Demonizing of mystics

[Jhanananda]

Over the years I have documented the Demonizing of Ecstatic Meditation (Jhana) by the Institutions of Buddhism.  If we examine the history of most mystics we find they were often demonized, if not martyred.  In fact mystics are too often times demonized.  In fact it is so common that I decided to start this thread on the subject.  And, I thought it best to start with Grigori Rasputin.

The problem with sorting through the mountain of character assassination surrounding a demonized mystic is it is very hard to figure out where the real story lies.  So, I will leave it up the reader to decide.  However, it strikes me that someone who makes a career out of being a "peasant, mystical faith healer and a trusted friend," like Grigori Rasputin was, is hardly someone who is capable of evil.


Grigori Rasputin, Born 21 January 1869, Died 17 December 1916 (aged 47).

Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin (Russian: Григорий Ефимович Распутин; IPA: [ɡrʲɪˈɡorʲɪj jɪˈfʲiməvʲɪtɕ rɐˈsputʲɪn];[1] 21 January [O.S. 9 January] 1869 – 30 December [O.S. 17 December] 1916[2]) was a Russian peasant, mystical faith healer and a trusted friend to the Tsar's family. He became an influential figure in Saint Petersburg, especially after August 1915 when Tsar Nicholas II took command of the army at the front.

There is much uncertainty over Rasputin's life and the degree of influence he exerted over the shy and irresolute Tsar and the strong-willed Alexandra Feodorovna, his wife. Accounts are often based on dubious memoirs, hearsay and legend.[note 1] While his influence and position may have been exaggerated, historians agree that his presence played a significant role in the increasing unpopularity of the Imperial couple, and is connected with the downfall of the Russian Monarchy. Rasputin was (assassinated) as he was seen by both the left and right to be the root cause of Russia's despair during World War I.

On 2 February 1887 Rasputin married Praskovia Fyodorovna Dubrovina (1866-1936), and together the couple had three children: Dmitri, Varvara and Maria; two earlier sons died young. [note 3] In 1892 [14] Rasputin abruptly left his village, his wife, children and parents. He spent several months in a monastery in Verkhoturye; Spiridovich suggested after the death of a child,[15] but the monastery was enlarged in those years to receive more pilgrims.[16] Outside the monastery lived a hermit by the name of Brother Makary. Makary had a strong influence on Rasputin, which led to Grigori's giving up drinking and eating meat. When he arrived home he had become a zealous convert.

Rasputin's claimed vision of Our Lady of Kazan turned him towards the life of a religious mystic. Around 1893 he travelled to Mount Athos, but left shocked and profoundly disillusioned, as he told Makary.

By 1900 Rasputin was identified as a strannik, a religious wanderer,[21] although he always went home to help his family with sowing and the harvest. He was regarded as a starets ("elder") or a yurodiviy ("holy fool")[22] by his followers. Rasputin did not consider himself to be a starets,[14] who were usually older and lived in seclusion and silence. According to Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden he was a starets in making.

In 1902 private gatherings in his house had to be disbanded.

In 1903 Rasputin spent some time in Kiev, where he visited the Monastery of the Caves. In Kazan he attracted the attention of the bishop and members of the upper class.

Rasputin then travelled to the capital to meet with John of Kronstadt and acquire donations for the construction of the village church. Pierre Gilliard writes that Rasputin arrived in 1905

asputin stayed at Alexander Nevsky Lavra; there he met with Hermogenes and Theophanes of Poltava who was amazed by his tenacious memory and psychological perspicacity. He was invited by Milica of Montenegro and her sister Anastasia, who were interested in Persian mysticism,[33] spiritism and occultism. On 1 November 1905 (O.S.) Milica presented Rasputin to Tsar Nicholas and his wife Alexandra.

In October 1906, at the request of the Tsar, Rasputin paid a visit to the wounded daughter of the next prime minister, Pyotr Stolypin. A few weeks before, 29 people had been killed after a bomb attack, including one of Stolypin's children.

In April 1907 he was invited again to Tsarskoye Selo, this time to see Tsesarevich Alexei. The boy had received an injury which caused him painful bleeding. It was not publicly known (a state secret) that the heir to the throne had hemophilia B, a disorder that was widespread among European royalty.[note 4] When the doctors could not supply a cure, due to the lack of just one protein, the desperate Tsarina looked for other help. (When she was young she had lost her mother, her brother and her younger sister.) Rasputin was said to possess the ability to heal through prayer and was able to calm the parents and to give the boy some relief, in spite of the doctors' prediction that he would die. On the following day the Tsesarevich showed significant signs of recovery.

Pierre Gilliard,[41] the French historian Hélène Carrère d'Encausse[42] and Diarmuid Jeffreys, a journalist, speculated Rasputin's healing practice included halting the administration of aspirin, a pain-relieving analgesic available since 1899.[43] Aspirin has blood-thinning properties; it prevents clotting, and promotes bleeding which could have caused the hemarthrosis. The "wonder drug" would have worsened Alexei's joints' swelling and pain.

On 8 October 1912, Alexei received the last sacrament during another and particularly grave crisis (a swelling in the groin). The Romanovs were visiting their hunting retreat in Spała (then in Russian Poland). The desperate Tsarina turned to her lady-in-waiting and best friend Anna Vyrubova[46][47] to secure the help of the peasant healer, who at that time was out of favor. The next day, on 9 October, Rasputin responded and sent a short telegram, including the prophecy: "The little one will not die. Do not allow the doctors [c.q. Eugene Botkin and Vladimir Derevenko] to bother him too much."[48] His temperature dropped and the hematoma disappeared, but it took a year before he recovered.

