SpiritualWiki - Satsang

Artikel von Alan Jacobs, Advaita and Western Neo-Advaita [Neo-Advaita – westlicher Prägung], Original präsentiert von Mountain-Path, Magazin des Ramana Maharshi Ashrams, Indien, 2004, übersetzte Fassung präsentiert von der deutschen Monatszeitschrift Connection, 2006

Im traditionellen Advaita des Mountain Path wird der auf Ramana Maharshi basierende, heute gelehrte Advaita (oder Advaita Vedanta die Lehre der nicht zweigeteilten Einheit vom Ende der (altindischen) Veden) dreifach unterschieden:
1. Traditioneller Vedanta = richtige Methode
2. Neo-Vedanta = richtige, jedoch falsch verstandene Methode
3. Pseudo-Vedanta = falsche Methode.

Sonnenuntergang in den Bergen

[…] sonnt sich der neo-advaitische Schüler in seinem oder ihrem reflektierten Bewusstsein, das mit den Worten, Alles, was ist, ist vollkommen, ganz gleich, was sich manifestiert überhöht wird.
Die klare Unterscheidung zwischen dem absoluten und relativen Bewusstsein wird nicht gemacht und möglicherweise nicht einmal gekannt.
Ihre sich selbst bestätigten Erwachens-Erfahrungen sind nur flüchtige Eindrücke des SELBST.
Wie sich zeigt, gibt Neo-Advaita dem Ego die Erlaubnis, ohne Beschränkung zu leben, gerechtfertigt durch eine verführerische, hedonistische Argumentation. Die Anweisung, die spirituelle Übung aufzugeben, ist trügerisch. Sie führt in die Irre.
Neo-Advaita-Lehrer bedienen sich eines cleveren intellektuellen Prozesses der Dekonstruktion des Gefühls, der Handelnde zu sein, oder des falschen Ich-Eindrucks. Übt man diesen Prozess intensiv aus, ergibt sich, gewöhnlich kurzzeitig, eine Erfahrung, dass da niemand ist, welche sogar vorübergehend den Eindruck eines Handelnden außer Kraft setzt.
So ist das Erwachen nur konzeptuell oder eingebildet, ähnlich der "born again" [Wiedergeburts]Erfahrung evangelikaler Christen.
Menschen fühlen sich zu Lehrern mit diesen Vorstellungen hingezogen, denn sie bestätigen ihnen, was sie gern glauben wollen, nämlich, dass es keiner Anstrengung bedarf.
Den sat-guru im Inneren zu erreichen, bedarf der Anstrengung, und Anstrengung ist kein populäres Wort, auch wenn man sie in allen Aspekten des Lebens braucht. Die Behauptung der Neo-Advaitisten, es gäbe niemanden, der diese Anstrengung unternehmen könne, ist absurd.
Das Reich Gottes ist eine Perle von unschätzbarem Wert, die man sich durch ernsthafte Erforschung und Selbstaufgabe verdienen muss.
Der wahre Zweck des Lebens in dieser Geburt besteht nicht einfach darin, sich in Sinnesfreuden zu vergnügen sondern darin, die notwendige Anstrengung aufzubringen, um das Gefühl der Trennung und der Identifikation mit dem Geist, mit den Gedanken, den Gefühlen und dem Körper durch das Phantom-Ego zu beenden.

Referenz: ► Dietmar Bittrich, Indienreise mit Besuch im Ramana Maharshi-Ashram, 2003

English original: ► Alan Jacobs, Advaita and Western Neo-Advaita,
presented by the Indian journal "The Mountain Path", autumn 2004, updated 10. July 2012

"The belief that there is a separate seeker (subject) who can choose to attain or become worthy of something called enlightenment (object) is a direct denial of abiding oneness (Advaita)." Tony Parsons, US American advaita teacher, The Divine Misconception. Traditional Advaita (Oneness) versus Neo-Advaita (engl.), issued ~2007

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Zitate zum Thema Satsang- und Neo-Advaita-Szene

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Zitate allgemein

Satsang (Kontext: "gemeinsame Wahrheit") bezeichnet in der indischen Philosophie und in den daraus abgeleiteten spirituellen Lehren ein Zusammensein von Menschen, die durch gemeinsames Hören, Reden, Nachdenken und Versenkung in die Lehre nach der höchsten Einsicht streben. Speziell im Advaita Vedanta gilt es als notwendig, dass man die als Wahrheit bezeichnete Lehre hört und sie reflektiert. Wikipedia-Definition von Satsang

