[FairfieldLife] The Guru Script
Good rap by Geoff Gilpin, from his blog. He deals well with one of the not-discussed-very-often aspects of spiritual teaching. That is, that the spiritual teacher is a junkie, hooked on a drug called spiritual teaching. Recently, a friend invited me to join her meditation group. The four people in her group meet every week to practice Tai Chi. They start each session with a guided meditation. She described me to her friends in the group as a person with a lot of experience with meditation who might be interested in joining and leading the sessions. The other people in the group responded enthusiastically. When I read the email with the invitation, I had one of those “fork in the road” moments. You know how, in the movies, a character has to make a crucial decision with huge consequences? For example, a person arrives at a Greyhound station and sees two coaches, one marked “Oshkosh” and the other “New York City.” The movie shows the chain of events that occurs when the character gets on one bus, then the other, resulting in triumph or disaster. I read that email invitation and I flashed back to my years in a fringe religious sect. I recalled how it started—so many young and idealistic people ready to change the world. Maharishi was upbeat and accessible. It was like a big party. Years passed and fewer and fewer people saw Maharishi in person. He withdrew to a secluded compound and surrounded himself with a small band of true believers. His teachings grew more and more bizarre. In his final years, he occasionally appeared on video, surrounded by vast floral displays and a computer-generated golden nimbus, to rail against democracy and threaten doom. In the end, Maharishi didn’t turn out well, but how many of us would do a better job? Imagine the pressure he was under—decades of fawning adulation by crowds projecting their hopes on him. The constant drone of sycophants telling him what they thought he wanted to hear. The total lack of normal human relationships. How many of us could survive all that without cracking up? So, I got that email invitation and I imagined myself sitting cross-legged looking out at eager faces waiting for spiritual insight. I hit Reply and firmly declined the offer. If I’d taken the other bus, I doubt that I would turn out like Maharishi. I doubt I’d ever have the opportunity. I might have even done some good. That’s all beside the point. I turned down the invitation to lead a group meditation for the same reason that some people say they don’t want to try heroin. I might like it.
[FairfieldLife] Flowers that look like something else!
17 Flowers That Look Like Something Else http://www.boredpanda.com/flowers-look-like-animals-people-monkeys-orchids-pareidolia/ http://www.boredpanda.com/flowers-look-like-animals-people-monkeys-orchids-pareidolia/ 17 Flowers That Look Like Something Else http://www.boredpanda.com/flowers-look-like-animals-people-monkeys-orchids-pareidolia/ The flower, as a reproductive organ, evolved with one primary purpose in mind – to attract pollinators like insects or birds. This function has driven their astound... View on www.boredpanda.com http://www.boredpanda.com/flowers-look-like-animals-people-monkeys-orchids-pareidolia/ Preview by Yahoo
[FairfieldLife] The Spiritual Career Path
More general musings about spirituality from the Hoofdploppen Cafe. That's not the real name of this cafe, BTW. I just call the quiet inner-city-Leiden square where it's located the Hoofdploppen Square. It's a joke in my made-up Dutch, signifying that the square in front of the building across the street is where they used to chop people's heads off back in the 17th century. At least that's what it indicates in the drawing on the tourist placard in front of the building. I have an odd sense of humor, so I was amused by the thought of residents in past eras naming the area after the sound of heads plopping onto the paving stones. But that's not what I wanted to write about. I am, after all, sitting about five doors away from where Rembrandt learned art, so I should write about something more arty than plopping heads. Thus, inspired by Geoff's rap, I will rap aimlessly about the Spiritual Seeker Career Path, and how I think it's at the root of much of what's wrong with spirituality. Whether they like to admit it or not, everyone on this forum was presented with a clear Career Path once they got involved with the TMO, or whatever other form of the Enlightenment Quest they pursued. It was presented in subtext in every talk given by the guy or gal at the front of the room. You looked around at the awe and reverence with which many people gazed at the guy or gal at the front of the room. You watched as people listened raptly to whatever the guy or gal at the front of the room said, incapable of even conceiving of doubting that all of it was true, and probably Truth. And many people wound up WANTING SOME OF THAT for themselves. Consciously or subconsciously, they started wanting to become spiritual teachers. And what's not to want? If you've got an ego (Duh...everybody!), or a hint of narcissism (almost everyone drawn to spiritual teachers), or are an attention junkie (more on this later), you wanted to be like the role model at the front of the room. You wanted to be able to say shit and have everyone accept it as true and possibly Truth, just because you said it. You wanted to be perceived as knowing things that others didn't, just as you perceived that in the particular guy or gal at the front of your rooms, whether or not it was ever true. A part of you tried to convince other parts of you that you wanted this for altruistic reasons, to *help* people and assist them on their path to enlightenment, but if you think about it, there's a shitload of ego and hubris even in that justification. But mainly, most people just wanted the attention. On the mundane level of the word attention, they wanted to be perceived as if they were special. They liked how other students around them treated the guy or gal at the front of the room, and they wanted to be treated that way themselves. Becoming a spiritual teacher was like becoming a rock star in terms of the amount of attention you could potentially attract to yourself, and you didn't even have to learn an instrument. All you had to do was to become enlightened. Or at the very least, claim you had. On a more occult level, however, attention refers to a transfer of energy that takes place when a person places their conscious attention on another person. There is an energy transaction going on in that situation -- the person focusing their attention on another person is giving them some of their energy. Ask anyone who has ever been onstage in front of crowds of over a thousand people about this energy transaction, and they'll tell you it's for real. Being the focus of attention for thousands of people is a RUSH. It gets you high. It's like Ego-Crack. Many people in spiritual practice -- especially in the West where they have fewer established traditions with clear-cut and enforced rules and regs about who gets to become a teacher and who does not -- start to have a few early enlightenment experiences themselves and think, Wow! I did it. I got the promotion I've been longing for. Now I can hang out my shingle as a spiritual teacher. As Ahnold says so well in the film Predator, Bahd idea. They have rules and regs in older, more established spiritual traditions because they've been around long enough to know that one of the worst karmic mistakes a person could possibly make is to attempt to become a spiritual teacher before they are ready to do so. In the rules and regs traditions, they would advise students that given the choice of a free lifetime's supply of heroin and becoming a spiritual teacher before you are capable of handling the pressures of being one, you should probably go for the heroin. Your life would be shorter, but you'd die happier and do harm to fewer people. I can think of no worse choice for someone starting to have early enlightenment experiences than to place themselves in a position where people start to look up to them as wise or knowing. It's like saying, OK, I've paid my
Re: [FairfieldLife] The Guru Script
Thanks for posting that - amazing that he said no. And quite wise too I think. From: TurquoiseBee turquoi...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, May 31, 2014 4:22 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] The Guru Script Good rap by Geoff Gilpin, from his blog. He deals well with one of the not-discussed-very-often aspects of spiritual teaching. That is, that the spiritual teacher is a junkie, hooked on a drug called spiritual teaching. Recently, a friend invited me to join her meditation group. The four people in her group meet every week to practice Tai Chi. They start each session with a guided meditation. She described me to her friends in the group as a person with a lot of experience with meditation who might be interested in joining and leading the sessions. The other people in the group responded enthusiastically. When I read the email with the invitation, I had one of those “fork in the road” moments. You know how, in the movies, a character has to make a crucial decision with huge consequences? For example, a person arrives at a Greyhound station and sees two coaches, one marked “Oshkosh” and the other “New York City.” The movie shows the chain of events that occurs when the character gets on one bus, then the other, resulting in triumph or disaster. I read that email invitation and I flashed back to my years in a fringe religious sect. I recalled how it started—so many young and idealistic people ready to change the world. Maharishi was upbeat and accessible. It was like a big party. Years passed and fewer and fewer people saw Maharishi in person. He withdrew to a secluded compound and surrounded himself with a small band of true believers. His teachings grew more and more bizarre. In his final years, he occasionally appeared on video, surrounded by vast floral displays and a computer-generated golden nimbus, to rail against democracy and threaten doom. In the end, Maharishi didn’t turn out well, but how many of us would do a better job? Imagine the pressure he was under—decades of fawning adulation by crowds projecting their hopes on him. The constant drone of sycophants telling him what they thought he wanted to hear. The total lack of normal human relationships. How many of us could survive all that without cracking up? So, I got that email invitation and I imagined myself sitting cross-legged looking out at eager faces waiting for spiritual insight. I hit Reply and firmly declined the offer. If I’d taken the other bus, I doubt that I would turn out like Maharishi. I doubt I’d ever have the opportunity. I might have even done some good. That’s all beside the point. I turned down the invitation to lead a group meditation for the same reason that some people say they don’t want to try heroin. I might like it.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Flowers that look like something else!
This is way cool. Gotta get me one of those Darth Vader orchids. :-) From: cardemais...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, May 31, 2014 11:17 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Flowers that look like something else! 17 Flowers That Look Like Something Else 17 Flowers That Look Like Something Else The flower, as a reproductive organ, evolved with one primary purpose in mind – to attract pollinators like insects or birds. This function has driven their astound... View on www.boredpanda.com Preview by Yahoo
[FairfieldLife] Re: Flowers that look like something else!
He shoots, he scores!! Great find. Just got saved to favorites. Thanks. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, cardemaister@... wrote : 17 Flowers That Look Like Something Else http://www.boredpanda.com/flowers-look-like-animals-people-monkeys-orchids-pareidolia/ http://www.boredpanda.com/flowers-look-like-animals-people-monkeys-orchids-pareidolia/ 17 Flowers That Look Like Something Else http://www.boredpanda.com/flowers-look-like-animals-people-monkeys-orchids-pareidolia/ The flower, as a reproductive organ, evolved with one primary purpose in mind – to attract pollinators like insects or birds. This function has driven their astound... View on www.boredpanda.com http://www.boredpanda.com/flowers-look-like-animals-people-monkeys-orchids-pareidolia/ Preview by Yahoo
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: The Onion nails it again
Yes, I agree with that, and to complete things, it is their view of their world, which revolves around them. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, no_re...@yahoogroups.com wrote : The Turq fellow behaves like any other Bimbo, they actually believe the world is centered around them. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb@... wrote : From: fleetwood_macncheese@... [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com He certainly has had no time to write an alternative novel, to compete with the one he has been rewriting on here, forever, entitled, I think, therefore, I am, Motherfucker, and don't you ever forget it, and another thing... Meanwhile, why is it that paragons of creative intelligence like Judy, Jimbo, Nabby, Ann, Willytex, and recently Steve can't seem to think of anything to write about but me? They DO seem a little obsessed. One of them even claims to be enlightened. And yet one of the only things they can think of to write about is me. Go figure. Could this be yet another example of TMers' low standards? As writers, as in everything else? :-) :-) :-)
[FairfieldLife] Re: The Spiritual Career Path
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb@... wrote : Whether they like to admit it or not, everyone on this forum was presented with a clear Career Path once they got involved with the TMO, or whatever other form of the Enlightenment Quest they pursued. It was presented in subtext in every talk given by the guy or gal at the front of the room. You looked around at the awe and reverence with which many people gazed at the guy or gal at the front of the room. You watched as people listened raptly to whatever the guy or gal at the front of the room said, incapable of even conceiving of doubting that all of it was true, and probably Truth. And many people wound up WANTING SOME OF THAT for themselves. Consciously or subconsciously, they started wanting to become spiritual teachers. Jeez Barry, the above sounds like an awful lot of projection, and/or speculation. Perhaps this is autobiographical, which is fine, (and maybe explains some things), but I really feel you are missing the mark with the great, great majority of anyone I knew involved in the organization of TM. And that's probably why most teachers aren't active anymore. The idealism wore off, and they had no desire, I repeat no desire, to be the big cheese in the room. We were seeking for something. We found something that worked for us, at least for a time. Then other pursuits came to the fore, and our involvement tapered off. It was not a matter of self aggrandizement. I think you miss the mark. As far the Zen stuff below, (which I skimmed), so what. I think the true path to enlightenment always has some nifty ways to break down the ego. And what's not to want? If you've got an ego (Duh...everybody!), or a hint of narcissism (almost everyone drawn to spiritual teachers), or are an attention junkie (more on this later), you wanted to be like the role model at the front of the room. You wanted to be able to say shit and have everyone accept it as true and possibly Truth, just because you said it. You wanted to be perceived as knowing things that others didn't, just as you perceived that in the particular guy or gal at the front of your rooms, whether or not it was ever true. A part of you tried to convince other parts of you that you wanted this for altruistic reasons, to *help* people and assist them on their path to enlightenment, but if you think about it, there's a shitload of ego and hubris even in that justification. But mainly, most people just wanted the attention. On the mundane level of the word attention, they wanted to be perceived as if they were special. They liked how other students around them treated the guy or gal at the front of the room, and they wanted to be treated that way themselves. Becoming a spiritual teacher was like becoming a rock star in terms of the amount of attention you could potentially attract to yourself, and you didn't even have to learn an instrument. All you had to do was to become enlightened. Or at the very least, claim you had. On a more occult level, however, attention refers to a transfer of energy that takes place when a person places their conscious attention on another person. There is an energy transaction going on in that situation -- the person focusing their attention on another person is giving them some of their energy. Ask anyone who has ever been onstage in front of crowds of over a thousand people about this energy transaction, and they'll tell you it's for real. Being the focus of attention for thousands of people is a RUSH. It gets you high. It's like Ego-Crack. Many people in spiritual practice -- especially in the West where they have fewer established traditions with clear-cut and enforced rules and regs about who gets to become a teacher and who does not -- start to have a few early enlightenment experiences themselves and think, Wow! I did it. I got the promotion I've been longing for. Now I can hang out my shingle as a spiritual teacher. As Ahnold says so well in the film Predator, Bahd idea. They have rules and regs in older, more established spiritual traditions because they've been around long enough to know that one of the worst karmic mistakes a person could possibly make is to attempt to become a spiritual teacher before they are ready to do so. In the rules and regs traditions, they would advise students that given the choice of a free lifetime's supply of heroin and becoming a spiritual teacher before you are capable of handling the pressures of being one, you should probably go for the heroin. Your life would be shorter, but you'd die happier and do harm to fewer people. I can think of no worse choice for someone starting to have early enlightenment experiences than to place themselves in a position where people start to look up to them as wise or knowing. It's like saying, OK, I've paid my dues and *earned* me some attention. Now it's time to kick back and smoke me some
[FairfieldLife] The part of the Edward Snowdon interview NBC edited out of prime time
I've noticed that no one here has mentioned the recent interview with Edward Snowdon. A search of FFL reveals, in fact, that no one has mentioned him since December, when Willytex compared him to me. Based on this excerpt, edited out of the prime-time broadcast and left hidden in the middle of the longer, unedited interview on NBC's website, I don't mind that comparison at all. The guy makes his case quite well... NBC Censors Snowden's Critical 9/11 Comments from Prime Time Audience NBC Censors Snowden's Critical 9/11 Comments from Pri... Statements made by Snowden regarding 9/11 edited out of NBC Nightly News interview. View on www.storyleak.com Preview by Yahoo
Re: [FairfieldLife] The Guru Script
amazing? amazing? Michael, really, it sounds like you are still pretty dialed into that whole mindset. go figure. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, mjackson74@... wrote : Thanks for posting that - amazing that he said no. And quite wise too I think. From: TurquoiseBee turquoiseb@... [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, May 31, 2014 4:22 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] The Guru Script Good rap by Geoff Gilpin, from his blog. He deals well with one of the not-discussed-very-often aspects of spiritual teaching. That is, that the spiritual teacher is a junkie, hooked on a drug called spiritual teaching. Recently, a friend invited me to join her meditation group. The four people in her group meet every week to practice Tai Chi. They start each session with a guided meditation. She described me to her friends in the group as a person with a lot of experience with meditation who might be interested in joining and leading the sessions. The other people in the group responded enthusiastically. When I read the email with the invitation, I had one of those “fork in the road” moments. You know how, in the movies, a character has to make a crucial decision with huge consequences? For example, a person arrives at a Greyhound station and sees two coaches, one marked “Oshkosh” and the other “New York City.” The movie shows the chain of events that occurs when the character gets on one bus, then the other, resulting in triumph or disaster. I read that email invitation and I flashed back to my years in a fringe religious sect. I recalled how it started—so many young and idealistic people ready to change the world. Maharishi was upbeat and accessible. It was like a big party. Years passed and fewer and fewer people saw Maharishi in person. He withdrew to a secluded compound and surrounded himself with a small band of true believers. His teachings grew more and more bizarre. In his final years, he occasionally appeared on video, surrounded by vast floral displays and a computer-generated golden nimbus, to rail against democracy and threaten doom. In the end, Maharishi didn’t turn out well, but how many of us would do a better job? Imagine the pressure he was under—decades of fawning adulation by crowds projecting their hopes on him. The constant drone of sycophants telling him what they thought he wanted to hear. The total lack of normal human relationships. How many of us could survive all that without cracking up? So, I got that email invitation and I imagined myself sitting cross-legged looking out at eager faces waiting for spiritual insight. I hit Reply and firmly declined the offer. If I’d taken the other bus, I doubt that I would turn out like Maharishi. I doubt I’d ever have the opportunity. I might have even done some good. That’s all beside the point. I turned down the invitation to lead a group meditation for the same reason that some people say they don’t want to try heroin. I might like it.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Mindfulness; the Guru as mantra - Let 'er rip, or not?
