Well, hello, Robin, nice to see you around these
parts again.
You could have saved me a whole lot of typing if
you'd shown up a few hours earlier!
Hope I haven't misrepresented you in anything I've
said in this flurry of posts.
(Tell ya what: If you don't flatter me, I won't
flatter you. It tends to make some folks around
here very nervous.)
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Robin Carlsen" <maskedzebra@...> wrote:
>
> I couldn't help but feel embarrassed and concerned when I saw this excerpt
> from one of my books (strongly discountenanced by the way: I don't like any
> of them: they should all be burned!) posted at FFL. And I would like to say a
> few thingsnot in my defense, but in explanation for how it could come to be
> that I would write so enthusiastically and uncritically about someone like
> Ayatollah Khomeini.
>
> Now I have gone on the record to say that my Unity Consciousness experience
> was both very real (enlightenment does exist, it is an actual 'style of
> functioning' of the nervous system as Maharishi has claimed: enlightenment,
> then, is both a mechanical and metaphysical state of consciousness: and I
> believe it can be objectively determined; that is, one can apply criteria to
> decide whether someone is enlightened or not enlightened) and yet an
> hallucination. When I speak of Unity Consciousness as a hallucination I mean
> that it produces an essentially unreal apprehension of the universe, of
> oneself, of reality. Even though that experience is like nothing anyone has
> ever known, even on LSD (I remember in the moment when I was actually
> becoming enlightened thinking: Well, this is what LSD was pointing towards):
> It is so much more profound (than LSD), and it carries with it the imprimatur
> of what appears to be the very intelligence of the cosmos. And it takes away
> from oneself the sense of the primacy of volitional action; that is, one's
> actions appear to conform to Maharishi's principle of "spontaneous right
> action"without even the capacity to make those actions existentially
> selective. That is, originating in choice, deliberation, arbitrariness. Unity
> Consciousness means apprehending oneself as unified with what seems to be
> reality, while simultaneously finding oneself governed in one's behaviour by
> that same reality, a reality which is deeper and more intelligent and more
> all-encompassing than the individual awareness which determined one's life
> before enlightenment.
>
> Now when the Iranian students seized the American Embassy in Tehran in
> September 1979 I recognized *from within my Unity Consciousness*, from within
> the hallucination of my enlightenment, that something essentially religious
> as opposed to something merely political was happening. These young Iranians
> seemed to be acting out of a religious experience of the objective
> truthfulness of Shi'a Islam, and a conviction therefore that they were doing
> the will of God (Allah:I believe there may be a difference however :-) ) in
> taking these American diplomats and embassy personnel hostageagainst all
> international law. In a sense I felt their actions, as transgressive as they
> appeared to be on one level, to be, on another level, transcendent, coming
> out of an experience of reality (via Shi'a Islam) which was very real for
> them. Something, then, along the lines of 'spontaneous right action'.
>
> I determined to get to Iran and find out more about this, and, after writing
> a small book about the crisis, I left for Tehran in January 1980, determined
> to interview the main players. I was unable to see Khomeni during that visit,
> but I did enter the American Embassy where I spoke to the leader (a woman) of
> the students who were were holding the Americans hostageI didn't see the
> Americans, but they were not far away from where this interview took place.
> That visit resulted in another book, describing my encounter with various
> characters in Iran who were in positions of official leadership, or, as in
> the case of the Iranian students, exercising a decisive influence over the
> fate of that countryplus my observations of The Revolutionwhat it had
> wrought up to that time (since Khomeini's return from exile in France in
> 1979).
>
> However two years later I revisited Iranthis was after the Iran-Iraq war had
> broken outa war which resulted in 1 to 2 million deaths. It was at this
> time, March 1982, I had the opportunity to see Ayatollah Khomeini in the
> fleshand even afterwards, to be singled out from among all the journalists
> there, to have a one-on-one meeting with him.
