Thank you, Ben, great story and very uplifting.
The sentiments you expressed matched many of mine. --- In [email protected], "benjaminccollins" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I taught my daughter to meditate > > My daughter is 10. She is tall and blonde and has bright eyes and a > quick wit. Her name is Anna, although I always call her Annie which > she is starting to dislike because she's getting older. She is in the > 5th grade in the Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies which means > that she had a lot of homework, too much homework. She bravely tries > to do everything the best she can, but add a 45 minute bus ride and > she's getting way too stressed. > > My kids all know that I meditate, and that I do pujas, and go to the > Hindu Temple. There are lots of Ganeshas in my home and it is all > part of their world. But I have never pushed it on them. We talk > about it at times, and they know that if I don't meditate I get > cranky. So when I quietly suggested to Annie that she might feel less > stressed if she meditated, she said that she thought it might be a > good idea. > > I gave her some short explanations that amounted to brief intro and > second lecture during the week. Then on Sunday morning we sat down > together in my puja room. The puja room is bed room sized and > contains my spiritual library and 2 elaborate altars with a 3 foot > stone Ganesha and a 4 foot Durga along with Vishnu, Lakshmi and other > deities. > > I did my TM puja and felt the wonderful feeling that I enjoyed when I > taught regularly in the 70's. I haven't taught much since; just a > friend here and there. The great thing about the puja is that you can > feel your awareness change. The feeling of connectedness to Guru Dev > is real, distinct and completely different from any temple puja or > yagya experience I have ever had. > > And at the end of the puja, when I gave Annie the mantra she repeated > it a few times and then it just pulled her in and her eyes gently > closed. We finished the initiation process and when she opened her > eyes after her first 10 minute meditation, she smiled sweetly and said > "that was really nice". > > I am proud of my daughter. Now she meditates during her bus ride each > day. Already she is feeling less stressed, less tired, and happier. > That makes me happy. > > There is a another side to this experience. When I was doing the puja > I thought about how full of idealism I was in 1971 when I became an > initiator. And today I could feel with the same certainty that I had > back then, that TM was special; that MMY's devotion to Guru Dev was > deserved and rightly inspirational. > > But what happened since then? As I sat in my puja room, I could feel > all the layers of my disappointment and cynicism that accumulated over > the years as the World Plan failed, there was no Perfect Health or > anything else, MIU amounted to pretty mcuh nothing, and where are all > the pundits, not to mention that I've done the 5-8 year plan many > times over. > > At that time I thought about FFL. And it seems to me that we are all > suffering from the same thing; a broken heart. We all believed and we > all had evidence that our belief was not misplaced. After all, we're > still meditating, still hoping that Maharishi is right. > > But not so many think so any more and FFL is a collection of people > like me who have no reason to believe anything. We're heartbroken, > disappointed, and disillusioned. Rightly so. > > But this past weekend my daughter learned to meditate. Guru Dev is > alive in my heart and I'm going to hang onto that. To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
