On Mar 6, 2007, at 6:32 PM, claudiouk wrote:
Feeling rather disillusioned right now about enlightenment. Firstly on a personal level - a dead loss. Secondly as regards MMY even if he is enlightened there are just too many things that appear "wrong" about it to me - his mismanagement of followers and Movement resources & opportunities, his total lack of any aesthetic sense (witness the ridiculous music and lyrics he's promoting on the Maharishi Channel, which would immediately put off any curious onlooker!); the catalogue of tales of woe outlined in Fairfield Life, including insensitive & irresponsible dealings with distressed meditators and sexual misconduct from MMY downwards in the hierarchy, some of which MUST be true;
It does speak for itself in a lot of ways.
Mohammed's legacy of holy war and suicide bombers and the appalling mistreatment of women and other innocent victims at the hands of Islam - a complete turn off.
If you get a chance, see the film (now on DVD), _Islam: What the West Needs to Know_. You might just find the "turn off" had a basis.
Christianity and its obsessive tunnel vision about sexual morality and its pathetic history of unenlightened action - another religion down the drain;
They did build some nice buildings though! It is kind of ridiculous for us to have expected a religion whose primary symbol is a guy on a torture device to be peaceful...
Buddhism seems noble enough but Buddha never found a God and can only point the way; moreover the premise that action and reaction on a moral level requires other lifetimes to work itself through (in order to reflect how cause and effect are evidenced in the physical world) does not seem a logical necessity, especially in the absence of a moral God or evidence of morality in Nature as a whole. It is thus possible to agree with Buddha that life is suffering but to disagree with his solution, to eliminate it via Nirvana after lifetimes of purification.
Well that's not necessarily the case. Many people confuse Buddhism with sutric or Indian Buddhism...there are different flavors of Buddhism. My take, in a few words: to the extent that a brand of Buddhism is an awakening/enlightenment school, great, it succeeds; to the extent that it becomes a religion, it fails. I get the same thing from Hinduism: give me the pure yogic sciences, I can do without the Hindu Dumbo.
Finally the exchanges typical in Fairfield life lead me to conclude that many people have had more fortunate experiences than myself with TM, that such experiences may even be interpreted by the individuals concerned as hallmarks of enlightenment, but in the end what do they really signify?
There's a group of experiences that people tend to wig out on and confuse with the Big E, more often than not, that's what's going on. Part of the problem is also, IMO, the dumbing down of enlightenment traditions to make them seem simple and saleable: palatable to the masses. The ego can then make an easier jump AND people tend to hand around longer. But sometimes it just means the teacher is faking it and just being sketchy for that very reason.
There is an admission that enlightenment doesn't actually morally improve the individual - we see such individuals behaving childishly enough in FF Life. They are no great inspirational figures - no Gandhi or Mandela equivalents here. Neither of those in any case were more than great HUMANISTIC icons. What about the saints? I recently read a biography of St. Francis and was thoroughly disappointed by his limited Christian vision - tried to join the Crusades to convert the infidel Islamists. A Bin Laden equivalent of the Middle Ages, perhaps, although he seemed at least to have some truly mystical revelations. Anyway what I'm trying to say is that everyone thinks THEIR guru or scripture or religious prophet or saviour is so special - but from an objective perspective they are NOT truly enlightened and neither are their biggoted followers. If everything is relative there is still some scope in following a personal vision, following one's inner Light, for the enhancement of personal and social life, and it may still be true that some visions might be better than others, but unfortunately none so far has really stood out as really outstanding in a really thorough sense, from my perspective. Not sure how this will be received by FF Life - but makes little difference in any case!!
At least you've asked the question! -- perhaps the universe will answer it for you? Never was a big Jesus freak myself, but I have always found the formula 'knock and it shall open, ask and it shall be given to you' to be a workable one.
