--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "raunchydog" <raunchydog@...> wrote: > > > > --- 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, thank 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 a 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
Dear raunchydog, I had plenty of the "elegantly styled Giorgio Armani" when I was in Unity Consciousness, raunchy. The spell I was under was so powerful and convincing: I was unconquerable and undefeatable in every sense because of what Maharishi had bestowed upon me on that mountain--this is how I interpreted my experience of becoming enlightened; that it was through Maharishi's grace that this was happening to me. I felt, quite apart from the practising of TM (and extras), that my devotion to Maharishi was the critical element in this gratuitous transformation of my consciousness and person. Once I turned towards Catholicism (nearly ten years after Arosa) my enlightenment became problematic--metaphysically: it was not a state of consciousness or 'style of functioning' that was permissible according to the philosopy of Thomas Aquinas, and according to the whole Catholic conception of the individual human being in relation to the Fall, sin, good and evil, heaven and hell, grace, the Virgin Mary, the Saints, the sacraments: Either Hinduism (and Maharishi) were right; or else Catholicism (and Christ) were right. These were mutually exclusive truths--if understood in their uncompromised form (pre-Vatican II; the Gita and Vedic philosophy). What is reality? There were two different and incompatible metaphysics here: Maharishi and Christ. Before I turned towards the Church--based upon a single experience of receiving a consecrated Host while I was sick, giving a seminar in Manhattan--authority was rooted in my own consciousness; after this, I had no authority--which is to say, the truths of Roman Catholicism--thus, Christ--supplanted the sense of the infallibility of my enlightenment. The whole enterprise began to come apart--and while this was unravelling I became increasingly judgmental and categorical in my response to the persons who were closest to me. The real turning point, however, raunchy, came when my best friend (although he was not at this time) demonstrated to me that my perception of a matter concerning myself was incorrect, and that his perception of me was the objective one. I had never experienced anything like this in my life: someone proving they knew me better than I knew myself. At that moment--even though I had begun to challenge my enlightenment intellectually and religiously (via Catholicism and the breakdown of the trustworthiness of my authority)--my inner and outer world literally collapsed. My enlightenment--which required that I was always in contact with more truth than anyone non-enlightened--was fundamentally refuted. The vertiginous experience of this was like nothing that had ever happened to me not just since my enlightenment, but even in the whole span of my life. My friend, who subsequently came to live with me (because of his remarkable and inspired insight into me), began a process of showing me how, in ten thousand different ways, I had got it all wrong, and this process of confrontation, analysis, revelation, humiliation, and treatment (I applied the treatment, the remedy myself: I 'operated' on myself) has continued over the course of the past twenty-five years. There was suffering in contacting the pain of my delusions, my distortions, my infirmities; there was suffering in the realization of how deceived and wrong I was in my fundamental assumptions about myself; there was suffering in the humiliation and disgrace of being proven to have been mistaken in my judgments of other persons; there was suffering in rooting out the causes of my blindness, my naivete, my being deceived, my inappropriate engagement with hopeless causes; and finally, there was suffering that was entailed in performing 'operations' on myself. My friend through his challenges to me was causing me to remake myself, raunchy. Now my love for Maharishi was of course the highest love I had ever known, and my experiences with TM--and all the techniques added to that (like the Two Week Extension--unbelievably sublime that was)--the six sets of asanas and pranayama I did every day under personal instructions from Maharishi himself at the end of my ATR--took me to places I never dreamed were possible, and finally, to the state of consciousness Maharishi has described in *The Science of Being and the Art of Living*and elsewhere. Everything that Maharishi has said Unity would be like, raunchy, came true for me personally. And for those who were initiators and knew me, they could have no doubt once they spent time with me, that I was indeed in Unity--this was something demonstrable by the way my intelligence and sensitivity and behaviour manifested themselves: it was never a matter of belief that I was enlightened. Enlightenment in my case became something that had to prove itself in every moment. And it did. And until the last fifteen months or so of the ten year period when I was in Unity, it was the supreme and extraordinary adventure of our lives. Everyone stayed with the whole enterprise of my enlightenment because each person knew he or she was deriving benefit from what was happening through my enlightenment. Our lives became a live metaphysical theatre--and the seminars themselves were the formal and concentrated focus of what was actually going on every day outside of the seminar. There was nothing to compare to it, raunchy. But it started to come apart when I became convinced of the polarized idea of people either being good or not good--in some irrevocable way. And then Catholicism, and then the devastating truth of my friend's indictment of my lack of self-knowledge, lack of self-objectivity. And, as has been described here on FFL, Ann Woelfle had something to do with this too. :-) So I went into seclusion far away from the scene of my disgrace and ignominy and shame, even as I made a living as a substitute teacher (no one knew of my past obviously). Those twenty-five years crushed me, put me on my knees, and made me often despair about even my sanity, or my capacity to endure the suffering and violence. But I crossed a threshold of change in April of this year, and things have been very different since then, even as I continue to find there are things about me which I need to change. I could, it is true, surrender myself to my TM-Maharishi past, and become totally consumed by that mystical context--and as you rightly point out, or imply: to do so would undo all of what I have achieved in these twenty-five years. So I treat all things TM and Maharishi as anathema. But this does not mean denying what was true, most profoundly true for me: that Maharishi was like the Son of God come onto the earth--like Christ--and that he raised me up and transformed me and strengthened me and loved me and filled me with his grace and his own enlightened mind and heart. I have come to recognize a higher truth than Maharishi, but I shall never, as long as I remain in this world, ever experience the kind of ecstasy and love and exhilaration and power and energy that I experienced in the presence of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, raunchy. I don't believe anyone has truly taken the measure of who Maharishi really was--I mean whatever intelligence is behind this entire creation, that intelligence knows who Maharishi was, and is; that intelligence gave to Maharishi a personality and consciousness and majesty which exceeds manifoldly anyone who has existed in my lifetime--even though it appears you had to do Transcendental Meditation to realize this. There are things about Maharishi--and of course myself--that I still do not know, raunchy. But I do know this: He was the most significant human being who was alive while I was alive, and my memories of being with him are memories of being with something higher than the gods and and the archangels. EXPERIENTIALLY, that is. Objectively, I have have been forced to conclude that Maharishi did not possess either the personal or even impersonal integrity to justify what he claimed to be and what he claimed as his purpose in this life. The suffering (coming out of my enlightenment) has been the most real experience of my life--but there were antecedent causes for my being susceptible to the mystical sources of power and influence which go to make a person enlightened. I am still tracking down and overcoming these causes, raunchy. But despite this, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi will never be anything less than I knew him to be. I thank you for your extremely generous and thoughtful comments here, raunchy. Reading your post took me completely by surprise. It was a response that I was so far from expecting. And it has had an effect on me which you surely would have anticipated when you wrote these kind and loving words about me. Deeply appreciative of what you have given to me here, raunchydog, Robin
