Typical Ramji Troll
Dear Ram,
I can’t believe I didn’t keep studying with you all those years in between. Guess I had to kiss more frogs, first. There were some sweet non abusive groups, and some not so sweet and kind of abusive ones, all of which taught me along a lot of side tracks.
Ram: Sincere people always come back. Vedanta isn’t sexy unless you really understand it’s value. It seems like a lot of words so people gravitate to the low hanging fruit i.e. Vedanta-like, which is to say Vedantalite, “teachings,” which aren’t actually teachings. They are opinions and beliefs about the idea of non-duality offered by mostly well-meaning but uninformed people. The modern stuff has its place but as one matures one sees though it.
X….The donation was for yesterday’s class and for a prior Sunday I went to. Hopefully I’ll be at all your Sunday classes from now on, or most of them. I had been just listening through the wonderful series I purchased from your website on my own convenient schedule, but it was especially good hearing the questions and answers too. Let me know if there’s a recommended donation amount for classes?
Ram: “Recommended” donations are not ShiningWorld’s cup of tea. Isvara recommends based on a person’s appreciate of the teachings and their means.
X….& I even made myself reservations in Trout Lake for August. In a more expensive place where there won’t be UFO anti vaxers tromping through. OK, I’m a covid coward, I admit it. Good for spiritual practice never leaving the house, at least for a while (3 years?). Really looking forward to Trout Lake, sure hope it all comes together. (let me know if I can transport stuff or people. I have a smallish car but could carry something I think.
Ram: Cool. Isvara is merciful indeed. Last year we had three out of thirty non-vaxers. But they were all cool, wore their masks and kept their distance and enjoyed themselves. Some have good reasons, most just imagine they are rebels looking for a cause.
Ram: It’s common sense to be a Covid coward. Schadenfreude comes to the minds of sensible people when a vaccine denier bits the dust. Of course we don’t indulge it, but it’s a reasonable impulse. It turns out 10 billion doses have been administered and the population of the world keeps growing. Imagine that.
X….thank you for the fabulous teachings! I kind of miss your trashing the other teachers though.
Ram: Pointing out the obvious limitations of modern teachings is an important part of Vedanta because ignorance hides very nicely in “spiritual” teachings, but I have compassion for my trolls who get all worked up when a cherished belief, no matter how irrational, is exposed. We can afford to criticize because that’s not all we do, like trolls. We actually provide a transformative teaching. The satsang section of the website is mostly glowing testimonials to the power of Vedanta and to our presentation of Vedanta.
I really should do more criticism but I’m getting more and more mellow in my dotage and can’t be bothered. I prefer preaching to the choir. Plus, it turns out that trolls are not always the smartest knives in the drawer; they seem to lack an acute appreciation of the zero-sum law of unintended consequences. A few people who discovered ShiningWorld via troll loka became Vedanta people when they checked out the website. But to people who hate it doesn’t matter if ShiningWorld benefits. They like hate. If I died tomorrow, they would be happy for about 2 seconds and, unconcerned about evidence, they would dig up someone or something else to hate. And they also don’t get that their hate generates more love in the ShiningWorld community. 🙂
Trolls live in a small frustrating world. I feel sorry for them because every negative thought denies them the opportunity to make a positive contribution to life and redeem themselves. If they knew what love was, they wouldn’t waste their time trolling. When you love yourself grievances die.
Human beings live moment to moment from one thought to another. If the emotional content of a particular thought is negative and a person continues to think it, their character suffers. Loving thoughts create loving people. Who but other unloving people can trolls associate with? So, thinking they are floating in a heaven of righteousness, they are actually slopping around in a fearful sewer of their own making. Talk about zero-sum.
Anyway it was lovely to see you sitting like a queen in your chair with the Ramana pic on the wall.
Much love,
Ram
