[FairfieldLife] Re: What Does The self Fear Most?
Just to finish up from last week, just for the fun of playing with ideas, *not* to argue or claim the rightness or superiority of those ideas or anything like that. The short version is: Thanks but no thanks on Ramana, Edg. I've read him before, and there was no strong resonance for me there. For one reason, I'm more into saturating my self with its *own* ideas (poor as they may be) these days than with other people's, and second because I honestly believe that most Advaita I have read's ideas are based on an unchallenged basic assumption that, in my opinion, renders anything based upon that assumption suspect. But thanks for the suggestion, and for the fervor of your post. Longer version below, just for fun... --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Duveyoung [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Turq, I wish I had the writing skills to do what I want to do in this post. But, NO ONE has such skills. I'm not convinced it's even *about* writing skills. All the scriptures of the world were written by the smartest folks possible... That's an issue on which we shall have to agree to disagree. I find that many of them were written by uptight, life-averse recluses who wanted to convince others to live just like them, terrified of the world in which they dwelled. :-) ...and none of them ever produced anything in text that would, you know, pick one's soul up like a crying toddler and, just with a whisper or two to the intellect, free one FOREVER. I would go so far as to say that the same is true of spiritual teachers. IMO not one of them in history has ever had that power, or that effect. Realization happens on its own, and those to whom it happens may *attribute* it to the particular spiritual teacher they work with, but I'm not convinced it happens that way. It's like the olde Indian metaphor of the crow and the coconut. The crow lands on a branch of the palm tree and a coconut falls from another branch of the same tree. Is there a cause-and-effect relationship between the two events? Well, the answer is not necessarily. There is, for you, if you imagine one. But that doesn't mean that one ever existed on any objective level. Not that they didn't try. Not that scholars were duffers. Here again we must agree to disagree. Some of them *were* duffers IMO. The guy who wrote Ecclesiastes certainly seems to have been sorely in need of antidepressants. :-) You may begin to suspect that I have very little de facto respect for what others call scriptures. You would be correct in this suspicion. I don't care *who* wrote it, or how many people on the planet consider it scripture or valuable spiritual teaching. Either it speaks to me or it does not. End of story. If it does, cool. If it does not, the scripture has no value for me whatsoever, except possibly as entertainment. I believe in saturation now -- a simple running of concepts over and over again is found to breed, grow, do-whatever-is- needed, for a brain to finally have what it PHYSICALLY takes to have the clarity about identification that I believe I have. With all due respect, it seems that the overall message of this post is that you run the *same* concepts over and over again, concepts (as I suggested earlier) that are based on acceptance of a Creation myth that postulates that there was once a time when the Absolute was not manifest. I was merely trying to suggest another concept, that this is NOT a given. If one takes that given away, then from my perspective the whole idea of primal iden- tification is meaningless, because there has never been a moment in the history of the universe that one could deem primal. I still feel that way. Reading a buncha Ramana or Nisarg- adatta ain't gonna change that for me, if they assume that there *was* such a primal moment. For me, right now, the notion of an eternal universe, one that has never seen a moment in which the relative aspect of creation was not manifest has an intuitive resonance. It feels correct. Therefore any idea that is *dependent* on the notion of a standalone Absolute, one that has no manifest side, is rather suspect. I *understand* that many, if not most, people might have a bit of a problem conceiving of an eternal universe, one that never began and will never end. Humans tend to anthropomorphize. They have a hard time with the concept of eternity. Because *they* have a beginning (birth) and an end (death), they tend to project that outwards at the manifest universe, imagining *it* to have a birth and a death as well. This anthropomorphizing is reinforced, of course, by the Creation myths of most religions, almost all of which contain a verse that starts with, In the beginning... All I'm suggesting is that a *great deal* of philosophy and religion is based upon accepting Creation myths -- and the notion of Creation itself -- as a given. If you do not, all of the sub-philosophies that were based upon the notion that there was
RE: [FairfieldLife] Idea for a Fun Thread: People's Previous Incarnations
From: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of TurquoiseB Sent: Saturday, June 09, 2007 12:42 AM To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Subject: [FairfieldLife] Idea for a Fun Thread: People's Previous Incarnations Or, for that matter, if you've got some idea who *you* might have been in a previous incarnation, do tell. A couple of people suggested to me, independent of one another, that I might have been Mark Twain. I guess they thought so because of some similarities in our personalities, or my Tom Sawyerish nature. There were some similarities in our lives. I was born and used to teach TM in Connecticut. He lived and died there. His wife was from Buffalo. My father grew up there. His wife slipped on the ice and injured herself seriously. My wife is inordinately afraid of slipping and falling. He lived in the Midwest near where I live. He visited India and was interested in yogis, siddhis, etc. He visited Switzerland and sat on a bench on Lake Lucerne. I sat on the same bench, or at least at the same spot. But I have no intuitive insight of having been him, or anyone. I did have a heavy dream on my 6 month course that seemed to be a past life unstressing. In it, I was running along a beach at night, in a state of great fear, with bombers droning overhead. A woman whose TTC I taught told me I was a journalist in WWII and had been killed in the war. I was born in 1949. Who knows? It's interesting to think that one's physical remains from previous lives are probably still scattered around the world in various graves.
RE: [FairfieldLife] Re: Posting Totals
From: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of shempmcgurk Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2007 12:41 AM To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Posting Totals --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com mailto:FairfieldLife%40yahoogroups.com , gullible fool [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Rick, Shemp is already over 35, yet I am still getting requests to approve moderated posts by him. No, you're not. I've never made requests to approve moderated posts. I've sent posts after I reached my limit but I never requested that anyone approve them. When you reach your limit, I put you on moderated status. Then, every time you post something, the moderators get an email announcing that a moderated post needs approval or rejection. I just delete those. The consensus here seems to be that I should delete your extra posts to discourage you from writing them. The consensus also seems to be that you are discourteous and immature for refusing to abide by a guideline that everyone else has agreed to.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Idea for a Fun Thread: People's Previous Incarnations
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Rick Archer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Who knows? It's interesting to think that one's physical remains from previous lives are probably still scattered around the world in various graves. I was once standing in a museum, on a field trip there with a buncha other Rama students, and found myself fascinated by an Egyptian mummy. It wasn't that pretty a mummy :-), just a buncha bones and brown skin wrapped in rags, but I was fascinated anyway. At that moment Rama walked by, poked me in the side, and said, Yep, that was you. That and the proverbial three bucks...Starbucks, etc. I personally have no memories of the Egyptian period or any intuitive feel for having been there, so it might even take five bucks at Starbucks. :-) As a kid I had dreams five or six times a month for maybe ten years of myself swordfighting, using a long sword held two-handed, in a fighting style unlike anything I'd ever seen in the movies. It took me seeing my first Japanese samurai film to get the fighting style, and where and when the dreams might have been glimpses of. Might have been. I can't be sure, of course. I've had similar dreams of life in Tibet, again starting from an early age, again before I knew that there was such a place as Tibet or what it looked like. The only one I'm fairly sure of is that I paid my dues as a Cathar perfecti at one point. When I go to the Cathar chateaux and other areas frequented by them here in France, I tend to have rather intense visual flashbacks, and can often tell the people touring the chateau with me what we'll find in the next rooms and what they'll look like, before we get there. None of us has been there before this time around. They're usually freaked out by this; I have begun to accept it as fairly normal. Go figure. That said, all of these flashes don't really mean much of anything, do they? They don't help us much with our self discovery this time around much, unless we can pinpoint some samskara in the past that still needs work in the present. I'm always amused by the New Age tendency to claim that they were *famous* people in the past. The Rama guy claimed he was Cardinal Richilieu; I can't see that *at all*. And Shirley MacLaine's been any *number* of famous people. Wasn't anyone ever the scullery maids and the cooks and the janitors? :-)
[FairfieldLife] Re: Guru Dev's deathbed instructions to Maharishi . . .
