[FairfieldLife] Maharishi's Most Significant Contributions
FW: Author/editor unknown,, Some of Maharishi’s Most Significant Contributions Maharishi made many contributions that were not only of great importance, but were also unique, unprecedented, or highly important historically in type or scale. Here is an initial list. Please let us know of any other contributions by Maharishi that you feel are a) unprecedented, and/or b) important in type or scale. It is good to remember that Maharishi developed his teaching, practices, and organizations after many other very influential saints and spiritual teachers, organizations, and movements before him, all with their significant accomplishments. 1. Maharishi was the world’s first major global meditation teacher of modern times. Maharishi made ‘meditation’ a household word in the West. He was the first to systemize and express meditation and its terminology for modern understanding and use, the first to train very large numbers of meditation teachers (over 25,000), and made his meditation the most widely practiced, globally accessible meditation system in history. 2. After ground-breaking but comparatively limited teaching of meditation in the West before him by other saints and teachers from India, Maharishi made concrete and practical the theoretical philosophy of Vedanta, the Upanishads, and the Gita that had been floating around among Western intellectuals since the American Transcendentalists and their European counterparts, who spread them mainly as ideas and theories. Cosmic transcendental reality was no longer just an idea or philosophy anymore. And in America and the West, ‘practical’ is of the utmost importance. 3. Maharishi was the main teacher who widely de-mystified meditation to the world, taking it from the mountain cave to the subway and airport. From the monk to the commodities broker. From the pandit and obscure Raja library to the Scientific American. From folklore and rumor to the U.S. Senate. From tangled irrational confusion to simple clear accurate instructions. Otherworldliness, concentration, creating intellectual moods and attitudes, all were left to the eclectic fringe and the past. Out of the forest of uncountable misconceptions and infinite variety of possible spiritual experiences, Transcendental Consciousness zoomed forth, sprouting in world consciousness. After preparatory forays throughout the history of the West, and gradually building in cycles and waves, the perennial High Road of Spirituality was reborn on Earth. 4. The further removal of meditation practice and theory from both Eastern and Western religion, faith, and belief was of the utmost importance in establishing meditation not only throughout the Western hemisphere, but in India and throughout Asia as well. Maharishi took this distinction between religion and spirituality to a much higher and more established level. 5. The natural ease of meditation is so important that it deserves its own independent point. 6. The principle and experience described in the preparatory portion of the Introductory TM Talk (formerly called the Preparatory Lecture) in which the natural tendency of the mind to move toward more charming experience, and the most charming experience of bliss being the source of thought as the reason why effort is not needed in meditation is a key revolutionary understanding in the history of world spirituality. Without this knowledge, the ease of practice would be very problematic to convey and maintain, and it is unlikely that TM would have spread nearly as much as it has. 7. The same is the case with the knowledge given in the second day of checking during the four days of personal instruction - another revolutionary understanding in the history of world spirituality, without which the growth of TM in the world would probably have been nowhere near as large as it has been. 8. The systematization of the teaching and checking of meditation practice was a major step and stage of its development not only in the West but in India and globally. “To my mind, the checking notes and 7 steps are products of genius. Someday they’ll qualify as sacred texts.” - Expert author on Eastern spirituality in America 8. Although much of the metaphysical knowledge that Maharishi taught, such as the existence of Being and its character, was not new, Maharishi’s language was incredibly fresh, different, and engaging. He stepped out of the box of traditional spiritual expressions and customary stock phrases of India into a new world of clarity and precision of description, adapting his language to the West with incredible skill. 9. Continuing the trend begun several decades earlier by other Indian spiritual teachers in the West, Maharishi substantially stepped further out of the traditional Indian gender box, welcoming thousands of women on the same level as men to be meditation teachers and giving mantras. His Mother
[FairfieldLife] Aerial Yoga by Vince Daczynski
I thought you would enjoy seeing my new video. Have a look. lhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVM-26hDyyw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVM-26hDyyw Vince
RE: [FairfieldLife] Does the universe have a purpose?
