Greetings everyone

[cabinintheforest]

Hello,

I have had a look at every spiritual teacher listed on the website.
I follow Christian Science, so to me there was only two spiritual teachers really which i found interesting. But it is a very nice website. Are more spiritual teachers going to be added to the list? Becuase i do have some suggestions.

[karen]

Hi there.

I grew up in CS but I never followed it myself.

Welcome!

[zendancer]

Cabinintheforest: Welcome to the board. Yes, I think other teachers will be added to the site in the future, and you can always send suggestions to Shawn. Out of curiosity, who do you think should be added and why?

[lightmystic]

Welcome to the forum cabinintheforest. Shawn hasn't been posting many new reviews, but he does update sometimes, and you certainly never know. If you want to address anything to him, I suggest posting in the "website feedback" section. That's the only forum section that he actually reads as far as I know....

Jan 17, 2010 15:51:42 GMT -5 @cabinintheforest said:

Hello,

I have had a look at every spiritual teacher listed on the website.
I follow Christian Science, so to me there was only two spiritual teachers really which i found interesting. But it is a very nice website. Are more spiritual teachers going to be added to the list? Becuase i do have some suggestions.

[zendancer]

Cabin: Tolle is not a part of any tradition that I know of, and I think the same is true of Douglas Harding. Many new teachers in America do not identify themselves with any particular tradition and prefer to think of themselves as teachers of non-duality. Although Adyashanti was a Buddhist in the past, after awakening, he began using the terminology of all religious traditions to point to the truth. Byron Katie is not on the list, but she, too, is outside of all traditions. In fact, as I reflect upon the forty or fifty teachers with whom I am familiar at least half of them have purposely chosen not to identify with any religious tradition, probably because they see that sort of thing as too confining and limited in scope. I suspect that in the future the same thing will happen with virtually all teachers of non-duality. Why limit one's teaching to one particular box? After all, what most of us are interested in is "outside the box." I certainly would not want to be thought of as Christian, Buddhist, or Advaita Vedantist because what I AM is beyond thought (much less labels), and I suspect the same is true for Lightmystic, Eric, Anonji, SomeNothing, Alpha, and many many others on this board. Cheers.

[jeff]

Hi Cabin, welcome! : )

I'm new here too by the way.

[cabinintheforest]

Jan 21, 2010 21:39:28 GMT -5 zendancer said:

Cabin: Tolle is not a part of any tradition that I know of, and I think the same is true of Douglas Harding. Many new teachers in America do not identify themselves with any particular tradition and prefer to think of themselves as teachers of non-duality. Although Adyashanti was a Buddhist in the past, after awakening, he began using the terminology of all religious traditions to point to the truth. Byron Katie is not on the list, but she, too, is outside of all traditions. In fact, as I reflect upon the forty or fifty teachers with whom I am familiar at least half of them have purposely chosen not to identify with any religious tradition, probably because they see that sort of thing as too confining and limited in scope. I suspect that in the future the same thing will happen with virtually all teachers of non-duality. Why limit one's teaching to one particular box? After all, what most of us are interested in is "outside the box." I certainly would not want to be thought of as Christian, Buddhist, or Advaita Vedantist because what I AM is beyond thought (much less labels), and I suspect the same is true for Lightmystic, Eric, Anonji, SomeNothing, Alpha, and many many others on this board. Cheers.

You say people are not buddhist or advaita vedantist, but iv been though many threads on this board and i believe you are wrong becuase people on here seem to be very influenced by this buddhism and eastern stuff. It is fair play i respect this i have no problem with it but as a spiritual forum im just not seeing many western teachings or spiritual teachers, there have been a few but only a few as you mentioned while most are buddhist or this advaita vedantist. Il be honest i do not understand many eastern teachings becuase i come from the west, i like many things but most is from america or europe. Your name zendancer sounds buddhist, iv tried to understand buddhism but i disagree with it, they don't believe in God becuase of this i can not follow their teachings.