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Richard J. Williams [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: And came back. If so, I wonder why Marshy would have come back to the Upper Kashi from Madanapalle. Sorry, Willy, saw this post just now. No, I didn't mean he returned to Uttar Kashi, rather he returned to Madanapalle, and at least two times after going to Kanya Kumari. One time I was told, he came with an entourage of 15 people who took residence at the Brindaban Lodge, which was actually already full, but miraculously the place was available when he arrived. This Narayan Ayer told me, who was also a hotel manager (not sure if it was of the Brindavan Lodge, or a smaller place nearby, where Maharishi stayed at his first visit and came in contact with him). He also told me that Maharishi initiated 200 people there, and the was catching a plane from Madras, even though he was two hours late. All this happened before he sat foot in the west. And, I wonder how Marshy's Aunt got to the Upper Kashi to talk to Marshy about the trip to Madanapalle? No idea, but he could have met her after he left. Or he knew she was ailing and ad heard of the facilities in Madanapalle and thought to combine it with his pilgrimage. It is also quite feasable, that - if Maharishi really got the 'order' at GD's deathbead, to make a pilgrimage in orer to get the proper blessings and the right start. This would be a very indian way of doing it. You know very well how Indians look for auspicious timing when they start any undertaking. When Aishwarya Rai married recently, first thing the newly wed did was to pay a visit to the south indian temple of Tirupati (which btw is also nearby Madanapalle) And, this brings up another issue. If Marshy was at the Upper Kashi and observing silence how did he communicate with his Aunt? Using sign language? Probably telepathy. But honestly, he could have met her just afterwards. Did they have telephones in 1954 at the Upper Kashi? Maybe she called him on his cell phone or maybe she sent Satyanand or Uncle Raj up to see him. If so, that would really be a long walk for Uncle Raj. The Aunt could have probaly walked herself to Madanapalle by the time Uncle got up there to the Upper Kashi! And, why wouldn't her husband, Uncle Raj, have taken Marshy's Aunt down to Madanapalle? I wonder what's up with that? Come to think of it, why would the Marshy have gone up to the Upper Kashi in the first place if his Aunt wasn't well. And how would the Aunt have known Marshy was even up at the Utter Kashi? Does anyone know what happened to the Aunt? I didn't even think that the Marshy had any Aunts that he was on speaking terms with. Was it Aunt Varma or was it Aunt Srivastava? Did the Aunt practice TM? And I wonder if the Aunt availed herself of Maharishi's Ayer-Veda. What, exactly, ailed the Aunt? So far as I can tell, the story about his Aunt is probably just a story. I can't recall Marshy having mentioned this and I've spent hours listening to him and reading his books and watching his videos. Apparently Uncle Raj didn't mention an Aunt at the Upper Kashi when he was in Canada at the TM Center. I wonder why not? Well, I was told by the Narayan Ayer this story, who is still alive and ready to talk to anybody about it. He is still a devotee of Maharishi. I can give you his address and phone number if you want. Send me an email if you are seriously interested. You could also simply visit the Maharishi Mandir near the Ganapathi Temple, opposite old Brindaban lodge (not in function any more), going off Gandhi Bazar where it makes a z-curve. The only person that I know of that mentions his Aunt is Dr. Coplin. The Aunt isn't mentioned by Robert Hollings in his book 'Transcendental Meditation', a book which I presume was approved for publication by the TMO since it was once available from the MUM Bookstore. Work Cited: 'Transcendental Meditation' An Introduction to the practice and aims of TM by Robert Hollings The Aquarian Press, 1982 ISBN 0-85030-240-4 p. 82 - 83 Fine, but the non-inclusion of facts or events isn't proof for their non-existence. Personal eye-witness is about the best proof you can get.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Posting Totals
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Rick Archer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: From: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of shempmcgurk Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2007 12:41 AM To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Posting Totals --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com mailto:FairfieldLife%40yahoogroups.com , gullible fool fflmod@ wrote: Rick, Shemp is already over 35, yet I am still getting requests to approve moderated posts by him. No, you're not. I've never made requests to approve moderated posts. I've sent posts after I reached my limit but I never requested that anyone approve them. When you reach your limit, I put you on moderated status. Then, every time you post something, the moderators get an email announcing that a moderated post needs approval or rejection. I just delete those. The consensus here seems to be that I should delete your extra posts to discourage you from writing them. The consensus also seems to be that you are discourteous and immature for refusing to abide by a guideline that everyone else has agreed to. But then who will protect us from Al Gore?
