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February 12, 2012

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But Kierkegaard didn't tell to follow a guru. His attempt was to transcend the existence by believe . Nietzsche had his own way he believed in the music from Wagner to transcend and to reach the immense and wine and Dionysus.
They had a logical view that this 'thing an sich' could be approached. Music with Shopenhauer. LSD with Castaneda.
Not wise to follow them though.

So much for Abraham's blind obedience. Now what about Job's unbreakable faith? The Devil bet God that Job would curse Him if He removed his protection and allowed the Devil to have at him. After putting job through Hell, The Devil lost the bet and Job hit the jackpot.

RSSB is seen as benign by its followers but it is rife with subtle, and not so subtle, brainwashing techniques designed to suppress reason, discrimination and common sense. Devotees are told these faculties are obstacles to success and are tools of "Kal", aka the negative power or mind, to deceive the devotee.

Building the mud platforms is often taken by devotees to symbolize their meditation practice which consists of repeating mentally a "five holy name" mantra and then listening for internal sound.

They are told this is the task of a lifetime and that even after repeating these names for 2.5 hours every day for 50 years, results may not be forthcoming. They are told they may have to wait until the time of death when the guru is sure to appear to guide them to their appropriate location in the "inner regions".

This certainly gets the guru off the hook as nobody can know if the guru fullfilled his promise once the person is dead!

This, to me, is just plain stupid. I can't believe I ever bought into this crap.

Hey, all ye of religious faith, it's your life. Build mud huts if you like. Maybe you're the little engine that could.

The story of Abraham introduced the first seed of doubt in my heart about the Christian faith when I was still quite young. I've yet to find an explication of that story that doesn't come off sounding any better than hand-waving gibberish.

Genuine surrender is not a mindless submittal to authority, but does reflect a certain inner atitude. I recall a story (possibly apocryphal) about the invasion of Tibet. When soldiers barged into a monastery and found a monk sitting in quiet mediation, one of them thrust his gun into the monk's chest and shouted "Don't you understand that I have the power to kill you!" The monk gazed at the soldier and calmly replied, "And you must understand that I have the power to allow you to do it."

Most religious lines of thinking border on the unreal. Existentialism is less valuable for its approach to nihilism; it's valuable because it posits one must make life mean something because it innately does not. Humanistic.

I, myself, do not believe in autonomy. I don't think it's because of a leap of faith, though. I don't think neurology allows for free-will. Sooner trust my stimulated neurons than a miserable, if eloquent, philosopher.

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