I was once a Zen student living at a Zen Buddhist Monastery at a place called Green Gulch Farm aka. Green Dragon Zen Temple, located on Star Route One along the coastal road towards Muir Beach in Marin County, California. It was one of the most memorable times of my life that saw me through some very hard times as well as moments of brilliant lightness of being. I was brought back to life after suffering a very painful illness called Pleurisy where after a Yoga practice accident my lungs were filled with liquid and i had a very hard time breathing. Although it felt like it, i knew that it was not my time to die just yet back then , but i suffered tremendous amount of pain in my chest for a month or so surviving on pain killers and my own guts to survive I willed myself to self heal and transcend my pains. This happened at Green Gulch Farm where with the help and support of the Zen Buddhist community there i fully recovered.
What bought me to this past moment in my life? I was watching and listening to Mooji giving his Satsang at Rishikesh in India at an abandoned Ashram that once was the original Ashram of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Transcendental Meditation Guru known World Wide in the sixties. In the video i noticed as in most of Mooji's Satsang Videos, there were mostly Europeans or perhaps Americans in the audience and very few locals. The veneration they give the Guruji as they call him is becoming more and more idolize and ritualistic that at times it has a negative effect on my perception of Mooji. So i ask why this is so. Why do i feel like i do when i watch a bunch of Europeans, (Whits) salivating over a spiritual teacher. Does Mooji has such a strong impact upon these 'truth seekers' to the point of idolatry. Is this going to be another fall of a spiritual leader who is riding the wave of fame and perhaps even fortune while delivering the words of healing spirituality. Only time will tell, time and how this whole Guru worship scene plays out itself.
At 'The Farm' as we used to call the Zen center at GG, there were similar groups of students who would lick the robes of their favorite teachers and nothing wrong can be done by these teachers. I have a naturally bad tendency towards these kind of situations where i would do all that is within my scheming mind to destroy such a development. It was my 'bad', I was never good at boot licking and hate to see anyone taking advantage of their position of authority in exploiting the weaker minds. I realized that in spiritual practice or learning it is the content and not the container that is of prime importance, however, I was not mindful enough to accept any wrongdoings where spiritual practice is concern and speaking of wrong doings I also realized back then that i was one of the worse Zen Student there perhaps ever was at GG Zen center. I was practically booted out of the Monastery after almost two years of residency, for being a 'disrupter', among other unspoken accusations. But my instructor on telling me this also winked his huge eyes from behind his thick glasses and said, " The temple gates is always open for you when you feel the need to return.
Wednesday, April 19, 2017
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