Satyadeva writes:
This site will cease to exist after November 6th unless we pay an annual bill of over £200 to the Web Host company.
I’d thought there was no chance of carrying on until this week we received email pledges amounting to around £100. So there’s still a chance of carrying on for at least another year if the remaining £100-plus can be found.
If you’d like to contribute, please contact edit@sannyasnews.org asap. No need to send anything yet, let’s wait until we know whether we’ll have enough.
Some positive news about this received this weekend, another pledge has come in, meaning that we’re now £50-plus short of the target with 10 days left before payment deadline day.
I have made a donation a few days ago, others will have to make donations to ensure the site remains open.
I see no reason why those who have made a donation are not recognised so that those who haven’t and yet wish to comment on the site realise they too should do so, to keep it open.
MOD:
You may have a point here, Simond, although we’ve always preferred to keep such details private.
However, just a few minutes ago we received another pledge which has brought the promised donations within a few pounds of the target so it’s now pretty well guaranteed SN will continue for at least another year.
To which one can only declare…
Yahoo!
I wonder why someone would donate to a site dedicated to a narcissistic guru, fueling a destructive cult, when they could donate to a Zionist or Christian cult.
A site where unscrupulous people copy and paste what others have written for editorial purposes.
A site where old hippies are convinced they are wise because during a trip they imagined that the child their partner just gave birth to must be connected to a brief fuck 9 months earlier dreamed during a hangover.
A site where someone can insult you or change your comments to make you say something you didn’t write, without consequences.
MOD:
We advise you to provide evidence for such accusations. Otherwise, you’re not welcome here in future.
“We advise you to provide evidence for such accusations”
Are you denying that the site has security issues and that it happened that someone post-edited comments written by others, with ironic and offensive intent?
Are you denying that in the last comment Lokesh did not treat some commenter with condescension and insults?
(MOD: This refers to Lokesh’s comment at the ‘What’s In A Name’ (etc.) topic, 28/10, 10.48am).
MOD:
Yes, the site has security issues but despite this it has managed to carry on for several years with minimal disruption so thanfully it’s not a major nuisance.
As for treating people with “condescension and insults” I suggest a look in the mirror, VF.
To a degree, someone unfamiliar with Lokesh and his previously ok relations with the commenter might find his comments condescending and insulting but sannyasins and fellow-travellers tend not to pull their punches when very annoyed at someone and they take it as a challenge when on the receiving end of such treatment, although serious abuse isn’t tolerated here.
You’re welcome to ask Lokesh’s ‘target’ if he now harbours resentment against him and I know the response would be no. Because, voila…
I am that person!
Veet Francesco, you appear to have forgotten that as the mod it’s my job to read, sub-edit and, if necessary, delete your comments. I’m also free to expel you from the site if you continue to be objectionable.
It’s good to know that SannyasNews will continue for a while longer. I hope a few other writers of articles will come forward, the site could do with an infusion of new blood.
MOD:
Yes, SN needs new writers, more contributors. NP, have you tried asking people at facebook whether they’d be prepared to write something?
Yes, I did say SannyasNews was open to articles from anyone, as long as it’s sannyas or Osho-related in some vague way… I even mentioned that the financial problems had been sorted out for another year.
Friends,
Hello and goodbye to you all. My name is Seth M. Forstater/Swami Deva Sugit. I have read SN for many years, donated funds and posted a couple of times. I am sorry to see it go.
Anyone willing to share their contact info with me, please email me at: forstater@gmail.com or send a friend request to me on Facebook.
Hi,
As Seth/Deva Sugit offered to stay in touch after the ‘goodbye’ here, so do I:
if anyone is travelling to Munich or nearby or passing through – we live about 45 minutes West of Munich on the A96…one night’s shelter is always possible.
My email is: klausrettich@web.de
SN TO REMAIN OPEN FOR A SHORT TIME
For anyone who doesn’t yet know, Sannyas News will be closing down very soon but not immediately, despite today, November 5th, being ‘deadline day’. Over the weekend we decided that it has run its course and that the time is right to call it a day rather than attempt to struggle on with few writers of both articles and comments (and also therefore not provide our financial donors value for their generous contributions).
