It's not a Hindu temple it's a Universal temple(there's a difference)

Maybe you should look into Vedanta(Vivekananda Vedanta Society) the same way I did every other religion/school of thought before coming to my conclusions.

I do not "worship" the sun the way you think but rather bask in its perpetual light knowing full well without it I am nothing.

I also do not need to achieve ego-death its just something that over time I've worked on personally and will continue to do so.

I try and practice unselfishness and unconditional love because those are the only true principles of "God"

I could see why you are offended and have to resort to the statements you do.

I have true peace, that is why I shared.

To each their own. All paths lead to God.

Namaste----

This post was edited by KingTia on Sep 29 2018 08:31am

My friend you must have misunderstood me - I am not offended. I just disagree since the sun is not eternal by any means, but created. These are scientific facts. Mainstream science might say that the sun is not created, but it at least is not eternal = it came into existence somehow.

I have read enough about the eastern mystery religions to discard them. This ego-death you are talking about is not really a good goal. What the eastern mysticism is really doing is that they worship death. You cannot, you will never disconnect to yourself before you are dead. You will never, ever, be able to create love within yourself; all that love comes from the Creator. You may change yourself, become humble, and put away anger and ill will towards other; but the love you express is not from you, you really just use it and express it. That is at least my belief.

I actually read up on that guy whose name you posted. All quotes I could find was related to the self-glorification which I talked about earlier.

You may believe what you want, but if you can seriously not see that our power as human beings is very limited, then how do you explain the fact that none of these eastern mystery gurus, have achieved immortality? Can you make the sun move, or the moon to disappear?

Then I agree with you very much that the spirit of G-d dwells in every form of life; but it comes to purest expression when your soul is in harmony with him.

I don't know what your spiritual goal is in practical terms. Is it to just disconnect from everything material, to be able to sit under a tree and think of nothing and do nothing? Imagine if everyone did that. How long would it take before the human race went extinct?

The material and the spiritual world are interwoven so much so that they cannot be separated. They can become a perfect unity. Everything material is not "bad".


You mock the idea of a Church I see, but what is so strange about having a public place to worship? It is a place to learn about spirituality, it is a place where religion is connected to the social life of people. Though many churches, synagogues, etc. are places where the pure message is distorted, the idea itself is nothing to mock.


Swami Vivekananda died while meditating. I cannot say for certain what the cause of his death was, but I know that meditation for very prolonged periods of time can give rise to phenomena that could only be interpreted as mild forms of psychosis. I have read a lot of stuff about it, and it makes sense. For to sit several hours everyday, and try to achieve some sort of divine state that never will be yours, must be unnatural to an extreme degree. He died a very early age I must say. But then again, that seems to be the goal. "Nirvana" which means extinguishment, in other words - Death.

This post was edited by Tjo on Sep 29 2018 09:03am

Totally agree with you on everything you said here. Just felt like it took a little poking to get you to give your real opinion.

Spiritual egoism is not a tenant of Vedanta. No one is seeking glorification or some magical powers(moving mountains, immortality, etc.). It is more or less accepting the human condition and trying to improve upon it individually and collectively on all levels

I would never mock the church. I was raised and confirmed Catholic. I'm also very unorthodox when it comes to accepting certain eastern principles because I try to utilize the best aspects of all teachings. For example certain things that my Guru thinks I should be more disciplined with I'm more loose with, and some things he says are not so relevant I believe are very relevant.

Its such a great feeling when you have a Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist, and Christian all in the same temple praying and meditating from a place of non-judgment.

I do not believe the sun is eternal. I know stars die. I just think the sun is the best inanimate material representation of higher principles. Namely that the sun gives life, energy, etc. to all things and asks nothing in return.

I appreciate all the feedback brother. Its nice to have cordial discussions like this without it ending in complete ignorance and disrespect.

God Bless!

Artha (material pursuits) are also a noble goal of life by vedic philosophies, so long as dharma and moksha are also respected. In fact id suggest for everyone to maximine their material wellbeing. Without wealth in this world you become at the mercy of powers beyond your control.

How are you posting on jsp from an ashram?

One of the most difficult challenges I think, is to stay humble when one is almost certain that one is close to the truth. I think actually that the best test to see if one is humble is to see how one will behave and act when coming into contact with a truth, or get close to it, because here it really becomes obvious who is humble and who is not. I read a lot about all kinds of stuff, religion, politics, and before I was quite interested in conspiracies (although I do not believe in conspiracies, and never really have except for a short period when I was 16), and the worst possible kind of person I know is the kind of person who has experienced that aha-moment. It can be that conspiracy theorist who now wants to go around and tell everyone how "sheepy" they are, and how dumb they all are for not revolting against this or that. Only thoroughly humble and loving persons can handle the truth I would say Even if perhaps most people who look for an alternative truth only manages to fall headfirst into the next lie, or half-truth, but with that said, I am not some spiritual guru and I will ease my chest by saying it, and I do have some weaknesses (these are what I am working on it) and one of those is my passionate character trait. I always had strong opinions before, but now i try not to identify with them.


