http://video.google.com/videoplay?d...oes+the+brain+turn+images+upside+down?&hl=en# The first minute or so is a "preview". I find this journey amazing. But there is a question left unanswered, and he ultimately makes the same mistake, once "converted", that he would not have made before he reached his current widsom. To me, the lesson of his life is that, different disciplines the world over have their own rituals to remove the facade of man made reality to get at the one thing that connects us all to each other in a spirtual way. It is the reason that people do drugs imo. Do you see his mistake? Or am I the one that don't understand?
Yes. His "journey" bring him back to his (own) root of Judaism. So he promote that as the REAL happiness. But really he want to feel (special) for being born jewish.
No. Even though he masters Takeri, and he is able to find extraordinary wisdom in it to heal, when he tries to discover how it works, and finds out that the root of the word is when broken down means "a worship of idols", he describes his next reaction as a "crash", and starts to weep because this is directly perhaps the greatest "sin" in the torah. [This sentence is way too long and I would get a zero on the ACT. Oh well] So it is not the truth he seeks, but the truth within the context of the torah. I think I understand the man. If a technique (for lack of a better term) has been desicrated by something that he finds distasteful, he rounces ALL of the knowledge that comes from those teachings. I have seen this before. It is almost a renunciation of anything that is man made, because anything that man touches is automatically tainted. That it may contain wisdom is secondary. Imo, what his critical thinking mind should have taken away is, there is something that underlies all seekers of spirtuality and their subject matter, and the techniques to achieve this are varied (Takeri, Torah, Yoga, whatever), non necessarily better than the other. The scientist would seek to understand what lies as the common denominator to them all.
Why his critical thinking is push down when the (Torah) say the opposite of what he think? Why when he see the scorpion in his blanket, he feel something (special) happen to him to save him from the scorpion? Why when he go to the (seminar for Judaism) he feel (special) the man ask (him only) "Do you understand"? Why he say something negative about Pakistani airline to get home to Israel? Why when he can not resist to speak in the forest when he have to be quiet, he can only say the quote from his religion when he is a boy? And he have no explanation why that quote come from him? Hmm, he must be special? You see that pattern from him of his journey nitro? So to me he is looking to justify he is special.
But he is special trendlover. Anyone that is not jealous would see and accept that. We are all equal, but some are more equal than others. All men that seek GOD believe they are somehow chosen. In Judaism, they have taken this to an extreme by making that statement explicit by claiming they are the chosen people. Why does it then come to a surprise to you that a jewish man with this deep a spirtituality, would believe something else? This belief is so deep seated in a jew, as dancing is to latinos to the sound of rythmic music, or the myriad of other generalities that you can make about just about any culture on earth. It is so obviously strongly inherited. I do not see any contradiction or dishonesty here. You are blaming a Jack Russell for wanting to kill squirrels. But I am not interested in this. I am interested in him because he is a man that intensely gave himself to trying to find that which transcends the illusion of reality, and mastered several of these different ways to seek enlightement. The real tragedy imo is that he probably doesn't have the training in the sciences (he is trained in psychology, the softest of all the "sciences") nor desires to seek what underlies all that right now sits at the fringe of science and falls under mysticism, since he clearly is qualified to say quite a bit about it.
You don't think that a man that goes to these extremes with this passion to seek his truth, is one in 1,000,000, or worse? Count the number of people on the planet that have EVER lived, and that have sat in silence for six months straight, and not just without uttering a word to someone else, but to themselves!!! I bet the answer is some fraction of some fraction of some fraction of some fraction. And that was just one instance of this mans' twelve year journey! :eek:
Ok, he search for something. What? What does he look for? Is different than a scientist who start a search with hypothesis or premise, then have to prove right or wrong. He go out to the world searching for something, but he do not know what he look for. So in the end of the journey, he can make his own conclusion that make him happy. How can someone no talk to themself? Everyone talk in their mind. If someone is not talking in their mind, they are dead. So yes I see what you say how he go extreme to find something. But nothing special about this man who think his religion is the real happiness.
I see your point. Perhaps I am easily impressed by these sorts of people, that I forget that anyone that gives their life to a particular art is in essence doing the same thing.
I see his passion nitro. I see how much of his life he use to experience a different way to see the world he live in. So how can his critical thinking become worse after all he see? Why he look to the Torah for truth after the expierence he have in the world? Is like this for example. Someone start dancing to a fast rhythm when they are little. They love this and is part of their life in the family and friends and country they live in. Then they try the slow dance, the ballet dance, the tap dance, many dances. But they always love the fast rhythm the most. This mean fast rhythm is the best dance, the true dance? Or it is just the familiar dance, learned dance, dance of the heart for that (ONE) person. If the dancer say the fast rhythm is the only true dance, that is wrong. But if the dancer say, I love the fast rhythm dance the most for (ME), than that is true.