So are they a part of him or not? Me and my hands? Me and my voice?
Depends how you want to categorize "me".
On one end, you could say that they are part of the whole we term the material body, on the other, if you lose your hands or voice you don't cease to exist, so there is a more intrinsic element at play.
So portions of God relegate themselves on account of what you personally consider dysfunctionalism?
No more than your hand would relegate itself to a weakened diseased state if it somehow had the free will to dislocate itself from your body
But we are a part of God. It is God's consciousness in us that has forgetten its nature? or?
Our nature (one of service) is never forgotten. It is expressed through our consciousness. So an absence of god consciousness translates as an absence of service to god, which simple means that we accepts another object of service (my family, my country, my race etc)
No, its an ontological issue. It is an issue of who has free will. In Christianity, where we are not God, then it can be a free will issue. But in mystical Hinduism there is no out like this
.
Its the impersonalist take on vedic philosophy that says we are god - according to them, if one takes birth as a stool eating pig in a slaughterhouse, it is lila
:shrug:
So it would not be a good thing if all beings returned to the unity and stayed there since this would no longer be a reciprocation situation, but a mere unity and thus a diminished God.
not only a diminished god but also a diminished universe. A universe without variety is, quite literally, dead boring. Basically what you are advocating is that existence is such a perilous venture that perfection requires non-existence
Soulds like a clear dualism. The individuality is used by something else. And something better.
Why would use (or more specifically service) render an individual less?
Is your mother any less because she calls you up on your birthday?
Actually there are good arguments for service making one greater.
Service and use. I cannot see why God would want its portions to have somethign more than freely choosing not to be free.
I can't see why you think that.
opting for material existence is a lesser freedom, much like if your hand opted for an independent existence, it would be lesser. This is because independence is not its constitutional position.
Oh, they have responsibility for their portion of the whole as parts of God - in my perspective. So for me this is a false dilemma.
It is not simply that individuals have free will, they have free will and a nature that seems to run counter to the class based metaphors of goodness and distaste for desire in your system.
How so?
It is nto simply random natures we are born with, we are born as bodies with desires this God judges.
regardless of the desires one is born with, one still has a constitutional position of service (IOW this is the constant that doesn't change). Moving up or falling down the material ladder (samsara) may be the consequence of the use of secondary desires, but it is how, where and what we use this primary nature of service that concerns god (at least as far as transcendental advancement is concerned)
And the whole material realm seems also to be distasteful to this God except when this is explicitly framed, then it is denied.
I'm not sure why you think the material energy (which is after all, one of god's energies) would be distasteful
Look at what actually goes on in ashrams under these rules. Look at how member treat eachother. Look at the disdain - not simply by random members, but by the devotees who come close to the guru him or herself. The disdain for emotion, desire, lack of control. Disdain for those who do not simply go along with the precepts. For those who have trouble. For those with strong passions. Whose faces show other emotions than bliss or a kind of pleased poker face.
actually the key element for entering into the spiritual world is to be socialized around the devotees. IOW if one is a poker-faced reservoir of bitterness and envy in the association of devotees there is absolutely no point for them going to the spiritual world, since they would be totally unhappy there.
When I talk of service to god, etc, I mean service to god in the association of devotees. Its a totally neophyte perspective to think there is just god, one's self and the (apparent) service one does for him. Basically in the spiritual world, everyone is a guru - except you.
Some ashrams/disciplines/ traditions may be more effective at this than others, but regardless, the standard for release from the material energy is not cheapened.
Why do these rules that come from a monism always lead to such splits and why do those who rise in such organizations always have an undercurrent distaste for portions of that monims.
At the risk of getting in to some technical terminology, spiritual life is sometimes broken down into 9 progressive parts. In short, a critical junction is where it moves from being steady to unsteady. An elaboration of the junction is given as
Bhajana kriya is divided into two parts anishthita (unsteady) and nishthita (steady). When devotional activities are performed on the anishthita platform, there is no fear of deviation or lethargy. Anishthita (unsteady devotional service) is further divided into six gradations:
utsahamayi (sudden enthusiasm)
ghana-tarald (sometimes enthusiastic, sometimes lethargic)
vyudha- vikalpa (a stage when doubts assail one's resolve)
visaya-sangara (a stage of internal tug-of-war with material sense enjoyment)
niyamaksama (although one practises regularly, full justice is still not done to the process)
taranga-rangini (attachment to wealth, adoration, distinction, and so on).
There are two points in a living entities sojourn that they can literally spend thousands of life times treading water. One is in the position of not developing the initial faith to begin any sort of spiritual discipline. The other is at this junction point.
