LaraGreenbridge

@Nahm, I wonder if you have had all those things even if you were not interested in non-duality? My life has improved exponentially in the past 12 years, mainly due to my hard work, getting my psychological life in order... Being pro-active, listening to my intuition, making good connections with reliable, caring people and generally being more aware and more assertive. I had to push myself out of my comfort zone, in some aspects of my life. In other areas of my life, of course, I had to learn to relax and let go. yes, I think there was absolutely a spiritual component to all this. I believed that I deserved a wonderful life, for example. So, eventually, I built that life. Some of it was probably luck, too. Its interesting that I only ever became involved with Non-duality when I was going through a tough time. When all was good, I didn't look for that kind of thing. I had the great mis-fortune to find a teacher that was actually a fraud, so that didn't help, either. I noticed that a lot of people who followed this fraud were mentally ill or else at a low point in their lives. That bothered me a bit. can you describe how non-duality led you to get everything you have ever wanted?

Hi @Alex bAlex, it sounds like you felt lonely, living the way you did. For some people, making drastic changes in their lifestyle really works. For others, it's more of a temporary experiment. For you, maybe you would be better off going out and having fun? That doesn't mean taking drugs, either. I know drugs an be fun.... but it's an empty kind of fun that doesn't last. Do you have any interests, besides yoga and meditation, that you would like to explore?

@Nahm, I wonder if you would like to speak a bit about what changes in your life once you practice and honour non-duality ? Do you become more compassionate and less materialistic, for example? Do you feel happier in general? I looked at these Non-dual teachings for a while, but I honestly thought I was happier without them. Sounds strange, I know!

Hi @vinette, I read a great book years ago called "Stumbling on Happiness". (Now I can't remember the authors name, which isn't that surprising, since I read so many books.) In this book, the author describes the science behind why people regret the things they didn't do. Apparently, no-one really ever regrets the things they did do. At least, not for very long, and not very heavily. This is a kind of psychological 'insurance policy', which leads people to get maximum enjoyment from their lives, no matter what they decide to do. So, there are possibly hundreds of football players out there, regretting the fact that they didn't become artists! Its easy to regret something you didn't do, because you will only ever have an idealistic idea of what that thing actually would be like. You imagine the fame and the glory of winning the World Cup, and the money, of course. But what if you were on the team that lost? What is you didn't perform well that season, and your team dropped you? What if you were left unemployed, with no qualifications other than being able to play football? So there are plenty of draw-backs in any career. I would say enjoy your art, maybe join your schools football team in your spare time and have fun.

Hi @Finland3286, to answer your original question- Yes, 'non-duality' is a conceptual thing. As well as being a concept, it can alter your perception of things, to a degree. However, if it doesn't alter the way you are experiencing life, it doesn't mean that you are less spiritual than anyone else, or that you 'just don't get it'. Some people fall in love with the concept of non-duality, and others don't. It may be that you find it more rewarding to go and do some volunteer work or emerge yourself in prayer or else just enjoy art, music, nature and other beautiful things. All these activities also have enormous spiritual value. As for myself, I had a bad experience with non-duality teachings and I prefer not to bother with it, for now. My understanding is that non-dualists believe that everything is 'one'. Everything you see and experience is just the great play of consciousness unfolding. There is no real separation... we only believe we are separate from the universe because of the way we have been socially conditioned. But that conditioning is an illusion. Once we see through this illusion, we will feel at peace within ourselves and act far more compassionately towards everyone and everything else. Utopia. "How, when, where and why" we see through the illusion, is the topic of much prolonged debate! These debates seem to lack a lot of compassion, in many cases. Non-duality is sometimes a helpful adjunct to leading a good, happy and rewarding life. Sometimes it is not helpful. Another paradox, lol.

@Torkys, I think good things happen to you when you take action to make them happen. The law of attraction will only work for you if you do more than just dream a pleasant dream. First, you have a dream, a desire or a wish for something good in your life, then you make it happen by doing stuff that gets results. if you take action but don't get any results, then you will need to re-evaluate and change your actions into something more productive and beneficial. This is where perseverance comes in. Such a boring concept; no-cares for perseverance. It's not exactly magical. I can only report on my own life and what has happened to me. When I wanted something but didn't take any action at all, nothing happened. Nothing can be good, I am not decrying "nothingness". Plenty of people love doing nothing and they do it well. Good. Enjoy "nothing", because it is free and readily available to all beings. No need for any kind of discussion there! But of course you are welcome to discuss it, if you would like. Nothingness. Very beautiful. however, the 'law of attraction' kind of implies that you would actually like to attract something. Am I wrong? Decide what you would like to attract, find out all you can about this thing, ask questions, make phone calls, take notes and do some brain- storming. Share your ideas with a friend. Talk it over. Then: take action. Considered action. Educated action. Purposeful action. Act with joy and good will. See if you do not get results. I think you will.

