hermandan0 wrote: >trying to follow new.mornings posting inspirations, i've started a new >thread instead of intjecting this into the old one :) > >--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > >>--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "vajradhatu108" >> >> > ><snip> > > >>>Any meditation technique that relies on a object >>>of meditation, a mantra, the breath, etc. will by >>>it's very nature have some subtle effort (as Mahesh >>>acknowledged at Estes Park in regard to TM).* >>> >>> >>Of course, it's never been established that what he >>said at Estes Park ever "acknowledged" any such >>thing. >> >> >> > >I'm not sure exactly what the Estes Park quote is, but Maharishi was >quite clear that there is some "doing" in the thinking/picking up of >the mantra and that, yes, this is a contradictory to the mantra just >appearing on its own. That's why the the instruction to think or pick >up the mantra is qualified by saying "effortlessy" or "as effortessly >as a thought comes". Of course one is thinking and of course thinking >is doing. It may be an effortless doing, but it's a doing. > >While it may not be fair to dismiss TM as being a technique of >"effort" on account of that, vaj is, IMO, not incorrect in calling it >"subtle effort" becaue of that doing. To misunderstand this puts one >in the position of a meditator I once encountered who asked "What >happens if you sit there for the entire 20 minutes and the mantra >doesn't come?" Duh. > Nit-picking and over analyzing the method does not help anything either. When you sit to meditate you just introduce or think the mantra. What was trying to be avoided was forcing the mind on the mantra or any straining. That is the context of the checking notes. This is also the teaching in other traditions.
A properly enlivened mantra will enchant the mind anyway but if something is stirred up by the process it will usually express itself as thoughts. Folks might want to read Sivananda's "Mind - It's Mysteries and Control" http://www.dlshq.org/download/mind.htm which was originally published in 1936, years before Maharishi ever dreamt of becoming a monk and discusses the process of meditation in very similar terms. 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/
