I dislike this!! 1. bhakti yoga is more than loving hearing about God, its loving God so much you want to be close to God. 2. a perfect love of God can only be cultivated by knowing the Brahman within, which is the Atman. samadhi is only without object because it is the unitive state, and all is Brahman! Brahman is the object and the subject, and both are one! 3. for bhkatas, wanting to be liberated is an expression of wanting to be closer to God. it is thus not selfish. if they want to BE God, it is selfish and demoniacal. if they want Union with God for Gods sake without a hint of selfness, it is not selfish. 4. I would argue that since the mind proceeds from ahamkara (the ego), desiring to be lost in sweet thoughts of God can actually be selfish.

@sathariel a jivan mukti is united with God while living in perpetual highest samadhi/nibbana but I believe they aren't fully united with God until they die (usually in mahasamadhi?)

@vitalis @lizzie while i find the hyperdulia vs latria distinction somewhat unconvincing I believe marian devotion is important because God the Father and God the Son are both masculine figures, and God is not masculine, feminine, or even neuter. scripturally i think marian devotion is only supported by the gospel of luke while her immaculate conception, perpetual virginity, and assumption/dormition are not supported at all. but canon scripture isnt itself revelation, its "just" the words of holy people for the most part. only "genuine" parts of the torah, the words of the prophets, and the words of Christ (Q source) are direct revelation imo. and i believe that revelation is a continuous thing, and while a lot of marian devotion was created by theologians and mariologists much of it was genuinely revealed to saints and to people who would become saints. i also believe that the veneration of icons and even idols passes through to their source, as that one council of whatever said. so not all graven images are bad imo, unless theyre bowed to and believed to be more divine than anything of that material is. its like in hinduism, forms of God can teach you about God, but one must eventually look past the forms. just my two cents.

I also didnt like Huxley's seeming denigration of "carnal love" for "christs humanity" and a related denigration of love for any avatar as being inferior to love of an unmanifest Godhead. its puritanical.

@lizzie @vitalis I think it might be comparing marian devotion to weebshit which is disgusting

@vitalis @genmaicha this shit is literally addressed in the gospels

@genmaicha @vitalis I for one am so fucking sick of fashy anime loving "christians"

isnt it funny how so many hindu theologians who believe in duality and the inequality of souls claim to be avatars of some kind?

@sathariel I dont know what you mean

how can the bliss of loving God be greater than the bliss of Gods own ananda? aren't they both infinite beyond all numbering, for Gods love is infinite and to know the atman is to have Gods own heart? (or the heart of a Buddha) makes me think these bhaktas werent fully enlightened... questions...

I do however agree that lack of concern with liberation is incredibly noble!

@sathariel what kind of question is that, if I killed myself it would be a grave sin and I'd go to a hell

@genmaicha @vitalis so many christian larpers

huxley seemed to claim that the Mahayanist way of preferring neither nibbana nor samsara and thus knowing Suchness/the buddha-womb as all things is superior, my current bhakti yoga book claims bhakti yoga reveals a higher reality than jnana yoga or karma yoga because it creates an ecstatic love for the ishvara which is beyond the atman known in all yoga. who's right? hmmm? neither i think! there are many paths to full enlightenment, and all produce the same fruit--unity with God upon death.

@jeremiah love of Christ is also bhakti. bhakti brings enlightenment. you should try loving your neighbor.

not a fan of "partial incarnations" they just dont make sense to me

@vitalis I HATE this

@jeremiah bhakti means love faith and devotion basically. it is the best way to God in kali yuga.

@lain the perennial philosophy was not that good tbh

@Mr_NutterButter you know I'm jewish by ethnicity right. not everyone likes satanic blackmail and war crimes and apartheid. in fact id say if the israeli press were unbiased there would be a whole lot of conscientious objectors. I think it may not happen until the end of kali yuga, but the jewish people will be reconciled to God and the law of love written on their hearts. in those days the Spirit of God will suffuse the whole earth like the oceans waters. so I'm optimistic. God always incarnates to restore dharma in the end.

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