Am I getting Intolerant?

I dont like Abrahamic monotheistic religions because they say their way is the only way. But I am finding myself being more and more inclined towards witnessing presence and vipqssana. I have started feeling like it is the only way. I find myself dismissing meditations on objects,dieties,mantras and mandalas as lower level to vipassana which in my opinion is the ultimate. I found myself looking at a Mahayana buddist book and thinking, this chantings and focusing on objects is creating more patterns in our brain, this is not what buddha taught.
To be fair, I am actually not monotheistic, because i think those other ways may be suitable for others but not for me. May be I have found my path and what suits me best and I acknowledge that others have there own way.
;) All is good here folks, no intolerance afterall. 

bi camerail mind

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicameralism_(psychology)

I heard of this in Graham Hancock book.  That people even 3000 years ago experienced life differently. We have mythology and stories of people hearing Akashavaani, words from the sky. basically in key moments in their life, they experienced some voice - which they interpreted as god, telling them what to do or told a prophecy or what ever. This is in Hindu mythology, Greek , Roman and almost every where else.

The theory is that we have evoled from this and even tho hardware of our brain remains the same, our software has changed radically as we dont hear these voiced anymore.

That is an interesting theory, which has been debunked.

But wait, I think the hearing voices is accurate but the interpretation that it doesnot happen any more is wrong.The hardware or software hasn't changed but we are just not using that voice generating part of our brain or atleast not admitting to hearing those voices.

What he is talking about is detaching from the part of our brain we call as self or ego and paying attention to different parts of our brain like intuition. Basically it is possible to detach from the sense of self,  it is possible to exprience different aspects of our subconscious which is hidden in normal people as a completly different person, like Ramanujan experiencing Goddess Kali, who solved Mathematical equations for him. Modern society calls this schezophernia, thats disfunctionally seeeing the inner working of subconscious. Some spritual people even today meet their spritual guides, see fairies get guidence from them, these are all after all aspects of their own brain,but not identified as self by the brain software. They are however not disfunctional but normal functioning people. The other aspects can also be experienced using Hallucinogens like LSD etc which can cause visions and trips. 

An easyish experiment with detaching from ego is doing seance, dowsing etc. you are moving the coin or the stick, but the part that is moving is detached from ego n operated by some other part of the  brain. It feels like some other entity is moving our hand. We dont own that movement. 

Slightly harder is auto writing or auto drawing. Allowing our hand to draw what it wants, You have no idea where it is going or what is going to happen next but ur hand pics up colours an draws. 

its wonderful to experience that your body is very capable of acting without ego.

In fact the book 'drawing with the right side of the brain ' says that it is imperative that u detach from ego to do art, may be not to this extent but you really want the critical and restless judging part of your brain to give up control. 

This not ego/self part of the brain software is also called intution, when you do a lot of meditation and get in touch with your intuition,  you expereince this - someone telling you what to do phenomenon. Its not blatant and dramatic like voice from the sky, its just another thought but it feels slightly different, u feel like someone else is talking to you. You can follow it and have a great adventure. Take this road, take this bus, get off now! ! you have no idea where it is leading you :) 

Yawning and stretching is a bit like that, our discomfort leading us on to an action which is required. Auto movements during meditation is exaggerated version of that. Do you know that yoga was actually invented like that. The body of the rishis went into these poses automatically as they medidated. My auto movements during meditation some times lead to mudras and to accupressure points.
So I am saying that Bi camerial brain may have been a very simplistic theory but it strayed quite close to the truth. 

Ego

I wrote a post about angry yogis and calm buddhists, saying angry yogis have an ego. Question araises, is ego only bad or negative?  No, right?
 Ego is the conditioning of the brain, all the patterns, all the software. Software can be angry or calm, just because some one is calm doesnot mean ego is not working. The goal of sprituality is not to make our ego "good" but to transcend it.
What is good? And bad ? Isnt it the judgement of my ego? Calm is good. angry is bad. only ego makes such distinctions, egoless person would see what is- anger is there, calmness is there, thats it. Its hard for me to comprehend that. How would I choose a path if I didnt make that judgement? It is asking. May be once u are beyond judgement, you have already reached the destination. No need of path :)

I saw someone being needlessly mean to someone else, this made me very angry. I would never do such a thing!! Ego is taking pride in its goodness and others badness. So ego is present, just that my conditioning is different from the other persons. Tricky. This brought up the question, Is calm person egoless? may not be but egoless person is definitely calm. no?
Anyway, This somehow made me sad rather than angry, human nature ... :( 

Between Vipassana and Yoga

I think yoga is great for the body, but for ultimate mind development, Vipassana and Self observation or wittnessing presence is absolute must. 

I concluded this by looking at people who do serious yoga and those who do buddhist practices. People who do buddist practices look more peaceful and calm than those who do yoga.

Instructors in Vipassana course are more peaceful than Yoga instructors. ( yoga instructors in the west are very zen, but then they invariably have mindfulness leanings)

Even mythologically the Rishis of the past are not exactly known for pleasing personalitiesbut mostly for their anger and fiery curses ;)

while buddha and his disciples are known for their love and sweet temper.( except that one monk who went to China, Bodhidharma - but then he looks so much like a Sadhu with his thick bears and knoted eyebrows ) 

Bhakti yoga on the other hand does make people peaceful and compassionate, Hatha yoga is an achievement oriented system so may be ego stays active untill they are very close to enlightenment? 

