Bias against New Age

[Vanir Thunder Dojo Tan]

Apparently, you've spent a bit too much time in imaginary 'game-lands' like Zelda.. and, you seem the think that juvenile language and pretend tough-guy talk substitutes for actual experience and clarity, it doesn't..

 

 

Apparently you cannot see correlations and transpositions of reality in and of all things.

 

Be

[BaguaKicksAss]

I'm curious about the seemingly hateful bias against anything labeled New Age.

 

Our instincts, intuition and insight are as valid now as at any point in human history. More so in fact, since we are manifest and involved in the current exchange of energy patterns in the now as opposed to those who wrote the classic tomes of the past.

 

Now certainly, human experience exists as an energetic pattern and certain truths are truthful over 1,000 or 10,000,000 years of experience, regardless of living in a jungle or a city, technological or primitive. But to completely discount and ignore new teachings or to inhibit or resist the desire to explore and discover new insights smacks of being a slave to an unchanging reality tunnel. Hard and inflexible is the way of death. Soft and pliant is the way of life.

 

All things in nature change.

Teachings included.

 

One of the great things about open minded scientists or spiritualists... they change their perspective when new valid information becomes available.

 

The Way of the Sage.

 

My personal bias against newage lays mostly in the folks who take a weekend workshop (or perhaps a few weekend workshops, or a week-long workshop), and are suddenly a "master" or "healer" and then go on to teach others, write books, try to heal people and so forth.

 

Things tend to get watered down so the general masses can do them with as little practice and effort as possible, then through on to a few generations of "teachers".

[Thunder_Gooch]

 

 

My personal bias against newage lays mostly in the folks who take a weekend workshop (or perhaps a few weekend workshops, or a week-long workshop), and are suddenly a "master" or "healer" and then go on to teach others, write books, try to heal people and so forth.

 

Things tend to get watered down so the general masses can do them with as little practice and effort as possible, then through on to a few generations of "teachers".

[BaguaKicksAss]

I will never get that minute and a half of my life back!! LOL I couldn't watch past there, it was too painful...

 

I'm off to torture my fb friends with it now .

[Apech]

 

 

I liked the way he wiggled his body at the end of each transmission. Excellent.

[Vanir Thunder Dojo Tan]

 

 

 

I got 14 seconds in, saw his eyes, and said "fuck no!" and stopped the video.

 

Well... at least HE BELIEVES himself!

 

 

 

 

Edit: apparently, with zero consistency, I can submit posts by pressing >Enter<

 

Edited August 2, 2013 by Northern Avid Judo Ant

[Apech]

 

 

I got 14 seconds in, saw his eyes, and said "fuck no!" and stopped the video.

 

Well... at least HE BELIEVES himself!

 

 

 

 

Edit: apparently, with zero consistency, I can submit posts by pressing >Enter<

 

 

 

We need to have a new 'too **** for TBs' category.

[teknix]

I'm curious about the seemingly hateful bias against anything labeled New Age.

 

Our instincts, intuition and insight are as valid now as at any point in human history. More so in fact, since we are manifest and involved in the current exchange of energy patterns in the now as opposed to those who wrote the classic tomes of the past.

 

Now certainly, human experience exists as an energetic pattern and certain truths are truthful over 1,000 or 10,000,000 years of experience, regardless of living in a jungle or a city, technological or primitive. But to completely discount and ignore new teachings or to inhibit or resist the desire to explore and discover new insights smacks of being a slave to an unchanging reality tunnel. Hard and inflexible is the way of death. Soft and pliant is the way of life.

 

All things in nature change.

Teachings included.

 

One of the great things about open minded scientists or spiritualists... they change their perspective when new valid information becomes available.

 

The Way of the Sage.

 

 

The New Age is the new paradigm and the old paradigm always wants to resist the evolution brought about by change, however the change is inevitable as soon as it is seen to be the more sound rationally. People feel attached to their beliefs personally and would sometimes prefer to remain in ignorance than to consider the truth, because the beliefs they hold are theirs and attached to their idea of self.

