On Dec 20, 2005, at 9:48 AM, jim_flanegin wrote: --- In [email protected], Vaj <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On Dec 19, 2005, at 7:04 PM, jim_flanegin wrote:
--- In [email protected], Vaj <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
On Dec 19, 2005, at 4:30 PM, sparaig wrote:
-- In [email protected], Vaj <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
Actually, part of the point of the post was that although TM
uses
the
idea of the gap/sandhi to explain TM; in the full idea of what
that
entails, TM only goes as far as 1 or 1.5 out of 7. There are a
whole
slew of other methods beyond that to reach the big "E".
As a person offlist said to me that's what you call 'we were
given
one wheel, and lead to believe we had the whole bike.'
Ouch.
Or perhaps you only recognize one wheel even though all of them
are
inherent in TM.
Clearly this is not the case. It's amazing what clever marketing
can do.
Not sure how this fits into the bike analogy, but here goes:
When I read The Seven Levels of the Gap posting, I was struck
that I
could recognize my experience of the first level in the first paragraph; the junction between waking, dreaming and sleeping,
and
then pretty much zip until I got to the second paragraph of level 5: "your devotion changes to one of not knowing what's next", and then the second paragraph of step 6, especially, "This force of bliss pierces the skull and the body becomes the universe. This
is
automatic." and then step 7.
So my experience of TM, according to this menu, took me from appetizer straight to dessert. Maybe the other stuff has been
there
too, though if so, fleeting experiences that were either so
natural
or so transient that I didn't really notice.
Interesting point made in the second paragraph of step 5: "From
this
point on, there is no instruction given as to what to expect..."
None of the techniques are taught in TM unfortunately. Unless
you'd
actually experienced what these entail, my guess would be you're mistaking the map for the road. For example, at the third level
of
turiya you would have mastered the subtle breath and could go
into
breath suspension for hours or days at a time...
I was speaking above of my experience. I experienced the portions of the map I outlined above; that it was interesting to me that I could experience level one, then the next level I experienced was level five, then some of six, and seven. But nothing significant I can recall of levels two, three, and four.
Don't assume they are one and the same. There's a certain level of mastery where this will be able to happen.
Interesting that just as the seven states of consciousness that TM is aligned with don't necessarily happen in a steady and sequential manner prior to full enlightenment, so the same with these seven levels of the gap.
Well, two different things. You are assuming that the "seven states" are a true model. In fact this is a recent invention. The three higher states are three separate darshanas.
Which leads me to conclude that these maps are general guides to one's experiences on the way to Brahman, but a rigid adherence to them, or strict interpretation of them may not be the wisest course. In the case of the path for the seven levels of turiya it is a concrete path, with precise practices along the way. It's good to have meditative experiences, but we should also not jump to wild conclusions about what they mean.
As I said, unfortunately these practices and the specific nature of the experiences (and what they entail) are just not taught in TM. But I'm sure if anyone who practices TM experiences cessation for hours they'll want to study that! But that is not a level of subtlety we should expect for the practices we were given any more than we should expect the most expensive car we can buy to be able to drive us to the moon.
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