RE: [FairfieldLife] Re: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on meditation and alkaline body [1 Attachment]

2009-08-01 Thread Rick Archer
From: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com [mailto:fairfieldl...@yahoogroups.com]
On Behalf Of nablusoss1008
Sent: Saturday, August 01, 2009 10:29 AM
To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on meditation and
alkaline body
 
I wonder what Amma would say about these topics, if anything ? Overall, did
you ever ask her an interesting question on this level at all ? If so, what
what was the question/answer ?
I've asked her a bunch of questions over the years. None related to this.

Why did you have to sit in full Lotus in front of Amma rescently Rick, would
not a half-lotus or even just plainly sitting there do ?
I've been sitting in full lotus since I was a child. It's very comfortable
for me. I think you're referring to the attached photo, which was posted on
Karunamayi website and was taken during a group meditation when she visited
Fairfield.

Did you not simply want show off what you learned during your assosciation
with Maharishi ? 
Nope. I was sitting in lotus at least 10 years before I met Maharishi (which
I did when I was 18). It's just the most comfortable way for me to sit on a
hard floor.

If so you are a coward; on the one hand you brag about your association with
Saints, with the other hand you use the dagger.
When did I brag about my association with saints? Dig deeper Nabby. There
are explanations for things - sometimes much more innocent ones - other than
the ones your accusatory little brain is capable of dredging up.
 


RE: [FairfieldLife] Re: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on meditation and alkaline body

2009-08-01 Thread Rick Archer
From: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com [mailto:fairfieldl...@yahoogroups.com]
On Behalf Of nablusoss1008
Sent: Saturday, August 01, 2009 11:48 AM
To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on meditation and
alkaline body
 
 Nope. I was sitting in lotus at least 10 years before I met Maharishi
(which
 I did when I was 18). It's just the most comfortable way for me to sit on
a
 hard floor.

At 8 you sat in full Lotus ? Very good and congratulations !
I remember playing around with some friends, trying to contort our bodies
into various positions, and I discovered lotus. Won a prize at a birthday
party once for doing it.

I'm comfy with having an accusatory little brain thank you very much. One
day perhaps it also could understand how your activities can be called
innocent.
Here's a hint: I try not to have an agenda. I'm not trying to sell or defend
a point of view. My point of view can be more accurately described as a
points of view. That's why you'll find me posting very positive things
about MMY/TM and then posting other things that might be construed as
negative. I don't see them as negative so much as things that appear to have
happened. I find it useful to try to accommodate the good, the bad, and the
ugly in one brain. In other words, to not argue with reality. If I accept
that a negative thing happened, that doesn't make me incapable of
accepting the positive things, and vice versa. Besides, negative and
positive, right and wrong, are very subjective judgments. Very much
determined by cultural conditioning  and very hard to ascribe any sort of
absolute value to.
 


RE: [FairfieldLife] Re: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on meditation and alkaline body

2009-08-01 Thread Rick Archer
From: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com [mailto:fairfieldl...@yahoogroups.com]
On Behalf Of TurquoiseB
Sent: Saturday, August 01, 2009 12:46 PM
To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on meditation and
alkaline body
 
What the TBs cannot understand -- because, IMO,
of their brainwashing -- is that one can *easily*
hold one POV on Maharishi that embraces his positive
image and *at the same time* embrace another that is
completely comfortable with a more negative image.

They were taught that this is not possible, that 
focusing on negativity was BAD. If one indulges in
it, there is only one justifiable punishment -- total
and complete banishment. By even *thinking* negatively
about Maharishi, one has forfeited the right to hang
with those who never have. 
 
There's a lot of truth in that. I and others got kicked out of the TM
movement for beginning to think independently without worrying about the
possible consequences. A while after this happened to me, I was chatting on
the phone with a fellow who at one time had been my best friend. I was
expressing this ambivalent, all possibilities attitude about Maharishi -
that there was no need to take all his pronouncements as absolutes, that
much of what he said and did may have been expressions of cultural
conditioning and personal idiosyncrasies rather than cosmic perspectives. If
we had been meeting in person, I'm sure I would have seen the color drain
from his face. His voice sounded ashen and he quickly terminated the call.
He hasn't returned a phone call or an email since then.
 


Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on meditation and alkaline body

2009-08-01 Thread It's just a ride
On Sat, Aug 1, 2009 at 1:27 PM, Rick Archer r...@searchsummit.com wrote:
 There's a lot of truth in that. I and others got kicked out of the TM 
 movement for beginning to think independently without worrying about the 
 possible consequences. A while after this happened to me, I was chatting on 
 the phone with a fellow who at one time had been my best friend. I was 
 expressing this ambivalent, all possibilities attitude about Maharishi - that 
 there was no need to take all his pronouncements as absolutes, that much of 
 what he said and did may have been expressions of cultural conditioning and 
 personal idiosyncrasies rather than cosmic perspectives. If we had been 
 meeting in person, I'm sure I would have seen the color drain from his face. 
 His voice sounded ashen and he quickly terminated the call. He hasn't 
 returned a phone call or an email since then.


I never thought independently that Maharishi was a god or spoke the
truth of the gods.  It was the initiators, in advanced lectures and on
residence courses who told us that Maharishi spoke from the home of
all the laws of nature and therefore spoke only the truth, that which
is true on every level of creation, as perceived from every state of
consciousness.

