--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > On Jul 23, 2008, at 11:26 AM, curtisdeltablues wrote: > > > <snip> > >>> > >>> For those who find belief in gods and goddesses untenable, there's > > no > >>> real need to cling to such stories. In terms of modern psychology > > and > >>> neuroscience it would be easier to say that certain sounds have > >>> certain effects on the brain, which have the potential, over time, > > to > >>> awaken certain propensities in the brain and then for those changes > >>> to be integrated into the human personality. > > > > That may be true. I find it hard to believe that earlier cultures > > were able to figure this out rather than just going with their > > religious meanings in choosing sounds. It seems like a difficult > > thing to test. > > It is completely knowable in those traditions, albeit not through > conventional, scientific and materialistic means. But more simply, > different devatas had different personalities and those are the > qualities that naturally develop with mantra use. > > > > > That's why I like Swami > >>> Rama's approach: it was practical and honest, without a need for > >>> magical thinking. > > > > I checked out his place in Honesdale Pa but never met him. I was very > > afraid of meeting guys like him when I was in TM. I thought they > > would put the "wammy" on me! I also thought that I was a special and > > desirable human that other masters would want to steal from Maharishi! > > Teachers had told me that other masters valued us and would be after > > us. More "prison of specialness." > > Wow, if you're not making that up, that pretty scary Curtis! I've > found quite the opposite to be true: TMers are viewed as naive at best. > > My approach was quite different: it was clear that the TMO wasn't > being up front, forthcoming and (frankly), honest. So I went where I > could find all the answers and then some. Sw. Rama's center was an > important one--esp. since he was a student of Guru Dev's and he was > able to actually replicate samadhi in his students. > > It was utterly refreshing to get the whole story and not some cosmic > rug salesman's hypnotic spiel. That's not to say that Sw. Rama didn't > have his dark side, he had a real creepazoid side as well. >
I went to Honesdale, with an audiotape of Guru Dev (before Paul translations) to see about the possibility of translation. Walked into the bookstore and asked if Swami Rama was there. As if on cue he walked in, in a maroon bathrobe (in the steam room?) and shook my hand. (This kicked up some kundalini in both my friend and I ....lots of heat and a red forehead). I told him that I was a teacher of TM and asked about the tape... we walked down the hall talking and he suggested leaving the tape with him. I said 'yes' but thought 'no' and he suggested another time.... That was the end of the conversation . A few years later all the stuff about the Swami and the wives of his closest students came out. I was impressed by his perceptiveness and the shaktipat. He spoke well of TM, as well. JohnY