You are most welcome, @Tistepiste. Trees are beautiful and important symbols. I am thinking now of the ancient "tree of life" and I wonder if this too, could be relevant to you. I think you are undergoing a life change., a very good one, I think. Good luck.

I understand you @Scholar. You are just carrying a philosophical debate through to its natural end. This can be a lonely place, and I have been there. Why is suffering inherently bad? Why is suffering 'bad' and pleasure 'good'? Well... Firstly, because our physical bodies are designed to survive to maturity and reproduce and be capable of caring for our young. Eating a delicious meal is pleasurable, because food enables our survival. Drinking a glass of water on a hot day is pleasurable or "good" for the same reason. Hunger is unpleasant. Having your fingers hurt badly while frying fish for dinner is "bad", and it causes suffering. This is because we need our hands for survival. Hands are an amazing feat of engineering! We can do so many things with them. If everyone damaged their hands in some way, society would come to a bit of a standstill. Pain or suffering warns us that something threatens our survival, and so we pay heed, because ultimately, we want to survive, to grow and mature and maybe even reach enlightenment one day. Without suffering, we would have no idea that we had burnt our hand, so we might ignore the injury and then get an infection, become sick and even die. So suffering serves an important evolutionary function. Secondly, we can recognise pain and suffering in others and it this recognition can cause us to feel empathy. Empathy and altruism have led society to develop to such a degree, because people look after each other and co-operate to get things done. If you become depressed or experience depersonalisation, pleasure and pain may well become irrelevant to you. This is not a good place to be in. Depression and depersonalisation do not serve the ultimate survival of the species. (I hope you are not experiencing depersonalisation @Scholar, excuse me if that is an intrusive question. I hope your question is only a philosophical one.) I suppose you will now ask "Why would it be so bad if the human species died out because we couldn't tell the difference between pleasure and suffering?" Well.... For the planet it wouldn't be so bad at all! The other species would all enjoy life without the humans around, causing trouble. For those of us humans who love life, I think it would be a loss. I like being alive. Interestingly enough, colours also serve an evolutionary purpose. There are a lot of studies by evolutionary biologists out there into this topic. You can look it up, if you are interested. I hope this helps.

Wow, @Tistepiste, that is so interesting. I have a lot of powerful dreams, too. I am always dreaming. Apparently, when you dream of death, it signifies new beginnings. So it as nowhere near as bad as you might imagine! And then the thing with your Dad, apparently dreaming of your father can signify the dominant male energy in your own psyche. So you may want to kill off a little bit of your own male energy, or at least "police it", in waking life. Dreams speak to us using metaphors. I have dreams of a tsunami, or tidal waves, too! Water can signify emotion in dreams. So you can imagine a tsunami would signify a huge wave of emotion. Which kind of fits in with what you described in waking life. Sorry, I am no expert on dreams, just an amateur enthusiast. Hope this helps you.

@zunnyman, I also recall truth mattering to me very much to me during my childhood. I would spontaneously have what I now term "transcendent" experiences. These are instances where the world would appear very beautiful and time would stand still. I felt connected to everything.... like I didn't exist as a person, but more as a part of all things, all life. These moments were memorable and I would often think of them, but I didn't tell anyone. I think when I was around 15 or 16 I did try to explain these trancendent experiences to one of my friends, but I don't think she understood me. Fast forward to university days, where I studied philosophy (and loved it). I asked my philosophy professor about these type of experiences. I was very shy, so I kind of asked about these experiences as an abstract question, not telling him that they actually happened to me..... It was more like "I've read about people having what they call trancendent experiences". My professor said "That sounds like mysticism to me. Be very careful of mysticism- it's not the kind of thing that you can have philosophical debates about. It's something that people don't understand and they misuse it." He was kind of telling me to forget about it. My professor was very interested in Zen Buddhism, so what do you know? Of course, I ended up studying that instead! Well, no harm done, because I loved it. I loved the meditation, I loved the Buddhist teachings, I liked reading all about it. I thought it to be a very beautiful Philosophy. I still do. I suppose the 'end result' of Zen meditation is that you will reach a type of enlightenment and then you will have the ultimate transcendent experience, where you will merge with all that is. However, I don't think that when that happens;- enlightenment, that you stop being a human being with a physical body and that you no longer live in the physical world, with real-life problems. That is not my understanding. Perhaps that is another topic, however, and I digress. What I would like to say to you is this: there is nothing to be afraid of. I have not for one second ever been afraid during meditation, nor ever felt fear or during a trancendent experience. Never. All I have found is peace and beauty. Abundant beauty, everywhere. And a subtle kind of joy. My deepest meditation was not very deep, but all I found was peace. Just a very spacious, warm, gentle openness, with nothing in it. It made me happy. When I opened my eyes and got up, nothing happened. I wasn't in a trance, I wasn't worried, I wasn't afraid. I was just me. I didn't especially want to go out me save the world, I didn't want to tell everyone about it, either. I just went on with life, knowing that life had the potential to be very good. I don't know if this is any help to you.