[FairfieldLife] Re: England is merry again - TM instruction officially resumed
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, george_deforest [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: NEW POLICY: TM teaching to start again in schools in England and Wales National Coherence Days to be restarted The teaching of Transcendental Meditation and associated programmes can once again proceed, unrestricted, in dedicated Maharishi Schools for the pupils and their parents, in England and Wales. The same applies to outside schools where the pupils are learning Transcendental Meditation collectively as part of a special school programme. National Coherence Days â a special whole-day programme of extended practice of Transcendental Meditation and the TM-Sidhi programme â have been recommenced in England and Wales, with the first taking place around the country on Sunday 1 April, and the next on 20 May. This initiative comes under project one of the Six-Point Plan of the Global Financial Capital, the goal of which is to create indomitable coherence and positivity in national consciousness and raise the nation to Invincibility. The most immediate way to accomplish this is for existing Sidhas and Meditators to enjoy group practice on a daily basis, whenever possible, in their own locality and to come together for these monthly events and other coherence-creating programmes. Also under project one, the Maharishi European Sidhaland is hosting a National Invincibility Month starting in April with a special focus over the Bank Holiday weekend Friday 4 to Monday 7 May. All Governors and Sidhas are warmly invited to join the coherence-creating group in the Maharishi Golden Dome (phone 01695 50306 for details) source: Transcendental Meditation News - Great Britain (April 2007) http://www.tmnews.net Last winter I spoke with someone from england who was on the course in ffld for a month and they said how nice it's been in england since the tmo dumped them -- the sidhas still got together for program and to do things together but w/o having to constantly do crazy high pressure tmo projects all the time.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Idea for a Fun Thread: People's Previous Incarnations
On Jun 9, 2007, at 12:42 AM, TurquoiseB wrote: So, who else -- in the public eye and thus people we'd be familiar with, or in the TM/spiritual scene, for the same reasons -- do you know who has speculated publicly as to who they might have been in a past life? I think Abraham Lincoln once speculated he might have been Andy Rymer. Or, for that matter, if you've got some idea who *you* might have been in a previous incarnation, do tell.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Posting Totals
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, boo_lives [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: But then who will protect us from Al Gore? Quit trying to scare us with the horrors of Silent Shemp! :-)
[FairfieldLife] Re: Idea for a Fun Thread: People's Previous Incarnations
I'm always amused by the New Age tendency to claim that they were *famous* people in the past. The Rama guy claimed he was Cardinal Richilieu; I can't see that *at all*. And Shirley MacLaine's been any *number* of famous people. Wasn't anyone ever the scullery maids and the cooks and the janitors? :-) Not to mention the math problem that there are so many more people alive today than any time in history. (Let me guess, other planets with people on them waiting to get on to earth?) I guess the people who remember their past lives just happen to come from here. But with only one billion estimated in 1802 in the world, our current 6 bill makes the odds that only those people remember not one but often many past lives pretty far out doesn't it? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population Here is a chart of the world's population that is very revealing. If reincarnation was real we should be getting so many detailed reports from these other planets, really wacky stuff. But then I might just be missing that section in the bookstore! Instead we get reports about people being one of the tiny groups of people we know about! I think your skepticism is warranted. For me the stories of memories of past lives are a testament to the wonderfully generative and compellingly creative quality of our minds and memories. There is a great story about Bridy Murphy who had gone to a world's fair and seen a detailed medieval village in miniature as a child. Years later she remembered details about her past life in those times it was taken as proof of the theory until the true nature of her memories were uncovered. Our minds are fascinating! --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Rick Archer rick@ wrote: Who knows? It's interesting to think that one's physical remains from previous lives are probably still scattered around the world in various graves. I was once standing in a museum, on a field trip there with a buncha other Rama students, and found myself fascinated by an Egyptian mummy. It wasn't that pretty a mummy :-), just a buncha bones and brown skin wrapped in rags, but I was fascinated anyway. At that moment Rama walked by, poked me in the side, and said, Yep, that was you. That and the proverbial three bucks...Starbucks, etc. I personally have no memories of the Egyptian period or any intuitive feel for having been there, so it might even take five bucks at Starbucks. :-) As a kid I had dreams five or six times a month for maybe ten years of myself swordfighting, using a long sword held two-handed, in a fighting style unlike anything I'd ever seen in the movies. It took me seeing my first Japanese samurai film to get the fighting style, and where and when the dreams might have been glimpses of. Might have been. I can't be sure, of course. I've had similar dreams of life in Tibet, again starting from an early age, again before I knew that there was such a place as Tibet or what it looked like. The only one I'm fairly sure of is that I paid my dues as a Cathar perfecti at one point. When I go to the Cathar chateaux and other areas frequented by them here in France, I tend to have rather intense visual flashbacks, and can often tell the people touring the chateau with me what we'll find in the next rooms and what they'll look like, before we get there. None of us has been there before this time around. They're usually freaked out by this; I have begun to accept it as fairly normal. Go figure. That said, all of these flashes don't really mean much of anything, do they? They don't help us much with our self discovery this time around much, unless we can pinpoint some samskara in the past that still needs work in the present. I'm always amused by the New Age tendency to claim that they were *famous* people in the past. The Rama guy claimed he was Cardinal Richilieu; I can't see that *at all*. And Shirley MacLaine's been any *number* of famous people. Wasn't anyone ever the scullery maids and the cooks and the janitors? :-)
[FairfieldLife] Re: Reversal of subtle pranas key to transcending...
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: It's not necessarily a good thing to confuse future-self and present- self. See, this was part of the Awakening for me -- That Awakening to viscerally realize That is the container of time and space, of the illusion of evolution itself. Where it counts, time and space don't. As the I I had been identifying with grew ever closer to surrendering to the ever-present That, it became progressively more infuriated. It became more and more clear that That is realizable only on That's terms, not on the terms of the co-dependent arising llusion's. Obviously utter emptifulfillment lies in That, and only in That, and in the surrender of the illusion into That, but to enter That, I cannot be particularly special in That. I cannot be particularly unique in That. I cannot be particularly esoteric in That. I cannot have achieved anything at all in That. I can only be utterly ordinary in That, so unspeakably ordinary as to be as ungraspable as That Thatself. This emptifulfillment was rightly seen as a death-wound to (and by) the codependent arising illusion. In His paradoxical embodiment of the sublime and the ridiculous, the divine and the demonic, the special and the ordinary, MMY dealt me the coup-de-grace, but His sword was so sharp that I had time to walk away, time to weep and rage at the exquisite agony, before my head fell off. Not the Teaching I expected, not the Awakening I imagined, but instead, the coup de grace -- the Cut of Grace. That's what severed the outward- reaching ties of body, prana, mind, and Soul. The Cut of Grace, the Graceful Cut. He had the Grace to put me out of my misery. :-)
[FairfieldLife] Re: Idea for a Fun Thread: People's Previous Incarnations
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Not to mention the math problem that there are so many more people alive today than any time in history. (Let me guess, other planets with people on them waiting to get on to earth?) I guess the people who remember their past lives just happen to come from here. But with only one billion estimated in 1802 in the world, our current 6 bill makes the odds that only those people remember not one but often many past lives pretty far out doesn't it? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population Here is a chart of the world's population that is very revealing. If reincarnation was real we should be getting so many detailed reports from these other planets, really wacky stuff. But then I might just be missing that section in the bookstore! Instead we get reports about people being one of the tiny groups of people we know about! I think your skepticism is warranted. Well, lives were much shorter then so 3+ lives could of been had in the duration of one current life. And given the high infant mortality rate, lots of souls kept churning repeatedly being born, only to die within hours, days or weeks of birth. But that doesn't solve the math problem, just lessens it some. :) And maybe there were a lot more multiple personalities -- one for each soul. :) The amazing thing I see in estimates such as this (and linked page in your linked page) is that in the Indus Valley civilization 3000 bce or so, Krishna Incarnation 2500 BCE ?, and scholarly defined start of Vedic period 1500 BCE or so, the populations of india would be around 4 million, 5 million and 9 million respectively -- give or take a million or two. (Assuming Asia was 2/3 of world population and India was 40% or so of Asian population).The whole of India with 4-9 million peolpe! No wonder vedic india is described as a golden age.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Idea for a Fun Thread: People's Previous Incarnations
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: And Mark Twain once said, I have been born more times than anybody except Krishna. This is a keeper.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Smelling the insides of '60s era cars
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, shempmcgurk [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: snip What struck me -- and the reason I am moved to post on thi subject was that when I would stick my head in I got an immediate sense memory. I don't know if that is the correct term to use, but the sense was the sense of smell: the combination of the leather, plastic and metal that were used in production in the '60s all seemed to gell together and give off an emanation that brought me right back to when I was a kid! I know. That happens frequently to me to greater or less degrees. But a year or two ago, I was looking at compilation of Dick and Jane books one of my kids had. For a few moments I was right back in the first grade reliving in what seemed great detail that whole period. I mean, I was right there again. BTW, I know, as probably most here, that exact smell you're tallking about. I remember speeding down the highway in my Mom's black cadillac, no seatbelt of course. Or sometimes we would be in my Dad's Courvair, but that did not seem to have quite the same smell package lurk
[FairfieldLife] Re: Reversal of subtle pranas key to transcending...
