--- In [email protected], nablusoss1008 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> --- In [email protected], TurquoiseB <no_reply@> wrote:
> >
> > The best bar I've ever had the privilege of
> > sitting and writing in is no more. It was Windows
> > On The World, in the World Trade Center. *Magnif-
> > icent* ambiance. The next best bar I've ever been
> > in is the bar at Yab Yum in Amsterdam. This may
> > be a stretch for those still attached to the puri-
> > tanical ways of the TMO; Yab Yum is a brothel,
> > the highest-class brothel in Amsterdam, at the
> > time I was going there. But, it's also the kind
> > of brothel where you might run into the Stones
> > at the bar, or politicians from major countries
> > of the world. It's a real trip.
>
> Man, how prejudiced you are.
Me? I used to *hang* at Yab Yum. Never sampled
the merchandise, other than the beverages, but
I really enjoyed my time there. Some fascinating
conversations, and some good writing that came
out of those conversations.
> Around about 1978 (+-) there was this rare Yogi who visited
> Seelisberg. Almost every night Maharishi let him lecture in
> the Main Assembly Hall. All he would talk about was unity
> in all it's facets.
> Evening after evening. Unity, unity, unity and the need for
> seclusion to reach that state.
> Nothing wrong with that, the Yogi, who's name I no longer
> recall, was obviously firmly established in that state.
As (I think) you point out below, if he was so
"firmly established in that state," what was it
about Unity that he couldn't find in the bar?
> One day Maharishi told his secretary to take the fellow on
> a trip to Lucern. And he was rather surprized to suddenly
> find himself in a well known bar in that city where the
> secretary insisted they should spend quite some time.
> When the Yogi's time in Seelisberg was up and he was going
> home to India someone asked him how his stay had been.
> Marvelous he said, then he declared that Maharishi is a
> generous and great Mahapurusha.
> But, he said, Maharishis secretaries are rather strange !
It's an open question as to whether going to the
bar was the secretary's idea or Maharishi's, but
the outcome was the same in either case -- the
"firmly established in Unity" yogi got to exper-
ience just how fragile and artificial his "estab-
lishment" was.
In some spiritual traditions, one of the first
things that the teachers suggest when a student
starts having strong enlightenment experiences
is that they "go out into the world" and see if
it "sticks." If it does, cool. And if it doesn't,
cool. Either way, you've learned something.
The test of enlightenment, as I see it, is how
well you "maintain" in *all* circumstances and
environments, not just the ones you prefer or
consider "refined" and "spiritual." I've met
"yogis" who could radiate samadhi consistently
in the meeting hall, but who turned into
frightened little mice when having to navigate
a busy city street. I don't know about you, but
that makes me wonder just how "established"
they really were.
> The lesson ? Perhaps the Yogi needed to grow into
> Brahman, to experience that he was in fact everything,
> including bars and their inhabitants.
I would agree with you that that's the lesson of
the story. The "author" of the story (whether
Maharishi or his secretary) remains a matter of
speculation.
> Would Maharishi denounce brothels ? Me think not.
I've never heard him make a comment on them one
way or another; I'd suspect, from his general
attitudes towards sex ("There is only the married
householder or the recluse; anything else is a
waste of life.") that his "take" on them wouldn't
be positive, but that's just a guess.
Me, I don't mind them because I've managed to have
some Class-A spiritual conversations in brothels.
With the women, with the patrons, and with the
owners. I've sat in the bars of brothels and had
long, deep conversations on karma and dharma, on
reincarnation, on meditation and its value, on
sexuality and how it works on an occult level, and
on other fascinating topics. I even taught meditation
once in a brothel, to one of the women. I paid the
fee for her services myself, went to the room she
usually took people to have sex with them, and
taught her how to meditate. Because it was at Yab
Yum and the time in the rooms cost 200 Euros an hour,
that little experience of teaching meditation cost
*me* something like 500 Euros, but it was worth
every centime...one of the highest experiences of
my life. She is now retired, but still meditates.
I really don't know why I like these places. Maybe
there is something about the basic honesty of why
everyone is there that "bleeds over" into the conver-
sations they have in such places. I don't know. All
I know is that sometimes I prefer the honesty and
openness of the conversations I find in bars and
brothels to the dogmatism and reject-the-joys-of-
the-world-ness I often find in temples and ashrams
and meditation centers.
Part of it is a Tantric thing for me, being drawn
to environments that contain a certain "polarity"
to their energy mix. Amsterdam is like that in general,
the spiritual and refined *right next door* to the
seemingly lowlife. It creates a certain tension that
I thrive on. Bruce Cockburn captured the concept well
in one of his songs:
You see the extremes
Of what humans can be
And in that distance some tension's born
Energy surging like a storm
You plunge your hand in
And draw it back scorched
Beneath it's shining like gold
But better
Rumours of glory
