---In [email protected], <authfriend@...> wrote:
If I may comment, presumably the disciple doesn't know any better. How can the
disciple demand something he or she doesn't know is necessary?
FWIW, I've always thought Maharishi didn't give Robin the help he needed after
he'd had this profoundly transformative experience on the mountain. Robin
didn't think he needed any guidance, but he would surely have accepted it if
Maharishi had offered it.
Whether whatever Maharishi could have given him in the way of guidance would
have made a difference, I have no idea. But it's almost as if Maharishi wanted
to see what he'd do if left to his own devices. He kept close tabs on Robin
once he'd gone off to teach on his own in Canada but never interfered, and even
told Bevan to leave Robin alone when he came to MIU and started causing
trouble, leading Robin to assume he approved of what Robin was doing.
I sure could be wrong, but I'm inclined to put some of the blame for what
ultimately happened to Robin on Maharishi's hands-off approach.
I would have to say that if someone is putting someone else in a position
where they might be able to access other states of consciousness, where their
reality, their orientation to their world and their life can be substantially
altered by this "new" state of consciousness then this person who is, in some
sense, engineering or facilitating this change needs to follow through and
guide the newcomer within these altered/higher/different states. To give
someone a tab of LSD and then leave them to their own devices is only asking
for trouble if the 'tripper' becomes confused or freaked out or afraid. You
wouldn't hand a kid the keys to a bulldozer or put your grandmother on an
unbroke horse. Why would/should a spiritual teacher lead one to the precipice
of enlightenment and simply turn away and leave? If a teacher has the
'technology' to offer someone the means for such a drastic change their life
then they have a responsibility to guide them within the new landscape of their
consciousness.
<< emptybill, following up on your last sentence below, how is it possible for
a teacher to cheat a disciple "out of the self-evaluations necessary for real
sadhana." Surely the disciple has some say in the matter. Do you think this is
what happened to Robin? >>
This is what happens when experience itself becomes the object of sadhana
(practice) rather than conformity with Reality. It is the same old theme and
“gurus” just fool people when they cheat them out of the self-evaluations
necessary for real sadhana.
