--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend" <jst...@...> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, ruthsimplicity <no_reply@> wrote: > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, bob_brigante <no_reply@> wrote: > > > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <no_reply@> wrote: > > > > > > > > But BILL O'REILLY? That's going too far. > > > > > > ******* > > > > > > I've never liked Howard Stern's schtick, and I don't > > > like O'Reilly's schtick, but so what? They both are > > > displaying an enthusiasm for TM, and I like that. > > > Like MMY always said, even a sick man can run a > > > health-food store. > > > > The analogy might work with O'Reilly, but Stern is a > > meditator and has been for years. And he is not who > > you would point to as on the road to enlightenment, > > would you? > > Which of us is in a position to determine who is on > the road and who isn't? > > > You think he has reached cosmic consciousness yet? > > Who knows, and who cares? > > His sidekick, Robin Quivers (also a committed TMer), > says when people tell her they can't believe Stern > meditates, she says, "Think of what he would be like > without TM." > > (No, that's not meant to be proof of anything. The > point is, you can't tell where a person is on the > path and shouldn't attempt to judge.) > > > So how healthy is that health food? > > Stern's fabulously successful at what he does. Seems > like TM was pretty healthy for him. > > (But that's kind of not the point of MMY's analogy > of the owner of the health-food store, you know?) >
OK, so TM can make you a fabulously successful shock jock. Well, that doesn't do it for me. I maintain that it is fair to form an impression of TM by looking at long term meditators and their lives and looking at the organizations that promote TM and looking looking at what MMY had to say. Like Curtis said, the people don't seem any better off or any better people than non-meditators. I think that it is fair to have an impression of the effectiveness TM by looking at the meditators I know and seeing whether they are happy and well adjusted, whether they are successful contributors to society and have good family relationships. Unfortunately, I know too many long term meditators that have lives filled with problems. They might go on and on about the good meditation they had or hint at wonderful experiences, but it ends there. I trust that they were not all coming from such a low level that if they had not done TM they would be even less well adjusted. I find listening to the leaders of the movement especially unimpressive. I find reading what they write unimpressive. I find the sidelines especially unimpressive. Send me a check and I will arrange a yagya. But I won't talk to you if your house doesn't face east. Oh, let me take your pulse and prescribe you a vatta pacifying diet. If TM works, it sure doesn't seem to work very well. Most people quit. If the siddhis work, they don't work very well. No one flies and if it is hot out the murder rate will still go up.