Even before Rasputin's arrival, the upper class of St Petersburg had been widely influenced by mysticism. Individual aristocrats were reportedly obsessed with anything occult.[55] Alexandra had been meeting a succession of Russian "holy fools," hoping to find an intercessory with God.[56] Papus had visited Russia three times, in 1901, 1905, and 1906, serving the Tsar and Tsarina both as physician and occult consultant.[57] After Papus returned to France, Rasputin came into the picture. In those days Imperial Russia was confronted with a religious renaissance, a widespread interest in spiritual-ethical literature and non-conformist moral-spiritual movements, an upsurge in pilgrimage and other devotions to sacred spaces and objects. The "God-Seeking" were shaping their own ritual and spiritual lives (sometimes in the absence of clergy).

While fascinated by Rasputin in the beginning, the ruling class of St Petersburg began to turn against him as he had privileges no one else had, an easy access to the Imperial Family. In 1909, within four months, Rasputin had visited the Romanovs six times.[62] The press started a campaign against Rasputin...

Early 1911 the Tsar instructed Rasputin to join a group of pilgrims.[64] From Odessa they sailed to Constantinople, Patmos, Cyprus and Beirut. Around Lent 1911 Rasputin paid a visit to Jerusalem and the Holy Land.[65] On his way back he visited Iliodor who gathered huge crowds in Tsaritsyn, and met with a woman, called Guseva.

When Vladimir Kokovtsov became prime minister he asked the Tsar permission to authorize Rasputin's exile to Tobolsk, but Nicholas refused. "I know Rasputin too well to believe all the tittle-tattle about him."[75] Kokovtsov offered Rasputin 200,000 rubles, equaling $100,000, when he would leave the capital. Rasputin had become one of the most hated people in Russia.

There is little or no proof that he was a member of the Khlysty,[77] but Rasputin does appear to have been influenced by their practices.[78] He accepted some of their beliefs, for example those regarding sin as a necessary part of redemption.

After the Spała accident, where the careless Tsesarevich climbed into a boat and fell,[85] Rasputin regained influence at court and also in church affairs. His position as an intermediary had been dramatically validated,[86] but the Holy Synod frequently attacked Rasputin, accusing him of a variety of immoral or evil practices. Rasputin was variously accused of being a heretic, an erotomaniac or a pseudo-khlyst.[87] On 21 February 1913 Rodzianko ejected Rasputin from the Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan shortly before the celebration of 300 years of Romanov rule in Russia.

In May 1914 Rasputin had become an influential factor in Russian politics.

Shortly before the outbreak of World War I, Rasputin spoke out against Russia going to war with Germany. He begged the Tsar to do everything in his power to avoid war.

While seldom meeting with Alexandra personally after the debate in the Duma, Rasputin had become her personal adviser through daily telephone calls or weekly meetings with Vyrubova. This was especially the case after August 1915[159] when the Emperor left Petrograd for Stavka at the front, leaving his wife Alexandra Feodorovna to act in his place. Duchess Vladimir wasn't the only one who feared the Empress would "be the sole ruler of Russia". For others Rasputin's personal influence over the Tsarina had become so great that it was he who ordered the destinies of Imperial Russia, while she compelled her weak husband to fulfill them.

In late 1915 Alexandra and Rasputin advised the Tsar in military strategies around Riga where the Germans were stopped.[163] It seems the two also dominated the Holy Synod. Rasputin was invited to see Alexei when the 11-year-old boy had another serious bleeding.

Rasputin was more multifaceted and more significant than the myths that grew up around him:

    Rasputin was neither a monk nor a saint; he never belonged to any order or religious sect,[311] but he impressed many people with his knowledge and ability to explain the Bible in an uncomplicated way.[312]
    It was widely believed that Rasputin had a gift for curing bodily ailments. "In the mind of the Tsarina, Rasputin was closely associated with the health of her son, and the welfare of the monarchy"[93] and eager to see him as a holy fool,[313][314][315] but his enemies saw him as a debauched religious charlatan and a lecher.
    Brian Moynahan describes him as "a complex figure, intelligent, ambitious, idle, generous to a fault, spiritual, and – utterly – amoral." He was an unusual mix, a muzhik, prophet and [at the end of his life] a party-goer.

According to Dominic Lieven "more rubbish has been written on Rasputin than on any other figure in Russian history".

Grigori Rasputin - The Mad Monk is not a very even treatment of Rasputin, because it echos most of the character assassination as fact.

[Jhanananda]

The same kinds of slander used against Grigori Rasputin remind me of how Sabbatai Zevi was treated by the 17th century Jewish rabbinate. 

Sabbatai Zevi (שַׁבְּתַי צְבִי Shabbetai Tzvi, other spellings include Sabbatai Ẓevi, Shabbetai Ẓevi, Sabbatai Sevi, and Sabetay Sevi in Turkish) (August 1, 1626 – c. September 17, 1676[1]) was a Sephardic Rabbi[2] and kabbalist who claimed to be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. He was the founder of the Jewish Sabbatean movement.

