The Sophistry of the Now-Sayers
Guest Editorial Commentary by William Roberts
The “build the better mouse trap” model for success is not limited to the purveyor of tangible goods. Charismatic individuals are quite adept at concocting a tightly nit web of rationalizations designed to formulate a way of life that advocates doing whatever you want while simultaneously promising all the rewards of heaven! These charlatans may attract the innocent, the spiritually lazy, the prurient and those grossly addicted to a plethora of uncontrollable bad habits, but dexterous word jugglers do not bewilder the erudite adept at unraveling their inconsistent spaghetti-noodle like reasoning.
Ever since Baba Ram Dasa wrote his groundbreaking book, Be Here Now, in 1971, there have been metaphysical pedagogues teaching the burned out remnants of the hippie generation a casuistic version of Living in the Now. From the beginning of time, great prophets, holy mendicants, and wise sages of all faiths have concluded that there is a God and we should surrender to Him. But the specious Now-Sayers dismiss this idea as archaic. Instead they teach atheism — using creative euphemisms that are palatable to the contumacious and promise a Godless Heaven simply by surrendering to the All Mighty Power of the Now.
This ultra-promiscuous, surrogate religious dogma is proliferating in the form of a cunning sophistry advocated by the high priests from the Church of the Living-Now. For the Epicurean, the religion of “Now” is better then manna from heaven because Now-Sayers preach that enlightenment is obtained when one gives full attention to every bodily sensation and responds to the divine call of the moment. Yet no-where in the Cannon-of-Now are any parameters ever given regarding the APPROPRIATE WAY to act while in the shrine of The Now! It is therefore easy to see why this ministry is so popular. Nothing could make a lothario anxious to satisfy the concupiscence of his hormones happier than to be baptized in the Spirit-Of-The-Now!
Now-Sayers insist that freedom from past and future consciousness is the state of self-actualization that every philosopher, prophet, and religion points to. They promise that after awakening to the bliss of Now-Land, one will be free from anxiety and that the only things keeping us from attaining this elusive Now-Bliss are the ego, desire, and identity. So the Now Zealots obsess over trying to eradicate these things, not realizing that such endeavors are as silly as trying to bag the wind. The result is they get trapped between gross denial and self-flagellation. But sadly, the Apostles-Of-Now do not interpret dissatisfaction, concern, frustration or heartbreak, as evidence of a flaw in the Now-Doctrine. Instead, they see it as a sign of their own residual attachment to egocentric miss-identity and perpetuate this absurd re-iterative cycle.
As bizarre as all this sounds, the core concept of being present to the moment has its roots in the ancient Vedic Literature from India. There we learn that when a person becomes fully conscious of the moment, they are considered to have attained “Brahman” realization. It’s easy to understand how someone who spends their entire life consumed with a punch clock mentality would experience an epiphany when they break free from the time-centric model. The transition is so compelling it often accompanies an awareness of one’s own godly qualities and here is where the incantation, “You Are God,” finds both its origin and its fuel.
Being thus deluded, Now-Sayers then systematically deride everything that exists as a grand illusion, except their own well-practiced, metaphysical magic! Using the same trickery as a good illusionist, they proceed to re-direct the attention of their audience away from what they do not want them to question.
Inquiries into the nature of specific Now-Behavior are scoffed at as sophomoric. Any attempt to have a serious philosophical discussion regarding the frivolous idea that we are all free to exercise our own spontaneous, self determined, ethics is equivalent to contemptuous heresy — especially if the concept of God is even remotely suggested. Remember, this is the “New and Improved” version of religion. Here the personality of God magically vanishes behind a curtain of vague clichés like the “Life Stream,” the “White Light,” or the “Holy Spirit.” These terms are comforting because they acknowledge the symptoms of a God, but they also effectively sieve out the moral codes that are attributed to developing a personal relationship with Him.
This is as non-pedantic as it gets. Now Sayers reject all divine scriptures as imaginary, tribal, or convoluted. Instead they rely on their own insignificant speculations about the nature of reality and entangle themselves in an endless struggle to negate everything they do not understand. However, mature transcendentalists soon perceive the deceptive hymn of the Now Sayers as a requiem for piety. When they realize how they have been deceived by shrewdly delivered “slight-of-words,” they progress beyond their silly hallucinations, bogus rationalizations, dishonest evasions, nonsense doubletalk and beguiled Now-Rhetoric. Then, if their heart has not become petrified from years of spiritual cynicism, they surrender to a bona fide process for re-establishing their lost relationship with God, just like the wise sages of yore have always recommended!
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William Roberts is a Computer Systems Analyst working at the Port Hueneme Navy Base. He spent several years in India studying Vedic culture and philosophy. He is an ordained Brahmin priest and welcomes all questions or comments. He can be reached at (805) 640-0405.
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Other Articles Printed In the Ojai Valley News by William Roberts:
- .. A Different Perspective – March 10, 1988
- Peace on Earth, Good Will To All… a New Approach! – December 22, 1988
- How Do We Know? – August 9, 1989
- .. to Pastor Chuck Shores – November 13, 1989
- The Vegetarian Awakening – May 1990
- Goof, Propaganda, of Poor Reporting? – May 10, 1990
- Commercial Bigotry – August 26, 1990
- Easter In The Park – March 30, 1997
- A Literal Bible? – March 13, 1997
- Carpet Bag Religion – July 20, 1997
- The Difference Between Humans & Animals – October 12, 1998
- Wow Pow Irony – They Got It Backwards. – May 24, 2000
- Star Trek Spiritualism – March 16, 2001