--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb <no_reply@...> wrote: > > Patrick, I do not deny your experience with the TM > puja, but I would suggest another explanatin for it. > I wouldn't use the words "placebo effect," as Vaj > does, but I would certainly call any subjective > effect associated with performing the puja an > exercise in "trained moodmaking." > > If you think back on it, what could possibly BE more > of an exercise in moodmaking than the way we were > taught to perform the puja? It (at least as taught > on my TTC) was *not* about the mere "power of the > words" and reciting them. We were taught explicitly > to (contravening MMY's "Don't divide the mind" dictum) > maintain a constant awareness of the meaning of the > words in the puja in our minds while chanting/singing > them. We were told endless stories about the personal- > ities of the teachers and/or gods and goddesses being > invoked by the words of the puja, and taught explicitly > to keep a conscious awareness of those meanings in our > minds. It was also implied in no uncertain terms that the > puja was *supposed* to make you high, to change your > state of attention and boost you into a higher one. >
On my TTC the mind "floats" on the meaning of the Puja, which happened quite effortlessly after the performing the it hundreds of times. It's not just my hundreds of times that enlivens the Woo Woo-shakti-magic-whatcha-ma-call-it of the Puja, it's the collective performance of TM initiators for many years that enlivens the Puja. Rituals become more powerful over time. Whether it's Dexter collecting blood slides or thousands of priests celebrating the rite of the Holy Eucharist, such rituals evoke a specific quality of energy one plugs into. For me, if I put my attention on it, anything associated with the Puja, a piece of fruit, a flower, a candle, the scent sandalwood, can evoke a feeling of devotion in the heart, a sense of "Mother is at Home" or the deep comfort one feels enjoying family life. It's an inner smile. Barry will dismiss this as "moodmaking" of course, but I'd say that when he became an initiator he was simply unable to open his heart to the experience of gratitude and devotion and that's why he's such a sourpuss about TM today. Note to johnt: The Puja has nothing to do with "brainwave entrainment." You made that up. Furthermore, studying Bandler and Grinder will never give you any insight into the power of the Puja if you just focus on one individual doing the Puja. Study the years of collective performance of the Puja to enliven the mantras and you might be on to something. > > I honestly believe that the reverence many TM teachers > have for the puja and its magical Woo Woo qualities is > based on not being able to tell the difference between > a light buzz and a profound shift in one's state of > attention. Barry, if you're going to make a distinction implying that a "profound shift in one's state of attention" is *better* than a "light buzz" without defining "buzz" or "shift" or explaining the difference (as if you have had some such *superior* experience and know the difference) you're just setting up a straw man for the sake of denigrating Patrick's experience of the Puja and being nasty and snide, as usual.
