We are enlightened at birth, but due to cultural conditioning and latent tendencies, we become ignorant of our real heritage - thinking, I am this body or I am mind, ruled by emotions.
We are either free or bound. If free, then there is no need for a yoga. If bound, by what means can we free ourselves? ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <mdixon.6569@...> wrote : BTW, we take it that we have to be enlightened by yesterday. Or at least real soon, 5-8 year plan? Life is eternal. Once a person is enlightened, a few thousand life times is the wink of an eye. From: "Mike Dixon mdixon.6569@... [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: "FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Friday, July 8, 2016 9:38 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Spiritual Pitfalls I remember Maharishi speaking one night in Majorca. He said if someone says they are enlightened or tries to imply they are, don't believe them. They may be having an *experience* or just trying to fool you. He said that there are some so good at *playing the game* that they can be very convincing. BTW, and experience can last a long time. He didn't put any time limit on it. I remember one person was having a nice experience and someone asked M if that person was enlightened. He indicated that he was having the experience but only time would tell. I took it, that if the experience remained after dropping the body, then yes. Until then... who knows? From: "dhamiltony2k5@... [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Friday, July 8, 2016 9:18 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Spiritual Pitfalls Spiritual Pitfalls 6. Mass Production of Spiritual Teachers: There are a number of current trendy spiritual traditions that produce people who believe themselves to be at a level of spiritual enlightenment, or mastery, that is far beyond their actual level. This disease functions like a spiritual conveyor belt: put on this glow, get that insight, and — bam! — you’re enlightened and ready to enlighten others in similar fashion. The problem is not that such teachers instruct but that they represent themselves as having achieved spiritual mastery. For as many people as who were taught to teach meditation by the ™ movement it seems there was a level of humility check that avoided a lot of this. Certainly there were a number of rugs that got pulled out from some number of people who tried to put themselves up on special pedestals. Someone was telling me of some teacher up in Wisconsin back in the day who got brought down from on (some) high. And there were some other notables. I remember Maharishi bringing someone down who was getting out there with specialness of their number one kind of experience. There was a type of cultural humility built in to the training of TM teachers that kind of sorted narcissistic personalities out. That seems to still be the case in the vetting for more newly minted teachers. 10 Spiritual Pitfalls.. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mariana-caplan-phd/spiritual-living-10-spiri_b_609248.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mariana-caplan-phd/spiritual-living-10-spiri_b_609248.html