--- In [email protected], "sparaig" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In [email protected], "authfriend" <jstein@> wrote: > > > > --- In [email protected], "Rick Archer" <rick@> wrote: <snip> > > > Gentle means gentle. Just the intention to entertain the > > > mantra is a gentle effort, as compared with just sitting > > > there letting random thoughts run amok. > > > > That dichotomy is a specific situation that sometimes > > occurs: when you realize you've been having thoughts, > > but the mantra does not then come of its own accord. > > > > For me--and I believe Lawson has said the same thing-- > > the realization that one has been having thoughts is > > (or often is) indistinguishable from the mantra. > > > > As Lawson points out, the checking notes say that when > > one begins to meditate and the mantra arises on its own, > > that is "just the right start" to meditation. > > > > Sometimes it's necessary to use "gentle effort" to > > jump-start the mantra at the beginning of meditation > > or after a train of thought has subsided. So in that > > sense you could say TM involves "gentle effort." To > > suggest that it involves "gentle effort" *throughout*, > > as a rule for how to entertain the mantra, is just wrong. > > *AT MOST* it involves gentle effort. As I've said, its an > amazing thing: the way TM is taught, even the TM teacher > need not "get it" in order for the student to.
Which is why MMY is so insistent on the much-maligned "purity of the teaching."
