| | RE: kumare Answer 8/7/12 9:52 AM as a reply to Some Guy. J.B.;
(side note- I posted a comment yesterday that I removed as it made no sense after I had slept for a few hours, but am going to try to say something similar now ;-) )
Are you so certain that people don't want to be duped? We surround ourselves with illusions every day. There are very few people, I've found, that seem to want to see the genuine, unhidden truth. We lie to ourselves, and to those around us, every day, so that we fit a more acceptable image for society. Indeed, even many of those on this site, are only hopeful of taking their inner self out of the lies that they have built up; it seems to be generally accepted that, after coming to these truths, if you "acted" in such a way, in society, without the character that you had previously built for those around you, then you would find dissonance caused around you. I don't think that many people are genuinely interested in the person behind the mask that others wear. In the case of "Kumare", he had no religious background specifically. But was that truly what people were seeking? He had no native "Indian" upbringing, but, once again, was this at the heart of what those people needed? No. The people thought that only somebody "exotic" could bring them the lesson they needed. Unfortunately, I just mailed this book home, as I am getting ready to leave, but this is addressed very nicely in "My Ishmael," by Daniel Quinn. In it, the main character, an eleven year old girl, is speaking to a gorilla, who's instructing her on how to save the world. He asks her what she imagined would greet her when she answered his ad in the newspaper, and she tells him all about this daydream of people flying her on a spaceship to a different world, where they studied the success of a superior alien culture. He asked her what she would have done if he were a middle-aged balding man, and she got indignant, and stated that she would have stalked out of the room, knowing that he was "lying" about having the answer to the problems of the planet. Quite simply, it eventually comes out that, as something is flawed within "our" culture, there is a fundamental flaw within "us" that we all share. Therefore, "we" can't possibly know the answer ("we" being anyone residing in the same culture). Ishmael (the gorilla) asked, "Suppose that I tell you that there are people living on Earth, with the answer, right now?" She shifted uncomfortably. She said something to the degree that it didn't feel as comfortable, because that meant that the problem could be solved all along, and we were too stupid to realise it. So, in this case, their "alien life-force to be studied" was Eastern cultures, Indian specifically. And people felt that they "needed" to have the "answers" to their problems given to them by a native, "exotic", member of that land, because anyone within our own culture, couldn't possibly have the answer, because they are "just as flawed" as we are. But what did they actually need? It seems to me, that they needed the compassion, the beneficence, if you will, of the intent of another human being. They needed to feel "listened to", and then they provided him with the answers to provide themselves. He gave them the same things found within that culture; an odd form of "yoga", but a ritualistic expression of motion, nonetheless, breathing techniques, mental quiet... and a paternal, loving figure, upon whom they could rely to "teach" them to overcome their "natural" inferiority. Do we truly think that one mental technique surpasses another? I've called a Circle within me, and it's provided the same ease and quiet in my mentality as when I performed my friend's Chakra meditation. According to this same friend, I've reached up to fourth jhana, without even knowing what it was called, or by performing the "method" in place to get there. I am not saying that certain things, or motions, don't provide a different relief for different people, but rather that they have usually created the "need" for that relief within themselves. It's all a mental game that we play with ourselves- "there is a method." "if I do A, B, C, and D, it leads to E." "I can't do this because I'm this." "If I can't do this, well, then, obviously they can't either, or maybe I am just inferior, in which case I'll pretend to be as good as them, because I can't stand to be inferior." This is probably going to piss a lot of people off, and I apologise. But the truth is, ritual is in place to assist with mental progress because our "mentality", which I am guessing is what people are interpreting on this site as the "me" that is being dismantled, needs it. And, as we already know the falsehood of that "mentality", we should also know that the security blanket known as ritual is just as false. So, he provided them with their security blanket. He used this to give them what they need. Think placebo effect. Most of our lives really are us feeding ourselves placebos. If this is a form of manipulation, it is no more manipulation than they themselves wanted to give to themselves, because of their mental "need" for the assistance to come in that particular package. But the true need was for nothing more than caring acknowledgement, a chance to fully and deeply express themselves, and external guidance, due to their own insecurities. For the record, Brene Brown does an excellent study on this... I bought her entire "Vulnerability" course, and it is at once humorous and insightful. I highly recommend her to anyone who is looking to reconnect to self-honesty.
Love & Happiness, Jazzi |