How did it all start, this business that Maharishi could speak only
the truth, that which was true at every level, from every vantage
point?  Was it Maharishi himself who said this and encouraged his
belief or was it his BN followers?

Art imitates life.  I remember the reporter from the Village Voice
telling Alfie in Annie Hall that people consider Maharishi God.  That
millions of people would crawl on their hands and knees across the
country merely to be able to touch the hem of his garment.   My
meditator friends and I laughed and laughed when we saw that scene.
While my friends and I were laughing, it appears the hardcore TMers
were going off to TTC and Six Month courses to be with He they
believed were God.

Is that the way it is?  Would TM have been better if Maharishi didn't
have all of these BN initiators?


RE: [FairfieldLife] Re: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on meditation and alkaline body

2009-08-01 Thread Rick Archer
From: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com [mailto:fairfieldl...@yahoogroups.com]
On Behalf Of It's just a ride
Sent: Saturday, August 01, 2009 3:00 PM
To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on meditation and
alkaline body
 
I never thought independently that Maharishi was a god or spoke the
truth of the gods. It was the initiators, in advanced lectures and on
residence courses who told us that Maharishi spoke from the home of
all the laws of nature and therefore spoke only the truth, that which
is true on every level of creation, as perceived from every state of
consciousness.

How did it all start, this business that Maharishi could speak only
the truth, that which was true at every level, from every vantage
point? Was it Maharishi himself who said this and encouraged his
belief or was it his BN followers?
Maharishi often spoke of getting in tune with his thinking. The idea,
sometimes explicit, sometimes implicit, was that he saw things clearly and
that if you differed with him, you weren't seeing things as clearly. In his
commentary on the Gita, Maharishi talks about putting aside one's own petty
ways of thinking and feeling and attuning ones thoughts and feelings to the
enlightened mind of the Master. This has always been an underlying guideline
in the TMO. If you didn't buy into East-facing houses, world's tallest
buildings, Nader getting his weight in gold, etc., you were out of tune with
MMY's thinking. You wouldn't advance far in the organization and your very
evolution was in peril. So consequently, TB's buy into all these ideas, in
some cases try to concoct a rational explanation for them, but failing that,
take them on faith and assume that they will understand them someday when
their perspective has become sufficiently cosmic.
 


Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on meditation and alkaline body

2009-08-01 Thread Vaj


On Aug 1, 2009, at 11:28 AM, nablusoss1008 wrote:

Very interesting, I've never read this before, thanks for posting  
this Rick !


I wonder what Amma would say about these topics, if anything ?  
Overall, did you ever ask her an interesting question on this level  
at all ? If so, what what was the question/answer ?



I'm not sure if I have this exact, but I can remember two things Rick  
has commented on that Amma has said, one in general, another more  
specific. The first one was that gurus who were involved in scandals  
(money mishandling, sex with students, etc.); none of these gurus were  
jivan-muktis, that is, enlightened or liberated. Another time he asked  
her what was her opinion of MMY and she said she would tell him, but  
he would have to promise to never repeat what she said to anyone else.  
It may be fair to assume therefore, since she did NOT want it repeated  
and based on her previous remark, her opinion is not a very high one. 

Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on meditation and alkaline body

2009-08-01 Thread It's just a ride
On Sat, Aug 1, 2009 at 6:14 PM, Vajvajradh...@earthlink.net wrote:
 On Aug 1, 2009, at 11:28 AM, nablusoss1008 wrote:

 I'm not sure if I have this exact, but I can remember two things Rick has
 commented on that Amma has said, one in general, another more specific. 
 Another time he asked her what was her opinion of
 MMY and she said she would tell him, but he would have to promise to never
 repeat what she said to anyone else. It may be fair to assume therefore,
 since she did NOT want it repeated and based on her previous remark, her
 opinion is not a very high one.


It would be bad for business if Rick went around telling people that
Amma admits she's much ado about nothing and Maharishi is the real
thing.


RE: [FairfieldLife] Re: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on meditation and alkaline body

2009-08-01 Thread Rick Archer
From: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com [mailto:fairfieldl...@yahoogroups.com]
On Behalf Of Vaj
Sent: Saturday, August 01, 2009 6:15 PM
To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on meditation and
alkaline body
 
 On Aug 1, 2009, at 11:28 AM, nablusoss1008 wrote:



Very interesting, I've never read this before, thanks for posting this Rick
! 

I wonder what Amma would say about these topics, if anything ? Overall, did
you ever ask her an interesting question on this level at all ? If so, what
what was the question/answer ?
 
 
I'm not sure if I have this exact, but I can remember two things Rick has
commented on that Amma has said, one in general, another more specific. The
first one was that gurus who were involved in scandals (money mishandling,
sex with students, etc.); none of these gurus were jivan-muktis, that is,
enlightened or liberated. Another time he asked her what was her opinion of
MMY and she said she would tell him, but he would have to promise to never
repeat what she said to anyone else. It may be fair to assume therefore,
since she did NOT want it repeated and based on her previous remark, her
opinion is not a very high one. 

I have only asked her questions in public. I have never heard her say
anything negative about Maharishi or any other guru. She's very careful not
to do so. But she did say to a friend that charging money for meditation is
like a mother charging her baby for breast milk - something to that effect.