In February of 1666, upon his arrival in Constantinople, Sabbatai was imprisoned following orders issued by the grand vizier Ahmed Köprülü; in September of that same year, after being moved from different prisons around the capital to Adrianople (the imperial court's seat) for judgement on accusations of fomenting sedition, Sabbatai was given by Köprülü, in the name of the Sultan Mehmed IV, the choice of either facing death by some type of ordeal, or of converting to Islam. Sabbatai seems to have chosen the latter by donning on his head from then on a Turkish turban. He was then also rewarded by the heads of the Ottoman state with a generous pension for his compliance with their political and religious plans.[3] Some of his followers also converted to Islam—about 300 families who were known as the Dönmeh (converts).[4]

Early life and education

Sabbatai Zevi was born in Smyrna (İzmir in present-day Turkey) on (supposedly) Tisha B'Av or the 9th of Av, 1626, the holy day of mourning. His name literally meant the planet Saturn, and in Jewish tradition "The reign of Sabbatai" (The highest planet) was often linked to the advent of the Messiah.[5] Zevi's family were Romaniotes from Patras in present-day Greece; his father, Mordecai, was a poultry dealer in the Morea. During the war between Turkey and Venice, Smyrna became the center of Levantine trade. Mordecai became the Smyrna agent of an English trading house and managed to achieve some wealth in this role.

In accordance with the prevailing Jewish custom of the time, Sabbatai's father had him study the Talmud. He attended a yeshiva under the rabbi of Smyrna, Joseph Escapa. Studies in halakha (Jewish law) did not appeal to him, but apparently Zevi did attain proficiency in the Talmud. On the other hand, he was fascinated by mysticism and the Kabbalah, as influenced by Rabbi Isaac Luria. He found the practical kabbalah - with its asceticism, through which its devotees claimed to be able to communicate with God and the angels, to predict the future and to perform all sorts of miracles - especially appealing.

Influence of English millenarianism

During the first half of the 17th century, millenarian ideas of the approach of the Messianic time were popular. They included ideas of the redemption of the Jews and their return to the land of Israel, with independent sovereignty. The apocalyptic year was identified by Christian authors as 1666 and millenarianism was widespread in England. This belief was so prevalent that Manasseh ben Israel, in his letter to Oliver Cromwell and the Rump Parliament, appealed to it as a reason to readmit Jews into England, saying, "[T]he opinions of many Christians and mine do concur herein, that we both believe that the restoring time of our Nation into their native country is very near at hand."[6] Besides being involved in other commercial activities, Sabbatai's father was the agent for an English trading house in Smyrna and must have had some business contact with English people. Sabbatai could have learned something about these Western millenarian expectations at his father's house. - [note: this theory was originally suggested by Graetz; Gershom Scholem argued forcefully against it in his major work on Sabbatai quoted throughout this entry.]

Claims of messiahship

Apart from this general Messianic theory, there was another computation, based on an interpreted passage in the Zohar (a famous Jewish mystical text), and particularly popular among the Jews, according to which the year 1648 was to be the year of Israel's redemption by their long-awaited Jewish Messiah.

At age 22 in 1648, Sabbatai started declaring to his followers in Smyrna that he was the true Messianic redeemer. In order to prove this claim he started to pronounce the Tetragrammaton, an act which Judaism emphatically prohibited to all but the Jewish high priest in the Temple in Jerusalem on the Day of Atonement. For scholars acquainted with rabbinical, and kabbalistic literature, the act was highly symbolic. He revealed his Messiahship early on to Isaac Silveyra and Moses Pinheiro, the latter a brother-in-law of the Italian rabbi and kabbalist Joseph Ergas.

However, at this point he was still relatively young to be thought of as an accepted and established rabbinic authority; and his influence in the local community was not widespread. Even though Sabbatai had led the pious life of a mystic in Smyrna for several years, the older and more established rabbinic leadership was still suspicious of his activities. The local college of rabbis, headed by his teacher, Joseph Escapa, kept a watchful eye on him. When his Messianic pretensions became too bold, they put him and his followers under cherem, a type of excommunication in Judaism.

About the year 1651 (according to others, 1654), the rabbis banished Sabbatai and his disciples from Smyrna. It is not certain where he went from there. By 1658, he was in Constantinople, where he met a preacher, Abraham Yachini (a disciple of Joseph di Trani), who confirmed Sabbatai's messianic mission. Yachini is said to have forged a manuscript in archaic characters which, he alleged, bore testimony to Sabbatai's Messiahship. It was entitled "The Great Wisdom of Solomon", and began:

    "I, Abraham, was confined in a cave for forty years, and I wondered greatly that the time of miracles did not arrive. Then was heard a voice proclaiming, 'A son will be born in the Hebrew year 5386 [the year 1626 CE] to Mordecai Zevi; and he will be called Shabbethai. He will humble the great dragon; ... he, the true Messiah, will sit upon My throne."

In Salonika, Cairo, and Jerusalem
With this document, Sabbatai chose Salonika, at that time a center of kabbalists, for his base. He proclaimed himself the Messiah or "anointed one," gaining many adherents. He put on all sorts of mystical events — e.g., the celebration of his marriage as the "One Without End" (the Ein Sof) with the Torah, preparing a solemn festival to which he invited his friends. The rabbis of Salonica, headed by Rabbi Hiyya Abraham Di Boton, banished him from the city. The sources differ widely as to the route he took after this expulsion, with Alexandria, Athens, Constantinople, Jerusalem, and Smyrna mentioned as temporary centers. After wandering, he settled in Cairo, where he resided for about two years (1660–1662).

