--- In [email protected], "authfriend" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > --- In [email protected], TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > <snip> > > As Llundrub pointed out yesterday, there is no > > acceptance of the perfection of the world as > > it is, only a compulsion to remake the world > > into the image of it his self dreams about. > > And the closer he gets to dying, the more he > > wants to make what a truly enlightened being > > would have realized is already perfect "more > > perfect," and the more money he needs to remake > > this already-perfect world in his own image. > > Strange, if you ask me... > > And as I responded to Llundrub yesterday: > > Maharishi was once asked why, if everything is > perfect just as it is, TMers were working so > hard to change things. > > MMY replied, "That too is perfect just as it is."
And I'm certain that some people were as impressed by this platitude at the time it was originally spoken as you seem to be now. :-) Bottom line, in my opinion, is that Maharishi is in the business of "selling futures." Everything is in terms of some kind of payoff *in the future*. It started with "Just meditate and you'll be enlightened in the future." Then it progressed to "Add this 'advanced technique' to your daily meditation and you'll be enlight- ened sometime in the future." Then "Say these words in English, taken from a $3.95 paperback of the Yoga Sutras, and bounce on your butt and not only will you be enlightened in the future, but the world will be, too." Then "Take these pills and rub these oils on your body and good things will happen in the future." Then "Get rid of that terrible south-facing doorway and things will be better in the future." Now "Rebuild every building in the world to eliminate south-facing door- ways and the world will be enlightened. In the future, of course." The "payoff" is never Here And Now. The payoff is always sometime in the future. THAT is the single common denominator of everything Maharishi has ever taught and every "program" he has ever offered. And in my opinion, *that* was "perfect just as it was," because the vast majority of his students didn't really *want* any of these things -- enlightenment, world peace, what- ever -- in the Here And Now. They wanted to believe in the remote possibility of them, at some unspecified time in the future, while basically staying the same and never messing with the status quo of their lives. They got what they wanted. They got what they paid for. They're still waiting, after three or four decades, and all of these things are still "in the future" for them. Meanwhile, a few people got tired of waiting and focused on the Here And Now and they now experience enlightenment *in* the Here And Now, on a daily basis. Interestingly, these folks who have found in the present what Maharishi is still promising to the rest of his students as something nebulous that will only happen in the future are no longer welcome in his movement. And fascinatingly, when those who are experi- encing enlightenment in the Here And Now speak of it to fellow students who are still waiting, those who have spent decades waiting for it to happen for them in the future react by getting angry and petulant and offended and disbelieving. It's just the most fascinating phenomenon, as if those who are still waiting for the future believe that those who are no longer waiting did something *offensive* by actually finding and living what the waiters are still waiting for. Rather than being inspired that some live enlightenment in the Here And Now, they actually resent it. When those who are no longer waiting offer simple and practical and compassionate suggestions as to how the waiters could stop waiting, the waiters reject their advice completely and claim that the Here And Now folks are trying to run their lives and then they go back to waiting. It's just the weirdest spiritual scene I've ever run into. :-) On some level, all this waiting, all this avoidance of enlightenment as a Here And Now phenomenon may actually *be* "perfect just as it is." But it sure strikes me as a pretty silly, self-indulgent form of perfection. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/JjtolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> 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/