I joined this forum specifically to share an experience that I recently had. Unfortunately my disturbing experience involves the popular internet guru Mooji. Weeks ago, I began watching Mooji videos on YouTube. I was feeling a bit down and lonely at the time, for reasons I don't need to go into. I consider myself a spiritual person; I've even studied Zen Buddhism briefly with a Buddhist nun, many years ago. I find Buddhist teachings very inspiring. To this day, I enjoy reading all kinds of spiritual texts, but especially Eastern philosophy. I also like to meditate, although I'm still a novice at it. I give you all this background information, as I don't want you to think that I'm generally skeptical of spirituality and spiritual teachers. I'm open-minded. Well, to get to the point, I found Mooji's videos very, very relaxing. Perhaps too relaxing? Some of what he had to say seemed very profound. In fact, looking back, I don't understand why it seemed so profound, as there is very little difference in what Mooji teaches and what plenty of other spiritual teachers are saying. I won't get into a philosophical dissertation on non-dualism here, however. What disturbed me is that in one video, a young woman came up to the microphone during their "Satsungs" and began to say very jumbled, incoherent things. It was painful to watch, because this woman was obviously mentally ill. She laughed manically and then she flounced away, back into the crowd. I wondered why everyone there treated her behaviour as though it was 'normal'? Mooji just smiled and seemed very pleased. It was so damn odd. Being someone with some life experience (if I do say so myself), I began to wonder why someone who was so obviously in need of psychiatric treatment would be allowed to remain at the ashram? I mean, wouldn't she be a liability? So..... what could possibly be the pay-off for a spiritual community to keep her there in the condition she was in? She was young and pretty, so I became a bit suspicious. I went online and googled information pertaining to the Mooji group being a cult. And.... Bingo! It did not take me long to find many different complaints from people who had returned from that ashram with psychological problems. Not only that, but there are plenty of allegations out there of 'psychological abuse', Mooji being a 'pathological narcissist', the group using coercion, 'brain-washing' and exploiting people for money, donations, whatever. The worst of it it was Mooji being accused of approaching different young women for sex, some of who are in very vulnerable positions, due to their unfortunate life circumstances, ie, they were reliant on the Mooji group for accommodation and meals and basically had nowhere else to go. So, what I am saying folks, is to be very careful when choosing a guru! Do some research. Ok, I know many of you will be thinking that these allegations are false, but there are so many allegations across different websites coming from different sources, using different language, different wording, some from people who obviously speak English as a second language ..... For every one of these stories to have no substance seems highly unlikely to me. Please be careful.

Perhaps the ego does love to manufacture drama, @Serotoninluv. Certainly, in some cases. But, I for one don't regard allegations of misconduct as "drama". Drama is when someone speaks abruptly to you and you take offence and you manufacture a little story for yourself about how significant it is.... That is my idea of drama. And I am not referring to anyone in particular. Serious allegations are different. Alright, if these allegations don't exist and Mooji doesn't exist and I don't exist, then maybe we are not having a conversation at all. I am not sitting here typing this. You are not saying it's irrelevant. Or else maybe we are both players in the the great and wonderful unfolding that is consciousnesses and this conversation was destined to take place on the level of temporary physical being, in which people do indeed exist. My focus here has always been on my own spiritual journey and how my journey has been effected by my findings on Mooji.

Perhaps not totally irrelevant, @Joseph Maynor. If you are saying that Mooji doesn't exist and that therefore you and I don't exist and perhaps even this conversation doesn't exist... Then how can we call it irrelevant or otherwise? We would not bother typing a response, we would not even bother coming up with a word to describe the conversation! And yet I see quite a lot of responses here from non-existent people... People who must on some level have some interest in this little anomaly in the great cycle of illusionary existence that we all are participating in. Is all interest in all topics, even the topic spirituality itself, merely a distraction? I wonder.

