--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson <mjackson74@...> wrote: > > I believe that we are all Pure Awareness, or something like that, Unbounded > Awareness whatever you call it. I believe the reason we can "transcend" is we > are naturally that state, or energy. That is our essence. > > > We are taught from birth to narrow our focus rather than allow ourselves to > experience ourselves as consciousness. When we relax in any way, we can begin > to feel what we really are. So any technique or no technique will do. > > > Some teachers like Adyashanti and Tolle have said this. Yet, Marshy always > claimed TM was superior in enabling humans to experience the state of > unboundedness, superior even to other meditation techniques. For this to be > true given the fact that there are many mantra meditations, not chanting mind > you but other mantras for silent meditation, not the TM mantras, it would > have to mean that the TM mantras in and of themselves were somehow superior. > I have never seen any evidence to suggest so, but it is a logical conclusion. > If TMO could make a logical case for the TM mantras being superior to all > other mantras, it would give credibility to their other claims for superior > results. > > > My question is, if the TM mantras are superior, how are they superior?
All I know is this: I am not a meditator by nature. I like to do things, run around, play, get dirty, eat, be competitive at sports, read. The list goes on. What I believe MMY was brilliant at was to appeal to others like me, those not particularly spiritual or monkish by nature, not given to strolling off into some hidden cave or ashram or to spend long hours in intense contemplative or prolonged meditative states. I am just Jo Anybody, Amy Average who wants to have a good time, not hurt anyone, live comfortably. I also want to 'improve' myself, deepen myself, discover mysteries about myself, others, the world. But I don't want to spend an inordinate amount of time sitting on my butt, isolated with my eyes closed. And neither do the majority of the population in the Western World and perhaps everywhere else. And here is my point, MMY was a master at making a simple technique available and easily practiced by people like myself. He opened up a world of potential transcendence for a whole lot of people who would most likely have spent 40 minutes a day watching TV or chatting with friends on the phone instead. He created a technique that people believed would be beneficial and doable. I meditated from the age of 14 until I was about 30 years old. I attended and graduated from MIU. I had two sisters who were initiators. But my engagement with the Movement basically ended in 1980 when I graduated. I was spared the Rajas, the indignities of being on staff. I didn't invest years and years of my life as an initiator or Governor. I don't have any regrets or hold grudges with respect to my time doing TM and being at MIU. We all took our own ride, trod our individual paths. But no one can deny, at least, that Maharishi brought the concept and the practice of using a mantra to transcend to a huge amount of 'ordinary' householders and I don't think this has harmed the planet. At worst it accomplished nothing and at best it gave many the opportunity to deepen their awareness and explore something other than the ordinariness of everyday life. >
