[Buddha-l] Eckhart Tolle

[Richard P. Hayes]

On Tue, 2006-01-10 at 13:09 -0500, Vaj wrote:

> > You really do have a prapanca about that, don't you? Why does it stick
> > in your craw so much that people, such as Siddhartha Gotama,<snip>
> 
> You're attributing to me, once again, things which I have never  
> stated.

Read with care, if you are going to play with the big boys on buddha-l,
Vaj. You'll note that I did attribute any words to you at all. I simply
made the assumption that you are consistent in your beliefs and
attitudes. I simply observed, accurately, that you seem to have a
prapanca about people claiming to be enlightened. Siddhartha Gotama made
such a claim. Does that outrage you as much as when others make such a
claim? If it doesn't, it should.

> If you are going to make up lies to try to foster your point please do
> it to someone else or simply include in your response where I am
> quoted as saying this in regards to Shakyamuni!

I didn't make up any lies. But I'm willing to do so, if it would ease
your embarrassment.

> You also seem to confuse poignant observation with obsession.

I haven't seen any poignant observations to get confused about. Have
you?

> A certain part of this I find hilarious.

Good. Laughter is good for the digestion and the circulation.

> And it can effectively turn someone from their path or (as is popular  
> in Neo-Advaita circles) to stop their sadhana, so they can "live in  
> the now" and stop 'putting their enlightenment into the future'. 

If somebody quits her sadhana just because she thinks she's enlightened,
I think the blame may lie with the quality of her discipline, not with
neo-advaita.

> Possible good thing here, possible real bad thing too. If that's a
> dynamic you enjoy with the "vacuous claim[ing], unfalsifiable and
> unverifiable" enlightened ones, I certainly respect your desire to
> seek that out.

There's nothing enjoyable in pointing out the plain and obvious fact
that all claims to enlightenment, without exception, are unverifiable
and unfalsifiable and therefore, in a sense, indisputable.

> Here we go again, no where have I stated that these people cause me  
> "unbearable suffering".

Again, I must point out to you that I never suggested that you SAID that
anyone causes you unbearable suffering. All I said was that as far as I
can see, people who claim to be enlightened, and whom you choose to
denigrate, are causing you unbearable suffering. If it were not so, why
would you insist in going on and on and on about them, as if obsessed? 

Please don't take my poignant observations about your verbal conduct
personally. (That would reveal to the astute observers on buddha-l that
you might not be following your sadhana very effectively.)


-- 
Richard Hayes

"Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human
soul."
  -- Mark Twain