On 8/19/2014 10:51 AM, Share Long sharelon...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]
wrote:
Richard, this reminds me of something David Deida talks about on
youtube. I'm gonna paraphrase: that we're like the light coming in
through a broken, dirty, stained glass window. Successful therapy
leads to fixing the broken glass; successful yoga leads to cleaning
the dirty glass; but successful spiritual practice leads one to
experience that they are the light. Thus endeth fixing and cleaning!
>
We do not really /gain enlightenment/; enlightenment is always present,
but it is obscured by a kind of veil, as it were, called "maya" in
Sanskrit. That is, we see through a glass darkly. In order to remove
that veil, we must transcend to a state of pure awareness and dwell
there until the /enlightened mind/ becomes our ordinary state of mind.
It is impossible to tell if another person is enlightened or not - all
that is important is if your teacher has enlightened you.
An old Zen maxim states: "He who knows is silent; he who does not, speaks."
>
On Tuesday, August 19, 2014 10:42 AM, "'Richard J. Williams'
pundits...@gmail.com [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com>
wrote:
On 8/19/2014 9:39 AM, Share Long sharelon...@yahoo.com
<mailto:sharelon...@yahoo.com> [FairfieldLife] wrote:
Richard, your comment here about being either bound or free is pretty
profound. Can we not be both? A favorite book title I've shared
before: Freedom Doesn't Mind Its Chains.
>
We are either free or we are bound. According to ancient Indian sages,
Kapila, Gotama, and Patanjali, human existence is bound by suffering.
Why? Because, there is birth, which is painful; disease, lamentation
and grief in human life, which is painful; and old age and death,
which are all painful. And, because of reincarnation, the realization
that suffering is endless and cyclic, never-ending rounds of rebirth
and pain. We are all bound by our actions of the past (karma), the
natural law of cause and effect. At first reading this sounds very
depressing and negative, which would cause the reflective reader to
ask themselves "If we are bound, by what means can we free ourselves?"
If free, would there be any need for a yoga practice?
What you need to need do is try to "burn up" the latent effects
(samskaras) of your past actions through yoga practices (tapas) and go
around doing good (karma yoga), dedicating all your actions to your
family and for the good of all. You are only going to get as much
freedom as you are going to get.
>
On Monday, August 18, 2014 3:15 PM, "'Richard J. Williams'
pundits...@gmail.com <mailto:pundits...@gmail.com> [FairfieldLife]"
<FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
On 8/18/2014 12:51 PM, salyavin808 wrote:
Much to think about as always. I like the idea that everyone thinks
they see the truth, letting go of that is an essential first step. I
think I have a well functioning bullshit detector, but is that the
case? We need some sort of framework to stay sane but hopefully one
that doesn't dismiss the potentially useful.
=
It works!
=
Learning TM changed my life, but not in the advertised way. Life has
always been good and I've always been thrilled just to be alive and
feel the rain.
>
We are all either bound or free. If bound, by what means can we free
ourselves? If we are already free, why would we need a yoga or a
meditation technique?
>
Where does it go from here? Finding that out is the best bit.
>
Here is the framework for your non-functioning bullshit detector. I
hope it is useful - it works for me:
"What I'm talking about is slowly lifting up off the sofa and sitting
in midair for two to three minutes. Or stepping up off the ground in
the desert and then flying around several feet above the ground for a
while." - TurquoiseB
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/message/143231
>
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
<mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com>, <anartaxius@...>
<mailto:anartaxius@...> wrote :
I think it is rather difficult to parse out the 'Biggest Most
Meaningful Event in your entire lives!!!'=
For me learning TM was a significant event in light of subsequent
events. But several years before, an event occurred that eventually
led to TM, and I think that prior event was more significant. As
every event is interconnected to other events, it is somewhat
arbitrary to say exactly which one might have been the linchpin of
the whole thing.
=If one wants to trace events, the Big Bang could be said to have
started it all, assuming that idea is true. Awakening could be
considered a big event, but it is not meaningful because it is
beyond the ability of thought to parse, and it is just a passing
experience that illuminates life, but its implications turn out to
be more useful over time than the actual experience, grand as it
might have been — a blip of insight, but a blip nonetheless. To lift
your finger requires the entire history of the universe behind it if
one thinks in terms of time and space and significance. So how would
you choose? Satire and humour show us things that our conditioning
would otherwise blind us from seeing.
=
By the way if you are chagrined that means you are 'distressed or
embarrassed at having failed or been humiliated'. I think of the TMO
as an intellectually challenged organisation and it has a lot of
behavioural faults, in my opinion, and it acts with a cult mentality
born of its religious roots. TM served me well for many many years,
but its utility has reached the end of the road for the most part.
=
Yesterday I took a hike through the nearby forest. The result of
mine however, is classified. It was a nice description you made
though, of the hike you made yesterday. Why is it that everyone
seems to think that what they think is true? If the world is
illusion, why not play in the sands of time, what is so significant
about that? If you have reality surely what others say cannot bother
you that much.
=
I put an equal sign between paragraphs in case Neo is continuing its
removal of paragraph spacing.
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
<mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com>, <fleetwood_macncheese@...>
<mailto:fleetwood_macncheese@...> wrote :
I am chagrined for the three or four of you, who are into this.
Dim dreams and fantasies of old geezers. Do you guys really care
about all of this, still? I thought the big thing around here was to
demonstrate "mindfulness" and "being in the now" and "not being a
cult member", and here you all are delighting in this detailed
satire of what appears to be the Biggest Most Meaningful Event in
your entire lives!!! TM and the TMO. Seriously? Making fun of all
the tired, spider-webby crap? Haven't moved on, one bit, biggest
damned thing that happened to any of you -
What do you people do the rest of the time, watch the grass grow, or
work crossword puzzles? You guys live in three different countries,
with all the creativity and adventure that conjures up, and instead,
you sit and drool over long ago memories, of the TMO, and tilting at
absent windmills.
Enjoy that nursing home in your head, MJ, Sal, Anytax, and Barry -
It looks like they have early check-in...
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
<mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com>, <anartaxius@...>
<mailto:anartaxius@...> wrote :
This is priceless, up there with Barry's best productions.
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
<mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com>, <mjackson74@...>
<mailto:mjackson74@...> wrote :
A Day in the Life (of a TM'er)
Governor wakes up, but in fact he has not been asleep having
witnessed his sleep all <snip>