Nishkrama shanti mantras can be used by all wholesale and sundry, so the various traditional commitments of upasakas don't so much apply. If one then desires a specific result where some other mantra is needed one must abide by the vow of the sadhana. In the case of TMO all more purposeful rituals besides the basic shanti techniques are controlled by the traditional Brahmans who will know what to do.Since this is the Vedic Tradition. Otherwise all the broken vows of the millions of TMers would have crashed the technique for everyone else. But that hasn't happened. Nishkrama shanti. That's why. Doesn't matter so much whether it's of Siva or Shakti, but more importantly what the practice commitment is. In this case 20 x 2. If one follows that practice vow they should end up with nonkarmic peacefulness.
-----Original Message----- From: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Bhairitu Sent: Saturday, March 24, 2007 2:56 PM To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Subject: [FairfieldLife] Bhairitu's Reports and Retorts for March 24th Using the Science of Creative Communications (SCC) I have devised a method of overcoming the 5 post limit on FFL. Just simply put all your new posts and replies into one post and at different times throughout the day post an update. :) I wanted to reply to Turq's "A Speculation of the Genesis of TM" http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/message/136076 I highly doubt that effort was the reason MMY invented TM. For centuries there has been meditation techniques for the masses and meditation techniques for the disciples. The latter often involves a lot more than just meditation but performing rituals and tapas (more in the case of right hand traditions). But these things were considered impractical for the public and simple meditation techniques were given them. Probably about every monk at the ashram knew how to teach a "civilian" meditation as there is not that much special or unique about it. It traditionally takes a teacher who has been given a guru mantra so that they have enough shakti to energize a mantra they give someone (without the need of performing a puja beforehand). Many Indian "civilians" even know how this is done but also that it must be given to them by a guru or priest so it is energized. Why MMY diverged from the traditional techniques the Shankaracharya's gave the masses is the great mystery. Maybe it is as Rick once suggested to make the technique unique. Bija mantras are used in longer mantras to give them more power. They are seldom used by themselves. However let me make clear I do not want to cast doubt into anyone's TM practice. If it is working for you, fine. If not there are other mantra meditation techniques available that may work better for you. One should proceed with caution and do some research first by reading up on the subject. ==== Curtis's comment on "Press Invitation, written by Maharishi,,," http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/message/136135 "It is also interesting that MMY twice invokes that his teacher is the highest, bestest, most fantastical saint in India. Competitive thing isn't he? Best in spirituality. That reminds me of people who claim to be the best in art." Indians are given to hyperbole to a ridiculous extent. One gets used to this traveling throughout India as every saint, guru, etc. is the "greatest, bestest" of all time. Seems to be a habit they have. In the west most people are usually leery of such marketing hype though. === On Alex's reply to "Novell's 'Get a Mac' Spoof", regarding media players. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/message/136134 I'm writing this on my Ubuntu 6.10 machine. It is very user friendly. The only problem is Ubuntu is sticking to pure "open source" free products so you have to go elsewhere to find media players that will play a wider range of media. I use VLC (VideoLan) for a lot of media as it better designed than MPlayer. None of these require a geek to install as Ubuntu comes with a package installer (in fact I think VLC just comes with Ubuntu). More and more software vendors are beginning to develop for Linux. I think the main problems is that being open source how do you do an encryption layer that allows software vendors to copy protect their software? I'm sure that can be solved too. How is it done on OS X? There used to be copy protection software Mac OS 9.0 and under but I don't see anything for X. But the solution may be virtual software where you go online to run a program rather than have it on your machine. This scare the hell out of Microsoft since you wouldn't need Windows to do that. Also Linspire's "Freespire" project has a media player that will play an even broader range of media. In many case Linspire aquired a license for the codecs. I have 3 XP machines here for software that runs on Windows but I won't do email on anything but a Linux box as well as the majority of my web surfing is on Linux. ======== And finally does anyone think that the American standard of living may be a little too high? Apparently former Fed boss Alan Greenspan thinks so: http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2007/03/14/greenspan_let_more_ skilled_immigrants_in He believes that: "allowing more skilled workers into the country would bring down the salaries of top earners in the United States, easing tensions over the mounting wage gap." In a way I sort of agree. I've always said wages have been spiraling out of control, especially CEO wages. I think however he is referring to the middle class, not CEOs. We have a very big conundrum here, you can't lower the wages for Americans without them being thrown out of their homes because they'll no longer be able to afford their mortgages which will lead to a collapse of the banking system and a new depression which will probably make the one in the 1930s look like a Sunday school picnic. I think we all knew this back in the late 1970's and were headed in the right direction to do something about it until Ronnie Reagan came along. Now I'm not sure even "pundits" can do anything about it. Whadya think? To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links