He especially condemned Rajneesh (later called Osho) who did have quite a hypnotic voice! And I myself would seriously question many sannyasin's motives for following him. They found his way attractive because it offered:

1. An identity (‘I am a sannyasin’) *

2. An instant circle of friends.

3. Excitement, free-love, etc.

* A sannyasin is an initiate of a specific monastic tradition.

Also, many gurus make a lot of money, especially Osho. It annoys me that enlightenment is still for the rich, and those with no money are tied to the struggle for survival. Do you think I have too high an ideal or just a misunderstanding? I’d much appreciate your thoughts on the subject.

A. This problem of self-hypnosis is a tricky one. There is no problem with enlightenment. When genuine enlightenment occurs, it is known to be unmistakable. If one reads the lives of the sages, whose awakenings were often sudden and ecstatic, but which left them in a state of permanent Realisation, it is obvious that there was never any doubt as to the authenticity of the phenomenon. It is therefore only with self-deception that we need to concern ourselves.

A path to enlightenment

After a breakthrough in his meditation, a renowned French yoga teacher of my acquaintance began telephoning everyone he knew in great excitement to let them know he had become enlightened! The very fact that he needed to tell everybody about it was proof enough of his delusion. He had, in fact, undergone what the Japanese call satori—an illuminating experience, which he had taken for the final thing. He would have been wiser to wait awhile, but he was bubbling over with gratification at his achievement. Had he not been so caught up in spiritual pride, he might have recalled that Self-realisation also brings about a chastening awe and a humbling of the soul in which the sense-of-ego and the sense-of-separateness disappear. For a Realised Soul—when he and the Omnipresence are One—who is there left to tell about it? Much to his chagrin, the yoga teacher’s ‘enlightenment high’ fizzled out very soon after.

Another time, a yoga teacher came to me, bursting with similar enthusiasm, to tell me of a wonderfully transforming experience that had ‘changed her life’ at a local Christian Charismatic meeting. I could tell from the somewhat scattered and glazed look in her eyes and the agitated atmosphere that she was suffering more from religious hysteria than anything profound. And this was further confirmed by her very uncharacteristic and pious exclamations of ‘Praise the Lord!’ with which she punctuated her speech every few minutes with an evangelical fervour. Coming from a yogini* whose heart was more naturally inclined to Eastern teachings, this was all the more disturbing.

Had it been a natural and genuinely heart-opening conversation, there would have been no problem. But at this period, my friend had been going through a very trying and nerve-racking crisis in her personal life. She was also emotionally involved in the falling apart of her marriage to the very Christian leader of the Circle and had been struggling to mend their relations by bridging the gap between their physical and philosophical lifestyles. The highly charged atmosphere in the Charismatic Circle had tipped the balance of her sensibilities, evoking a rush of false euphoria that carried her out of her troubled mind. But the result was in the nature of psychic disorientation rather than of spiritual revelation.

Author: Muz Murray;

Spiritual ascendency

Having seen such signs before, I knew the ‘come-down’ and return to her former nervous depression would be heavy. Not having the heart to destroy her pseudo-euphoric illusion all at once, I was obliged to insert a carefully worded psychological pin, suggesting she closely evaluate the experience relative to her emotional attachment to the group-leader, so as to bring about a steady deflation without trauma. And so it turned out. She came out of it gently in a day or two, observing the event as I had suggested and coming to realise the desire-prompted psychological factors, borne of desperation, which had brought about her mental disequilibrium.

There are, of course, many examples of spiritual euphoria in the lives of Christian, Muslim and Hindu sages. But the ‘mad’ ecstasy of the saints is worlds apart from a sudden outburst of psychically induced mental imbalance. The energy generated by long-standing spiritual practice is characterised by a radiance of great love emanating from the mystic, whose eyes often shine with a piercing light (not at all glazed or glassy!). And his atmosphere or ‘vibratory frequency’ is of a gently joyous energy rather than that of agitation and distractedness. But even this is a phase on the path and subsides into a quiet glow after a time, in which the experiencer gently abides ever afterwards.

* Female yogi

A completely emancipated guru has usually passed through the phases of his own madness, and his discerning eye knows immediately if a student is crazy, illumined or merely deluded. He perceives at once where a student stands in terms of spiritual ascendancy. If you imagine you are realised and you are not, then a guru can show you exactly where you are at. Such is one of the worthy functions of a guru: to administer a swift kick to your presumptuous rear if you are fantasising with yourself.

And if you feel yourself to be ‘too advanced’ to be checked out by a guru, or on the other hand, perhaps afraid of a guru ‘seeing into you’, then you can know right away you are not where you think you are.

Part 2 follows next month:

Extracted from: Sharing the Quest: Revelations of a Maverick Mystic

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Website: www.muzmurray.org