--- In [email protected], "curtisdeltablues" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Spraig, I am disappointed. But by your logic you must contact both > the TM's Website and Doug Birx who both refer to the practice of > TM as "transcending". Your misinterpretation of what I said, > trying to apply it to the mechanics of meditation, as if I were > speaking during a checking session, is absurd.
Well, it's not absurd at all, of course. You said, "As far as transcending goes, I think that experience is also very overrated as a valuable experience." That phrasing very strongly suggests that you *were* referring to how you regarded the experience of transcending *during meditation*. If that isn't what you meant, you could have said so very easily, e.g., "I don't mean thinking of transcending while you're meditating as being more valuable than thoughts, I meant the value of the TM process in general." Instead, you decided to get snotty with Lawson when he brought it up and pretend that his comment made no sense. You also tossed in a bunch of red herrings, including the dual meaning of "transcending." You've said very similar things in other posts where the *experience of transcending during meditation* context was crystal clear (I've included a bunch of quotes from your posts to that effect at the end). They've been a major feature of your explanations of why you left TM. So when you made an almost identical comment in yet another of those explanations, the automatic assumption is that you were speaking in the same context. Bottom line, *if* it was a misunderstanding of ours rather than a mistake on your part--and like Lawson, I'm not at all sure it was--it was a natural misunderstanding, and again, one you could have clarified very easily. That you went into this elaborate song and dance instead suggests to me that you knew you had goofed but didn't want to admit it. Here are some quotes from your previous posts: I did have great experiences with the program. For me it was the interpretation of what those experiences and states of mind means that changed for me. I came to think that Maharishi's description of what those experiences mean epistemologically was flawed. That puts me in a weird place actually because most Atheist-skeptics have never had mystical experiences, so they think I am nuts when I describe the experiences I had with TM. On the other hand I can relate to the experiences of people in the movement and their attraction, but I do not value the experiences in my own life the same way. --- It delivered what it promised in terms of internal experience. It was the meaning of those experiences that was the question for me. --- [The Armstrong interview] has not changed how I view my own internal experiences from TM. I do have a great appreciation for the subjective experiences described in some scriptures because I have had compelling experiences that seem similar. I view them as facinating brain states without ascribing them with the epistemological meaning that I used to in the movement. I know what it feels like to have an experience so compelling that is seems like a self-evident truth in itself. But I don't think of them as more than an example of how amazing our brains are. I do not have a goal of developing my consciousness in this manor anymore. It is a valued experience, but not relevant to my world except as a fascinating adventure I took long ago. I value an ability for me to go inward to access a nice creative space, but that doesn't seem to require any practice, and once there I am only interested in the content of thought. That other people are still pursuing this goal makes perfect sense to me since it is an amazing experience. I experienced enough for me. --- [Paul Kurz's]his books helped me sort out my perspective options when I changed my view on what the epistemological implications of transcendent experiences. 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/