Thank you @Feel Good. I agree that it can very very hard to tell if a written account of events is genuine or not. It's interesting that this account rang true for me, but not for you. You say it seems 'unintelligent', but I didn't get that impression. Perhaps the person who wrote it had more 'street smarts' than they did academic intelligence, but otherwise it sounded a credible account, to me. People will make up their own minds. For me, it's the tone of the allegation, the fact that the writer went into such details, that she sounded fearful. She avoided cliché. The fact that she is attempting to contact her former friend via this post, it seems like what one would do. She also goes on to make further statements in the same discussion on www.culteducation.com It's under a discussion entitled "Mooji a Cult".

Yes, @Arkandeus, 'extensively' a good word to use. I am employed in research as a trade, it is no problem for me to research this. Like I said before, it is saving me future heartache, because I will not be wasting time and money going to Portugal to visit Mooji's ashram, in the hope of gaining genuine spiritual instruction. I will not be watching his videos online, when I could be spending that time meditating, for instance. So for me, it is very rewarding to try and get to the bottom of things.

Thank you. As it happens, my compassion is what led to to discover new information about Mooji. (New information to me, that is.) And I am saying to everyone now "please be careful". Be careful of this Mooji character. My compassion has led me to contact several of the people who are making allegations against this man. I will communicate with them compassionately. I have also discovered the identity of the woman who I saw in the video, the one who I thought was mentally ill. She is no longer at the ashram.

For me, on my own personal spiritual journey, I feel Mooji to be "unmasked". I used to think he had a lot to offer and now I don't. My initial post was more about what personally happened to me in my own life. 1. I was very interested in spiritually. 2. I found Mooji's teachings "profound". 3. I saw something that concerned me in a Mooji video, so I did some investigations. 4. Because what I then found out contradicted my initiall impression of Mooji- I felt the experience of having him be unmasked to my consciousness. Proof A fascinating topic in itself. What I am talking about are allegations against Moo-Young. I am not saying there is proof. I am saying to everyone there are multiple allegations against him from many sources. Just like with the scandal within the Catholic Church, where many, many victims have come forward, alleging abuse - well, what proof would they have? They are simply telling their own accounts of what happened. And the Priests are telling a conflicting account, no doubt. Who to believe? Tony Moo-Youngs victims are telling their accounts online. If I read so many accounts alleging abuse about any individual whom I formally held in high regard, I would have my doubts about that person. Even if that person seemed nice. Even if he or she had plenty of defenders.

My mind could not only stand it, it could also question it, use reason, identify the problem, generate possible answers as to why the incoherent stuff and apply the required knowledge to find out further information. I've got nothing against people with mental illness. I felt compassion for the woman concerned. I still do.

I have heard that said before... "Spiritual awakening is very easy to be confused with mental illness." I just don't know about this. I have had a lot of experience dealing with people with mental illness, in a professional setting, and I have never thought of any of them as having a genuine spiritual experiences. Not in the least. Some people with grandiose delusions (ie, during schizophrenia, manic psychosis) do rave on a lot about God or else think they are Jesus....but I don't know, this always just looks extremely disturbing to me. I know that having a legitimate spiritual experience could be a little destabilising, maybe, but I would think that it would be in a good way, like you could slip back into the experience of "regular self" at will. It's not you literally lose your mind. I guess a lot of people would disagree.

Also you might like to take a look at gururating.org I think the Mooji section has now been blocked in some countries. I wonder if it is to do with pending legal action (on either side)? Sorry... More conjecture!

Yes, I have read the comments on Reddit, too. There is a discussion there called "Mooji and the #meeto movement." It's easy to find.

I agree 100%.

I would like thank everyone for posting. I have read everything here. The comments here range from the curious, to the concerned to the very doubtful. I understand. Firstly, I would like to say that I am a genuine spiritual seeker who has raised a legitimate concern about Mooji. The concern is a pressing one for me, and involves my own spiritual path directly, as I did mention. I found Mooji's teachings very profound and I did, at the time, wish to travel to Portugal to visit Mooji's ashram, to explore the ideas he presented more fully. As it stands, I am no longer considering doing so. I am avidly interested in spirituality and have studied traditional spiritual texts at length. One of my favourite texts would have to be the Tao Te Ching. I have also looked at the Shinto religion (the indigenous religion of Japan) and I have formally studied Zen Buddhism with a Buddhist Nun. I am very interested in transcendent experiences and spiritual enlightenment. I enjoy Sufi poetry, too. I suppose these claims are impossible to prove! Don't take my word for it. Be very skeptical... I could be anyone. You could be anyone. I am anonymous, you are all anonymous (except perhaps for Leo) and the people who are making the allegations against Mooji are also anonymous. So we are all on equal footing. No, of course you should not believe everything you see written on the net. Just as you should not believe what is written in the newspapers or what is on the 6 o'clock news on TV. You should not believe it when people publish their memoirs, either, or when a new scientific report is published, for that matter. These things may or may not be true! How are we to decide? My purpose in writing here is simply to share my experience and to say "be careful". I shared one comment from one individual who alleges Mooji takes advantage of young women, but there are many more comments out there. I chose that one comment that resonated with me, because I thought it was credible, in that it gave a lot of details and was told with emotion. I have spent many hours and read hundreds of comments now. I have managed to make contact with several of the complainants, too. So far, I don't mind doing this extensive research, as it saves me wasting my time and money going to Portugal and being mislead. Please feel free to continue the discussion in a thoughtful and respectful way.

