--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb <no_reply@...> wrote: > > There is another way of teaching. > > It is possible, for teachers who are capable of such > things, to talk about states of consciousness while > "putting on" the SOC in question and then radiating or > "broadcasting" it so powerfully that the students can > "put it on" and "wear" it themselves as they listen to > the talk.
Continuing this rap because the subject is still fresh in my mind as the result of reconnecting with a couple of old friends who share my experience with the "Practice method" and being able to discuss it with them... My opinion is that the "Practice" method described above is possibly more interesting (for those who have run into a teacher who can do it, and whose predilections groove with that approach) than the "Theory" method in two respects. First, the "hands on," "get to wear the SOC as it's being described" approach is IMO more effective at presenting the distinctions *between* different SOCs. Second, IMO it has the benefit of loosening the students' attachment to any particular SOC, and to believing that any of them are "higher" or "better" or "more Real" than the others. My fondest memories of the "Practice" approach are when one of the teachers I worked with would "broadcast" to us not just one SOC, but many, and in a short period of time. This was a very real experience of Tantra, the juxtaposition of opposites. For example, the teacher might start the talk/ demo by describing the nature of the world around us as seen from waking state. Naturally, we would all be in that state as he talked, and so the teacher's descriptions of the world and How It Worked were obvious to us; all we had to do was look around and see that his descriptions of the world matched our subjective experience of it, from this particular SOC. But then he'd "flip" us, and broadcast another state, say CC. And everything would change. One's first impression, sitting there in a completely different SOC, was that the world had a completely different "look and feel" than it had only a few seconds ago. Then the teacher would start to describe the world and How It Worked from this second SOC, and again these descriptions now matched our subjective experience. Whereas -- and this is the important point -- the descriptions we'd been given just a few seconds ago did not. They were no longer "true" or valid from this new SOC. And then he'd "flip" us again. Say, into UC. And again, every- thing would change. And then the teacher would describe the mechanics of how the world worked from this SOC, and again it would match our subjective experience of Unity. And then the teacher would finish up the talk/demo by flipping us back and forth between these different states of consciousness, at times as quickly as he could snap his fingers. With every "flip," we got to *experience* the "look and feel" of the world when seen through this SOC and how it worked, so the distinctions between the different states became very clear. It was in a very real sense a "hands on demo" of Maharishi's "Knowledge is different in different states of consciousness." As a result of having had this experience, I would reword MMY's statement as "Reality is different in different states of con- sciousness." When you've been "flipped" like this, several times a week, for years, you don't really have the same relationship to the word "Reality" that some have. In fact, you stop capital- izing the word in your mind, because it's been made clear to you that there is no such thing as Reality, only constantly-changing realities, none "better" or "higher" than the other, only different. This, in my opinion, was more valuable to me as a student of self discovery than the experience -- as neat as it was -- of getting to "put on and wear" all of these different states of consciousness. The process of being "flipped" through many of them, in rapid succession, with the nature of the world and How It Worked changing with each "flip," left me with no way to glom onto any of them as "Reality." I no longer even believe in the *concept* of one "highest" Reality. There are just dif- ferent subjective states of consciousness or awareness, in each of which the world and How It Works (and thus the nature of reality) is different. Not "better," not "higher," just different. This is why I have been able to RELAX about my own spiritual path, and not feel that I needed to seek any particular SOC. I've been there, done that with many of them. And I enjoyed them all. But none struck me -- either when I was "wearing" them as the result of whatever it was that the teacher did to "broadcast" them to me, or later, when I re-accessed these states of consciousness on my own -- as any "ultimate" or "highest" SOC that I should consider a "goal" or a valued "destination" along the spiritual path. For me, the spiritual journey is all about walking the path and enjoying the walk, not "arriving" somewhere. YMMV.
