Joyfree, you nailed it! I wholeheartly agree and say YES to how you describe everything! Thank you for your contribution.
you wrote: " It is important to know that doing seva doesn’t free you from paying for being there!!! If you choose to do seva during the retreats, you pay the retreat price and additionally you get to work! If you stay at the ashram you pay less, but you pay you rent and food! And get to work! After all „it’s by the grace of the guru“ that you can be there anyway!"
Yes, absolutely right. And when you have spent all your money for staying there and working like crazy ( housing and food is around 20€/day in a tent and 45€/day in a tiny tiny hut; shared compost toilets, half a bucket of warm water for showering) then you might be "ripe" for the next stage of devotion: there is a chance if you stand out as a devotee because of special skills, special devotion that M. invites you to live in MS or in one of his houses in Sao Martinho for free and working even harder.
Thats when you fully get trapped. Now you are FULLY dependant. And you are told NOT to say anyone, that you do no longer pay, so noone gets envious. All longterm people are 100% dependant on him (finacially, spiritually, emotionally) and you know, you can be kicked out any time - you see others who have to leave, because "they were too much in their mind" or anything like that.
You write:"It is very sad how many beautiful, young and talented people are wasting away „at the feet of the guru“ while transforming their aliveness into emotional numbness and giving away their power. Some just for the sake to belong, to be special, to just escape the reality of their traumas and bypass it and sadly most of them are stuck because this has become so much their reality that they don’t have the courage and support to leave. After living in such an environment for quite some time it requires a huge amount of power or great support to just allow a little spark of the idea that it might not be that great after all and that the only thing you got after years of satsang and seva is that you are more dissociative than before."
ABSOLUTELY!
PapajiysaysNO: Thank you for mentioning the guru papers, I will have a look.
Sahara, you quoted: "The Eastern view of enlightenment as beyond reason allows gurus to undermine reason. This precept alone makes the guru dangerously feedback-proof, for he automatically escapes accountability for any behaviour. If pressed, the guru can easily reply, “You can’t possibly understand what I’m really doing because you’re not enlightened.” This stance, if believed, makes acceptable any incongruity between ideas and action. The guru can reverse any challenge or criticism by saying “It’s your problem; your ego is getting in the way.” He, of course, has no ego."
Doesn't that sound exactly like what Moo does????"
YES, ABSOLUTELY!
2cents: thank you for sharing the video link. OMG, I CANNOT watch this stuff anymore, it makes me sick.
Sahara, your quoting from the video made me laugh....although it is sad.
you wrote: " It is important to know that doing seva doesn’t free you from paying for being there!!! If you choose to do seva during the retreats, you pay the retreat price and additionally you get to work! If you stay at the ashram you pay less, but you pay you rent and food! And get to work! After all „it’s by the grace of the guru“ that you can be there anyway!"
Yes, absolutely right. And when you have spent all your money for staying there and working like crazy ( housing and food is around 20€/day in a tent and 45€/day in a tiny tiny hut; shared compost toilets, half a bucket of warm water for showering) then you might be "ripe" for the next stage of devotion: there is a chance if you stand out as a devotee because of special skills, special devotion that M. invites you to live in MS or in one of his houses in Sao Martinho for free and working even harder.
Thats when you fully get trapped. Now you are FULLY dependant. And you are told NOT to say anyone, that you do no longer pay, so noone gets envious. All longterm people are 100% dependant on him (finacially, spiritually, emotionally) and you know, you can be kicked out any time - you see others who have to leave, because "they were too much in their mind" or anything like that.
You write:"It is very sad how many beautiful, young and talented people are wasting away „at the feet of the guru“ while transforming their aliveness into emotional numbness and giving away their power. Some just for the sake to belong, to be special, to just escape the reality of their traumas and bypass it and sadly most of them are stuck because this has become so much their reality that they don’t have the courage and support to leave. After living in such an environment for quite some time it requires a huge amount of power or great support to just allow a little spark of the idea that it might not be that great after all and that the only thing you got after years of satsang and seva is that you are more dissociative than before."
ABSOLUTELY!
PapajiysaysNO: Thank you for mentioning the guru papers, I will have a look.
Sahara, you quoted: "The Eastern view of enlightenment as beyond reason allows gurus to undermine reason. This precept alone makes the guru dangerously feedback-proof, for he automatically escapes accountability for any behaviour. If pressed, the guru can easily reply, “You can’t possibly understand what I’m really doing because you’re not enlightened.” This stance, if believed, makes acceptable any incongruity between ideas and action. The guru can reverse any challenge or criticism by saying “It’s your problem; your ego is getting in the way.” He, of course, has no ego."
Doesn't that sound exactly like what Moo does????"
YES, ABSOLUTELY!
2cents: thank you for sharing the video link. OMG, I CANNOT watch this stuff anymore, it makes me sick.
Sahara, your quoting from the video made me laugh....although it is sad.