Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Spiritual Practice Since Blake
I agree completely. While I was at the University of Iowa in the mid to late seventies, I was invited to give some guest lectures on Blake at what was then MIU. I was very impressed with the students and the faculty whom I met at the time. The involvement of the freshmen in the class I was visiting and the depth of their questions compared favorably with the graduate students I was teaching at the U of I. When I then moved to Ff in 1992, I hardly recognized the place, it had sunk so low. - Original Message From: boo_lives <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Thursday, January 3, 2008 2:06:14 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Spiritual Practice Since Blake --- In FairfieldLife@ yahoogroups. com, "Rick Archer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > From: FairfieldLife@ yahoogroups. com [mailto:FairfieldLife@ yahoogroups. com] > On Behalf Of nablusoss1008 > Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2008 12:29 PM > To: FairfieldLife@ yahoogroups. com > Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Spiritual Practice Since Blake > > > > > You're right. It's hard for me to grasp. It's not clear to me why > those of > > who like FF and choose to live here yet aren't involved in the TMO > (a > > significant percentage of the community) aren't capable of creating > a bit of > > energy ourselves. Not to mention Amma, Mother Meera, Karunamayi, > etc., who > > come here. Are they leeching energy too Nabby? Muscling in on > Maharishi's > > turf? > > Would they come to those cornfields if it was not for Maharishi ? > > No. I fully agree with you that if it weren't for Maharishi, all these > people wouldn't be here and the saints wouldn't come. But I don't agree with > what some (and maybe not you) argue: that this is Maharishi's town and > saints who come here are just trying to pick the fruits of his labor. It's > Maharishi's campus but not Maharishi's town. It is now a diverse, thriving > spiritual community and quite a few folks have come here who never even > practiced TM. Even when I first came here in 1975, when I had high respect for MMY, I didn't come here because of MMY, and I never saw MMY as somehow the alpha and omega of MIU, much less the town of ffld. MIU was once a very good and innovative university because of the many unique professors that developed the unique curriculum, yes with guidance from MMY and his SCI (which I now see as incredible hollow), but the substance was theirs, and 99% of the hard real work was theirs, and the whole university grew with the aid of hundreds of devoted people. Look what's happened to the educational quality and quality of life at MUM today since almost all of these people have fled! Look at what's happened to the mov't since so many people there in the 70s fled! MMY is still here, still micro managing as always and it's been downhill for years. MMY was almost as lucky as Ringo given the quality of the people he attracted to him and who helped him achieve all he did in the past. Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
RE: [FairfieldLife] Re: Spiritual Practice Since Blake
From: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of nablusoss1008 Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2008 12:29 PM To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Spiritual Practice Since Blake > You're right. It's hard for me to grasp. It's not clear to me why those of > who like FF and choose to live here yet aren't involved in the TMO (a > significant percentage of the community) aren't capable of creating a bit of > energy ourselves. Not to mention Amma, Mother Meera, Karunamayi, etc., who > come here. Are they leeching energy too Nabby? Muscling in on Maharishi's > turf? Would they come to those cornfields if it was not for Maharishi ? No. I fully agree with you that if it weren’t for Maharishi, all these people wouldn’t be here and the saints wouldn’t come. But I don’t agree with what some (and maybe not you) argue: that this is Maharishi’s town and saints who come here are just trying to pick the fruits of his labor. It’s Maharishi’s campus but not Maharishi’s town. It is now a diverse, thriving spiritual community and quite a few folks have come here who never even practiced TM. No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.17.13/1207 - Release Date: 1/2/2008 11:29 AM
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Spiritual Practice Since Blake
I think I overstated Blake's point. It often happens that movements become rigid and doctrinal, as indeed happened with both the Shakers and some sects of Quakers as well. - Original Message From: dhamiltony2k5 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Thursday, January 3, 2008 10:44:48 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Spiritual Practice Since Blake > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@ yahoogroups. com, "dhamiltony2k5" > > wrote: > > > > > > Spiritual Practice Since Blake: > > > A lot of spiritual practice has gone on since Blake & it has > > > continued or ended in various ways not absolutely stale, > > > authoritarian and rigid. There has been a progression which is > in the American experience with it. > > Yogananda with SRF is a good example of how a group can survive the > death of a founder. Theirs is not unblemished in story; however, > they are active and currently guided by a founding generation who > knew the guru. > SRF will likely be in transition again as an aging > founding generation themselves pass things to a next generation who > may not have known the guru personally at all. That time in > particular seems is really a point where groups are apt to become > extra or ultra doctrinal and potentially splinter over doctrine. > Generational moves from the shakti experience of the spiritual > practice with the founder and the founding generation towards the > next generation where the reference becomes the word of `what was > said' and the doctrine of that as that word is re-read, re-played >and > re-told by a following generation. It can become dead >administration > & and dead doctrine at that point as the shakti of a teaching is > administratively let out. Utopian spiritual practice in America is filled repeatedly and sequentially with variations on this theme. > > -Doug in FF > Or, another example: the Society of Believers… the Shakers lived as spiritual practice ashrams with their at least twice-daily spiritual practice of a sitting dhyanna silent meditation (by community ordinance) retiring to their rooms to sit upright in half hour silent meditation, not reading, not talking, not sleeping not idling or doing stuff otherwise; but, silent inner experience before then going to group worship which included more meditation in group, Was the point of their community and industry, to have the time & the material resource to do spiritual practice. Their communities functioned well this way for this purpose specifically for some decades after their founding guru, Mother Ann and the shaker founding generation beyond their deaths. Shakers lived well as spiritual practice communities doing this specific practice for some decades after the founding generation. In time they went in to doctrinal spin with generational