Beware of the Self Appointed Guru!

If I told you that you could make a living telling others what they wanted to hear, and that you would never have to be actively involved in any kind of debate about the substance of your teachings, you might think this just isn’t possible – if so, just watch this:

Now, the real beauty of this trick, as they admit, is to do nothing and forget about enlightenment, God, spirituality…
If it wasn’t for the Indian names, the beards, costumes, and thrones, would these men really have such a following? It’s easy to tell by looking at them that they’ve never really done a hard day’s work in their lives, they haven’t had to pay off a mortgage by working two jobs, and they haven’t had to pass a test for any certificate which qualifies them to preach.

Tell your kids to become a new age guru – it’s the safest job there is.

Now, take a look at this man:

Do you think this man gained such abundant H (chi) by doing nothing? No, as he tells us, he meditates (practices chigong) daily, and obviously undertook much training from his master until he was deemed ready to uplift others with what he had learned.
He wears no costume, and doesn’t spend his time sitting in a chair answering questions.

Commandment number twelve states: “Thou shalt seek to be open to the wisdom and/or guidance of philosophy (ancient, recent, or emergent), the views of others, as well as the insight/advice of those with experience.”

So listen to any guru you like, but remember that truth is a sliding scale. Sometimes to “stop searching” is a source of relief, whereas, sometimes to search is an enjoyable adventure which leads to a gateway moment, something unexpected, increased vitality, intelligence, special abilities… who knows?

The Problem with Transcendence

These are the definitions of the word “Transcendence” taken from thefreedictionary.com:

1. Surpassing others; preeminent or supreme.
2. Lying beyond the ordinary range of perception: “fails to achieve a transcendent significance in suffering and squalor” (National Review).
3. Philosophy
a. Transcending the Aristotelian categories.
b. In Kant’s theory of knowledge, being beyond the limits of experience and hence unknowable.
4. Being above and independent of the material universe. Used of the Deity

In Unithou, the higher and lower plains exist in our minds, not in some ideal imaginary realm where a deity presides and presumes to judge our actions. This imaginary realm is often thought to be a plateau of sorts, which we’ll reach at some point and won’t have to try any more. Some traditions talk of reincarnation as being a return to the material world, due to one not having earned the privilege yet to reside on the transcendental plateau permanently: thus, they return here, life after life, until they are deemed ready to remain in the transcendental realm.

I once had a talk with a Hare Krishna fellow who was handing out free books about reincarnation to people on the street. He said to me “Do you really want to come back to this world, man? I definitely don’t!”. I tried to encourage him to look further, and feed his mind by reading other philosophies besides the Bhagavad Gita, and he replied “Don’t you think I’ve had time to look, man?”. So then I tried to explain that he was being mislead, and that Krishna was present here and now. He said “Oh, so you’ve seen Krishna have you?”, I said “Yes, I have.” (the word Krishna translates as “all attractive”), he said “So what did he look like?”, to which I replied “You!”. He shook his head and turned his back on me. His belief in a transcendental deity blinds him of his own unique divinity, and has him all the time looking outside of himself for the experience of bliss. His mantras and meditations are designed to help him escape this earthly realm as much as possible in his day-to-day life.

He believes that people are superior to animals, even though they actually do a better job of living in harmony with nature than us. He has a shaved head, with one of those rat’s tails at the back, and follows the teachings of a painted face freak. He’s looked for the truth, and found a bunch of people dressed in old indian garb with a book/doctrine which has simply reprogrammed him into a different kind of subservience. Their greatest trick is to tell us that it is not a religion!

Unithou is a religion of presence and positivity, designed to help us recognise our own unique divinity, and the divinity present within others, as well as to encourage vitality and individual liberation.

“We could say that meditation doesn’t have a reason or doesn’t have a purpose. In this respect it’s unlike almost all other things we do except perhaps making music and dancing. When we make music we don’t do it in order to reach a certain point, such as the end of the composition. If that were the purpose of music then obviously the fastest players would be the best. Also, when we are dancing we are not aiming to arrive at a particular place on the floor as in a journey. When we dance, the journey itself is the point, as when we play music the playing itself is the point. And exactly the same thing is true in meditation. Meditation is the discovery that the point of life is always arrived at in the immediate moment.” (Alan Watts).

