Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!!! For one day only! Harder, Faster, More Outrageous! You'll pay for the entire seat, but you’ll just need the edge!!! Click to enbiggen!!!If there are two words I thought I would never see together, they are "extreme" and "Buddhism". If I may direct your attention to "A Five Minute Introduction" to Buddhism from BuddhaNet, you'll see things like being mindful, wise and understanding. I'm not sure how one can develop "extreme wisdom" or "outrageous understanding" but apparently there is someone who is willing to teach you. I unfortunately cannot make it to the seminar, but if any of you out there on the internets attend, please let me what you learn. Because if there is one way I like my morailty, it’s hard and fast.
11 comments:
And before any of you smartasses comment, I know that it is two days, Friday and Saturday, but that's just not as funny.
When you want the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Don't folks in court often swear on the bible when talking about that route?
I saw this same add and thought WTF? So I went to check it out thinking it would make a for a good story. I thought it would be fun.
Let's just say that you don't want to mess with these people. It's a weird cult-ish type group that seems to use the name Extreme Buddhism to attract people. They play crazy music and tell you close your eyes and meditate to it. The person speaking was a woman who apparently had been a buddhist monk. She swears a lot, tells you things you already know if you've ever read anything about Buddhism and does not mingle with her followers at all. There's a security detail around the perimeter of the room and it's no joke. They hover, stare and walk around the entire time. It's totally bizarre. But, I guess that's their form of extreme :)
Thanks for inputs and humor. I think anyone should be wary of groups that do not identify themselves from the outset! That alone usually identifies them as a cult. Buddhism itself is an extreme remedy against the extreme sufferring of ordinary birth and death in this Saha world. There are no secret methods, other than extreme morality, insight and meditation, and these modalities are simply difficult, but not impossible if you are truly sincere. There are plenty of good-hearted teachers of orthodox Buddhism. Do no be misled by shortcuts!
How about "extreme" and "taxidermy"? Ever think you'd see those two words together? I did, earlier today. And it's a BUSINESS.
Extreme Buddhism is kind of like True love which, like Extreme Buddhism, is hard to find. Sometimes you think you have true love and then you catch the early flight home from San Diego and a couple of nude people jump out of your bathroom blindfolded like a goddamn magic show ready to double team your girlfriend...
I attended that event as well. Contrary to your experiences I found it extremely professional. The music was upbeat and fun. The speaker did not preach and try to convince anyone of anything. She just seemed to be sharing what she believed openly. The teachings I've heard before but I found that the speaker did a great job relating it all to today's world. Your day to day life and career can all become your spiritual practice. The event was intense and I'm sure it offended a lot of people who did not like having their views questioned. The truth is hard to handle. I just kept an open mind to see what I could take away from it. I just had to laugh as people got up and left. Weird 'cult' or not, one thing I do know is I never felt such peace as I did there by the end of the night. They didn't try to baptize me or convert me or make me part of the family... but they gave me one night of peace and so much more.
What the fuck is wrong with fucking swearing a whole fucking lot? Or for that fucking matter, what's wrong with people closing their eyes and meditating to any kind of music they want to? Is it wrong to have a bouncer at a club or concert, a security detail for a head of state, a martial artist to protect a monastery, an alarm system for you house or car? What's cultish. Culture is present in the subculture, superculture, popular culture; that's what makes us human is our ability to develop culture at all levels from the individual to the group, nation or world. Such rhetoric as the soundbyte 'cult' is hardly analytical and could just as easily be a neutral term as a biased one. It might be better to be actually seeking meditation when going to a seminar just as I would probably feel out of place in a physics lecture if I just went as a goof with no deep draw within my spirit to attend such a thing for the intrinsic value of it. Besides, some folks find their mind gets quieter and perceptions get more beautiful in such environments and it can have positive lasting effects, in my experience.
I , also, was at the Extreme Buddhism session at the Marriott in San Francisco, yet, I am not a Buddhist. I went because I was curious. I am not sure how to explain my experience, which was rather edgy and defiant of conventions. The meditation, in attunement to carefully chosen music, was very powerful when I surrender to it...mine was an overall feeling of tauight & tightness and it seems like my Soul was "wooshing up" my 7 chakras towards the crown chakra.
I had no issues with that because it happened before in different spiritual meditation.
However, at the end, when Kundalini stood-up and left, her body guard and spokesman said something like, "now you can suck all the light out of this room"...now, this very statement disturbed me because it sounded occultish.
On the other hand, at one moment there, I felt like I was in a Scientology session.
As someone who has been involved with Hare Krishna, Nichren Shoshu, Adi Dam, Charasmatic Christianity, and many other cults and teachings, this group sounds like just so many others. The Buddha is added because he is kind of trendy and popular in the West.
If you really have a hard look at your life and see that everything is impermanent and mortality and personal sufferring, perhaps TERRIBLE, PROLONGED PERSONAL SUFFERING, is inevitable, you can be an Extreme Buddhist, or Chritian on your own!
Sure it helps to associate with others, and good teachers, but there is no lack of teachers who simply want fame, money, and sex the same way worldly people do, only their 'business' is running a cult.
I am very sad about people losing their spiritual idealism by getting snookered by a cult. Please be very careful about this and other 'fast-track' approaches. It is not that easy to truly change from within. If you 'get' the truth of old age, sickness, and death that is the core of the Buddhist critique, you don't need sound effects, lights, acid trips, etc.
I attended the event and found it to be an amazing experience. The teacher was full of love and happiness... and pretty funny too! She emphasizes the teachings and not herself, which I found very appealing. It's about the teachings not the teacher. Attending this event was a very positive and enlightening experience! I left feeling wonderful about life and meditation!
People there were friendly and welcoming. Overall a very professional and well put together event. I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for Truth and teachings that are relevant in todays world.
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