Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Why does T/M cost so much to join? A little help?

[Vaj]

On Mar 7, 2006, at 10:48 AM, Patrick Gillam wrote: The premise of TM is that it enriches all areas of life  because it "enlivens" the substrate of life, pure  consciousness. We don't notice consciousness is  missing because it's flat and featureless. Maharishi  said this is the one experience that's missing; add  it, and you'll benefit. And that's pretty much what  most of us have experienced. Peter Sutphen has posited that most TMers are  saturated with that flat awareness to the point  that they're ripe to bursting if given a practice  that "pulls it out," so to speak. The sidhis do  that to an extent, but many seem to profit from  something else. If this premise is true, it would make sense that  anything we do after doing TM would bring  noticeable results. Those results might make  TM look bad, but remember that TM brings  flatness, not flash. I've mentioned here before about how a TM  teacher at the Iowa City Center back in the  day, Susan Isaacs, once commented about  how flat everything is. There was a reason  for that. As for non-TMers getting great results from  Vortex Healing, or whatever: if the notion of  collective consciousness is valid, and collective  consciousness is on the rise as even non-TMers  say it is, people who pursue spiritual and self- development practices today will get better results  than those of us who learned back in the day. I was always impressed by and envious of people  who'd learn TM from me in the '80s and early '90s,  the last times I taught, because their experiences  were so textbook clear. Those people really  demonstrated to me the validity of collective  consciousness theories. In summary, I think it's great that all these practices  other than TM are generating such great results for  people. I'd like to get me some of those myself. But  I don't consider those results to negate the value of  TM. On the contrary, for the reasons above, those  great results could be construed as validating  Maharishi's premise that everything gets better with  TM, and that his programs contribute to a rise in collective consciousness. I've found it's helpful to get the big picture of what different styles of meditation do and then based on observing my own condition, use what works best over any period of time. I see meditation as basically of four different types: --quiescence or transcendence style meditation, where one finds a "calm", quiescent or "transcendent" state--essentially a state of no gross conceptual thought. As you say--it's flat: non-ideation as an object.  --insight style meditation where the movement of thought and the experience of sensations are integrated with the calm, transcendent state. In some people this may be helpful at integrating "presence" during episodes where the mind in moving but it also helps one recognize stillness, the transcendent. --unifying the previous two: a bridge to the non-dual. --resting in the natural state: identifying the natural characteristics of consciousness as stillness, movement of thought: however consciousness is is just perfect. Each one of these works better for different people at different times depending on how their condition is: how is the body? how is your relationship with thought? how are the subtle channels?, etc. In another sense, one could practice all four as one. To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' SPONSORED LINKS Maharishi university of management Maharishi mahesh yogi Ramana maharshi YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS  Visit your group "FairfieldLife" on the web.    To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:  [EMAIL PROTECTED]    Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.