It sounds like you were there a little earlier than I was. I knew Mike Tompkins in Durham. The Eleanor you recall was Eleanor Burns, I think her last name was; she married David Laird; I think they may still be up in the northeast. I Since I do not know who you are I do not know if we ever met. I remember Ella Searls, who was a political science professor at Newcastle. Ian Taylor in Durham. These may be later people than the ones you remember.
---In [email protected], <s3raphita@...> wrote : ---In [email protected], <[email protected]> wrote : No, I do remember him. Mike Tompkins, a Yank who found himself up there in Geordieland, where the vowels are short and the winters are long. I never knew how he got to be there, but he did a good job. He was usually very serious but he had a good, deadpan sense of humor. I'll be damned. I left the area about the same time they started moving matresses into the top-floor rooms of the TM centre for the newly introduced sidhi programme. Who else can you recall? Or did you meet Mike on his return Stateside? There was a Wendy Waddoup; a gentle teacher from Durham (Eleanor?); a big-time supporter who owned a hotel Whitley Bay way. Did you ever go on any of the rounding courses on Lindisfarne or elsewhere? Curious if we ever met. I wonder if Mike Tompkins is now a disillusioned poster to FFL . . . One time he had some business cards printed up with the wording "Mike Tompkins, MD" and the printer screwed up so they came back with the legend "Mike Tompkins, VD". They all had to go in the trash can. Wish I'd kept one of them now! ---In [email protected], <s3raphita@...> wrote : ---In [email protected], <[email protected]> wrote : I remember him well. Was that a dig about the ubiquity of embarrassing TM teachers or do you really recall my Newcastle Yank? (I think his name was Mike . . ?) ---In [email protected], <s3raphita@...> wrote : I recall back in the day having a one-on-one discussion with the local TM teacher for Newcastle upon Tyne (he was a Yank and an excellent and committed teacher) when he suddenly leaned forward and said to me quietly: "Have you ever transcended?". It was an embarrassing moment. It felt such an intimate question, as though he'd asked me if I was still a virgin. I think that those who had transcended rather preened themselves and looked down on those who hadn't yet crossed the threshold. (Funnily enough, I myself had moments of "boundlessness" during the waking state before I ever had such an experience during a TM session itself. Is that a rarity?) Anyway I wanted to sound people out about what they understand by "transcending" during meditation. Considering that our common practice is called Transcendental Meditation, and so we're talking about a fundamental part of the theory, it's amazing how different are people's understanding of this basic event. Some people understand that "transcending" means: 1) simply the on-going stream of thoughts, images and mantra repetition during a meditation period. There's something to be said for this view. It's just that the "moments" of transcending are brief and not conscious, but probably just as effective for all that. The point of TM is not to have esoteric experiences but to refine the nervous system so you are more effective during your daily life. 2) when you end your session and the time seems to have flown by and you remember after the event that there were jumps in awareness between the clusters of thoughts. They could be "sleep events" but your head hadn't dropped forward as usually happens during sleep and there is no post-meditation feeling of grogginess. 3) that sense of suddenly dropping down a steep slope - rather like the jerk that sends shivers down your spine when you're falling asleep at night but suddenly experience a jolt that awakens you. 4) What I think of as "warm sensations" in the mind - it's as if you've suddenly jumped from one cluster of brain cells to another group. This one's hard to explain but I know what I mean! 5) a period of complete cessation of all thinking or image-producing tendencies of the mind. The emptiness and boundlessness is paradoxically at the same time a sense of fullness. No thinker = no thoughts, so you can't be self-consciously aware during transcending. No doubt there are other alternatives to those listed (let me know if there are) but I think No 5 is closest to what MMY had in mind. And that is no doubt also what my teacher had in mind many moons ago. Any thoughts? Or are you still a virgin?