[zendancer]

Cabin: I was raised in a fundamentalist Christian tradition. Unfortunately, it could not give me the kinds of answers I was searching for. All it could give me was a rigid belief system and the admonition to have faith. However, I wasn't interested in beliefs or second-hand information. I wasn't interested in holy books or someone else's interpretation of the truth. I wanted to directly experience the truth for myself. After twenty years of reading and thinking, without any success, I began practicing a form of Zen meditation, and shortly thereafter I began to discover everything I was searching for. After I went deep enough, I discovered that the same truth underlies all religions. I then went back and re-read the Bible and understood it in an entirely new way. I subsequently wrote a book specifically for Christians (A Path to Christ-Consciousness, Non-Conceptual Awareness Practice as a Doorway to the Infinite) and today I regularly speak at Christian churches (I'll be giving a talk this coming Sunday at a local Unity Church on how to find the kingdom of God). Although Buddhism provided me with a path to the truth, the truth, itself, is not Buddhist. The truth cannot be captured within any belief system whether Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, or Hindu. The truth is utterly unimaginable, and anything that can be imagined by the human mind is not the truth.

Most people imagine that they know what God is, but God cannot be imagined. The direct experience of the living truth leaves one speechless and all words about it then become laughable. One glimpse of THAT is all that it takes to change one's understanding completely. Ironically, only the Absolute can see the Absolute, so no separate person will ever enjoy that sight. Selfhood must be absent in order for God to be experienced. The observer and the observed must become one, and when that occurs it is beyond the power of the human intellect to comprehend. It requires a different faculty of mind to perceive the truth--one that is directly connected to the Infinite. Words can only be used to point at the truth, and this is why there is so much confusion and misunderstanding in every religious tradition. Most people only see the pointing finger; they don't see what the finger is pointing to.

There have been a few Christians who have gone beyond Christianity and discovered what underlies Christianity. Meister Eckhart, Plotinus, St. John of the Cross, Benadette Roberts, St. Theresa, and a few others come to mind, but in general, very few Christians have so hungered for the truth that they were willing to give up everything (including themselves) in order to find it. Cheers.

There's nothing wrong with having beliefs and various religious ideas, but this is like swimming on the surface of the ocean. The important stuff is ten-thousand feet down. Cheers.

[Portto]

Interesting post, ZD!

Jan 26, 2010 16:55:18 GMT -5 zendancer said:

One glimpse of THAT is all that it takes to change one's understanding completely.

Would it be possible for you to talk a bit about "change?"
What is change? What changes?

[zendancer]

Porto: Most of us look at the world and think that we understand it. The universe appears to be filled with things and events happening in time and space. One glimpse of oneness and we see that our ideas were like cartoons compared to the truth. We see that the whole thing is alive and unified and that there are no separate parts. We discover that we are one-with THAT. All ideas become laughable, and we are filled with humility and gratitude. No one could possibly deserve the experience of oneness. It is simply a gift that oneness sometimes gives itself.

Change? Whoa! How many do you want to hear about? Prior to glimpsing the truth I was a big proponent of capital punishment. Afterwards, I was totally opposed to it. Before, I would have been described as a rational scientist. Afterwards, I would have been described as a love-intoxicated mystic. Before, I believed in good and evil. Afterwards, I saw only ignorance or clarity. Before, I believed in the existence of things. Afterwards, I saw what is. Before, I believed in time. Afterwards, I saw that there is only now. There were many other changes, but this should present the general flavor of it. It all happened in fifteen minutes, and life was never the same again. However, it took fifteen more years to discover that the one who had been deperately seeking a permanent state of enlightenment was a nothing more than a figment of imagination. God has a huge sense of humor. LOL. So, did anything really change? Well, yes and no; everything changed and nothing changed. Cheers.

[Portto]

Thanks again, ZD. It's great to have you here.
Regarding the topic of this thread, I agree with you that there's no religious trend on the site. Everything around us, including religions, is life. The more of it we love and recognize as ourselves, the more we relax. The price to pay is our "imaginary" identity.

I also like your analogy in the other post:

There's nothing wrong with having beliefs and various religious ideas, but this is like swimming on the surface of the ocean. The important stuff is ten-thousand feet down.

We can also think of beliefs/faith as a raft (or a plank of wood) that keeps us floating.
We are afraid to let go of it for fear of drowning. But if we let go, there's so much more to see above and below the surface.