"Amma has said many times that we all have complete freedom in our spiritual lives. If you have been using a particular meditation technique, and you have obtained good results from it, you are welcome to continue with your technique." -Karunamayi
> > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb <no_reply@> wrote: > > > > Mindfulness, as I mentioned in an earlier cafe rap, involves the use of > > a bit of the forbidden E-word, effort. If you find yourself stuck in an > > unattractive mindset or a bringdown set of afflictive emotions, you've > > IMO often got to expend a little effort to get yourself back on track. > > > > Some don't think much of the idea of mindfulness. To them, pretty much > > all raised on the TM dogma, the whole idea is kinda Off The Program, > > because they think (never actually having tried it, of course) that > > mindfulness is not "natural." The idea presented to all of us as > > students of Maharishi was that lowering oneself to monitoring one's > > thoughts, emotions and actions should never be necessary. According to > > the theory, you just get yourself enlightened, and then all of your > > thoughts, emmotions and actions are *automatically* in tune with the > > laws of nature. They are all at that point -- by definition -- right > > thought, right emotion, and right action; there is no need to > > self-monitor, because everything is automatically perfect. Many folks > > believe in this theory so strongly that they choose to live according to > > this "never self-monitor" creed long before they realize enlightenment. > > :-) > > ** I remember during my TM days the "thou shall expend no effort" instruction > too, and the story told about "lowering oneself to monitoring one's thoughts, > emotions and actions should never be necessary". > > The TM show is actually a different kind of instruction than mindfulness, > more in keeping with the way TM works, and MMY taught. With his way, > everything is about pulling back on the arrow, and capturing the fort to own > the territory, and highest first. > > Mindfulness, as fair as I can tell, leads to realization through a dawning > that the forest is larger than the trees, that each external experience we > have is every bit as much a mantra, a vehicle for transcendence, as the > internal experience of meditation. Perhaps a more stable way to grow > spiritually because the focus is on internal realization of external > phenomena; there is always a checking mechanism in place, the external world. > > On the other hand, the "effortless" path of TM's rest and activity is more > like slowly walking your way over the years to the top of a very high cliff, > with the only option left at the top is learning to fly. > > Both techniques get to the same place. Just a matter of preference I guess. > > <snip> >