>
> Now inside the experience and personal functioning of my enlightenment (what
> was Unity Consciousness) my orientation, my perceptions, my experience, and
> my actions were all determined by the state of my consciousness. I had no
> power to do anything else. Once I 'slipped into Unity' my personal freedom
> was taken away from me; or at least this was the empirical truth by which I
> lived my life. Now what Unity Consciousness does is to make one mystically
> sensitive to all the preternatural forces in the universethat is, as in the
> case of psychedelics, it makes one see levels of reality that one just never
> experienced prior to going into that state of consciousness, the state of
> consciousness which was the obsession of every devoted TM initiator (at least
> up until the mid seventies and early eighties this was the caseuntil the 5
> to 8 year time-line was contradicted by reality). Now once Khomeini came onto
> the stage I experienced an individual who was also in a *higher state of
> consciousness*. All the evidence for this was immediately manifest in his
> bearing, in his integrity, in his confidence, in his power. And the response
> to this individual was very similar to the response of devout initiators on
> rounding courses to Maharishi himself, only in the case of Khomeini, the Shia
> outbursts of reverence and adoration took the form of that notorious
> exclamation: Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! ("God is great!"from which
> Christopher Hitchens found the title of his book)TM initiators expressed
> their awe of Maharishi by usually just "closing the eyes".
>
> But you understand, then, that the collective consciousness in this hall when
> Khomeini entered and while he spoke, was no differentat the most important,
> and vital metaphysical level of realityfrom being in the presence of
> Maharishi on a rounding course for initiators. It is true that the audience
> was more demonstrative, but for me, I recognized the biochemistry, the
> psychology, the atmosphere to be the same say as Villars, Switzerland in 1973
> when Maharishi would visit us on our Teacher Training Course. The ultimate
> facts, as far as I could discern them, were the same: persons who were in the
> Khomeini audience (which included a large contingent of Revolutionary Guards)
> were primed through the practice of their religion, Shi'a Islam, to know, to
> detect, to be able to judge when a Shi'a religious leader was near to Allah,
> was in fact acting under the direct inspiration of Allah. Clearly they, like
> us with Maharishi, believed he lived in perfect intimacy to God. For me,
> Khomeini, although saying things that I did not believe, although adhering to
> a set of dogmas which were incompatible with my Hindu and Western allegiance
> [Think of the massacres that occurred during the partition of India in 1947
> based upon religious affiliation: Hindu versus Muslim: 13 to 15 million
> people lost their livesalthough officially India was established as a
> secular stateThese were mostly Sunni not Shia Muslims, but the differences
> (between Islam and Hinduism) were judged to be significant by the
> practitioners of these respective religions such as to kill each other on a
> mass scale. The same antipathy continues to this day between Shi'a and Sunni
> Muslims.],for me Khomeini *was speaking from the same place as Maharishi,
> the same place where I was experiencing my life and myself*. Khomeini was,
> therefore, 'Self-realized', and if you read his mystical writings, he talks
> about Allah as the Absolute, and describes the ultimate state of perfection
> in Islam (in Shi'a Islam, that is) as the unification of the personal self
> with Allah, which is The Absoluteand leaves no room for any final
> imperishable sense of individuality.
>
> So what was happening to me inside that hall was not unprecedented: I was
> seeing someone other than Maharishi manifesting the same level of
> consciousness: Unity. And if you follow my description carefully you can
> intuitively sense that I could be Maharishi himself when first seeing His
> Divinity Swami Brahmananda Saraswati of Shankaracharya (Guru Dev). In a sense
> I feel, by writing as I didas innocent as it wasI was trying to tell the
> world that "knowledge was structured in consciousness", that what Khomeini
> was, and the power he had to dominate Iran, was owing to his being in a
> "higher state of consciousness". I simply was registering this fact through
> my perception of him. Khomeini was a reflection of my own consciousness,
> albeit, like Maharishi, radiating more charisma and energy.
>
> There is an interesting sequel to that event (which I omitted from my book):
> Arrangements were made for me to meet Khomeini personally, alone in his
> house. However plans changed and it was understood that I would meet him
> outside, but only as he passed by me [No flowers proffered in this instance].