Mindfulness, or faking a state of infinite consciousness, is a mediocre technique. Remember the Yugo? I didn't have to know anything about it, not to buy one. You would rather watch TV and Movies, while doing your 'mindfulness'. I just avoid that, and live in the real world, instead. I really don't have a choice, and neither do you. You and curt have both admitted having weak and shallow meditation experiences, in addition to not fully understanding a spiritual journey, AND both quitting as TM Teachers, long ago. So, forgive me if I give your resulting opinions, no credence, whatsoever. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb@... wrote : Thank you, Empty, for at last providing a little context. It was growing painful watching people here other than Anartaxius talk about *something they have never studied or practiced in their lives*, as if they not only knew what it was but as if they knew all about it and had no need for it. Typical TMer hubris. It was almost as embarrassing as watching Maharishi talk about Christian concepts he also knew nothing about. From: emptybill@... [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, May 31, 2014 1:19 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Mindfulness; the Guru as mantra - Let 'er rip, or not? Judy you are quite correct. This was how I was using the term: as in the Latin term recollctus.- gathering back again or bringing back to conscious mind the previous point of attention. This is really quite old stuff in the Roman Catholic contemplative tradition, based as it is upon the three succeeding stages of recollection, meditation, contemplation or the ways of purgation, illuminationj, union. Mindfulness is a translation of the term sati (Pali) or smriti (Sanskrit). The formal meditative practice is known in Buddhism as satipatthana (Pali) or smṛtyupasthāna (Sanskrit). Satipatthana - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satipatthana https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satipatthana Satipatthana - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satipatthana Mindfulness-based stress reduction Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy View on en.wikipedia.org https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satipatthana Preview by Yahoo
Re: [FairfieldLife] The Guru Script
This Gilpin character sounds so very taken with himself - I am glad he nixed the group meditation - what a dumb prick. MJ is still in 'follower' mode. Much like Barry, who traded one cult environment for another, MJ is just trading his allegiances, from one authority figure, to another. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, steve.sundur@... wrote : amazing? amazing? Michael, really, it sounds like you are still pretty dialed into that whole mindset. go figure. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, mjackson74@... wrote : Thanks for posting that - amazing that he said no. And quite wise too I think. From: TurquoiseBee turquoiseb@... [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, May 31, 2014 4:22 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] The Guru Script Good rap by Geoff Gilpin, from his blog. He deals well with one of the not-discussed-very-often aspects of spiritual teaching. That is, that the spiritual teacher is a junkie, hooked on a drug called spiritual teaching. Recently, a friend invited me to join her meditation group. The four people in her group meet every week to practice Tai Chi. They start each session with a guided meditation. She described me to her friends in the group as a person with a lot of experience with meditation who might be interested in joining and leading the sessions. The other people in the group responded enthusiastically. When I read the email with the invitation, I had one of those “fork in the road” moments. You know how, in the movies, a character has to make a crucial decision with huge consequences? For example, a person arrives at a Greyhound station and sees two coaches, one marked “Oshkosh” and the other “New York City.” The movie shows the chain of events that occurs when the character gets on one bus, then the other, resulting in triumph or disaster. I read that email invitation and I flashed back to my years in a fringe religious sect. I recalled how it started—so many young and idealistic people ready to change the world. Maharishi was upbeat and accessible. It was like a big party. Years passed and fewer and fewer people saw Maharishi in person. He withdrew to a secluded compound and surrounded himself with a small band of true believers. His teachings grew more and more bizarre. In his final years, he occasionally appeared on video, surrounded by vast floral displays and a computer-generated golden nimbus, to rail against democracy and threaten doom. In the end, Maharishi didn’t turn out well, but how many of us would do a better job? Imagine the pressure he was under—decades of fawning adulation by crowds projecting their hopes on him. The constant drone of sycophants telling him what they thought he wanted to hear. The total lack of normal human relationships. How many of us could survive all that without cracking up? So, I got that email invitation and I imagined myself sitting cross-legged looking out at eager faces waiting for spiritual insight. I hit Reply and firmly declined the offer. If I’d taken the other bus, I doubt that I would turn out like Maharishi. I doubt I’d ever have the opportunity. I might have even done some good. That’s all beside the point. I turned down the invitation to lead a group meditation for the same reason that some people say they don’t want to try heroin. I might like it.
[FairfieldLife] Re: The part of the Edward Snowdon interview NBC edited out of prime time
Barry, damn, but this post, along with the other is pretty revealing. You realize that you seem to have a pre-occupation with being the big cheese in the room I mean first you project this sort of strange scenario about people watching videos or being in the room with their teacher, all the time fantasizing about one day having their own flock. And now, inviting comparisons to Snowden and yourself. What gives? Bozos on the bus, Barry, bozos on the bus. That's what we are. Ain't no shame in it. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb@... wrote : I've noticed that no one here has mentioned the recent interview with Edward Snowdon. A search of FFL reveals, in fact, that no one has mentioned him since December, when Willytex compared him to me. Based on this excerpt, edited out of the prime-time broadcast and left hidden in the middle of the longer, unedited interview on NBC's website, I don't mind that comparison at all. The guy makes his case quite well... NBC Censors Snowden's Critical 9/11 Comments from Prime Time Audience http://www.storyleak.com/nbc-censors-snowdens-critical-911-comments-from-prime-time-audience/ http://www.storyleak.com/nbc-censors-snowdens-critical-911-comments-from-prime-time-audience/ NBC Censors Snowden's Critical 9/11 Comments from Pri... http://www.storyleak.com/nbc-censors-snowdens-critical-911-comments-from-prime-time-audience/ Statements made by Snowden regarding 9/11 edited out of NBC Nightly News interview. View on www.storyleak.com http://www.storyleak.com/nbc-censors-snowdens-critical-911-comments-from-prime-time-audience/ Preview by Yahoo
[FairfieldLife] Re: The Spiritual Career Path
You are so hung up on how people should live their lives. You are the only person I know, who had this experience, about wanting to be a big shot, after he learned TM. I suspect you are railing here, too, about the natural authority one gains, after becoming enlightened. It is true, and despite your ability to fake it, no one buys your fake version. No problem, it is common to see anger among those like yourself, who want to be rewarded and looked up to, but have not earned such a right. You really ought to go back to practicing TM, twice a day - It would truly do you, a world of good. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb@... wrote : More general musings about spirituality from the Hoofdploppen Cafe. snip
[FairfieldLife] Re: The Spiritual Career Path
Barry, this would have been so much more interesting and had so much more impact if you had described it as it happened to you, instead of pretending it's your observations from on high, yourself untouched by it all. Whether they like to admit it or not, everyone on this forum was presented with a clear Career Path once they got involved with the TMO, or whatever other form of the Enlightenment Quest they pursued. It was presented in subtext in every talk given by the guy or gal at the front of the room. You looked around at the awe and reverence with which many people gazed at the guy or gal at the front of the room. You watched as people listened raptly to whatever the guy or gal at the front of the room said, incapable of even conceiving of doubting that all of it was true, and probably Truth. And many people wound up WANTING SOME OF THAT for themselves. Consciously or subconsciously, they started wanting to become spiritual teachers. And what's not to want? If you've got an ego (Duh...everybody!), or a hint of narcissism (almost everyone drawn to spiritual teachers), or are an attention junkie (more on this later), you wanted to be like the role model at the front of the room. You wanted to be able to say shit and have everyone accept it as true and possibly Truth, just because you said it. You wanted to be perceived as knowing things that others didn't, just as you perceived that in the particular guy or gal at the front of your rooms, whether or not it was ever true. A part of you tried to convince other parts of you that you wanted this for altruistic reasons, to *help* people and assist them on their path to enlightenment, but if you think about it, there's a shitload of ego and hubris even in that justification. But mainly, most people just wanted the attention. On the mundane level of the word attention, they wanted to be perceived as if they were special. They liked how other students around them treated the guy or gal at the front of the room, and they wanted to be treated that way themselves. Becoming a spiritual teacher was like becoming a rock star in terms of the amount of attention you could potentially attract to yourself, and you didn't even have to learn an instrument. All you had to do was to become enlightened. Or at the very least, claim you had. On a more occult level, however, attention refers to a transfer of energy that takes place when a person places their conscious attention on another person. There is an energy transaction going on in that situation -- the person focusing their attention on another person is giving them some of their energy. Ask anyone who has ever been onstage in front of crowds of over a thousand people about this energy transaction, and they'll tell you it's for real. Being the focus of attention for thousands of people is a RUSH. It gets you high. It's like Ego-Crack. Many people in spiritual practice -- especially in the West where they have fewer established traditions with clear-cut and enforced rules and regs about who gets to become a teacher and who does not -- start to have a few early enlightenment experiences themselves and think, Wow! I did it. I got the promotion I've been longing for. Now I can hang out my shingle as a spiritual teacher. As Ahnold says so well in the film Predator, Bahd idea. They have rules and regs in older, more established spiritual traditions because they've been around long enough to know that one of the worst karmic mistakes a person could possibly make is to attempt to become a spiritual teacher before they are ready to do so. In the rules and regs traditions, they would advise students that given the choice of a free lifetime's supply of heroin and becoming a spiritual teacher before you are capable of handling the pressures of being one, you should probably go for the heroin. Your life would be shorter, but you'd die happier and do harm to fewer people. I can think of no worse choice for someone starting to have early enlightenment experiences than to place themselves in a position where people start to look up to them as wise or knowing. It's like saying, OK, I've paid my dues and *earned* me some attention. Now it's time to kick back and smoke me some Ego-Crack. A better tradition in my opinion is the one practiced in a Zen monastery in Japan. There, whenever a student started having something good is happening early enlightenment experiences (which they defined as 24/7 clear samadhi for a period of months), they took the student off of his previous duties and gave him the shittiest jobs in the monastery. The enlightennewb was expected to clean the toilets and scrub the floors and wash his fellow students' laundry. Furthermore, they were put in charge of going into the village and carrying back food and other supplies, and thus having to interact with all of those ugh non-monks. The thinking was that if the enlightennewb was still
[FairfieldLife] Gurus
If the guru wants to maintain power he must manage the demands of his cult and he must perform convincingly. His identity depends on how well he evokes devotion from his cult following. It is a job with intense duties. All living rivals must be devalued. In totalist cults the demands can be overwhelming even on the most narcissistic of gurus. Like rock music idols and entertainers charismatic gurus need breaks from performing for devotees. It is not unusual for well-established gurus to create devotional tension by remaining inaccessible to their cults for long periods. Once established, charisma acts like a psychic leash on a devotee’s emotional and spiritual life. This powerful link with the leader is one-sided as only one can control the leash. Some in my business call this mind control. A system of managed beliefs, rituals and regulations sustains the personal connection with the central figure, idea or object of devotion. Ironically, in cults the devotee often agrees to the leash arrangement because he is convinced that he needs one. http://jszimhart.com/cult_101 Joe Szimhart - Essays and personal opinion What is a cult? Primarily, A cult is not a group. A cult is not a gang. A cult is not a political party. A cult is not an organization. A cult is not a church. A cult is not somebody else’s religion. View on jszimhart.com Preview by Yahoo
Re: [FairfieldLife] The Guru Script
I appreciate the fact that Mr. Gilpin had no desire to become an object of adoration, a guru. Most people's egos would have made a different choice, no matter what kind of spiritual gauze they might wrap the choice in. From: steve.sun...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, May 31, 2014 7:36 AM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] The Guru Script amazing? amazing? Michael, really, it sounds like you are still pretty dialed into that whole mindset. go figure. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, mjackson74@... wrote : Thanks for posting that - amazing that he said no. And quite wise too I think. From: TurquoiseBee turquoiseb@... [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, May 31, 2014 4:22 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] The Guru Script Good rap by Geoff Gilpin, from his blog. He deals well with one of the not-discussed-very-often aspects of spiritual teaching. That is, that the spiritual teacher is a junkie, hooked on a drug called spiritual teaching. Recently, a friend invited me to join her meditation group. The four people in her group meet every week to practice Tai Chi. They start each session with a guided meditation. She described me to her friends in the group as a person with a lot of experience with meditation who might be interested in joining and leading the sessions. The other people in the group responded enthusiastically. When I read the email with the invitation, I had one of those “fork in the road” moments. You know how, in the movies, a character has to make a crucial decision with huge consequences? For example, a person arrives at a Greyhound station and sees two coaches, one marked “Oshkosh” and the other “New York City.” The movie shows the chain of events that occurs when the character gets on one bus, then the other, resulting in triumph or disaster. I read that email invitation and I flashed back to my years in a fringe religious sect. I recalled how it started—so many young and idealistic people ready to change the world. Maharishi was upbeat and accessible. It was like a big party. Years passed and fewer and fewer people saw Maharishi in person. He withdrew to a secluded compound and surrounded himself with a small band of true believers. His teachings grew more and more bizarre. In his final years, he occasionally appeared on video, surrounded by vast floral displays and a computer-generated golden nimbus, to rail against democracy and threaten doom. In the end, Maharishi didn’t turn out well, but how many of us would do a better job? Imagine the pressure he was under—decades of fawning adulation by crowds projecting their hopes on him. The constant drone of sycophants telling him what they thought he wanted to hear. The total lack of normal human relationships. How many of us could survive all that without cracking up? So, I got that email invitation and I imagined myself sitting cross-legged looking out at eager faces waiting for spiritual insight. I hit Reply and firmly declined the offer. If I’d taken the other bus, I doubt that I would turn out like Maharishi. I doubt I’d ever have the opportunity. I might have even done some good. That’s all beside the point. I turned down the invitation to lead a group meditation for the same reason that some people say they don’t want to try heroin. I might like it.
