be a good person if one is not a believer; (2) one can't be a good American if one is not a believer; (3) American anti-intellectualism, since many see atheists as cultural elitists -- philosophers, scientists, and artists who threaten the beliefs of ordinary people.

Thus there's a lot going on beneath the surface of my wife's complaint about a Christian prayer being offered at a public meeting here in Salem.

Us atheists, along with the broader category of "None's," are tired of being viewed as second-class citizens. We're fed up with being put down and marginalized just because we don't believe in unbelievable supernaturalism. We no longer find it acceptable to stay silent while religious speech (mostly Christian) fills the airwaves.

Nationally 23% of Americans are religious None's. That's about four times more than the 6% of Americans who hold to non-Christian faiths. Here in Oregon, the ratio is even higher: 31% None's and 7% non-Christian.

Yet I'm willing to bet that an atheist, agnostic, or other non-believer has never been invited to give the invocation at the State of the City address in Salem, even though non-Christians such as Jews have.

This points to the disturbing falsehood that the authors of Godless Citizens in a Godly Republic emphasize: atheists are viewed by religious people as less moral and trustworthy, even though there is no evidence of this being true. It's just a discriminatory attitude that would be viewed as abhorrent if a racial or ethnic minority was being typecast in this fashion.