--- In [email protected], Rick Archer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I was thinking about the comments I made about darshan in a > recent post. The cool thing about darshan (many related definitions > if you Google "define darshan") is that you not only feel uplifted > or infused with Pure Consciousness, but in a very real sense you > seem to merge with the saint whose darshan you are getting. Their > consciousness is like a big amoeba that engulfs and digests you. > You find yourself feeling unified with them, symbiotically > partaking of their state of consciousness. And to some extent, > it sticks. And it's cumulative. That's how Maharishi got enlightened, > or whatever he got. A sufficiently enlightened being exudes so much > pure consciousness that he enlightens anyone in his proximity, > according to their receptivity.
Ah, darshan...a favorite topic of mine, because 1) I have experienced it many times, although never with Maharishi (his energy, for whatever reason, never did diddleysquat for me), and 2) I have an alternative way of describing the phenomenon. The phenomenon you describe exists. No question about it. You sit in the presence of some people and you get high. The larger question to be pondered, in my opinion, is whether the "high" is "transmitted" from the teacher to the student, as is commonly believed, or whether it may come from another phenomenon altogether. There are some traditions that explain this phenomenon in terms of "recognition." You sit in the presence of someone who is "firing on more cylinders" than you are. They are "higher," or in a more advanced state of con- sciousness. More aspects of their being have "woken up." And in that person's presence, you find that similar aspects of YOUR being "wake up." Some people like to believe that this is the result of "transmission," of the teacher "beaming" something at the student that "awakens" him or her. The problem with this interpretation, in my opinion, is that the student often gets "hooked" on the darshan, in very much the same way that someone gets hooked on drugs. They live for the "hit" they get when in the presence of the teacher. And over time they begin to believe that the high they get from this is *due* to the teacher, and that they cannot achieve it on their own. Not good, in my opinion. Darshan can be explained just as effectively as a process of recognition. You sit with someone who is in a higher state of consciousness than you are. ALL of the aspects of that higher state of consciousness are already within you. And when they *see* themselves in another human being, they "wake up" and being to become active in you. Darshan, given this interpretation, becomes a process that is initiated by the student's inner being, not by the teacher. I like the explanation more because it puts the responsibility for one's evolution back where I think it belongs, in the lap of the seeker. Unc 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/