Re: [FairfieldLife] The Guru Script
Hardly. I have no allegiance to guru figures of any kind. - read his book and see what you think. From: fleetwood_macnche...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, May 31, 2014 7:44 AM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] The Guru Script This Gilpin character sounds so very taken with himself - I am glad he nixed the group meditation - what a dumb prick. MJ is still in 'follower' mode. Much like Barry, who traded one cult environment for another, MJ is just trading his allegiances, from one authority figure, to another. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, steve.sundur@... wrote : amazing? amazing? Michael, really, it sounds like you are still pretty dialed into that whole mindset. go figure. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, mjackson74@... wrote : Thanks for posting that - amazing that he said no. And quite wise too I think. From: TurquoiseBee turquoiseb@... [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, May 31, 2014 4:22 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] The Guru Script Good rap by Geoff Gilpin, from his blog. He deals well with one of the not-discussed-very-often aspects of spiritual teaching. That is, that the spiritual teacher is a junkie, hooked on a drug called spiritual teaching. Recently, a friend invited me to join her meditation group. The four people in her group meet every week to practice Tai Chi. They start each session with a guided meditation. She described me to her friends in the group as a person with a lot of experience with meditation who might be interested in joining and leading the sessions. The other people in the group responded enthusiastically. When I read the email with the invitation, I had one of those “fork in the road” moments. You know how, in the movies, a character has to make a crucial decision with huge consequences? For example, a person arrives at a Greyhound station and sees two coaches, one marked “Oshkosh” and the other “New York City.” The movie shows the chain of events that occurs when the character gets on one bus, then the other, resulting in triumph or disaster. I read that email invitation and I flashed back to my years in a fringe religious sect. I recalled how it started—so many young and idealistic people ready to change the world. Maharishi was upbeat and accessible. It was like a big party. Years passed and fewer and fewer people saw Maharishi in person. He withdrew to a secluded compound and surrounded himself with a small band of true believers. His teachings grew more and more bizarre. In his final years, he occasionally appeared on video, surrounded by vast floral displays and a computer-generated golden nimbus, to rail against democracy and threaten doom. In the end, Maharishi didn’t turn out well, but how many of us would do a better job? Imagine the pressure he was under—decades of fawning adulation by crowds projecting their hopes on him. The constant drone of sycophants telling him what they thought he wanted to hear. The total lack of normal human relationships. How many of us could survive all that without cracking up? So, I got that email invitation and I imagined myself sitting cross-legged looking out at eager faces waiting for spiritual insight. I hit Reply and firmly declined the offer. If I’d taken the other bus, I doubt that I would turn out like Maharishi. I doubt I’d ever have the opportunity. I might have even done some good. That’s all beside the point. I turned down the invitation to lead a group meditation for the same reason that some people say they don’t want to try heroin. I might like it.
[FairfieldLife] Re: The part of the Edward Snowdon interview NBC edited out of prime time
Steve, not preoccupation, obsession. Barry was knocked off his perch, when he insisted, implicitly, that I reveal to everyone, his very little progress, spiritually, and that he knows nothing about enlightenment, except for two weeks, lifetime total, of witnessing, off on a course somewhere. Yet, after being thoroughly discredited, he really, really wants to be the big cheese again. I am sure he misses the days when he had a small flock of followers here on FFL. Sadly, for him, it just ain't working anymore. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, steve.sundur@... wrote : Barry, damn, but this post, along with the other is pretty revealing. You realize that you seem to have a pre-occupation with being the big cheese in the room I mean first you project this sort of strange scenario about people watching videos or being in the room with their teacher, all the time fantasizing about one day having their own flock. And now, inviting comparisons to Snowden and yourself. What gives? Bozos on the bus, Barry, bozos on the bus. That's what we are. Ain't no shame in it. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb@... wrote : I've noticed that no one here has mentioned the recent interview with Edward Snowdon. A search of FFL reveals, in fact, that no one has mentioned him since December, when Willytex compared him to me. Based on this excerpt, edited out of the prime-time broadcast and left hidden in the middle of the longer, unedited interview on NBC's website, I don't mind that comparison at all. The guy makes his case quite well... NBC Censors Snowden's Critical 9/11 Comments from Prime Time Audience http://www.storyleak.com/nbc-censors-snowdens-critical-911-comments-from-prime-time-audience/ http://www.storyleak.com/nbc-censors-snowdens-critical-911-comments-from-prime-time-audience/ NBC Censors Snowden's Critical 9/11 Comments from Pri... http://www.storyleak.com/nbc-censors-snowdens-critical-911-comments-from-prime-time-audience/ Statements made by Snowden regarding 9/11 edited out of NBC Nightly News interview. View on www.storyleak.com http://www.storyleak.com/nbc-censors-snowdens-critical-911-comments-from-prime-time-audience/ Preview by Yahoo
Re: [FairfieldLife] Graphing the Illumined Batgap interviewees by types
In a spectrum of practitioners : -Meditation teachers, -Subtle system teachers, -Ritam Bhara Pragya people; as analogous to, 'Quietism', 'Piety' and 'Inspiration' in typology. In range and distribution of illumined Batgap interviewees by type, just throwing these Batgap illumined people interviewed thus far on a scatter graph by their abiding experience and their spiritual affect on others, it seems some of the awakened are more proactive in affect as awakened practitioners or teachers, long time practiced at helping others spiritually or transformational for others also just by being of their field effect of presence lending spiritual coherence. Some of these are teachers in nature, while some may glow in the closet and watch. And then, their degree of altruistic organization.. More in line with a western scholarly discernment of spirituality and spiritual [the illumined/awakened] teachers, could be a spectrum of practitioners : -Meditation teachers, -Subtle system teachers, -Ritam Bhara Pragya people; as analogous to, 'Quietism', 'Piety' and 'Inspiration' in typology. See the related chapter on western mysticism in the 1891 scholarly monograph, The History of the Amana Society or Community of True Inspiration by Perkins and Wick in the link: https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!topic/communal-studies-forum/mg7lOWuASfs https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!topic/communal-studies-forum/mg7lOWuASfs Another example of the relative blending of spiritual typology is George Fox, a spiritual teacher promulgating quietism who early on was also a pietist in the pietistic sense of doing or working at energetic subtle system healing but then stopped doing that work publicly because it distracted people from what he was primarily teaching then in that era about a fundamental value of the spirituality of quietism in practice of inner silent meditation and then also the cultivating spiritual value of the field effect of group practice of meditation. Hence the early Society of Friends as a spiritual movement. Friends [Quakers] got in to a lot of trouble for that teaching from institutional formal and ideological religionists of that day. The mystic separatists who were the antecedence of Amana in America were inspirationist by spirituality type in practice and as a formed communal spiritual group employing also daily quietism in substantial silent transcendental meditative practice. One can find illumined people in satsanga teaching quietism and piety blended as meditational in guided chakra or subtle energy knowledge. Someone like Ammachi is teaching and bringing pietism in the help she gives through the field effect of darshan and her spiritual practices as modalities to people's subtle systems. Her spiritual practices can fuse quietism [meditational] and subtle system spiritual work [piety]. As an illumined person Ammachi evidently is very much like the mystic person in modalities of Mother Ann, founder of the Shakers. Janet Sussman, also interviewed on Batgap is a great example of this blend too, adept at helping the subtle systems of folks while also being founded as a quietist. It seems that one does not see so many Ritam Bhara Pragya or 'inspired' people as modality as often; however, Connie Huebner, interviewed on Batgap, is a fabulous example of a classic school of inspiration teachers operating in Ritam Bhara Pragya, very much like the mystics of the old Amana Colony tradition going way back into a European lineage of mysticism. Someone like Francis Bennett more recently coming out now awakened on batgap.com it seems is teaching in a blush as a Quietist. Quietism is an earlier word to transcendentalism. Francis now it seems is one in old quietism like TM'ers are more narrowly of modern day transcendentalist quietism. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi of course for his teaching of quietism is better known in his promulgation using transcendental meditation as modality. Using these older established scholarly differentiation between Quietism, Piety, and Inspiration then discernment all becomes much more substantial as a means to looking at mystics, spiritual teachers and history this way. -Buck in the Dome More in line with western scholarly discernment of spirituality [for individuals or groups] and spiritual [illumined/awakened] teachers, 'Quietism', 'Piety' and 'Inspiration' in western typology become somewhat analogous to modern culture as, -Meditation teachers, -Subtle system teachers, -Ritam Bhara Pragya people; . -Buck In the west the categorization of spirituality technically falls in to 'Quietism', 'Piety' and 'Inspiration'. The Batgap interviews in a more scholarly way often fall nicely in to this typology when looked at this way. -Buck Those would be safer demarcations to categorize by that could have some scholarly basis. Though as started on the current Batgap categorizations, different from
Re: [FairfieldLife] The Guru Script
From: Michael Jackson mjackso...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com I appreciate the fact that Mr. Gilpin had no desire to become an object of adoration, a guru. Most people's egos would have made a different choice, no matter what kind of spiritual gauze they might wrap the choice in. I've never really understood those who want to hold court and sit on the tall chair at the front of the room, whether that seat be the Throne Of Swords or Maharishi's Sofa Of Sattva. My opinion on this may be colored by my reading of Shakespeare, where the perils of holding court are presented so well. It may be further colored by the fact that I've just started reading Christopher Moore's The Serpent Of Venice, in which he reprises his character of Pocket of Dog-Snogging, known elsewhere in literature as Lear's Fool. The Fool is the *only* position in any court worth aspiring to in my opinion. He's the only one in the room who can speak his mind and yet (much of the time) be allowed to stay in the room. In my opinion, every guru should be forced to have a Fool on his or her payroll, and to listen to him. It shouldn't even be an option...more of a required security feature, like seat belts. :-)
[FairfieldLife] Lykke Li: ‘I had the blues and that was a good thing’
Sadness permeates the Swede’s third album. She talks about musical catharsis and how David Lynch led her to meditation Lykke Li: ‘The older you get, the more refined you become, and you can step into the light and become a real woman’ http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/lykke-li-i-had-the-blues-and-that-was-a-good-thing-1.1812714 http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/lykke-li-i-had-the-blues-and-that-was-a-good-thing-1.1812714 LykkeLi on youtube: David Lynch Lykke Li - I'm Waiting Here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9rgGueO6Cs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9rgGueO6Cs David Lynch Lykke Li - I'm Waiting Here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9rgGueO6Cs Concept by Lykke Li and Daniel Desure Edited by Jesse Fleming and Sadie Strangio Director of Photography: Nicholas Trikonis Designer: Michelle Pa... View on www.youtube.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9rgGueO6Cs Preview by Yahoo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SrEdAeGj6Y Lykke Li - I Never Learn https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SrEdAeGj6Y Lykke Li I Never Learn. Out Now... CD/LP: http://smarturl.it/lykkeli-onlinestore iTunes: http://smarturl.it/lykkeli-itunesdeluxe Amazon: http://smarturl.it/l... View on www.youtube.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SrEdAeGj6Y Preview by Yahoo
[FairfieldLife] Re: The Spiritual Career Path
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend@... wrote : Barry, this would have been so much more interesting and had so much more impact if you had described it as it happened to you, instead of pretending it's your observations from on high, yourself untouched by it all. Actually, this is interesting to me as an observation, you must be an editor (!) I have been provided by your comment with another piece of the bawee puzzle of why I find his writing annoying; it is because he doesn't ever truly speak from his own experience, from where the real stuff is - inside emotion and conveying a personal aspect that would have to make him vulnerable (and believable) on some level. Consequently, most of his posts come across as a sermon, as a disembodied yet judgmental viewpoint devoid of any human qualities that resemble, well, humanity. This is a guy who preaches, who pontificates from on high somewhere. Consequently he remains untouchable and untouched. But, then, he needs it that way. Whether they like to admit it or not, everyone on this forum was presented with a clear Career Path once they got involved with the TMO, or whatever other form of the Enlightenment Quest they pursued. It was presented in subtext in every talk given by the guy or gal at the front of the room. You looked around at the awe and reverence with which many people gazed at the guy or gal at the front of the room. You watched as people listened raptly to whatever the guy or gal at the front of the room said, incapable of even conceiving of doubting that all of it was true, and probably Truth. And many people wound up WANTING SOME OF THAT for themselves. Consciously or subconsciously, they started wanting to become spiritual teachers. And what's not to want? If you've got an ego (Duh...everybody!), or a hint of narcissism (almost everyone drawn to spiritual teachers), or are an attention junkie (more on this later), you wanted to be like the role model at the front of the room. You wanted to be able to say shit and have everyone accept it as true and possibly Truth, just because you said it. You wanted to be perceived as knowing things that others didn't, just as you perceived that in the particular guy or gal at the front of your rooms, whether or not it was ever true. A part of you tried to convince other parts of you that you wanted this for altruistic reasons, to *help* people and assist them on their path to enlightenment, but if you think about it, there's a shitload of ego and hubris even in that justification. But mainly, most people just wanted the attention. On the mundane level of the word attention, they wanted to be perceived as if they were special. They liked how other students around them treated the guy or gal at the front of the room, and they wanted to be treated that way themselves. Becoming a spiritual teacher was like becoming a rock star in terms of the amount of attention you could potentially attract to yourself, and you didn't even have to learn an instrument. All you had to do was to become enlightened. Or at the very least, claim you had. On a more occult level, however, attention refers to a transfer of energy that takes place when a person places their conscious attention on another person. There is an energy transaction going on in that situation -- the person focusing their attention on another person is giving them some of their energy. Ask anyone who has ever been onstage in front of crowds of over a thousand people about this energy transaction, and they'll tell you it's for real. Being the focus of attention for thousands of people is a RUSH. It gets you high. It's like Ego-Crack. Many people in spiritual practice -- especially in the West where they have fewer established traditions with clear-cut and enforced rules and regs about who gets to become a teacher and who does not -- start to have a few early enlightenment experiences themselves and think, Wow! I did it. I got the promotion I've been longing for. Now I can hang out my shingle as a spiritual teacher. As Ahnold says so well in the film Predator, Bahd idea. They have rules and regs in older, more established spiritual traditions because they've been around long enough to know that one of the worst karmic mistakes a person could possibly make is to attempt to become a spiritual teacher before they are ready to do so. In the rules and regs traditions, they would advise students that given the choice of a free lifetime's supply of heroin and becoming a spiritual teacher before you are capable of handling the pressures of being one, you should probably go for the heroin. Your life would be shorter, but you'd die happier and do harm to fewer people. I can think of no worse choice for someone starting to have early enlightenment experiences than to place themselves in a position where people start to look up to them as wise or knowing. It's like saying,
[FairfieldLife] The Golden M
It looks a lot like McDonalds' golden arches, except that the two arcs are closer together, so they form the letter M. And, marking as they do the site of every worldwide TM center, the graceful arcs of The Golden M are actually covered in gold leaf, not that cheap yellow plastic that McDonalds uses. Underneath the arcs hangs the same sign that you see at McDonalds. But whereas the Big Mac's sign says Over XXX Billion Served, the sign on The Golden M says, Number Of People Enlightened: XXX. On current signs, because the owners of the business have never named a single practitioner of the meditation they sell who became enlightened as the result of it, the number at the end of The Golden M sign still reads (for legal reasons) zero. But they've left all the placeholder numbers because they expect that number to increase. Any day now.
