A pleasing message about me, and honesty about RSSB

Some people like this blog. Some people don't like it. After 14 years of regularly writing here on the Church of the Churchless, I've come to expect both praise and criticism. 

Not surprisingly, I prefer hearing good things about me and this blog. So when I got the following email message today from someone in India I've been corresponding with, it made me feel good. 

I'll explain why after the message.

I've corrected some typos and made the formatting easier to read. Otherwise the message is as written. "Sewa" means service, or volunteer work. The Dera is the Indian headquarters of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB), a spiritual organization I was a member of for 35 years. 

Here's the message, minus an introductory part related to a subject this person and I have been discussing.

And I would like to mention and please mention the following in your blog too (of course only if you wish to ) :  

 

I have been reading your blog since last year Feb, after I was of course suggested by an important member of RSSB committee and I was still doing sewa in Dera. And I must admit after reading each of your blog I thought you must be a very arrogant man. Or you didn't make much efforts in meditation and are a coward to quit early.

 

But knowing that people living in Dera in fact people running that place as incharges are equally unsure of the path as the people who criticise it, my thinking changed and then of course seeing the condition there by my own eyes, a place lacking love, the very foundation it was supposed to be built on.

 

I don't know if the path is true or not. I haven't really made complete effort in meditation to comment. But talking to you personally on emails and listening to your reply it is my understanding that you are a very humble and an understanding man.

 

You have a blog, there are many things i told you personally and you know my real name, you could have written those things on your blog if you had to be aggressive towards your critics. You kept your word, a quality that is rarely found today. Your view point comes from experience and logic and deep thinking.

 

At the end of the day you might  be wrong or the people who criticise you might be, in reference to this path. But the truth is none of us are aware for sure. But at least you support logic and see what's written on the wall.

 

And for the people coming to your blog and trying to defend RSSB, if they were enlightened they wouldn't care for your blog or try to protect the image. They wouldn't waste energy on that. What I have learned from the limited conversation we have had is whether you are right or not but you are a man with right intentions. 

Like the person who wrote this message, I also can't be sure about what the ultimate truth regarding reality is. None of us can be. We all make educated guesses, or assumptions, that are founded in our experience, upbringing, culture, education, and so on. 

All we can do is keep facing toward the truth as we have come to understand it, while being open to fresh ideas, new facts, different ways of looking upon the world. 

It is difficult to admit, "I don't know." So I liked this person's willingness to say about the RSSB teachings, "I don't know if the path is true or not." 

But what this person does know is how they were treated while doing "sewa" (again, volunteering) at the Dera. Just as I've heard from other people, this person says that the Dera lacks love -- which is a sad commentary on a spiritual community. 

I liked how this person said that my viewpoint comes from "experience and logic and deep thinking." That's what I aspire to, though sometimes I fall short. Now, I realize that some spiritually-minded people believe that love and devotion is all that counts.

I disagree -- strongly. 

History is full of examples of individuals, or masses of people, who were fervently devoted to destructive causes and leaders. It makes no sense to be devoted to some unworthy person or entity. Going down that route leads to authoritarianism, being taken advantage of, dangerous blind obedience.

My wife was a psychotherapist in private practice for quite a few years. One of her specialities was domestic violence. Most of her clients were women being abused by men. Without giving their names, she'd explain to me how many women stay in an abusive relationship, even when they're being hit, yelled at, threatened. 

Why? Many reasons.

Some are that the women didn't know what to do if they left the relationship, or they were afraid of what the man would do if they stood up for themselves. So my wife would give them options, and help the women recognize that they had more strength than they thought they possessed.

Likewise, one of the reasons I started this blog in 2004 was to encourage people to realize that when it comes to religion, spirituality, mysticism, and philosophy, independence is a virtue, not a vice. I haven't changed this blog's slogan over all those years: Preaching the gospel of spiritual independence. 

Sometimes it makes sense to stay in a relationship with another person "til death do us part," as wedding vows in the United States often say. Yet sometimes it doesn't. 

And sometimes it makes sense to remain a member of a religion or spiritual path for the rest of your life. Yet sometimes it doesn't. Think for yourself. Nobody else can do that for you. Nor should they.

Comments

[Bombay Blonde]

...... I can sense that what she / he writes comes straight from the heart, thank you for sharing Brian.

There is immeasurable humility in " my thinking changed and then of course seeing the condition there by my own eyes, a place lacking love, the very foundation it was supposed to be built on " ... :)

[s*]

About knowing for sure..
I now am sure that santmat is not true.
The cycle of transmigration and the master as a saviour..
Not true at all.
Life has meaning..we don't know what meaning..but it is not about guilt.
It is about experience..

