On 3/28/2014 10:07 AM, authfri...@yahoo.com wrote:
For me, the answer to Barry's question would be a definite No. (In
fact, I think it would take a bit of effort /not/ to go back to the
mantra.)
>
Barry's analysis also assumes that at some point in your meditation
you've stopped thinking the mantra and that your mind has wandered off
to other thoughts. It may be that in advanced TMers all you need to do
is think the mantra just once - one thought and then a twenty or thirty
minute transcendence.
For me, the whole issue of whether TM is effortless comes down to how
its adherents would answer the question: "Does it take effort -- when
you become aware that you have a choice about what to think about --
to decide to think about something else and then do it?"
If they answer "Yes" to that question, then TM is not effortless,
because that is its literal instruction: "When you become aware that
you are not thinking the mantra, come back to it."
If that process requires effort, then TM is not effortless.