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General quotes

Personal avowal

This was my first trip outside of Europe and the United States and my first visit to a Third World country. I was not prepared in any way for the reality of India, for the poverty and human suffering that I glimpsed for the first time in my life from the window of the taxicab driving past some of the world's biggest and poorest slums. The only way I knew to deal with this sudden descent into the real world was to immerse myself even more in the shadow world of spirituality. The appalling poverty and disease I saw when I arrived in Bombay did not really exist: it was Maya, an illusion. What you see is not what you get. What you see, the suffering you preceive around you, is unreal, a philosophic illusion ("the external world is a joke and a very poor joke at that", and therefore not be attended to).
India was particularly well suited to the spiritual insularity I had developed. It too suffered from some of the same debility, so we were well matched. Indian philosophy long ago solved the puzzle of human suffering by depriving it of reality.
The philosophers were constantly discoursing on a cosmic double standard. Suffering, misery and unhappiness were defined as such only form the lower point of view. From the higher point of view, there was no difference between the wealthy man and the beggar. It was, needless to say, extremely convenient as a balm for any conscience that threatened to erupt when faced with the suffering all around. Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, Ph.D. (*1941) US American psychoanalyst, critical author on Sigmund Freud's theoretical concepts and psychoanalysis, My Father's Guru. A Journey Through Spirituality and Disillusion, S. 112, Pocket Books, 1998, Ballantine Books, paperback issue 30. September 2003

Jeffrey Masson visited India as a teenager in the 1950s. His family had been students of a Theosophical guru named Paul Brunton and had learned Advaita from Brunton and later studied with Atmananda.

Critique

This teaching causes a problem because it does not take experience into account. So you either have to deny the existence of experience, which can only take place in duality, or modify the teaching. You cannot deny the existence of experience – although Neo-Advaita does its level best – because it exists. Critical essay by ⚡ James Swartz (*1941) US American Vedanta teacher, Neo-Advaita, PDF, 8 pages, date unknown

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The dangers of "non-dual" neoadvaitan "teachers"

A teacher who convinces you that your ego needs busting or that your mind needs to be destroyed is very dangerous. Fame does not a teacher make; groups of people can be as deluded as individuals. You will notice that the teachers around whom cults of personality develop invariably make the mind the enemy. Whenever a doubt happens, you are told that it is just "mind" and asked to dismiss it. If you find yourself with this kind of teacher and teaching, it means that he does not have a valid means of knowledge and is power hungry or needy. It is amazing how many popular teachers actually need your love. If you feel that a teacher needs you for any reason, head for the hills. You are asking for trouble. A true teacher is dispassionate and self-fulfilled and has nothing to gain by teaching you. Critical article by ⚡ James Swartz (*1941) US American Vedanta teacher, The Horse’s Mouth. An essay on the 'lineage' game, presented by advaita.org, United Kingdom, 10. July 2012

Enlightenment has no meaning apart from how you live. It is quite amazing in this day and age that the "crazy wisdom" idea still has legs. "Do as I say, not as I do," is not a teaching. What use is enlightenment if it amounts to nothing more than a license for the ego to indulge its cravings? It is quite sad that so many teachers have compromised themselves over the years and given truth a bad name over the most banal vices: money, sex, fame, or power. One imagines that the vices of the enlightened should somehow be more exotic.
A teacher who convinces you that your ego needs busting or that your mind needs to be destroyed is very dangerous. Fame does not a teacher make; groups of people can be as deluded as individuals. You will notice that the teachers around whom cults of personality develop invariably make the mind the enemy. Whenever a doubt happens, you are told that it is just "mind" and asked to dismiss it. If you find yourself with this kind of teacher and teaching, it means that he does not have a valid means of knowledge and is power hungry or needy. It is amazing how many popular teachers actually need your love. If you feel that a teacher needs you for any reason, head for the hills. You are asking for trouble. A true teacher is dispassionate and self-fulfilled and has nothing to gain by teaching you. ⚡ James Swartz (*1941) US American Vedanta teacher, The Essence of Enlightenment. Vedanta, the Science of Consciousness, Sentient Publications, chapter "A qualified teacher", 7. January 2015

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Traditional Modern Advaita (TMA) ⇔ Non-Traditional Modern Advaita (NTMA)

At the first level, the spread of the gurus and organizations of the Modern Advaita (Traditional Modern Advaita (TMA) as well as the Non-Traditional Modern Advaita (NTMA)) is a simple manifestation of the entrepreneurial spirit that has long characterized the religious landscape of North America. In a way, these teachers have taken over a commercial niche, which is the message conveyed by the Modern Advaita. This is possible because most of the teachers active today in American circles of the Modern Avaita have long been disciples of one or another of the gurus around whom both the TMA and NTMA orbit. Typically, either a guru mandates a disciple to teach, or the student quarrels with him and begins to teach satsangs on his own initiative. Examples of such trajectories are
- Gangaji, a NTMA guru living in Oregon and
- Jamaican Mooji living in England, both of whom have followed Poonja's teaching;
- John Wheeler, who studied with NTMA teacher "Sailor Bob" Adamson;
- Wayne Liquorman, who followed ⚡ Ramesh Balsekar (1917-2009), himself a disciple of Nisargadatta;
- and Nick Gancitano, student of NTMA guru Arunachala Ramana (1929-2010).

