Spiritual Practice Since Blake: A lot of spiritual practice has gone on since Blake & it has continued or ended in various ways not absolutely stale, authoritarian and rigid. There has been a progression which is in the American experience with it.
For example, Yogananda's group SRF now seems to have survived the death of their guru. They do have enduring active spiritual practice communities facilitating that work. Again last summer they gathered for an annual week `convocation' near LA for about 10 days of long group meditations with about 4000 people. In their communities they do regular long powerful group meditations as part of their ongoing spiritual practice. By a same kind of coin as with TM, it could be as easy to say that so much of the `positivity' of late that the TMorg points to as evidence is actually due to the SRF 4000 meditators in practice together last summer. The powerful lasting influence of a larger n=squared number by contrast. After all, exponentially 4000 powerful SRFmeditators sitting in practice is a lot more strong than 1700 sleeping TM-sidhas in recline in group. Sit with the shakti of a SRF group meditation if you have not, to judge it. They got shakti that is alive in a way that by contrast the TMmovement group meditations are only a forlorn disheartened hope over what could have been with their movement. -Doug in FF --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Angela Mailander <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > According to William Blake, movements always end like this--stale, authoritarian, rigid. They begin with fiery spirit and end in ashes. >He describes the process in some detail and at great depth in >his "Book of Urizen," which I read when I first got my children >involved with TM, and I thought, hmm, here's a test case, and it has been amazing to see how it went down exactly like the man said it would. >So, perhaps, there is no need to speak of failure. Instead, we can realize that this is the natural process for any movement. This does not mean that there is anything wrong with the technique. > > Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: "Maharishi Effect" Quantum-Failure Essay > > > >snip< > > > > Vaj <vajranatha@ ...> wrote: > > > Naw. If you're following a tradition of continuous success in deep > > > meditation (for example), the only evidence that has any meaning > > >is > > > whether or not you succeed at your particular practice! Most yogis > > > could give two hoots about what their EEG says. (Unless of course > > >it's > > > an unscrupulous yogi and they're using it to bolster sales and > > > marketing efforts...) > > > >Doug writing: > Vaj, that is some good writing. Quite an encapsulation of this thread > > in two sentences. > > > Works well also in conjunction with the flat observation from > > Gilpin's essay in a conclusion about FF, > > > > Gilpin: > > "We all know how it turned out. After a lifetime of personal > > micromanagement, the TM movement is a grim, authoritarian theocracy. > > A medieval caste system--complete with a god-king and his court of > > rajas--where status is determined largely by the size of one's bank > > account" > > "We tried creating our own reality and it failed. Our future, if we > > have one, lies in the rational, objective, scientific world that we > > all inhabit. It may not seem exciting after the mystical wonders of > > the last generation, but it's our best hope." > > ..xo