Re: [FairfieldLife] The Guru Script
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, mjackson74@... wrote : I appreciate the fact that Mr. Gilpin had no desire to become an object of adoration, a guru. Most people's egos would have made a different choice, no matter what kind of spiritual gauze they might wrap the choice in. Actually, Mr Gilpin is not so unusual. The ego trap and the fear of falling into this is something that I have come across in a number of people during my life. One of these was an artist, a drawer and painter who did good work. He was accepted into an upscale gallery in Manhattan and was wined and dined and 'tempted' with lots of things with regard to his art. He recognized the danger in this, how these temptations could easily have thrown him off his game, allowed him to move further away from the source of where the art he wanted to make originated from. So he made sure to stay out int he boonies, painting in the cold winter woods of Maine and sitting for hours in the mosquitoes during the scorching summer months in other out-of-the-way places and he stayed focused. His art got to travel to the fancy gallery but the artist stayed firmly ensconced nearer his own roots, filtering out all those things that might have allowed him to become a traitor to his work. This is just his opinion on what was right for him, not a prescription for everyone, however. But he knew himself and he knew what he could handle and he made sure to keep the conditions of his life under 'control' so he would not be eaten up by early fame. From: steve.sundur@... [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, May 31, 2014 7:36 AM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] The Guru Script amazing? amazing? Michael, really, it sounds like you are still pretty dialed into that whole mindset. go figure. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, mjackson74@... wrote : Thanks for posting that - amazing that he said no. And quite wise too I think. From: TurquoiseBee turquoiseb@... [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, May 31, 2014 4:22 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] The Guru Script Good rap by Geoff Gilpin, from his blog. He deals well with one of the not-discussed-very-often aspects of spiritual teaching. That is, that the spiritual teacher is a junkie, hooked on a drug called spiritual teaching. Recently, a friend invited me to join her meditation group. The four people in her group meet every week to practice Tai Chi. They start each session with a guided meditation. She described me to her friends in the group as a person with a lot of experience with meditation who might be interested in joining and leading the sessions. The other people in the group responded enthusiastically. When I read the email with the invitation, I had one of those “fork in the road” moments. You know how, in the movies, a character has to make a crucial decision with huge consequences? For example, a person arrives at a Greyhound station and sees two coaches, one marked “Oshkosh” and the other “New York City.” The movie shows the chain of events that occurs when the character gets on one bus, then the other, resulting in triumph or disaster. I read that email invitation and I flashed back to my years in a fringe religious sect. I recalled how it started—so many young and idealistic people ready to change the world. Maharishi was upbeat and accessible. It was like a big party. Years passed and fewer and fewer people saw Maharishi in person. He withdrew to a secluded compound and surrounded himself with a small band of true believers. His teachings grew more and more bizarre. In his final years, he occasionally appeared on video, surrounded by vast floral displays and a computer-generated golden nimbus, to rail against democracy and threaten doom. In the end, Maharishi didn’t turn out well, but how many of us would do a better job? Imagine the pressure he was under—decades of fawning adulation by crowds projecting their hopes on him. The constant drone of sycophants telling him what they thought he wanted to hear. The total lack of normal human relationships. How many of us could survive all that without cracking up? So, I got that email invitation and I imagined myself sitting cross-legged looking out at eager faces waiting for spiritual insight. I hit Reply and firmly declined the offer. If I’d taken the other bus, I doubt that I would turn out like Maharishi. I doubt I’d ever have the opportunity. I might have even done some good. That’s all beside the point. I turned down the invitation to lead a group meditation for the same reason that some people say they don’t want to try heroin. I might like it.
Re: [FairfieldLife] The Guru Script
Good for him - well done. But my experience in the world of meditation and particularly this new wave of Eckhart wannabes who claim to have awakened would definitely have made the choice to say yes to the email and get the gravy train rolling. From: awoelfleba...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, May 31, 2014 9:46 AM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] The Guru Script ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, mjackson74@... wrote : I appreciate the fact that Mr. Gilpin had no desire to become an object of adoration, a guru. Most people's egos would have made a different choice, no matter what kind of spiritual gauze they might wrap the choice in. Actually, Mr Gilpin is not so unusual. The ego trap and the fear of falling into this is something that I have come across in a number of people during my life. One of these was an artist, a drawer and painter who did good work. He was accepted into an upscale gallery in Manhattan and was wined and dined and 'tempted' with lots of things with regard to his art. He recognized the danger in this, how these temptations could easily have thrown him off his game, allowed him to move further away from the source of where the art he wanted to make originated from. So he made sure to stay out int he boonies, painting in the cold winter woods of Maine and sitting for hours in the mosquitoes during the scorching summer months in other out-of-the-way places and he stayed focused. His art got to travel to the fancy gallery but the artist stayed firmly ensconced nearer his own roots, filtering out all those things that might have allowed him to become a traitor to his work. This is just his opinion on what was right for him, not a prescription for everyone, however. But he knew himself and he knew what he could handle and he made sure to keep the conditions of his life under 'control' so he would not be eaten up by early fame. From: steve.sundur@... [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, May 31, 2014 7:36 AM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] The Guru Script amazing? amazing? Michael, really, it sounds like you are still pretty dialed into that whole mindset. go figure. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, mjackson74@... wrote : Thanks for posting that - amazing that he said no. And quite wise too I think. From: TurquoiseBee turquoiseb@... [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, May 31, 2014 4:22 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] The Guru Script Good rap by Geoff Gilpin, from his blog. He deals well with one of the not-discussed-very-often aspects of spiritual teaching. That is, that the spiritual teacher is a junkie, hooked on a drug called spiritual teaching. Recently, a friend invited me to join her meditation group. The four people in her group meet every week to practice Tai Chi. They start each session with a guided meditation. She described me to her friends in the group as a person with a lot of experience with meditation who might be interested in joining and leading the sessions. The other people in the group responded enthusiastically. When I read the email with the invitation, I had one of those “fork in the road” moments. You know how, in the movies, a character has to make a crucial decision with huge consequences? For example, a person arrives at a Greyhound station and sees two coaches, one marked “Oshkosh” and the other “New York City.” The movie shows the chain of events that occurs when the character gets on one bus, then the other, resulting in triumph or disaster. I read that email invitation and I flashed back to my years in a fringe religious sect. I recalled how it started—so many young and idealistic people ready to change the world. Maharishi was upbeat and accessible. It was like a big party. Years passed and fewer and fewer people saw Maharishi in person. He withdrew to a secluded compound and surrounded himself with a small band of true believers. His teachings grew more and more bizarre. In his final years, he occasionally appeared on video, surrounded by vast floral displays and a computer-generated golden nimbus, to rail against democracy and threaten doom. In the end, Maharishi didn’t turn out well, but how many of us would do a better job? Imagine the pressure he was under—decades of fawning adulation by crowds projecting their hopes on him. The constant drone of sycophants telling him what they thought he wanted to hear. The total lack of normal human relationships. How many of us could survive all that without cracking up? So, I got that email invitation and I imagined myself sitting cross-legged looking out at eager faces waiting for spiritual insight. I hit Reply and
Re: [FairfieldLife] The Guru Script
What turq is calling holding court psychologists Erickson and Piaget called generativity, the passing on of one's experience based wisdom to the next generation. It's considered a natural stage of human development. The problem might be that on FFL we're all pretty much at that stage with no youngsters around to impart to! On Saturday, May 31, 2014 8:11 AM, TurquoiseBee turquoi...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com wrote: From: Michael Jackson mjackso...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com I appreciate the fact that Mr. Gilpin had no desire to become an object of adoration, a guru. Most people's egos would have made a different choice, no matter what kind of spiritual gauze they might wrap the choice in. I've never really understood those who want to hold court and sit on the tall chair at the front of the room, whether that seat be the Throne Of Swords or Maharishi's Sofa Of Sattva. My opinion on this may be colored by my reading of Shakespeare, where the perils of holding court are presented so well. It may be further colored by the fact that I've just started reading Christopher Moore's The Serpent Of Venice, in which he reprises his character of Pocket of Dog-Snogging, known elsewhere in literature as Lear's Fool. The Fool is the *only* position in any court worth aspiring to in my opinion. He's the only one in the room who can speak his mind and yet (much of the time) be allowed to stay in the room. In my opinion, every guru should be forced to have a Fool on his or her payroll, and to listen to him. It shouldn't even be an option...more of a required security feature, like seat belts. :-)
[FairfieldLife] Quotes from Pocket of Dog-Snogging, the Fool Who Survived Lear
“Love needs room to grow. Like a rose. Or a tumor.” ― Christopher Moore, Fool “Sarcasm will make your tits fall off.” ― Christopher Moore, Fool “We've been rehearsing a classic from antiquity, Green Eggs and Hamlet, the story of a young prince of Denmark who goes mad, drowns his girlfriend, and in his remorse, forces spoiled breakfast on all whom he meets.” ― Christopher Moore, Fool “It turns out that one can perpetrate all manner of heinous villainy under a cloak of courtesy and good cheer. . .a man will forfeit all sensible self-interest if he finds you affable enough to share your company over a flagon of ale.” ― Christopher Moore, Fool “Oh, we are but soft and squishy bags of mortality rolling in a bin of sharp circumstance, leaking life until we collapse, flaccid, into our own despair..” ― Christopher Moore, Fool “Will there be heinous fuckery, Pocket?” Heinous Fuckery, most foul!” ― Christopher Moore, Fool “A hundred brilliant witticisms died suffocating on the captain's heavy glove. Thus muted, I pumped my codpiece at the duke and tried to force a fart, but my bum tumpet could find no note.” ― Christopher Moore, Fool “I'm beginning to wonder, said Kent, sitting down now on an overturned wooden tub. Who do I serve? Why am I here? You are here, because, in the expanding ethical ambiguity of our situation, you are steadfast in your righteousness. It is to you, our banished friend, that we all turn—a light amid the dark dealings of family and politics. You are the moral backbone on which the rest of us hang our bloody bits. Without you we are merely wiggly masses of desire writhing in our own devious bile. Really? asked the old knight. Aye, said I. I'm not sure I want to keep company with you lot, then.” ― Christopher Moore, Fool “Advice, then, young yeoman: When referring to the king's middle daughter, state that she is fair, speculate that she is pious, but unless you'd like to spend your watch looking for the box where your head is kept, resist the urge to wax ignorant on her naughty bits. I don't know what that means, sir. -Yeoman Speak not of Regan's shaggacity, son [...] -Pocket” ― Christopher Moore, Fool “[Yeoman, later] Y'know, the Duchess Regan is living here at the tower now? I took your advice about not talking about her boffnacity [footnote], even with the duke dead and all, can't be too careful. Although, I caught sight of her in a dressing gown one day she was up on the parapet outside her solar. Fine flanks on that princess, despite the danger of death and all for sayin' so, sir. [Pocket} Aye, the lady is fair, and her gadonk as fine as frog fur [...] footnote: Boffnacity: an expression of shagnatiousness, fit. from the Latin boffusnatious” ― Christopher Moore, Fool “Soon a whole guild of low-priced shrine keepers around Europe named their own pope - Boldface the Relatively Shameless, Discount Pope of Prague. The price war was on [...] The Retail Pope would offer cheesy bacon toppings on the Host with communion and the Discount Pope would counter with topless nun night for midnight mass.” ― Christopher Moore, Fool “Like looking down on a lubricious chess set, isn't it? The king moves in tiny steps, with no direction, like a drunkard trying to avoid the archer's bolt. The others work their strategies and wait for the old man to fall. He has no power, yet all power moves in his orbit and to his mad whim. Do you know there's no fool piece on the chessboard, Kent? Methinks the fool is the player, the mind above the moves.” “Perhaps there is a reason that there is no fool piece on the chessboard. What action, a fool? What strategy, a fool? What use, a fool? Ah, but a fool resides in a deck of cards, a joker, sometimes two. Of no worth, of course. No real purpose. The appearance of a trump, but none of the power: Simply an instrument of chance. Only a dealer may give value to the joker.” ― Christopher Moore, Fool “I'm feeling full of tiny princes, bustling to get out into the world and start plotting against one another.” ― Christopher Moore, The Serpent of Venice: A Novel “Shylock repointed his twitching, accusatory digit at his daughter. “You do not say such things in my house. You—you—you—you—” “Run along, love, it appears that Papa’s been stricken with an apoplexy of the second person.” ― Christopher Moore, The Serpent of Venice: A Novel “True, I am drunk, and small, and damp, but mistake not my moistness for weakness, although there's an argument to be made for that, as well.” ― Christopher Moore, The Serpent of Venice: A Novel Chorus: And so, from the anointed pen of yon modern bard, comes a re-telling of the Merchant of Venice, Othello, and Cask of Amontillado, what doth pretend to amuse with glad tidings! Iago: Tis truly spoken, the knave Moore has again made sporting use of the fool Pocket. Bassanio: Ha!, but a jest, he has made loutish amusement of Will’s Venetian comedy. Jessica: The
[FairfieldLife] An Important Community Meeting, Sunday
With Bevan and Craig Pearson. Special Afternoon with Dr. Bevan Morris and Dr. Craig Pearson Sunday, June 1st 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm Dalby Hall Reflections on Recent Graduation Events, News, and Stories from Africa and Around the World You are warmly invited to presentations by Dr. Bevan Morris and Dr. Craig Pearson as they share stories from this year’s fantastic graduation events—and exciting developments from the visit by Commencement speaker Jim Carrey. Dr. Morris will report on developments from his recent tour of eight nations in Africa, and also on the latest news from around the globe. Slides and video clips highlight his meetings with government and education leaders—including former Presidents—and with our Movement family. Jai Guru Dev
[FairfieldLife] Re: The Golden M
You are clearly very confused about enlightenment. It is not a progression, of acceptance by others, as your TTC was - there are no formal confirmed steps, from a single organization, or teacher. The universe, in its, infinite perfection, finds a way for us to confirm our experience, in just as concrete a way, as any human organization validates its members, whether a university, church, or corporation. Your desire to be recognized, should you ever achieve enlightenment, has nothing to do with the state, itself. We remain ourselves. There will never be a tally of how many enlightened people resulted from doing TM. No one cares, including the enlightened ones. It is not, and never will be a popularity contest, or an awarding of a trophy. It simply is, what it is, and a person is either there, or they are not. As I was writing to Share, witnessing, the experience that one has begun to lose the isolation of one's obvious boundaries, that one is beginning to walk alongside infinity, is the first clue that progress is being made. TM is a very efficient technique for this, and I suggest that if you are serious about enlightenment, you do it. I also fully encourage you, to continue to entertain this desire of yours for fame and adoration. The best way to learn from life, in my opinion, is to chase desires down to their conclusion. I have learned so much about myself from such outcomes, and find it a far more complete way of dealing with desires, vs. letting them eat at me, as you apparently do. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb@... wrote : It looks a lot like McDonalds' golden arches, except that the two arcs are closer together, so they form the letter M. And, marking as they do the site of every worldwide TM center, the graceful arcs of The Golden M are actually covered in gold leaf, not that cheap yellow plastic that McDonalds uses. Underneath the arcs hangs the same sign that you see at McDonalds. But whereas the Big Mac's sign says Over XXX Billion Served http://overhowmanybillionserved.blogspot.nl/,; the sign on The Golden M says, Number Of People Enlightened: XXX. On current signs, because the owners of the business have never named a single practitioner of the meditation they sell who became enlightened as the result of it, the number at the end of The Golden M sign still reads (for legal reasons) zero. But they've left all the placeholder numbers because they expect that number to increase. Any day now.
