I wish I could say I understood enough about Tantric doctrines to fully appreciate what you have said, but truthfully I'm not that conversant with it yet. I will say one thing about Feurerstein. By his own account, he is a long-term practitioner of yoga and in recent years he has turned to Tantric Buddhist practices. I think he would describe himself as someone who was not just a dry scholar, but an avid and long-term practitioner. In any event, I'm still digging into M's thinking and theological perspective. My next read is _Consciousness in Advaita Vedanta_ by William Indich. Hopefully it can cast some light on further thinking about consciousness in M's belief system. Cheers Bill
From: Bhairitu <noozg...@sbcglobal.net> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Wednesday, September 7, 2011 6:26 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Origin of bija mantras I read Feurstein's book but I find him more a "spectator" and not a practitioner. FYI, I've study with a Tantric Samrat which is a level above Tantric Acharya and I've achieved Sidh Tantric (mastery of tantric siddhis). I don't know if I'll ever get much farther than that as it's more a young person's thing. My teacher started when he was 16. You'll find a lot of different opinions about the beej (Indians pronounce it this way) mantras in the subtleties of their use. They are also used as sampat for longer mantras. I also think that MMY actually used the beej mantras because they had a quick effect and could be taught without shaktipat (other than that produced by performing the puja). The advanced technique is of course a longer mantra (and recommended to learn after 1 1/2 years). Other paths will just teach a longer mantra along with giving shaktipat. There is a controversy though about giving the public "agni" mantras and most feel only Shiva and Shanti mantras should be given for basic techniques. The sad thing is that much of this kind of information though given out by teachers of other traditions wasn't given to at least the TM teachers. Hence funny guesses about beej mantras here. ;-) On 09/07/2011 06:04 PM, William Parkinson wrote: > Not too muchm sadly. I am still learning everything I can about MMY and TM. > The only other interesting thing I found out that most do not know is that > according to Donovan, the singer who was there with the Beatles in India (as > I know you know already), MMY divided up longer mantras to reduce it is basic > easy bija mantras for Western people, who were not inclined to the religion > of Hinduism. This makes sense, since every time I see TM mantras they are > indeed part of larger whole mantras, e.g., Om klim hrim...Sawastri...etc. (as > claimed in the book, Here Comes the Sun: The Spiritual& Musical Journey of > George Harrison, pg. 127.) And also, Frawley claims that the long I in shakti > mantras designates shakti, but the short I vowel sound is supposed to > designate Siva or static consciouness. So that makes me wonder why we all use > the short I vowel sound in MMY versions of the bija mantras (i.e., hrim, > instead of the normative hreem pronunciation, to cite > but one example). Might it be because MMY thought the so-called shakti > mantras were too powerful for Western minds? In any event, Feurstein is a > very respected scholar and I trust his research and acumen. > > From: Bhairitu<noozg...@sbcglobal.net> > To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com > Sent: Wednesday, September 7, 2011 5:25 PM > Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Origin of bija mantras > > > > On 09/07/2011 05:09 PM, William wrote: >> For what it is worth, the most trusted yoga scholar I know is Dr. Georg >> Feurstein and according to him bija mantras are first found in the >> brahmanas, where they are associated with specific deities (Georg Feurstein, >> "Tantra: Path of Ecstasy", 16.) > What else have you studied on tantra? > > >
