--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, new.morning <no_reply@> wrote: > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "sinhlnx" <sinhlnx@> wrote: > > > > > > ---Consider an apartment as a type of cage. Could a person > > > only "think" the apartment is real, but really be living inside > > > Mae West's head? > > > > > > http://www.planetperplex.com/en/item203 > > > > > > Or, Jim, you were fortunate in realizing you were in a cage. So > > > I guess the people living in the cage but don't know it are > > > in "ignorant Bliss"?....kind of like the people living in the > > > Matrix world while the aliens are sucking out the juices from > > > their real bodies. > > > > Or perhaps Jim is living locked in the cage of "Enlightenment > > World" -- perhaps not knowing he is caged, all the while > > thinking he is boundlessly free. > > Or, having made the mistake of announcing that he is > realized/enlightened, now he's stuck in the cage of > pretending that he is. I guess that's the same thing > you mean by "enlightenment world." > > I can't say fersure, of course, but it's certainly a > possibility. I've seen the same phenomenon before in > many different spiritual trips. Someone has a neat > experience of realization -- a *real* experience of > realization -- and, because they assume that once > they have such an experience it will be permanent, > they announce to the world their enlightenment. Some > of them even set themselves up as spiritual teachers > or gurus at this point. > > And then the experience fades. What's a guru to do? > > An honest one would go to his students and say, "Oops, > I was wrong." One who was a little less honest, espec- > ially with himself, would pretend that the experience > of realization was still going on. An even less honest > one would indulge in self deception, and convince him- > self that it was still going on. > > Once you've had a couple of these realization exper- > iences, it's pretty easy to "talk the talk" of them. > Few can tell whether you're talkin' from present exper- > ience or past experience, because you *are* talkin' > from experience. So it's actually a fairly common > phenomenon in the larger community of spiritual trips > and seekers to see people milking a transitory exper- > ience of realization for years or decades after it > has gone away or faded. > > Not to say that's what's going on here on FFL, but it > could be. Because such things *aren't* talked about > much in the TMO, but are known about and talked about > openly in other spiritual trips, I just thought I'd > bring up the possibility.
Just to clarify, what I am talking about above is a "spirituality-wide" phenomenon, one *not* limited to TM and the TMO. For the record, however, there are a couple of aspects of this phenomenon that I have noticed are stronger in the TMO. The first is the willingness of the larger commun- ity of seekers to *perpetuate* the phenomenon of people "moodmaking their enlightenment" and allow it to go on. IMO, this is because in the TMO, relatively few people (maybe a few hundred out of what, millions?) have ever *had* strong realization experiences. *And* they've paid a great deal, both in terms of time and money, *to* have such an experience. So when someone announces that they've had one, or have realized their enlightenment, there is a tendency to suspend disbelief and allow them to do it out of hopes that, "If it can happen for him/her, it could still happen for me." The second aspect of this phenomenon that I see as fairly unique within the TM movement variant of it is that the hierarchical oneupsmanship *continues* in those who have announced their enlightenment. In the TMO, with its rigid, hierarchical conceptual framework of "seven states of consciousness," it's not *enough* to just realize one's enlightenment. Nooooo. :-) Once one has announced that one is real- ized (CC), there are still GC and UC and BC to announce. And now there are all the siddhis and other perceptions to announce as well. It's like the moment Maharishi talks about a new state of consciousness or a new type of subtle perception, there are realized souls lining up to announce that they've just reached that state of consciousness or had that perception. What's funniest for those of us who have seen this phenomenon in other spiritual traditions is to watch the "enlightened dick size contests." They go some- thing like the following imaginary dialog between two TM-realized souls: "Yeah, that's a pretty good realization experience you just talked about. Thanks for sharing it. I used to have those experiences, too, back before my own realization began to open up into God consciousness." "Oh, I didn't mean to imply that the experience I was talking about was *limited* to only CC; it has continued for me, even after I started experiencing GC. In fact, I still have these experiences now that I'm living in UC." "Yes, I agree. Even from the standpoint of Brahman it is possible to have such experiences. I know that even *I*, living Blazing Brahman as I do, occasionally backslide into such lesser experiences." :-) Exaggerated for effect, but not that much, if you listen carefully. The bottom line from my point of view is that there is simply No Way to tell whether someone is bullshitting you (and often themselves) about their supposed enlight- enment or not. So you believe whatever you want, and whatever makes you happy.