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Rory Goff [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj vajranatha@ wrote: It's not necessarily a good thing to confuse future-self and present- self. See, this was part of the Awakening for me I was thinking the it would be fun to spoof the 60's song The Happening, but when I looked at the lyrics, it already could be retitled, The Awakening lurk
[FairfieldLife] Re: Guru Dev's deathbed instructions to Maharishi . . .
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, t3rinity [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Richard J. Williams willytex@ wrote: And came back. If so, I wonder why Marshy would have come back to the Upper Kashi from Madanapalle. Sorry, Willy, saw this post just now. No, I didn't mean he returned to Uttar Kashi, rather he returned to Madanapalle, and at least two times after going to Kanya Kumari. One time I was told, he came with an entourage of 15 people who took residence at the Brindaban Lodge, which was actually already full, but miraculously the place was available when he arrived. This Narayan Ayer told me, who was also a hotel manager (not sure if it was of the Brindavan Lodge, or a smaller place nearby, where Maharishi stayed at his first visit and came in contact with him). He also told me that Maharishi initiated 200 people there, and the was catching a plane from Madras, even though he was two hours late. All this happened before he sat foot in the west. And, I wonder how Marshy's Aunt got to the Upper Kashi to talk to Marshy about the trip to Madanapalle? No idea, but he could have met her after he left. Or he knew she was ailing and ad heard of the facilities in Madanapalle and thought to combine it with his pilgrimage. It is also quite feasable, that - if Maharishi really got the 'order' at GD's deathbead, to make a pilgrimage in orer to get the proper blessings and the right start. This would be a very indian way of doing it. You know very well how Indians look for auspicious timing when they start any undertaking. When Aishwarya Rai married recently, first thing the newly wed did was to pay a visit to the south indian temple of Tirupati (which btw is also nearby Madanapalle) And, this brings up another issue. If Marshy was at the Upper Kashi and observing silence how did he communicate with his Aunt? Using sign language? Probably telepathy. But honestly, he could have met her just afterwards. Did they have telephones in 1954 at the Upper Kashi? Maybe she called him on his cell phone or maybe she sent Satyanand or Uncle Raj up to see him. If so, that would really be a long walk for Uncle Raj. The Aunt could have probaly walked herself to Madanapalle by the time Uncle got up there to the Upper Kashi! And, why wouldn't her husband, Uncle Raj, have taken Marshy's Aunt down to Madanapalle? I wonder what's up with that? Come to think of it, why would the Marshy have gone up to the Upper Kashi in the first place if his Aunt wasn't well. And how would the Aunt have known Marshy was even up at the Utter Kashi? Does anyone know what happened to the Aunt? I didn't even think that the Marshy had any Aunts that he was on speaking terms with. Was it Aunt Varma or was it Aunt Srivastava? Did the Aunt practice TM? And I wonder if the Aunt availed herself of Maharishi's Ayer-Veda. What, exactly, ailed the Aunt? So far as I can tell, the story about his Aunt is probably just a story. I can't recall Marshy having mentioned this and I've spent hours listening to him and reading his books and watching his videos. Apparently Uncle Raj didn't mention an Aunt at the Upper Kashi when he was in Canada at the TM Center. I wonder why not? Well, I was told by the Narayan Ayer this story, who is still alive and ready to talk to anybody about it. He is still a devotee of Maharishi. I can give you his address and phone number if you want. Send me an email if you are seriously interested. You could also simply visit the Maharishi Mandir near the Ganapathi Temple, opposite old Brindaban lodge (not in function any more), going off Gandhi Bazar where it makes a z-curve. The only person that I know of that mentions his Aunt is Dr. Coplin. The Aunt isn't mentioned by Robert Hollings in his book 'Transcendental Meditation', a book which I presume was approved for publication by the TMO since it was once available from the MUM Bookstore. Work Cited: 'Transcendental Meditation' An Introduction to the practice and aims of TM by Robert Hollings The Aquarian Press, 1982 ISBN 0-85030-240-4 p. 82 - 83 Fine, but the non-inclusion of facts or events isn't proof for their non-existence. Personal eye-witness is about the best proof you can get. Thanks, very interesting. What is you email adress ?
[FairfieldLife] Re: Bubic Flying?
but breath taking isn't it? Does anyone else remember the Opening Ceremony at the Utah Olpymics with the Blessings from all the different native American tribes living in Utah .ending with that American Eagle soaring all around the stadium? That was so impressive. Does anyone still have that on video tape or know where I might find it? I played that many times before leaving it in the video machine keyed up to the best part, not knowing that Q had an automatic timer to record Buffy Vampire Slayer!Gh
RE: [FairfieldLife] Re: Idea for a Fun Thread: People's Previous Incarnations
From: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of curtisdeltablues Sent: Saturday, June 09, 2007 8:10 AM To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Idea for a Fun Thread: People's Previous Incarnations I'm always amused by the New Age tendency to claim that they were *famous* people in the past. The Rama guy claimed he was Cardinal Richilieu; I can't see that *at all*. And Shirley MacLaine's been any *number* of famous people. Wasn't anyone ever the scullery maids and the cooks and the janitors? :-) Not to mention the math problem that there are so many more people alive today than any time in history. (Let me guess, other planets with people on them waiting to get on to earth?) I guess the people who remember their past lives just happen to come from here. But with only one billion estimated in 1802 in the world, our current 6 bill makes the odds that only those people remember not one but often many past lives pretty far out doesn't it? But you see Curtis, lots of animals are now being born as humans. What do you think is happening to all those species going extinct? I clearly remember a past life as a dodo bird: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodo
[FairfieldLife] Re: Idea for a Fun Thread: People's Previous Incarnations
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I'm always amused by the New Age tendency to claim that they were *famous* people in the past. The Rama guy claimed he was Cardinal Richilieu; I can't see that *at all*. And Shirley MacLaine's been any *number* of famous people. Wasn't anyone ever the scullery maids and the cooks and the janitors? :-) Thanks for opening up an interesting topic. I share your skepticism and that of others that somehow we were all famous people in a past life- there weren't that many of them for one thing, maybe 10,000 on the outside, throughout history. Also, many people in the past either thought they would be famous and now are not, or vice versa. The only few things I know about my past lives is that: 1. for one or more I was Asian. 2. I was an artist, possibly in my last life. 3. I had some training in some sort of meditation in one or more lives. 4. I died from falling from a great height in a past life, also possibly my last one, or in several. 5. I was alive in the roaring 20's. 6. I was an an american indian at least once. And I am positive I was mostly one of the unwashed and forgotten masses doing menial work during the majority of my near countless past lives.:-)
[FairfieldLife] Re: Idea for a Fun Thread: People's Previous Incarnations
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, jim_flanegin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: And I am positive I was mostly one of the unwashed and forgotten masses doing menial work during the majority of my near countless past lives.:-) And this life is different? :)
Re: [FairfieldLife] Idea for a Fun Thread: People's Previous Incarnations
TurquoiseB wrote: snip Or, for that matter, if you've got some idea who *you* might have been in a previous incarnation, do tell. How do you know that it isn't genetic memory (if there is such a thing) or a past life non genetic. For instance if you somehow wound up with talents your parents didn't have and believed that it came from a past life and then discovered your great great grandfather also was a master in that field it could be genetic. Maybe we are able to remember some of the experiences our ancestors had. When teaching music I would have an occasional student with extraordinary abilities when neither parent were musically inclined. At the time I had to credit that to reincarnation. I may well have studied tantra in a past life as I seem to have come into this one with some techniques that I didn't know were tantric until I learned tantra. And know at least to what I've been able to ascertain of my ancestors non of them learned tantra. :) There is also an interesting theory about reincarnation that when one dies the atoms scatter and creatures when born pick up these atoms and they are what are giving one the sensation of a past life.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Reversal of subtle pranas key to transcending...
