Richard, as far as I'm concerned, "if one can breathe, one can meditate." The mind is an endless playground. What it thinks it knows is simply feeding its high opinion of itself. I want to live my life based on core principles and a connection to life that stems from the heart and soul and informs my mind so that it *can* be aware. I do want to improve my character and I want my behavior to reflect my intentions as aligned with the *reality of life and human beingness*. Stilling the mind is helpful to get it out of the way and allow for this possibility to occur. Teaching and training my mind what to pay attention to and how to interpret experience is important also, imho. At this moment, this is my approach. TM isn't a necessary part of this approach.
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <punditster@...> wrote: Emily - According to MMY, meditation is based on thinking - "Anyone who can think can meditate". Meditation simply means "to think things over". Based on that definition, everyone on the entire planet meditates. Everyone pauses once or twice a day to take stock of their own mental contents. And, we're all transcending all the time, even without a special technique! There are a few things about TM that Barry and Judy didn't tell you about TM - it costs thousands of dollars to learn TM, and that alone wouldn't entitle you to get inside the golden dome at MUM for a group meditation. For that, you'd probably have to pay thousands of more dollars to learn the TM-Sidhi program. Barry posted that he paid over $5,000 in order to learn how to "bun-hop". However, there are lots of places you can learn how to meditate for free. Go figure. And, even if you did learn TM you'd probably be meditating on your own anyway. It's not likely you'd ever get to Fairfield, IA to just be able to join a group meditation inside the MUM women's dome, and there's only three other golden domes that I know of. One is down here at Radiance, TX, at the "TM Ideal Village" - the Maharishi Golden Dome of Pure Knowledge - home of the Super Radiance Program; and there's a golden dome at Skelmer's Dale - "Sidha Land" - over in Lancashire, UK; and there's a golden dome called "Siddha Dorp" over in Lelystad, NE. Not likely you'd be over there anytime soon either, just to be able to meditate inside a golden dome. So, I can speak from some experience having been initiated into TM back in 1964 - according to Beaulah Smith, I was TMer #214 in the U.S. I meditated with MMY himself on several occasions at the SRM and I have learned two advanced techniques from SIMS under Jerry Jarvis in 1965 and Brahmacharya Satyanand in 1968. Before I started TM I was a meditation student at the SRF under Swami Paramahamsa Yogananda in Los Angeles, CA, and I can say without the least hesitation that TM is very similar to the Kriya Yoga that I learned there. Later, I moved to San Francisco, CA and sat under Shunryu Suzuki at the SFZC for two years and then I sat for another year at the Shambhala Meditation Center in Boulder, CO under the direction of Lama Chogyam Trungpa. I've been meditating every day for over forty-nine years and I will attest that meditation is very similar in many different traditions. If you have any question about meditation I could probably teach you how to meditate in just a few minutes. It's not complicated. Self Realization Fellowship: http://www.yogananda-srf.org/ http://www.yogananda-srf.org/ San Francisco Zen Center: http://www.sfzc.org/ http://www.sfzc.org/ Shambhala Meditation Center: http://www.boulder.shambhala.org/ http://www.boulder.shambhala.org/ meditation – noun 1. to think calm thoughts in order to relax or as a religious activity: Sophie meditates for 20 minutes every day. 2. to think seriously about something for a long time: He meditated on the consequences of his decision. Works cited: 'Maharishi - A Promise for the Family of Man' Historic Lecture at Jones Hall, Houston, TX http://youtu.be/k3swI5n_mW0 Cambridge University Dictionary: http://tinyurl.com/dz5ut2 http://tinyurl.com/dz5ut2 On 11/30/2013 11:44 AM, emilymaenot@... mailto:emilymaenot@... wrote: Barry, you stooge. How do you know I never learned to meditate? You would be wrong on that count. I never learned TM, is what I've said. I am contributing to your "discussion" here by posting this link by Ellen Degeneres on meditation. While deep in meditation designing a pair of sunglasses for her third eye (or something like that) she monologues......."the teacher hits the gong and then I jump and I almost yell "Oh My God,", but because I'm smart I yell Ohhhmmmmm....."
