I'm reviewing backwards and deleting so just got to this....I won't be doing TM. I have been exploring the concept of what "separating the message from the messenger" feels like. When it comes to "spirituality" I simply can't separate these fully enough to sign up with anyone or any group who claims to know the answer or have the answer. The "hypocritical" and "hypocrisy" tapes start to run in my brain.
Objectively, I think TM would greatly benefit me as a technique...but I can't get past the rest of it if I am truly honest with myself...so if I did shell out the money, it would be wasted. I have never believed that there is only one way, however, and there are many choices of meditation technique available. Thanks for answering. ________________________________ From: authfriend <jst...@panix.com> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, October 31, 2011 2:31 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Siddha Medicine , Navapashanam & Healing --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Denise Evans <dmevans365@...> wrote: > > I still fail to understand what is it about TM that is so > special that it cannot be divulged without payment. If the > TMO is trying to change the world and they are truly sincere > in this, why is it all a big secret? Why is the "technique" > so secret? Why isn't it in a book? Or is it? These are incredibly frustrating questions to try to answer for a TMer, because the bottom line is, you can't grasp why it's a "secret" until you learn it yourself (and not everyone does even then). And of course that sounds like total B.S. The problem is that unlikely as it seems, it's true. The nature of TM is such that it can't be learned properly from a book. There have been a couple of books (not by TM teachers) that purported to explain how it's done, but you'd be *extremely* unlikely to pick it up correctly from words on a page. (I'm talking about the *method* here, not the mantras; the mantras are a whole 'nother issue.) > Why has no one breached the secrecy? Who the fuck are all > of you super secret special meditators that you are keeping > this big elephant in the living room a secret? Protecting > your investment? How self-centered is this? Ah, come on, Denise, that's not fair. We all wish everyone could learn it for free. Most of us realize learning it properly requires a trained teacher, though, and that trying to explain how it's done outside the context of standard TM instruction by a trained teacher is not likely to lead to proper practice. I'm making it sound as if TM is *difficult*, but in fact it's just the opposite; it's easier than you can imagine. And paradoxically, that's why learning it requires someone who has been trained to teach it, because they know how to lead you into the experience of effortlessness. Every other skill we learn requires some degree of effort, so the knack of letting go of all effort is novel and takes a novel approach to convey. As ridiculously easy as TM is, it's also easy to fall into making it more difficult than it is, and then you don't get the benefits. Unlike most other things in life, the less you know about the method before you learn it, the more likely the instruction is to "click" right from the start. In a very real sense, by declining to try to explain TM, we're protecting *your* investment should you ever decide to learn it from a trained TM teacher. > Why wouldn't the TMO release the secret, or for that > matter, anyone who has the secret, and really test the > hypothesis that they can change the world? It reeks of > BS. There really is no specific "secret" that could be "released," first of all. If there's a "secret," it's the whole method of instruction, and that requires training. Second, most of us here, at least, think the TMO could have done a more effective job of getting people to practice TM. But that's a different issue. I don't expect this to convince you. All I can say is that I stand behind what I just wrote 100 percent.