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Rory Goff [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj vajranatha@ wrote: It's not necessarily a good thing to confuse future-self and present- self. See, this was part of the Awakening for me -- That Awakening to viscerally realize That is the container of time and space, of the illusion of evolution itself. Where it counts, time and space don't. As the I I had been identifying with grew ever closer to surrendering to the ever-present That, it became progressively more infuriated. It became more and more clear that That is realizable only on That's terms, not on the terms of the co-dependent arising llusion's. yeah, I found my stories were growing encyclopedic in length and depth before they all fell apart. No one else was buying into them either. It was also really hard to do meditation since everytime I emerged from it, I was that much closer to the awakening reality I kept trying to deny. Oh well, so much for death, eh?:-) Obviously utter emptifulfillment lies in That, and only in That, and in the surrender of the illusion into That, but to enter That, I cannot be particularly special in That. I cannot be particularly unique in That. I cannot be particularly esoteric in That. I cannot have achieved anything at all in That. I can only be utterly ordinary in That, so unspeakably ordinary as to be as ungraspable as That Thatself. This emptifulfillment was rightly seen as a death-wound to (and by) the codependent arising illusion. In His paradoxical embodiment of the sublime and the ridiculous, the divine and the demonic, the special and the ordinary, MMY dealt me the coup-de-grace, but His sword was so sharp that I had time to walk away, time to weep and rage at the exquisite agony, before my head fell off. Not the Teaching I expected, not the Awakening I imagined, but instead, the coup de grace -- the Cut of Grace. That's what severed the outward- reaching ties of body, prana, mind, and Soul. The Cut of Grace, the Graceful Cut. He had the Grace to put me out of my misery. :-) Yes, completely unexpected and unimaginable at the time, and yet obviously perfect after the fact, for as you say, the Reality (vs the illusion) was/is in charge. PS I had always imagined a steady, orderly pregression through the seven states of consciousness as defined, ticking off each symptom in turn, then...ta da! Liberation- the angels sing, the lights go up and lo, I am enlightened!! Instead it was more like wearing a blindfold from the backseat inside a speeding car, rocked from side to side, occasionally tilting my head back to peer down my nose at a slit of sight out the window, glimpsing higher states, moving through dark tunnels and around blind curves, until the car crashed or evaporated or became me or something and I was left to blissfully exclaim, Eureka! :-)
[FairfieldLife] Re: Idea for a Fun Thread: People's Previous Incarnations
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, new.morning [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, jim_flanegin jflanegi@ wrote: And I am positive I was mostly one of the unwashed and forgotten masses doing menial work during the majority of my near countless past lives.:-) And this life is different? :) Well the money's better, and I do have indoor plumbing...:-)
[FairfieldLife] Re: What Does The self Fear Most?
Turq, excellent points (below) and I feel that both Edg and you are both following Basho's point of seeking what the men of old sought. What makes both Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta different (IMO) from other teachers, Maharishi included, is that they both emphasize the seeker's own immediacy and self-sufficiency in sadhana as opposed to intermediaries (either by technique, teacher, or ritual). Essentially they both say you've got two good legs right underneath you; now walk over in that direction and you'll find what you'll find, whereas other teachings (just to arbitrarily over-generalize) emphasize the follow me and walk this way approach, (mind the thornbushes over there; nice view right about here, etc.). It's my feeling, congruent with whatever experience I've had, that either approach *does* lead to the same place (as Doctor Bronner says, All One) but I'm not really concerned whether or not that's true or real or universal, and I'm certainly not concerned in convincing anyone of that either. Similarly, it doesn't seem to me that you and Edg are on different sides of the issue; or if you are, it's the two sides of the same coin. The great majority of folks who post on FFL (and I suspect those who lurk here, as well), are Westerners who, despite our stints as disciples in the Eastern tradition, are just too steeped in the Western *ideals* of individualism and eclecticism to remain lockstep followers of any teaching or teacher forever, even though we may have developed a lasting taste for Indian food and/or Hindu Gods. That's neither a good thing or a bad thing; just is what it is. For whatever reason we were tinderbox-dry proto-seekers when we first heard of Maharishi or Yogananda or Krishnamurti or meditation or yoga or whatever the spark was that ignited the wildfire of interest in and dedication to the idea of self-realization that we all succumbed to in our youth. This phase of the world meditation movement, however, strikes me as being far more interesting (and substantial) than the heady time of World Plans and Merv Griffin mass initiations. There are so many people living in the world right now, going about their everyday lives, who have been lastingly infected with not only the *idea* of self-realization, but actually have had first-hand experience with techniques that, at the very least, facilitate self-inquiry and self-exploration. Regardless of how long or how well they meditated, millions and tens of millions of people have purposefully sat down, closed their eyes, and looked into the self at some point in their lives. That's just way cool. And important, too, or so I feel. Really appreciate the dialoque, thanks. ** --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Just to finish up from last week, just for the fun of playing with ideas, *not* to argue or claim the rightness or superiority of those ideas or anything like that. The short version is: Thanks but no thanks on Ramana, Edg. I've read him before, and there was no strong resonance for me there. For one reason, I'm more into saturating my self with its *own* ideas (poor as they may be) these days than with other people's, and second because I honestly believe that most Advaita I have read's ideas are based on an unchallenged basic assumption that, in my opinion, renders anything based upon that assumption suspect. But thanks for the suggestion, and for the fervor of your post. Longer version below, just for fun... --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Duveyoung no_reply@ wrote: Turq, I wish I had the writing skills to do what I want to do in this post. But, NO ONE has such skills. I'm not convinced it's even *about* writing skills. All the scriptures of the world were written by the smartest folks possible... That's an issue on which we shall have to agree to disagree. I find that many of them were written by uptight, life-averse recluses who wanted to convince others to live just like them, terrified of the world in which they dwelled. :-) ...and none of them ever produced anything in text that would, you know, pick one's soul up like a crying toddler and, just with a whisper or two to the intellect, free one FOREVER. I would go so far as to say that the same is true of spiritual teachers. IMO not one of them in history has ever had that power, or that effect. Realization happens on its own, and those to whom it happens may *attribute* it to the particular spiritual teacher they work with, but I'm not convinced it happens that way. It's like the olde Indian metaphor of the crow and the coconut. The crow lands on a branch of the palm tree and a coconut falls from another branch of the same tree. Is there a cause-and-effect relationship between the two events? Well, the answer is not necessarily. There is, for you, if you imagine one. But that doesn't mean that one ever existed
[FairfieldLife] Re: Idea for a Fun Thread: People's Previous Incarnations
Not to mention the math problem that there are so many more people alive today than any time in history. (Let me guess, other planets with people on them waiting to get on to earth?) Yes, Meher Baba said there were so many more people on earth now because they wanted to be on earth at the same time as his incarnation. According to him there are 3 types of planets that people are evolving on. 100% intellect - 0% heart, 75% intellect - 25% heart and an EARTH 50% of both.Earth is the only place one can get God Realization ( if we succeed in destroying this earth, the next one is only 2/3s or 3/4 finished so everything will just have to wait until it's ready) People from those other places really weren't quite ready for earth but have come here and ARE responsible for those overly scientific inventions that we can't quite handle. For anyone doing longtime rounding with the TM technique I don't see how you could NOT unstress past live experiences. But it's like counting your freckles or hairs on your head not that useful a pasttime! And having said that, let me talk abou them! When the Sidhi program first started the flying room was FULL of NOISE as past live stresses came out. If anyone in German wondered why some people were strictly SIMS (Students IMS) and other WYMS (World Youth MS) the flying rooms gave the answer. WYMS Germans were the ones saying Sieg Heil other WWII language noise. A strong German lady I know used to agonize in the flying room. Die elefanten sind en rustchen gekommen The elephants are sliding based on the horendous task of Hannibal getting getting elephants over the Alps to fight ROME. And I'd sure volunteer my ex as being General Patton! (but that's archetypal) I remember almost every great Philosopher, Poet, Scientist in Germany being claimed by SOME teacher of TM... I've unstressed well over 100 past lives only one was even slightly famous but I can think of several reasons for people thinking they had been famous people. 1. insanity 2. egotism (disease of individualized consciousness) 3. Archetypes - Some famous person like Napolean stands for the archetype you're working on right now so you think I WAS that person. Interesting http://www.herowithin.com/arch101.html 4. From the CLAN of, or in the area at the same time as some famous one If you lived under the protection of the CAMPBELL CLAN for instance you might identify yourself with the head of them however you were related. 5. Clear experiences of past impressions
[FairfieldLife] Re: What Does The self Fear Most?
