Parroting is one of the ways we learn, but the object of education is to make the mind more flexible, to learn how to learn. One of the things I found objectionable about MIU was an emphasis, at least from some instructors, on saying things the way Maharishi said them. I came into understanding this consciousness thing by way of Zen, Sufism, and a few other things, and Maharishi's explanations eventually added another layer of jargon.
The point is to get through the jargon — you have to use some jargon in this business — and find a way to express yourself that truly represents what you experience. If you have no experience, you only have the jargon. As it turned out for me, no system of description really nails what happens in experience or adequately covers what one knows. After a time, the pile of jargon, which one does retain, becomes a resource which one can combine and recombine at will, and the wider the selection one has, from as many sources as one has, the more closely you can match those terms to your experience. I recall many instances from my time in the movement when people would jump on me because I did not use movement jargon verbatim or used terms and concepts from other traditions. Also I was approaching the age of 30 when I learned TM, so a lot of that pliability of manipulation you find in younger minds was already in retreat. Kids coming up through the Maharishi School etc., are going to have a problem in later life. I went through public schools, had rejected spirituality as having any relevance by the time I was in high school, and when the spiritual side of life came into my awareness by a totally non-verbal experience when I was in my late twenties, I had absolutely no way understanding what it was about, just an intuitive feel that I should pursue it. Now I find some of Maharishi's terminology useful, but my experiences did not unfold in the linear way his descriptions seem to imply. And I discovered that most of things Maharishi associated with TM, like world peace, happiness, health, etc., were really mostly irrelevant in the pursuit of enlightenment because they only appeal to the ego-infested state of experience. ________________________________ From: "TurquoiseBee turquoi...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: "FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Thursday, September 4, 2014 12:30 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: MIU Promo Video 1981 Dr. Pete [...] "I helped produce several videos for various MIU functions in the 1980's and it was always a problem to get people to talk about their experiences in their own words rather than in TM jargon. It was the worst with people 'higher-up' in the movement..."