Upfronter, Your explanation is interesting too. But I believe I would like a fuller explanation in a video format. Do you have a link to a webpage that shows the pastor giving a lecture about his ideas? Thanks. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : According to Patañjali: prakaasha-kriyaa-sthiti-shiilaM, bhuutendriyaatmakaM bhogaapavargaarthaM dRSyam. Thank you for this interesting and thought-provoking thought. In the physical universe we have elements and activity with apparent stability throughout, and we have a concrete sense of reality given to such by the material senses and a material mind. This is a relative truth and yet paradoxically, in my opinion, it is also a falsehood. The material senses along with the physical mind when given prominence over the Beingness which transcends the Material both within and without, will always be subject to the seeming permanence of the laws of the Material or the physical universe - such as those which promote life and harmony, those which when allowed cause a passionate and confused disharmony, those which are able to bring chaos and the breaking down of life. As both the Material and the Spiritual appear to exist together, yet one is only transitory while the other is the only true permanent reality, the physical universe provides the experience and testing ground for liberation from that which is false. Thus, in this sense, the purpose is release from falsehood and therefore spiritual evolution with the goal of the realisation of Perfect Reality. Yogic philosophy is always meaningful and interesting and yet, in my opinion, it is only one way of viewing reality – and like all earthly words, they can never relay true reality to the earthly mind, they can only point in a certain direction for further expansion of conscious understanding and knowingness. I prefer to see the physical universe as being but one small yet absolutely essential stage in the overall spiritual evolution of the Life-aspect gifted within. In short, I see the physical universe as being brought into being for the raising up and the bringing Home of the children of the Supreme Being, so that they are now having a full set of experience is all matters of Life and a perfectly blended will in complete unity with the will of the Supreme Being. In my opinion, total comprehension of the perfect reality of the Supreme Being is far beyond the radius of the human mind. There being such a diversity of human minds, there are created naturally a diversity of opinions as to perfect reality. So it is seen that there are some who view the Absolute Being as an intelligent Force in the sense that there is no real living Being as such – rather a universal Force. At the other extreme there are some who view the Supreme Being in an anthropomorphic sense and they attribute an often crude understanding and likings and dis-likings of human beings to their conception of the Supreme Being. Neither, in my opinion is true, and this earthly world will have been left behind a long time before the ability to cognise that reality is made one’s own. I personally prefer to view the physical universe, its creation and its purpose, in terms associated with the Spiritual Christ of the Supreme Being – an overall picture and reasoning available to any human being, young or old, in the blink of an eye. And when using the term Spiritual Christ, I am referring to that which, in my opinion, existed long before the appearance of the One in earthly flesh called Jesus 2000 years ago, long, long before the physical universe came into being. For instance, I like the following account of the creation of the physical universe given in the vestry of the Rev. Vale Owen. One does not have to believe how the account came, it is the content of the message and not necessarily the messenger which is both meaningful and instructive, in my opinion… "The Christ was present in the earth Sphere when it was without form, that is when it was non-material. When matter began to be He was the Master Spirit through whom the Father wrought into orderly constellations the material universe, as now you understand it. But, although He was present, yet He Himself was also formless, and took upon Himself, not material form but spiritual form, as the universe became endued with its outer manifestation, and so took form of matter. He was behind the whole phenomena, and the whole process passed through the Christ as the ages went along and matter grew from a chaos into a cosmos. That were not possible except for some dynamic entity operating from outside and superior to the chaos, and working downwards and into that chaos. For order cannot come out of what is lacking in order except by the addition of a new ingredient. It was the contact of the Christ Sphere with chaos that resulted in the cosmos. "Chaos was matter in potential state.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Meeting to Meditate
Peace & Politics - Marianne Williamson in Fairfield, IA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRtpNBe3EsA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRtpNBe3EsA --In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : Like a modern day John Woolman sitting with people Marianne Willilamson is calling for what old Quakers would call an Opportunity Meeting to meditate. At FACC.. https://www.marianne2020.com/ events https://www.marianne2020.com/events
RE: [FairfieldLife] Does the universe have a purpose?