Chaurasi is a farce in the way the masters has told.
They make themself important at the cost of people's fear..
imho
In my ''humble''opinion.
Babaji changed the teachings what I give him credit for.
But it is all very confusing for lots of people.
The old books are done that's good!!
But what about now??
Master is a human being point period.
I am sort of sorry to say..I loved Maharaji and also Babaji.
But now..I love ''myself''more.!!.much much more!!
Also what do we really know about guru's??
Know ThySelf..Love yourself only then ..we can give that to others..
What we have ..we can give..
Satsangi's always talk about babaji..ppfff far away from ones own self
It is not at all egoistic to learn from one's own inner being..because only then we understand eachother.
Amen..

[Spence Tepper]

Working in hospitals every day, I can tell you that they are places for sick people to get healed.

They are not like public parks, with healthy kids playing games, young and in perfect or near perfect condition, or at least stable condition.

So much laughter, so much joy in public parks.

But less so in hospitals.
Yet, it's my career. And I think hospitals are places where miracles, real miracles, happen every day.

Some of them are miracles of technology, others miracles of compassion, and a few, or prayer.

Dera isn't for the healthy. Dera is for the ill to come and be healed, and find a moment's peace.

One Initiated gave the example of shirts. The clean one's are neatly placed in the closet...to be worn at the appropriate time. The dirty ones get great care, being washed by hand by the Master.

It is the filthy ones that get all the attention and handling.

So, that's what you have at Dera.

For true love, no organization is needed.

[Spence Tepper]

So, does that mean the Master Himself carries some of that filth?
When you jump into the dung heap, yes, you get covered in it.
But happily shoveling away, things get cleaner in time.

This is why I believe its crucial for the Master to take full responsibility for all that has happened. For every unpaid loan, every siphoned rupee, every relative - wife, sons, cousin's decisions in positions he helped them gain. The captain of the ship is responsible even for what every waiter does.

Housecleaning. Spring cleaning time.

It's what each of us are taught to do by our true Master: TAKE RESPONSIBILITY.

The Master is there to help us do so.
Maharaji is there to help Gurindar, just as Sawan is there for Maharaji, Gurindar and each of us.

There is nothing to fear by doing the right thing, Baba Ji!

We're with you. Go ahead. Take the responsibility and all the blame. Do it now. It's a great opportunity, a great housecleaning opportunity.

[Spence Tepper]

When a patient is ill, we don't say "it's your job to walk".

We support the patient as we ambulate them.

We don't say "You shouldn't have done that.."

We give them the cure. We live with them through the cure.

The Hospice nurse doesn't say "You are the one dying, why should I clean and bathe you, shave you, make sure you take your meds?"

They say "It is precisely because you are dying that I will do these things for you now."

[Spence Tepper]

Hi s*
You wrote
"What we have ..we can give..
Satsangi's always talk about babaji..ppfff far away from ones own self
It is not at all egoistic to learn from one's own inner being..because only then we understand eachother."

TRUTH!! (IMHO... ;))

[Dharam]

No doubt,people like Brian Hines and Spence Tepper do not need any dera because they have full knowledge and they are enjoying. spiritual freedom.Nor do they need any Master because they consider themselves having more knowledge than any master in the world.Dera and Master is only for those who have the courage to accept themselves having no knowledge at all.Sangat at dera sings the hymn-ham moorkh tum chatur siyaney-------means 'we are fools,thee are full of wisdom-----.' So this path is only for those who can keep their knowledge aside and that is what Master wants to tell by saying," burn the books." He does not want seekers to literally burn the books .He only advises to keep bookish knowledge aside.
Now,since you have specially given sub title of RSSB to your blog which you consider to criticise as your spiritual freedom , you mist know that spiritual path,dera and Master is not at all for the genius people unless they keep their wisdom aside.

[Spence Tepper]

Hi Dharam:
My Master is Maharaji, and I'm doing the work assigned. And that includes doing my best, making my best decision about right and wrong, and seeking at all times to help.

I don't comment on your place in Spirit and surprised you are doing so.
We are all in the same family.

But right and wrong should not be set aside at any time.

In fact we of all people should know best the difference, and jump in to help where we can.

imho ;)

Dharam, I've been meaning to ask you if you have or have ever had a job at Dera or in any RSSB Sangat. Have you given Satsang?

DId you meet your employer at the Dera? Are you, your friends and family employed by anyone on the Dera board?

Just curious...

[s*]

Thanks Spence and good posts!!
Babaji should be honest now..
In every way he can.
I hope he does.
It would be good..,in more ways even.