--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "sparaig" <LEnglish5@...> wrote: > > IMplicit in MMY's theory of 7 states of consciousness is the fact that > there's no end-point to growth, and therefore there's no such thing as "the" > 7th state.
> For that matter, even within CC, there's room for growth since there are > plenty of TMers who have been tested in physiological studies who claim to be > having episodes of pure consciousness 24/7 for years and decades at a time, > which is one definition of CC, but none report non-stop transcending during > TM, which is another definition of CC. I think you have to be careful here. If you are in 'waking state,' and then you learn TM, and it works, you will from time to time experience 'transcendental consciousness.' This is a separate experience. No mantra, no thought, but wakeful. This is a very early state on a spiritual path. In what is called 'cosmic consciousness,' the TM CC, that wakeful silent value is held. You no longer transcend, you experience yourself as that value. Transcending is a verb, going beyond. If you are already at that beyond, you do not go anywhere. That is, in meditation, while there may be thoughts which eventually vanish, the pure state of silent wakefulness being experienced, there is no process of transcending in CC, in that *you* are transcending. The process is the same, but when you start, you are already experiencing yourself as that transcendent, so *you* do not transcend. As the transcendent, you experience the process of thought refining, or not refining, but it is separate from you. Everything is the same, except your understanding and POV of the process. Maharishi, on a tape, had a discussion with someone about where you go in CC if you die. The guy wanted to come back (to do good, to be an avatar or something) Maharishi said if you do not go anywhere, that is if you are established in CC, you cannot come back. The two went back and forth on this point for some time. If someone is in CC, they are not going to transcend anymore, even though the process of meditation goes on as before. Eventually that process will result in the end of CC when everything is experienced as being (usually spelled with a capital B). You will not experience inward silence as separate from activity. Meditation will still happen, and have some variety, but really nothing will happen, there being no place to go beyond to, inward or outward, the surface and the depth will be pretty much the same. That does not mean you would stop meditating at that point. No matter what state you are in, the processes, and your life go on as before. Consciousness does not change, rather through practice there comes more attentiveness of its extent. This is called 'expansion of consciousness,' but that is really a fib. Rather, as experience becomes more refined, one notices more and more of what is already before one, and one experiences what one did not notice before, but was there anyway. This might actually be experienced as a kind of bummer. Those deep satisfying early meditations that seemed to take you to some far away blissful place get replaced by a sense of shallowness, where everything seems pretty much similar. The non-transcendental shallow meditation. That is because you have more or less arrived. So at this point one might need some advice on what is going on, so one can properly understand and be able to allow the integration of everything to proceed, otherwise the lack of understanding might become a barrier to letting the process complete. Note Turq's comment below. The pie of consciousness and its so-called states can be intellectually cut up in many ways, and to some extent these are arbitrary; hopefully some of these ways of describing experience actually correspond with what people experience, in which case they might be useful. In Zen in a simplified overview, there is just 'ignorance' and 'enlightenment.' In between those two words, there are various kinds of muck one can go through. In other forms of Buddhism, there might be other kinds of experiences that are described, which might not be described as muck. Certain kinds of experiences might be related to the kinds of techniques practiced. > L. > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb <no_reply@> wrote: > [...] > > Please bear in mind that none of these people believed > > in the "seven states of consciousness" as presented by > > Maharishi. I'm using WC, CC, GC and UC here because that > > is how most on this forum think. The teachers I'm talking > > about would consider that model a gross oversimplification. > > Most were Buddhist, and believed more in its "ten thousand > > states of mind" (which is a euphemism for "lots and lots > > of them, possibly an infinite number of them" not a number > > per se). > > >