[Vanir Thunder Dojo Tan]

We need to have a new 'too **** for TBs' category.

 

Yeah, seriously, we need to use the enter key to separate our paragraphs! oh you mean the faker...

 

[teriyaki]

Greetings..

 

 

 

No, you cannot see where i'm coming from.. you are still attached to beliefs and depend on dead words.. i'm interested in what is actually happening, and you've demonstrated no interest in that, yet...

 

No.. still your own mind and prove it to yourself.. i've shared what i intended to share, and you've stated your conditioned biases..

 

Yes, i do know what stillness is.. it's 'still', even in the midst of chaos..

 

No, no flashbacks.. and, my experience with "energetics" is not something to be 'evaluated' by you or for you.. you need to do your own work..

 

Other beings or planes?? tell us more about this belief..

 

How can i show you anything, you already believe you know it all, and you see Life through the lens of your beliefs.. 'you' have to 'let it go', there's nothing i can do for you.. it's amazing what can be seen when you're not looking 'for something', just look and see what 'is'.. it is apparent that you find my sharing to be of value, you are interested enough to rummage through past posts and other threads,.. relax, my words are simple and non-threatening, my only intention is clarity,. nothing i say is true because i say it, it only becomes 'true' if you 'believe' it is.. stop 'believing', and pay attention.. it's not important that my words be 'true', it's important that my words inspire others to see/experience clarity for themselves, rather than to be told, conditioned, or coerced into believing what others believe..

 

Still the mind and see/experience what 'is', rather than what you think or believe 'is'..

 

Be well..

 

TzuJanLi, your words remind me of Robert Adams.

 

"There is a way for a person to awaken, and that way is to stop thinking. Stop thinking. He says that sounds good, but how do you do it? When the mind becomes quiescent, quiet, still, realization comes all by itself. There is absolutely nothing you have to do to bring it about.

 

As an example, the sun shines all by itself. Let's call the sun the Self, consciousness, pure awareness. Yet every once in a while, clouds form beneath the sun. And the sun doesn't seem to shine any longer.

 

Your thoughts are the clouds. Whatever you think, no matter what you think about, as long as you think, you're covering up the sun, which is the Self. It makes no difference what you're thinking, good thoughts, bad thoughts, or any kind of thoughts. All thoughts are clouds, all thoughts. And they cover up the sun. So it is your true nature, is the Self. You're really the Self, all-pervading, reality. It is your thoughts that cover up the Self. Whatever you allow what you think, you cover up the Self more and more and more. You're only covering up the Self.

 

The Self will shine all by itself when you stop thinking. Stop thinking, totally, unconditionally. Stop thinking. "

 

~ Robert Adams

[Jetsun]

You can't stop thinking for longer than a few micro seconds, which is helpful if you can do it but there is the stillness of the self always present within and around all your thoughts, so it doesn't matter if you still the mind or not if you can recognise its always there.

[Seeker of Wisdom]

One problem with New Age is how watered down it can be. A lot of important nuance is lacking.

 

Things like all paths being provisional, and the final leap being pathless, are taken as a reason to disregard the concept of paths and stages of attainment entirely.

 

You can only leap off a cliff once you're at the clifftop - when you've seen through phenomena enough to let them all go and just be. Otherwise, try to let go and that letting go is itself an action within the bounds of the mind, a dualistic pushing away of clinging to beliefs and things.

 

The vast majority still need disciplined practice, real effort to stabilise the mind in samadhi, then use that stability to foster insight, all the while being introspective to reduce flaws and cultivate virtues.

 

Eckhart Tolle's present moment awareness is a powerful practice... for people who have already followed a more systematic path to the level where they can just let go and rest in reality. Other people will end up clinging to their own concepts superimposed on the fresh thusness of the Now.

