We Are What We Are

There is some critical stuff here:

1.

Buddhism gets it first. via theworsthorse.com

2. Turn of Hindu Gurus: "Stripping the Gurus: Sex, Violence, Abuse and Enlightenment* by Geoffrey D. Falk:

Ramakrishna was a homoerotic pedophile.

His chief disciple, Vivekananda, visited brothels in India.

Krishnamurti carried on an affair for over twenty years with the wife of a good friend. Chögyam Trungpa drank himself into an early grave. One of Adi Da's nine "wives" was a former Playboy centerfold. Bhagwan Rajneesh sniffed laughing gas to get high. Andrew Cohen, guru and publisher of What Is Enlightenment? magazine, by his own reported admission sometimes feels "like a god."

You can download the pdf version of this book here and read it for entertainment or enlightenment, whatever.

3. Still. This could be a good source if you want to read ebooks (Buddhism)- e-library: Buddhanet

4. Okay, ever heard of the Uncarved Block? Key 'concept' in Tao- in what is a wonderful blog- The Rambling Taoist- that reads Tao Te Ching verse by verse, I found this lucid expression of Uncarved Block:

The essence of the principle of the Uncarved Block is that things in their original simplicity contain their own natural power, power that is easily spoiled and lost when that simplicity is changed. For the written character P'u, the typical Chinese dictionary will give a definition of "natural, simple, plain, honest." P'u is composed of two separate characters combined: the first, the "radical" or root-meaning one, is that for tree or wood; the second, the "phonetic" or sound-giving one, is the character for dense growth or thicket. So from "tree in a thicket" or "wood not cut" comes the meaning of "things in their natural state" -- what is generally represented in English versions of Taoist writing as the "uncarved block."

5. The only desire we have is for the state of desirelessness- how's that? Desire analysed from the perspective of Advaita- Advaita Talk

6. Do we need someone up there sitting and looking at what we do and making value-judgments of our actions? Richard Wright does not believe there is anyone doing it, but still..., it would help.- Happy Days

7.

The Pearl Fisher finds nothing on the floor

Of his deep interior ocean bed, no more.

Then one splendid day, mind drops into heart,

He touches ego, and it falls apart.

Crash, crash, it topples, shakes, and then drops down.

The spirit of Upadesa Saram informs these sonnets at Alan Jacobs.

8. For your information :)

Should you be interested, I am sharing interesting stuff I found from among blog posts that mention Sri Ramana Maharshi through tweets at http://twitter.com/ramanaalert. Longer versions of the same are blogged at http://ramanaalert.posterous.com/

Be happy.