See below: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, bob_brigante <no_re...@...> wrote: > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Duveyoung no_reply@ wrote: > > Here's something that would be a huge red flag to any Christian: > > Maharishi was asked if transcending was like dying. > > Maharishi closes his eyes for almost a minute, then opened them and said, "Yes." > > Try that on your family members. > > Edg > > Since there are millions of so-called Christians that think of themselves as "born-again" (which obviously implies the death of the old person and rebirth anew), only the most retarded could have a problem with what MMY said. TM, in fact, gives meaning to the expression "born-again," since it is necessary for a person to be reborn many times (by daily transcending the old limits one lived and being reborn with expanded awareness).
You have failed to understand or are manipulatively ignoring the implications of Maharishi's "yes." It is powerfully asserting that TMers have the power to die multiple times and come back from the dead -- JUST LIKE CHRIST. This is a huge big deal to Christians. Christians understand that "born again" does NOT mean reincarnation -- that is: that one gets a whole new body which one "traveles to" during the "intermission" know as "death." "Born again" to Christians means "a major transformation of one's personal intent to be less of a sinner by making Christ the center of one's life and trying to do what Jesus would do" -- it is not about actual dying and being reborn in any sense except "having a psychological paradigm shift." Maharishi wasn't being metaphorical -- he actually meant "Yes, I just now died and came back. All that could be called "me" was ended, and by the 'grace of who knows what' I came back again." Maharishi wasn't saying that he'd come back with a new personality or new values -- he was saying he CAME BACK FROM THE FUCKING DEAD!!!!!!! This is a power only ascribed to God by Christians (with but few "loop holes" that can make Christian thought a bit mooty when we consider the raising of the dead by the disciples after Christ's death, or that one of the prophets went bodily into heaven.) No modern Christian would be comfortable claiming mastery over death. Yogis tell us that transcending is: 1. Placing the attention on thoughts, we transcend the outer world -- that is: we do not process ideation about outside things or issues and are eschewing one's giving to the senses any attention while the senses continue to report to us. Quick what's your elbow feel like right now? Well, ha, the elbow was telling you this all the while you were reading these words, therefore, this "reading process" is a method to create transcendence, see? 2. By becoming aware of the subtler aspects of the objects of consciousness, the grosser or more lively forms of experiences are dampened and/or ignored and/or stopped. Even with a terrible headache one can still be aware of less attention-getting thoughts/experiences. This shows that the field of thought can have big and little events, and that the attention is not hand-cuffed into solely attending the big events of the mind. 3. Becoming aware of that which never changes -- a stable patten of mentation -- the attention is put upon some sort of "frictionless mode of harmony." This is an action that allows the mind to transcend even the subtlest of "multi-thought experiences" and have the attention reside on a "single thought/state" -- the thought: "I am." No other thoughts are given attention -- this doesn't mean that the brain isn't thinking other thoughts -- just like ignoring your elbow doesn't end its sending you messages. Instead, the awareness is now able to precisely focus on the simplest aspect of "one's existence" even in the midst of a huge array of other processes that are being ignored. 4. Finally after some time (who knows how much?) the body/mind becomes so comfortable residing in one-thoughtness that it gets the mojo necessary to become able to place the attention on attention itself. One's attention can finally, automatically, effortlessly, as-if-by-grace-alone, slip onto zero-thoughtness -- that is to say: realizing that Identity is immaterial and that this Absolute is beyond all thoughts and experiences -- beyond even the ultimate thoughts of worshiping in a perfect fashion the perfection of the perfectness of the state of amness where all the gunas are in harmony. Christians are using Christ as their japa bead/talisman. They opine that thinking about Christ is the way to transforming their personalities into WWJD saintly personas. To them, if one can "undo death," then Christ's role as a savior is obviated, and TM directly threatens this meme which they consider sacrosanct. As a TM teacher, in order to get folks to meditate, I had to hold back tons of information that I knew would be certain to sour their interest in TM. If there was a class action suit brought against TM teachers -- I'd be one of the most guilty -- I lied by omission CONSTANTLY. But miss not that I had been instructed on exactly how to do this down to the least detail -- by Maharishi himself. TM is a religion to initiators. When I learned the puja, I was quite clear that I was offering gifts to "still living but in some other realm" dead persons. That's a religious concept. Only religions assert they are authoritative about life after death. I was worshiping men who were touted to be not merely gods, but BEYOND ANY POSSIBLE GOD. So, Buddha, Christ, et al, were all seen to be but partial embodiments of the Absolute. This would never sit well with any adherant of any religion. I believed that the mantra would bring my personal life to "some god's" attention, and that some blessing would accrue from the repeating of the mantra even as I was using it as an object of consciousness in order to practice using my attention on every subtler experiences. As Charley Lutes said, "The mantra is the name of God, and if you keep saying it, then God comes along and picks you up like a parent would to a child who was calling the parent's name." Show me a fundamentalist Christian that wouldn't excommunicate me on the spot if I revealed the above paragraph to them. To me, if some TBs said that the practicing of TM was not a religious practice, my first response is to want to smack them with a board, because they are simply lying to my face, and they know it, and I know it. Though you can find meditators who do not do TM for any reason other than that they feel relaxed while doing it, the vast majority of all TBs know that they are "working their way to heaven." For someone here to try to defend TM as non-religious is sheer trollish denial. I count it as an abuse upon the community of readers here to refuse by clever wordiness to face the actualities and to be content to spin spin spin until the truth is cocooned by them. Edg