Raphael Joseph Halabi ("of Aleppo") was a wealthy and influential Jew who held the high position of mint-master and tax-farmer in Cairo under the Ottoman government. He led an ascetic life, which included fasting, bathing in cold water, and scourging his body at night. He used his great wealth for charity, supporting poor Talmudists and Kabbalists, fifty of whom reportedly dined at his table regularly. Sabbatai befriended Raphael Joseph, who became a supporter and promoter of his Messianic claims.

About 1663 Sabbatai moved on to Jerusalem. Here he resumed his former ascetic practice of frequent fasting and other penances. Many saw this as proof of his extraordinary piety. He was said to have a good voice, and sang psalms all night long, or at times Spanish love-songs, to which he gave mystical interpretations. He attracted crowds of listeners. At other times he prayed and cried at the graves of pious men and women. He distributed sweetmeats to children on the streets. Gradually he gathered a circle of adherents.

The important community of Jerusalem at the time was also in need of money to keep up with the heavy taxes imposed on it by the Ottoman government. The community was coming up short of funds to pay these levies, and these arrears could have dire consequences. Sabbatai, known as the favorite of the rich and powerful Raphael Joseph Halabi in the Turkish government center in Cairo, was chosen as the community envoy to appeal to Halabi for money and support. His success in getting the funds to pay off the Turks raised his prestige. His followers dated his public career from this journey to Cairo.

Marriage to Sarah
Another event helped spread Sabbatai's fame in the Jewish world of the time in the course of his second stay in Cairo. During the Chmielnicki massacres in Poland, a Jewish orphan girl named Sarah, about six years old, was found by Christians and sent to a convent for care. After ten years', she escaped (through a miracle she claimed), and made her way to Amsterdam. Some years later she went to Livorno where, according to reports, she led a life of prostitution. She also conceived the notion that she was to become the bride of the Messiah, who was soon to appear.

When the report of Sarah's adventures reached Cairo, Sabbatai claimed that such a consort had been promised to him in a dream because he, as the Messiah, was bound to fall in love with an unchaste woman.[citation needed] He reportedly sent messengers to Livorno to bring Sarah to him, and they were married at Halabi's house. Her beauty and eccentricity reportedly helped him gain new followers. Through her a new romantic and licentious element entered Sabbatai's career. Even the overturning of her past scandalous life was seen by Sabbatai's followers as additional confirmation of his messiahship, following the biblical story of the prophet Hosea, who had also been commanded to take a "wife of whoredom" as the first symbolic act of his calling.

Nathan of Gaza
Main article: Nathan of Gaza

With Halabi's financial and political backing, a charming wife, and many additional followers, Sabbatai triumphantly returned to Palestine. Passing through the city of Gaza, which at the time had an important Jewish community, he met Nathan Benjamin Levi, known since as Nathan of Gaza (נתן עזתי Nathan 'Azzati). Nathan became very active in Sabbatai's subsequent Messianic career, serving as Sabbatai's right-hand man and declaring himself to be the risen Elijah, who, it was predicted, would proclaim the arrival of the Messiah. In 1665, Nathan announced that the Messianic age would begin the following year with the conquest of the world without bloodshed. The Messiah would lead the Ten Lost Tribes back to the Holy Land, "riding on a lion with a seven-headed dragon in its jaws".

The rabbis of Jerusalem viewed Sabbatai's movement with great suspicion, and threatened its followers with excommunication. Acknowledging that Jerusalem would not be the best place to enact his plans, Sabbatai left for his native city, Smyrna. Nathan proclaimed that henceforth Gaza, and not Jerusalem, would be the sacred city. On his way from Jerusalem to Smyrna, Sabbatai was greeted enthusiastically in Aleppo. In Smyrna, which he reached in the autumn of 1665, the greatest homage was paid to him. After some hesitation, he publicly declared himself to be the expected Messiah during the Jewish New Year in 1665; his declaration was made in the synagogue, with the blowing of horns, and shouts of "Long live our King, our Messiah!"[citation needed]

His followers began to refer to him with the title AMIRAH, a Hebrew acronym for the phrase "Our Lord and King, his Majesty be exalted" (Adoneinu Malkeinu Yarum Hodo).

Proclaimed messiah
Assisted by his wife, Sabbatai became the leader of the community. He used his power to crush the opposition. He deposed the existing rabbi of Smyrna, Aaron Lapapa, and appointed Chaim Benveniste in his place. His popularity grew, as people of all faiths repeated his story. His fame extended far and wide. Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands had centers of his Messianic movement. The Jews of Hamburg and Amsterdam learned of the events in Smyrna from trustworthy Christians. Henry Oldenburg, a distinguished German savant who became the first secretary of the Royal Society, wrote to Baruch Spinoza (Spinozae Epistolae No 33): "All the world here is talking of a rumour of the return of the Israelites ... to their own country. ... Should the news be confirmed, it may bring about a revolution in all things."

Sabbatai's followers included many prominent rabbis, such as Isaac Aboab da Fonseca, Moses Raphael de Aguilar, Moses Galante, Moses Zacuto, and the above-mentioned Hayyim Benveniste. Dionysius Musaphia, an adherent of Spinoza, likewise became a follower. People spread fantastic reports, which were widely believed. For example, it was said, "In the north of Scotland a ship had appeared with silken sails and ropes, manned by sailors who spoke Hebrew. The flag bore the inscription 'The Twelve Tribes of Israel'."[citation needed] The Jewish community of Avignon, France prepared to emigrate to the new kingdom in the spring of 1666.

