Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai

[Xylitol]

Okubo Doko is said to have remarked :

Everyone says that no masters of the arts will appear as the world comes to an end. This is something that I cannot claim to understand. Plants such as peonies, azaleas and camellias will be able to produce beautiful flowers, end of the world or not. If men would give some thought to this fact, they would understand. And if people took notice of the masters of even these times, they would be able to say that there are masters in the various arts. But people become imbued with the idea that the world has come to an end and no longer put forth any effort. This is a shame. There is no fault in the times.

A certain person said, "In the Saint's mausoleum there is a poem that goes :

If in one's heart

He follows the path of sincerity,

Though he does not pray

Will not the gods protect him?

What is this path of sincerity?"

A man answered him by saying, ''You seem to like poetry. I will answer you with a poem.

As everything in this world is but a shame,

Death is the only sincerity.

It is said that becoming as a dead man in one's daily living is the following of the path of sincerity."

When Yamamoto Gorozaemon went to the priest Tetsugyu in Edo wanting to hear something about Buddhism, Tetsugyo said, "Buddhism gets rid of the discriminating mind. It is nothing more than this. I can give you an illustration in terms of the warrior. The Chinese character for ''cowardice'' is made by adding the character for "meaning" to the character radical for "mind". Now "meaning" is "discrimination, " and when a man attaches discrimination to his true mind, he becomes a coward . In the Way of the Samurai can a man be courageous when discrimination arises? I suppose you can get the idea from this."

I believe that a retainer is a devoted warrior and servant of his master. Much like a Sikh to his Guru.

[Xylitol]

"There is an easily accessible text on Tantra interviewing a modern era Aghori (Vimalanda) written by Robert E. Svoboda, entitled Kundalini Aghora parts I and II. "

-could you provide a link for this please?

[Guest Javanmard]

Sikhi is precisely on the exact opposite spectrum of the Aghori tradition. The Aghori tradition does nothing but invite evil and dark energy into your life and all the people I know who have engaged on that path have either become mad, become spiritually corrupt or even died a premature death. One of my colleagues at university who was a specialist of the Aghora tradition died at the age of 33 whilst being in good health. He had regular encounters with demonic beings he was trying to control through Tibetan and Aghori rituals. He would go around with malas made of human bones, curse ennemies, write books on magick. My Sufi friends at university and I knew that one day he would regret it...One day he came to university walking with much difficulty. He had the marks of cuts on his legs from being...attacked by two demonic beings in a dream...

And then one day I received the news...he died a premature death

I really really don't know what Sikhi has got to do with this most dubious and dangerous of paths. There are no doubts elements in Sikhi that echo certain aspects of a particular type of elite Tantric tradition (i.e. Kashmiri Shaivism) but that Tantric tradition is certainly NOT the Aghori way.

[Bane]

There is a time and place for every tradition to be functional. When a tradition is uprooted and forcibly planted in foreign soils the tradition becomes corrupted. That is why I strongle believe that we must seek to understand the society we are engaged in NOW. We must do this to make full sense of the traditions we follow. Like the above post described the corruption of an Aghori tradition which may be an acceptable path for a very limited minority from where the tradition originated. CG Jung talking about Kundalini said that westerners have to careful of poisoning themselves when getting involved in south asian religious traditions, specifically he meant Kundalini but it also can be applied in a wider way. Some traditions can be uprooted and put into new soil with little effect (Sikhi) but others will just rot and die (Aghora)

My view is that remembering death is very good human attribute, Guru Maharaj instructs us to be aware of death at all times. If a Sikh reads about Aghora and it helps him think about his impending death in a positive way then it is useful. Because we live in a world which has allowed us access to many mystery traditions which can affect us psychlogically and release immense amounts of shaktee in a person, following one of these erroneously can have fatal effects. That is why i'm so glad we have a Guru to follow who can show us the path.

[Mystical]

Rahat Maryada:

Rahat = Stay

Mar = Death

Yada = Remember

Stay in the remembrance of death. Guru Ji told all Sikhs to remember Death.

I dont know if you guys seen Batman Begins. One of the guy said, "Become One with the Darkness".

In Sikhi Death also means God.

And I think Bruce Lee said once in one of his films to get good at dying.

This is an interesting topic.