Xeno and turq, great discussion here and 2 points: first, my understanding of neti neti is that it's a phase on the spiritual path when one is subtly recognizing what enlightenment is NOT in terms of experience rather than theories as presented below. This phase is followed by another which could be characterized by the words: and this also, and this also.
Secondly, I personally find Maharishi's teaching great exactly because it is so simple and allows for wide variety of experience. As a map it gives, IMO, great overall directions which frees up one's attention and allows a person to enjoy the scenery all along the way. ________________________________ From: turquoiseb <no_re...@yahoogroups.com> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, August 26, 2013 3:36 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: How the deluded see the world.... --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Xenophaneros Anartaxius" <anartaxius@...> wrote: > > I am describing my own experience. That is all I have. snip An argument that will be lost on many here. The *most* common description of long-term TMers one encounters out in the larger spiritual marketplace is "Stuck in their heads." They've been given SO many maps that they have lost touch with the fact that at best they were crude representations of a territory, and in most cases one they've never walked. > Bear in mind that when dealing with enlightenment, one > is ultimately not dealing with rational discourse, but > dealing with a quality of life that underlies, so to > speak, everything else in experience, one attempts to > align with that, but one is not always able to apply > the intellect to a situation because intellect is a > subset of experience, kind of in its own little > compartment; it handles attempting to organise verbal > representations a wider world of experience, but is > not that experience, it's a filter for that experience, > which means something is cut out or blocked when it is use. Yup. What has often fascinated me is the number of supposed seekers who use "intellectual understanding" to *block* the very experience they're seeking. As far as I can tell, the more strongly people believe that they know what enlightenment is, the less likely they are to ever experience it. > If you fail to align with the wider experience, you try > again, and again. You are not polishing your intellect - > it might improve, or even get worse. You are polishing > something you cannot even see, kind of like a seagull > riding the currents of the air, learning to gracefully > move on a bedrock of mystery. I would characterize what you are describing more in terms of "neti neti" -- "trying on" different theories and then discarding them, one after another. snip
