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mhallakstamler
I left the BB not because of problems with them but after realizing that their standards were too high for me at the time.
Let me paste here something from BB's information about its upcoming "Convention":
What is Kabbalah, anyway? Simply put, it's a practical method that lets you discover and step into your best, most optimal, happiest state of being.[/color:30ce6dbef7]
[
www.kabbalah.info]
Gee, doesn't that just sound so nice, so inviting, so [i:30ce6dbef7]easy[/i:30ce6dbef7]? [In fact, it's so smarmy, it's starting to remind me of the Kabbalah Centres.] But as you yourself found out, it's actually a misleading crock of crap. It isn't practical and it isn't happy, and unless you're prepared, ultimately, to build your whole life around the "method," it isn't going to "work," either.
Wait, as a matter of fact, even if you do, it doesn't!
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mhallakstamler
I am jealous of those that are willing to devote themselves to pursuing spirituality using a system that was followed by kabbalists for thousands of years.
And how many people have reached kabbalistic "enlightenment" during those thousands of years using the system?
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mhallakstamler
If you read their biographies you will see that their level of devotion and committment was all inclusive -- it took over their entire lives.
A good number of reasonable people would point out that this is not a psychologically healthy thing... is it "enlightenment"--or madness?
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mhallakstamler
That kind of passion is to be commended in any pursuit of happiness.
I don't think it has to be that hard. And besides, every false guru and every tyrant in the history of the world has had that sort of passion as they pursued their happy, power-mad trips. At any rate, you commend it, but you yourself just couldn't hack it? That's a rather sad situation, don't you think?
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mhallakstamler
But most of us, especially those that grew up in the West, cannot tolerate such ascetism and I believe the bulk of the criticism directed towards the BB stems from this.
We can't "tolerate" it in the West because we have more sense, generally speaking, [i:30ce6dbef7]and because it's ridiculous and it hurts! [/i:30ce6dbef7]
My dear fellow you have been twice damned. You believed them in the first place. Now, after you believed them and gave over a large portion of your life to doing what they said only to find it too "high" for you (in other words, the wonderful, very old method failed you), NOW you blame YOURSELF and Western culture for the failure, while simultaneously defending them against criticism! To blazes with that crap I say!
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mhallakstamler
Let us criticize constructively. Let's leave out the invective and then let each decide what they want to do.
Were you ever a preacher? This was starting to sound like a sermon.
Maybe it's about time you stopped being so damned "nice"--and insisting that everyone else play the nice little game along with you like some sort of hall monitor--and got a little bit mad. Because you, like so many trusting others, have been had.