Clive has managed to alter the subscription to a monthly instead of an annual payment basis in order to look after the database and ensure the site is closed down efficiently and securely.
Great credit goes to him for this initiative as it will also give contributors and friends more time to arrange future ongoing connections with others here, if they so wish, and perhaps also to take a look at what the site’s produced over the best part of the last two decades, a pretty long time for a blog venue like this.
Don’t hesitate to let us know if you need help with this or anything else by emailing to: edit@sannyasnews.org.
Very Best Wishes,
SD
Lao Tzu was passing with his disciples and they came to a forest where hundreds of carpenters were cutting trees, because a great palace was being built. So the whole forest had been almost cut, but only one tree was standing there, a big tree with thousands of branches – so big that ten thousand persons could sit under its shade. Lao Tzu asked his disciples to go and inquire why this tree had not been cut yet when the whole forest had been cut and was deserted.
The disciples went and they asked the carpenters, “Why have you not cut this tree?”
The carpenters said, “This tree is absolutely useless. You cannot make anything out of it because every branch has so many knots in it. Nothing is straight. You cannot make pillars out of it. You cannot make furniture out of it. You cannot use it as fuel because the smoke is so dangerous to the eyes – you almost go blind. This tree is absolutely useless. That’s why.”
They came back. Lao Tzu laughed and he said, “Be like this tree. If you want to survive in this world be like this tree – absolutely useless. Then nobody will harm you. If you are straight you will be cut, you will become furniture in somebody’s house. If you are beautiful you will be sold in the market, you will become a commodity. Be like this tree, absolutely useless. Then nobody can harm you. And you will grow big and vast, and thousands of people can find shade under you.”
SN is a useless tree.
Yes, but we’re still waiting for thousands of people to find shade here…(lol).
A bit of exaggeration must be allowed….
I like the story, satchit, but I doubt that SN is a useless tree, a site where people can comment on the news of the day has its uses.
Ah, now I understand, Nityaprem, SN is for the news of the day. I never thought in this direction.
Must be the reason that you come up every day with these little stories about how you feel – the news of the day?
MOD:
SN is for discussion of the topics and news, if relevant to Sannyas.
Well, not every day has a bombshell the size of ‘Children of the Cult’ waiting to be dropped.
Some days, you want a few spiritual musings over a morning coffee or a late-night beer, otherwise, there would be…
Tumbleweeds.
Although I wonder if all sannyasins who watched it were as shaken up by ‘Children of the Cult’ as I was.
For me the people in the film were my peers and friends, people of the same age with whom I shared a lot of experiences. To hear what a hard time they had had on the Ranch and in Medina cast a different light on a big chunk of my childhood.
Maybe not all sannyasins share that connection? Certainly some of the parents do, but I also know of some who don’t seem that concerned.
Are we hearing the ‘Sunset Song’ for SN?
Here is the ‘Sunset Song” by Richard Thompson (writer, composer, guitar and vocals):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j99i6UqQLY
Lyrics:
https://genius.com/Richard-thompson-sunset-song-lyrics
Touching. Isn’t it?
Richard’s life is interesting to me, because he became a Muslim at age 23, discovered sSufism and together with his wife lived for three years in a sufi community.
Linda hated it. “Sufism had appealed to me, but the guy who ran it was bit of a tyrant. There was lots of praying and guilt, and women were so subservient.”
Richard, who was attracted to Sufism by “the nobility of being…it seemed like the way human beings should be,” agreed that it wasn’t ideal. “It was full of human foibles. People are lustful, jealous, God knows what. But then we visited a sheikh in Morocco and saw the other side of it. And it was all wonderful.”
So, some reflections on changes and what may happen in life:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/sep/30/richard-thompson-at-70-on-love-loss-and-being-a-muslim-in-trump-us
Cheers.