I'd heard about the story of Jaggi Vasudev before. Like other Indian Mystics, he'd grown up with an intense curiosity about the world around him. While other children played and read textbooks, he'd sit staring at an ant or a blade of grass. Staring at it, staring at it, staring at it. Wondering what it was.
In his twenties, he went and sat on a hillside. Perhaps under a tree (Yogis love sitting under trees) and then it happened. A profound feeling of ecstasy and unity. An irreversible change in the way he seemed to see himself and the world. Apparently similar to the experiences of Osho, Eckhart Tolle and if you believe him, Jim Carrey.
One area in which I'd love to do some more reading is in the difference between enlightenment and psychosis. If there is one. Are these people who get paid millions to speak simply mentally ill? Can their mindsets be explained? Does it matter? Plenty has been written about it.
I'd not seen this video though. Regardless of whether he's enlightened or psychotic. Awakened or deluded. A teacher or a crook (Osho used to admit to being a crook. Having convinced his followers to buy him 93 Rolls Royces, it would've been hard to deny). A sixty year old man stands on stage and for seven minutes, fights hard to get his words out. Describing an experience thirty five years ago that was so impactful and so devastating that it changed the course of his entire life.
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I don’t doubt there’s a much more ‘enlightened’ way that we all could live, but we’re mostly just too busy surviving.
Everyone’s reality is different and we’re all susceptible to different notions.
His ‘experience’ has afforded him a following......lots of people like to follow......especially if it’s mystical and somehow Godlike. Religions are founded on it.
I’m a bit of a cynic and think there’s a reason for practically everything we think and do, but what’s much less clear to the world is what it is, and that includes ourselves sometimes.
Of course he could be psychotic, or have had a psychotic moment that was so convincing he’s just been following his ‘ecstasy’ ever since.
I guess we all tend to do what makes us happiest as much as we can.
Yes I think there's some truth in that. Some people will say they're not looking for happiness or that they don't value it but I'm sure their actions support a different story, if interpreted from a happiness-seeker's perspective.
It makes me more curious about trying yoga. Not to become psychotic :) but because it can apparently improve a person's well-being. I'm not sure I really have the patience for it but it's a thought.
I used to exercise a lot through my twenties. I think I was kind of addicted. One thing I do remember is after all the high impact stuff we’d have five minutes of stretch at the end and it did feel very good.
I’ve never tried yoga but if they’d had some classes called psychotic yoga, I might well have been tempted:)
Yoga’s always looked a bit calm and serious for my liking, I’d probably get fidgety, but who knows, it could be a real tonic. You never know until.....
It would be unusual for me to try something new like yoga.
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