Let Vitality Be Your Sovereignty

Subservience comes in many forms, and disempowers the individual because they become used to the thought that power and happiness lie elsewhere, whether it be in the form of some deity, religious leader, cult, or addictive substance. It’s no coincidence that alcoholics become born again christians, or those who are already christians become caught up in abusive relationships or addiction. They’ve been programmed to feel small, to feel sinful, shameful, and sometimes even masochistic. Their true sovereignty is fear: fear of death, fear of god, fear of themselves even.

When you recognise your own unique divinity, you become god of yourself, and your only sovereignty is vitality. We’re brought up to think of being healthy as “not being sick”, but health should be seen as something which can always be improved, and not just physically, but psychologically too. Any act that is done for the sake of one’s vitality is an act of self-love and empowerment, and is the pathway to maturity. The natural result of this will see you having a positive effect on those around you, and wanting to share your vitality with them, not by way of preaching, but by way of simple everyday life cultivation and encouragement.

Just to recap, here’s the Unithou definition of Vitality:

Vitality:
– The capacity to live, grow, or develop.
– Frequency/quality of meditational practice, as well as flow of meditational
focus from moment to moment.
– Physical and psychological health/vigour.
– Intimacy with, amount of, and circulation of H.
– Power to overcome/endure/embrace/joyfully participate in adversity/suffering.
– Sense of lightness, detachment and good humour.

A Helpful Metaphor for the Domesticated Mind

We know that C-3PO is programmed for etiquette and protocol – he represents the domesticated mind, whereas, R2-D2 is an astrometric droid, seemingly designed for repair and maintenance of starships etc. As the films have unfolded, we’ve come to recognise C-3PO as the reluctant one, and R2-D2 who carries out his instructions without question. C-3PO complains “We seem to be made to suffer – it’s our lot in life!”, “Where do you think you’re going? I’m not going that way. It’s much too rocky. This way is much easier.”. To complain seems to be the accepted etiquette in our society – something we all do to appear “normal”. When the rebellious software in us is running, we find ourselves doing things in order to “overthrow” protocol, without thoughts of the possible consequences. Safety and well-being is the counterpart for self-sacrifice/duty/purpose. Both of these are necessary, so the object is not to try to delete them, but rewrite our program with the 21st Century Commandments, so that we gradually move away from conformity, and into conscious cohesion – going along with, while remaining apart from domesticated society. This gives us options, and allows us to decide for ourselves, and not just decide by way of dialogue between the foreign imprints of C-3PO and R2-D2 in us.

You know those robot slaves we’ve been wishing for since we were kids? We are them, and they are all around us. They have the ability to change this, but they don’t want to. The “down to earth” human likes not having to develop, think for themselves, and take responsibility, whereas the Unithou recognises her/himself as Creator and creation. Being told what to do doesn’t bother Unithou – being told what to think, does.

Questions and Answer time:

Q – Do you believe in a higher power?
A – I beleive in a relativity, so yes, I believe in a higher power, but no highest power. Just as I believe in a lower power, which I call subservience. Subservience is the result of domesticity, which is a necessary phase, but the higher power is brought about by the evolution of the individual recognising and nourishing her/his own divinity (uniqueness).

Q – Do you believe that the universe is a series of mistakes?
A – I believe the universe is both systematic and serendipitous in nature.

Q – So, if I said to you that there is an all-pervading force ordering and controlling things, would you agree?
A – Yes, but I would add that this force is multi-dimensional, just like us. It gets excited, it gets stressed, it gets tired, loses, and regains control. It perceives and experiences itself in so many, many ways, and in so doing, encounters itself and evolves through its many avatars.

Q – What do you call this force?
A – I call it “H”, pronouced “…hhh…”. Not that it really has a name, or image, or sound in its ethereal essence, but it manifests in the corporeal realm as energy of varying frequencies, detectable by the senses.

Q – How does H relate to Unithou?
A – When the individual becomes aware of H, (s)he can direct it with the mind through focused mind activity/intent and body postures/movements. That’s one of the reasons why regular meditation is crucial – for connecting with and storing/cultivating H, but no particular style is taught, as the individual needs to chose what suits him/her best.
H is the essence, the food, the water, the breath, and the blood of Unithou, seeking to become ever more aware of itself in order to evolve.