[FairfieldLife] Re: An Important Community Meeting, Sunday
Om, BTW, Not everyone is invited. [update: The following information regarding required badge was inadvertently omitted from the previous announcement: Please bring your current program badge or MUM ID. For other practitioners of the Transcendental Meditation program, please contact the Invincible America Department (472-1212 or email: iad...@mum.edu mailto:iad...@mum.edu).] Sunday, June 1st 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm Dalby Hall With Bevan and Craig Pearson. Special Afternoon with Dr. Bevan Morris and Dr. Craig Pearson Sunday, June 1st 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm Dalby Hall Reflections on Recent Graduation Events, News, and Stories from Africa and Around the World You are warmly invited to presentations by Dr. Bevan Morris and Dr. Craig Pearson as they share stories from this year’s fantastic graduation events—and exciting developments from the visit by Commencement speaker Jim Carrey. Dr. Morris will report on developments from his recent tour of eight nations in Africa, and also on the latest news from around the globe. Slides and video clips highlight his meetings with government and education leaders—including former Presidents—and with our Movement family. Jai Guru Dev
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: An Important Community Meeting, Sunday
I'm gonna be on the front row! From: dhamiltony...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, May 31, 2014 10:59 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: An Important Community Meeting, Sunday Om, BTW, Not everyone is invited. [update: The following information regarding required badge was inadvertently omitted from the previous announcement: Please bring your current program badge or MUM ID. For other practitioners of the Transcendental Meditation program, please contact the Invincible America Department (472-1212 or email: iad...@mum.edu).] Sunday, June 1st 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm Dalby Hall With Bevan and Craig Pearson. Special Afternoon with Dr. Bevan Morris and Dr. Craig Pearson Sunday, June 1st 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm Dalby Hall Reflections on Recent Graduation Events, News, and Stories from Africa and Around the World You are warmly invited to presentations by Dr. Bevan Morris and Dr. Craig Pearson as they share stories from this year’s fantastic graduation events—and exciting developments from the visit by Commencement speaker Jim Carrey. Dr. Morris will report on developments from his recent tour of eight nations in Africa, and also on the latest news from around the globe. Slides and video clips highlight his meetings with government and education leaders—including former Presidents—and with our Movement family. Jai Guru Dev
[FairfieldLife] Vedanta, TM and Vipassana
Mindfulness versus Vedantic awakening - the difference Here is a discussion by James Swartz about the difference between the practice of Buddhist Vipassana and its relationship to the Vedanta teachings about awakening to one’s invariant witness-awareness. Hope this helps clarify our discussion about distinguishing between the practices of original Vedanta, TM meditation and Buddhist Vipassana. http://www.shiningworld.com/top/images/stories/Sat_F2014/Buddhism_and_Vedanta.pdf http://www.shiningworld.com/top/images/stories/Sat_F2014/Buddhism_and_Vedanta.pdf
[FairfieldLife] Churchill
My two favorite Winston Churchill quotes: was alarming to see Mr. Gandhi, a seditious Middle Temple lawyer, now posing as a fakir of a type well known in the East, striding half-naked up the steps of the Viceregal Palace, while he is still organising and conducting a defiant campaign of civil disobedience, to parley on equal terms with the representative of the King-Emperor. - spoken to a group known as the Council of the West Essex Unionists. The Hun is always at your throat or at your feet. in an address to the United States Congress 1943.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Hah! The Govmint does as it pleases you can only just writhe.
Oooh, I'm really scared! :-D Napo probably think the Obama administration is Marxist so they wouldn't pay any attention to me. But you, they might. Enjoy your stay in one of our re-education centers. On 05/30/2014 05:59 PM, emptyb...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] wrote: Judge Napo is a libertarian. If that makes him a fascist then you are a neo-marxist terrorist. I need to give DHS your nom de guerre here on FFL to the FBI so they can visit with you. You are probably on their watch list anyway. Apparently they need to know you better ... as in the biblical word know.
Re: [FairfieldLife] The Guru Script
Don't kid yourself Share. What you've just spouted is all surface bullshit. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, sharelong60@... wrote : What turq is calling holding court psychologists Erickson and Piaget called generativity, the passing on of one's experience based wisdom to the next generation. It's considered a natural stage of human development. The problem might be that on FFL we're all pretty much at that stage with no youngsters around to impart to! On Saturday, May 31, 2014 8:11 AM, TurquoiseBee turquoiseb@... [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com wrote: From: Michael Jackson mjackson74@... [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com I appreciate the fact that Mr. Gilpin had no desire to become an object of adoration, a guru. Most people's egos would have made a different choice, no matter what kind of spiritual gauze they might wrap the choice in. I've never really understood those who want to hold court and sit on the tall chair at the front of the room, whether that seat be the Throne Of Swords or Maharishi's Sofa Of Sattva. My opinion on this may be colored by my reading of Shakespeare, where the perils of holding court are presented so well. It may be further colored by the fact that I've just started reading Christopher Moore's The Serpent Of Venice, in which he reprises his character of Pocket of Dog-Snogging, known elsewhere in literature as Lear's Fool. The Fool is the *only* position in any court worth aspiring to in my opinion. He's the only one in the room who can speak his mind and yet (much of the time) be allowed to stay in the room. In my opinion, every guru should be forced to have a Fool on his or her payroll, and to listen to him. It shouldn't even be an option...more of a required security feature, like seat belts. :-)
[FairfieldLife] Re: An Important Community Meeting, Sunday
Do the other practitioners get to watch it on skype? ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, dhamiltony2k5@... wrote : Om, BTW, Not everyone is invited. [update: The following information regarding required badge was inadvertently omitted from the previous announcement: Please bring your current program badge or MUM ID. For other practitioners of the Transcendental Meditation program, please contact the Invincible America Department (472-1212 or email: iadept@... mailto:iadept@...).] Sunday, June 1st 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm Dalby Hall With Bevan and Craig Pearson. Special Afternoon with Dr. Bevan Morris and Dr. Craig Pearson Sunday, June 1st 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm Dalby Hall Reflections on Recent Graduation Events, News, and Stories from Africa and Around the World You are warmly invited to presentations by Dr. Bevan Morris and Dr. Craig Pearson as they share stories from this year’s fantastic graduation events—and exciting developments from the visit by Commencement speaker Jim Carrey. Dr. Morris will report on developments from his recent tour of eight nations in Africa, and also on the latest news from around the globe. Slides and video clips highlight his meetings with government and education leaders—including former Presidents—and with our Movement family. Jai Guru Dev
Re: [FairfieldLife] The Guru Script
Sorry Share, I think what you spouted reflects, for one simple example, the ignorance of never having children. Parenting isn't an experience that can be transferred, so I don't fault you. I haven't read either of these psychologists, so can't comment on the context of what they were saying or how you've applied it to what Barry spouted. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, emilymaenot@... wrote : Don't kid yourself Share. What you've just spouted is all surface bullshit. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, sharelong60@... wrote : What turq is calling holding court psychologists Erickson and Piaget called generativity, the passing on of one's experience based wisdom to the next generation. It's considered a natural stage of human development. The problem might be that on FFL we're all pretty much at that stage with no youngsters around to impart to! On Saturday, May 31, 2014 8:11 AM, TurquoiseBee turquoiseb@... [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com wrote: From: Michael Jackson mjackson74@... [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com I appreciate the fact that Mr. Gilpin had no desire to become an object of adoration, a guru. Most people's egos would have made a different choice, no matter what kind of spiritual gauze they might wrap the choice in. I've never really understood those who want to hold court and sit on the tall chair at the front of the room, whether that seat be the Throne Of Swords or Maharishi's Sofa Of Sattva. My opinion on this may be colored by my reading of Shakespeare, where the perils of holding court are presented so well. It may be further colored by the fact that I've just started reading Christopher Moore's The Serpent Of Venice, in which he reprises his character of Pocket of Dog-Snogging, known elsewhere in literature as Lear's Fool. The Fool is the *only* position in any court worth aspiring to in my opinion. He's the only one in the room who can speak his mind and yet (much of the time) be allowed to stay in the room. In my opinion, every guru should be forced to have a Fool on his or her payroll, and to listen to him. It shouldn't even be an option...more of a required security feature, like seat belts. :-)
[FairfieldLife] How to Settle Political Disputes
In the old days, it was done by duel. Disputes were settled quickly and sometimes deadly. Do the politicians today have the guts to settle questions about the national debt and other issues in this way? http://news.yahoo.com/settling-scores-duels-forefathers-100815010.html http://news.yahoo.com/settling-scores-duels-forefathers-100815010.html
Re: [FairfieldLife] The Guru Script
Here's what Barry spouted about holding court in his other, longer post. Doesn't quite seem to fit with what Share describes as generativity, does it? You wanted to be perceived as knowing things that others didn't, just as you perceived that in the particular guy or gal at the front of your rooms, whether or not it was ever true. A part of you tried to convince other parts of you that you wanted this for altruistic reasons, to *help* people and assist them on their path to enlightenment, but if you think about it, there's a shitload of ego and hubris even in that justification. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, emilymaenot@... wrote : Sorry Share, I think what you spouted reflects, for one simple example, the ignorance of never having children. Parenting isn't an experience that can be transferred, so I don't fault you. I haven't read either of these psychologists, so can't comment on the context of what they were saying or how you've applied it to what Barry spouted. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, emilymaenot@... wrote : Don't kid yourself Share. What you've just spouted is all surface bullshit. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, sharelong60@... wrote : What turq is calling holding court psychologists Erickson and Piaget called generativity, the passing on of one's experience based wisdom to the next generation. It's considered a natural stage of human development. The problem might be that on FFL we're all pretty much at that stage with no youngsters around to impart to! On Saturday, May 31, 2014 8:11 AM, TurquoiseBee turquoiseb@... [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com wrote: From: Michael Jackson mjackson74@... [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com I appreciate the fact that Mr. Gilpin had no desire to become an object of adoration, a guru. Most people's egos would have made a different choice, no matter what kind of spiritual gauze they might wrap the choice in. I've never really understood those who want to hold court and sit on the tall chair at the front of the room, whether that seat be the Throne Of Swords or Maharishi's Sofa Of Sattva. My opinion on this may be colored by my reading of Shakespeare, where the perils of holding court are presented so well. It may be further colored by the fact that I've just started reading Christopher Moore's The Serpent Of Venice, in which he reprises his character of Pocket of Dog-Snogging, known elsewhere in literature as Lear's Fool. The Fool is the *only* position in any court worth aspiring to in my opinion. He's the only one in the room who can speak his mind and yet (much of the time) be allowed to stay in the room. In my opinion, every guru should be forced to have a Fool on his or her payroll, and to listen to him. It shouldn't even be an option...more of a required security feature, like seat belts. :-)
[FairfieldLife] Re: Vedanta, TM and Vipassana
The thing is, Vipassana and virtually other practice besides TM, affects the brain in a different way than TM. ALL forms of meditation that have been studied thus far, whether they are from a Vedic tradition or otherwise, reduce the connectivity of the self-centers of the brain from teh rest of the brain. Occasionally, you'll see a study on Zen or C'han practitioners that resembles TM to some extent, but the main pattern is the same: reduction in the connection between self and the rest of the brain. Any discussion beyond that simply shows that the person has missed this essential point. Even, as far as I can tell from the handful of studies that have been published on TM-clones, ACEM and company don't show the same kind of brain functioning as TM either. The ACEM people even believe that Benson's Relaxation Response is just like TM. Utter silliness. L ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, emptybill@... wrote : Mindfulness versus Vedantic awakening - the difference Here is a discussion by James Swartz about the difference between the practice of Buddhist Vipassana and its relationship to the Vedanta teachings about awakening to one’s invariant witness-awareness. Hope this helps clarify our discussion about distinguishing between the practices of original Vedanta, TM meditation and Buddhist Vipassana. http://www.shiningworld.com/top/images/stories/Sat_F2014/Buddhism_and_Vedanta.pdf http://www.shiningworld.com/top/images/stories/Sat_F2014/Buddhism_and_Vedanta.pdf
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Mindfulness and/versus TM
On 5/30/2014 3:17 PM, lengli...@cox.net [FairfieldLife] wrote: Mindfulness practices are often frowned upon in at least some Buddhist traditions. In fact, some Buddhist scholars say that mindfulness as a specific technique isn't all that old. Almost every Buddhist practices some form of meditation - in Tibet, China, Japan and India and Sri Lanka. Right mindfulness (Pali: samma-sati, Sanskrit: samyak-smrti) from the 'noble eightfold path.' Mindfulness meditation can be traced back to the Upanishads which are a part of the Hindu scriptures and treatises on the Vedas. --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Mindfulness and/versus TM
And yet, as I said, some scholars say that a specific technique for Mindfulness is a recent inventino. L ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, punditster@... wrote : On 5/30/2014 3:17 PM, LEnglish5@... mailto:LEnglish5@... [FairfieldLife] wrote: Mindfulness practices are often frowned upon in at least some Buddhist traditions. In fact, some Buddhist scholars say that mindfulness as a specific technique isn't all that old. Almost every Buddhist practices some form of meditation - in Tibet, China, Japan and India and Sri Lanka. Right mindfulness (Pali: samma-sati, Sanskrit: samyak-smrti) from the 'noble eightfold path.' Mindfulness meditation can be traced back to the Upanishads which are a part of the Hindu scriptures and treatises on the Vedas. --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com http://www.avast.com
Re: [FairfieldLife] The Guru Script
