--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, off_world_beings <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Since you like stories, and believe anything (except > with 'Maharishi' in the sentence), there was a person who could see > people's auras, and went to see Maharishi speak at the Albert Hall > in London, way back when. > > The person could not see Maharishi's aura, and thought that this was > very strange. She went outside later, (while Maharishi was still in > there) and realised that his aura was bigger than the Albert hall > and was emenating brightly as the aura around the whole big > building.
Yeah, I've heard that story, set in four or five *different* halls around the world. :-) All such perceptions are subjective. I carefully put at the end of my post "Your mileage may vary." I've met many people (including many here) who felt some extraordinary energy being radiated by Maharishi. I never felt anything terribly inter- esting, in fourteen years, whereas I *did* feel (and see) interesting energy being radiated by other spiritual teachers. My feelings about Maharishi and his state of consciousness are *not* based on any visual or energetic phenomenon. My personal "yardstick" for enlightenment is based on what it is like to meditate in the same room with the person. For me (which is subjective, of course, and not any kind of universal measure), if you are *able* to have thoughts while meditating in the same room with the teacher, their enlightenment is in question. I have sat with people with whom it is almost impossible to have thoughts in meditation while meditating with them -- the meditation starts in transcendence, continues in transcendence, and ends in transcendence, with at most one or two thoughts intervening, at the start and and the end of the session. With Maharishi, that was never the case. With other teachers with whom I have meditated, it was definitely true. What does this mean? Well, maybe nothing, maybe something. I just know that I have my preferences in life, and for me *no amount* of flash impresses me. I have witnessed levitation and someone disap- pearing and becoming completely invisible, and seen someone 'project the double' (one body is still standing in front of you and a second body is stand- ing some distance away, waving at you), and lots of other flashy stuff. My consistent reaction to seeing these things, once the initial "Wow, that's neat" was over, was always (and still is), "Big whoop! Show me the money." "The money," for me, is silence, the experience of non-thought plus awareness that is transcendence, samadhi. My feeling is that if a teacher can convey that and help his students to experience it, then *that* might be of use to the seeker. If you've experienced transendence for fifteen, twenty, thiry minutes at a stretch, without a single thought inter- vening, then in my experience that can of use to you in your own meditations, in achieving similar results when you are not meditating with the teacher. Miracles and other flashy stuff? Big whoop! What is the value to the seeker of having witnessed them, other than to make the point that such things are possible? Also, I think that there is a 'resonance' factor that enters this equation. Some people can sit in a room with someone who is famous for being able to 'radiate golden light' (this is, BTW, the very *definition* of the occult phenomenon that is attrib- uted to Sri Chinmoy, and that nabius says he saw around Chinmoy, Maharishi and Benjamin Creme), and they witness the phenomenon. Other people sit in the same room with the same teacher and see nothing. Nada. Bupkus. Therefore I have to assume that there is some *interaction* phenomenon going on -- some people are more able to see such flashy stuff with a par- ticular teacher because their perceptions are more attuned to the kind of energy that this particular teacher is able to emanate. Others can sit in the same room and see and feel absolutely nothing. Bottom line for me is that 'miracles' and being able to do flashy things with light and 'display auras' is just a cheap energy trick that has nothing to do with being enlightened. Hell, *I* experimented, back during the time I was teaching for Rama, with being able to 'emanate golden light.' All that it required was a certain level of breath control and then a channeling of the subtle energy a certain way, and students in the rooms in which I was teaching reported (without having been prompted) that they could see golden light radiating off of me. Again, big whoop! I wasn't enlightened; nowhwere near it. I had just learned enough fundamental energy control to be able to manifest that particular sidhi. I got tired of it really quickly, and haven't tried to practice it since, but you can understand why I don't put much stock in "tales of auras." I mean, really... you're read my posts...if *I* can do this shit from time to time, how 'special' is it really, and how much relationship to actual full-time, full-blown enlightenment can it possibly have? :-) :-) :-) ------------------------ Yahoo! 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