On 11/8/2014 1:02 AM, TurquoiseBee turquoi...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]
wrote:
>
Anyone ignorant enough to post that Huxley was unfamiliar with
meditation (see jr post below) has clearly never read his best novel,
"Island."
>
Huxley's Island book is all about the unity of knowledge and
consciousness as the intelligent transcendent agent, Logos, the highest
aim of man. Huxley used to meditate at the Vedanta Temple in L.A.. Every
one knows that.
>
Huxley was practicing real meditation decades before Maharishi
invented his faux version and called it TM.
>
You're always trying to sell us something - there's no "TM". Huxley's
Island book was published in 1962 and it's all about meditation that is
transcendental. The SRM was founded in 1957.
>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From:* "jr_...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com>
*To:* FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
*Sent:* Saturday, November 8, 2014 6:34 AM
*Subject:* Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: The Birth of the Hippies
Bhairitu,
Good point. According to Wikipedia, Huxley had association with the
Vendanta society:
Association with Vedanta[edit
<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aldous_Huxley&action=edit§ion=6>]
Beginning in 1939 and continuing until his death in 1963, Huxley had
an extensive association with the Vedanta Society of Southern
California
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanta_Society_of_Southern_California>,
founded and headed by Swami Prabhavananda
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swami_Prabhavananda>. Together with
Gerald Heard <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Heard>, Christopher
Isherwood <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Isherwood>, and
other followers he was initiated by the Swami and was taught
meditation and spiritual practices.^[3]
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldous_Huxley#cite_note-FOOTNOTERoy2003-3>
In 1944, Huxley wrote the introduction to the "Bhagavad Gita: The Song
of God",^[22]
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldous_Huxley#cite_note-IsherwoodSwami_Prabhavananda1987-22>
translated by Swami Prabhavanada and Christopher Isherwood, which was
published by The Vedanta Society of Southern California.
From 1941 until 1960, Huxley contributed 48 articles to /Vedanta and
the West/, published by the Society. He also served on the editorial
board with Isherwood, Heard, and playwright John van Druten from 1951
through 1962.
Huxley also occasionally lectured at the Hollywood and Santa Barbara
Vedanta temples. Two of those lectures have been released on CD:
/Knowledge and Understanding/ and /Who Are We/ from 1955.
After the publication of /The Doors of Perception
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Doors_of_Perception>/, Huxley and
the Swami disagreed about the meaning and importance of the LSD drug
experience, which may have caused the relationship to cool, but Huxley
continued to write articles for the Society's journal, lecture at the
temple, and attend social functions. His agnosticism, together with
his speculative propensity, made it difficult for him to fully embrace
any form of institutionalized religion.^Aldous Huxley - Wikipedia, the
free encyclopedia
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldous_Huxley#cite_note-23>
image <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldous_Huxley#cite_note-23>
Aldous Huxley - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldous_Huxley#cite_note-23>
Aldous Leonard Huxley /ˈhʌksli/ (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was
an English writer, philosopher and a prominent member of the Huxley
family...
View on en.wikipedia.org
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldous_Huxley#cite_note-23>
Preview by Yahoo
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <noozguru@...> wrote :
What about the Vedanta Society? What about Paramahansa Yogananda?
Arthur Avalon? Not to mention relatively unknowns who probably
migrated to the UK and taught yoga.
On 11/07/2014 05:49 PM, jr_esq@... <mailto:jr_esq@...>
[FairfieldLife] wrote:
S3,
Huxley didn't appear to know about the advantages of meditation.
Obviously, during his lifetime, TM was not around then.
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
<mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com>, <s3raphita@...>
<mailto:s3raphita@...> wrote :
Aldous Huxley quote (1931):
"So far as I can see, the only possible new pleasure would be one
derived from the invention of a new drug — of a more efficient and
less harmful substitute for alcohol and cocaine. If I were a
millionaire, I should endow a band of research workers to look for
the ideal intoxicant. If we could sniff or swallow something that
would, for five or six hours each day, abolish our solitude as
individuals, atone us with our fellows in a glowing exaltation of
affection and make life in all its aspects seem not only worth
living, but divinely beautiful and significant, and if this heavenly,
world-transfiguring drug were of such a kind that we could wake up
next morning with a clear head and an undamaged constitution — then,
it seems to me, all our problems (and not merely the one small
problem of discovering a novel pleasure) would be wholly solved and
earth would become paradise."
Sounds great - but I suspect that humans are so constituted that
changing our brains with chemicals is always going to have unwanted
side-effects.
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
<mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com>, <fleetwood_macncheese@...>
<mailto:fleetwood_macncheese@...> wrote :
I used to buy Ritalin over the counter, in Macau, and did a fair
amount - Yuck. Couldn't get weed, but any big pharma drug was there
for the taking. Bad situation.
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
<mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com>, <s3raphita@...>
<mailto:s3raphita@...> wrote :
Re "Cocaine DEFINITELY sucks":
Amen to that. Like you I only tried it a few times and the
after-effects were a warning I heeded. Ditto speed.
God knows what I'd have felt like after a methamphetamine binge (the
drug of choice today) - pretty sure I'd be suicidal.