According to Patañjali: prakaasha-kriyaa-sthiti-shiilaM, bhuutendriyaatmakaM bhogaapavargaarthaM dRSyam. Thank you for this interesting and thought-provoking thought. In the physical universe we have elements and activity with apparent stability throughout, and we have a concrete sense of reality given to such by the material senses and a material mind. This is a relative truth and yet paradoxically, in my opinion, it is also a falsehood. The material senses along with the physical mind when given prominence over the Beingness which transcends the Material both within and without, will always be subject to the seeming permanence of the laws of the Material or the physical universe - such as those which promote life and harmony, those which when allowed cause a passionate and confused disharmony, those which are able to bring chaos and the breaking down of life. As both the Material and the Spiritual appear to exist together, yet one is only transitory while the other is the only true permanent reality, the physical universe provides the experience and testing ground for liberation from that which is false. Thus, in this sense, the purpose is release from falsehood and therefore spiritual evolution with the goal of the realisation of Perfect Reality. Yogic philosophy is always meaningful and interesting and yet, in my opinion, it is only one way of viewing reality – and like all earthly words, they can never relay true reality to the earthly mind, they can only point in a certain direction for further expansion of conscious understanding and knowingness. I prefer to see the physical universe as being but one small yet absolutely essential stage in the overall spiritual evolution of the Life-aspect gifted within. In short, I see the physical universe as being brought into being for the raising up and the bringing Home of the children of the Supreme Being, so that they are now having a full set of experience is all matters of Life and a perfectly blended will in complete unity with the will of the Supreme Being. In my opinion, total comprehension of the perfect reality of the Supreme Being is far beyond the radius of the human mind. There being such a diversity of human minds, there are created naturally a diversity of opinions as to perfect reality. So it is seen that there are some who view the Absolute Being as an intelligent Force in the sense that there is no real living Being as such – rather a universal Force. At the other extreme there are some who view the Supreme Being in an anthropomorphic sense and they attribute an often crude understanding and likings and dis-likings of human beings to their conception of the Supreme Being. Neither, in my opinion is true, and this earthly world will have been left behind a long time before the ability to cognise that reality is made one’s own. I personally prefer to view the physical universe, its creation and its purpose, in terms associated with the Spiritual Christ of the Supreme Being – an overall picture and reasoning available to any human being, young or old, in the blink of an eye. And when using the term Spiritual Christ, I am referring to that which, in my opinion, existed long before the appearance of the One in earthly flesh called Jesus 2000 years ago, long, long before the physical universe came into being. For instance, I like the following account of the creation of the physical universe given in the vestry of the Rev. Vale Owen. One does not have to believe how the account came, it is the content of the message and not necessarily the messenger which is both meaningful and instructive, in my opinion… "The Christ was present in the earth Sphere when it was without form, that is when it was non-material. When matter began to be He was the Master Spirit through whom the Father wrought into orderly constellations the material universe, as now you understand it. But, although He was present, yet He Himself was also formless, and took upon Himself, not material form but spiritual form, as the universe became endued with its outer manifestation, and so took form of matter. He was behind the whole phenomena, and the whole process passed through the Christ as the ages went along and matter grew from a chaos into a cosmos. That were not possible except for some dynamic entity operating from outside and superior to the chaos, and working downwards and into that chaos. For order cannot come out of what is lacking in order except by the addition of a new ingredient. It was the contact of the Christ Sphere with chaos that resulted in the cosmos. "Chaos was matter in potential state. Cosmos is matter realised. But, this being so, matter as realised is but the phenomenal effect of that dynamic energy which, added to inertia, produced motion. Motion itself is the sum of the activities of will considered potentially. Will, passing from the potential
