On Jan 14, 2007, at 6:10 PM, TurquoiseB wrote:
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On Jan 14, 2007, at 5:56 PM, TurquoiseB wrote:
It all depends on your definition for what meditation
is. If you define it as encompassing all the stages
of sitting and thinking, leading up to and including
samadhi, then TM is meditation.
Even if they never "transcend"?
Yup. There may be some benefit to just sitting
and relaxing. But also, I have met many people
who didn't think they *were* transcending until
they had a clear, several-minutes-long experience
of samadhi. With that clear experience under their
belts, they realized they'd been having brief
moments of samadhi all along, but had never
noticed them because they were looking for
something other than what they are.
In this case we're talking about people who "go for years and decades
(or their entire lives) without transcending". That's what I'm
responding to.
I say: what a waste of time. If they're not aware of transcending,
this is another question entirely or if they're just looking for
relaxation or stress management. If they're not "transcendental"
*successfully* within a year or so, these people would be better off
finding something more efficient and successful *for them*. The
meditation technique needs to rise to meet the student, not
ncessarily the other way around. If a technique cannot produce
transcendence, adjustemnts should be made (and obviously "checking"
does not always do this). To propose that consistent *failure* to
transcend is "success" is TB and brainwashed nonsense. Different
people benefit from different styles of meditation. If they're given
an inappropriate meditation technique--whatever technique that might
be--it's better for them to have something (anything) that will be
appropriate for their own unique condition of body, nadi-constitution
and mind.
This is why a guru observes a student over an appropriate period of
time before instruction is given. Commercial meditation almost always
ignore this important fact: we're all different.
