On May 19, 2011, at 8:33 AM, turquoiseb wrote:
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj <vajradhatu@...> wrote:
On May 18, 2011, at 3:40 PM, Xenophaneros Anartaxius wrote:
Perhaps a useful question is this: just how deep does the
"purity of the teaching" have to be to ensure that a meditator
has a correct experience of TM, or some other technique. From
what teachers told me, there seem to be two elements. A mantra,
and the correct way to use it, which is the right start of
meditation, and then everything mostly takes care of itself.
The simple answer is it needs to be an intact line with an
appropriate delivery method. We now know two things:
1. Maharishi was NOT authorized by Swami Brahmananda to teach
nor was he trained in how to do so.
While, from what I hear, this is true, that doesn't
matter to me. The *whole TM technique* was made up.
So was the puja. Big whoop.
From the POV of Hindu metaphysics, it's of paramount important. It
all boils down to their view of causality. Causes create effects. You
cannot separate effects from those causes. "As you sow, so shall you
reap". It could really be seen as like a scientific experiment: if
one of the steps of the experiment is tainted, the entire experiment
is tainted. The big difference is, physical experiments work on a
physical level, while mental experiments work on a mental level.
But either way, a tainted experiment is a tainted by a tainted
procedure.
2. Puja diksha is an authentic method for mantra initiation,
but it requires a) an authentic teacher, which Mahesh was not,
and b) an authentic means. The "puja" Maharishi created is a
hodge podge of different goods, tacked onto one another. The
important thing here is that we now know that the puja is
largely derived from a student of Swami Brahmananda who was
a poet and scholar. When Brahmananda was told of this poem,
poem, he explicitly asked Mahesh to destroy it and throw it
into the Ganges. Mahesh instead kept it and used it, against
the direct wishes of his guru.
Again, big whoop. I don't buy *anyone's* definition
of "authentic," including yours, Vaj. While I under-
stand your right to believe in the Woo Woo Theory
Of Mantra Delivery, I don't see it as fundamentally
different than the TM TB's theory of why the puja
is so important. Both are based on a belief in the
essential Woo Woo nature of the puja, or of it some-
how "enlivening" the mantra, and both are based on
things somebody said, and that you seem to have
accepted as true.
It doesn't matter if you accept it or not. This is the explanation,
in the tradition (read: replicable, repeatable method) it came from.
It's just a different type of science not depending on the taboo
against subjectivity.
If you want a replicable experiment, you repeat the experiment as it
actually worked in the past. You don't make something up and hope no
one will notice (and then sell it).
You might not accept their theory of causality, which contains more
levels of causality than Newtonian-style causality, but common sense
should tell us: if you want to replicate a result, you repeat it in
the manner in which it has produced the same result in the past.
You CAN do the experiment differently, or even make up the steps, but
you should not expect the SAME result. In fact, you should expect
something DIFFERENT.
So instead of "perfect mental health", you might get "something
different" (psychosis, rather than enlightenment).
I've received mantra-based teachings adorned with
bells and whistles (a puja or something like it) and
I've received them with no fanfare whatsoever, the
mantra just being delivered (spoken aloud) to a group
of people in a room, all at once. I have never
perceived the slightest difference.
Some may claim to, and that is their right. But I
cannot help but laugh at those who cling to the idea
that TM is somehow a "science," but who then cannot
even for a minute conceive of it not being taught
without the Magical Woo Woo Ceremony.
To me clinging to the puja as magical while denying
that they believe in magic is akin to denying that
the TMO is fundamentally a religious organization
while attending the performance of a yagya. Just
doesn't compute.
It does not compute in the waking state. It does compute in a
causality based on different levels of causality from what is readily
apparent in the waking state.
