Yup. The TMO was selling "access" to something that *is going on at all times, for everyone*, and marketing it as if it were something new.
To me, "transcendence" simply means looking past the distractions that we have invented to convince ourselves that total silence is NOT present at every moment. At first we "undistract" ourselves only for a few moments, and the distractions are so addicting that many don't even notice these moments. As you say, it sometimes takes an extended period of thoughtless samadhi (several minutes or hours) before one notices it, recognizes it as "transcendence," slaps oneself on the forehead, and recognizes that it has been present all along. From: aryavazhi <no_re...@yahoogroups.com> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Wednesday, December 24, 2014 12:05 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] The real nature of transcendence It's more like a fun thing, but it does contain some good insights. The part about the surprise egg, starts at min 3, and here the point is an extension of what he said earlier, here his point is that the actual consumer good is the chocolate at the surface, the surface, while the plastic toy in the middle, which is in the 'void' of the egg, is just a cheap plastic thingie, which sort of resembles the higher value. These things are actually known since long by marketing psychology, but they show how our mind works, and that's very true for spirituality or religion as well. You could argue in a similar way, that a special experience, that of transcending thought, is marketed by the TMO as the attainment of transcendence, but in reality, that is just the idea connected with it. To attain real samadhi, it would have to last longer, and it would have to be really fully conscious, that's IMO. #yiv2683994543 #yiv2683994543 -- #yiv2683994543ygrp-mkp {border:1px solid #d8d8d8;font-family:Arial;margin:10px 0;padding:0 10px;}#yiv2683994543 #yiv2683994543ygrp-mkp hr {border:1px solid #d8d8d8;}#yiv2683994543 #yiv2683994543ygrp-mkp #yiv2683994543hd {color:#628c2a;font-size:85%;font-weight:700;line-height:122%;margin:10px 0;}#yiv2683994543 #yiv2683994543ygrp-mkp #yiv2683994543ads {margin-bottom:10px;}#yiv2683994543 #yiv2683994543ygrp-mkp .yiv2683994543ad {padding:0 0;}#yiv2683994543 #yiv2683994543ygrp-mkp .yiv2683994543ad p {margin:0;}#yiv2683994543 #yiv2683994543ygrp-mkp .yiv2683994543ad a {color:#0000ff;text-decoration:none;}#yiv2683994543 #yiv2683994543ygrp-sponsor #yiv2683994543ygrp-lc {font-family:Arial;}#yiv2683994543 #yiv2683994543ygrp-sponsor #yiv2683994543ygrp-lc #yiv2683994543hd {margin:10px 0px;font-weight:700;font-size:78%;line-height:122%;}#yiv2683994543 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