--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, ruthsimplicity <no_re...@...> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Richard M" <compost1uk@> wrote: > > > > > The TM technique can (or could at the time) claim uniqueness > > > > as being: > > ... > > > > * Not a skill i.e. something that you develop and get > > > > "better" at, as in, for example, learning a musical > > > > instrument. In theory you can't say "I meditate better > > > > now than I did five years ago" (unless you > > > > were doing it wrong five years ago). > > I wonder about this. I hypothesize that there are people > who are very good at TM. They transcend easily and feel > good in their practice, with little if any adverse effects > (unstressing). They may be naturally good at it or it may > have come from practice or both.
Ruth, you're going to groan (and I don't blame you), but I chalk the differences in how some people react to TM as opposed to the way others react to TM as predilection, which I then chalk up to "past life experience." OK, *forget* the "past life experience" if you don't believe in that, but "predilection" is Right On in my exper- ience as both a meditator and as a teacher of meditation. My theory is that those who have "paid their dues" performing meditative practices in the past are more likely to "fall into" other, similar practices in another life. If you don't believe in past lives, call it pure predilection...the fact that different human beings have different nervous systems and likes and dislikes and things that they "resonate" with and things that they do not. Whatever you call it, the outcome is the same. Some experience what they call transcendence (although I don't necessarily call it that) very quickly with TM, and some don't. For some, it takes time before they "settle down" enough to even sit through 20 minutes of TM practice. For others, it's like pulling teeth even after years of TM practice. In my opinion, there is "no harm, no foul" in ANY of these different reactions. I have known people who *hated* TM, and then tried a meditation practice that involved focus and concentration, and *loved* it. They "fell into" that practice immediately, and found *it* effortless, whereas they always found TM effortful. Go figure. This is completely contradictory to the dogma of the TM movement, and yet as a person who has taught hundreds of people TM and another hundreds of people other techniques of meditation, I've seen it happen. There is simply no predicting who will "get" a par- ticular practice. Some will, some won't. No harm, no foul either way in my opinion. Some will "get" one practice and not another. Again, no harm, no foul. Ritalin -- a form of speed, an amphetamine if I am not mistaken -- has the effect of *calming down* certain people. For others, it has the effect of speed in general. Same with meditation practices. Also, contrary to what Richard suggests, there are some meditation practices that one can *definitely* get better at over time. Which is a good thing. Imagine being one of the people who *didn't* fall easily into TM and being told for years that it was all your fault. Oh. You probably were.
