--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Buck" <dhamiltony2k5@...> wrote: > > It's very important the environment that we keep. Group > meditations are really important. In group meditations > you get the advantage of the energy of the other person, > and the devotion of the other person, and the perseverance, > and the will of the other person, and you are absolutely > inspired. So, group meditations, seek them out!
Can't argue with Buck's logic here, if what you want in a spiritual movement and out of life is (to reference the Bertrand Russell quote on the FFL Home Page) to cultivate the "will to believe," as opposed to the "wish to find out." By all means, if the most important thing to you is to think the way the people around you think, believe the things they believe, and act the way they act, file into the Domes twice a day and immerse yourself in these other people's "energy" and "devotion." After all, we all know that "coherence," as the term is used in physics, involves lots of electrons lining up and marching in lock-step together, not one of them acting as if they had any individuality or personality or worth on their own. The only important thing is that they all do exactly what the other electrons are doing. So it is with "coherence" in the social/sociological setting of the Domes. If your highest goal in life is to be just like everybody else around you, you simply MUST meditate in groups with them every day. Skip a day, and you risk <shudder> having ideas of your own, or doing things that might be considered by your Betters as Off The Program. Can't have that... More seriously, although almost everyone (even me) might admit that there is a perceptible value in meditating with a group, it might be of interest to some here that some spiritual teachers in traditions other than TM *discourage* participating in group meds more often than, say, once or twice a month. The reason is that they have found over time that those who do it more often become "lazy" about their own meditations, and rarely make any progress in being able to have deep meditations when *not* in a group. They "ride the energy" that they pick up from the group, and "coast" with it, rather than doing what might be necessary to have just as deep and profound a meditation on their own.