The readiness of the Jews to believe the messianic claims of Sabbatai Zevi may largely be explained by the desperate state of European Jewry in the mid-17th century. The bloody pogroms of Bohdan Khmelnytsky had wiped out one third of Europe's Jewish population and destroyed many centers of Jewish learning and communal life (Cohen 1948). There is no doubt that for most of the Jews of Europe there could not have been a more propitious moment for the messiah to deliver salvation than the moment Sabbetai Zevi made his appearance.

Spread of his influence
Main article: Sabbateans

Probably with his consent, Sabbatai's adherents planned to abolish many of the ritualistic observances because, according to a minority opinion in the Talmud, in the Messianic time there would no longer be holy obligations. The fast of the Tenth of Tevet became a day of feasting and rejoicing. Samuel Primo, who became Sabbatai's secretary when the latter went to Smyrna, directed in the name of the Messiah the following circular to all of the Jews:

    "The first-begotten Son of God, Shabbethai Tebi, Messiah and Redeemer of the people of Israel, to all the sons of Israel, Peace! Since ye have been deemed worthy to behold the great day and the fulfilment of God's word by the Prophets, your lament and sorrow must be changed into joy, and your fasting into merriment; for ye shall weep no more. Rejoice with song and melody, and change the day formerly spent in sadness and sorrow into a day of jubilee, because I have appeared."

Primo's message was considered blasphemous, as Sabbatai wanted to celebrate his birthday rather than the holy day. There was outrage and dissension in the communities; many of the leaders who had regarded the movement sympathetically were shocked at such radical innovations. Solomon Algazi, a prominent Talmudist of Smyrna, and other members of the rabbinate who opposed the abolition of the fast, narrowly escaped death at the hands of Sabbatai's followers.

[Jhanananda]

Sabbatai Zevi report continued:

In Constantinople
At the beginning of the year 1666, Sabbatai left Smyrna for Constantinople (modern day Istanbul) He may have been forced to flee by city officials. Nathan Ghazzati had prophesied that, once in Istanbul, Sabbatai would place the sultan's crown on his own head. The grand vizier, Ahmed Köprülü, ordered Sabbatai's immediate arrest upon his arrival and had him imprisoned, maybe to avoid any doubts among local and foreign observers of the imperial court as to the power still wielded by the Turkish Sultanate and by the Sultan himself.

Sabbatai's imprisonment discouraged neither him nor his followers at this stage. He was treated well in prison, perhaps because of bribes paid. This seems to have strengthened belief within his immediate circle of followers. Fabulous reports concerning the miraculous deeds "the Messiah" was performing in the Turkish capital were spread by Ghazzati, Abraham Yachini, and Primo among the Jews of Smyrna and in many other communities, and the messianic expectations in the Jewish diasporas continued to rise.

At Abydos (Migdal Oz)
After two months' imprisonment in Constantinople, Sabbatai was moved to the state prison at Abydos. Some of his friends were allowed to accompany him. As a result, the Sabbataians called the fortress Migdal Oz (Tower [of] Strength). As Sabbatai had arrived on the day preceding Passover, he slew a paschal lamb for himself and his followers. He ate it with its fat, a violation of Jewish Law. It is said that he pronounced over it the benediction: "Blessed be God who hath restored again that which was forbidden."

The immense sums sent to him by his rich followers, the charms of the queenly Sarah, and the cooperation shown by the Turkish officials and others enabled Sabbatai to display royal splendor in the prison castle of Abydos. Accounts of his life there were exaggerated and spread among Jews in Europe, Asia, and Africa. In some parts of Europe, Jews began to unroof their houses and prepare for a new "exodus". In almost every synagogue, Sabbatai's initials were posted, and prayers for him were inserted in the following form: "Bless our Lord and King, the holy and righteous Sabbatai Zevi, the Messiah of the God of Jacob." In Hamburg, the council introduced the custom of praying for Sabbatai not only on Saturday (the Jewish Sabbath), but also on Monday and Thursday. Unbelievers were compelled to remain in the synagogue and join in the prayer with a loud Amen. Sabbatai's picture was printed together with that of King David in most of the prayer-books, along with his kabbalistic formulas and penances.

These and similar innovations caused great commotion in some communities. In Moravia excitement reached such a pitch that the government had to intervene, while at Sale, Morocco, the emir ordered a persecution of the Jews. During this period Sabbatai declared the fasts of the Seventeenth of Tammuz and the Ninth of Av (his birthday) would henceforth be feast-days. He contemplated converting the Day of Atonement to one of celebration.

Nehemiah ha-Kohen
While Sabbatai was in the Abydos prison an incident occurred which ultimately led to Sabbatai's downfall. Two prominent Polish Talmudists from Lwów, Galicia, who were among Sabbatai's visitors in Abydos, informed him that in their native country a prophet, Nehemiah ha-Kohen, had announced the coming of the Messiah. Sabbatai ordered the prophet to appear before him. (See Jew. Encyc. ix. 212a, s.v. Nehemiah ha-Kohen). Nehemiah obeyed, reaching Abydos after a journey of three months at the beginning of September, 1666. The meeting between the two ended in mutual dissatisfaction. Some Sabbataians are said to have contemplated the secret murder of the rival.

