--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Stu" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Bhairitu said > In fact in other systems it's no great crime if > you miss some meditations. > > Yes. I wonder if I would not be better served by going to a > different practice. If for no other reason than after 30 years > of this maybe its time to explore some other areas of the brain.
Stu, you know where I'm comin' from in all of this. I've gotten to know you a little on a.m.t. and in email, and I honestly think that TM has done great things for you. If it really feels appropriate for you to check out alternatives to TM as "replacements," go for it. But you also have the option of "extending" your TM practice by looking into other forms of meditation that you can do *in addition to* your TM practice, or in lieu of it from time to time. For example, I know that you are fortunate enough to make your living by performing an art. That's a rare and valuable thing, and makes you a great candidate for practices that involve mindfulness and paying more attention to the things that we do outside sitting meditation. *Every* occupation is an artform in my opinion, and allows equally rewarding "payback" from paying more attention to it as a mechanism for eyes-open, engaging-in-activity meditation, but if you happen to have an occupation that is a true calling, and actually rewards you for how much consciousness you can bring to the things you create, in my opinion you're Home Free in any practice that involves mindfulness. > I have really enjoyed reading Sally Kempton's "Heart of > Meditation" where she suggests "playing" with meditation, > trying different approaches. Not taking the darn thing > so seriously. Her Guru, Swami Muktananda wrote a book on > the importance of this playfulness. I missed Muktananda entirely, and never had the opportunity to meet him or sit with him, but I have had a number of friends who studied with him for some time. I have a number of friends who studied with Rajneesh for some time. Both teachers are a tad controversial, but based on the intuitive "hit" I've gotten from people who studied with both teachers for years, even though I've never met them I suspect that both of them had somethin' goin' for them. They had phwam! And the other thing that Muktananda had in common with Rajneesh is that both of them were into FUN. A lot of teachers aren't. A lot of spiritual teachers and spiritual traditions *aren't* into having fun. They've never "gotten" the truth of the one-liner by Christian philosopher G.K. Chesterton, "Seriousness is not a virtue." You know me from years of my silly-assed posts. I'm *rarely* completely serious. There is always this aspect of me that's "stepped back" a bit from the things I write, laughing at it, and at me for writing it. To quote another spiritual teacher, Charlie Chaplin, "Life is a tragedy when seen in closeup, but a comedy in long shot." Being able to laugh at (and with) your practice of meditation, taking it less seriously, is like track- ing back and viewing it in long shot. It gives you a little distance on how seriously you've been taking your spiritual sadhana, and how absurdly FUNNY that is, and how absurdly FUNNY you are acting so serious about something (one's spiritual sadhana) that is taking you nowhere, from self to Self. Being a spiritual seeker in a world that does not value or appreciate spiritual seekers very much IS pretty damned FUNNY. For me personally, lightening up a little about my daily meditation was terribly liberating. Instead of feeling that I "had" to sit down and meditate twice a day, I started alternating the sitting meds with Zen walking meds, or with setting aside a few hours at work that I began to consider a meditation, focusing on every detail of my work, making it an exercise in attempting perfection. And that worked for me like gangbusters. I started experiencing (by my standards) *more* spiritual progress while doing sitting meditation "irreguarly" than I had while practicing it religiously. I learned to laugh at how dogmatic I'd been about it during my TM days. > > I wonder if this incessant need to eat, sleep > > and brush my teeth is healthy? > > Eating sleeping and brushing are not a great metaphor for > meditation. Eating and sleeping are physiological necessities. > We stop - we die. There is no choice involved here. > > Can we equate TM to toothbrushing? Both have benefits to their > habitual practice. On the other hand those who don't brush their > teeth face terrible dental problems eventually. What lies in > store for the millions of people with out a meditation practice? > Is it as bad as gingivitis? > > Does anybody else here feel this strong need to meditate after > so many years of habitual practice? Absolutely. I felt it strongly for years after I left the TM movement. Lightening up about it, and finding that I could get the same energy boosts and epiphanies from practices that didn't involve me sitting down with my eyes closed, was a really liberating experience for me. I think at that point my inner child stopped nagging at me for skipping sitting meds. And so did my physiology. > Its as if the neural networks have been > redesigned to NEED meditation 2 x a day. I would agree. The body gets *used* to things that happen to it regularly. Take certain endorphins or hormones that the body can produce on its own in pill form for several years, and the body *stops* producing them on its own; it has become habituated to getting what it needs from the pills. I would imagine that the same phenomenon is in play when we're talking about something as powerful as meditation. *Sure* our bodies are being conditioned to need it. > Is this healthy? I really don't know. After 40 years of meditation practice, I think that the benefits of regular medi- tation outweigh the drawbacks of it. If the only way I'd ever found to meditate and gain the benefits of meditation involved sitting with eyes closed twice a day without fail, I'd still be sitting with eyes closed twice a day. But I've found a few other forms of meditation that, for me, give me the same perceived benefits, and that *don't* involve me having to sit with eyes closed. Instead of waiting until "after work" to do my meditation, I can turn my work *into* meditation. Anyway, I feel for you. It's an interesting experience to step back and really *think about* a set of spiritual practices you've performed for many decades, and to try to look at them from Beginner's Mind. But I'm convinced that this "stepping back" process is a Good Thing. If for no other reason, "stepping back" give you a wider view, and things always look funnier in long shot. Unc / Barry
