--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "curtisdeltablues" <curtisdeltablues@...> wrote: > > I appreciate the detailed response and validation. From > Joe too. I do enjoy reviewing ideas here in fresh way > without the assumptions contained in spiritual systems.
It's almost like a free speech zone. Almost. :-) > Especially the one that claims that we are not in a state > to be able to evaluate statements for ourselves. If you > reject the assumptive condescension that they are coming > from some higher place, then they get evaluated the way > we do anyone else's claims. And under that gaze they > sound like the guy on metro who wants to convince me that > I am not saved but he is and if I would just believe as > he does...yada yada yada! Let me make up a problem for > you that only I can solve. Or that only Jesus can solve. Or Allah. Or Maharishi. > Content free marketing. Sure saves on the warehouse space! I honestly hadn't ever thought about it that way. "Content free marketing" is a good phrase. It kinda nails it. The entire pitch can be rendered down to "We know and you don't." Me, I don't know. I realized while walking my dogs just now that I've been on a spiritual path for over 50 years. Some- thing in me "woke up" and pointed in that general direction when I hit Morocco at age 14, and it hasn't let up since. In that time I've studied with spiritual teachers and I've never really seen any indication that they "know." They believe, same as I do. That covers my approach to Patanjali, too. Having stepped back from the "Spiritual teachers really DO know and we don't" perspective, I see him as a pretty odd duck. One way of viewing Patanjali is as a guy who was never any good at the normal skills of human interaction. I don't think that the guy ever scored in high school. It's possible that he never scored, period. So he becomes a monk. But even in the monastery he's lacking in the ordinary skills of human interaction, so he focuses instead on the extraordinary ones. He may not be able to have a conversation with one of his fellow monks because it's painful, but he can fly and turn invisible. That'll teach 'em. :-)
