Topic 18 of 28: Saints, gurus, and avatars
Thu, Jul 19, 2001 (09:53) |
Don James (beatnick)
No one's posted anything in over a week, so I'm just getting out
some ideas I'm playing with. A week ago I went to see this Indian
guru, Ammachi in Washington D.C. Now, I've had a little of the
Farm experience, so I'm not so easily swayed by some people's
interpretations of things, such as that Ammachi is an Avatar,
or a Saint. Do we really need such things? I was there and there's
no question as to her being Awake. I'll draw the line there. Isn't
being a Buddha enough? And she is very saintly, with many many charitable
works, God love her, she's got her mind right in that sense. And so
full of love. A real shot in the arm for spirituality, from my view.
I felt healed by being there. Healing is healing. I like the zen masters
who said "and no holiness", and saints and avatars sounds like holiness
to me. Awake just sounds matter of fact. :-)
11 responses total.
Topic 18 of 28 [farm]: Saints, gurus, and avatars
Response 1 of 11: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Thu, Jul 19, 2001 (10:05) * 1 lines
Where does Ammachi headquarter her operations? Does she have ashrams or centers around and about?
Topic 18 of 28 [farm]: Saints, gurus, and avatars
Response 2 of 11: Don James (beatnick) * Thu, Jul 19, 2001 (10:15) * 8 lines
Hey, you never answered me when I asked if you preferred Paul or Terry?
I presume Terry since it's your post handle, eh? Her main ashram is in
India, there's centers all over the world. I went to one in the bay area
in 1992, I went there to tag along with this lady I was on a "date" with.
Talk about a bad date :-( But anyways, here's the website, http://www.ammachi.org/ She reminds me of when Stephen was talking about
seeing Satchidananda and saying that Satch gave a genuine spiritual experience
and that's what I felt from seeing Ammachi. 26 years later and I'm still a
dharma bum. Guess it's a permanent affliction :-) Wazzup, Terry?
Topic 18 of 28 [farm]: Saints, gurus, and avatars
Response 3 of 11: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Thu, Jul 19, 2001 (10:20) * 1 lines
Terry is cool. How's you web day going, Don?
Topic 18 of 28 [farm]: Saints, gurus, and avatars
Response 4 of 11: Don James (beatnick) * Thu, Jul 19, 2001 (11:27) * 1 lines
Doing good. Do you post from work also?
Topic 18 of 28 [farm]: Saints, gurus, and avatars
Response 5 of 11: Don James (beatnick) * Thu, Jul 19, 2001 (11:58) * 14 lines
Hey Terry,
you quoted Matthew as saying
- People who had previously thought of Stephen as a living Buddha
began to question his realization. I think that was the big one,
actually.
What's your take on that? Did you ever think Stephen was a living Buddha?
I know I did in 1976, but over the years I've come to see that awakening
and enlightenment are two things. Enlightenment is the actualization of
awakening. So, I still feel Stephen is awakened, and over the years, just
from reading the history, it seems sometimes he actualized it, sometimes
not. About as well as any I've heard of though. He definitely mostly walks
his talk, it seems, but then I never really got to know him personally.
What's your take on that?
Topic 18 of 28 [farm]: Saints, gurus, and avatars
Response 6 of 11: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Thu, Jul 19, 2001 (14:01) * 1 lines
I thought he was brilliant at leading people, inspiring people, and synthesizing all of the worlds religious streams. He learned well from S. I. Hayakawa. Living Buddha, nope. But great, inspiring leader, yes.
Topic 18 of 28 [farm]: Saints, gurus, and avatars
Response 7 of 11: Don James (beatnick) * Thu, Jul 19, 2001 (14:41) * 6 lines
I thought he was brilliant at leading people, inspiring people, and synthesizing all of the worlds religious streams. He learned well from S. I. Hayakawa. Living Buddha, nope. But great, inspiring leader, yes.
-I agree, but how about the awakened part as opposed (can you have this
in non-duality?) to unawakened? And I'll qualify this by saying my definition
of the difference between an awakenend dude or dudette is the perfecting of
all of one's actions, otherwise there's no difference.
Topic 18 of 28 [farm]: Saints, gurus, and avatars
Response 8 of 11: Don James (beatnick) * Thu, Jul 19, 2001 (14:43) * 9 lines
Damn! screwed it up and didn't read it before posting, heh, here's what
I meant to say
I thought he was brilliant at leading people, inspiring people, and synthesizing all of the worlds religious streams. He learned well from S. I. Hayakawa. Living Buddha, nope. But great, inspiring leader, yes.
-I agree, but how about the awakened part as opposed (can you have this
in non-duality?) to unawakened? And I'll qualify this by saying my definition
of the difference between an awakenend dude or dudette and one who has attained buddhahood is the perfecting of all of one's actions, otherwise there's no difference.
Topic 18 of 28 [farm]: Saints, gurus, and avatars
Response 9 of 11: Laurie Rossa Vazquez (mexicana) * Sun, Mar 2, 2003 (02:36) * 1 lines
I think the Dalai Lama is a living Buddha.
Topic 18 of 28 [farm]: Saints, gurus, and avatars
Response 10 of 11: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Sun, Mar 2, 2003 (05:52) * 5 lines
A lot of people share that view, including William Meyers and Richard Gere.
http://www.spring.net/wmmeyers/dalailam.html
Topic 18 of 28 [farm]: Saints, gurus, and avatars
Response 11 of 11: Laurie Rossa Vazquez (mexicana) * Mon, Mar 10, 2003 (02:38) * 1 lines
As I said in another topic here, I think Stephen is a bodhisattva.
farm conference 
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