"But there are literally millions of TMers." At the DC center back in '85 I had a campaign to call the 10,000 mediators who had been initiated in DC. The results were that only a tiny group, no more than a few hundred had continued the practice and most of them had gone on to the sidhis. The lone meditator continuing their practice without continued contact with the belief system is a TM urban legend.
Would anyone like to guess how many people practice TM in the world? I think we would have to start with the numbers of sidhas. I am guessing that a higher percentage of that group is likely to as least still do TM. Perhaps someone in Fairfield can guess the percentages of the community that still does TM. I would guess that the number of people in the world doing TM regularly is no more more than 30,000 and perhaps a lot less. But maybe someone else has a better way of guessing. The movement was very uninterested in the results of the DC campaign. I have never seen any interest in finding out how many people still practice either the sidhis or TM. I think I can guess why. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Angela Mailander <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I do have an idea of what you mean, and not just cause I've read Padoux. I had the personal, daily attention of my teacher for six years. I was only six years old when I learned, and no expectations whatsoever were ever mentioned. It didn't occur to me to ask, at six years old, why I should do what some adult was telling me to do, and, six years later, I was on my own and just continued to meditate as instructed. I've often thought that the lack of personal attention from a really experienced teacher was a problem for some TM-ers. When I had my whole family initiated into TM, I'd been meditating for 25 years and it was perfectly clear to me that my teachers were, on the whole, inexperienced in both meditation and in teaching it. But the miracle is that it nevertheless has worked for many in my opinion. > > I also believe that it is possible to know whether someone else is really getting it or not. My first week in China, I escaped from campus without interpreters and went to find a local temple to kind of pay my respects to "the local gods." A monk was sitting at the door, doing calligraphy. We nodded a brief hello to one another, and I went in, found a dark corner, and settled down for a long meditation > > About an hour later, I heard a clear and distinct voice with a Brooklyn accent say something about the exact state I was in and the exact experience I was having, adding a useful hint. I turned around, but saw no one. I settled back in, and the same voice said, "What's the matter, you don't think someone who looks like me should sound like this?" It was the monk. Of course we became friends. Turns out he was a Chinese American born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, but had come to China to become a monk in his teens. > > So, it is possible, and I find I often know what someone else is thinking. But there are literally millions of TMers. You can't have done enough of a study to determine what percentage of them are getting it. a > > > > Vaj <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Nov 19, 2007, at 11:05 AM, Angela Mailander wrote: > > How can you possibly know what others experience or do not experience? I understand your point and I agree that expectation muddies the waters of meditation, but that doesn't mean that some, eventually, swan-like, get through that muddy water and come out clean. > > > > By observation, experience and by gaining perspective through other techniques/methods or simply by detailed instruction in the first place. One of the most obvious deficits in TM practice is torpor, and then, falling asleep. If you know what causes this and when you observe (for example) that the technique for relieving torpor is not part of TM practice, you can gain an understanding as to why it occurs so commonly. That's just one example, you could go through other parts of the practice and draw similar conclusions from direct experience. > > > Another way, is through authoritative testimony, the experiences of others in the practical tradition itself. Particularly in regard to mental mantra practice, it's very detailed in what the stages are, what their signs are and what the pitfalls are. You've read Padoux, so I'm sure you have an idea of what I mean. > > > > > Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com >