Not concretely, no, not at all, although it seems that she is actually demonstrating what Barry said, therefore rendering what she said as nonsense. :) ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend@... wrote : Here's what Barry spouted about holding court in his other, longer post. Doesn't quite seem to fit with what Share describes as generativity, does it? You wanted to be perceived as knowing things that others didn't, just as you perceived that in the particular guy or gal at the front of your rooms, whether or not it was ever true. A part of you tried to convince other parts of you that you wanted this for altruistic reasons, to *help* people and assist them on their path to enlightenment, but if you think about it, there's a shitload of ego and hubris even in that justification. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, emilymaenot@... wrote : Sorry Share, I think what you spouted reflects, for one simple example, the ignorance of never having children. Parenting isn't an experience that can be transferred, so I don't fault you. I haven't read either of these psychologists, so can't comment on the context of what they were saying or how you've applied it to what Barry spouted. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, emilymaenot@... wrote : Don't kid yourself Share. What you've just spouted is all surface bullshit. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, sharelong60@... wrote : What turq is calling holding court psychologists Erickson and Piaget called generativity, the passing on of one's experience based wisdom to the next generation. It's considered a natural stage of human development. The problem might be that on FFL we're all pretty much at that stage with no youngsters around to impart to! On Saturday, May 31, 2014 8:11 AM, TurquoiseBee turquoiseb@... [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com wrote: From: Michael Jackson mjackson74@... [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com I appreciate the fact that Mr. Gilpin had no desire to become an object of adoration, a guru. Most people's egos would have made a different choice, no matter what kind of spiritual gauze they might wrap the choice in. I've never really understood those who want to hold court and sit on the tall chair at the front of the room, whether that seat be the Throne Of Swords or Maharishi's Sofa Of Sattva. My opinion on this may be colored by my reading of Shakespeare, where the perils of holding court are presented so well. It may be further colored by the fact that I've just started reading Christopher Moore's The Serpent Of Venice, in which he reprises his character of Pocket of Dog-Snogging, known elsewhere in literature as Lear's Fool. The Fool is the *only* position in any court worth aspiring to in my opinion. He's the only one in the room who can speak his mind and yet (much of the time) be allowed to stay in the room. In my opinion, every guru should be forced to have a Fool on his or her payroll, and to listen to him. It shouldn't even be an option...more of a required security feature, like seat belts. :-)
Re: [FairfieldLife] The Guru Script
Hey Michael, I love you like a brother, but this lens, or filter through which you see the world is outdated in my opinion. Or maybe it's because I've been out of that orbit for so long that I can't think of why someone would want to put themselves in the position of a teacher, and why also, someone would want to latch onto a supposed teacher. Yea, I've been out of circulation for too long. Or maybe its just seeing the world in a more mature way. Reflecting further, there was a time when the spiritual quest seemed a more valuable currency. Now, currency is the real currency. On the other hand, in other ways, I think the world has caught up to some of the ideals espoused by spiritual organizations, including TM, which of course, I am most familiar with. (shields up!) ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, mjackson74@... wrote : I appreciate the fact that Mr. Gilpin had no desire to become an object of adoration, a guru. Most people's egos would have made a different choice, no matter what kind of spiritual gauze they might wrap the choice in. From: steve.sundur@... [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, May 31, 2014 7:36 AM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] The Guru Script amazing? amazing? Michael, really, it sounds like you are still pretty dialed into that whole mindset. go figure. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, mjackson74@... wrote : Thanks for posting that - amazing that he said no. And quite wise too I think. From: TurquoiseBee turquoiseb@... [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, May 31, 2014 4:22 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] The Guru Script Good rap by Geoff Gilpin, from his blog. He deals well with one of the not-discussed-very-often aspects of spiritual teaching. That is, that the spiritual teacher is a junkie, hooked on a drug called spiritual teaching. Recently, a friend invited me to join her meditation group. The four people in her group meet every week to practice Tai Chi. They start each session with a guided meditation. She described me to her friends in the group as a person with a lot of experience with meditation who might be interested in joining and leading the sessions. The other people in the group responded enthusiastically. When I read the email with the invitation, I had one of those “fork in the road” moments. You know how, in the movies, a character has to make a crucial decision with huge consequences? For example, a person arrives at a Greyhound station and sees two coaches, one marked “Oshkosh” and the other “New York City.” The movie shows the chain of events that occurs when the character gets on one bus, then the other, resulting in triumph or disaster. I read that email invitation and I flashed back to my years in a fringe religious sect. I recalled how it started—so many young and idealistic people ready to change the world. Maharishi was upbeat and accessible. It was like a big party. Years passed and fewer and fewer people saw Maharishi in person. He withdrew to a secluded compound and surrounded himself with a small band of true believers. His teachings grew more and more bizarre. In his final years, he occasionally appeared on video, surrounded by vast floral displays and a computer-generated golden nimbus, to rail against democracy and threaten doom. In the end, Maharishi didn’t turn out well, but how many of us would do a better job? Imagine the pressure he was under—decades of fawning adulation by crowds projecting their hopes on him. The constant drone of sycophants telling him what they thought he wanted to hear. The total lack of normal human relationships. How many of us could survive all that without cracking up? So, I got that email invitation and I imagined myself sitting cross-legged looking out at eager faces waiting for spiritual insight. I hit Reply and firmly declined the offer. If I’d taken the other bus, I doubt that I would turn out like Maharishi. I doubt I’d ever have the opportunity. I might have even done some good. That’s all beside the point. I turned down the invitation to lead a group meditation for the same reason that some people say they don’t want to try heroin. I might like it.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Mindfulness; the Guru as mantra - Let 'er rip, or not?
When practicing mindfulness, for instance by watching the breath, one must remember to maintain attention on the chosen object of awareness, faithfully returning back to refocus on that object whenever the mind wanders away from it. Thus, mindfulness means not only, moment to moment awareness of present events, but also, remembering to be aware of something or to do something at a designated time in the future. In fact, /the primary connotation of this Sanskrit term [smrti] (and its corresponding Pali term sati) is recollection./ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindfulness On 5/30/2014 2:00 PM, authfri...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] wrote: My dictionary, Share, gives the first meanings of recollection as tranquility of mind and religious contemplation. Those are older, specifically spiritual uses of the term that don't refer to remembering what is past. I would assume that's how emptybill is using it with regard to mindfulness--as he suggests, a sort of intentional attempt at witnessing, attention to whatever is going through the mind at the moment. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, sharelong60@... wrote : emptybill, re your first paragraph: imo continuous mental recollection is NOT witnessing because recollection suggests that the object of awareness has occurred in the past. Witnessing is ongoing. I equate consciousness with awareness and agree with Maharishi that attention is a beam of such. As for objectified, as soon as we begin talking about consciousness or awareness or Self, we turn them into objects. Such is the limitation of speech. But I would agree that even pure consciousness is intentional, engaged and objectified. I would add that it is at the same time, without intention, only virtually engaged and not only the object, but also the subject! On Friday, May 30, 2014 11:31 AM, emptybill@... [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com wrote: Mindfulness is just a form of continuous mental recollection of the field of subjective experience – whether sensations or mentations, whether body, senses or mind. It can be quite exhausting as you suggest and probably is exhausting for many beginners. As a method for repeated refocusing of attention, mindfulness is an attempt to replicate the actuality of the witnessing value of awareness. The problem with that approach is that fundamentally, awareness is already witnessing every fluctuation of the mind (antah-karana/chitta), senses and bodily activity. That means awareness is awake to each experience as it arises, presents itself and perishes, although in itself awareness is uninvolved. Awareness is the /who/ in “who we are” although we habitually and ignorantly identify ourselves as a body-mind personality. Something to note is the difference in meaning between the words “awareness” and “consciousness”. /Awareness = /vigilant or watchful; closely observant, alert or attentive // /Consciousness/= the state of knowing an external object or a subjective perception Etymology: /co/con/com/ (= with) + /scîre/ (= to know) + /ness/ (= state, quality, condition) By definition, the word /consciousness/ means an “object-defined” attention - whether that object is material, sensory or mental. The word therefore signifies attention that is not only object oriented but inherently “objectified” by its own operations, functioning and nature. Thus the obvious question what is “pure consciousness” (i.e. without an object). Is it the */opposite/* of impure Consciousness? If indeed “impure consciousness” means attention to an object, then */any/* attention to a mantra is “impure”. If the adjective “pure” is added to the word “consciousness” to signify a type of simple or unmixed consciousness, then by definition it still signifies a consciousness that is intentional, engaged and objectified. The rest is just bullshit, bullshit, swaha. --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com
[FairfieldLife] Mobile Mindfulness
Here's a guy who managed to avoid the pitfalls of being a meditation teacher while teaching meditation to over a million people. Headspace version 2 and the mindfulness revolution (Wired UK) Headspace version 2 and the mindfulness revolution (Wir... The second version of digital wellbeing platform Headspace, which counts celebrities, members of the Wired team and over a million other people around the world as ... View on www.wired.co.uk Preview by Yahoo
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Mindfulness; the Guru as mantra - Let 'er rip, or not?
On 5/30/2014 11:45 PM, TurquoiseBee turquoi...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] wrote: Thank you, Empty, for at last providing a little context. It was growing painful watching people here other than Anartaxius talk about *something they have never studied or practiced in their lives*, You are mistaken - I've tried both and found them to be very similar - both practices are based on thinking, and then going beyond thought. Apparently I'm the only respondent here that has actually completed a course in Buddhist mindfullness training under a teacher. You can correct me if I am wrong about this. The courses I took were conducted by Suzui Roshi and the Trungpa Tulku. Apparently you once visited a Tibetan Temple in Sante Fe and lit a stick of incense to a statue of Yama. Go figure. as if they not only knew what it was but as if they knew all about it and had no need for it. Typical TMer hubris. It was almost as embarrassing as watching Maharishi talk about Christian concepts he also knew nothing about. Now this is funny - coming from a guy that read over 200 books on the Cathars and once lived in France, /but read not a single book on the Gnostics./ *From:* emptyb...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com *To:* FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com *Sent:* Saturday, May 31, 2014 1:19 AM *Subject:* [FairfieldLife] Re: Mindfulness; the Guru as mantra - Let 'er rip, or not? Judy you are quite correct. This was how I was using the term: as in the Latin term recollctus.- gathering back again or bringing back to conscious mind the previous point of attention. This is really quite old stuff in the Roman Catholic contemplative tradition, based as it is upon the three succeeding stages of recollection, meditation, contemplation or the ways of purgation, illuminationj, union. Mindfulness is a translation of the term sati (Pali) or smriti (Sanskrit). The formal meditative practice is known in Buddhism as satipatthana (Pali) or smṛtyupasthāna (Sanskrit). Satipatthana - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satipatthana image https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satipatthana Satipatthana - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satipatthana Mindfulness-based stress reduction Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy View on en.wikipedia.org https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satipatthana Preview by Yahoo --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com
Re: [FairfieldLife] Mindfulness; the Guru as mantra - Let 'er rip, or not?
On 5/30/2014 11:31 AM, emptyb...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] wrote: Mindfulness is just a form of continuous mental recollection of the field of subjective experience – whether sensations or mentations, whether body, senses or mind. Of course, that's what TMers do every time they mediate: /mental recollection of subjective experience./ In fact, we all do this unconsciously throughout the day - /it's called thinking./ --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com
[FairfieldLife] Big Brother in Thailand
Reading is now forbidden. Can this happen in the USA? http://news.yahoo.com/junta-ruled-thailand-reading-now-resistance-152729290.html http://news.yahoo.com/junta-ruled-thailand-reading-now-resistance-152729290.html
[FairfieldLife] The Smeared Sky
Time-lapse photos of the sky: Matt Molloy's stunning smeared sky photographs - Lost At E Minor: For creative people Matt Molloy's stunning smeared sky photographs - Lost At... Photographer Matt Molloy creates these incredible time-lapse images of the Canadian sky. Each image in his series is composed of 100 to 200 individual phot View on www.lostateminor.com Preview by Yahoo
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Vedanta, TM and Vipassana
On 05/31/2014 10:48 AM, lengli...@cox.net [FairfieldLife] wrote: The thing is, Vipassana and virtually other practice besides TM, affects the brain in a different way than TM. No true at all. There are lots of other meditation programs that use beej mantras (at teach at a fraction of the price of TM). They will get similar or better results than TM often because the beej mantra selected actually suits the individual better than the TM method. Here's apparently your theme song. :-D http://youtu.be/1k8craCGpgs And if they teach TM in India according to the student's personal deity what do when it's Shiva?
Re: [FairfieldLife] Big Brother in Thailand
We'll see how long that lasts. They try that in the US and folks will pull out a book open it up and pull out the gun they have in the hollowed out book and shoot the asshat that wants to enforce such a law. Good reason to ban gun banners.;-) On 05/31/2014 12:11 PM, jr_...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] wrote: Reading is now forbidden. Can this happen in the USA? http://news.yahoo.com/junta-ruled-thailand-reading-now-resistance-152729290.html
Re: [FairfieldLife] Mindfulness; the Guru as mantra - Let 'er rip, or not?
