Response below. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Just a question, inspired by my recent read of the latest > Harry Potter book. I remember that a few years after I > left the TM movement there was a lot of big talk in the > movement about physical immortality. Immortality was > the buzzword du jour. Whatever became of this fascination? > > I remember thinking at the time that something was 'way > off about this. In most of the spiritual teachings I've run > into, a fascination with physicial immortality is looked > upon as a *very* dangerous indicator, a sign that the > person becoming fascinated with it is "off track" or lost > in Maya. Interestingly, in the fictional wizard world of > the Harry Potter books, it is looked upon the same way, > as an indicator that the wizard who becomes fascinated > with immortality has lost his or her balance. > > So...many years later, is there any talk in the TMO about > physical immortality, or was that just a passing fad? > > And, for those who might remember, did the passing fad > appear around the time of Maharishi's heart attack?
******** I would prefer "mass delusion" to "passing fad", but that's just my prejudice speaking. There was a rough correspondence between Maharishi's health crisis and the "passing fad", but it would be difficult to document either event precisely enough to evaluate the degree of correlation. The fad was also quite clearly an outgrowth of the movement's interest in Ayurveda, and its extreme application, Kaya Kalpa (by virtue of which one is enabled to rejuvenate one's body and extend the life span). Proponents of Kaya Kalpa justify it in terms of enlightenment; ie, it's thought to be easier to maintain spiritual progress if one isn't forced to take a new body. I always thought it interesting that at the peak of this phenomenon, I seldom heard anyone mention the possibility that M was going to be around forever. His departure was assumed, but always projected to some indefinite point in the future. I also remember hearing a conversation at Revelations a few years ago when I heard some True Believers discuss M's immanent passage (meaning, within a few years). This was the first time I had heard people still in the fold talk about his death openly. Recently I have heard a few conversations where people were once again talking about immortality (as a personal expectation). These are comparatively rare these days. Living in Fairfield, especially, one can't help but be aware that the actuarial tables apply to Sidhas as much as anyone else. In fact, when you read the obits in the Fairfield Ledger, it seems that nonmeditators tend to live longer than meditators. L B S 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/
