--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Alex Stanley" <j_alexander_stan...@...> wrote: > > The very same thing is what jumped out for me. As I see it, > from the perspective of "Waking Down Brand Second Birth > Awakening", having awoken to my ocean nature makes being a > wave/drop a WHOLE lot more fun and easier to deal with. Like > Adyashanti describes it, it's a very peaceful, quiet freedom. > For me, it's such a huge relief that I can't comprehend > someone thinking it's not good enough.
Similarly, I cannot conceive of anyone clinging to and glorifying the Maharishi-promoted idea that the ultimate goal of life -- having realized "200% of life" (transcendent and relative coexisting peace- fully in enlightenment) -- is to at that point die and go back to 100% (transcendent only), as if that were an admirable or a worthy goal, much less the "highest goal in life." I think that a lot of my inability to conceive of such a belief system is the same thing that gives me pause with Buddha's supposed First Noble Truth, that "Life is suffering." Life is *not* suffering for me. Never has been. Hope that it never will be. Unlike many, I was *never* drawn to meditation and the spiritual path because I felt that my current life was "suffering" or didn't work. I felt that my life was pretty cool; I was merely looking for ways to make it cooler. Thus when Maharishi talked about his "drop returning to the ocean" theory of what happens when a realized person dies, I mumbled "Bullshit" under my breath and ignored it completely and focused on the parts of his teachings that seemed oriented to developing more integration and mastery in one's daily life, and using those skills to interact more *fully* with life. There was never a moment along the Way in which I felt drawn to become a recluse, and reject the relative world. However, there are people who *do* feel that the "highest path" is to be found in rejecting the rela- tive world. We have a few of them on this forum. One of them (Shankara) founded the order that Maharishi came from. The twif who wrote this letter that Rick reposted seems to be another. While I respect their predilection in life, and their desire to *get out of* that life rather than live it more fully, I'm just never gonna go there. It is not in *my* predilection to do so. My daily life and the enjoyment of it has been *enhanced* by more than 40 years of meditation practice. It's been a marvelous ride. When I die, I hope that the ride goes on for 40 more incarnations, or even more than that. It is difficult for me to conceive of anyone who has missed the magic of life so thoroughly that they'd not only want it to END, and end FOREVER, but think of that as the "highest goal" of life itself.