On 5/30/2014 11:31 AM, emptyb...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] wrote: The rest is just bullshit, bullshit, swaha. As a meditation technique, /mindfulness/ is similar to /TM practice/ and /Soto Zen/ - that is, a direct introduction to the natural state of mind where all thoughts and perceptions are realized to be just mental projections having no absolute existence. In Tibet they called it /rigpa/ awareness which is very similar to 'witnessing sleep' in TM - an experience which helps the individual understand the unreality of waking consciousness as phenomena. It's a form of /semde/ - which is Tibetan for the Sanskrit word /cittavarga/: meditation on one's innate awareness, which is it's natural state of pure consciousness (citta) - that's why they called it the /Mind School/ in Tibet - just /being aware of being aware /- meditation on one's innate awareness. 'Consciousness Only' school, founded by Asanga in India. Work cited: /'The Funerary Transformation of the Great Perfection'/ by David Germano JIATS, no. 1, October 2005 p.12 Other titles of interest: /'Knowledge And Liberation: Tibetan Buddhist Epistemology In Support Of Transformative Religious Experience'/ by Anne Carolyn Klein Snow Lion, 1987 /'The Supreme Source: The Fundamental Tantra of the Dzogchen Semde'/ By Kunjed Gyalpo', Namkhai Norbu and Adriano Clemente Snow Lion Publications, 1999 --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com
Re: [FairfieldLife] The Guru Script
Steve in all honesty I think you are out of the loop on this one. I have had some experience with these kinds of folk, having assisted a friend in running a healing and consciousness expanding center for a while - it closed a year or so ago. Also I have sort of kept my eye on what was happening in the post guru from the East world. By this I mean that until Eckhart Tolle, not all but IMO most of the teachers were either all about eastern style enlightenment be it Buddhist or Hindu flavored, or they were the New Age types claiming special connections to whatever dimensions or having a special relationship with Ascended Masters and Archangels or Space Brothers and so were all about ascension whereby one actually elevates the vibration of one's body to the degree that while not calling it enlightenment, one becomes ascended, the body and mind perfect, no flaws, no disease, no stress, no poverty and all that jazz, generally through doing whatever technique or following whatever kind of practice the New Agey practitioner taught, in essence being your guru. Look at many of the folks Rick interviews on BATGAP. Some of them seem humble, but many of them are in essence saying Yeah, come see me and get MY healing, get MY meditations, get MY mantras, do MY process. So there are plenty of reasons revolving around getting attention, getting money and all that that lead folks to being the guru. But if you like someone, no one will convince you they are not the best things since sliced bread. As screwed up as Rajneesh (Osho) was, I have met people in person who absolutely believe to this day that he was God incarnate. Same for Muktananda, and I have 2 good friends who will never in this world believe that Swami Kriyananda was anything other than enlightened and they vow the women who successfully sued him for coming after them sexually were lying. As for me, I get fulfillment from a day like today. Trip to the store to replenish cat and people food, processed some older veggies so I could salvage what was still usable, got some turkey cutlets in the oven, a fine seven vegetable and chicken stew bubbling in the crock pot, later I will continue with an ongoing project to cut away a strangling vine that is killing one of my trees. Its an old tree on the property and the vine has been there a while. Its really thick at the bottom. I could use the generally accepted method of injecting some Monsanto product into the root of the vine, but that would give me no exercise. Yesterday I had eaten some things I should not have eaten, my blood sugar was 220, and I went outside with the axe, and a pair of loppers and had at that vine for 30 or 40 minutes and checked my sugar again - 113. (Which is about normal.) Today is my daughter's birthday - I went to her house yesterday and made chocolate chip cookies for the party. I had offered to make the cake as I have done in the past, but NO! She wanted a big ass sheet cake from Bi-Lo. There will be about 20 kids around 14 years of age there today till about 10 pm. I am on standby if her mother needs help (she's got one other parent coming to assist) but if not, I will go over tomorrow with presents and the adult party for her birthday for the family - her grandparents and all. It reminded me of something I did about 20 years ago - my daughter obviously had not been born then but I knew her mother and HER mother owned about 120 acres of land here in SC (still does) most of which is woodlands. There was a great deal of rain and a mighty wind came up and knocked down any number of trees on their land. One of them was a pretty dogwood tree that Joy liked and it had been nearly completely up rooted. It was lying on its side with half the roots sticking up in the air. Some of the roots on the side closest to the ground were still in the ground. The tree was at least 15 - 18 feet tall, so it wasn't huge. Joy vowed we could save it and was determined to do so. I thought she was crazy, I mean the tree was right in the middle of the woods, not near the house of anything, but she insisted and one of her colleagues a woman named Jan helped us. The three of us got ropes, chains, a couple or three come-alongs, also known as ratchet lever winch or cable puller. Well, we got three ropes around the tree, and attached the other ends to other trees and used those come-alongs and little by little we began to move that tree, even though one of the come-alongs broke and we had to jury rig a replacement on the spot with chains and stuff. Unbelievably, after a great deal of elbow grease and several hours of mighty effort, we hoisted that tree upright and packed dirt in around the roots. I regret that none of us took cameras to record the experience, but the tree is still alive today. From: steve.sun...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Mindfulness and/versus TM
On 5/30/2014 8:17 PM, emptyb...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] wrote: The blog link on TM Mental Sinking is a hoot. Is is straight Gelugpa ideology where fear of losing the object of attention causes them to try to grip it tight and never lose it. You're losing our attention - just tell us why you took down the photo of /H.H. The Dalai Lama/ from your altar. This fear drives their practise of mantra-japa and demonstrates why dhyana-samapatti is so admitedly difficult for them and so rare. Great uneducated foolishness that could have been spewed out by Vaj ... oops, I mean Vag. You are not even making any sense today. All the Gelugs practice mantra-japa and dhyana-sampatti - I once meditated with Tenzin Gyatso himself. Go figure. --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Mindfulness and/versus TM
When practicing mindfulness, for instance by watching the breath, one must remember to maintain attention on the chosen object of awareness, faithfully returning back to refocus on that object whenever the mind wanders away from it. Thus, mindfulness means not only, moment to moment awareness of present events, but also, remembering to be aware of something or to do something at a designated time in the future. In fact, the primary connotation of this Sanskrit term [smrti] (and its corresponding Pali term sati) is recollection. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindfulness On 5/30/2014 4:04 PM, dhamiltony...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] wrote: Mindfulness, it is also that place like after you have thought a sutra or mantra and you are sitting as just quiet in samadhi in restful alertness. Resourcing Awake in Being, then pinging the system with some vibration of thought as the mantra or sutra and yet mindful as what comes out of Being. Mindfulness is built in to the TM-sidhis practice. It is not just mental repetition or thinking. It is the the wonderfully set up collision of Dharna, dhyan, and samadhi. Very much part of proper practice of TM is sitting there with no mantra and no thought. When Buddhistic practices are crossed with transcending it is mindfulness as wakefulness in process and 'mindfulness' becomes the colloquial word for it. TM'ers it seems often willfully misunderstand or misinterpret the word to stick it in the Eye of buddhists. But, like practicing the Sidhis, it is something you do within Being and the physiology. A lot like the Ved and Physiology mindful practice within TM. As Guru Dev said, japa alone is just reciting a mantra, add dhyan it is meditative practice. That is TM. That is mindfulness well done. That is what Guru Dev taught. It is being mindful in process and not just falling asleep or just some thinking. It is really quite beautiful. Maharishi packaged it very elegantly as TM and the advanced techniques, if you use them. They are things people should do, mindfully. Certainly people everywhere should at least take more quiet time and be more mindful that way too. Spiritual practice is something one does. 'Mindfulness' is a good catch-all for that. - Buck anartaxius writes: === SHARELONG60 WROTE: Ann, thanks so much for posting this. Mindfulness sounds exhausting to me! All that continual manipulation of attention! Plus Kabat-Zinn himself says that all the contents of attention are fleeting. So why bother to focus on them?! Just let attention go where it goes naturally, to a field of greatest happiness. === FLEETWOOD_MACANDCHESE WROTE: As I have expressed before, I am not a big fan of mindfulness, as a meditation practice, on its own, eyes open, or closed, because to my way of thinking, it puts the cart before the horse. However, I can see the strong value in having a spiritual teacher that a person actually has a personal relationship with, combined with mindfulness. That way, the teacher is functioning, much like the correct use of the mantra, in TM - bringing the student to subtler levels and experiences, without the student having a say, in where they want to go (aka, take it easy, take it as it comes). Breaks boundaries, quickly. Seems to me, that the advantage, of a personal relationship, with a spiritual teacher, combined with mindfulness, if done right, would be big, dramatic breakthroughs, in many, many areas - much faster, than the gradual 'erosion' of the mantra - though possible not as comprehensive, either...Both of the Barrys have mentioned significant interactions, as a result of, both, their attention, or mindfulness, on where the guru was pointing, in addition to the strength of the experience, itself, as a result of the guru's proximity. === BHAIRITU WROTE: Mindfulness is just another door to the same room. === I learned both mindfulness and TM. I only practised mindfulness for a short time until recently. There seems to be various styles of meditation called mindfulness. What I learned long ago was not difficult conceptually or exhausting, but thoughts seemed to be a problem for me then. In some mindfulness systems the attention one pays to various things is no greater than one pays attention to coming back to the mantra in TM, so it is not intrinsically difficult or tiring, or effortful, so the characterisation of mindfulness being concentration is not necessarily correct. Fleetwood_MacandCheese's comments above here I think are pretty good. Eyes open mindfulness is primarily to prevent visual hallucinations. Eyes closed mindfulness is more pleasant. It is well known that sensory deprivation results in hallucinations. Meditation in general might be considered a somewhat less extreme form of sensory deprivation. We also experience sensory deprivation in sleep, and then hallucinations
[FairfieldLife] Maharishi Audios from 1959!
Bob Kennedy presents the Invincible America Assembly's evening knowledge meetings. He tells me that at these meetings he is now playing more than two dozen audios of Maharishi from 1959! These meetings are from 8:30 to 9:15, and Bob plays these tapes through the entire 45 minutes. Bring your program badge and come join him! Jai Guru Dev, Dick
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Hah! The Govmint does as it pleases you can only just writhe.
No doubt Barack Osama bin Halal is proly sending his FBI dicks to pick me up show me the people's justice. However, I'll be hard to find since I'm in Texass. If they do find me I'll just shout out I know Bari2 from FFL. I'm sure their faces will contort in fear when they hear your non de guerre. They'll apologize of course and claim it was just a case of mistaken comradeship. If they are still uncertain I'll say See that guy over there with his head in the prairie-dog hole? That's WillieTex of Wiki. He's a well known computer saboteur at the community college. I know him from FFL too and if you don't leave now, I'm gonna call him over. They'll run away immediately in fear of getting some of it on them. Please Note! There are no pork products in this post.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Vedanta, TM and Vipassana
You are assuming that it is only the mantra that is different about TM. You are also assuming that, without looking at the EEG, that all practices that use the proper mantra work the same. Neither assumption may be correct. The research I am referring to was done on: 13 Tibetan Buddhists, 15 QiGong, 14 Sahaja Yoga, 14 Ananda Marga Yoga, 15 Zen practitioners. All of them showed the same general pattern: http://www.amaye.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/med-connectivity-EEG-tomog.pdf http://www.amaye.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/med-connectivity-EEG-tomog.pdf The globally reduced functional interdependence between brain regions in meditation suggests that interaction between the self process functions is minimized, and that constraints on the self process by other processes are minimized, thereby leading to the subjective experience of non-involvement, detachment and letting go, as well as of all-oneness and dissolution of ego borders during meditation. I haven't seen the research they have been doing on TM, but I am assuming, from the enthusiasm that Fred Travis has revealed when referring to it, that they are finding that TM has a different effect than any of the above practices on the same measure. L ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, noozguru@... wrote : On 05/31/2014 10:48 AM, LEnglish5@... mailto:LEnglish5@... [FairfieldLife] wrote: The thing is, Vipassana and virtually other practice besides TM, affects the brain in a different way than TM. No true at all. There are lots of other meditation programs that use beej mantras (at teach at a fraction of the price of TM). They will get similar or better results than TM often because the beej mantra selected actually suits the individual better than the TM method. Here's apparently your theme song. :-D http://youtu.be/1k8craCGpgs http://youtu.be/1k8craCGpgs And if they teach TM in India according to the student's personal deity what do when it's Shiva?
[FairfieldLife] Fwd: Maharishi Audios from 1959!
From: Robert Kennedy lov...@yahoo.com Yes, we are now playing the just-released 1959 audios of Maharishi speaking in New York City. But only Monday through Friday...in Maharishi Patanjali Golden Dome. 8:30 PM to 9:15 PM. On weekends, when MUM tape library is closed, we play tapes from other times like 1970-1973 (Humboldt, La Antilla, Amherst) and other years. These evening meetings are seven days a week, every day of the year. Open only to sidhas with valid Dome badge.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: An Important Community Meeting, Sunday
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, mjackson74@... wrote : I'm gonna be on the front row! You and me both. I'm sure they'll welcome me with open arms, among other things. From: dhamiltony2k5@... [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, May 31, 2014 10:59 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: An Important Community Meeting, Sunday Om, BTW, Not everyone is invited. [update: The following information regarding required badge was inadvertently omitted from the previous announcement: Please bring your current program badge or MUM ID. For other practitioners of the Transcendental Meditation program, please contact the Invincible America Department (472-1212 or email: iadept@... mailto:iadept@...).] Sunday, June 1st 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm Dalby Hall With Bevan and Craig Pearson. Special Afternoon with Dr. Bevan Morris and Dr. Craig Pearson Sunday, June 1st 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm Dalby Hall Reflections on Recent Graduation Events, News, and Stories from Africa and Around the World You are warmly invited to presentations by Dr. Bevan Morris and Dr. Craig Pearson as they share stories from this year’s fantastic graduation events—and exciting developments from the visit by Commencement speaker Jim Carrey. Dr. Morris will report on developments from his recent tour of eight nations in Africa, and also on the latest news from around the globe. Slides and video clips highlight his meetings with government and education leaders—including former Presidents—and with our Movement family. Jai Guru Dev
[FairfieldLife] Yaqui Vastu
Today we looked at this place which has a tin roof and sits on one acre of land. It has a bedroom and a kitchen area and a nice veranda looking out on a fenced garden. There is no electricity or running water. The San Antonio River runs nearby. There is a purple sage bush on the side. The front door faces east, so it qualifies as a Yaqui Vastu dwelling. Simple, Quiet. Rustic. http://www.rwilliams.us/archives/images/rustic.jpg
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Vedanta, TM and Vipassana
Sorry Lawson, but I put in years of study about this with very real teachers plus I also learned to teach TM. You did not and are just making shit up. I understand you want the home team to win but this ain't a ballgame. On 05/31/2014 02:18 PM, lengli...@cox.net [FairfieldLife] wrote: You are assuming that it is only the mantra that is different about TM. You are also assuming that, without looking at the EEG, that all practices that use the proper mantra work the same. Neither assumption may be correct. The research I am referring to was done on: 13 Tibetan Buddhists, 15 QiGong, 14 Sahaja Yoga, 14 Ananda Marga Yoga, 15 Zen practitioners. All of them showed the same general pattern: http://www.amaye.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/med-connectivity-EEG-tomog.pdf The globally reduced functional interdependence between brain regions in meditation suggests that interaction between the self process functions is minimized, and that constraints on the self process by other processes are minimized, thereby leading to the subjective experience of non-involvement, detachment and letting go, as well as of all-oneness and dissolution of ego borders during meditation. I haven't seen the research they have been doing on TM, but I am assuming, from the enthusiasm that Fred Travis has revealed when referring to it, that they are finding that TM has a different effect than any of the above practices on the same measure. L ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, noozguru@... wrote : On 05/31/2014 10:48 AM, LEnglish5@... mailto:LEnglish5@... [FairfieldLife] wrote: The thing is, Vipassana and virtually other practice besides TM, affects the brain in a different way than TM. No true at all. There are lots of other meditation programs that use beej mantras (at teach at a fraction of the price of TM). They will get similar or better results than TM often because the beej mantra selected actually suits the individual better than the TM method. Here's apparently your theme song. :-D http://youtu.be/1k8craCGpgs And if they teach TM in India according to the student's personal deity what do when it's Shiva?
