Outside of your personal opinions, your statements about the TM technique are not accurate.
M.Jack says: TM is not a simple mental technique making use of meaningless sounds. It is in fact a Hindu devotional practice of chanting (silently) the names of Hindu goddesses. In reply, here is a previous post discussing the differences between meditation-mantra and devotional-japa. ************************************************************************\ * Recently I have read here on FFL an argument professed by some former TM'ers who stopped practicing because they claimed they were deceived about the "meaning" of mantras. Their fundamental claim is that a mantra is the name of a Hindu god. The claim is that a mantra, by definition, encapsulates a method for worshiping a Hindu god but that this fact is withheld from practitioners. Within the domain of this argument, these claimants will often quote some text from a Hindu Tantra. These are passages usually assigning a particular deity to a particular mantra and sometimes even assigning a set of deities to each of the Sanskrit letters composing the written forms of the mantric sound. This textual assignment is sometimes done haphazardly and occasionally is done in the Vedic format of rishi-deva-chhanda. Along with the quoted Tantric text is sometimes a statement by MMY, declaring that a mantra is a "sound whose effect is known". This argument quotes the TMO claim that a mantra is used in TM for the beneficial effects it produces in causing the spontaneous refinement of perception. This explanation is then paraded as an example of shameful exploitation of Western ignorance of the "Hindu" foundation of TM and of any other Indian meditation that does not confess itself as a form of "Hindu devotionalism". This devotionalist criticism is further paraded by pointing to various Indian swamis and cross-eyed yogis who make these same claims and arguments themselves. Some considerations about these claims: SBS taught in India. MMY began teaching in India before coming to the West. They both taught within the context of the Indian Hindu cultural model. Although they taught in India, where there are many Muslims, they did not present their teaching within a Muslim cultural model. Although Buddhism is from India and many Indian consider Buddha one of their own, neither SBS nor MMY taught within a Buddhist cultural model. Rather, they taught within the cultural context of their listeners. After coming to the West, MMY continued speaking and teaching within a similar Indian cultural model - for a while. It was the teaching model established by Vivekananda and Paramahansa Yogananda partly religious, partly philosophical and partly yogic. However the cultural context of this form of teachings was the 19th and 20th century paradigm of Western Modernity. When MMY realized the limitations brought by this model and of religious language here in the West he took a left turn. That divergence left some of his teachers behind - Charlie Lutts being an example. This is one reason that pointing to early religious language by MMY or SBS is an inaccurate over-simplification. As far as the "it is all a deceit" claimants, the two groups that are the most antagonist and strident are the materialists and the religionists. Materialists claim mantras are the mumbo formulas of hindoo gods and that the concept of gods/god is a false idea propounded by power brokers to enslave the masses. This is a truncated Marxist view popular among the half-educated. Contrary to this, the religionists claim that mantras are secret demonic traps devised to enslave us to hindoo devils. This is the view of true-believer adherents of the Abrahamic religions Jews, Christians and Muslims. This is not simply a fundamentalist diatribe from TV evangelicals. This was the original view of Christians from the second century C.E. forward and after Constantine's ascent to Roman power was used as incinerating ideological propellant for killing polytheists. What is obvious is that both groups are unable to rationally consider the facts because they are ideologues entrenched in a priori conclusions. One example of this is a clear demarcation about the difference between yoga and religion. Materialists dismiss such an idea because yoga historically emerged within in a Hindu cultural context. Semitic monotheists condemn this idea for the same reason. If we consider the role of yoga, it is apparent that most meditating Westerners are functionally ignorant about the nature, range, depth and complexity of yoga lineages - whether Vedic, Hindu, Buddhist or Jain. Most of them do not know the difference between Vedic, Puranic and Tantric lineages of practice. They also do not understand how these three streams developed and then intertwined into Hindu temple rites. They don't know vidhi from vedi.