Best Of

Passing through the micro climate on the way to the beach..

It was quite muddy, so I had to be mindful of where and how I stepped...

No mud , no lotus...

That's nice to hear @Bunks...

No matter where one lives, (the countryside, the suburbs, inner city, close to mountains or the ocean) there's always something of interest/beauty close by (sunrise sunset, the moon, the buildings, the wildlife, nature etc etc)...if one is present...

The mind never stops confabulating, until you tell it you are no longer interested.

I like the jokes… but the exercise was meant as a serious spur to self-examination!

For me, it made me ask whether I had lived enough from the heart. I’ve always been quite into planning and strategizing, living from the mind, and have done very few things that were spontaneous. That means I’ve been very ‘sensible’ and non-impulsive, very safe, but also that I haven’t lived from the heart very much.

If you consider what really matters to you, the things that you’d say made your life worthwhile, they’re areas which speak to your passions when you’re young. When you’re a little older you lose that fire, and people often end up in a mid-life crisis.

@Shoshin1 said:
And when it comes to blindly following a Guru...I keep this in mind...

Even some of the so called bad ones have something good/beneficial to teach/share...

So don't throw the baby (beneficial teachings) out with the bath water (the guru's bad behaviour)

True, but when you realise a guru was just a human, there is going to follow somewhat of a reassessment of their teachings. Yes, don’t throw out the baby with the bath water, but you need to identify what is baby and what is bath water.

The Joy and Quandary of Knowledge:
Once we get the answer, new questions arise.

Peace to all

@Dakini said:
Luring unsuspecting seekers into a group on the promise of spiritual development, only to take advantage of them after grooming them with false teachings to eliminate their defenses, doesn't meet even this basic level of ethics.

Yet, the to-me surprising thing is that the teachings even from this kind of environment can still be beneficial. You could call Osho a guru and his movement a cult, but the lectures he gave about things like Tseng’can’s inscription on the faith mind or on the Indian saint Kabir and his songs opened spiritual doors for his followers.

There is a saying that even the teachings of a con-man can be valuable. Sometimes the seed falls onto fertile ground.

On ‘A Little Bit Culty’ the past couple of days there have been interviews with Will Allen, who made a movie called Holy Hell (2016) about a cult called Buddhafield, which the founder modelled intentionally after Osho’s movement. He forbade his followers to read Osho’s books, because he would copy whole speeches from them, except that he would leave out the free love parts and would have gay sex with young male followers.

Might make you think…

perfect … I would like mine to say that, no name or anything else …

Good plan!