--- In [email protected], hermandan0 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I don't know about the lecture Rick refers to and the "context" > of the quote, but I have many times seen one of the Humbolt tapes > where Maharishi was asked about this. I paraphrase, but it's > pretty close. The questioner asked--We are told to think the > mantra as effortlessly as we think any other thought. If I'm just > sitting there, thoughts arise by themselves, but I actually have > to think the mantra and that seems like a contradiction." > > Maharishi replies--Yes, you are right. It is a contradiction. > When we think the mantra we are doing something--we pick up the > mantra. That's why we qualify it immediately with the next > instruction "as effortlessly as a thought comes." We are doing > something. We pick up the mantra. But we do it effortlessly. > > The same message is in the first day checking tape where Maharishi > says "We don't sit waiting for the mantra to come, at least we open > the door." And "if the mountain doesn't come to Mohammad, Mohammad > goes to the mountain," in the same context. > > And new meditators are told TM goes "almost by itself." Not > completely by itself; almost by itself.
And it may indeed be "completely by itself" after some significant length of practice (or even, for some, right away). > When the habit of meditating becomes so ingrained that the mantra > starts seemingly without intention when we close our eyes, Or even during meditation. well and > good--that's just effortless thinking. It's even in the checking > notes. All this reflects my understanding. Great summary. > The whole question is elementary and not really worth arguing > about. It doesn't mean TM is a concentration technique and there > is some huge lie or a plot to fool stupid gullible TMers who are > too dumb to know the difference between effortlessness and effort, > nor is it a great crack in TM dogma or theory if we admit it. It > just is. To insist, as Vaj does, that TM involves effort to any greater extent than is indicated in your summary may not be intended to "fool" TMers, but it can have the effect of misleading even the most intelligent of them. To suggest, as Vaj does, that TMers are lying or unthinkingly repeating dogma when they say TM is effortless is really beyond the pale. I would be willing to bet that a significant percentage of those who quit TM do so because they never quite got the effortlessness bit. It may be "elementary," but it isn't obvious to everyone. Plus which, what effortlessness means experientially changes as one continues to meditate over time. It can be perilously easy to slip into exquisitely subtle effort as meditation becomes more and more refined.
