There's nothing wrong with mindfulness practices, but given a choice between
doing TM twice a day, or doing mindfulness practices twice a day, I'd recommend
TM.
Mindfulness and concentrative techniques have their benefits, as Maharishi
liked to say, but such techniques tend to
1) suppress the functioning of the parts of the brain having to do with sense
of self, thereby reinforcing the "no self" perspective promoted by Buddhism;
2) tend to fragment the functioning of the brain.
TM, on the other hand, enhances the functioning of the brain having to do with
sense of self, and unifies the connectivity of between the self-centers of the
brain, and the rest of teh brain, thereby reinforcing teh "self is everything"
perspective promoted by advait vedanta.
TM tends to have greater positive effects on stress-related issues such as
anxiety and high blood pressure than mindfulness and concentrative techniques
do. Mindfulness tends to have greater effects on, well, mindfulness-related
issues.
Concentration, in and of itself, doesn't do much good for anyone, though the
brand of concentration called "compassion meditation" tends to make one feel
and behave more compassionately towards other people. But, again, that's a
task-specific outcome.
TM isn't a task per se and anything positive associated with its "practice" can
be explained in terms of stress management ("Yoga is the subsidence of mind
fluctuations" [that are brought about by the impressions from past experiences
that give rise to mental activity inappropriate for the present moment]} -Yoga
Sutras, I, 2) and strengthening the nervous system so that new stresses are
likely to take hold.
L
--- In [email protected], nablusoss1008 <no_reply@...> wrote:
>
>
>
> --- In [email protected], azgrey <no_reply@> wrote:
> >
> > It makes him really really nervous.
>
>
> Feeling the body and "coming back to your breath" would hardly make a student
> of real meditation "really really nervous"
>
>
>
> "Under direction of meditation leader Catie Ballard, they focused on feeling
> their shoulders, elbows, feet and the backs of their knees. They lay still
> until directed to open their eyes.
>
> "You can always keep coming back to your breath," Ballard said. "That's the
> hallmark of every type of meditation in the world."
>
>
> This Ballard is so ignorant he probably studied with a Buddhist lama with a
> very, very funny hat.
>
>
>
> >
> >
> > http://goo.gl/4gmF8j
> >
> > http://www.laramieboomerang.com/articles/2013/07/29/news/doc51f496a395e1d996538253.txt
> >
>
