--- In [email protected], "Kenny H" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > -I'm sorry for posting the ramblings of my mind from one > point earlier in the day. By the time I deleted it Judy > had already posted a reply and now you. I understand, > believe me, it was just some of the blather passing > through and I impulsively posted it.
I'm not sorry. It's a fascinating point. Maharishi *trained* his teachers to invoke this two-word thought-stopper. And so we invoked it, most of the time with the desired effect. It was a control freak technique then (when we used it, or when he did it first-hand, issuing some 'pronouncement' to stop a discussion that was leading somewhere he didn't want it to go), and it's a control freak technique now. I think that feeling a little ill when you hear it is a sign of mental health. > > On Jul 10, 2006, at 4:51 PM, Kenny H wrote: > > > > > I must have prefaced thousands of statements I made > > > with those three words for nearly twenty years. At > > > some point I started to feel a very faint note of > > > disbelief within myself everytime I heard myself > > > saying those words. That phase lasted for nearly > > > twenty years. Now, when I even see those words I > > > feel ill. > > > > > > Why-I'm asking-do so many people seem to still base their > > > lives/statements/beliefs, etc. on him and what he has said. > > > While I hold him dear in my heart as someone I deeply > > > loved and believed for so many years, at some point I had > > > to admmit that nearly nothing he said or promised had > > > ever materialized in my own life. You've answered your own question. *That* is why people keep repeating the phrase. For the vast majority of TMers, if they were honest with themselves they'd agree with you that very little of what Maharishi promised has ever materialized in their lives, and it *certainly* did not manifest itself in his organization. But they don't want to admit that; they paid for *hope*, not reality. So when reality intrudes into the conversation, they tend to use the two little magic words -- "Maharishi says" -- to stop the conversation from going any further. > > > Not only that but the overall influence of believing > > > what he said seemed to have caused a massive downhill > > > slide which took half a dozen years of really hard > > > personal effort to turn around. I'm a bit of a hard case on this subject :-), but I think that trusting *anyone* more than you trust yourself is the culprit here. The problem is not in trusting Maharishi and what he says more than you trust your own perceptions, it's trusting *anyone* -- any authority figure in the world -- more than you trust your own perceptions. The very process of doing this is, in my opinion, contrary to the process of enlightenment. Enlightenment is all *about* trusting yourSelf more than you trust anyone or anything else. It's about realizing that what you have sought has never not been present, and that all the seeking was just something to do until you realized that there was nowhere to go, nothing to gain, nothing to seek. That realization is *always* subjective, internal. It can never be fully understood intellectually; it can never be described in words; it can only be experienced. Thought-stoppers like "Maharishi says" are the way that some teachers KEEP SEEKERS SEEKING. A real teacher (IMO) is never disturbed by disturbing questions, even those that question the value of the path that they teach. *Especially* those that question the value of the path they teach. If they are really working from the platform of enlightenment, they know that the whole issue of "path" is bogus, just something you tell people until they realize that there is nowhere to "go," and no "path" that leads "there." > > > I've *surrendered* (for lack of a better word) to the > > > connection I have with him, but it's sure not one that > > > is based on credibility. One of the things that the cultist-wanabees who scream "anti-TMers!" have never understood, and probably never will, is that *many* of us who openly discuss the aspects of TM, the TMO, and Maharishi that we feel are negative and bad for people *still* feel a connection to Maharishi and gratitude to him for what he taught us. In my case, I thank him for taking a beginner on the spiritual path (at least in this lifetime) and teaching him a beginner's technique, one appropriate for someone brought up in a culture that offers its youth no training in how to control the mind. It *was* an appropriate technique for a while. When it began to be less appropriate (that is, when I'd begun to remember that there were other, more interesting techniques and modes of living a spiritual life out there, things that were not offered by the TMO), I left, and explored those other methodologies. To his credit, Maharishi *personally* never told me to stick around. That's good, because I would have had to laugh in his face and leave anyway. But many of his students did. They invoked the holy "Maharishi says" up one side of things and down the other until they were blue in the face, trying to convince me that I was going to Hell for doing something -- anything -- other than what "Maharishi says." *WHY* do people cling to that phrase, and use it like a club to beat down spiritual concepts and techniques that don't come from within the TM movement? Because they're AFRAID, that's why. They're afraid to think for themselves and follow the promptings of their inner being, so they rely on some authority figure onto whom they have projected wisdom and enlightenment. And they're even MORE afraid when this two-word juju doesn't work on someone who has decided to think for themselves. And what makes them the MOST afraid is when someone moves on from the TM movement and their life does NOT go to Hell, as they have been told it will. Bottom line, Ken, is that I think what you expressed about this particular thought stopper was Right On, and that your feelings about it today are rather healthy. We were trained, as TM teachers, to keep people on the "straight and narrow," and one of the techniques we were trained to use to accomplish this was the invocation of the dreaded "Maharishi says." And every time we used it to stifle creative, independent thought in one of our students, we drove another nail into the coffin of our own karma. Some people are still pounding nails. Be thankful you're not one of them, and that you react to this phrase the way it *should* be reacted to, with nausea. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Something is new at Yahoo! Groups. Check out the enhanced email design. http://us.click.yahoo.com/SISQkA/gOaOAA/yQLSAA/UlWolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