Erosion of time

Life needs bad experiences or rather experiences to shape us. Without experiences/intense experiences also we grow, but its like sculpting rock with erosion, while intense experiences are sculpting our personality with a pickaxe. May be a rough cut with pickaxe and then smoothened  down softly with errosion of time which works like water and works slowly makes a good personality. 

Accepting Bhakti yoga and Karma yogi.

Why is it such a big deal? What is the problem with accepting Bhakti or Karma yoga? Many urban Indians or westerners may have problem with accepting Bhakti yoga or Karma yoga as a way to enrich their life.
Bhakti yoga is the yoga of faith and devotion and losing ourselves by being one with the object of our devotion. Karma yoga is the yoga of action, In Bhagavad Gita , Krishna says "Do your duty, and dedicate the results to me". It is the yoga of selfless work without any expectation of rewards.
What!! Work without rewards? Am I a slave? How can anyone work without caring about what they will get paid for it? or even with out a salary?
Devotion and faith? Is that even compatible with reason and intellect? and How can I lose myself? What about my self esteem?
These are the thoughts that come to the mind of a modern yogi. Our sense of entitlement and fairness makes it very hard to accept or believe in work without rewards or unconditional devotion.
It also brings to mind abuses of the past, slavery, misuse of power and lowly paid working classes, all this could happen with Karma yoga. Religious  bigotism and religious  wars, women sacrificing their health and food for the sake of family, abuse of ordinary people by priests by misusing their devotion to gather wealth, all this could happen with Bhakti yoga. How could it be a right path for anyone?

May be there is a different way to look at this? Let us try to explore it more deeply.

One of the most beautiful spiritual and religious movement, Sufism, The songs and poems which were written 100s of years ago by Rumi and Kabir still touch our hearts, It is the most tolerant form of Islam, It is Bhakti Yoga. The Krishna temple of Udupi has the idol facing backwards. It is said that one Bhakta of Krishna, Kanaka Daasa was not allowed into the temple as he was low caste. He went behind the temple and prayed, God was so moved by his prayer that the idol turned around and the temple walls crumbled, to give Darshan to Kanaka daasa. Bhakti yoga was a very powerful movement which gave power to oppressed castes in this way. Historically it was possibly the only way available to women and lower castes/classes to God realisation. Many rebellious personalities who stood against society were Bhakts, Meera Bai who dared break all the shackles put on women in her devotion to Krishna, Kabir and Sai baba who broke religious barriers between Hindus and Muslims are all part of Bhakti movement. One of the most loving men on earth Jesus, his teachings are all about love and Bhakti. Buddhist metta meditation is also Bhakti feeling.  
Bhakti can also be towards nature, Shinto is a religion in Japan, which worships streams, mountain, forests and animals and they see life or sprits in all things nature, Such a gentle and loving and respectful attitude towards nature all over the world would have never led to the damage and destruction that is happening on earth today. What is it but Bhakti yoga or devotion to nature? Native American people see themselves not as separate from nature but as part of the forest. Bhakti yoga is most common type of religious sentiment found across the world. It only goes sour when people forget the unconditional love in their heart and let their sense of self become rigid and small.
Let us look at our sense of self, What is Myself? my sense of self limits to my body, I am as far as my body extends what ever is outside that is the other. That is how humans perceive it. Can it be any other way?
Surprisingly yes.  Some studies on Killer Whales have found that, Their brains are wired in such a way that their sense of self extends to the whole pod. They may be different bodies who feel pain and sensations separately but they see themselves as one! Loss of one whale in the pod, probably feels like loss of arm or leg to them.
How would humans live, If their sense of self extended beyond themselves to the whole community or to the whole world?
Karma yoga makes us expand our sense of self and work for the sake of the other, this other can slowly be expanded to include the whole world.
Karma yoga is a very profound concept which makes us live in the present moment. The only moment which is ever real is the current moment, the past is in our memory and future in our imagination. The rewards which we seek for our work are always in the future and is thus not real. It is of utmost importance that we value our actions for their own sake in the present moment.
The work is the reward in itself. it is like enjoying the journey as much as the destination. artists are familiar with this concept, They make art for the joy it gives them not for the price it brings, but in karma yoga you dont choose a job that brings you joy, but you bring joy into what ever work that needs to be done.
Karma yoga does not make us subjugated to others but makes us one with others, Karma yogi will not take abuse but will fight against for the sake of greater good, As Arjuna was advised to do by Krishna.
 Modern day problems like care of older people, expensive health care will all vanish if everyone participated in Karma yoga.
Lastly, There is very interesting initiative called Ugly indians, who have taken up cleaning up garbage and dirty public toilets voluntarily in big cities in India as a cleanliness drive. Surprisingly the number of people who attend such events are huge and they pay money to do the dirty work, without thinking that its not their job, and without thinking that those people who are supposed to clean it are not doing it. That is the power of karma yoga.
Hope this essay will help modern yogi see Karma and Bhakti yoga from a different perspective and help them accept it.