I am soooo skeptical towards all kinds of gurus. When I first became religious on a serious level, I sought for months, years, even to this very day, for a gentle, gracious, and compassionate, yet steadfast and courageous representative for the Abrahamic faiths. I have not found a single one yet - and I am being serious. The sweetest and most gracious, peaceful people I have met in my life have been ordinary people. Maybe it is just so difficult to be a "guru" or a leader of some sort, and stay humble in that. It is the same with all professions I guess. I remember back in time in school, when a professor came and held a lecture, and my teacher asked him a question (it was a challenging question) and he became instantly rude and defensive. It is just so difficult to not identify, after a while, with your opinions, when your work, and even life, is about teaching them to others. I see the same arrogance and vain complacency in buddhist monks and hindu gurus as I see in Christian preachers and Jewish rabbis, and sometimes in myself when debating. I really hate it because it is impossible to feel the presence of G-d with that mindset. Even Moses, in the Bible, described as the most humble man on the face of the earth, still fell into that trap of setting himself on high. Perhaps it is just a fundamentally unnatural way to live, too much knowledge causes pride. I find that the most innocent people are always those least opinionated.


That is why I decided to go my spiritual journey completely alone. I do not listen too much to anyone, I do not have more respect for a Christian pastor than I do for a Jewish rabbi. I do not idolize anyone. It is pathetic to idolize a human being and with all kindness I suggest you do the same. Do not ever become too enthusiastic about anyone, even if a person says something of a spiritual significance that leaves you impressed, be a calm a little and just take in the information. Truth is part of G-d and because he is pure, the truth must be pure, and as long as the mind is tainted by even the SLIGHTEST hint of selfishness, complete truth can of course never be found! That is my theory at least. Did you know that the most beautiful mathmetical equations are always the true? or I mean, the most beautiful formulas are always true. It is like, beauty leads to truth, if you understand. You can read about it is very interesting.

About the sun; I understand that you think its beautiful. But the way I see it, from an Abrahamic perspective, it is misplaced. Because according to this religion, everything that you can see is material, and therefore created. G-d is eternal, infinite. You can come into contact with G-d, by seeking him with all your heart, and soul. But you cannot see him, (or well you can maybe, but he is infinite to us, although he might have a sort of body too) as you see the sun. Still you can connect. He can be all around you, everywhere, you don't see, nor hear, nor smell, but you just know that he is there? And because of that reason, to feel gratitude towards the sun is like misplacing all the gratitude onto an object. If I came to your house, if you were sick, and I performed a surgery on you, would you thank the knives? Wouldn't you thank me? (better would be to thank G-d). And even though it might sound radical to you, the relation to G-d is about what life is all about, according to these religions. We love, and we enjoy it, but the maker of it is G-d; only one of many, many reasons to glorify him. That guy of yours said something about life is about becoming strong, but that is not what it is about according to us; it is about glorifying him, and in return we receive this peace, and love, and sense of security; with our lives reflecting this also, by the health of our persons, by our relationships with others, by our work etc.

I think many doctrines of the eastern religions are just fine; for example Dalai Lama speaks a lot about compassion, mercy, kindness, love, etc. but he always leaves out the maker of these qualities. Since G-d is, according to our faith, the MAKER of love, the founder of beauty, and the inventor of everything, both directly and indirectly, the one who gives us our loving companions, our friends, our bodies, ears with which we hear music, our mouths with which experience gustatory pleasures, it is absolutely unthinkable to us to not feel gratitude and not glorify the Creator of it. When leaving G-d out, it all boils down to personal vanity to me. Because no matter what, one can take pride in one's strength; but behind that strength is the sustainer, G-d, holding everything up. Without him there would be nothing at all. The reason why Dalai Lama can sit in every TV-couch on planet earth and speak his wonderful "wisdom" to millions of people each year, is because among many things, we do have a sun, that is kindled and maintained by the power of G-d. His body would decay in the blinking of an eye if G-d withdrew his hand, nay, everything would vanish, the universe would close down and have its lights put out if G-d wanted it so. Innocence is really the state of existence when you all glory to G-d, and not to yourself.
Also, I believe that G-d is moral perfection, so there is no justified excuse to me, to not glorify him. Because living according to his principles makes me happier, and enables me to help other people become happier. It is so central to me that if I may not talk about G-d, then I would not even try to help another person with anything spiritual. It is just impossible. I just don't see that charming grace and peace in those eastern monks. I see more light and happiness is just the ordinary kid who is not yet gone astray.

Let me know what you think, and thanks you too.

Edit: And this unwillingness to glorify the Creator, is of course because these eastern mysticism religions aim at improving oneself, at enlightenment and self-realization to something higher. It is radically opposed to Judaism and Christianity. The eastern religions are notorious because of their ability to appeal to this desire of human nature - to become gods. It was the very first temptation in the Garden of Eden. But this pursuit of self-realization lies at the core of the miseries now haunting the Western world in my opinion. We want to become this and that, we want to be like this and that, we cannot just live and be the ones we are, as we are created. We want to be wise, beautiful, strong, etc. We are, as Isaiah says; "gone away backward".


This post was edited by Tjo on Sep 29 2018 12:21pm

Im praying Anubis all nights while sacrifying mouses to my cat, honestly im happy with this kind of living.
Till Aten doesnt see me it's okay

Hiding behind a mask with ban manners I see.




Kind of hard to not see Aten when the sun is shining on your face.