Conversion to Islam
Nehemiah, however, escaped to Constantinople, where he pretended[citation needed] to embrace Islam to get an audience with the kaymakam. He told him of Sabbatai's ambitions. The kaymakam informed the sultan, Mehmed IV. Sabbatai was taken from Abydos to Adrianople, where the sultan's vizier gave him three choices; subject himself to a trial of his divinity in the form of a volley of arrows (in which should the archers miss, his divinity would be proven); be impaled; or he could convert to Islam.[citation needed] On the following day (September 16, 1666) Zevi came before the sultan, cast off his Jewish garb and put a Turkish turban on his head. Thus his conversion to Islam was accomplished. The sultan was much pleased, and rewarded Sabbatai by conferring on him the title (Mahmed) Effendi, and appointing him as his doorkeeper with a generous salary. Sarah and approximately 300 families among Sabbatai's followers also converted to Islam. These new Muslims thereafter were known as dönmeh (converts).[4] The sultan's officials ordered Sabbatai to take an additional wife to demonstrate his conversion. Some days after his conversion he wrote to Smyrna: "God has made me an Ishmaelite; He commanded, and it was done. The ninth day of my regeneration."

Disillusion
Sabbatai's conversion devastated his followers. Muslims and Christians alike ridiculed his followers after the event. In spite of Sabbatai's apostasy, many of his adherents still clung tenaciously to their belief in him, claiming that his conversion was a part of the Messianic scheme. Prophets such as Ghazzati and Primo, who were interested in maintaining the movement, encouraged such belief. In many communities, the Seventeenth of Tammuz and the Ninth of Av were still observed as feast-days in spite of bans and excommunications by the rabbis.

At times Sabbatai assumed the role of a pious Muslim and reviled Judaism; at others he associated with Jews as one of their own faith. In March, 1668, he announced that he had been filled with the "Holy Spirit" at Passover, and had received a "revelation." He, or one of his followers, published a mystical work claiming Sabbatai was the true Messiah in spite of his conversion, whose goal was to bring thousands of Muslims to Judaism.[citation needed] He told the sultan, however, that he was trying to convert Jews to Islam. The sultan permitted Sabbatai to associate with other Jews and preach in their synagogues. He succeeded in bringing over a number of Muslims to his kabbalistic views. Whether through his efforts or their willingness to follow in his latest steps, about 300 families of Sephardic Jews converted to Islam, becoming known as the Dönmeh (also spelled Dönme), convert.[4] Some of the followers adhered to a combination of their former Jewish practices as well as Islam.

Gradually the Turks tired of Sabbatai's schemes. They ended his doorkeeper's salary and banished him to Constantinople. When he was discovered singing psalms with Jews, the grand vizier ordered his banishment to Dulcigno (today called Ulcinj), a small place in present-day Montenegro. There he died in isolation, according to some accounts on September 17, 1676, the High Holy Day of Yom Kippur.

"By the 1680s, the Dönme had congregated in Salonika, the cosmopolitan and majority-Jewish city in Ottoman Greece. For the next 250 years, they would lead an independent communal life — intermarrying, doing business together, maintaining their own shrines, and handing down their secret traditions." By the 19th century, the Dönmeh had become prominent in the tobacco and textile trades. They established progressive schools and some members became politically active. Some joined the Committee on Union and Progress (CUP), the revolutionary party known as the Young Turks. With independence, in the 1910s, Greece expelled the Muslims from its territory, including the Dönmeh. Most migrated to Turkey, where by mid-century they were becoming highly assimilated.

Last years, exile and death

The death of Sabbatai Zevi is clouded in some mystery because of conflicting accounts about exactly how, when and where he died. There are those who maintain he died of natural causes and others that claim he was executed by hanging. Historians agree that in 1673 Zevi was exiled by the Turkish sultan to the Albanian port of Ulcinj (now in Montenegro), and died there three years later.[7]

What is left out from this WIKI record is Sabbatai Zevi was accused of ritually violating all of the Jewish laws, including eating pork, which does not fit with his conversion to Islam, which also has an injunction against eating pork.  Also, like Grigori Rasputin, he was accused of holding sex-orgies. Does this look like a pattern to you?

[Jhanananda]

Grigori Rasputin continued:

In late 1915 Alexandra and Rasputin advised the Tsar in military strategies around Riga where the Germans were stopped.[163] It seems the two also dominated the Holy Synod. Rasputin was invited to see Alexei when the 11-year-old boy had another serious bleeding.

Alexei Khvostov and Iliodor or Beletsky concocted a plan to kill Rasputin. Khvostov repeated the rumour suggesting that Alexandra and Rasputin were German agents or spies.[164][165][166][167][168] Evidence that Rasputin actually worked for the Germans is flimsy at best.[169][170][171] According to Kerensky people around Rasputin (his secretaries) were interested in strategic information.[172][173] Rasputin himself never cared much about money and gave it away as soon he had received it.[174][175] He had built up a reputation of being at once a generous and a disinterested man. Besides alms Rasputin spent large sums in restaurants, cafes, music halls and in the streets...

Rather paranoid, Rasputin went to Alexander Spiridovich, head of the palace police, on 1 March. He was constantly in a state of nervous excitement.

On 26 October Sukhumlinov was released from prison on instigation of Alexandra, Rasputin and Protopopov. According to Figes the public was outraged[176] and the opposition parties decided to attack Stürmer, his government and the "Dark forces".[177] A strongly prevailing opinion that Rasputin was the actual ruler of the country was of great psychological importance.

