Lately, people have come up with the idea that the quality of SN is down. They have even been searching for a scapegoat to justify their judgement.
For me, Sannyas is living relaxed in the Now. So one can ask, why do people compare with the past? Comparing itself doesn’t fit with Sannyas too, I have heard.
“Oh, was the past golden?” is something one often hears in the world. But such words should not be mentioned by sannyasins, even if they talk about their good old times in Pune with the Master.
Even Jesus said: “Don’t judge!”
And the Master said: “Be with what is and celebrate the Now.”
Thank you for your understanding.
Being present does not mean that you can’t talk about the past. You can be present and talk about things that took place in the past. Using Osho as a reference point, he often talked about the past, while remaining rooted in the here and now. Was the past golden? According to Osho’s ‘Glimpses of a Golden Childhood’ it was. Satchit’s idea that somehow relating to the past has something wrong with it is a misconception.
Has the quality of the writing on SN gone down? Of course it has. There is not much happening on this site today, for one reason or another. Take Satchit’s article as an example. It is entirely based on misinterpretations and could hardly be viewed as erudite. There was a time when SN really was a fascinating and educational and insightful blog. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case. There is a complete lack of informed and challenging writing. No more Arpana putting people in their place and hoisting the flag of the true disciple. No more Frank, Yogi and a whole gang of clever and fun writers. They are all gone. After this comment from me, you won’t be hearing much from Lokesh either.
“Even Jesus said: “Don’t judge!” ” Yes, we all know that. Yet Jesus must have cast a judgement before he threw the money changers out of the temple, because he judged their activities as wrong. Incidentally, it was due to those money changers that we have money today. They were the first people to mint a currency that had to be used to pay temple taxes.
And the Master said: “Be with what is and celebrate the Now.” ”
Osho said a lot of things. That statement can be interpreted in many ways on various levels, depending on one’s understanding. Osho talked and related to the past and also projected his ideas into the future. Nothing wrong with that.
According to Satchit’s limited vision the right thing to do is sit humming Om in the now in a nondescript corner of the universe. All well and good, but see how far that gets you in today’s complex and quickly changing world. Osho wanted his people to live and meditate in the marketplace, and to do that you need a functioning mind and the mind only works in the past and the future, never in the present. The whole idea that the ‘mind’ is the bad guy is bullshit. It is a wonderful tool. Use it, and don’t let it use you. Otherwise you might end up like Satchit, writing uninformed articles on a website that has seen much better days.
Lokesh, you are funny as usual.
Maybe one should call you, The Last Mohican, the last intelligent man on earth.
It is not important what I write, it is important who I am.
Try again!
As usual up to your fine standards, Lokesh.
I’m hoping an article will shortly be published of interest to you.
“Fine standards”? Why not call it nostalgia?
I would say that the level of comments has everything to do with the general readership. Intelligent people like Klaus, SimonD and Dominic don’t stick around for long because there isn’t a crowd of people interested in sannyas who share their experiences and memories.
Also the number and variety of articles has dropped; in past years you had months with ten articles, now the site is lucky to post just one a month. It is all connected….
NP, we don’t know why the people you mention did go. Looking for reasons is speculation.
Seems they have better things to do.
Yes, SN, was more alive in the past.
The honeymoon phase is over.
Interested in Sannyas? Is it not that a sannyasin celebrates everything? This too.