enlightened wrote:Can I really tap into my true being?
I was led to believe that the Brahma Kumaris way of life was to tap into the real self!
I suppose the first questions to ask are, do you even have a real self and does it really matter?
I strongly agree with you that the Brahma Kumari identity is not any "real" self. How could it be ... they're constantly changing what their "truth" is! The core of Brahma Kumarism was born in Lekhraj Kirpalani's mental illness and delusion, and the social and psychological traumas the Om Mandlites experienced. What one is enculturated into are the ripples of those times and experience - someone else's lessons and experiences not yours - 'made as truths', and of unhealthy co-dependent mental illness and delusion.
It's like being fostered into a dysfunctional family and made to fit it. A dysfunctional, co-dependent family where no one is allow to question "Daddy's" behaviour (and now the Dadis's behaviour) when Daddy is clear delusional. It's being told "everything Daddy Lekhraj (or no Dadi Kirpalani) is truth" and you must fit to it ... even when they are constantly contradicting themselves and hiding things.
Back to your question, is it possible to know your true self? I think the idea of knowing one's true self is just a monkey trap. You know, the old 'sweets-in-the-bottom-of-a-jug' trap where the monkey is trapped because they won't let go of the sweets.
We are trapped grasping onto unattainable ideals ... so just let go. Stop grasping.
I'd suggest people should giving up the idea, being as happy and content as you can, live within your own limits, learn how to manage any pain, and create the self you want to me ... but keep it as a very down to earth level. Let the gods, angels and absolute truth take care of themselves. They don't need servants.
Religion is just 95% a business. There are other businesses to get into. The only good thing I will say about BKism is that they cured me of ever wanting to be a guru or be involved with the business of religion. Religion is a business with far too many messed up abusive perverts in it and plain nasty, twisted people who cannot even be honest about it.
I'll allow others to say more as they wish but I will say the inspiration which helped me the most was the poetry (I am not going to call it philosophy but I suppose it is) of the Tao Te Ching(Book of the Way). It's just good common sense. Stuff like ...
Give up sainthood, renounce wisdom,
And it will be a hundred times better for everyone.
Give up kindness, renounce morality,
And rediscover filial piety and love.
Give up ingenuity, renounce profit,
And bandits and thieves will disappear ...
Better stop short than fill to the brim.
Oversharpen the blade, and the edge will soon blunt.
Amass a store of gold and jade, and no one can protect it.
Claim wealth and titles, and disaster will follow.
Retire when the work is done.
This is the way of heaven.
That, and the essence of Buddhism which I see as, a) "everything is impermanent" ... everything changes, even the bad frames of minds if you just hold on or go to bed ... and b) "irritations, suffering, anxiety and unsatisfactoriness (dukkha) are a pain but normal", so learn to reduce them or live with them.
Religion is also 95% bullsh**. You're better of going to do amateur dramatics and learning how to act like a person you want to be, to act differently.
Just to prove the point, I was looking for links to copies of the Tao Te Ching and on the first page of Google found this, Lao Tzu Part 1 of 2: Tao Te Ching: Give Up Your Concepts, where some Indian ... in all seriousness ... claims to know that Lao Tzu "according to tradition re-incarnated as Albert Einstein" (around 0:58)!
Bear in mind, Lao Tzu as a real person probably did not even exist ... and the evidence proves the book was written by numerous authors over a long period of time. What's interesting for me is to look at his eyes as he says so.