"True Believers tend to believe in Absolutist terms (either l00% true or 100% false) and they can't tolerate situations in which:
a. the truth is unknown b. the truth is midway between extremes c. simply unknowable d. variants such as true some of the time, but at other times not true, or true for some people but not others." Barry is a True Believer according to this definition, and I'm not. Point #4: * Nitpick them into arguing with you. Any nitpick will do, but the best is some kind of semantic nitpick about one or two words in something they posted that doesn't really have anything to do with the criticism you're trying to D-E-F-L-E-C-T. If you can get them -- or other posters -- all involved in a meaningless nitpick side argument that has nothing to do with the original criticism, they aren't involved in the criticism. You've won. From: "authfriend@..." <authfriend@...> To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2014 6:29 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: No Mantra will cure willfully arrogant stupidity What Maharishi told you, Geeze, was the association between the bija mantra and Saraswati. The bija itself is still a semantically meaningless sound (unlike the Sanskrit words that comprise the advanced techniques, which do have semantic meanings). FWIW, I've been on residence courses in which the teachers were asked directly whether the mantras were the "names" of Hindu gods. In both cases the teacher willingly explained that in Hinduism, the bija mantras were associated with Hindu deities, whereas in TM we drew no such association but simply entertained the bija as a meaningless sound. Checked in to see what was going on at FFL today and low and behold, it's the mantra meaning debate! I've posted this before some years back but for me it was settled once and for all back in 1976 when I received my 4th "advanced technique". I was waiting in line to see MMY when the guy in front of me, a friend of mine, said "ask him the meaning, he'll tell you." MMY gave me the new variation of my mantra (it was now Sri Aing Namah Namah) and I quietly said "what is the meaning?" MMY said "Glorious Saraswati I bow down to you again and again. {pause} Do not dwell." At the time I was totally thrilled since I LOVED the idea of worshipping the goddess Saraswati. It was only much later that I began to think about the fact that I had been telling all of my students that they were meaningless sounds. Many years later, when the mantra tables were revealed, it was easy to decipher the meaning of all of them.
