--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "jim_flanegin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend" <jstein@> wrote: > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "jim_flanegin" <jflanegi@> > > wrote: > > <snip> > > > Perhaps it is the self-sufficiency of TM that bothers you- no > > > complex intellectual traditions, or direct transmissions from the > > > Master needed. Just plain old TM leading to plain old Realization. > > > Complete, eternal, and timeless. Simply Everything. Could it be > > > that easy? Yep. > > > > And not nearly elitist enough. > > > > You nailed it. > > > Hi, I am actually OK with Vaj getting a lot of benefit from his > technique(s).
I don't think any of us are against anybody getting a lot of benefits from whatever their practice is. I am long past the immature notion that in order to > believe in my own practices as the best for me, they must > therefore be the best for everyone else, and conversely, > no one else's measure up to mine. > > I also appreciate a thoughtful challenge to TM or definitions > of enlightenment, or anything else for that matter. > > What comes across though in Vaj's postings though is a > consistent message that TM and the states of consciousness > it produces are somehow forever flawed, and by inference he > has found the one true way. To be fair to Vaj, I think that's a bit of an exaggeration. As I understand him, he believes not that the states of consciousness TM produces are flawed per se, but they're simply less advanced than those of the techniques he espouses. And I don't see him saying what he has found is the "one true way," just, again, that it's more advanced than TM. I suspect there are quite a few other paths he'd put in the more-advanced-than-TM category besides his. What's problematic is that whenever he makes some assertion about TM, it becomes clear that he is not *knowledgeable* about TM, either the techniques or the states they produce. He also contradicts himself frequently, much as Barry does. Just yesterday, he made the otherwise excellent point that you can't really compare enlightenment across paths, and then proceeded to do exactly that regarding TM and his own path in his very next post. It's just about impossible to see him as the authority he presents himself as, especially given his unpleasantly, arrogantly patronizing, meanspirited tone. Again, though, I think you nailed it when you suggested that what appeals to him about his own path is the *packaging*. Comparatively speaking, TM comes in a plain brown envelope, the contents to be made of what you will (unless you happen to be into Burger King mode, which most of us find pretty silly anyway).
