Theos-Talk Archives (December 2003 Message tt00090)

--- In theosophy_talks_truth@yahoogroups.com, "netemara888" 
<netemara888@y...> wrote:
That's right after thinking about your opinion it dawned on me how 
right you were, but for the wrong reason, in fact the reverse as I 
see it. I was going to argue: look at Radhasoami Beas (RSSB) and how 
it came to America and brought with it the tinges of esoteric Sufism 
and the mystical path of the whirling dervishes and the many and 
multi-faceted esoteric Islamic influence in the form of Rumi and 
Ravi!

Are you beginning to see where I am going with this? Let me fill 
your ears a little more before I quit: what RSSB brought to America 
was an amalgam, a hybrid, but a very good one on the outset--mainly 
Sikism and Sufism of the esoteric variety. The RS Masters shared 
with the West that TM meditation that many were doing and the OM's 
sounding all over the place were merely a jumping-off point to the 
realm of the inner regions. And we Westerners were eating it up and 
joining in droves and making our way to the Dera at hundreds at a 
time--after 1975. And as you point out Sufi there were few Middle-
Eastern types to be found among the Westerners or foreigners among 
them at the Dera or in the States following RSSB, for example.

But can't you see why? I mean why go across the ocean or the desert 
(in this case) to imbibe something you already have in your own 
backyard? The cultural bias, the cultural spiritual idiots were the 
Westerners, the Americans and NOT the Middle Eastern or Muslim. 
Hell, the African-Americans in Chicago learned first about 
vegetarianism from students at Malcolm X college and the Black 
Muslims who were there and everywhere at the time! In other words 
those following Islam don't really need RSSB or AAB or HPB. They 
already have the light they need and are informing others with that 
light. 

Does that make Islam any less a hybrid? I think it makes the hybrid 
argument even clearer. It will be said in history that RSSB was a 
hybrid and not a root religion. But is a hybrid bad, culturally and 
spiritually? I think NOT. I am a hybrid racially, and I love being 
me.

Thanks for the arguments Sufi, keep 'em coming.

Netemara
--- End forwarded message ---