On 1 November (O.S.) the government under Boris Stürmer [180] was attacked by Pavel Milyukov in the Imperial Duma. In his speech he spoke of "Dark Forces" to avoid the name of Rasputin and Alexandra.

(On 6 December Kerensky had secretly recruited members for a new government.[214]) The appointment of Protopopov wasn't approved until 7 December 1916. Trepov, having failed to eliminate Protopopov, tried to bribe Rasputin in the next days.[215][216] With the help of general A.A. Mosolov,[217] his brother-in-law, Trepov offered a substantial amount of money, a bodyguard and a house to Rasputin, if he would leave politics.[218][219][220]

Rasputin apparently feared that he would die before the end of the year.[221][222] His death might be expected at any time. It seems he accepted his destiny.[223] On 13 December Rasputin warned against the influence of Trepov.[163] It seems he hardly left his house. It is not sure if he burned his correspondence and moved money to his daughters from his bank account.

Assassination
Yusupov, who had visited Rasputin in the past few months for treatment, invited Rasputin to the Yusupov palace, intimating his wife, Princess Irina, would be back from Koreiz and Rasputin could meet her after a housewarming party. (Yusupov later denied his wife was involved.[238]) Around midnight, on Friday 16/Saturday 17 December, Yusupov went with Dr. Stanislaus de Lazovert to Rasputin's apartment. Yusupov didn't use the regular stairs at this unseemly hour, but a stairwell in the courtyard. Around one o'clock in the morning they drove to the recently refurbished palace, where a sound-proof room, part of the wine cellar, had been specially prepared for the crime...

[Jhanananda]

Discovery Channel Rasputin The Devil in The Flesh SWESUB

I found this video highly emotional and it repeated the same character assassination, which does not ring true to me.  However, at one point they speculated that Rasputin had joined the Khlysty, and described one of their rituals was a whirling dance, which suggests the whirling dervish, a Sufi order. 

Both videos on Rasputin completely misunderstood the bathhouse.  To them it was a brothel; while bathhouse have always been a hookup for heterosexual and homosexual hookups; nonetheless, the bathhouse was also where people bathed, because they did not have baths in their homes.  Bathhouses also had saunas, which were valued for their health giving powers.

Also, the video above referred to a scene in which Rasputin beat a woman in a bathhouse.  While he may have beaten a woman in a bathhouse; nonetheless, there is also a common practice among people who take saunas, which is switching the skin with rushes to stimulate circulation in the skin.  It is thus reasonable to consider that this is at least as likely what he was doing with the woman in the bathhouse.

Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny (1996) Legendado [PT/BR]

This movie seems to be overly romantic

[Alexander]

I used to be enamored with Rasputin. Good luck separating fact from fiction with him, though. I love the Alan Rickman movie as him.

[Jhanananda]

Thank-you, Alexander. for commenting here on your interest in Rasputin.  I doubt seriously if one can ever sort through the fiction to find the true Rasputin, so I am just going with my intuition and experience in the matter.  I am certain that Rasputin was demonized and was no where near the demon that he has been painted to be.  Also, I keep in mind that we all have clay feet.

[Jhanananda]

I recently stumbled upon a book that was clearly written and published in 2008 with the intent to demonize me. I'm curious how the author of this book of fiction decided to use my spiritual name, jhanananda, as the name of a fictional psychopathic killer "Swami Jhanananda," in his book the Suave Swami. My guess, this is no accident, and a vehicle for demonizing me. This is not new. Mystics have been demonized throughout history, Jesus is an example.

[Alexander]

I recently stumbled upon a book that was clearly written and published in 2008 with the intent to demonize me. I'm curious how the author of this book of fiction decided to use my spiritual name, jhanananda, as the name of a fictional psychopathic killer "Swami Jhanananda," in his book the Suave Swami. My guess, this is no accident, and a vehicle for demonizing me. This is not new. Mystics have been demonized throughout history, Jesus is an example.

You’re also referenced everywhere on my website as a great spiritual authority and arahant… and you’re referenced with the same degree of reverence by Michael on his blog 🙂.

It reminds me of how they made fun of Socrates in his time. Aristophanes made a satire of him in a play, “The Clouds,” if I remember right. It was a comedy. But I don’t believe that it even survives now 🙃.

No I wouldn’t be concerned about your legacy. You’re the American arahant 😁!

And PS- Encouraging you again to take some fine photos of yourself so I can make an Icon out of you! Look again at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rembrandt_lighting to get some ideas.

[Jhanananda]

Alexander,

I did go through the posts that Jeffrey recommended, and I have to say the things he talks were the biggest factor for me personally. I had a lot of struggle even when I did start experiencing bliss because it was so outside of my psychological understanding that I even mistook it for anxiety at some levels of intensity. I remember asking Jeffery if it was okay to view it as a motherly energy, just so my mind would accept the deeper waves of bliss without as much fear. I didn't want to make something up in my head for practice, but utilizing the different methods he mentions, I have been able to change the way I interpret my experience. Using music, scents, and whatever mystic texts or images that bring me peace or remind me of the depth of my meditative experience helps me dive deep with tremendously less fear and difficulty. In my first 2 years of practice, I was mainly viewing the charisms as just internal signs that signify my depth (which they do!). But when I started to actually view them as the sacred, and somehow an expression of my experience with the godhead manifesting in daily life and meditation, things shifted dramatically. It stopped being just random signs that i forced to appear through meditation, and began to feel like "though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me".