* Even more surprising, most swamis and imported, so-called "yogis" are not Pandits, Indologists, or Sanskritists. Very few are formally educated in the yoga traditions of the Indian subcontinent. Most are only trained in asana, pranayam and japa. A little bhakti here, a few Upanishad citations there and "om tat sat" - I'm a guru. Faced with this, most of us Westerners who meditate are at a disadvantage when presented with claims that we are not educated to conceptualize within an informed view. So, to counter-point this misunderstanding, I am providing a short but authoritative quotation from an impeccable yogic source about the difference between mantra practice in both yogic and devotional sadhana practice. Hari Dass Baba (the upa-guru of Ram Dass) Quotes on the difference between Mantra practice and Japa practice. 1. Mantra is the repetition of sounds or words which have power due to the vibration of the sound itself. 2. Japa is the rhythmic repetition of a name of God. It (Japa) consists of automatic Pranayama, concentration and meditation. The main idea in doing Japa is to make the mind thoughtless. Then automatically body consciousness disappears. If your body consciousness disappears, it means your sadhana is going well. The body is the medium of sadhana and the body is the hindrance in sadhana. Japa is a formal method of worshipping God. It should be done privately and preferably with a mala, or rosary. Silence Speaks: from the chalkboard of Baba Hari Dass, 1977 (my bolding). *vidhi is a specific method of puja. Vedi is the altar used in yajna. As an addendum: Western Buddhists are slightly more educated about the various streams of Buddhism but on the other hand they read a lot. In reality they don't know much about the differences in viewpoints or sadhana practice between Theravada, Mahayana and Tantra. They know even less about the differences in basic view between Zen, Tantra, Mahamudra and Dzogchen. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson <mjackson74@...> wrote: > > So since they aren't posting my comment - here it is: > > > I began TM in 1974 and enjoyed it enough to become a real TM > fanatic and cheerleader. As the years went by, I left the TM Movement due to > the huge disconnect between the promises of TM and what it actually delivered, > especially the awful, arrogant deceitful behavior of even the low to mid level > managers of the TM organization, much less the leaders of the Movement. > > Lynch is spearheading a very carefully orchestrated effort > to sanitize the TM's image to a pre-1976 luster. 1976 was the year their > Maharishi announced the TM Sidhi program to the world. The TM Movement can > honestly be characterized as a decades long flow of dishonesty and deceit, > taking money under false pretenses and very unpleasant behavior on the part of > those who administrate the Movement. > > I had the pleasure of speaking at some length with someone > who spent years as Maharishi's personal secretary and for all his praise of the > man, this person told me that it was clear that the leader of the TM movement > was totally focused on sex, money and personal power. What the Big M created, > his Movement perpetuates. > > TM is not a simple mental technique making use of > meaningless sounds. It is in fact a Hindu devotional practice of chanting > (silently) the names of Hindu goddesses. And that is alright as long as you are > upfront about what you are doing. For my money and in my experience, TM is one > big scam. After more than 20 years I stopped doing TM and never looked back. > > > > > ________________________________ > From: obbajeeba no_re...@yahoogroups.com > To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com > Sent: Friday, February 22, 2013 8:52 PM > Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: David Lynch Is Back > > >  > I hope you can post your comment here. Please, please, please!? > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson wrote: > > > > thanks nabby for posting - I put my own nice comment there - let's see if they have the guts to post it. > > > > > > > > > > ________________________________ > > From: nablusoss1008 no_re...@yahoogroups.com > > To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com > > Sent: Friday, February 22, 2013 3:11 PM > > Subject: [FairfieldLife] David Lynch Is Back > > > > > > à> > Advertise on NYTimes.com > > David Lynch Is Back ââ¬Â¦ as a Guru of Transcendental Meditation > > > > David Lynch for The New York Times > > David Lynch took a self-portrait at Idem Paris, a fine-art printing studio, in December. > > à> > Article at The New York Times here: > > http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/magazine/david-lynch-transcendental-me\ ditation.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 > > >
