spiritualmrpotatohead's Blog

"it may be that among the Ammachi hard-core, there's a hugely dogmatic shared belief-system that Ammachi is the Supreme Lord Herself, Absolute Perfect Love Personified (yada yada)"

Yeah I can believe that and have seen it in the followers of hers I have interacted with. What is interesting is that she does attract people susceptible to that mentality -- since the woman I dated was only in her org for a month and was already acting like those in there for years.

Could it be that most of the current Indian gurus are all more flakey, more dogmatic, and attract more flakey followers, than the eastern-inspired western spiritual gurus? If so, that is an interesting shift.

I am of Indian descent, so maybe I should hurry up and get enlightened and take back sanity for the home team :-)

I can only speak for myself personally and my experiences with Gangaji satsangs and other teachers' satsangs I've been to.

Gangaji doesn't focus on herself and does encourage self-enquiry. I think people who leave Gangaji retreats might be more likely to question her mainly because she

doesn't

come across as a guru, or a teacher interested in focusing on herself or on dogma or ritual. People seem to wonder why she can teach so casually and not make a big deal of it (as we've been so groomed to expect spiritual teachers to portray themselves -- either directly or subtly -- as different from us).

When I was younger and first came across Krishnamurti's books, I actually enjoyed hearing about the supposed scandals, especially the rumor that he forced his lover to abort their love-child. I suppose I wanted to hear that for a couple reasons: I wanted to see if hearing such a thing would tint the teachings resonating with me (it didn't), and I also liked that all the people, for whom such news did bother them, left his teachings and went elsewhere.

So I suppose it's the same reason I am curious about Gangaji.

Well I certainly hope more people join this forum. I just moved to BC from the SF Bay Area and miss having all the good, bad and ugly spiritual teachers passing through and giving satsangs. What can I say? I'm addicted to going to hear 'gurus' talk, so I can agree with or ridicule them in my mind. I'm hoping more people from Canada will join and give me some input on the local 'spiritual' scene.

I am curious about how there can be such an extreme dichotomy between Ammachi and her followers. The meetings of hers I've gone to, she does seem simple, innocent and only interested in hugging people. And yet every one of her followers I met (I even dated one) seemed a bit 'off'.

They seem spacey... kind of that feeling you get around people trying to deny most parts of themselves as they force themselves into a mold of how kind, simple, charitable and spiritual they think they should be.

Wait a minute, I guess I answered my own question. For some reason all her followers think they should emulate Ammachi, however unnatural for them that is. Not sure if those in her organization try and get the followers to act that way, or if Ammachi demands it.

I've been to a few talks from some no-name Indian gurus when I travelled there, as well as Tolle, Ammachi and recently Gangaji. Gangaji is the only one that I really liked and went back to a couple of retreats. She is the only one I would go back to whenever she is in the area and I have some spare time. But now I find myself curious about her, her organization, followers, scandals etc. I know about the whole Eli scandal, but am curious about others' opinions about her. Dirt on her may not necessarily influence my opinion of what she has to say or how she says it (which I like), but perhaps because it resonates with me so much, I'd like to know if she really is who she presents publicly.

oops, I put my post above in this topic, instead of creating a new one. if the moderator can move it, that would be appreciated.

I've been to a few talks from some no-name Indian gurus when I travelled there, as well as Tolle, Ammachi and recently Gangaji. Gangaji is the only one that I really liked and went back to a couple of retreats. She is the only one I would go back to whenever she is in the area and I have some spare time. But now I find myself curious about her, her organization, followers, scandals etc. I know about the whole Eli scandal, but am curious about others' opinions about her. Dirt on her may not necessarily influence my opinion of what she has to say or how she says it (which I like), but perhaps because it resonates with me so much, I'd like to know if she really is who she presents publicly.

I started watching the 'new earth' oprah/tolle love-fest netcasts. As a side note, it was interesting to see what an expensively produced netcast can achieve: reaching a large worldwide audience, all connected in real-time via the video-cast, telephone, email, skype, etc.

Apart from 'The Power of Now' none of Tolle's books ever resonated with me. Once he started getting into the pain body he lost me, adding an unnecessary layer of language to describe something which could be done in a much simpler way. But I have to say, that if you listen to him carefully, you can get some good insights.

The majority of people will turn his words to suit their life (i.e. ego=bad, let me fight ego to find happiness), but some may understand that he is really talking about identification. So I think the netcast is better than his books. When he is explaining something in real-time, he does have more opportunity to say the same thing over and over again, and a few more splinters of the truth come out.