--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Robin Carlsen" <maskedzebra@...> wrote: > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "raunchydog" <raunchydog@> wrote: > > > > > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "marekreavis" <reavismarek@> wrote: > > > > > > I think a lot of us had this same experience with Maharishi. That's why > > > his own recounting of his first exposure to Guru Dev had such resonance; > > > we could relate to it in a visceral way. Not everyone did, of course, but > > > it sure set the hook for a lot of dedicated service that followed. > > > > > It's true, marek. When I first heard Maharishi's story of meeting Guru Dev, > > I did relate to it in a visceral way. I hadn't made the connection between > > my first contact with Maharishi and his first contact with Guru Dev, but it > > seems to make sense, it's was the biggest most glorious hook of my life. > > > *** > > > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "raunchydog" <raunchydog@> wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, nablusoss1008 <no_reply@> wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Share Long <sharelong60@> wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > In my tradition shaktipat is given by touch. A lot of other > > > > > > traditions > > > > > > do it this way. Did you know that Maharishi also gave shaktipat > > > > > > when he > > > > > > first taught meditation? > > > > > > > > > > Maharishi did that to the end, mainly by sight. > > > > > > > > > Yep. The first time I met Maharishi was in Detroit,1973. I took the day > > > > off from teaching school to help drive some folks in his entourage from > > > > the airport to a hotel. A small group of Detroiters met him on the > > > > Tarmac to give him a flower, and then we followed him through the > > > > airport like a row of ducks to a car waiting to pick him up. As he was > > > > getting into the car I happened to be about two or three feet from him, > > > > eyeball to eyeball. I didn't know anything about shaktipat but it was > > > > a direct hit that felt like an eternity. I was utterly exposed, he > > > > *knew* me, saw right into my being. It was a moment of recognition, two > > > > souls meeting. He claimed me as his own and I gave my heart to him. > > Dear raunchy, > > For me, seeing Maharishi physically (especially having him address one > personally, or even just being very near to him) was always the most decisive > and efficacious spiritual experience I ever had. Whatever is the final > explanation for Maharishi and all that happened to us as TM Teachers, I have > the strongest sense that there has never been anyone since Christ who could > influence a human being deep inside that human being as Maharishi could. > > I believe your experience of Maharishi at the airport--and that hook with > regard to his relationship with Guru Dev--is at the very heart of what the > entire experience of being a disciple of Maharishi was all about. The most > sophisticated idea I could have of what God would be like if he became a > human being: Maharishi, at the peak of his powers and brilliance, was this. > Having Maharishi arrive in his helicopter and then spend several hours with > us (I am thinking especially of my Six Month Course)--each of us trying to > get as near to him as possible--was like nothing else we will ever know. > Whoever Maharishi was, the powers behind the universe gave him capacities > that no other human being has ever had. His beauty and radiance and energy > penetrated into my body and consciousness and heart. > > There is no religious experience that could, in our lifetime, be a substitute > for the experience of being in the physical presence of Maharishi. He utterly > changed me when I first came to know him at Queen's University in the summer > of 1972, and then on three separate courses in Europe he transformed me so > that I became a different person. There has only been one truly magical being > in my life, and that was Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. He WAS the best imitation of > the Second Coming there will ever be. And, as Marek points out, his > reflections on his relationship with Guru Dev, one just knew this is what it > is all about: that one was to emulate Maharishi in this way, by orienting > oneself towards Maharishi as he oriented himself to Guru Dev. Maharishi lived > a truth of consciousness that cannot be denied. The question becomes: Is the > most extraordinary personal consciousness that was Maharishi's consciousness, > does that consciousness represent objectively the truth of the fulfillment of > what a human being can be? > > I have decided that Maharishi was more seductive and entrancing and > enthralling than the most beautiful woman in the world--the spiritual > substituting here for the erotic. And yet for all that, I believe Maharishi > was a lie. But I would be maybe 40% of the person I am now had I not known > and devoted myself to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and his Teachings. And he > allowed us to have the opportunity to initiate someone into TM: no one but an > initiator in the early seventies can know what that was like. No one since > Saint Peter has known what the experience was like to be around Maharishi. > Christ took Peter away from his fishing; Maharishi took us away from > psychedelics. It is a story that has hardly begun to be told. > > I had to do violence to myself through my own will to break my bond with > Maharishi, raunchy. But what Maharishi made possible for me to pass through, > that has left me with an experience of myself and an experience of > performing/functioning like no other. Only Maharishi could have made me what > I am today, even though I consider him my adversary in terms of what I hold > to be true. > > To have surrendered to Maharishi as God; then to have fought to destroy his > power over one's own consciousness: This is a process I don't recommend, but > it is a process which has left me with a legacy of ecstasy, suffering, and > revelation like no other. I am always glad when someone can remember the > truth of the experience of who Maharishi was and how he convinced us by the > beauty and power of his own individual being. >
Dear Robin, thanks you for such an exquisite description of your relationship with Maharishi. The end of your journey with him from agony to ecstasy seems to have required wearing hair shirt when an elegantly styled Giorgio Armani would have been so much more comfortable. When you say, doing violence to yourself, such as self-inflicted pain in the extreme, I think of Oedipus sticking a pin in his eyes. Is such crushing guilt only relieved by pain? Everyone suffers loss and emotional pain in life but consciously choosing to suffer is difficult to understand. When I think what it would be like to use one's will to break a bond with Maharishi, I would compare it to breaking an addiction to an abusive or co-dependent relationship. Admitting one is powerless over the addition, the first step in a twelve-step program for drug addiction, only keeps the addiction at bay; one never really recovers. Are you still in recovery? One taste of the demon TM and you'll fall off the wagon? You seem to have come through your experience of de-enlightenment still possessing an amazing intelligence and depth of insight into the heart and mind of human beings (animals too?) like no one I've ever known. I know you and I don't know you, but I feel I do. I love your uncompromising quest for what is true and beautiful in life. God speed and blessings to you always, raunchydog http://youtu.be/0XTKJNNYSl8
