Don't forget to rate this post down below!
A premie posted on Facebook that everyone is stuck in their own rabbit hole of what they think peace is. That comment, seemingly stated in an off-putting "elevate yourself by putting everyone around you down a notch" mentality, struck me as inherently disrespectful, if not a baseless put-down of everyone who comprises humanity outside the small world of premies. The implication was that whatever anyone experiences along the lines of "peace" cannot be real peace unless it's derived from the techniques of Self-Knowledge taught by Prem Rawat.
Rabbit holes
Posted by:
lakeshore
Date:
06/02/2024, 14:56:15
Original URL:
Click here (However, the link may be stale.)
Then the same person (as well as Prem Rawat and others in that cult) stated that the experience of Self-Knowledge taught by Prem Rawat is unique to each individual, i.e., that no two people will experience it the same way. Consequently, so long as a person attributes whatever they experience to the practice of Prem Rawat's techniques of Self-Knowledge - however different it may be from every other practitioner - their experience must necessarily be a valid and real experience of their unique "true self." (Something like an oxymoron aside, how convenient that under no circumstances do followers of Prem Rawat talk about their experience or compare notes with one another.)So how are their rabbit holes of peace any different or more valid and real than everyone else's rabbit hole of peace? Well, they claim that theirs are valid and real because they "know" and everyone else only believes. It's a rotten attitude and a terribly insulting claim based on an insane premise. They don't say they're better than everyone else, only that they know something that others can't possibly know, feel or experience without the aid of one particular human being named Prem Rawat. The same Prem Rawat who for decades was adored and worshipped as Guru Maharaji by the very same people. The same Guru Maharaji who allowed and promoted such adoration and worship, i.e., devotion, as the key to the realization of the Knowledge he offered. The same Guru Maharaji who claimed to be greater than God because he could show you God.(If by chance any of this is beginning to sound like it's a cult, then I'm making progress.)Why do I say it's an insane premise? Because Prem Rawat said his Self Knowledge is the difference between a living body and a dead body, i.e., that he reveals life, the source of life, God, peace, what's keeping us alive and all sorts of other obfuscated watered-down ways of describing it without resorting to such weighty terms. And yet, although no two people will ever experience it in the same way, so long as whatever they experience is derived from what he teaches, it's valid and real... otherwise it's not!That brings us back to the absurdity of "knowing" versus believing. I know (or is that believe?) from thirty-six years of practicing Prem Rawat's techniques of Self-Knowledge how easy it is to contort my being into a state of self-declared "knowing" through meditation and "never leave room for doubt in your mind" cult indoctrination to the extent that no one was going to convince me otherwise. Period. It didn't make my rabbit hole any more valid or real than anyone else's rabbit hole. To the contrary, I came to recognize mine as a dangerous, suffocating trap!One of many big reliefs when I finally left the cult was happily accepting that I didn't know, couldn't know and perhaps was never meant to know... going so far as to look askance and even avoid those who claimed to know. And saying I "experience" was just as dubious and suspect, precisely because it was so individual, unique and subjective. (I guess that's where the "never leave room for doubt in your mind" part comes in... how dare I question my own experience!)None of this is to say that I'm unappreciative or not in awe of life and its wonders or feeling like I'm missing out on some secret or "higher purpose." I found great peace and comfort in that approach and the fresh air outside my stifling little rabbit hole felt better than anything I ever experienced in that nonsensical cult.
