--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, P Duff <pduff@...> wrote: > > I, for one have always made those observances you seem to denigrate. > And you forgot about the quaint practice of disposing of everything > afterward in a natural body of water. I've always done that as well- > white cloth, coconut shell, teeeeeny bits of incense stick, the whole > nine yards. And if I could get a line on betel leaves, they'd be there, > too. > > And I do not account myself the least bit woo-woo for the effort. > Rather, I find it satisfying to bring puja to its proper conclusion; a > promise made and kept. I also admit to being puzzled by the notion that > there are those who consider a body of knowledge sufficiently valuable > to warrant their going through considerable efforts to be able to learn > it, while at the same time valuing it little enough to disparage > innocent paspects of it. Just my two cents' worth. Back to lurking.
P, thanks for de-lurking, but if your comments were aimed at me, I think you've possibly forgotten who you're talking to. I have no reverence for the TM puja, have not performed it in decades, and almost certainly never will again in this life. It was a ritual I learned while young and foolish, and now I am old and foolish, and prefer other, more meaningful rituals, such as compulsively cleaning my DVDs before playing them (although I never blow on them afterwards, because that would be a waste of my valuable prana). In retrospect, since you seem to have brought up the reverence and awe with which I and others are supposed to view the TM puja, I can't really agree with you. It was IMO just a cobbled-together set of traditional Indian buzzwords and phrases designed to produce mood-making in the practitioner and a feeling of awe or wonder in viewers. I don't believe in the magical Woo Woo properties either of the words used in the puja, or as TM mantras. They're just words; get over it. Nor do I feel the need to appease or appeal to a set of gods I don't believe in or praise a bunch of holy guys whom I don't believe were either holy or deserve the praise. I tend to regard the puja the same way I regard most of Indian culture -- the remnants of a barbaric, superstitious nation whose scriptures tend to dwell overlong on justi- fications for war, violence, elitism, and perpetuating genocide on those who don't agree with the religious fanatics who wrote the scriptures. In short, I am neither an Indiaphile nor a TMphile. The puja is as dead to me as Maharishi is; neither has any place in my life, nor should. I wrote what I wrote because I caught myself waving at an incense stick to put out the flame, and then laughing at the still-lingering imprinting I'd picked up while in the TM movement. I thought others here might laugh, too, because they probably were similarly imprinted. Heck, I don't even burn incense much these days, except to cover the smell of an occasional kitchen accident. All of this said, I shall probably continue to wave my paw at the incense during the rare times I light some, just because it reminds me of a favorite Dogbert cartoon. Thanks for providing the oppor- tunity for a good rant; I've missed your set-ups. :-) [0]
