--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Duveyoung <no_re...@...> wrote: > > Dan was special -- way wise beyond his age. Not that he was > a guru one would seek, but that it was he who sought -- sought > hearts to engage -- and pushed them faster into depth and clarity.
The same depth and clarity that drove him to taking his own life? Edg, I *understand* that you found someone who was willing to go back and forth with you over the emotional hyperbole of spirituality, and that this made a big impression on you. I never met or interacted with the dude, and I have a somewhat different impression, based on the followup to his death, and what has been posted by him and about him. I'm seeing more of the "echo chamber effect" I wrote about earlier, back when Ravi was being touted as the latest realized being by this *same* group of discerning seers. The reaction I'm seeing on BATGAP and to some extent in some of the posts forwarded to FFL is "protect the idea that we're realized," along with an IMO unhealthy dose of "realization is by definition 100% life supporting...it's all good." Duh. The lesson one should take away from this whole sad business is IMO more along the lines of "realizations come and go, they're *not* inherently all "life-supporting," and sometimes they need *real* feedback from someone who knows the pitfalls of spiritual practice and how to deal with them. On reflection, I do *not* think that a group of amateurs dealing with confusing experiences that they share is the same thing as being in a trad- ition that has seen this sort of thing for many centuries, and has learned over those centuries which of the confusing experiences *are* really beneficial and which are not. Nothing I have read in the followups to Daniel's death leads me to believe that anyone in the satsang group or on the BATGAP forum has that kind of perspective. My points all along have been that the desire to "protect the realization" is not an inherently safe one. It "works" to create a group who can feel all cool and realized because no matter what they say to others around them, they tend to get reflected back to them a hearty "Yeah...that's some neat realization all right." But what happens when someone says something that should trigger alarm bells in the listeners, and no alarm bells go off? I am *not* trying to "assign blame" in this. I *more* than understand the sense of isolation that someone who has convinced themselves that they are "realized" enforce upon themselves. I am merely pointing out some of the dangers inherent in doing so, and the dangers of people around them *rein- forcing* possibly unsound ideas because their allegiance is still to an unsound piece of dogma: "Meditation and realization are 100% life-supporting." Things *can* and *do* "go wrong" along the Way. My point is that you're not likely to get any real feedback on whether the experiences you're caught up in and overwhelmed by are positive or negative from a group of people who are still committed to the unsound idea that all of them are positive. Just my opinion... > I just posted this at another site: > > > Dan is an evolutionary wind at my back; he shepherds me still. > > He words still scintillate living inside my intent. > > I;ve read his words for hours today and there's not a hint of > any fading of the power with which he effortlessly touches a life. > > Not that he wrote creatively, though he did, not that his love > was angelic, though it was, not that he slogged for hours writing > to help me step into love, and he did, it is the source that > flowed through him that I can never forget, for is not the > silence of his missingness yet the best of him? > > When thoughts stop, there he is. > > Yet do I cry and cry and cry . . . his bell still tolls for me. > > Edg > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Sal Sunshine <salsunshine@> wrote: > > > > On May 30, 2010, at 5:13 PM, Rick Archer wrote: > > > > >> FW; > > >> "I knew Daniel well and have a little different take than some others. > > >> this is what my perception was knowing what was going on. Had I known > > >> the last 2 months he told so many people his pain was too great and he > > >> was thinking of killing himself I would have intervened strongly in some > > >> way. intervention may have helped but at the same time. a person has to > > >> be receptive and I don't know how receptive Daniel was. that advaita > > >> group all think they are beyond human help and looked to him as the > > >> mentor and teacher and he had no one." <end paste> > > > > > > > > > Whoever wrote this doesn't know what they're talking about. They may > > > never have been to the group, and you certainly haven't. We loved and > > > respected Dan, and he spoke with great clarity from a great depth, but > > > the group in general did not look to him as mentor and teacher, and he > > > had people he respected to whom he could talk as much as he wanted to. > > > > I sure hope not, Rick. There seems to be something > > profoundly odd about a group of middle-aged people > > looking to someone more than half their age as a > > "mentor and teacher," JMO. > > > > Sal > > >
