---In [email protected], <LEnglish5@...> wrote :
So you're saying that an enlightened person loses the ability to descriminate between a flower and a duck? Or loses the ability to name things because they see the fundamental unity in the diversity? That reads like you've responded to the wrong post. What are you expecting as a reward for all this meditation? What I mean is that things don't change a whole bunch. Sure you get a bit more of something as well as what you've got now but it doesn't change what your senses are capable of perceiving. And this "fundamental unity" may just be a fancy name for a type of perceptive change similar to certain hallucinogenic states. I've experienced both, the TM one is nice but "fundamental" is stretching it as it isn't giving you any secret knowledge, just presenting what we all get a bit differently. L ---In [email protected], <[email protected]> wrote : ---In [email protected], <LEnglish5@...> wrote : The way Maharishi explained the "illusion of Maya" is rather different than what a lot of people understand. Consciousness is not an illusion, nor is what most people call "reality." The illusion is that there is a fundamental difference between them. This is the "veil of maya": a thin, non-existent membrane that separates the two which is merely an artifact of our perception of things based on having a nervous system. Full enlightenment is when you can full see on both sides of that non-existent veil. I'll go along with that, except for the bit about seeing everything on both sides after enlightenment. L ---In [email protected], <inmadison@...> wrote : This may be above my pay-grade, but if one is a transcendentalist/idealist, then belief in classic cause and effect is incompatible with that belief . . . or one has to significantly qualify what is meant by cause and effect. Many folks who refer to them selves as transcendentalists/idealists are actually dualists, or simply rebranded materialists (I am not suggesting you are) Regarding the 'illusion' - when you pick up an object, like an apple for example, what does your experience tell you? When I pick up an apple, I see it's color and shape, I feel the texture and if pressed with a fingernail - I can sense the sticky juice, I taste the tart sweetness . . . and I remember apple pies and so forth. My experience of the apple is passionate and lively - Where is the illusion? Toss in more awareness and all you get is more passion - there is no illusion. 'Illusion' is just India of old - we don't need no stinking illusion in the 21st century.
