Guruphiliac: Don't Fix The Broken Yogi



Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Don't Fix The Broken Yogi

File under: Blogs of Note

Today we were informed one of our more challenging interlocutors in the comments on this blog, Conrad Goehausen, aka Broken Yogi, has one of his own, The Broken Yogi Samyama, in which we turned up a few months back:
I recently had an interesting exchange with Jody over at Guruphilliac over a criticism he made of Bharat Gajjar, an elderly yogic teacher in the Sivananda tradition teaching in Delaware who had mentioned in some newspaper interview that he at times felt and even saw Sivananda giving him guidance in how to teach others. Bharat also mentioned that some of his students had at times seen Sivananda as well. Jody, who otherwise liked the guy, felt that this was an exploitive and deluding thing to tell his students, and that it would lead to delusions on their part. In our exchange, in which I tried to defend Bharat, who otherwise seemed to be the picture of a benevolent and kindly yoga teacher, Jody makes it clear that he views all such claims that subtle phenomena actually exist outside the imaginal subjectivity of the practitioner as simply superstitious personal mythologies, and represent nothing more than cultural indoctrination of Hinduism which deludes and detracts from higher understanding.
And there is not one single shred of evidence to prove otherwise, BY, outside of the cataclysmic flood of wacky personal anecdotes which comprise spiritual wisdom for your average, horrifically un- and under-informed New Age™ seeker.

Every subtle experience every person has ever known has been confined to their own, subjective envelope, even those allegedly experienced by multiple individuals. As a practitioner of self-inquiry, please be advised that any subtle experience you might have is to be accompanied by one clear question: who is the one who is having this subtle experience? That's all is takes to discount all subtle experience in one fell swoop with regards to our actual truth of being (along with anything and everything else that seems to occur in this world of ours.)

Despite the fact he's labeled us a [gasp] "materialist," we're glad Broken Yogi comes by and takes the time to keep us honest. While we may not see eye-to-eye vis-á-vis the import of seemingly supernaturally-generated spiritual experiences, the big wide world holds open the space for both of us to appreciate each others' take on the business of uncovering what is real.

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9 Comments:

At 3/19/2008 10:53 AM, Blogger Ben There said...

As a practitioner of self-inquiry, please be advised that any subtle experience you might have is to be accompanied by one clear question: who is the one who is having this subtle experience?

Something we can agree on. Good advice.

Ben

 
At 3/19/2008 4:07 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

So the *subtle experience* are to be treated on the same level as the more objective and material experience?

This is a subtle way to imply that this *subtle experience* is as real as the buildings and other objects around us.

Anyway, what is real and solid and what is hallucination?

 
At 3/19/2008 5:38 PM, Blogger Mike said...

Oh my...me and my big mouth.

Well, back to checking out the links on the side. (Oh, and the ads. Did you know there were hucksters taking advantage of Tolle? Via one of the ads? Actually, two of them. Not the beliefnet one, but two business related ones.)

When I have free time, I love clicking on the blue hypertexted names. People publish some pretty good stuff out there. (BTW, good blogging start there, ben.)

 
At 3/19/2008 6:51 PM, Blogger guruphiliac said...

So the *subtle experience* are to be treated on the same level as the more objective and material experience?

No. I'd rank subtle more on the illusory end of the delusion spectrum. I'm going to jump out of the way of a speeding big rig, but a speeding ghost presents no hazard, afaic.

Anyway, what is real and solid and what is hallucination?

As far as our true nature is concerned, there is no difference. But as an apparent being in a soft body, there's a big difference between talking vapors and hurtling packages of matter.

 
At 3/19/2008 6:52 PM, Blogger guruphiliac said...

Did you know there were hucksters taking advantage of Tolle? Via one of the ads?

You can include me in that group, seeing as I'm the one publishing the ads. Too bad it's only making me pennies.

 
At 3/19/2008 8:35 PM, Blogger Mike said...

Well, they're google ads via ad sense. I looked into that earlier today, mulling over whether I should do the same. But, with maybe a high average of 50/day unique visitors, my penny jar would fill up slowly.

It's funny how google is so instantly reflective of the content of a site!
Impressive.

Anyway, enjoying the site and many of the links you have also. It's been awhile since I checked out the guru scene (and related stuff).

 
At 3/19/2008 9:33 PM, Blogger Steven Sashen said...

The added problem with "subtle experiences" is when the person who has one assumes that the content is true (and the more subtle, the more true).

Having an experience of "oneness" does not in any way confirm a "fact" that everything is, in fact, one.

Having a thought in the sound of your teacher's voice does not mean that your teacher is communicating with you from the great beyond, or New Jersey (whichever is appropriate).

 
At 3/20/2008 12:30 AM, Blogger gregory said...

you have ads here?

 
At 10/28/2015 7:23 AM, Blogger Heena Pathak said...

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