Nisargadatta Maharaj

[How to be wise]

I was amazed to have found this. Nisargadatta shares his knowledge on enlightenment.

 

[Ascend]

Interesting to see him talking about being unidentified with the body, but then lighting up a smoke

[How to be wise]

1 hour ago, Ascend said:

Interesting to see him talking about being unidentified with the body, but then lighting up a smoke

That guy always looks angry. Even when the translator told a joke, he was still angry.

[Ascend]

1 hour ago, How to be wise said:

That guy always looks angry. Even when the translator told a joke, he was still angry.

I do believe he was enlightened, but it's really jarring to see. Can you imagine Ramana smoking? Or even guys such as Eckhart Tolle - lecturing about the pain body and being conscious of the egoic tendencies that arise, and taking a smoke in his next breath

Edited November 21, 2017 by Ascend

[Pierre]

We tend to have preconceived ideas about how a master should behave...Chögyam Trungpa banged his students, Watts boozed himself to death, J. Krishnamurti liked to be driven around in Mercedes, Zen masters shout at people, Osho owned 94 Rolls-Royces, etc, etc, etc...

[Leo Gura]

You guys are underestimating the HUGE role that culture plays in all this.

The reason such things perplex newbies is because they don't grasp yet that all their morals and standards are arbitrarily set by the culture and era in which they live.

You think smoking or murder is bad. In reality, nothing is bad. You still have yet to grasp the sigificance of that.

After a recent deep enlightenment experience, I actually started caring LESS about damaging my body, because I look forward to my death, because I know death is the most wonderful thing there is.

See, the ego turns everything inside out, upside down. A lot of healthy behaviors are actually cultural and egotistical. Many people go to the gym because deep down they are really scared of death.

[Ascend]

32 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

You guys are underestimating the HUGE role that culture plays in all this.

The reason such things perplex newbies is because they don't grasp yet that all their morals and standards are arbitrarily set by the culture and era in which they live.

You think smoking or murder is bad. In reality, nothing is bad. You still have yet to grasp the sigificance of that.

After a recent deep enlightenment experience, I actually started caring LESS about damaging my body, because I look forward to my death, because I know death is the most wonderful thing there is.

See, the ego turns everything inside out, upside down. A lot of healthy behaviors are actually cultural and egotistical. Many people go to the gym because deep down they are really scared of death.

So there is no room for relativism in your model of the world? No thoughts, deeds, words are inherently better than others? Sounds kind of nihilistic to me. "Death is the most wonderful thing there is" Death isn't any more wonderful than life. Death is Life. Life is death. 

"Most people go to the gym because deep down they're scared of death" - They go for various reasons. Many might do so, or out of insecurity, fear of survival, and what not. But not all. Some do have other HIGHER intentions. There are better and worse intentions for doing something.

[WaveInTheOcean]

5 hours ago, Ascend said:

So there is no room for relativism in your model of the world? No thoughts, deeds, words are inherently better than others? Sounds kind of nihilistic to me. "Death is the most wonderful thing there is" Death isn't any more wonderful than life. Death is Life. Life is death. 

"Most people go to the gym because deep down they're scared of death" - They go for various reasons. Many might do so, or out of insecurity, fear of survival, and what not. But not all. Some do have other HIGHER intentions. There are better and worse intentions for doing something.

I think Leo invents relativism when he feels like it. Just like when you take a shit, it's because you felt like it.
When you are enlightened, you realize that it is of no value to 'stick'/attach yourself to any belief-system/model of reality, because every model/belief-system is ultimately false and incomplete.

[Pierre]

@Leo Gura As far as I'm concerned, you are the newbie. 

One of the reasons I like Maharaj so much is that he didn't fit at all the cliché of the indian Sage. He was more like a badass Zen teacher.

Regarding "going to the gym", I guess everything we do, healthy or not, while still identified with the body, is done through fear of death.