"Why do bad things happen to good people?"

[newpov]

Hi all,

"Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you " (1 Peter 4:12).

"Suffering" has an esoteric as well as exoteric meaning. I didn't realize this. "Good people" in the bible could have been those who suffered mishaps while practicing yoga. Perhaps these people were St. Paul's "Elect."

As explorers of inner space, "good people" are willing to pay for their mistakes. "Bad things" happen to the yogically ignorant as, driven by bhakti, they muddle through but nonetheless persist courageously in the yogic journey.

Perhaps these are the "strange" sufferings in the quoted passage: premature Kundalini awakening and other experiences,

See:  http://www.aypsite.com/plus-forum/index.php?topic=457

newpov

[brushjw]

Hi, newpov,

I think "good" and "bad" are just labels we put on experiences.  I prefer the Buddhist terms "skilled" and "unskilled".  Using these words removes the moral implications ard points towards solution through action.

That's not to say that feelings are irrelevant.  Quite the opposite; feelings are our connection to the divine.  The pursuit of exoteric bliss (i.e. sensual pleasure) leads to suffering.  The pursuit of esoteric bliss leads to the end of suffering (God, nirvana, the Absolute etc).

namaaste,
Joe

[newpov]

Thank you Joe.

This afternoon I'm reading "Dialogue with Death," a commentary by Eknath Easwaran on the Katha Upanishad. Based on your mention of two kinds of bliss, exoteric and esoteric, his mention of the terms, preya and shreya, came to mind immediately.

Quoting,

"Preya is what is pleasant; shreya, what is beneficial... ... both Preya and Shreya are promising the same thing: satisfaction. One you get immediately, but it comes and goes; the other requires effort, but its benefits stay with you... Preya looks promising at the beginning, but no one likes its destination. Shreya seems uninviting, but it takes us where we want to go... "

Preya or Shreya? Easwaran says this is our ongoing choice, every single moment, whether it is made consciously or not!

Death or Life. What supreme will, or bhakti, or something! it takes to prevail!!

newpov