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Marek Reavis [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Turq, excellent points (below) and I feel that both Edg and you are both following Basho's point of seeking what the men of old sought. What makes both Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta different (IMO) from other teachers, Maharishi included, is that they both emphasize the seeker's own immediacy and self-sufficiency in sadhana as opposed to intermediaries (either by technique, teacher, or ritual). Essentially they both say you've got two good legs right underneath you; now walk over in that direction and you'll find what you'll find, whereas other teachings (just to arbitrarily over-generalize) emphasize the follow me and walk this way approach, (mind the thornbushes over there; nice view right about here, etc.). I completely agree. I like that about both of these guys a great deal, and I also like the tendency to *not* see the seeker as someone who is broken and who needs to be fixed to realize their enlighten- ment. That had an *immediate* resonance for me when I first encountered their thinking; I had far more resonance for it than I'd had for the I-spiritual- teacher-you-peon-do-what-I-say-and-follow-me model. It's my feeling, congruent with whatever experience I've had, that either approach *does* lead to the same place (as Doctor Bronner says, All One) but I'm not really concerned whether or not that's true or real or universal, and I'm certainly not concerned in convincing anyone of that either. Gotta agree there. If they don't lead to the same place, they lead to two somewheres that look enough alike so that travelers who have gone there can talk about their respective experiences over a beer or two and understand each other. Similarly, it doesn't seem to me that you and Edg are on different sides of the issue; or if you are, it's the two sides of the same coin. Yup. And in my case, the coin is still in mid-flip. I don't see it as coming down on *any* side of the coin anytime soon, at least not soon enough to settle any side bets made on heads or tails. :-)
[FairfieldLife] Re: The Valley of the Saints
Then, I told Ned Wynn and Rick Stanley. Later, I made a mistake and took Allen Ginsberg to see the Maharishi at Helen's (Helen Olsen, 'A Hermit in the House', Donnelley 1971). Maharishi warned Allen about LSD and told him that recently half a dozen hippies had come to his room and that they smelled so bad that he told them to go into the garden. Shemp McGurk wrote: Who is the I in your paragraph above? Me. But I haven't talked to you in about four years since Judy waxed you real good over on A.M.T. and you split with your tail between your legs. What's up with that? You? Who do you think I was talking about - Lon P. Stacks or Victoria Bonds? I've been pretty busy myself latley packing for my move to the Upper Kashi. Because Allen Ginsberg didn't meet Maharishi at Helen's house in Los Angeles, as you claim above, but in London: http://tinyurl.com/2v2em5 Maybe so. Apparently Allen was in London in February 1968, but he was in Los Angeles, California in January 1967. I took Allen to see the Marshy at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. The next night we went to see the Fuggs. Allen was shaking all over, afraid that the feds were going to arrest him any minute, so I suggested we meditate in the back yard with the Marshy. About a week later I taught Allen how to meditate when we were on a flight to San Francisco to work with Doug Sahm. Allen called for me at the stage door of the Cow Palace. Sahm was playing a concert there with the Jefferson Airplane. Later that night I taught Allen how to chant the Hare Krishna mantra in Mike Love's hotel room at the Airport Holiday Inn. When he arrived for a short stay before returning to India, he was given a hero's welcome, and was greeted by a couple of thousand people at Los Angeles International Airport. He gave a lecture at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, which was full to the bursting point, and is said to have met prominent muscians such as Mick Jagger and members of the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane. Everywhere he went, he spoke to packed houses, extolling the power of the young generation to turn the wortld on to his meditation (Mason 125). Source: 'The Maharishi' By Paul Mason Element Books, 1994 According to Ned Wynn, the author of We Will Always Live in Beverly Hills, I was one of the biggest drug dealers in Hollywood at one time. I gave drugs of all kinds, including Pharmaceutical Methadone to all the rock bands including the Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, and Jim Morrison and the Doors, just to name a few. Except I never took any drugs myself - I've always been a Tequila man, chased with Mescal. According to Ned, I once gave a lid to Bob Dylan at a motel downtown and gave a tab to Timothy Leary backstage at a Donovan concert. Every time that the Rolling Stones came to town they called me for drugs and hookers. At one time, according to Ned, I was the most valuable player in town! I drove a flashy car and I had a big fat wallet full of cash. According to Ned, I used to have four wives, one of whom was a full-blooded Cherokee Indian Princess. That is, until I met the Maharishi at Mother Olsen's house and discovered TM in her back yard. I got enlightened on the spot. From that moment on I passed out leaflets for the Maharishi promising enlightement in about 5-7 years, instead of passing out LSD. According to Ned, it was I who helped the Maharishi write his Commenatary on the Bhagavad Gita up at Lake Arrowhead, along with Debbie Jarvis. I told Allen Ginsberg and Rick Stanley all about TM and he told Ned Wynn; I told Ray Manzerek and Mike Love, Jackson Brown and John Kay and they all started TM becasue I told them that it was better than any drug. I even introduced Allen Ginsburg to the Maharishi, big mistake. According to Ned Wynn, I was instrumental in getting the Maharishi to start Maharishi Ayer-Veda! I coined the phrase TM and SCI and helped found MIU in 1971 in Santa Barbara with Robert Kieth Wallace. According to Ned, I used to drive Jerry Jarvis to lectures all over California and I helped him found SIMS in 1965. According to Beaulah Smith I was TM initiate #212 in the U.S. and one of the first TMers in California, right after Nancy Cooke de Herrera. You've read her book, right? I didn't think so, but since you're so intersted in my story, you can read more about me in another popular paperback book by Martin Ebon which was entitled Maharishi, His Life/His Times/His Teachings/His Impact, which I helped him edit. The soft cover edition of this book is very rare and has an oval black and white likeness of Maharishi on the cover, a photo which was taken by me at the Olsons' house in 1964. Inside, on the frontispiece it says: Martin Ebon has compiled a fascinating record of this phenomenal Hindu monk - his life, his work, his impact. Included in the book is an interview with two of the Beatles; a chapter entitled The case of
[FairfieldLife] question for the Buddhists
Hi There, I have a question for you. The author of the book, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying is Sogyal Rinpoche. Is this his actual name and if you looked him up in an index would his name be listed as: Rinpoche, Sogyal or is one of these words/names a title? Thank you!! Ken
[FairfieldLife] Re: question for the Buddhists
