[FairfieldLife] Re: TM and Karma Yoga
No, that's not it. I remember reading plainly that TM *is* Karma Yoga, the important issue being that after diving in you *have* ti get out and transfer to the outer world of action the what you got from diving in. That's why in TM extended practice -- without outside action -- is not recommended under normal circumstances and unlike other meditation practices. I remember reading it in the Science of Being -- and I've also read the Commentary. Maharishi's statement was straightforward and it did not involve interpretation. I think everybody should know about it. If anybody has the book handy and haven't read it, This statement remained in my memory as the most interesting in the book. And BTW it was written many years before the introduction of the sidhi program. Eustace -- The Meditation Meter Website http://emf.neocities.org/tm/meditationmeter.html http://emf.neocities.org/tm/meditationmeter.html
[FairfieldLife] Sacred Games
Netflix has this new crime drama series "Sacred Games" which takes place in Mumbai. This is not your typical hokey Bollywood TV show and more like the excellent drama series we see coming out of Europe. It's interesting to see how much Mumbai has changed since I was there. In Hindi with subtitles and 4K if you have a 4K TV and Netflix 4K subscription. https://youtu.be/28j8h0RRov4
[FairfieldLife] Re: Consciousness Communities
Arrival of another person of the old TM movement in moving back to FF. came to the silent Quaker meeting last weekend. Then at the Harmony singing last nite another old TM movement community person returning to FF, moving back from craziness of silicon valley cities. . These are retired age people coming to the community. Also a trend of b-boomer aged TM.org and David Lynch field TM teachers buying these inexpensive houses that are being built up north of the TM university campus. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : Trending recently in Spiritually consciousness communal FF, for instance arriving at the meditator Quaker meeting yesterday are a couple who moving from Hawaii escaping the ‘vog’ sold their house in Hawaii and just bought a house in FF, these are folks who are not ™’ers but looking for sympatico spiritually conscious place. Another person (non-TM) who also has come along to the meditating Friends meeting checking in to Fairfield, Ia. as spiritual place, came to Fairfield after the recent Ammachi satsang in Chicago that so many of the Fairfield meditators were at. skymtsea comments: Its good to hear that the broader spiritual community remains vibrant / growing. Beyond the TM community, what sort of groups and interests are becoming more popular and prominent? Feste37 writes: That's a very interesting post. Much of what you write is spot-on, even though you don't live here; for example, "Perhaps FF is the world's lowest cost, friendliest, increasingly sustainable, most walkable, highest intensity consciousness community." You may well be right about that. The advantage of FF is that it is small, not like Boulder or Santa Monica, so the sense of spiritual community is more palpable and always close at hand. Some people may be leaving, but others are moving here. I do not think there is an overall decline (and overall, the population of Fairfield has risen slightly over the last few years). The new people are far less "TM-centric" (to use your phrase) but they are certainly spiritually minded in a more general sense. They also know that Fairfield has managed to achieve over the years a genuine feeling of spiritual community, and that is what draws them here. In my experience, the broader spiritual community in Fairfield remains vibrant and is likely to continue in that vein for the foreseeable future. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : Some months ago Doug wrote: "Earlier this year I had a list gathering of more than a dozen friends of the TM community here who have recently sold their homes and left. People who have retirement means. This is unsettling in that to have a viable community there needs to be critical mass available in people. Studies by ISU of small towns shows that towns need at least 800 to have a viable sustaining local economy. One could worry for the Fairfield meditating community seeing the holes in the local economy when people with money resource move away. " After seeing Doug's post on the (perceived) exodus from Fairfield, I came across the following article http://www.sonima.com/meditation/top-cities-for-meditation/ http://www.sonima.com/meditation/top-cities-for-meditation/ 30 Top Cities and Towns for Meditation in America Fairfield is at the top of the list (not sure that's random or meant to convey its the premier meditating community.) The reasons why people are leaving FF is of interest, though I can speculate -- at least in broad categories. Others on the list may be able to fill in more specific details. Broadly speaking, peoples needs and aspirations change, as do the attributes of their communities. Migration in and out of the community is natural over time. For those remaining in FF, and those who are contemplating returning (such as myself), understanding and exploring FF's current community attributes -- and more importantly -- those that could flourish over the coming decades is an intriguing and important undertaking. 30 years ago someone may have moved to FF because it was highly TM-centric: the domes, Super Radiance, MUM, many teachers and old friends from TTC, ATR, the teaching in the field, TM-businesses, etc. Those attributes have changed over time. As are their relative importance to some in different stages of their life, employment, experience, knowledge, etc. Clearly, people view FF in different ways, depending on the attributes that they value. For some, it is a TM centric town and that is at the core of what makes FF attractive to them. From my reading of the Phoenix Rising posts, it seems that effort seeks to make FF a better TM centric town for TM centric residents. And all of those efforts sound good and I wish the best in success towards realizing those visions. However, FF has many other possible, and broader attributes, beyond TM specifically and its programs and institutio
