> > > > > So, I'll conclude that it takes a single > > Buddhist-inspired group in Fairfield to balance > > the influence of the many neo-advaitan groups. > > > > ;-) > > > > Not exactly. In practice here there is evidently an amalgam. Gradations of > transcendental, `buddhistic' and `hindistic'. Is an old community here with > its own cultivated spiritual experience at this. > > Will often see the community at different meetings or events of the different > groups in the spiritual practice Directory. Different blends of the > amalgamate mix. There is a fluidity that way. > > Seems that practically, people will flow back and forth according to > spiritual experience. If there is not shakti then people will just go over > where it is. Is kind of that simple with the different groups. Is a lot > about experience and not so much about doctrine. > > One night one week over with one venue. Another with another. All kind of > doing the similar things may be a little different. > Transcendental-buddhistic-advaitan FF in method. FFL229035 >
Advaita and transcendental FF? This excerpt from an observant e-mail on the side about FF: <paste> "How do you have insight into yourself? What does it mean to have objective witness? In both the Hindu and Buddhist tradition teachers say that you have to make friends with your mind. You don't always want your mind to be in critical parent mode, judging everything you're doing all the time. The reason these two communities unfortunately have a split is because the insight meditation community places huge value on that kind of insight. It's seen as the kernel of self-realization. In other words, self-realization is a product of that kind of insight because self-realization comes from insight, a cutting through something to a profound, crystalline, ground-breaking self-recognition, and that's enlightenment in that tradition. It's not only the Buddhist tradition but also aspects of the Hindu tradition that have that notion as a foundation. lot of people who practiced self-inquiry, or advaita, which is very much what we're discussing. It has to do with that cutting recognition. trouble with advaita is when it gets so watered down that you don't have to do anything about your evolution because it's already made, already packaged and already ready for action and all you have to do it show up. There is a way in which (they) understand that because the whole destiny path is unfolding along certain lines and they are in a sense very well trod upon. There is a way in most of your life that you realize you can wiggle to the right or left but ultimately you're going to go pretty much in that direction. You might take a detour here, you might make a choice over there and it looks like you're going somewhere different but you end up in the same place. Essentially the people who believe in predestination or predeterminism, which is the whole advaita group, don't believe that we have free will. I can understand their point of view and I think it has its validity too. The flip side of that is the new age group that thinks we create our own reality and that we have complete freedom of will, that we can choose at any moment to go this way or that way. In my mind they all have some truth to them. The insight idea is a kind of awakening. When we talk about awakening in the context of Transcendental Meditation and awakening as a self-recognizing insight, maybe in the end they are absolutely the same. When we talk about awakening in the context of Transcendental Meditation and awakening as a self-recognizing insight, maybe in the end they are absolutely the same. The reason they seem to be different and have conflicts with one another is because when you sit in meditation and you go into the transcendent the practice is to go deeper and deeper into the transcendent and when you're doing that you're leaving your mind at the door. However, at a certain point of entering the transcendent an awakening is going to happen because you wake up into the field of the transcendent. Whether that's through effort in practice or effortless practice or grace, you get to a certain point and something opens up. There's an awakening. It may not have come through insight meditation but from a different source. The question is, at the moment of awakening isn't there always an insight? I think the answer to that is absolutely yes. What is that insight? It's something shocking, awe-inspiring and completely out of the box from what you thought. That's how you know that it's authentic. I think the process may ultimately be the same. It may be a false conflict." <end paste> > > > > > > > > > > > What does it say that there are no > > > > Buddhist or zen groups on the list below? > > > > > > > > > > > Well, there is a weekly transcendental vipassana group meditation held > > > in Fairfield. Is fabulous spiritual practice even for the enlightened. > > > Led by a person who came to FF many years ago as a practiced buddhist and > > > TM'er. This Weds group meditation is one of the nicest more powerful > > > things going on here. A nice refuge. Has been for years. I just came > > > in from it a while ago tonite. > > > > > > JGD, > > > -Doug in FF > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Spiritual Practice Groups of Fairfield > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Directory of Active Fairfield Spiritual Practice Groups > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > ___________________________Alphabetical: > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >