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Kenny H [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi There, I have a question for you. The author of the book, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying is Sogyal Rinpoche. Is this his actual name and if you looked him up in an index would his name be listed as: Rinpoche, Sogyal or is one of these words/names a title? Thank you!! 'Rinpoche' is a title, meaning 'precious one.' It has far less of a meaning in the West than in a strong, structured Tibetan tradition. In many such traditions, one really has to *earn* the title of 'Rinpoche,' and it would be considered an affront of the highest order to call yourself 'Rinpoche' without having deserved the title. Flash forward to the West, where no one has much of any idea about the traditions in question, and anyone can call themselves what they want. So. Are there people out there on the spiritual smorgasbord circuit who call themselves 'Rinpoche' who never did anything to deserve the title? You betcha. Is Sogyal Rinpoche one of them? I don't think so. His title seems to have been well- earned; AFAIK he's a legitimate Tibetan Dzogchen master of the Nyingma tradition. His organization, Rigpa, is worldwide; there are even branches near where I live in France. That said, he has not been above controversy him- self, having been accused in 1994 by a female devotee of having coerced her into a sexual rela- tionship with him. One blogger, who runs a site called the Integral Options Cafe, refers to him as a perfect example of a flawed man who was still a valuable teacher. Like Chogyam Trungpa before him, Sogyal Rinpoche seems to be capable of being very human while writing some of the best Buddhist teachings going. His The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying is an absolute classic. Go figure.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Idea for a Fun Thread: People's Previous Incarnations
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitu [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: TurquoiseB wrote: snip Or, for that matter, if you've got some idea who *you* might have been in a previous incarnation, do tell. How do you know that it isn't genetic memory (if there is such a thing) or a past life non genetic. For instance if you somehow wound up with talents your parents didn't have and believed that it came from a past life and then discovered your great great grandfather also was a master in that field it could be genetic. Maybe we are able to remember some of the experiences our ancestors had. When teaching music I would have an occasional student with extraordinary abilities when neither parent were musically inclined. At the time I had to credit that to reincarnation. I may well have studied tantra in a past life as I seem to have come into this one with some techniques that I didn't know were tantric until I learned tantra. And know at least to what I've been able to ascertain of my ancestors non of them learned tantra. :) There is also an interesting theory about reincarnation that when one dies the atoms scatter and creatures when born pick up these atoms and they are what are giving one the sensation of a past life. Your idea of genetic memory sounds logical to me, although I'm still awed by the possibilities of reincarnation. The human DNA structure is complex and IMHO can contain strains of abilities acquired by one's ancestors. Given that humans have lived on this earth for millions of years, it is safe to assume that all of us are related to one another in one way or another. For example, I've read on National Geographic a few years ago about a well preserved mummy that was found in present day China. The mummy was not Asian and appeared to look like a Celtic woman, with the acouterments similar to those found in Europe. Nonetheless, I'm still fascinated by the idea of reincarnation, especially from those who claim to be from another planet or universe. For instance, there is a story in Shrimad Bhagavatam of a man who claimed to have been an exalted being from Ghandarva loka. He said that he was punished by the prajapatis (executives of the universe) to live a life of sudra in his next life because he enjoyed the association of many beautiful women and sang the wrong tune during the adoration (kirtan) of Vishnu. Further, along this line of thought, I'm currently entertaining the possibility that Atlantis, as Edgar Cayce had described it, might have existed from another day of Brahma, which translates to millions and millions of earth years. This is the reason why we cannot find any current evidence of a civilization that equaled those achieved by the people of Atlantis. This Atlantean civilization supposedly was more sophisticated than the most developed countries currently on earth. The Atlanteans had flying machines and harnessed nuclear power. Unfortunately, they misused this power through wars and destroyed their own civilization in the end. Is this history being repeated again in the 21st century (CE)?
[FairfieldLife] Re: Idea for a Fun Thread: People's Previous Incarnations
One of Patanjali's sutras (not one of the sutras taught by the TMO currently) is about knowing past lives: III. 18. By the practice of the threefold discipline on the inherent tendencies, and by the direct perception of such tendencies, knowledge of previous existence arises. http://www.dailyreadings.com/ys3-2.htm
[FairfieldLife] Re: Guru Dev's deathbed instructions to Maharishi . . .
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, nablusoss1008 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Thanks, very interesting. What is you email adress ? My nick is also my Yahoo-identity - send an email there.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Idea for a Fun Thread: People's Previous Incarnations
If you go back and follow your link to the wiki page, then go down to the last three (3) lines just above the references section at the bottom, you will see the following information: According to 2002 data:[14] · The number who have ever been born is 106,456,000,000 · The world population in mid-2002 was ..6,215,000,000 · The percentage of those ever born who were living in 2002 was 5.8% If accurate, that means there are plenty of jivas to hang out here - too many in fact. As denizens of modernity, one of our problems in evaluating such possibilities is that our cosmologies are extremely truncated. We think in terms of course materiality when in fact Indic metaphysics and cosmology (particularly hindu and buddhist) consider matter to be as much a qualitative value as it is a quantitative measure using the gross senses. The word loka is usually translated as *world* but actually means *locale*. In this view, the physical solar system is only the gross mapping of our locale at the level closest to our physical sense organs. The local universe of Bhu-mandala is therefore considered immense when compared to the standard model. A possible follow up question may also be intriquing - where are the other 100+ billion jivas? empty --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I'm always amused by the New Age tendency to claim that they were *famous* people in the past. The Rama guy claimed he was Cardinal Richilieu; I can't see that *at all*. And Shirley MacLaine's been any *number* of famous people. Wasn't anyone ever the scullery maids and the cooks and the janitors? :-) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population
[FairfieldLife] Re: question for the Buddhists
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Like Chogyam Trungpa before him, Sogyal Rinpoche seems to be capable of being very human while writing some of the best Buddhist teachings going. His The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying is an absolute classic. Go figure. That book was largely edited by Andrew Harvey, who is a very good writer himself. Andrew to me once complained (when we still were close) that Sogyal didn't properly attribute the editing to him in the book, while he did the most work, making the book out of his lectures, but just mentioned him, while making his disciple the main editor. I do think that some good writing craft is part of the success of the book, and that needed more than just a good disciple editor.
