Letters to the Editor
-
re Hecate
Hecate, that could be the implication, but that is far from clear. Nothing else about the article suggests that anyone is getting rich. The author should have pressed her on this point. It may be that she simply doesn't know how to say no. Lots of nonprofit orgs of all kinds will burn you out if you don't know how to say no.
-
The meaning of a hug
The Amma experience is as much an experience of Spectacle as it is of diving mother-hugging. It's _about_ Spectacle.
So it also appears to me. Otherwise, it wouldn't matter whether you had to wait for a hug or not. The experience would be the same, if the hug itself were the point.
I am lucky enough to be surrounded by my family and friends who love me. I get a lot of hugs that remind me that I am loved unconditionally. Arrogant agnostic with a commitment to public secularism I may be, but I pity anyone who has to travel to stand in a long line in front of a stranger to feel that kind of love.
Here's where I get into trouble: in my circle when I lived in California, hugs were easily come by but intimacy was not. Huggy as it was, it was ultimately pretty superficial. I wonder if the author, with his being down with hugs since he's from California (his words) came from a similar circle. Maybe he feels the same lack I did and is therefore more open to a more convincing presentation of intimacy.
-
On Salon
You're more likely to scold someone else for not feeling appropriately weepy about some third party's officially blessed hug of shame than you are going to see someone admit they themselves want a hug.
-
amma is something else
Is there any person in the world that even comes close to what this lady is doing? Hugging and being kind and caressing day after day after day? I would think winning one of the contests where you can win a car if you can keep your hand on it longer than anyone else.
This woman is absolutely exceptional. Whatever the depths of her kindness, her strength, her love, she is utterly exceptional and is worthy of study so that we might attempt in some small way to emulate her. (There was a piece, maybe up on youtube, about a guy with a sign that said "free hugs" and after a bit of time, he actually got some and gave some! real success! men, girls, women, boys... one and all.
Ah, but there is India with their killer nutsy set. Like the PR for "good Americans" put the neo-cons, neo-nazis, skin heads and fundamentaist Christians and the whole end of days bunch o' strange, Amma is in front of the Indian version: they are there. Tons and tons and tons of them.
Oh, BTW: from Harpers, 8% of Muslims thought it was OK to injure civilians in persuit of some just cause. 24% of Americans thought is was OK. 1X American =3X Muslim. Whoa.
-
Ah, I have once again been defined by someone else
I was reading this article with interest and actually enjoying it until I hit the line:
"It's a great question, one that today's increasingly arrogant atheists have yet to answer."
Ah, okay. As an "arrogant" atheist, no need to read any further. I love how atheists are responsible for all the ills in the world and it is OUR responsiblity to defend not believing in mythology.
I don't know if the article went in another direction because I stopped reading.
-
Amma's cosmic embrace
LOL! Erik, great article about the foolishness we put ourselves through in order to entertain ourselves out of the misery and boredom of our daily lives.
Yes, we're divine beings caught up in the daily grind of making a living and trying to out do each other in upmanship, ha, ha, I am better than you are, why?... because I say so and I can prove it -- I own the world, look at my bank account, my cars, my houses, my women, etc. Little do we realize that in the end, it's counts for nothing. Our lives are no more than drops of water in the ocean!
Take a look at recorded history, where are the great heroes?...they are no more that specks of dust twirtling in the vast universe of nothingness! Nihilistic thought?...you bet that's what's all about. Boga is Yoga!
-
"Arrogant Atheists." Why not "Pushy" or "Uppity?"
Oh yeah,I forgot: "Pushy" and "Uppity" have already been used for other marginalized groups who dared to speak up.
-
The drawback of guru worship...
...is that it suppresses your own intution and understanding because you seek all answers in the exalted Other (or Mother, in this case). Authentic spirituality is about letting go of attachments, whether they are to emotions, ideas, beliefs, things, or people. Like a good scientist, you have to investigate your self and the world in the experience of life, always being open to new information, evidence, and perceptions.
There's nothing wrong with a genial plump woman dispensing hugs. I'm more concerned about the suffering caused to her sycophants by their unquestioning blind devotion. Is she really helping them in their spiritual development by the spectacle she creates?
-
Thank you, Salon and Erik Davis!
It is very refreshing to read a serious article about this subject. It is uplifting and inspiring and provides important counterbalance to all the miserable things that regularly get reported. I truly enjoyed the article and hope that others who think Indian gurus are "weird" or irrelevant will perhaps think again.
-
These responses are so hateful and mean
I'm cynical yet I find something very appealing and kind about Amma. The responses here just make me clearly see how awful our lives have become in the 21st century. I will bet that the most negative poster here could use an Amma hug. I know I could use an Amma hug and feel the embrace of something that makes me feel like I'm not just a meat puppet trudging through a meaningless life in an indifferent universe.
-
Salon, some of your readers are mopes!
Anyone reading this sentence! Please take a moment of painful reflection, just a moment.
Look back at the first few letters on this piece.
Sometimes it really is kind of shameful to put yourself in the same readership as these mopes, isn't it?
These sad sacks and the kneejerk materialist denial in their tones are evidence that Amma's hugs (or anyone's for that matter) are more than just sentiment and gesture. They are necessary in a world of intollerant, humorless Salon readers and other unfortunate cases of attentive self-loathing.
Anyone afraid of Amma's (or any one's) hugs is afraid of their own soul.
VOCATUS ATQUE NON VOCATUS DEUS ADERIT!-bidden or not bidden, God is present!
Peace and love to mopes and souls alike.