--- In [email protected], TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > --- In [email protected], "jim_flanegin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > so is Maharishi Mahesh Yogi your Master or not? > > If so, you are being rebellious. > > If not, what's the problem? Who else is telling you what to do? > > There seems to be a big assumption in your discussions > of 'Master,' namely that one must or should do what he/she > says. Because that myth is so pervasive, I never use the > word 'Master' to describe a teacher. To me, a teacher > just teaches. As in the Buddha quote on the FFL home > page, it is up to the student to weigh the teachings > against his or her own experience and intuition and > decide which have value and which do not. > > I know that there are many who would not agree with this, > and feel that if they choose the path of devotion they > should do everything the teacher says unquestioningly. > And this is fine, as a matter of personal choice. But > in my travels, I haven't really run into terribly many > people who had serious enlightenment experiences of their > own by following such a path, whereas I have run into > quite a few who have had such experiences by being rebels.
Along those same lines: in reading Muktananda, who himself was in a guru-disciple relationship with Nityananda, I get the impression that the "technique" of that relationship is to identify oneself with the guru in every way possible. Although this probably doesn't preclude the guru "ordering" the disciple to do things, that doesn't come off as the emphasis. Muktananda also relates the story of a acolyte who was rejected by a guru when he approached him with the request to be his disciple (I forget the reason at the moment why he was rejected) so the acolyte went him, made a clay statue of the guru, and became totally identified with the guru via the statue and obtained enlightenment...and, of course, having a relationship with an inanimate object precludes having to do what the guru tells you to do because in this case there was no real guru around to TELL the acolyte to do things. > > Unc > > I do not choose to follow in the footsteps > of the men of old. > I seek what they sought. > - Basho 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/