Thank you so much to all those who replied to this post. As I said, I am talking about allegations, in regards to the spiritual guru Mooji. There is no way to prove or disprove these allegations, for now. They remain allegations which are out there in the public domain for anyone who cares to research this topic. As for myself, I have spent a lot of time looking into this; mainly because I felt personally duped by Mooji, having watched hours of his material online. I would like to re-post one comment that I found on www.culteducation.com, written by someone on the 10th of August... (Am I allowed to do this? Please delete this if it's not allowed.) It is from a discussion entitled "Mooji a Cult?", which is an extremely long discussion, but worth reading if you are interested. "This account may be deleted but I am posting anonymously to help others and for fear of being found. Mooji is a straight up conman in the worst sense praying on the desperate and vulnerable. He is a "...."** and everybody has to be warned. This happened over a year ago over the span of 2-3 months or so. I don't want to post much more than that as his may be reading. I was having a rough time with money and having a home and I ended up at a Mooji talk in London. At this point in your life, anything free is a blessing. I wasn't the only one in this situation, there were a few of us that were given food, shelter and in exchange for an 'open mind'. I was thankful for this - much better than the streets and you don't mind filling the time with hearing someone speak. We went along to hear him talk to the masses and it was quite inspirational and this went on for a while with us 'following him'... well there is nothing like a free lunch. I started seeing some females who I met in similar situations as me who would have 'private talks' with Mooji and come out of rooms looking detached and something bubbling below. I had a friend, let's call her 'Sarah'. Whenever I asked Sarah what happened, she would put on a fake smile and spout that life is beautiful we have to believe. This wasn't the real them and it bugged me that something wasn't right. Mooji never really invited me privately in but his crew spoke to me a lot about 'giving myself' to them whatever that meant, submitting for the higher good and belief. It was wishy washy to pinpoint what I was supposed to believe but the sheer force of belief coming from the crew made me didn't want to question this for fear of being thrown out on the streets. I felt like like I had to contribute something but I didn't know. Work? Giving out leaflets? Not sure. So far, there was a positive focus and sense of wellbeing but for what price? This happened one day a while into my stint with them. I had to sleep when I could being with so many others so I found a quiet corner behind some bags in a venue. I curled up and was trying to drift off amongst the people coming in and out setting up. I couldn't fall asleep so I was lying there trying to relax. I finally sat up and I could see mooji and one of his crew members who I always saw float around mooji and not say much (I didn't even recall hearing his voice) talking to each other. They had their backs to me and i felt a bit strange as nobody else was around and they couldn't see me. I heard them talking about 'Sarah'. Mooji was asking top crew guy if 'sarah' was ready to give herself. ' The crew guy was saying how 'i've been working on her, she'll be *sleeping* with you within the week'. I was shocked at the frankness of this abuse and it made sense from sarah's detached personality. She was being forcd to prostitute herself to mooji! Mooji was asking about some others and what they are 'contributing' and the crew guy was talking about them giving money (some followers had money and were not sleeping on the street). I sat back down behind the bags and lied down quietly as I could sweating if they found me, they would not only kick me out but silence me. I had to leave and I knew I wouldn't have long with Sarah. I was ready to go and I had to plan my exit so I chose my moment to speak to her about what I heard. She called me a liar and how I didn't believe enough. She was on the verge of tears and her words didn't match how she felt with this conflicting information I was telling her. She was too far gone. I left straight away and I never found out what happened to her. If you're reading sarah or if you ARE a 'sarah' then I urge you to trust your instincts and not fall into the mooji trap. He's preying on the weak with having to believe in something. Don't give him money, don't give him your body. He is using a positive persona and behind this is a twisted evil man. I'm now doing ok, I have a job, a home. There is a way out of this cult." Personally, this account of events does sound convincing, but I urge people to make up their own minds, of course. ** I've withheld this word for reasons which I won't go into. The word is visible for all to see in the original post on the website I reproduced it from.