Thx Dharmabum—
Yeah, it's a plague of sorts. These cults form a tight bubble around the person and within that bubble things start to fester. I've seen it. it's not a sustainable existence. The sages and thinkers of the past did not intend on creating an "absolutism" in their theories and ideas. It was always to be understood as a work in progress (existence is not fixed and static). We live in a society that has become lazy on the thinking front. We like to be spoon fed prescriptions and concepts as so called solutions and concrete answers. Often times religions attach science and logic as limited and unable to offer all answers. That's never been the attempt of science and philosophy. The idea is to seek truth and sound, logical, and rational explanations and form theories and ideas based on available evidence and deduction. The danger in the cults is that they offer this as the basis for convincing people to join, and then once you are fully on board with the "basics" (you're not the body etc), they start to feed you a steady diet of irrational concepts and myths and skewed belief systems. Before you know it, you are shaved up, wearing saffron and chanting like a robot to some guru and god and you have little to no conception of the implication at hand. Of course thesis not the experience for everyone and many people find a perfect balance and application of the philosophies. But you have to make some pretty large mental leaps on the way to that place. I was never able to wrap my head fully around it all. Where one rational thought started, 100 irrational ideas sprang forth. It was ridiculous. The justifications and explanations I was given were devoid of any critical thinking and awareness of what was being implied and suggested.
Yeah, it's a plague of sorts. These cults form a tight bubble around the person and within that bubble things start to fester. I've seen it. it's not a sustainable existence. The sages and thinkers of the past did not intend on creating an "absolutism" in their theories and ideas. It was always to be understood as a work in progress (existence is not fixed and static). We live in a society that has become lazy on the thinking front. We like to be spoon fed prescriptions and concepts as so called solutions and concrete answers. Often times religions attach science and logic as limited and unable to offer all answers. That's never been the attempt of science and philosophy. The idea is to seek truth and sound, logical, and rational explanations and form theories and ideas based on available evidence and deduction. The danger in the cults is that they offer this as the basis for convincing people to join, and then once you are fully on board with the "basics" (you're not the body etc), they start to feed you a steady diet of irrational concepts and myths and skewed belief systems. Before you know it, you are shaved up, wearing saffron and chanting like a robot to some guru and god and you have little to no conception of the implication at hand. Of course thesis not the experience for everyone and many people find a perfect balance and application of the philosophies. But you have to make some pretty large mental leaps on the way to that place. I was never able to wrap my head fully around it all. Where one rational thought started, 100 irrational ideas sprang forth. It was ridiculous. The justifications and explanations I was given were devoid of any critical thinking and awareness of what was being implied and suggested.