Clarification

The pig was lying on the side of the road and decaying outside our window for over a week, because only a "sweeper" could touch the pig to move it.  It is part of the caste system mentality and restrictions of task action in India. Nicely clarified by Gurudev.  He understood my puzzled look, since I had offered to move it myself, but I didn't know where to move it.  He lamented that it was a limiting construction in the culture.

The "point the finger at the woman as the problem" is in a lot of the religious and spiritual literature. It still tweaks me, so I asked why this is the case with even someone like Ramakrishna. "He was teaching for the times (150 plus years ago) and the culture (Indian.) "  Of course when someone just goes to pure formlessness, all of these sticking points go away.  My take away lesson is a gentle reminder of the imperfection of written spiritual teachings.  One must consider the era, culture, audience, and more while reading.

I was listening to E. Tolle's tapes and he brought up the primitive mind as the root of violence, war, etc.  I was reflecting on that was exactly what I was observing and experiencing while on my walks. When I asked Gurudev about the discrimination in the Ramakrishna books, he also brought up the "primitive mind" as the target level for many spiritual/religious books. The point is to try and awaken consciousness to this layer of primitive thinking.  Once one gains some degree of consciousness, than the teachings can change in orientation and focus. Nice, a lot of the puzzle is making sense now.

 The point for the next 30 days will be survival and inwardness. I have enjoyed visiting and eating with a few of the families from the ashram.  Very fun to see the different houses, learn more about the families, and eat the amazing food.

Morning walk