Comment below: **
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > On Jul 27, 2007, at 12:37 PM, Marek Reavis wrote: > > > This (above) is a good capsule of what Maharishi's original > > intentions were, I feel, when he started teaching in the west. Yoga > > is so empirical in nature and practice and most religions promulgate > > most, if not all, of the elements contained in the yamas and niyamas > > that Maharishi could have very reasonably felt that any individual > > following the tenets of their culture and religion while at the same > > time practicing TM would get the substance of Patanjali's 8 limbs. > > It was a nice and emminently practical scheme. > > I can't see how anyone could take perverting a tradition which works > as "practical". The mechanics of why the prerequisites work are well > known to real yogis...and they keep creating real samadhic absorptions. > > If we don't meet the prerequisites of samadhi, we likely won't get it > or keep it--even if we round for hundreds of years. That's not to say > some great people of exceptional circumstance could not or will not, > but I feel we should gear a system of practice for as many people as > possible, not just the few lucky ones. > **end** Vaj, first of all, though Maharishi was snubbing tradition in his willingness to leave the yamas and niyamas of Patanjali out of his teachings and techniques, it was that revolutionary aspect of his teaching that brought even the idea of meditation into the Western world and made it part of popular Western culture. In your opinion (and others), that was ultimately a bad decision, but I feel that Maharishi's initial impulse was sincere and came from heartfelt enthusiasm that what he was doing was following the inspiration he received from Guru Dev. His impulse wasn't to make meditation available just for the few lucky ones, it seems to have been to make it available for all. To whatever degree his intentions were unmet or later modified, it really seems unlikely to me that he was trying to pervert the tradition; it seems more reasonable to assume that he was trying to expand the tradition beyond the cultural restrictions, as he saw them to be at the time, as all his speeches and writings in the first 10 years or so of his coming out of India express. And for me (and obviously, several others) for whom his meditation has proven itself to be of the highest value, it's kind of difficult to find fault, even while recognizing that there are problems and issues in the way his movement has played out and the fallout that has caused in many others' lives. Marek
