Turq, not sure where you are at but TM Movement is not dying even though new young people cannot afford 2,000 dollars US so they often turn to free vipassanna retreats thus Buddhists are gathering more instant converts. But if you hang out at young oriented forums like http://www.hipforums.com/newforums/index.php you will see that many young still are asking what Transcendental Meditation is and discussing it on a daily basis. If David Lynch could cover a million kids learning it it's not an impossibility. You must realize that the David Lynch intention is itself a Bodhisattva motivation. We must all remember that we are on the same team, that is, preservation of this Earth, liberation of its species from needless exploitation, freedom for peace and meditation, and so on. Nobody really is wanting war, and meditating necessarily at the same time.
----- Original Message ----- From: "TurquoiseB" <no_re...@yahoogroups.com> To: <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Saturday, March 07, 2009 4:48 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] "The good that they do is oft interred with their bones..." > In my opinion the TM movement is dying. It's on its > deathbed, with more of its members dying every month > than new ones joining, and no leadership present to > take it in a survival direction. > > And I think that, as a movement, it will be remembered > badly. "The evil men do lives after them..." was the > first part of the paraphrase of Shakespeare's words > that I used as the Subject line of this post. The TM > movement has fucked up in so many ways that IMO those > fuckups *should* be remembered, long after TM has been > forgotten. > > But some of the good that it did should not be interred > with its bones. So I'll rap for a few minutes about what > I think some of those Good Things were: > > * TM, emerging when it did, helped to make Eastern > meditation (as opposed to "meditating about things") > popular and acceptable in the West. That's a very > good thing IMO. > > * TM taught a great number of people an easy beginner's > technique of meditation. Some still practice it. For > others, that beginner's technique provided a springboard > for other techniques that they now prefer. Thus TM was > a "gateway drug" to other forms of meditation and self > discovery for many. > > * The TM movement provided an opportunity for many seekers > to not only learn about meditation, but to *teach* it. > Maharishi's formulaic teaching method thus enabled many > people to experience the joys and benefits of selfless > service in a spiritual context in a way that they would > otherwise never have gotten to experience. > > * The TM movement also provided the experience of longer > periods of meditation in a retreat setting. Despite some > of the problems that arose from "rounding," I still con- > sider this experience a very Good Thing, because so few > on this planet have ever had the opportunity to experience > it. Other than full-time Buddhist monks from Asia or other > former TMers, I have never *met* anyone in spiritual move- > ments who has had the opportunity to spend as much time > in retreat settings as I was able to do. I value that > time greatly; few get to experience it. > > * TM taught discipline, even though many TMers would break > out in hives at my use of that word. :-) To benefit from > it, you were told, you had to do it regularly. So many who > would otherwise never have devoted themselves to "regular > practice" of sitting meditation did so, and thus benefited > from it. That discipline that they learned from the TM > movement has been of great use to many of them in other > traditions, because it showed them that discipline can > occasionally pay off. > > * TM taught a lot of people that *they could experience > thought stopping*. This is such a "given" for most TMers > that they don't even value it as one of the Good Things, > but it is *NOT* a "given" for most people on the planet. > Ask almost anyone you meet on the street whether it is > *possible* for them to silence the constant flow of > thoughts running through their minds, and they will > emphatically tell you, "No." We know it to be possible. > > * TM presented a "vision of possibilities" that it was > never able to really provide to most of its practitioners, > but which opened many of us up *to* those possibilities. > Just as we might never have known that it was possible > for thoughts to cease, we might never have known that it > was possible for personal suffering to cease, or for > attachment to petty emotions to cease. For the most part, > I find long-term TMers to be more *optimistic* about the > future than those who were never exposed to it, and in > these times, that's a very Good Thing indeed. > > * The TMO allowed us to meet and interact with other > seekers who shared a similar vision. Again, this is a plus > that is often overlooked, because it is considered a "given." > It's not. You who haven't spent a lot of time talking to > "people on the street" have no idea how many of them feel > ALONE, isolated, cut off from anyone who shares a similar > vision as theirs. There is comfort in that shared vision, > and thus I think that it's one of the Good Things that > came out of the TM movement. > > * And finally, "coming back to the mantra" established a > pattern of *perseverance* that I think was a very Good Thing. > People who learned to meditate and then practiced it regularly > tend, in my experience, to persevere in other things as well, > and to not "give up" as readily. And in a time when so many > seem so willing to either give up or chemically dull them- > selves out so that they don't even *realize* they've given > up, I appreciate that so many who once learned TM don't do > that as often. Keepin' on keepin' on is a very Good Thing > indeed. > > > > > > ------------------------------------ > > To subscribe, send a message to: > fairfieldlife-subscr...@yahoogroups.com > > Or go to: > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ > and click 'Join This Group!'Yahoo! Groups Links > > >