 

So hey, new teachings and teachers can be good. I don't want to be a stuffy traditionalist either. Tolle's practice is kinda like a modern shikantaza or non-meditation... but like them, it needs to come in at the right time.

 

Advanced ideas out of context of the basics progressing up to them are misleading.

 

There is also a troubling spiritual materialism in there - for example, the obsession with energy.

 

Not everything is energy. There is also emotion, thought, beliefs, the mind, consciousness, and so on. Energy is just a kind of form object, which is just one aspect of reality. How does that relate to Tao?

 

Saying energy is everything is not so different from saying atoms are everything, if you think about it. Energy has a place in cultivation for sure, but let's keep our heads and not fixate on chi, chakras and kundalini to the exclusion of everything else in the universe and in ourselves.

 

Similarly, astral projection, channelling and so forth is interesting, but higher planes and the beings who live there are not any more or less products of Tao than this world and our fellow animals.

 

So many people get obsessed with flying around in realms of light talking to 'mystical' beings - but apart from a thrill, what does that achieve?

 

This world and life is a priceless opportunity to improve our selves and step out of the limitations shared by even the most heavenly entities. Someone with three eyes and an aura ten miles wide is just another deluded and unsatisfied being if they have no realisation.

 

Be a human with transcendent wisdom and virtue beyond all realms, even the sparkly shiny ones. Angels - whatever, man, who cares. When they die they are thrown to a birth elsewhere, maybe a grotty one, and are trapped by craving, delusion and ill will just like us. They just do it with more style lol.

 

Thirdly, the pseudoscience and magical thinking bothers me firstly as it's dumb, and secondly as it means society sees all cultivators as weirdos.

 

Science and reason have a place. It seems that someone says something and New Agers never question it or look a bit deeper. *Cough 2012 cough*.

 

When I hear about a conspiracy or something sciency related to cultivation, I like to browse the blogs or forums of sceptics to see what the other side has to say. More often than not, science and reason utterly smash the claim - from fluoride phobia to the moon landing conspiracy to Masuro Emoto's water experiment, it turns out to be bullshit if you take a few minutes to look at it from both sides.

 

It's ironic that New Agers accuse sceptics of being closed-minded, but are often too closed-minded to consider their arguments.

 

I have no patience for the Law of Attraction. Did the Jews manifest the Holocaust, or Darfur's people manifest famine? It's easy to believe The Secret with a roof over your head, good food and no major diseases in your water sources.

 

Obviously not all New Agers are fluffy twats.

 

But the movement as a whole seems to me like an attempt at building a syncretic modern cultivation tradition that could have been awesome, but that sadly suffers from the same naievity, shallowness and need for instant gratification as the society it developed out of and as a reaction to.

Edited August 4, 2013 by Seeker of Tao

[nine tailed fox]

did i mention that they also dont believe in karma, they say that if they murder someone and believe that it will not cause any karmic payback than there will be no karma for them

 

and they also claim to have total control over their rebirth and for that they just have to believe , they have total control over where they will be born, when they will be born and how they will be, will they become deities or human

 

its just simply a matter of believing ............ (obviously)

 

 

(i am not joking, new age people really claim this and believe me because i have been on many new age forums)

[Vanir Thunder Dojo Tan]

seeker inspired a comparison:

The path to the top of the mountain teaches the traveler how to take the first step off the path...

The pathless route to the top of the mountain is, without warning, a path leading right over a cliff.


Both paths lead off the mountain, one with marginally more success.

Edited August 4, 2013 by Northern Avid Judo Ant

[Vanir Thunder Dojo Tan]

did i mention that they also dont believe in karma, they say that if they murder someone and believe that it will not cause any karmic payback than there will be no karma for them

 

and they also claim to have total control over their rebirth and for that they just have to believe , they have total control over where they will be born, when they will be born and how they will be, will they become deities or human

 

its just simply a matter of believing ............ (obviously)

 

 

(i am not joking, new age people really claim this and believe me because i have been on many new age forums)

 

 

There is *some* truth to their claims of being able to control ones own karma and rebirths... Though I do not know all the details, I know in my heart that this life is my own deliberation, and not "just karma"... im still trying to remember why though...

