seekliberation: > I think common sense should prevail that it's not > just some meaningless word. If it's a meaningless > word, then essentially I should get the same effects > from chanting red, tree, ball, bicycle, etc.... > If you were to use common sense, you'd realize right away that bija mantras used in TM are just nonsense gibberish, meaningless sounds, since they are not found in any word dictionary. The TM bijas are esoteric sounds given in an intiation.
But, if you really use common sense you'd realize that TM is just plain old meditation, not much different from Zen or Yoga practice. It's Buddhism! The Buddha was the first historical yogin in India. > As far as TM being a Hindu practice, I often wonder > where else anyone thought it came from... > I'm convinced that TM came from SBS, who got the same meditation technique, down to the bija mantra, that his guru Swami Krishanand Saraswati gave him. It is a fact that all the Saraswati sannyasins meditate on the same Saraswati bija mantra at least twice a day. So, common sense would indicate that if SBS meditated using the bija of Saraswati, and his guru SKS also meditated on the bija Saraswati, and all the Saraswati sannyasing meditate on the bija Saraswati - then ergo, the bija you got probably came from the Saraswati gurus back to the Adi Shankara. If the Adi Shankara advocated meditation on Saraswati's bija, then we must conclude that MMY is using the same meditation, twice a day.