I say all that just to give an example. So you can test for yourself what brings the sacred in you and go for it. I have used so many different ways including using the love I have felt for others, many various genres of music (especially religious/spiritual), and listening to sacred/mystic texts from anywhere that helps deepen my understanding and lessen my fear about entering deep bliss and annihilation.

Be easy and honest with yourself while you navigate all these things.

Best Wishes
Rougeleader

Rougeleader's response to Alexander's personal blog I thought was so brilliant and relevant here on this particular topic of how mystics get demonized. There are many aspects of this discussion that we could fruitfully examine, but most importantly what I want to focus upon is how the mystical experience is often misunderstood and demonized. As the members of this forum experience when we meditate deeply we have experiences that are totally outside most human experience, so we go to our priest, or psychiatrist and describe the experience. Since the priest is just someone who put on a costume and pretends to be holy they have no context for the religious experience, and they may also feel that their livelihood is threatened by a genuine mystic, so the budding mystic is misdirected, and possibly shamed or demonized. And, the psychiatrist will see our experiences as signs of psychosis and recommend we be heavily medicated.

I have also noticed in the OOBE and astral traveling community there is a rush to get Out-of-Body as quickly as possible while ignoring the necessary foundations that are described in the Noble Eightfold Path, and in the first four stages of samma-samadhi which are called the four jhanas in the Pali Canon. I cannot emphasis enough the significance of the necessary lifestyle change that is described by the Noble Eightfold Path, while also taking the time every day to saturate and suffuse in the 4 jhanas prior to leaving the body. More than anything the Pali Canon seems to ignore the 4 Out-of-Body domains known there as the 4 ayatanas while obsessing over the 4 jhanas.

[Tad]

Jhanananda,

I think Pali canon focuses on 1-4 jhanas as they are considered the right samadhi. In the suttas when Buddha is asked about correct meditation, he answers 1-4 jhana without mentioning higher jhanas. Thanissaro has written about it too.

[Jhanananda]

Jhanananda,

I think Pali canon focuses on 1-4 jhanas as they are considered the right samadhi. In the suttas when Buddha is asked about correct meditation, he answers 1-4 jhana without mentioning higher jhanas. Thanissaro has written about it too.

Tad, we have discussed this before here. Yes, it is true that most of the suttas that define samma-samadhi do so by just mentioning the 4 jhanas. In addition Siddhartha's night of enlightenment only mentions the 4 jhanas, after which he claimed to be a Buddha. So, you have fairly solid ground to stand upon; however, other suttas define samma-samadhi in terms of all 8 stages of samadhi. And, in Siddhartha's night of enlightenment he specifically acknowledged that he had experienced the upper 4 stages of samadhi under his 2 previous teachers, but he did not find himself enlightened, yet in other suttas he describes all 8 stages of sammadhi as samma-samadhi. So, we are all left with a big question.

This is how I understand it, after about the first 6 months of my meditation practice about 51 years ago I had found some depth in meditation and began to spontaneously experience OOBEs. So, how I put the Pali Canon discourses into my experience of altered states of consciousness produced by deep meditation is the 4 jhanas lead to Out-of-Body experiences which give us the skills to negotiate the immaterial domains, so that when we die we know how to negotiate death, so that we don't have to come back for another lifetime.

[Tad]

Jhananda,

I think the biggest mystery in Pali canon regarding jhanas how Gautama practiced arupa jhanas under his teachers before awakening. Because according to the story line, he started practicing rula jhanas only after leaving those teachers. So it is somewhat confusing how it is even possible to practice higher jhanas without lower ones. I do not remember if we discussed this.

[Jhanananda]

Jhananda,

I think the biggest mystery in Pali canon regarding jhanas how Gautama practiced arupa jhanas under his teachers before awakening. Because according to the story line, he started practicing rula jhanas only after leaving those teachers. So it is somewhat confusing how it is even possible to practice higher jhanas without lower ones. I do not remember if we discussed this.

This is one of the most fundamental questions that arises. As I have stated before regarding the community of people who are interested in astral projection, which is also called the Out-of-Body Experience, we see them trying to have OOBEs, and often do, but rarely have full access to the experience, and very often they remain close to the earth plane.  And, there is nothing in their dialog about learning to meditate skillfully or overcome their suffering.

What I get out of Siddhartha Gautama's mission statement, which is defined in his Four Noble Truths, is an understanding that suffering exists, and its cause is our craving and covetousness. There he also gives us an 8 part formula for ending our suffering, which is his Noble Eightfold Path, which is a lifestyle, which the OOBE people don't generally get.

What we see in his night of enlightenment is recalling a previous experience of deep meditation, which creates the set and setting for greater depth, which propelled him into the first jhana, which he characterizes by the arising of bliss and joy. The first jhana led him to the second jhana, which he defined by tranquility, which we interpret as the stilling of the mind, and he says it is greater bliss, which leads to greater depth, which he characterizes as greater levels of bliss. In the OOBE community we see them describing various charismatic phenomena that we describe here, which is strange interior (charismatic) sounds, vibrations and luminosity. This then leads to OOBEs. So, the problem for the OOBE community to understand is the precursors to the OOBE are actually valuable, and should be embraced and saturated into to relieve our stress and anxiety.

I hope this adequately answers your question, Tad.

[Tad]

Jhananada,

That is very true. From the perspective of 4 noble truth those people are not making any progress if they are only intersted in OOB but do not care about jhana and cutting cravings.