[FairfieldLife] Re: American Veda
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, ultrarishi no_reply@ wrote: I thought it was a terrific read. Since I'm 58 and have been meditating since 1975 I have read / study / visited many of the visionaries and scoundrels covered in his book. It also gave insight into what I have missed. I consider his book the Cliff Notes to Vedanta or a Michelin Guide, if you will. As a great companion piece I would also recommend The Harvard Psychedelic Club which cover the journeys of Houston Smith, Andrew Weil, Timothy Leary and Ram Das. Studied? Visited? Which ones? Are you currently in the Dome? One of the things this visiting author said was that in his wide travels out in the world that he finds that people are generally holding the opinion that TM'ers are arrogant. Spiritual people. I kan't believe that. No. Where does that come from? Arrogant? It is just simple science showing that none of the other meditational techniques produce alpha wave coherence nearly as good as our TM. It is just fact. People should just live with it and not fight it. But by the same token they should stop ripping us off taking the effortlessness of our practice and then putting it in to theirs without attribution and tribute. I am sick and tired of that, -Buck
[FairfieldLife] Re: American Veda
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Buck dhamiltony2k5@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, ultrarishi no_reply@ wrote: I thought it was a terrific read. Since I'm 58 and have been meditating since 1975 I have read / study / visited many of the visionaries and scoundrels covered in his book. It also gave insight into what I have missed. I consider his book the Cliff Notes to Vedanta or a Michelin Guide, if you will. As a great companion piece I would also recommend The Harvard Psychedelic Club which cover the journeys of Houston Smith, Andrew Weil, Timothy Leary and Ram Das. Studied? Visited? Which ones? Are you currently in the Dome? One of the things this visiting author said was that in his wide travels out in the world that he finds that people are generally holding the opinion that TM'ers are arrogant. Spiritual people. I kan't believe that. No. Where does that come from? Arrogant? It is just simple science showing that none of the other meditational techniques produce alpha wave coherence nearly as good as our TM. It is just fact. People should just live with it and not fight it. But by the same token they should stop ripping us off taking the effortlessness of our practice and then putting it in to theirs without attribution and tribute. I am sick and tired of that, -Buck Today even som Buddhist claim that meditation is effortless. They certainly know how to turn with a wind Maharishi set in motion :-)
[FairfieldLife] Re: American Veda
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Buck dhamiltony2k5@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, ultrarishi no_reply@ wrote: I thought it was a terrific read. Since I'm 58 and have been meditating since 1975 I have read / study / visited many of the visionaries and scoundrels covered in his book. It also gave insight into what I have missed. I consider his book the Cliff Notes to Vedanta or a Michelin Guide, if you will. As a great companion piece I would also recommend The Harvard Psychedelic Club which cover the journeys of Houston Smith, Andrew Weil, Timothy Leary and Ram Das. Studied? Visited? Which ones? Are you currently in the Dome? One of the things this visiting author said was that in his wide travels out in the world that he finds that people are generally holding the opinion that TM'ers are arrogant. Spiritual people. I kan't believe that. No. Where does that come from? Arrogant? It is just simple science showing that none of the other meditational techniques produce alpha wave coherence nearly as good as our TM. It is just fact. People should just live with it and not fight it. But by the same token they should stop ripping us off taking the effortlessness of our practice and then putting it in to theirs without attribution and tribute. I am sick and tired of that, -Buck Initiators in the early seventies, especially, felt they had the experiential proof of the superiority of TM over any other technique, and their Master Maharishi Mahesh Yogi inculcated this sense of the imperfection of any other spiritual practice. The arrogance that remains in the TMO is founded on the personality of Maharishi in combination with the nature of TM as the only natural, effortless, innocent technique of transcendence. Every devoted initiator before 1975 knew that TM and Maharishi were the greatest realities in the world, that enlightenment was inevitable, and that the world was going to be transformed--even against its will--through each initiation of a human being into TM (and through the collective practice of TM). In a sense at this time, the arrogance was not really that noticeable, since it was evidently a true reading of the status of Maharishi inside the universe and the inescapable discernment of the efficacy of TM. Each initiator up to at least the middle of the seventies felt 'the support of nature and mother is at home', the beauty and majesty of Maharishi, and the extraordinary mystical power of initiating someone into TM through singing/performing the Puja in front of the portrait of Guru Dev. Arrogance as such never really entered into the context of teaching TM, of being an initiator. *It was a very innocent and normal experience to know that TM was nature's favourite way of becoming enlightened, and that Maharishi was the wisest, most authoritative, most extraordinary human person in the world*. As an initiator one just carried within oneself the awareness of these truths. It would have been unnatural and an affectation not to in some sense embody and express these truths in one's bearing as an initaitor. *It is just what happened to one when teaching TM, when leading residence courses, when giving introductory lectures*. At this time 'arrogance' was not something one could project upon a TM teacher or even the TMO. Those of us who taught TM seriously knew we were in possession of the highest truth and the greatest living Master--*and we ourselves were on our way to