> He did stop to take my hand (he had been told about me, as devout Shi'a
> Muslims in the audience could not help but notice the effect Khomeini was
> having upon me), but when I looked into his face, something extraordinary
> happened: *His entire countenance literally disappeared; there was nothing
> there; no one*. Now at the instant this happenedKhomeini melting into a kind
> of nothingness when our eyes metI was completely bewildered and nonplussed.
> I couldn't understand what was happening; however I suppressed this dissonant
> or peculiar factsince I could not process it inside the way I was processing
> all the other data that has gone through my nervous system up till that
> pointand when I went to write about my experience I omitted this very
> bizarre and inexplicable event.
>
> Now I spent twenty-five years deconstructing my enlightenment, my Unity
> Consciousness, until now I can claim that although some of the wounds are
> still there from this spectacular alteration of my own personal
> consciousness, I do not apprehend the universe as one with my own self, nor
> do I feel my personal actions to be determined by anything other than my own
> free will, for which I am therefore responsible. I have, in effect, destroyed
> or undone the integrity of my enlightenment. But when I wrote the passage
> which was posted on FFL I was steeped in this Hindu reality. Transcendental
> Meditationand everything Maharishi added to thatcreated my enlightenment.
> Shi'a Islam, as practised by Khomeini, evidently produced his enlightenment,
> making it seem as it he was the Hidden Imam [what is the equivalent for Shi'a
> Muslims of the Second Coming], and the exemplar of someone who perpetually
> did the will of Allah [Maharishi in *The Science of Being and The Art of
> Living* speaks of the enlightened person as doing the will of Godwhat I
> would say was the will of the Impersonal God: the same with myselfnot, then,
> the Personal God]. But on that day in March of 1982 I was experiencing the
> verification of my enlightenment, because here was a human being exhibiting
> all the characteristics of enlightenment albeit inside a context which took a
> different outward form than my own enlightenment: Khomeini's being Shi'a
> Islam; mine being Hindu (with a Western dramatic theme of 'individuation'
> thrown in).
>
> Now were I to see Khomeini in my present state of consciousnessnormal,
> waking state consciousnesson that same day (March 1982), I would have
> perceived a human being who was fanatical, deceived, mystical, and ultimately
> dislocated from realityjust as I had been during the ten years in which I
> acted out my enlightenment. But from what I could innocently experience (and
> if you read the entire account from which this excerpt is taken you will
> realize, if you are a TM initiator from the late sixties and seventies, I am
> describing a phenomenon which is familiar to those of us who surrendered
> ourselves to what we thought was the Perfect Master, someone who was the
> embodiment of The Absolute) Khomeini was in the identical state of
> consciousness that I was. Just on a grander scale. Shi'a Islam had elevated
> him into a higher state of consciousness just as TM plus had done the same
> thing for me.
>
> I tend to believe in retrospect, however, that my personal encounter with
> Khomeini (after his speech when we met personally) tended to indicate that
> his formidable integrity was not as stable as it should have been, since the
> way he disappeared did not appear to me to be voluntary, nor the spontaneous
> expression of what was perfect or beautiful or indomitably real. Well, over
> the course of the past twenty-five years I experienced the breaking down of
> my own integrity inside Unity Consciousnessand it was a harrowing and
> terrifying and agonizing experienceI am sane nowat least I think I am,
> Barry,but the person who wrote that account of Ayatollah Khomeini, he
> wasalthough not subject to the critical consciousness of anyone I met such
> as to challenge my metaphysical integritymystically deceived, and living
> inside a context of reality which was created by intelligences and forces
> beyond his own control and understanding.
>
> I believe the same principle applied to Maharishi himselfin effect he
> started to 'disappear' as he got older, losing that immensity of grace and
> power and charisma that he received directly from his own Master. Because in
> the end reality understood and apprehended on its own terms is antagonistic
> to the very idea of Unity Consciousness or enlightenment.
