(az--still more grist for the mill...) If Vaj believes his recent posts bolster his claim to have been a TM teacher, somebody needs to tell him that they're doing precisely the opposite. It appears he wasn't a checker either, and quite possibly not even a TMer. Unless, of course, he's deliberately misrepresenting the instructions for TM in an attempt to confuse readers who weren't themselves TM teachers or checkers.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj <vajradhatu@...> wrote: <snip> > I think you'll also see that I answered the question of > "introduction of mantra"/ discursive vs. sahaja if you > look over the posts. I was really curious how many people > had broached the subject, as the question "what do I do > if the mantra doesn't start or appear (as a mentation)?" > was a common one. The likelihood of a TMer asking this question is vanishingly small. If it were ever asked, the response would be along these lines (my words, interpreting what would be going through the teacher's mind): "What do you do if the mantra doesn't start? Haven't you been listening? If the mantra doesn't start, dummy, you start it, at the end of the half-minute of silence. You don't just sit there waiting for it to appear." Only the most inattentive TMer conceivable could possibly wonder what to do "if the mantra doesn't start." ----- --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj <vajradhatu@...> wrote: > [az asked:] > > > > Vaj: Care to elaborate, expand, or explain what you mean > > > > when you refer to the "discursive level"? > > > > > "Introducing" the mantra, 'as if any other thought', > > > rather than allowing the mantra to spontaneously > > > (sahaja) begin on it's own. > > > > > One involves discursive thought and a slight amount > > > of effort, the other is spontaneous and emerges from > > > silence: like a bubble from the bottom of the ocean, > > > or froth from waves. > > [Lawson wrote:] > > Except introducing the mantra is to happen after 30 > > seconds IF the mantra doesn't appear on its own, > > spontaneously. Sheesh. Get checked, folks. Pay > > attention this time. > > Exactly. IOW, it's a subtle but important distinction for > TMers who know how to meditate properly. It's an important > distinction because you realize that there are some people > who will simply never have the mantra appear on it's own! TMers who know how to practice TM properly follow the instructions to start with half a minute of silence, then begin to think the mantra. The entire checking algorithm is constructed based on the assumption that the meditator will introduce the mantra following the half-minute of silence. If the meditator reports (on his own initiative; the checker does not ask any questions that would elicit such a report--it actually would be an interruption of the normal procedure) that the mantra has emerged on its own *during* the half-minute of silence, it's treated as an exception. There's a special branch of Point 7 of the algorithm to respond to it. This branch is used to call the meditator's attention to the experience of effortlessness in thinking the mantra. > Others will have intention to sit, close the eyes and pick > the mantra up a very subtle, abstract level right off and > fall in the groove. If they've repeated it enough, that > groove will become automatic, spontaneous, sahaja. If a TMer *has the intention* to pick up the mantra on a subtle level during the half-minute of silence, the meditator has ceased to practice TM. No such intention is called for during the half-minute of silence. If the mantra happens to emerge from the silence, it does so in the absence of any intention on the meditator's part. (For that matter, if the TMer has the intention to pick up the mantra "on a subtle level" *after* the half- minute of silence, that isn't TM either; there's even a General Point explaining that this would constitute "effort during meditation.") There is nothing in the checking algorithm or General Points to suggest that the mantra *should* emerge during the half-minute of silence. As noted, the algorithm assumes that it won't. If it does, fine. If it doesn't, fine; start it after the half-minute of silence is up. Vaj's assumption that it's *preferable* for the mantra to start on its own (much less that the meditator should *intend* for it to start on its own--an obvious oxymoron) is not reflected anywhere in the instructions for TM. It's purely Vaj's invention, and if it were to be incorporated into the instructions, those instructions would no longer be for TM as taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
