On May 6, 2009, at 3:04 AM, TurquoiseB wrote:
I'm pointing this out because I think a lot of
people on this forum FALL for "thought stoppers."
The TM movement was not long on compassion. It
never taught its followers that a person could be
partly good, partly bad. The model invoked was
always the clear-cut "It's only the Pandavas and
the Kauravas, the rakshasas and the perfect saints"
scenario we see in TM stories. Black and white, no
middle ground. So if a person is characterized as
black, they are ALL black.
You're missing one of the biggest TM org thought stoppers:
"Pure Consciousness".
We were supposed to think "wow, what could be better that PURE
consciousness?" I don't need to look and farther or look into this
any more, if it's pure (and the experience they're telling me I will
have is Pure Consciousness), then I need look no further.
But what's happening is other meditation researchers are seeing
through this screen of re-definition. the Cambridge Handbook of
Consciousness, the standard textbook in neurological and
consciousness research pointed this out several years ago. Before
that neurologist and Zen master James Austin pointed out how the word
was being used in a misleading kind of way, without any "profound
proof" for this profoundly named experience. '"The phrase ‘‘pure
consciousness’’ continues to sow confusion more than a
decade after Forman pointed to its semantic pitfalls. When someone
employs the term today, it remains unclear whether its usage
describes an early moment, an intermediate step, or some ultimate
stage among the several optional varieties of consciousness." He then
goes on to describe in detail how the word is being used by TM
researchers to claim an exalted state, when in fact they're actual
attaching the thought-stopper (pun intended;-)) to a very rudimentary
state.
It looks like the tom-foolery has been exposed.
Beyond the thought-stopper is the further tendency 'if you repeat a
lie enough times, people will begin to believe it.' Despite being
caught at their act, I'm certain TM researchers, teachers and
professors will still continue to use "Pure Consciousness" as a
description. The fact is, at this point in the game, if they were
forced to abandon their use of this word, as applies to TM and it's
results, they'd have to rewrite websites and revise the entire
literature of TM, Maharishi Vedic Science--virtually ALL of the MUM
curriculum! It's all based on this (LOL) thought-stopper!
