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TT. yesterday, in post number #27929, I asked:
TT, when you say
"The enlightened know suffering is an illusion ..."
I asked: Are you quoting yourself? Or who?"
You responded:
I'm quoting from the Science and scripture of Yoga, and speaking from my own direct experience.
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In the NOW, Ellis writes:
It is cruel and inhuman to assume that tragedies, pain and suffering are illusions, brought upon the sufferer by their own sin, fate or happenstance-- or due to a crease in the Space-Time continuum or some such unfeeling rubbish.
Thanks Ellis! My common-sense detector--I presume you have one-- tells me that your BS detector--I assume I have one--is doing a good job picking up that there is a fair amount of obscurantist sophistry and illogical, opaque baffle gab out there, much of it bordering on chicanery. And not just among the gurus of spirituality. Some of them are politicians, economists, financial advisers, bankers, educators, clergy--all kinds of "experts".
ABOUT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE (CS)
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I once had a licensed practitioner of Christian Science give me a call. He offered to come to visit me in my study and tell me about CS and why we do need medical science at all. Being curious and open-minded about what he had to say I agreed to see him.
He said that he was impressed by a talk that he heard me give, on the radio, on the POWER OF FAITH AS AN AID TO ACHIEVING HEALTH.
As one who has always accepted the human spirit in cooperation with the human mind can be of great help to having a healthy body, I spoke of what I knew, at that point, of the nature and function of faith.
I quoted the medical research--still widely accepted--found in the literature to the effect that medical science now agrees that fifty percent and even more--some say at least 75%--of all diseases are not strictly somatic. Since the 1930's it has been OK for doctors to accept the reality and importance of a psychosomatic approach to disease and health. Real physical disease can be caused by a negative mind set. In my talk I even added the word spirit. I spoke of pneumapsychosomatic--spirit/mind/body--disease. I said: Many people, especially people addicted to alcohol, drugs, nicotine, food and the like will not be made well by medicine (soma theraphy), or psychology (psychotherapy), alone, until they make the conscious choice--a function of the spirit (pneumatherapy): "I want to be well."
This mention of 'spirit'--which CS writers usually write as Spirit (God)--is what really impressed my CS visitor. Using their own literature, including the famous book, SCIENCE AND HEALTH--WITH A KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES, by Mary Baker Eddy, I have made a study of CS. When my visitor finished making the point that ALL conditions, even economic ones, must be treated by spiritual means, only, I said:
"If you really believe what you say you do, why are you wearing glasses? I also notice that you have fillings in your teeth and that you have a lot less hair than I do." He offered no explanation for his lack of faith.
"I agree" I said, "the day may come when we WILL have a spiritually structured body...I am not opposed to this concept. But, meanwhile, commonsense tells me that we have this soma to deal with--to keep as healthy as possible, until death do us part. This means that there are times when somatic therapy seems the commonsense thing to do."
There was a pause. He left me some literature and left without saying another word.
BTW, Ellis, as I read Tolle I have not noticed anything, yet, which defies commonsense. If I do, I will let you know. We can talk about it. Also, I notice when class members question his concepts, or even disagree with them, he does not admonish them and treat them as if they are mental and pneumatological (spiritual) midgets.