In the absence of an established hierarchy (based on the model of sampradayas or lines of gurus in India) or a "quality control" mechanism, people who claim to be awake can pull out their flag and start holding satsangs in the Modern Avaita network spread all over the world. From the point of view of a religion's economic model, the attempts of TMA followers to make their rivals illegitimate are part of the struggle for domination to keep the market exclusive to their own companies. Following the logic of this model, we can expect the flow of criticism against the TMA by NTMA writers and teachers to continue, as well as strong resistance from the NTMA gurus themselves. After all, every teacher in the Modern Advaita is a "competitor" to others, the products they develop and their words. Abstract of the essay by Phillip Charles Lucas, Ph.D., French professor of religious studies, Stetson University, United States, Non-Traditional Modern Advaita Gurus in the West and Their Traditional Modern Advaita Critics, PDF presented by the University of California Press, peer-reviewed academic journal of religious studies Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, Vol. 17 No. 3, S. 6-37, February 2013; French translation in full "Traditional Modern Advaita: The gurus of Non-Traditional Modern Advaita and their critics'', 30. December 2014

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Englische Texte – English section on the Neo Advaita movement

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Mooji's neo-advaitan satsang cult of personality

[The Jamaican Satsang guru] Mooji (*1954) and his closest devotees are a part of the new entertainment industry called the neo-advaita satsang movement. Mooji's company Mooji Media Inc. sells an immediate-easy-effortless-spiritual awakening for everybody. The important aspect of this business industry is to create the cult of a spiritual "enlightenment" guru, a "beloved" master, and to promote him to a spiritual celebrity. The basis of the Mooji Foundation and Mooji Media Inc. is Mooji's ashram in Portugal Monte Sahaja with many regular employees, volunteers, and a strong PR/film team. It's a new type and the hybrid of an ashram-profitable tax-free firm with a strong spiritual image facade.
Facebook entry by Willem Storitz, posted on the forum Questioning Mooji, 23. February 2019

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Links zum Thema Satsang- und Neo-Advaita-Szene

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Literartur

Michael Utsch (*1960) deutscher Psychologe, Psychotherapeut, Religionspsychologe, Reinhard Hempelmann und andere, Herausgeber, Panorama der neuen Religiosität. Sinnsuche und Heilsversprechen im 21. Jahrhundert, Kapitel "Die Satsang-Bewegung", S. 192-199, Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 2001, 2005

Religionswissenschaftlich fundierter Überblick über neureligiöse Organisationen in Deutschland

James Swartz (*1941) US-amerikanischer Vedanta-Lehrer, Vedanta – Die Wirklichkeit verstehen. Eine praktische Einführung, J. Kamphausen Mediengruppe GmbH, 1. Auflage 21. März 2016

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Literarture (engl.)

⚡ James Swartz (*1941) US American Vedanta teacher, How to Attain Enlightenment. The Vision of Non-Duality, Sentient Publications, 1. December 2009
⚡ James Swartz (*1941) US American Vedanta teacher, The Essence of Enlightenment. Vedanta, the Science of Consciousness, Sentient Publications, 7. January 2015

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Externe Weblinks

Wikipedia-Einträge Neo-Advaita, Satsang

Was ist Satsang? Liste der Satsang-Lehrer in D, Satsang.de
Satsangforum.de, virtuelle Austauschbörse für Satsang-Interessierte aus der Neo-Advaita-Szene

Kritik – Linkloser Artikel

Artikel von Alan Jacobs, Advaita and Western Neo-Advaita [Neo-Advaita – westlicher Prägung], englischsprachiges Original präsentiert von Mountain-Path, Magazin des Ramana Maharshi Ashrams, Indien, 2004, übersetzte Fassung präsentiert von der deutschen Monatszeitschrift Connection, 2006

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External web links (engl.)

Wikipedia entries Neo-Advaita, Satsang

List of articles on varieties of advaita [Liste mit Artikeln über unterschiedliche Formen von Advaita] Traditional [Advaita] vs. Neo-Advaita, presented by Advaita.org.uk, last updated 10. July 2012
- Alan Jacobs, Advaita and Western Neo-Advaita, 2004
- Tony Parsons, US American advaita teacher, The Divine Misconception: Traditional Advaita (Oneness) versus Neo-Advaita, last updated 10. July 2012