---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <s3raphita@...> wrote :
Re "I did it [TMSP] religiously for 10 years though and was never happier than when I quit.": Well no one could claim you didn't give it a fair shot. Yes indeed. The first problem with quitting is that once you've brought the dream that meditating leads to enlightenment then doing less meditation means you must get there slower right? Beliefs like that sink in deep and it can take a while to get to the bottom of where the guilt comes from but the TMO is steeped in it. It's only when you live among them that the majority worldview takes hold. How we learn things is a funny process, it isn't just a case of an idea coming in and we see the superior wisdom of it, there's a deliberation process where we have to convince ourselves that the new idea is more correct than our previous mental defaults. To do this usually we have to fall back on previous assessment strategies and work out whether we have found a better way of seeing things. It's a lot of work. In a basically closed group it's easier because other people around you having strong opinions helps a process of acceptance just to fit in or for the sake of a quiet life and we override some of our usual intellectual approach. Having a new and profound experience to explain makes this process even easier because of the ready packaged set of profound sounding beliefs with all sorts of triggers for quality like them being "old" or "eastern" and to accept that as superior you have to have accepted the idea that ancient man had a better understanding of him self and the world that we've lost in our hurried and confusing modern world. It all feeds off each other. I'm not just trying to excuse myself for doing something for so long that wasn't doing me any good, it's just that I'd lost the way of self-assessment that I'd usually apply. This stuff is powerful, a lot of people never get out of the beliefs they've adopted. Some will insist that they've still got the superior worldview and that I'm a quitter and any criticism of them or the organisation that inadvertently brainwashed us all marks me as an "apostate". Anyway, after 10 years of this superior spiritual development I was stressed, withdrawn and in need of psychological help. But interestingly I had no idea about any of that and assumed I was on the "fast track to enlightenment" and didn't even blame "unstressing" as I hadn't realised my life had changed for the worst. Kiddology is another powerful force that's tricky to become aware of. One thing I've often wondered about the TM program is how TM teachers or "checkers" could be really sure that their pupils were doing the whole thing right. I recall a story of MMY once realising that a high-ranking member of the TMO and close associate hadn't been meditating correctly and giggling about it. Well, it's supposed to be really easy. The thing you have to watch is not interfering with it by getting frustrated at all the thoughts or lack of clear experience. If you feel slightly better after than you did before they consider it a success. But with the "flying" sidhi program it's different: either you are hopping or you aren't. Do those who fail to take off suffer humiliating feelings of being losers and second-class citizens of the Age of Enlightenment? Oh yes. The people on my "flying" course who didn't take off were bitterly frustrated about it and saw themselves as failures. One girl I knew quit the whole thing in disgust and really held it against us that we'd got it. Still does actually. But I was one of the last to get it so I know how she felt. I would have felt most pissed off if it hadn't worked. All rather quaint to look back on. It was good though, the first time you hop about, and it's powerful, it's like finding the part of the brain that usually transcends was only going part of the way and suddenly it seems to detach itself completely and you see your body and mundane thoughts as a totally separate thing, it's like a better glimpse of infinity than the ones that convinced you before that you were seeing infinity. That should teach you something about the physical nature of the psychological components of the mind. I still think the process of developing that inner eye will have benefits for consciousness research. Basic reductionism will work here in the sense that taking something apart gives you a better idea of how it works that you can't see usually... I just don't think it will reveal what the TM beliefs as still championed by Kings Tony and Hagelin claim it will. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <no_re...@yahoogroups.com> wrote : ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <s3raphita@...> wrote : Re "No. However the real purpose of many of the yoga asanas is to prepare one to sit in either half-lotus or full lotus.": Thanks. But don't you have to adopt full- or half-lotus to do the "hopping" sidhi? And if a TM teacher hadn't taken the sidhi courses wouldn't he/she be sending out a message to newbies that those advanced courses aren't such a big deal? There used to be a few that didn't do the TMSP, some for religious reasons! But for a long time it's been a requirement that TM teachers have to do the TMSP. And they they don't get the recertification that is required for them to be able to teach "legally" now too. I never heard it said that a bad message was the reason but if the question arose it would be a difficult one to answer as meditators get this idea that it's some amazing mystery that gets revealed to you and that the "sidha's" are worthy of their higher status. It would be a poor show if a teacher didn't buy into the whole package I suspect. I can remember having TMSP described to me and wanting it desperately but wondering if I could cope with all that powerful programme! I can also remember the disappointment when I learned what it was all about. I did it religiously for 10 years though and was never happier than when I quit. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <noozguru@...> wrote : On 07/06/2015 04:32 PM, s3raphita@... mailto:s3raphita@... [FairfieldLife] wrote: Re "Would like to try meditating there though - nice and quiet when you get to an isolated spot.": I take it you can do the full lotus posture. I never got beyond the sitting-in-a-chair stage. Do you have to be able to do the cross-legged bit to qualify as a teacher of TM? No. However the real purpose of many of the yoga asanas is to prepare one to sit in either half-lotus or full lotus. I see there's a book showing how to master the position. Re the fall-out from the Greek fiasco: I'd wager serious money that it ends up with the Fed having to supply lines of credit to Europe! Another Marshall Plan and we'll see if Europe's politicians can get it right this time around . . . ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <no_re...@yahoogroups.com> mailto:no_re...@yahoogroups.com wrote : ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <mjackson74@...> mailto:mjackson74@... wrote : How could you do TMSP on the beach? Inflatable life raft or some such? LOL, no this was long before my life as a TMer. Would like to try meditating there though - nice and quiet when you get to an isolated spot. The trouble with sitting still on a beach is that insects find you, there are some mighty big and fast spiders out there, not conducive to deep relaxation. What we need is one of these: Could go yogic flying down the beach, that'd raise some eyebrows! From: salyavin808 <no_re...@yahoogroups.com> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, July 6, 2015 5:57 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Acropolis Now! The Greeks vote for an end to the "austerity" politics that the EU and IMF have imposed on them since they had to be rescued from bankruptcy. Be interesting to see what happens next, some of them might have to delay retirement past the age of 50, and other horrors. They should never have been allowed to join the Euro anyway, all these poor countries playing on a level field with Germany and France, it was bound to end in tears. So they might as well get it over with and go back to the Drachma. But with all money connected worldwide we'll all feel the effects of a break-up in the Euro. Interestingly the UK has similar levels of public debt, the difference with us is our creditors still think we might be able to pay it back if we destroy more public services and sell the remains to the private sector so the people we owe money to can make even more out of us. It's all gone horribly wrong somewhere, the banks wreck society and have to be bailed out by the government who say they don't have that sort of money lying around so the banks say don't worry, we'll lend it to you. £1.5 trillion later and we still don't know what's going to be required to sort it out. But pity the Greeks, their biggest export is strained yoghurt and there's only a few of them who pay tax, the rest work for the government.... I had the best summer ever living on beaches on Greek islands, I got all Jason and the Argonauts cooking fish and potatoes over an open fire every night. Once a week we'd go to a taverna and drink in the culture with dancing and ouzo then watch the stars come out over the sea. All rather excellent. I'd do it again in a heartbeat but I don't know if it's still possible now everything is Euro-legal. Are people allowed to just sleep rough on beaches anywhere? Sleep on the decks of ferries to save money? Loads of European kids used to do it for a cheap summer holiday in paradise, nowadays most are too worried about how dossing about will look on their CV's. Fucking politicians ruin everything..