[FairfieldLife] Post Count Sun 01-Jun-14 00:15:02 UTC
Fairfield Life Post Counter === Start Date (UTC): 05/31/14 00:00:00 End Date (UTC): 06/07/14 00:00:00 85 messages as of (UTC) 06/01/14 00:13:21 11 TurquoiseBee turquoiseb 10 dhamiltony2k5 9 Michael Jackson mjackson74 7 'Richard J. Williams' punditster 6 steve.sundur 6 fleetwood_macncheese 5 awoelflebater 5 LEnglish5 4 emptybill 4 emilymaenot 4 Bhairitu noozguru 3 nablusoss1008 3 Dick Mays dickmays 2 jr_esq 2 authfriend 1 s3raphita 1 cardemaister 1 Share Long sharelong60 1 Pundit Sir punditster Posters: 19 Saturday Morning 00:00 UTC Rollover Times = Daylight Saving Time (Summer): US Friday evening: PDT 5 PM - MDT 6 PM - CDT 7 PM - EDT 8 PM Europe Saturday: BST 1 AM CEST 2 AM EEST 3 AM Standard Time (Winter): US Friday evening: PST 4 PM - MST 5 PM - CST 6 PM - EST 7 PM Europe Saturday: GMT 12 AM CET 1 AM EET 2 AM For more information on Time Zones: www.worldtimezone.com
[FairfieldLife] Re: Yaqui Vastu
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, punditster@... wrote : Today we looked at this place which has a tin roof and sits on one acre of land. It has a bedroom and a kitchen area and a nice veranda looking out on a fenced garden. There is no electricity or running water. The San Antonio River runs nearby. There is a purple sage bush on the side. The front door faces east, so it qualifies as a Yaqui Vastu dwelling. Simple, Quiet. Rustic. http://www.rwilliams.us/archives/images/rustic.jpg http://www.rwilliams.us/archives/images/rustic.jpg http://www.rwilliams.us/archives/images/rustic.jpg http://www.rwilliams.us/archives/images/rustic.jpg http://www.rwilliams.us/archives/images/rustic.jpg View on www.rwilliams.us http://www.rwilliams.us/archives/images/rustic.jpg Preview by Yahoo Perfect, I'll be there next week to make an offer.
[FairfieldLife] Test Sweeps
http://youtu.be/MS2OgCUhWjE
[FairfieldLife] The Red Stuff
Michael Jackson bought the Beatles' song catalog for $47.5 million in 1984. It's now worth nearly $1 billion. Apparently Michael Jackson had a very large stash of Tobasco sauce in his closet, a very large stash. Go figure. Book Review: 'Michael Jackson, Inc.' by Zack O'Malley Greenburg http://online.wsj.com/articles/book-review-michael-jackson-inc-by-zack-omalley-greenburg-1401480239
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Yaqui Vastu
On Sat, May 31, 2014 at 8:16 PM, awoelfleba...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com wrote: ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, punditster@... wrote : Perfect, I'll be there next week to make an offer. This would make a great winter place for you and your family. It needs a little fixing up. It's only one block from the Charro Ranch which is located at 6126 Padre Dr., in San Antonio, Texas 78214. Fiesta San Antonio Charreada: http://youtu.be/mAPLqrwj0us Charro Ranch: http://sacharros.org/
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Vedanta, TM and Vipassana
Replying again: You're implying that you are more familiar witht he EEG research than I am, but you don't provide any links to research that shows that some specific meditation practice has the same EEG effects as TM, letalone show that it is the mantra that is important, rather than the gestalt of mantra + the way TM is taught that is important. Anyone can say think a mantra effortlessly. That doesn't mean it has the same effects as TM. L ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, noozguru@... wrote : Sorry Lawson, but I put in years of study about this with very real teachers plus I also learned to teach TM. You did not and are just making shit up. I understand you want the home team to win but this ain't a ballgame. On 05/31/2014 02:18 PM, LEnglish5@... mailto:LEnglish5@... [FairfieldLife] wrote: You are assuming that it is only the mantra that is different about TM. You are also assuming that, without looking at the EEG, that all practices that use the proper mantra work the same. Neither assumption may be correct. The research I am referring to was done on: 13 Tibetan Buddhists, 15 QiGong, 14 Sahaja Yoga, 14 Ananda Marga Yoga, 15 Zen practitioners. All of them showed the same general pattern: http://www.amaye.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/med-connectivity-EEG-tomog.pdf http://www.amaye.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/med-connectivity-EEG-tomog.pdf The globally reduced functional interdependence between brain regions in meditation suggests that interaction between the self process functions is minimized, and that constraints on the self process by other processes are minimized, thereby leading to the subjective experience of non-involvement, detachment and letting go, as well as of all-oneness and dissolution of ego borders during meditation. I haven't seen the research they have been doing on TM, but I am assuming, from the enthusiasm that Fred Travis has revealed when referring to it, that they are finding that TM has a different effect than any of the above practices on the same measure. L ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, noozguru@... mailto:noozguru@... wrote : On 05/31/2014 10:48 AM, LEnglish5@... mailto:LEnglish5@... [FairfieldLife] wrote: The thing is, Vipassana and virtually other practice besides TM, affects the brain in a different way than TM. No true at all. There are lots of other meditation programs that use beej mantras (at teach at a fraction of the price of TM). They will get similar or better results than TM often because the beej mantra selected actually suits the individual better than the TM method. Here's apparently your theme song. :-D http://youtu.be/1k8craCGpgs http://youtu.be/1k8craCGpgs And if they teach TM in India according to the student's personal deity what do when it's Shiva?
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Mindfulness and/versus TM
On 5/31/2014 1:16 PM, lengli...@cox.net [FairfieldLife] wrote: And yet, as I said, some scholars say that a specific technique for Mindfulness is a recent inventino. Apparently the technique was invented by the Buddha, Gotama, the first historical yogin In India, circa 563 B.C. According to Gotama, he became /enlightend/ while sitting under a tree and practicing meditation. That's why in the Mahayana Shakya is depicted in a sitting meditative pose. Buddha in Sanskrit means /the awakened one/, that is he 'woke up' to the reality that /all events and conditions are the result of causes/, and that everything happen for a reason. Gotama taught *causation*, the central philosophy of Buddhism. Gotama practiced a form of yogic meditation according to the Gotama himself in numerous talks and conversations. The question is: /Did Gotama use a specific yoga meditation technique in order to become enlightened, and if so what was it?/ According to the Soto Zen Tradition, Gotama passed down a special meditation that is very similar to TM practice. It involves a sitting type of meditative repose in which the mind becomes empty of thoughts allowing one's own Buddha nature to be realized. --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Vedanta, TM and Vipassana
You're familiar with the EEG of TM and other practices? And I'm not making stuff up, though I understand why you might want to believe so. L ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, noozguru@... wrote : Sorry Lawson, but I put in years of study about this with very real teachers plus I also learned to teach TM. You did not and are just making shit up. I understand you want the home team to win but this ain't a ballgame. On 05/31/2014 02:18 PM, LEnglish5@... mailto:LEnglish5@... [FairfieldLife] wrote: You are assuming that it is only the mantra that is different about TM. You are also assuming that, without looking at the EEG, that all practices that use the proper mantra work the same. Neither assumption may be correct. The research I am referring to was done on: 13 Tibetan Buddhists, 15 QiGong, 14 Sahaja Yoga, 14 Ananda Marga Yoga, 15 Zen practitioners. All of them showed the same general pattern: http://www.amaye.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/med-connectivity-EEG-tomog.pdf http://www.amaye.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/med-connectivity-EEG-tomog.pdf The globally reduced functional interdependence between brain regions in meditation suggests that interaction between the self process functions is minimized, and that constraints on the self process by other processes are minimized, thereby leading to the subjective experience of non-involvement, detachment and letting go, as well as of all-oneness and dissolution of ego borders during meditation. I haven't seen the research they have been doing on TM, but I am assuming, from the enthusiasm that Fred Travis has revealed when referring to it, that they are finding that TM has a different effect than any of the above practices on the same measure. L ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, noozguru@... mailto:noozguru@... wrote : On 05/31/2014 10:48 AM, LEnglish5@... mailto:LEnglish5@... [FairfieldLife] wrote: The thing is, Vipassana and virtually other practice besides TM, affects the brain in a different way than TM. No true at all. There are lots of other meditation programs that use beej mantras (at teach at a fraction of the price of TM). They will get similar or better results than TM often because the beej mantra selected actually suits the individual better than the TM method. Here's apparently your theme song. :-D http://youtu.be/1k8craCGpgs http://youtu.be/1k8craCGpgs And if they teach TM in India according to the student's personal deity what do when it's Shiva?
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: The Onion nails it again
On 5/30/2014 11:35 AM, TurquoiseBee turquoi...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] wrote: Meanwhile, why is it that paragons of creative intelligence like Judy, Jimbo, Nabby, Ann, Willytex, and recently Steve can't seem to think of anything to write about but me? Whatever it is you are doing over there, keep doing it - /over there./ We don't need no more locos over here in the barrio screwing with our prairie dogs and stuff. Have a nice day. --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: TM is a Cult?
On 5/30/2014 9:10 PM, s3raph...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] wrote: Re I've seen someone levitate. Many times. In many settings . . .: This is Rama we're talking about, no? What I was meaning to ask you before was: did Rama ever give his followers (or just you perhaps) instructions on how they also could levitate? Did Rama claim to be utilising Patanjali's Samyama hints (as re-packaged by MMY) or had he discovered a new occult secret? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sdztv3izu_o Monkeys are starting to fly out of my butt again. This has happened over a hundred times lately. The only relief for me seems to be the reading of these messages and sometimes posting a reply. That sort of makes me think about the important issues and try to figure them out. Thanks everyone, for all the spiritual help. Go figure. --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: TM is a Cult?
On 5/30/2014 11:51 PM, TurquoiseBee turquoi...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] wrote: *From:* s3raph...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Re I've seen someone levitate. Many times. In many settings . . .: This is Rama we're talking about, no? Yes. What I was meaning to ask you before was: did Rama ever give his followers (or just you perhaps) instructions on how they also could levitate? No. Did Rama claim to be utilising Patanjali's Samyama hints (as re-packaged by MMY)... No. ...or had he discovered a new occult secret? No idea. The most he ever said about it was that he remembered how to do it from a previous life. Fred Lenz, aka, Rama, learned how to levitate from Master Fwap. The whole story is related by Lenz in his book /Surfing the Himalayas/, which apparently Barry never read. I'm sure this information won't be lost on Judy. LoL! ...Master Fwap told me that most people who have been enlightened in their previous incarnations would normally begin to regain their past-life enlightenment-if they lived at sea level-at around the age of twenty-nine, when their astrological Saturn return took place. He said that living in or near sacred mountains, because of their beneficial auric influences, often made past-life returns happen even faster. 'Surfing the Himalayas: A Spiritual Adventure' by Frederick Lenz St. Martin's Press, 1997 p. 119 --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com
Re: [FairfieldLife] The part of the Edward Snowdon interview NBC edited out of prime time
On 5/31/2014 6:36 AM, TurquoiseBee turquoi...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] wrote: A search of FFL reveals, in fact, that no one has mentioned him since December, when Willytex compared him to me. There is some resemblance: both of you are computer hackers that fled to a foreign country to hide out; both of you know your way around a keyboard. It's obvious, at least to me, that you both play the game. The difference is that you seem to be susceptible to /mind-control/ which causes you to sometimes fall into /trance-induction states/. Go figure. --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com
Re: [FairfieldLife] The Guru Script
On 5/31/2014 3:22 AM, TurquoiseBee turquoi...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] wrote: Good rap by Geoff Gilpin, from his blog. He deals well with one of the not-discussed-very-often aspects of spiritual teaching. That is, that the spiritual teacher is a junkie, hooked on a drug called spiritual teaching. The first thing to do is probably to learn /a little Tai Chi/ and be able to hold a pose, so that you don't look like a total idiot on the dance floor. Leading the silent meditation would be the easy part. Recently, a friend invited me to join her meditation group. The four people in her group meet every week to practice Tai Chi. They start each session with a guided meditation. She described me to her friends in the group as a person with a lot of experience with meditation who might be interested in joining and leading the sessions. The other people in the group responded enthusiastically. When I read the email with the invitation, I had one of those “fork in the road” moments. You know how, in the movies, a character has to make a crucial decision with huge consequences? For example, a person arrives at a Greyhound station and sees two coaches, one marked “Oshkosh” and the other “New York City.” The movie shows the chain of events that occurs when the character gets on one bus, then the other, resulting in triumph or disaster. I read that email invitation and I flashed back to my years in a fringe religious sect. I recalled how it started—so many young and idealistic people ready to change the world. Maharishi was upbeat and accessible. It was like a big party. Years passed and fewer and fewer people saw Maharishi in person. He withdrew to a secluded compound and surrounded himself with a small band of true believers. His teachings grew more and more bizarre. In his final years, he occasionally appeared on video, surrounded by vast floral displays and a computer-generated golden nimbus, to rail against democracy and threaten doom. In the end, Maharishi didn’t turn out well, but how many of us would do a better job? Imagine the pressure he was under—decades of fawning adulation by crowds projecting their hopes on him. The constant drone of sycophants telling him what they thought he wanted to hear. The total lack of normal human relationships. How many of us could survive all that without cracking up? So, I got that email invitation and I imagined myself sitting cross-legged looking out at eager faces waiting for spiritual insight. I hit Reply and firmly declined the offer. If I’d taken the other bus, I doubt that I would turn out like Maharishi. I doubt I’d ever have the opportunity. I might have even done some good. That’s all beside the point. I turned down the invitation to lead a group meditation for the same reason that some people say they don’t want to try heroin. I might like it. --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com
Re: [FairfieldLife] The Spiritual Career Path
On 5/31/2014 5:26 AM, TurquoiseBee turquoi...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] wrote: More general musings about spirituality from the Hoofdploppen Cafe. That's not the real name of this cafe, BTW. I just call the quiet inner-city-Leiden square where it's located the Hoofdploppen Square. It's a joke in my made-up Dutch, signifying that the square in front of the building across the street is where they used to chop people's heads off back in the 17th century. You are probably sitting across from where the explosion wiped out almost the whole of downtown Leiden. Apparently the open space for the park was formed by the accidental explosion of a ship loaded with gunpowder in 1807. From what I've read, there was a 80 year war there and the Dutch people had a hard time getting rid of the Spaniards. Many economic historians regard the Netherlands as the first thoroughly capitalist country in the world. Go figure. --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: The Spiritual Career Path
On 5/31/2014 7:25 AM, authfri...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] wrote: Barry, this would have been /so/ much more interesting and had /so/ much more impact if you had described it as it happened to you, instead of pretending it's your observations from on high, yourself untouched by it all. It might explain why Barry is so interested in posting here - it's a chance to teach and be somebody, even if it's just on the internet. He probably wanted to be able to levitate but Rama wouldn't teach him the secret technique, so it's all about posing and word-play. Go figure. Whether they like to admit it or not, everyone on this forum was presented with a clear Career Path once they got involved with the TMO, or whatever other form of the Enlightenment Quest they pursued. It was presented in subtext in every talk given by the guy or gal at the front of the room. You looked around at the awe and reverence with which many people gazed at the guy or gal at the front of the room. You watched as people listened raptly to whatever the guy or gal at the front of the room said, incapable of even conceiving of doubting that all of it was true, and probably Truth. And many people wound up WANTING SOME OF THAT for themselves. Consciously or subconsciously, they started wanting to become spiritual teachers. --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com
Re: [FairfieldLife] The Guru Script
On 5/31/2014 7:27 AM, Michael Jackson mjackso...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] wrote: I appreciate the fact that Mr. Gilpin had no desire to become an object of adoration, a guru. Most people's egos would have made a different choice, no matter what kind of spiritual gauze they might wrap the choice in. Maybe Mr. Gilpin didn't know any Tai Chi Gong. I mean, what would he say during a silent meditation anyway? Go figure. --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com
