--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Oct 19, 2005, at 2:20 PM, anonymousff wrote:
<snip>
> > isn't knowledge in the common use of it in English
> > is part of our brain and information we accumulated,
> > then MMY expanded the term to mean something else.
> > (i'm not stating it's correct or not, just trying to understand
> > how the general usage of it applies vs. MMY use of the term.
>
> There are a number of words which describe "knowledge" in
> Sanskrit--"vidya" which describes "pure knowledge" would seem to be
> a good one.
>
> But actually what you seem to be describing what tantric Buddhist
> theory would call "ascertaining consciousness".
For the record, although Vaj mentions TM as if it
were an example of what he goes on to describe,
that description in fact has nothing to do with
TM in terms of how it is practiced or the theory
Maharishi teaches.
Depending on what we
> ascertain *with* determines how he perceive and if we truly
perceive.
> In other words we have moments of "non-ascertaining
consciousness".
> Forms of meditation, like TM, Shamatha or calming meditation which
> works at transcending gross thought and increasing attentional
> stability, increases the amount and quality of ascertaining
> consciousness. The traditional metaphor is that without
attentional
> stability it is like trying to read by a flickering candle. In
this
> style of meditation one learns to achieve continual attentional
> placement, which is a state where one is still subject to thought
> excitation. Because of this one uses "patched placement". One,
> without judging, brings attention gently back to focus, typically
> some object--a mantra, a mental object of some sort, etc.
Eventually
> one should achieve "close attentional placement" where ones
attention
> does not waver for the entire session. After that we can work at
> taming and pacification of the mind, eventually reaching complete
> pacification of the mind and pure attentional stability. Then full
> attentional vividness allows us to truly investigate
consciousness.
> There can be no laxity. But once one reaches this level of
attention
> and focus, one should be capable of meditating continuously and
> uninterruptedly for several hours at a time. Once one reaches
> balanced attentional placement, all we need is an initial intent
or
> impulse and pure attentional placement occurs for long periods of
time.
>
> At this level the nervous system begins to really refine deeply
and
> certain signs arise. With the achievement of pure sustained
> intention, one disengages the attention from the meditative
objects,
> and the entire continuum of one's attention is focused one
pointedly,
> non-conceptually, and internally in the very nature of
consciousness;
> and
> the attention is withdrawn fully from the physical senses. Only at
> this level are we really capable of pure knowledge. One gains a
pure
> sense of clarity, or a luminosity capable of manifesting as any
> appearances, and also the quality of cognizance, or the event of
> knowing. One groks sheer clarity and pure cognizance of experience--
> the pure experiential definition of experience--rather than a
subject
> attending to "object".
>
> There's more than one way to do this. Different methods work for
> different people. Some people don't need objects or props of any
kind
> but merely cultivate non-conceptual attention as their practice,
> without focusing on any. In this
> method the eyes are left open, integrating everything into a
unified
> presence.
>
> All experience that leaves a karmic trace will be imprinted on our
> spiritual (not physical) gene. That's what transmigrates once you
do
> the Big Samadhi. That pattern, that karmic hologram can
extrapolate
> all that caused it and all it will cause. In other words, once you
> have attained unimpeded omniscience, you will grok all past *and*
> future lives--the future of course subtly shifting as events in
the
> present "change".
>
> In unattained humans memories of previous lives are not
remembered.
> However once one reaches one of the higher bhumis ("stages") of
the
> path, one gains recognition of many past lives in intimate detail.
I
> met one lama who knew thousands of his lives. I was just reading
> _Blazing Splendor_, a memoir of a famous yogin, there's a story of
> this one student who challenges his master, having heard that he
> could recall 500 lives. He haughtily asked his teacher if he could
> tell him his 500 lives, to which the teacher responded "which do
you
> want to know, my 500 past lives or my 500 future lives?" The
student
> instantly, in the sense of shock, recognized the unimpeded
> omniscience of his guru. And that's really what it takes, a well
> established, unimpeded omniscience. Although really, someone who
is
> omniscient can even tell you *your* past lives and the time of
your
> death. It's not limited.
>
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