--- In [email protected], "jim_flanegin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In [email protected], kaladevi93 <no_reply@> > wrote: > > > > --- In [email protected], "nablusos108" <nablusos108@> > wrote: > > > > > > Vaj is a fraud. > > > > > > He has no knowledge whatsoever about what he is writing. No > knowledge > > > of TM, the TM-Sidhis or the mechanics of structuring higher > states of > > > consciousness with Transcendental Meditation. > > > > > > Unfortunally for him, he is just a silly Budhist fundamentalist. > > > > > > His motivation is to demonalize TM and Maharishi whatever the > costs to > > > his evolution. > > > > > > > > > Having practiced under numerous yogis I find Vajs comments on real > yoga "spot on" and > > informed. But this is beyond what most TM people would be able to > comprehend, > > especially TB's like you find here on this site. > > > > Maharishi OTOH has to outsource TM-Sidhi people from India there > are so few people who > > even consider it worthwhile anymore, so draw your own conclusions. > The truth of the > > matter is we were simply not taught any of the detailed aspects of > yoga in TM or in the > > TMSP. > > > It is one thing to dive into spiritual knowledge deeply, learning > all of the component parts and their relationship to one another. > However it is misleading in my opinion to then trot out one's > knowledge of same as to make another's path appear incomplete. > > The genius of Maharishi in my opinion has been to bring out just > enough knowledge to make liberation possible. It is the strength and > purity of the TM and TM-Sidhi techniques that make this possible. > Additional study is a choice for some. For others, such as myself, > it is of little interest. And yet the goal can still be reached with > TM. > > Just because "Vaj" chooses to investigate and share sparingly the > esoterica of his path doesn't make it suddenly more valid than TM. > Nor has he reached the goal of liberation. He just makes the choice > to seek liberation in his own way. No better or worse than TM. His > remarks denigrating TM are a reflection of his lack of ultimate > success rather than an accurate comparison between his chosen path > and those choosing TM and the TM-Sidhis program. >
More to the point, just because Vaj CLAIMS to have something special, doesn't mean that he does. Consider the Yoga Sutra verses I quoted that he says means one thing rather than another. Along with the actual verses, there were 6 translations, many of them quite different from each other. Additionally, the author of the website had included various commentaries by famous scholars and sages, many of whom disagreed with each other which I also quoted. Which one, if any, was the "correct" one? Were all correct? Were none? Vaj claims that HIS interpretation is the only correct one. I claim likewise. We both may be right or wrong or whatever. On the other hand, Vaj keeps on alluding to research on the "fourth pranayama" and when challanged, either admits that it doesn't exist, or trots out studies done "in the field" which have never been replicated under laboratory conditions. This is interesting, because one vrey recent study was published on 11 experienced Buddhist monks where the tests WERE done in the lab. Some signs of very intense concentration were found, but apparently no drastic metabolic changes. Now, the researchers may not have been looking for them, but I would be greatly surprised to learn that given the unique opportunity presented, they hadn't hooked them up to every bit of equipment available. In other words, given the unique opportunity to study 11 highly experienced monks in a well-equiped lab, either the researchers tested everything they could think of and reported the single major thing found (high gamma EEG coherence), OR they only tested one thing, period. Shame on them if they failed to take advantage of their opportunity, but regardless, there STILL isn't any lab-evidence provided of these unique metabolic states and even should such arise, it STILL says nothing about samadhi or the "fourth pranayama" at least as *I* interpret the term. Yoga is quellling of mind-fluctuations, to quote Patanjali. This can easily be explained as saying that samadhi is the reduction of the activity of the thalamus to lower thalamic- cortial feeedback loops even though the brain remains alert. Intense concentration is NOT quelling of mind fluctuations. And in fact, during the meditation practice of intense Buddhist concentration, the activity of the thalamus goes UP, as you would expect. During samadhi in TM, according to research AND theory, the interaction of the various parts of the limbic system induces a period of apparent breath suspension, or at least marked reduction in breathing, THIS spontaneous marker of samadhi is the "fourth pranayama," in my opinion. It is quite plausible that pranayama exercises might induce it by directly affecting various parts of the limbic system and thereby inducing samadhi from THAT direction, rather than via using a mantra, but the end result would be the same: a drastic reduction in breath rate or apparent suspension, accompanied by a reduction in the activity of the thalamus while the brain remains alert.