>
> But the great tragedy of September 11, 2001, although master-minded and
> executed by Sunni Muslims, essentially originated in the mystical experience
> of this religion, and my account of what happened to me in watching Khomeini
> that day points up the profound difference between say, a radical Marxist and
> a Sunni suicide bomber. Iraq was all about the tremendous power of something
> mystical and violent challenging the integrity of something quite different:
> the world view that for me seems so much more real: the world view of the
> West. Although that war remains something almost unknowable in its final and
> perhaps terrible meaning. I would suggest what was posted on FFL today in
> some significant sense goes to what that mystery and horror and violence was
> all about: Persons believing and even experiencing that they have a hold of
> the Truth about creation.
>
> Ayatollah Khomeini, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Werner Erhard went one step
> further: They came to see themselvesand to convince othersthey embodied
> this Truth. I got out with my life.
>
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, iranitea <no_reply@> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend" <jstein@> wrote:
> > >
> >
> > > Robin's posts weren't always easy to read, but if you
> > > actually made the effort, they were exceptionally
> > > meaty and perceptive.
> >
> > <snip>
> >
> > > A number of the smartest posters
> > > on FFL were big fans of Robin, including raunchy and
> > > feste and Jim (although Barry would likely point out
> > > that the first two live in Fairfield).
> > >
> > > The reason Barry tries to put down Ravi and Robin is
> > > that both of them saw through him. Some of Robin's
> > > posts dissecting Barry were brilliant.
> >
> > Now, try to judge for yourself:
> > http://www.al-islam.org/al-tawhid/default.asp?url=kashkul.htm
> > (Robin describes his meeting of Khomeini)
> >
> > "Indeed I would say that the explosion of ecstasy and power that greeted
> > the Imam was itself not so much a simple reflex based upon a fixed idea of
> > the Imam; it was rather the natural and exuberant hymn of praise, of
> > celebration that was demanded by the very majesty and overpowering charisma
> > of this man. For once the door opened for him I experienced a hurricane of
> > energy surge through the door, and in his brown robes, his black-turbaned
> > head, his white beard he stirred every molecule in the building and riveted
> > the attention in a way that made everything else disappear. He was a
> > flowing mass of light that penetrated into the consciousness of each person
> > in the hall. He destroyed all images that one tried to hold before one in
> > sizing him up. He was so dominant in his presence that I found myself
> > organized in my sensations by that which took me far beyond my own
> > concepts, my own way of processing experience. I had expected-no matter
> > what the apparent stature of the man to find myself scrutinizing his face,
> > exploring his motivation, wondering about his real nature. Khomeini's
> > power, grace, and absolute domination destroyed all my modes of evaluation
> > and I was left to simply experience the energy and feeling that radiated
> > from his presence on the stage. A hurricane he was, yet immediately one
> > could see there was a point of absolute stillness inside that hurricane;
> > while fierce and commanding, he was yet serene and receptive. Something was
> > immovable inside him, yet that immovability moved the whole country of Iran
> > This was no ordinary human being; in fact even of all the so called saints
> > I had met-the Dalai Lama, Buddhist monks, Hindu sages-none possessed quite
> > the electrifying presence of Khomeini. For those who could see (and feel)
> > there could be no question about his integrity, nor about the claim,
> > however muted by people like Yazdi, by his people that he had gone beyond
> > the normal (or abnormal) selfhood of the human being and had taken
> > residence in something absolute. This absoluteness was declared in the air,
> > it was declared in the movement of his body, it was declared in the motion
> > of his hands, it was declared in the fire of his personality, it was
> > declared in the stillness of his consciousness. There was no mystery about
> > why he was so loved by millions of Iranians and Muslims throughout the
> > world and he demonstrated, to this observer at least, the empirical
> > foundation for the notion of higher states of consciousness. Yes, the
> > severity, the humourlessness, the absolutist judgement was apparent; yet
> > given the circumstances within which he was placed, there was the
> > affirmation of appropriateness in his every gesture and aspect. This was
> > the most extraordinary person I had seen."
> >
> > Now, now, I know it's long time ago, but who wouldn't immediately recognize
> > the same elaborate, over-emotional, overcast writing style, he also
> > exhibited here on FFL? That he changed his opinions, world-views a thousand
> > times during his life, and probably even at the moment you are reading this
> > now, doesn't do a damned thing, it just should raise even a few more red
> > flags, if you know the details, you know what I mean?
> >
>
