--- In [email protected], Bhairitu <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > sparaig wrote: > > >--- In [email protected], Bhairitu <noozguru@> wrote: > > > > > TM is not that unique in its process. It is called "yogic > > > meditation" in other circles. The actual use of the bijas > > > particularly without OM is what is considered unorthodox. > > > > From what I've seen of how people describe other purportedly > > simple and easy meditation techniques, very few are actually > > simple and easy. > > All that says is you haven't seen very much. Hence my term > "spirituality sheltered."
It really IS pretty amazing, isn't it? This entire group of people who have never tried any other technique of meditation or self discovery but TM, many of whom have been too afraid even to *read* about any other technique but TM, and yet they consider themselves authoritative about the subject of meditation as a whole. It's one of the things that keeps me fascinated by TMers, after all this time. I mean, you've been around the spiritual block a bit, right? Have you *ever* encountered any other group that knows as little as your standard TMer or TM teacher and yet believes that they know so much? I keep coming back to the teaching analogy that Maharishi used to use, in my opinion ironically. He used to speak about the kid who goes to his first day of school and learns A, B and C and then comes back and teaches his siblings A, B and C, because that's all he knows. As far as I can tell, the entire range of know- ledge I ever read or was exposed to in the TM movement was just that -- A, B and C. Since leaving the TM movement and spending almost 30 years doing a lot of reading in other traditions, and studying directly with teachers who cover the subjects that can't be written down, I've probably encountered only seven or eight more "letters of the alphabet." In this lifetime I'll never learn even a *fraction* of the knowledge that is out there. But at the same time I've come to realize that (in my opinion) Maharishi himself was always seriously light in the loafers in terms of how much *he* knew. I honestly think that *he* was aware of only A, B and C, and knew little or nothing about the other "spiritual letters of the alphabet," the other 90% of the body of spiritual knowledge. His genius, if it could be called that, was to convince stupid Westerners that he knew more than he did, and to keep repeating endless variations of A, B and C for forty years. Doing this, he *not only* convinced most of the people listening that they were hearing the entire "alphabet" of spiritual knowledge, but *also* convinced them that *they* knew more than seekers from any other tradition. He kept people SO "spiritually sheltered" and isolated that they never could become exposed to anyone who could tell them, "Hey, I've listened to the stuff you talk about, and you never seem to get past A, B and C...don't you KNOW that there are other letters?" He created an environment in which fear of drifting "off the program" was so strong that most of his followers don't even have any *curiosity* about learning more; they're that convinced that they already know everything that is worth learning. It's a truly amazing accomplishment, in a strange sort of way... 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/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> 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/
