On Mar 2, 2007, at 9:40 PM, authfriend wrote:
Here's the source of Vaj's claim that MMY
"corrected" the "misperception" that TM was
supposed to be effortless (from a post by Rick
Archer in a discussion of effortlessness back
in March 2004):
"On my TTC MMY quoted the Vedas, with reference
to meditation, as saying 'Be easy to us with
gentle effort'
"He didn't want to elaborate too much on this,
probably for fear it would be misinterpreted, but
he said it."
As I commented at the time:
"Obviously we'd need a great deal more context to
know whether Maharishi was using this quote to
describe TM as involving some effort. Who is being
addressed in the quote? It appears to be a request
of some kind, but who is making the request, and
of whom? And how would one entity making a request
of another entity to 'be easy to us' relate to TM?
"There may be some connection, but it certainly isn't
obvious without the context."
(And I'd add, What was the specific question or
comment that elicited the Veda quote from MMY?)
We never did find out what the context was.
To conclude, as Vaj does on the basis of this
isolated quote, that MMY was correcting the
"misperception" that TM does not require effort,
and repeat it as if it were established fact, is
entirely baseless.
And if Vaj is wrong, it does an incalculable
disservice to those reading who are uncertain
about the issue of effortlessness in TM,
assuming they take Vaj to be some kind of
authority.
ROFLOL.
Actually the basis of effortlessness in meditation is clearly
explained in the tradition of Patanjali (which <ahem> Judy must've
missed somehow).
Oh well. Everybody already knows.
