---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <no_re...@yahoogroups.com> wrote : What's the other one, besides 'cunt', Barry? I don't think anyone has issues with those words, whatever that second one is - until you use them to insult people - then it obviously upsets your target, and makes you sound terribly crude, and ignorant.
You believe that using the word 'cult' makes a person sound terribly crude, and ignorant? Go figure. :-) 'cunt' is just a word, but no one likes to be called one. So, if your point is that people just plain don't like hearing the word, 'cunt', I think you are way off - sounds to me, like a rationalization by someone, who, on the one hand wants to be nasty and abusive, and on the other, doesn't want to own it. So you convince yourself that you are the free spirit, among the prudes, when in fact, *you* are the only one to whom the epithet, 'cunt', applies, on this forum. Have a nice day, and please, watch your language. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <turquoiseb@...> wrote : I suspect that anyone who has followed this forum for any length of time knows that a lot of the TM adherents here have issues with a couple of C words. But relax...I'm not going to rap about them again. On my day off today, I'd like to rap about a third C word that I suspect many TMers here also have an aversion to -- concentration. If I asked most TMers what that word "concentration" means, with regard to meditation, I'd be willing to bet that I could predict in advance what they'd say. This is no big psychic achievement on my part; I know what they'd say because I, like them, was taught *what* to think and say about that word, by Maharishi, and by his organization. Stuff like: "Concentration is the opposite of TM, which has its basis in effortlessness. Concentration involves effort. It's a form of straining, trying to keep the mind focused on one thing, and thus contrary to the rule we all know is true about the 'natural tendency of the mind.' Concentration causes strain and headaches, and actually *prevents* transcendence because that process has to be effortless and concentration by definition involves effort." They'd probably throw in a hearty, "So there." :-) And the thing is, most of these TMers would be saying these things *without ever having practiced a form of meditation that involves concentration in their lives*. Me, I have, so I can speak about it...whereas they cannot. Be warned. Here be heresy and offtheprogramnessitude. :-) I have a different definition of concentration, one that seems to me not all that different from TM's instruction: "When you become aware that you are not thinking the mantra, effortlessly come back to it." My version of this, used to describe many of the so-called concentration meditation techniques I practice, would be: "When you become aware that you are thinking *anything*, effortlessly come back to silence." That's it. No mantra, no other object of focus, nothing to concentrate "on," as the term concentration is usually misdefined by TMers. I just come back to silence. The instruction I think that is *missing* from the TM instruction above is the second half of it: 1. "When you become aware that you are not thinking the mantra, effortlessly come back to it." 2. "By the way, you can get *better* at becoming aware of things like this, and thus notice them more quickly. Doing this increases the strength of your mind, and allows you to 'come back to' whatever it is you're coming back to more quickly." I don't "concentrate" on anything when I meditate, I merely express a preference as to what I 'come back to.' I come back to silence. And just as I say above in #2, I have found that making the decision to do so is just as effortless as coming back to the mantra in TM, and that as I practice making this preference it becomes more easy *to* notice when I am thinking anything more quickly, and thus come back to silence more quickly. Now I know that this might be considered heresy to some TMers here, because they've been taught to believe that they're actually meditating when they're sitting there lost in thoughts. These thoughts are good, they've been taught, because they indicate the release of stress. Thus having a mind full of thoughts during meditation is not only "real mediation," it's good for you. Me, I don't believe this. I believe that you're only experiencing "real meditation" when you're not thinking. So when I meditate, I prefer techniques that allow me to access that state of no-thought more often, and for longer periods of time. Since it involves intention, you might still call what I do "concentration" if you want, but I don't think it fits into your "straining" definitions of that term. I just prefer silence. There is no "strain" involved in re-establishing that silence, merely a willingness to notice -- and prefer -- what is already present.
