Thanks for your reply. Comments interspersed. --- In [email protected], akasha_108 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Unc, > > I don't experience any conflict between practical life and things > like love and beauty. I a big fan of rigorous peer reviewed > research, I love the power of multi-variate statistics, have a > great distaste for logical fallacies, etc., and yet, > surprisingly, I also, without conflict, have an appreciation of > things that cannot be (readily) measured.
Me, too. > Naively perhaps, in your world view, I think love and beauty are > abundant in life In my world view, often there is nothing *but* love and beauty. > -- but cannot be readily measured. I find great > benefit from things such as sharing with caring friends, viewing > art, or great films, As do I. > ...despite the skepticism of non-participating backseat > observational comics who may feel that I am simply "making up the > imaginary benefits happening in my life". When I used that phrase, I was referring specifically to benefits attributed to having yagyas done for you. I don't know that it's true, but so far, on this group or any other, I have heard nothing that convinces me that they could *not* be made up. > Thats cool, as long as it > gets a good laugh from the audience. "Comedy" is another thing thats > hard to measure, but still a real and valuable thing, IMO. Probably more valuable than anything else, IMO. > And doing puja, especially 30 in a day while teaching people, I KNOW > has a profound effect. It doesn't need proof, but I doubt science > could mesure the effect. Just curious, do you feel any effect from > doing Puja? I ask, because your comments on yagya seem much more > attuned to one who not felt that thing, in my words, "blue smoke of > divinity" permeating the air and atmospherewhen puja is done. You are basically correct. I never got the "hit" from the puja that some have said they experienced. What I did experience has, since leaving the TM movement, had occasion to be measured against subsequent experiences. As a result, I don't really rank the experiences I had when performing puja 'way up there in the list of exper- iences I've had during this incarnation. That's not a putdown or anything; it's just the truth. I am *perfectly* open to this being a completely indi- vidual thing, and determined by one's predilection and maybe other factors. In other words, some people could probably compare the experiences they had doing puja to some I have have had and find the puja exper- iences more fascinating and subjectively "higher." > While I am guilty of having bought into this "whole boondoggle" of > love, beauty and puja "crap", I don't pretend to be objective and > scientific about those aspects of life. Sometimes you just have to > smell the roses. And the beauty of the rose is as real as gravity > but I don't try to prove it to you or anyone else. A wise decision. Such experiences really *can't* be proved. > And anyone who derides such, perhaps has way too much free > time, so concerned with what other people find of value. > > To tell you the truth, I didn't begin TM in Dr. Spock mode, I began > because I was spiritually seeking. So I don't really fit your model. > When I read MMY's Gita in the late 60's, he mentioned yagyas, it > struck a chord, I wanted to know more. 20 or more years later, TMO > Yagyas appeared and I was interested yet skeptical. I didn't do any. > Many reasons, the high cost, the idea of "buying indulgences" etc. > However, about that sametime, in my area, I came across a group that > sponsored annual yagyas by Pundit Sharma (some of you know him) and > I attended one. I loved the atmosphere. It had that "blue smoke of > divinity" feel. So thick, it seemed you could cut it with a knife. Cool. If you value that experience, whatever makes it happen for you is of value. Thank you for explaining. > The next year, I took a more active and sponsorship role in the > backyard yagya. Even stronger "feel" and intensity. Sometime later, > I started attending some yagyas sponsored collectively by a small > group Ben Collins had helped create. They were at the Malibu hindu > temple, done by priests long trained in India. As in the prior > yagyas, we were able to both observe, and participate, making many > offerings ourselves. Again, strong puja like effects. Cool again. Just as a question, do you feel there was a subjective difference in the experience of being in the same room when the yagya was being performed and your subjective experience of the yagyas performed remotely? > I also contributed a monthly donation for a collective sponsorship > of yagyas in Malibu and in India as part of this group. Life was > good, and afew unusual good things happened. I stopped after a > while, some less stellar things happened. It could all be > coincidence, who knows. I did know, I loved the feeling generated > when I attended the yagyas. > Around thistime, I started exploring some non TM teachers/mentors. I > liked them, I liked their "techniques". I loved their "darshan" -- > another thing I would not try to "prove" scientifically. Most of > them also offered yagyas, and said they were good things (but they > were priced quite modestly, to cover costs, not to make a profit.) > I tended to trust them and their insights. > > I did some larger personal yagyas with Pujanet. 3-4 large ones over > a period of amonth. I wrote a piece on the experience a while back > on FFL. In short, while not expecting much, a prominent experience > was as if a bright light clicked on internally during that period. > It felt like there was more "life" in life. Substantially more. As > far as improved external circumstances, who knows. I wasn't really > trying to cure "bunions". > > One mindset in sponsoring yagyas is "tit for tat". I do this to get > that effect. Another perspective, one that I tend towards, is to look > at yagyas as a gift of thanks to Nature. I mean, you don't always give > flowers to your girlfriend because you want to get lucky that night. > (Well I can't speak for you :) ) Sometimes, you just give her flowers > because you love her and want to do something to express that fullness > and appreciation. I view yagyas as beautiful art, something one can > simply give to nature, to the world. At a minumum, sponsoring yagyas > helps perserve a vast set of ancient traditions. That in itself is > worth a donation now and then. > > I offer up the preceeding observations with good feelings and > comraderie. I am not arguing your take on yagyas -- to each his > own. I am not trying to defend what appears to you as "odd and > irrational behavior". Just sharing a perspective. And thanks for doing so. It helps me to understand the perspective a lot more. Unc ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. 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