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Paradigm Shifters: Science of Climate Wreckage & Meditating
Cut-price Chinese home insulation is being blamed for a massive rise in emissions of a gas, highly damaging to the Earth's protective ozone layer. "We were absolutely gobsmacked to find that companies very openly confirmed using CFC-11 while acknowledging it was illegal," Avipsa Mahapatra from EIA told BBC News. "The fact that they were so blasé about it, the fact that they told us very openly how pervasive it is in the market, these were shocking findings for us." https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-44738952 https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-44738952 “There are seven days a week, someday is not one of them.” Live like we are dying, let us live with urgency because the situation is urgent. Live like we are pursuing excellence in a culture of mediocrity. As if we are pursuing love in a culture of indifference because those things matter. They do not matter in terms of turning the ship around. The notion that love being able to turn around a system, a system rooted in indifference for generations back is ludicrous. We are not going to be able to fix this. All we can do is as individuals within a tribe (a group meditaton). Let us act like the tribe matters. Act as if your own lives matter and treat ourselves and treat others with respect. At the edge of extinction only love remains." -McPherson . The human life, a rare opportunity.. From Swami Brahmananda Saraswati (Maharishi’s Teacher, Guru Dev) Teaching #67 A Human Birth Is A Rare Thing.. Now that you have obtained a human body, you should not hold open the possibility that you will come back again to the womb. There is no point to human life if you return again and again to the womb, and the purpose of human birth has not been served. Individual jãvas are infinite in number, but according to the Puràṇas there are 8,400,000 different species. The jãva evolves through this 8,400,000 species, and then attains a human body. Envision a big circular compound composed of 8,400,000 cells. A blind man has been living in one block and wants to come out. Thinking that there must be a door somewhere, he guides himself along the wall, going from one cell to another. Just as he reaches the gate, he removes his hand from the wall to scratch an itch, and he misses the gate by walking further. The secret behind this story is that the blind person is the jãva and the cells are the 8,400,000 species. The human species is the way to emerge from this cycle. When jãva comes to the gate, that is the human species, he starts enjoying wealth, women, children, etc., which is the itching. Like the blind man, he misses the purpose of the human species by wasting time scratching his itch. 102 øàstras says again and again that a human birth is very rare. This does not mean that when we get this rare human body we should pursue wealth, children, and the enjoyment of maximum worldly pleasure. Then there would be no point in the human birth being rare. Humanity is the karma species and other animals (like insects and birds) are the enjoyment (bhoga) species. In the bhoga species, there is no accounting for actions. But whatever action jãva undertakes with the help of a human body will be taken into account and there will be a result of every action. Therefore the human species is very difficult to attain. After transmigrating through 8,400,000 bhoga species we get this human body. Having gained this human body, we can perform such actions as will help to escape the cycle of birth and death so that the wandering of jãva will come to an end and there will be no further chance to suffer in mother's womb. øàstra says that if a human worships the gods, he goes to the world of the gods, and if he worships ghosts, then he goes to the world of the ghosts. [Sanskrit:] bhūtàni yànti bhūtejyà |137 He who worships ghosts (bhūtejyà) earns the birth (yoni) of a ghost, and [who worships the] gods earns the birth of a god. By doing japa and tapa (austerities), one attains godhood (devattà). But the aim of a human being should not be to gain godhood, because even the most powerful among the gods, even the king of all the gods, displayed a lack of discrimination and desire for worldly enjoyment. And when he could not fulfill all his desires in heaven, then he came to the world of death and troubled Ahilyà. 137 Bhagavad Gãtà 9.25c: "worshippers of the departed (bhūtàni, ghosts) go to the departed." When this is the story of the king of the gods, then what will be the condition of his subjects? Therefore, we should prostrate [worship] them from the distance. The second thing is this, the state of jãva in heaven also has its time limitation. [Sanskrit:] kṣiṇe puṇye martyaloka§ viśanti Bhagavad Gãtà 9.21 After exhausting all its merit, the jãva has to come back to the world of death (martyaloka§). But even there all do not