fulfilling the promise of TM: enlightenment*. The arrogance set in when reality refused to go along with TM and Maharishi. When the support of nature, the sense of mother is at home, the impeccability of Maharishi, and the long-term effects of TM, began to be less self-evident; then what before was the spontaneous sensation of acting inside a context of grace and elegance and power became something else--This is where innocence became gradually a pose, a contrived state of self-presentation. This is when Maharishi became less coherent and believable in his own behaviour. This is when the correspondence between the dream of TM and the reality of TM began to break down. This is when nature began to withhold her singular endorsement of TM and Maharishi. Arrogance, then, represents the legacy of what TM and Maharishi *were* up until 1975, and what began to happen to TM, Maharishi, and one's own sense of personal evolution after this time. If one remained a regular teacher of TM, a leader in the TMO, arrogance became unconsciously the compensationn for the failure of Maharishi and TM to deliver on its promise. At that point one could only assume the posture of superiority; the real experience of the superiority of TM and Maharishi was less objectively obvious to one--at least unconsciously this was so. The sense of arrogance became inevitable as one was unable to project effortlessly and,
[FairfieldLife] Re: American Veda
I thought it was a terrific read Buck: But by the same token they should stop ripping us off taking the effortlessness of our practice and then putting it in to theirs without attribution and tribute... That's being arrogant, Buck. All you have to do is take a read at some of the postings on FFL to see how the TMers are arrogant. LoL! Besides, everyone knows that the first historical yogin in India was the Buddha who said that nirvana was effortless. It has already been established that the TMer bija mantras come from the Vajrayana tradition in India and that the Adi Shankaracharya was a quasi-Buddhist who passed out the cittamani bija mantra of Yidam Saraswati, who is the Buddhist Arya Tara. According to Ghosh, the earliest known image of Tara is found in the Buddhist rock-cut cave at Ellora (ca. 7th century CE), in Maharashtra. Work cited: 'Development of Buddhist Iconography in Eastern India' by Mallar Ghosh Munshiram Manoharlal, 1980 pp. 6
[FairfieldLife] Re: American Veda
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, ultrarishi no_reply@... wrote: I thought it was a terrific read. Since I'm 58 and have been meditating since 1975 I have read / study / visited many of the visionaries and scoundrels covered in his book. It also gave insight into what I have missed. I consider his book the Cliff Notes to Vedanta or a Michelin Guide, if you will. As a great companion piece I would also recommend The Harvard Psychedelic Club which cover the journeys of Houston Smith, Andrew Weil, Timothy Leary and Ram Das. Studied? Visited? Which ones? Are you currently in the Dome?
[FairfieldLife] Re: American Veda
tartbrain: Though this book probably already has been discussed here, I was looking at it to see if it included Twain... American Veda is his crowning achievement. It is the fascinating story of how Indian philosophy and Indian teachers have literally transformed American life, starting with the New England Transcendentalist writers (Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman) who discovered Vedanta in a handful of books, through the arrival on our shores of Swami Vivekenanda, Paramahansa Yogananda, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and other prominent gurus, to the present-day crop of teachers - both Indian and American-born - who have been influenced by these visionary pioneers... - Jack Forem http://tinyurl.com/9egkqn9 'American Veda' by Philip Goldberg From Emerson and the Beatles to Yoga and Meditation How Indian Spirituality Changed the West Harmony, 2010
[FairfieldLife] Re: American Veda
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Share Long sharelong60@... wrote: Feste, I didn't see you there ha ha! Well, maybe I did and didn't know that I did. If you know what I mean (-; I enjoyed it a lot. Buck and I had a little exchange about it earlier this morning under, funnily enough, subject Shri Chakra found on Mars. But something I remembered during program: I loved his point that in every organization he's dealt with, people complain about the exact same problems, the exact same challenging personality types. That doesn't surprise me at all but it was great to have it validated by someone with a much larger perspective than mine. Also I was fascinated with what he said about Emerson. All in all his presentation made me realize how much I would like to immerse in a spiritual community that's also devoted to emotional good health. Also I was impressed by his scholarship, especially when he mentioned that it took 2 years longer than he expected. Inspiring persistence. I wish there had been time for talking about what's next. Hope he sold lots of books. PS If you ever want to reveal your REAL identity to me, that would be fun. And I'm good at keeping secrets. As some on this forum already know. Please email me. I would have made myself known to you yesterday but I had to leave promptly so the opportunity did not present itself. From: feste37 feste37@... To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2012 9:06 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] American Veda  Hey Share, what did you think of Phil Goldberg's American Veda talk? I saw you there. I found him very entertaining, more so than I expected. Nice to be reminded of the context in which MMY showed up in the US. Long process of seeding the ground before he arrived.
[FairfieldLife] Re: American Veda
I thought it was a terrific read. Since I'm 58 and have been meditating since 1975 I have read / study / visited many of the visionaries and scoundrels covered in his book. It also gave insight into what I have missed. I consider his book the Cliff Notes to Vedanta or a Michelin Guide, if you will. As a great companion piece I would also recommend The Harvard Psychedelic Club which cover the journeys of Houston Smith, Andrew Weil, Timothy Leary and Ram Das.
