The point, etc.

[Greg Goode]

At 02:56 PM 10/30/97 -0800, Allan Curry wrote:
>>    (An aside -- I see many of my friends who are seeking
>>    caught in a huge urge, an intense desire to Realize.
>>    Teachers unequivocally tell them that this desire is
>>    standing in their way.)
>
>    I remember Poonja say in his last book that all desire
>    is a hindrance *except* the one true desire to be free
>    (ie. realize truth). For this desire he "unequivocally"
>    recommends we fan the flame and throw our entire lives
>    into the fire. Perhaps there is a difference between a
>    particular ego's fantasy about that ego realizing
>    something and the genuine desire for liberation which
>    originates beneath and before the ego arises and
>    accomplishes the end of the ego? After all, a burning
>    desire for liberation is one of the requisites for
>    moksha listed in traditional texts isn't it?

Yes, you're right.  Sorry, I shouldn't have said "unequivocally,"
because this makes it seem like teachers are unanimous,
and they aren't.  Andrew Cohen is another one who says that
an intense desire is mandatory.  I think what they are referring
to is the cleansing of the mind that happens.  The desire,
towards the end, if it turns into a love of the Lord, can end
up merging the seeker with Ishwara, and you'll end up with the
bhakti=jnaana situation.  But in the case of the seeker seeing
himself as a seeker and desiring Enlightenment as a foreign
object to be gained, I don't see how this can lead to
Enlightenment.  Seems like this process just reinforces the
ego's picture of itself as separate.  Maybe I'm wrong, and any
intense desire culminates in the merging with its object, and
since there's only one thing in the universe (consciousness),
the merging will be with Consciousness.

Seems to me that the there are OTHER situations that intense
desire can lead to that might be mistaken for enlightenment,
such as a blissful state of mind (like that induced in cultists),
but true Enlightenment?

BTW, Andrew Cohen has been accused of being cultish.  I've heard
of other teachers being accused of this, but no non-dualist
teachers that I can think of...

Please, someone enlighten me on this :-)

--Greg