Pure "what if." NO claim to be "the truth" or any kind of definitive statement about the nature of TM or its real beginnings, merely a rap over coffee this morning in a French cafe.
I think that we've all figured out from Paul's research and other inputs that a number of different techniques for meditation and Self Discovery were taught and practiced in Guru Dev's ashram. Some of these techniques seem to have involved effort and intent, as they would have, coming from a strong yogic tradition in which those traits were consid- ered valuable. What if Maharishi was just never any *good* at effort and intent? What if the only way that *he* ever found to meditate was to sit there, occasionally thinking the mantra, but mainly lost in thoughts, in his case near-obsessive bhakti thoughts about Guru Dev? Knowing him as we do from working with him all these years and from his lectures, would it ever have occurred to him that there was anything *wrong* with sitting there for a whole meditation period lost in thoughts, with only a few scattered moments of transcendence and a few scattered "come back to the mantra" periods? I don't think it would. He would have found some way to *interpret* the near-constant thoughts as "something good is happening," because, after all, they were thoughts about his beloved guru. Bingo. TM. What if the whole genesis of the patented "effortless" technique of TM is that Maharishi was just never very good at effort? Other monks in the ashram could prob- ably sit for hours without a thought, lost in samadhi, but he couldn't. His mind was full of Guru Dev and the daily duties of secretary and lord knows what else. So instead of interpreting that mind full of thoughts as an indication that his ability to focus was less than adequate, and thus as a less than positive thing, he interpreted it as "something good is happening," and thus as a *very* positive thing. Again, I'm not saying that this is true, or "the truth," or any of those things that other people claim about *their* occasional wild-hair-up-their-ass theories here on FFL. This is Just Another Wild Hair Up My Ass Theory, written down over coffee, and probably never thought about ever again. But I am curious to see how some will react to it here. >From my perspective it's just a *different* way of looking at things -- mere speculation. I have NO attach- ment to it being anything BUT speculation. But I'm pretty sure some will see it as a *heretical* way of looking at things, one that is insulting to Maharishi and to all TMers, and to the glorious rediscovery of Cosmic Truth that is TM, and to them personally. If some folks react that way, so be it. Me, I'm just sittin' here Speculatin' Over Java...
