Spiritual
Discussion Groups on the Web |
There
are all sorts of forums, discussion groups and chat rooms on the Web
where supposedly serious and profoundly intelligent people share important
insights on serious subjects, which sometimes will cause a group flurry
of interest in a website such as this one, which has an interactive oracle and some articles but
noticeably no forum, discussion group, chat room, advertised meditation
classes or other “please get involved with our wonderful work” sort
of commercial advertisement. We
give no address to contact; we offer no form of overt participation. So the shallow grouping will suddenly
get fascinated with something, kick it back and forth with witty doubts
and criticisms and then pause a little in group satisfaction that theirs is
the sophisticated consensus, which will soon be followed by their swarming
temporarily on to something else, like a mass of flies in Morocco moving
from one piece of hanging meat in the open market and then moving to
another one when the first one gets disturbed in some way. What
these various forums, discussion groups and chat rooms accomplish is
not even a preparation for higher human development. What it is, which any genuine Sufi can
see, is an attention exchange situation so that the participants can
give and receive the amount of social attention they need to fuel their
social egos. It therefore
does not matter what website
or seemingly serious issue they temporarily land on together, because
their only real concern is their attention exchange system. The little flurries and fads they create
for themselves are utterly without substance, except where one or two
of them suddenly wake up to the shallow emptiness and pretentious verbal
posturing of witty commentators and critics in their group, thus causing
these one or two awakened people to stop attending such groups with
the realization that attention needs and cravings have no bearing whatsoever
on serious human development other than to postpone it for secondary
rewards. Sufis are often called “cold-hearted” and “smugly
superior” for pointing out the difference between a social attention
exchange situation and a developmental situation or gathering that
we in fact call a Gathering, a Any
Eastern teacher or situation that panders to immature social seekers
is himself or itself non-developmental, whatever the claims and self-convictions
otherwise. This includes
even certain well-known “Sufis” and “Sufi” groupings
who offer an indiscriminate “come one, come all” approach
with bulletins, advertisements and the like. This is nothing but cheap consumerism. Any Sufi who says, “Come and try
us out and if you feel impressed and stimulated enough, be sure to
try and stay and remain committed to our particular work”, is
a false Sufi. Neither you nor anyone else will ever develop
in the company of shallow shoppers who drift from one grouping to another
as if they are gathering important experiences along their route of
various attention exchange situations. The
Way has never been and never will be a consumerist attention exchange
situation. Who
knows? Perhaps this very article will
cause a temporary swarm of visits from some discussion group or forum
on the Web when one or another of them feels struck somehow by the
Sufi approach to the |