If one moves into any sort of spiritual discipline one can expect to encounter these sorts of people (as well as displaying the same symptoms, I might add)
Yes, why the sexual and emotional hang up? Why the judging from on high? Why the upper chakra dreams of control and distaste for the lower chakras? Why the ongoing implicit acceptance of the lower being bad and the upper being Good? And then that this is always denied when it is so obvious and throughout?
actually my question was why do you have great volumes of reserve about entertaining the notion that we are currently in a state aimed at reformation.
As for ideas of one chakra dominating another, I don't see it (or even think of it) like that. The main problem with sex life is that it is not met by a similar desire for responsible parenting.
Yes, your choice of analogy was problematic. Ironically however this is precisely what your system is doing? This small portion of the light in the mind decides that all the other parts must be controlled rather than granted their free will, because of a deep fear that without this control things will go terribly. I have sympathy for this fear, but not when it is expressed as a judgment with all the attendent blame.
I'm not sure I follow.
I mean suppose a hand did have free will - what would dictate that it can and must file for divorce immediately?
This was the hang up I was asking you about earlier.
What is it about being in a (constitutional) position of service that you find so abhorrent?
I mean its like a key stone of civilized society and stable relationships even in mundane terms.
Why get all antsy when the idea is extrapolated to issues surrounding god?
The assumption is that there are two gunas. That one's selfishness is not loving. And then people point to examples where this is not the case, as if therefore it must be universal.
(on a side point there are actually three gunas - or material qualities. They are not celebrated as transcendental, although sattva guna is understood to be conducive to transcendence - the reason the gunas are not transcendental is because they are always unsteady - for instance a good person gives in to pride, a depraved person becomes sick of their life and resolves for something higher, a passionate person succumbs to lethargy etc .. so that said, a civilized society places an emphasis on sattva guna, even though there is an understanding that stabilizing on it requires constant effort)
Given that selfishness is a type of self-love, it tends to impede any sort of other consideration for others
I really wish people could actually go into their actual feelings about sex, rather than this intellectual smokescreen. because the judgments here have done so much damage.
actually damage is done by approaching the issue of sex without a sense of duty and also, ironically, approaching the issue of sex as if it is complete illusion (since one ultimately falls down from such a view point and takes a position in the first given category)
But you needed to go to a worse case scenario. Which you have done before with the rappers. You use extreme examples as if they were universals. Do you reinforce your own beliefs here with reassurances from worst case examples?
meh
google "spiritual sex" and see what you come up with
:shrug:
As if the choices were a kind of sociopathy and being a devotee. All I can tell you is that it seems to me this has been made digital with two possible forms of (sexual) love and I can only imagine it is stablizing in relation to your beliefs, but it is not the limits of reality. If we were not meeting in this context and had trust for each other in a personal way, I would ask you what makes you think these are the choices- iow what in your personal life has given you such a limited impression of what sexual expressing can be like. But that is not the situation. I raise the issue because we are coming to the close of what we can possibly do in this forum on this issue.
You will have to explain yourself better.
All I can gather is that you are not impressed but I don't know why. I don't even know exactly what you are referring to as "choices", why they are limiting etc etc
sure, of course. I have no need to think of service to have a wonderful experience of reciprocation.
I meant service in a broad sense - like a mother serves her child, a husband serves a wife etc. IOW not in the sense of filling out a form or presenting something on a silver platter. Rather, the type of service that acts as a foundation of love.
What an odd judgement. Have you never unraveled a block to spontanaeity and found that it was not service to God or goodness or reciprocity that was the nature of that block? And then found that one could allow spontaneous expression in that way and it was fine and loving?
I'm not demonizing spontaneity.
I'm saying - If we ever want to go against the consequences of a spontaneous act there is probably a good reason for going against the spontaneous act in the first place.
IOW our spontaneity is often curbed by our caution. And as its pertinent to the thread, that's why we have roofies.
Because the above quote assume that this could never be the case. Which ultimately is very sad as a judgement and I can only say it is not remotely true for my life.
Caution never plays a role in your life, or its always sold out to spontaneity?
I certainly was not suggesting people take up that form of Yoga. I was acknowledging that certain kinds of bodily grace can be found in these ashrams.
and yet certain other ashrams, while acknowledging the health benefits of it, also understand that it is of no intrinsic spiritual value in this age
I know you can't. You seem not to trust love. You need a legal system, an interior one.
huh?
I don't think I am alone in not trusting a situation of love where there is no sense of obligation (and I don't think I need a legal system or interior one to establish it either)
Oh, my soul has no interest in this either. Perhaps even less so. And I have so many loving, reciprocal experiences without it, in fact more, I do not have those fears any more.
I'll leave it here LG. I do not think it makes sense to go further on this issue.
Its a difficult thing to discuss since many people, on account on the bitterness of their material experiences, have jaded interpretations of the words "service' "obligation" and "duty", so much so that they can't even see how these are pertinent to love, what to speak of god.