Radical Transcendentalism? These are good observations and question. Evidently ‘respectability’ didn’t work very well for ™ after the 1970’s the way that they did it. Revolutionary is another narrative of our being transcendentalists who look to broad transformations may now be more in keeping with these times now.
Your definitions on transcendentalism are fine and could be added in well with the recent threads on transcendentalism here that were explored before you joined FFL. (You can find those threads gathered on Oct 1 posts in the matrix that is at the bottom of the FFL homepage). Transcendentalists both contemporary and going back in time as a people it seems have an ongoing kind of spirituality way more than the historical artifacts and cultural expression of the 1830’s American movement of Transcendentalists. As a people now we ™’ers fit in with the definitions quite well. A more recent academic definition goes well to describe a spirituality of the meditating community, the Fairfield Transcendental Meditationists but I see it also is describing a wider movement in the current postmodern, evidently a growing ‘spiritual but not religious’ demographic. (in mindfulness and TM, tolle, chopra, centering, oprah, Yogananda ..) Transcendentalism: Our initial working definition of transcendentalism, however, will stress a divine force in each individual, a force that is also linked to nature and has the power to transform lives, as well as social institutions. -Professor Ashton Nichols, Emerson, Thoreau, and the Transcendentalist Movement ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <archonan...@yahoo.com> wrote : The triumphal trumpet, radical transcendentalists in the postmodern age... With these short words I think you may have undercut the movement's attempt at respectability. From: "dhamiltony...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, October 15, 2016 1:20 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] The UK Dome 20 Years On The triumphal trumpet, radical transcendentalists in the postmodern age... With these short words I think you may have undercut the movement's attempt at respectability. "Radical means advocating advocating complete political or social reform or supporting an extreme section of a idealistic movement." "Transcendentalism is an idealistic philosophical and social movement that developed in New England around 1836 in reaction to rationalism. Influenced by romanticism, Platonism, and Kantian philosophy, it taught that divinity pervades all nature and humanity, and its members held progressive views on feminism and communal living. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were central figures." "Postmodernism is an era and a broad movement that developed in the late-20th century across philosophy, the arts, architecture, and criticism which marked a departure from modernism typically defined by an attitude of skepticism or distrust toward grand narratives, ideologies, and various tenets of Enlightenment rationality, including the existence of objective reality and absolute truth, as well as notions of rationality, human nature, and progress.It asserts that knowledge and truth are the product of unique systems of social, historical, and political discourse and interpretation, and are therefore contextual and constructed." Postmodernism also exhibits a high degree of irrationality, at odds with science. It seems to me this kind of language does not really suit the Transcendental Meditation movement which prides itself on a public face of religious neutrality, scientific rigor and as not being a lifestyle or philosophy. It creates a sense of extremism and religious advocacy which does not forward the movement's public image they have cultured for the last 45 years or so, to avoid the appearance of crass Hinduism. The movement has enough trouble with this as it is. What do you think is the best way for TM to be promoted to modern, rational people that have perhaps paid lip service in the direction of spiritual activities, people who are basically secular in outlook and desire? Dome - 20 Years On https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olvIddB4ZdM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olvIddB4ZdM Dome - 20 Years On https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olvIddB4ZdM Celebrating 20 years of the Maharishi Golden Dome, Skelmersdale UK. Produced for the anniversary 19th March 2008. John Stanley trumpet tune in D p... View on www.youtube.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olvIddB4ZdM Preview by Yahoo
