--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj <vajradhatu@...> wrote: > > On Dec 19, 2011, at 12:15 PM, turquoiseb wrote: > > > > Is it the same thing, or something different? Beats me? > > I am no neuroscientist, or even a trained behavioral > > scientist. All I know is that if some of the states > > that we commonly see "awakened" people go through are > > (as we suspect) a little more than "eccentric," it's a > > situation that is made more serious by total belief in > > the sanctity and "truth" of subjective experience. > > What's amazing to me is to have witnessed the machinations of a so- > called "enlightened man" in 1983 and to find no discernible > difference between 1983 and 2011 - except I have a better > understanding now of mental illness, back then it was just the > intuition that 'something's not right here'. Of course once > everyone saw the videos of "the enlightened man" beating one > of his students, on official video, on the stage - that was > the last straw. The emperor of ice cream melted.
I don't know who or what you're referring to, but I can say from experience that "the last straw" wouldn't have happened for true TBs even at that point. They'd have found ways to "explain it away." > > People have been taught for decades that their subjec- > > tive experience is the holy grail with which to judge > > "spiritual experience" or their "evolution" towards > > something they've been told is enlightenment. At the > > same time, there was no instruction along the way that > > taught them how to differentiate between actual spir- > > itual experience and overwhelming emotion. > > Well, as TMers we were not taught to refine attention, let alone > master it's balance - but we believed we were anyways....that's > what they said! An institutionalized fear of effort made sure > of that never would occur. Hell some TMers still imagine > themselves in these exalted samadhis - it's insanely hilarious > and insanely sad at the same time. More sad than hilarious for me these days. > Circa the early 80's many TMers I knew got caught up in > 'healing the "emotional body"' thang. The belief that was > spread around was that TM was too dry as it transcended the > emotional body, thereby skipping it. So a popular cult arose, > combining a mixture of hyperventilation, focused massage and > rebirthing in hot tubs. It was during one of those sessions > that the first friend I knew declared his status as an > awakened one. Shortly thereafter, the ex-initiator started > his own system - suspiciously based on this bubble diagram- > like drawing. We were all encouraged to move to the Southwestern > US, as 'that's where all the evolved ones were going'. Well, that's where I went, so he may have been onto something. :-) > He did make an interesting first "channel" on how the followers > of RWC were actually all reincarnations of an off-split that had > caused disciples to leave a legit guru for a false guru. I might characterize it more as "trading down," from one charlatan to another, but I get the gist of what you're saying. :-) > > As a result > > (IMO), they get into a manic state, interpret the > > overwhelming emotions of it as "spiritual," and > > consider what they're going through -- *whatever* > > it may be -- synonymous with Truth. > > They're healing their emotional bodies, can't you SEE? All > that emotion's been pent up from all that rounding. TM was > just too damn efficient for American nervous systems! Damned no-caste nobodies! :-) > > So in a way the manic states become self-replicating. > > Having convinced themselves that a previous manic > > state was something akin to enlightenment, they > > mood-make more of them. > > Well it's interesting because the Sanskrit word for "mood" is > "bhava". The words for TM are bhavatita-dhyana, that is literally > "beyond moods meditation". But what is it they get enlightened in? > > Moods. Or mood management. Or lack of mood management. Whatever > you want to call it. Unless it pays off in real-world benefits that are visible to everyone, not just the person claiming such moods, I remain unconvinced of the benefit.