 

[RongzomFan]

New Age is often linked with Jesus. That's another problem I have with it.

[RongzomFan]

Yes I get it. Hell is the default setting, and only accepting Jesus can override it. I get it already.

[Vanir Thunder Dojo Tan]

New Age is often linked with Jesus. That's another problem I have with it.

 

HAW! I laughed!

Then you posted that next tidbit, I serous'd. with a smile on my face. aw crappit, I lost the serious.

 

 

 

 

Well.

 

Let's transpose "jesus" to "free will", and transpose "hell" to "civilization".

 

 

By accepting free will as law, we can rescue ourselves in and of ourselves from civilization

 

 

 

That makes more sense than the bible version

 

 

If you cant transpose your religion into literal equivelants, then it's wrong... or your method of worship is anyways

 

[RongzomFan]

and they also claim to have total control over their rebirth and for that they just have to believe , they have total control over where they will be born, when they will be born and how they will be, will they become deities or human

 

I used to believe in this New Age belief.

 

That you plan your life from heaven, and then deliberately become reborn.

 

This is a core lie perpetuated by channeled "spirit guides", which are actually really hungry ghosts according to Joe Fisher.

 

Refer to his excellent book "Siren's Call of Hungry Ghosts".

Edited August 4, 2013 by alwayson

[RongzomFan]

(i am not joking, new age people really claim this and believe me because i have been on many new age forums)

 

Tell them to read "Siren's Call of Hungry Ghosts". It will rip apart their belief system.

[Vanir Thunder Dojo Tan]

I used to believe in this New Age belief.

 

That you plan your life from heaven, and then deliberately become reborn.

 

This is a core lie perpetuated by channeled "spirit guides", which are actually really hungry ghosts according to Joe Fisher.

 

Refer to his excellent book "Siren's Call of Hungry Ghosts".

How dare you disavow another being with such disdain as to perpetuate their starvation.

 

do you know the root causes of starving ghost entities?

 

 

 

Do you know how valuable the dreams and spirits of our ancestors are today and how damnable our very ways of lives, nay our lives themselves, are to these continually existing beings and their pursuits for contentedness and freedom? You know nothing of mutual benefit or common unity.

 

[teknix]

New Age is often linked with Jesus. That's another problem I have with it.

 

Where do you get that from?

 

If anything it is determining what we can know with the best tools we have available, which includes science.

 

Do you think Lao Tzu would resort to vagueries if he could explain and answer the question as to how directly?

 

I think he would use all the tools available to explain it as best as he could.

 

My definition of new age is taking from the old texts what is true and sound and disgarding the rest, including irrelevant traditions.

 

What is your definition?

Edited August 4, 2013 by teknix

[teknix]

There is nothing wrong with the love jesus teaches, and the golden rule which is a part of many teachings, so why disregard it?

 

IMO, the new age is a combination of all religious teachings that are sound.

Edited August 4, 2013 by teknix

[Vanir Thunder Dojo Tan]

"*The new age*" is hardly new, and is aptly compared thusly:

Monotheism: one god, one religion. comparable to a dot, or a period...

Polytheism: many gods, one religion. comparable to a snake eating its own tail.

Atheism: no gods, no religions comparable to a line with definite beginning and end.

*Americanism: any gods, any religions* ... comparable to cancer

Omnitheism: every god, every religion there is no comparison, there just is.

Edited August 4, 2013 by Northern Avid Judo Ant

[teknix]

New Age; Parts of all religions, God is relative / unknown / undefineable empirically.

Edited August 4, 2013 by teknix