Hi OffWorld, >> Moreover, when meditating I am in effect praying to a god not of >>my culture, >> and of whom I have no knowledge, which leaves me deeply >>uncomfortable.>>
>Why are you afraid of Gods? You are human for chrise sakes ! >Grow-up man. Afraid? No, that was not my meaning at all. But rather, seeing no reason to believe in the existence of an anthropomorphic interventionalist god or gods, the act of praying to one natrually leaves me feeling uncomfortable, both as sitting uneasily with my own beliefs, and as being potentially insulting to one who does believe. John ----- Original Message ----- From: "off_world_beings" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2007 1:55 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Advice Sought --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "John Davis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hi, > > I'm new to this list, so I hope the following post is appropriate. It is > also somewhat lengthy, for which I apologise - conciseness was never my > strong point. But I am in search of a spot of advice, and wondered if anyone > here could help... > > I learned TM about nine months or so (I know, a newbie!). It appealed to me > since whislt I consider myself in a sense spiritual, I am not religious, and > TM seemed to offer a non-faith based approach to meditation. And it has not > been entirely without benefit. But since then I have suffered increasingly > from insomnia. Not to a dreadful degree, but I'm lucky if I get three hours > sleep a night. Growing unhappy with my instructor's standard 'part of the > process' response, I took a look online and found this wasn't entirely > uncommon, and nor was it necessarily temporary. But, in addition, I also > came upon the translations of the mantras. And here lies my real problem. > > I am not overly bothered by the deception involved when I was told, on > learning, that they are without meaning, since, for me at least, they were. > But not any more. Now it seems to me that any universal truth has, by > definition, to transcend cultures, or it is not universal. The laws of > gravity, for example, might have been discovered in the west, but gravity > works everywhere at all times no matter what it is called or how it is > defined (well, a few claims to the contrary aside!). The processes of > nature, the existence of the bundle of emotions and feelings we define as > love, the existence of bad television shows...the list goes on, in all > disciplines of life. And if meditation has value, then similarly, the same > should be the case, must be the case. > > So. There seem to me to be two possibilities. One, that the actual mantra > used is irrrelvant, meaningless. Just a word to return to during meditation > as a way of letting go of thought. But if this is so, why the insistence, in > TM and indeed other traditions, on the use of particular mantras? Or two, > that the mantra used is important, and does have meaning. >> "Meaning" is what people give to anything they like. Do you really think there is a big blue guy floating around in the clouds with a trident skewered with human souls, and a chowawa at his feet? And that he is at war with an incandescent red Harpi with who rides a white leapord and carries babies skulls in her hands??? If this is what you believe then good luck wit' that. But if this is so, > then the technique is not universal but rooted in a particular culture. > Moreover, when meditating I am in effect praying to a god not of my culture, > and of whom I have no knowledge, which leaves me deeply uncomfortable.>> Why are you afraid of Gods? You are human for chrise sakes ! Grow-up man. OffWorld