[FairfieldLife] Bill O'Reilly and karma
I watched O'Reilly's show this week and during one of his talking points segments he was talking about someone who had done something wrong -- I forget who, perhaps it was Paris Hilton and her DUI -- and he used the term karma to explain that whatever is befalling that person was his or her karma. What struck me as a result of this was how far the term had edged its way into everyday American lexicon, for if someone as, shall we say, right-wing as O'Reilly was using it then pretty much everyone would be. Of course, karma is virtually the same as the Judeo-Christian concept of as ye sow so shall ye reap and as a strictly practical matter the former with two syllables is a much more succinct way of saying the latter, worth 6 syllables of energy. And the English language doesn't have a one-word summary-word like karma that sums up the whole As Ye Sow concept, so it's perfectly natural that karma has become part of our language.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Idea for a Fun Thread: People's Previous Incarnations
Helen Wambaugh did a lot of data gathering using a simple recollection technique in large groups over a couple of years. She obtained past-life recall memories for 30,000+ people. The overwhelming response she catalogued does not fit our usual prejudgments bases upon the self-deluded musings of the new-agers we all have met. Based upon her data, very few people experienced any historically relevant lifetime and of those who did, they usually were only accessories to people with power or influence. The mass totality were typically simple folk - village dwellers or farmers of various kinds. empty --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, jim_flanegin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_reply@ wrote: I'm always amused by the New Age tendency to claim that they were *famous* people in the past. Wasn't anyone ever the scullery maids and the cooks and thejanitors? :-) snip Thanks for opening up an interesting topic. I share your skepticism and that of others that somehow we were all famous people in a past life-there weren't that many of them for one thing, maybe 10,000 on the outside, throughout history. Also, many people in the past either thought they would be famous and now are not, or vice versa. snip And I am positive I was mostly one of the unwashed and forgotten masses doing menial work during the majority of my near countless past lives. :-)
[FairfieldLife] Re: Idea for a Fun Thread: People's Previous Incarnations
I know someone who claims he is sometimes aware of living several lives simultaneously right now - and sometimes there's even a little leakage, so that he has trouble keeping it all sorted. Did that event happen to the me in this body, or to the me in another one of the bodies? So perhaps, whatever it is that reincarnates - takes on several bodies at a time. Having a single incarnation at a time seems a little inefficient in a grand universe like this anyway. From the point of view of the Self, there's only one soul reincarnating as everyone anyway! Everyone was (is) somebody special! Rick Archer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Not to mention the math problem that there are so many more people alive today than any time in history.
[FairfieldLife] Watch the video trailer for Michael Moore's SiCKO
SiCKO Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BJyyyRYbSk
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Idea for a Fun Thread: People's Previous Incarnations
I did a process through the art of living (SSRS) that helps you unstress impressions from previous lifetimes. It was pretty interesting. The past lives that came up were a roman general (I was involved in logistics and troop support, not direct combat.) I died of a heart attack in that one. I worked on the pyramids as a physical laborer, but I was mentally retarded (I'm serious!) and died at 18 from falling off a large stone block and fracturing my skull. I lived a long life in Norway in the mid 1800's the son of a wealthy land owner. In that lifetime my current father was my son who drowned when he was 10 and my daughter is now my wife (I know, Freud would have a field day with those dynamics) I was also Rick Archer in a previous life and in a future life I'm going to be Curtis! --- emptybill [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Helen Wambaugh did a lot of data gathering using a simple recollection technique in large groups over a couple of years. She obtained past-life recall memories for 30,000+ people. The overwhelming response she catalogued does not fit our usual prejudgments bases upon the self-deluded musings of the new-agers we all have met. Based upon her data, very few people experienced any historically relevant lifetime and of those who did, they usually were only accessories to people with power or influence. The mass totality were typically simple folk - village dwellers or farmers of various kinds. empty --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, jim_flanegin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_reply@ wrote: I'm always amused by the New Age tendency to claim that they were *famous* people in the past. Wasn't anyone ever the scullery maids and the cooks and thejanitors? :-) snip Thanks for opening up an interesting topic. I share your skepticism and that of others that somehow we were all famous people in a past life-there weren't that many of them for one thing, maybe 10,000 on the outside, throughout history. Also, many people in the past either thought they would be famous and now are not, or vice versa. snip And I am positive I was mostly one of the unwashed and forgotten masses doing menial work during the majority of my near countless past lives. :-) To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ You snooze, you lose. Get messages ASAP with AutoCheck in the all-new Yahoo! Mail Beta. http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/mailbeta/newmail_html.html
Re: [FairfieldLife] FFL Unresponsive
Since I just switched to ATT Yahoo DSL from Earthlink I shouldn't get anymore hard bounces unless they think their own servers are gone. ;-) Vaj wrote: Yes, it's on again off again kinda thing. I often lose my email due to bounced emails for some reason. On Jun 8, 2007, at 2:11 PM, Rick Archer wrote: A new member signed up several days ago and at first opted to get the daily digest but then changed it to individual emails, but she’s still not getting individual emails. Another member went on vacation and changed his setting several days ago to “no emails,” yet he’s still getting individual emails. Are others experiencing problems like this? Is this typical? To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Re: Idea for a Fun Thread: People's Previous Incarnations
I have had at least 18,000 or so past lives. I remember many of them, some sort of blur together. Some totally forgotten. Some are quite similar, others are as different as day an night. Each day is a new life, a new beginning, a new chance to look at things freshly, a new opprotunity to be free of yesterday's stuff. The life I lived 30 years ago is quite different from my recent and current lives.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Idea for a Fun Thread: People's Previous Incarnations
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, new.morning [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Each day is a new life, a new beginning, a new chance to look at things freshly, a new opprotunity to be free of yesterday's stuff. The life I lived 30 years ago is quite different from my recent and current lives. That's your name. lurk
[FairfieldLife] Re: What Does The self Fear Most?
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Edg, Happy that you got off on my rap enough to write all this, and happy that it made you happy to write it. But you're still selling, and I'm not a prospective buyer. I was just walking through the market digging all the sights and sounds and wandered past your booth. :-) I would never be so silly as to believe that there was such a thing as one truth, let alone try to express it. I'll leave that to you... Unc You're all heart.:-)
[FairfieldLife] Re: Idea for a Fun Thread: People's Previous Incarnations
But you see Curtis, lots of animals are now being born as humans. What do you think is happening to all those species going extinct? I clearly remember a past life as a dodo bird: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodo I am spending my current incarnation as a dodo bird! --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Rick Archer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: From: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of curtisdeltablues Sent: Saturday, June 09, 2007 8:10 AM To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Idea for a Fun Thread: People's Previous Incarnations I'm always amused by the New Age tendency to claim that they were *famous* people in the past. The Rama guy claimed he was Cardinal Richilieu; I can't see that *at all*. And Shirley MacLaine's been any *number* of famous people. Wasn't anyone ever the scullery maids and the cooks and the janitors? :-) Not to mention the math problem that there are so many more people alive today than any time in history. (Let me guess, other planets with people on them waiting to get on to earth?) I guess the people who remember their past lives just happen to come from here. But with only one billion estimated in 1802 in the world, our current 6 bill makes the odds that only those people remember not one but often many past lives pretty far out doesn't it? But you see Curtis, lots of animals are now being born as humans. What do you think is happening to all those species going extinct? I clearly remember a past life as a dodo bird: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodo
