Phase transition maps are used in engineering to help planners decide the best course of action, given various parameters. For example (I'm making this one up but you get the idea.): Say a sandy stratum underground is saturated with oil. Would it be cost effective to extract the oil? We construct a phase transition map symbolically represented by a square with 4 corners (temperature, pressure, amount of oil per square meter, and permeability of the sand). Plug in the data which locates an "x" somewhere on the square. Also on the square is a line representing the cost effectiveness of drilling, "yes" or "no". If the x is located on the yes side, the decision is made to drill. If on the other side, don't drill...(you get the idea). Now to construct a phase transition map for Gurus, we have a square with 4 corners, and our parameters are 1. upper left: Personal. 2. Upper right, Impersonal. 3. Lower left, Progressive, 4. lower right, Direct or Non-Progressive. We then select a Guru or religion, placing an x somewhere on the square, after selecting a certain percentage from 0 to 1. For example, take the Hare Krishnas. This is way toward the Personal end, since this is a Personalist religion. It's all quite progressive. How about TM: This is philosophically impersonalist, being part of the Saivite Tradition of Shankara, ; and although MMY as a Personality is involved, I suspect that a minority of TM'ers are "devoted" to MMY in a Bhakti kind of way. The path offered through the TMO is highly progressive, so we can locate our x on the map somewhere. Non-progressive (for the most part) paths would be Dzogchen, and the Neo-Advaitins (especially HWL Poonja and his successors); most of whom trace their lineage to Ramana Maharshi. Now the line we draw on the map relates to the particular goal of a Guru, path, or religion. ; and the x oriented to the line denotes the effectiveness of the path in relationship to the goal. But remember always these words of Buckaroo Banzai: "whereever you go, there you are!".
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