transition. After some time they did away with the silent meditation as community practice, and then did the shakti dwindle. Shakers in time became doctrinal as this all happened such that in their time they did not survive the social and industrial change and circumstances then. Their shakti experience of the spiritual practice that held them together dwindled. Times changed simply towards a form of a dying hollow doctrine & work, work, work. So people left seeking fortune elsewhere, on their own hook. Or, likewise again with the Quaker movement in American history. Early founded on spiritual practice of group meditations, a silent Patanjali-like practice on the discernment of bhuti and purusha though using the nomenclature of the 17th Century. They became doctrinal in generational sequence in other ways in the face of rapid social changes of the 19th and 20th century. They lasted about 300 years with shakti before evangelical doctrinism broadsided them in the midst of the rapid social and economic changes of the 19th century whence their spiritual practice got split off, plowed asunder and over-run by doctrinal religionists. So it went. Yet even today within the Society of Friends (conservative) in the middle of their form there is a spark of light to be found. Likewise it seems in a sequence with European and American transcendentalism of the 19th century.Spiritual practice of transcendentalism contending with doctrinal `mistake of the intellect' religionism in sequence. Seems though that about every generation someone comes forward and re-lights the way. Hence, in sequence of spiritual progress a lot has happened since Wm. Blake. & this progress is very much part of the American experience. -Doug in FF > > > > > According to William Blake, movements always end like this-- > stale, > > authoritarian, rigid. > > > > Differently, an exact opposite of this kind of stale doctrinal fate > > like of the TMmovement could be: > > > >
RE: [FairfieldLife] Re: Spiritual Practice Since Blake
From: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of nablusoss1008 Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2008 2:40 AM To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Spiritual Practice Since Blake --- In HYPERLINK "mailto:FairfieldLife%40yahoogroups.com"FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In HYPERLINK "mailto:FairfieldLife%40yahoogroups.com"FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Rick Archer" wrote: > > > Doug doesn't suck energy. He glows and radiates happiness and > > friendliness, > > Hmm, wonder why he radiates mostly unpleasant > cynicism in his posts here? Knowingly or unknowingly, those who stay on in FF without participating in the domes are living and thriving on the energy created there. But this is fine print and impossible to grasp for a rumourmonger at the level of RA. Plain common sense. You’re right. It’s hard for me to grasp. It’s not clear to me why those of who like FF and choose to live here yet aren’t involved in the TMO (a significant percentage of the community) aren’t capable of creating a bit of energy ourselves. Not to mention Amma, Mother Meera, Karunamayi, etc., who come here. Are they leeching energy too Nabby? Muscling in on Maharishi’s turf? No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.17.13/1207 - Release Date: 1/2/2008 11:29 AM
RE: [FairfieldLife] Re: Spiritual Practice Since Blake
From: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of authfriend Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2008 11:58 PM To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Spiritual Practice Since Blake --- In HYPERLINK "mailto:FairfieldLife%40yahoogroups.com"FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Rick Archer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Doug doesn't suck energy. He glows and radiates happiness and > friendliness, Hmm, wonder why he radiates mostly unpleasant cynicism in his posts here? I guess we vampires tend to see the best in one another. No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.17.13/1207 - Release Date: 1/2/2008 11:29 AM
RE: [FairfieldLife] Re: Spiritual Practice Since Blake
From: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of nablusoss1008 Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2008 5:47 PM To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Spiritual Practice Since Blake --- In HYPERLINK "mailto:FairfieldLife%40yahoogroups.com"FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "dhamiltony2k5" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > They got shakti that is alive in a > way > > that by contrast the TMmovement group meditations are only a > forlorn > > disheartened hope over what could have been with their movement. > > -Doug in FF So why on earth don't you join them instead of living like a spiritual vampire sucking energy from the TM meditators in Fairfield ? Doug doesn’t suck energy. He glows and radiates happiness and friendliness, as does his wife. No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.17.13/1206 - Release Date: 1/1/2008 12:09 PM
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Spiritual Practice Since Blake
Beautiful speech by Krishnamurti. Thanks for posting it. a - Original Message From: dhamiltony2k5 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Wednesday, January 2, 2008 5:31:36 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Spiritual Practice Since Blake --- In FairfieldLife@ yahoogroups. com, "dhamiltony2k5" wrote: > > Spiritual Practice Since Blake: > A lot of spiritual practice has gone on since Blake & it has > continued or ended in various ways not absolutely stale, > authoritarian and rigid. There has been a progression which is in > the American experience with it. > According to William Blake, movements always end like this--stale, authoritarian, rigid. Differently, an exact opposite of this kind of stale doctrinal fate like of the TMmovement could be: -J.Krishnamurti, 1929 Speech Dissolving his organization, post 7513 http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/FairfieldL ife/message/ 7513 > > > For example, Yogananda's group SRF now seems to have survived the > death of their guru. They do have enduring active spiritual practice > communities facilitating that work. Again last summer they gathered > for an annual week `convocation' near LA for about 10 days of long > group meditations with about 4000 people. In their communities they > do regular long powerful group meditations as part of their ongoing > spiritual practice. > > By a same kind of coin as with TM, it could be as easy to say that so > much of the `positivity' of late that the TMorg points to as evidence > is actually due to the SRF 4000 meditators in practice together last > summer. The powerful lasting influence of a larger n=squared number > by contrast. After all, exponentially 4000 powerful SRFmeditators > sitting in practice is a lot more strong than 1700 sleeping TM- sidhas > in recline in group. Sit with the shakti of a SRF group meditation > if you have not, to judge it. They got shakti that is alive in a way > that by contrast the TMmovement group meditations are only a forlorn > disheartened hope over what could have been with their movement. > -Doug in FF > > > --- In FairfieldLife@ yahoogroups. com, Angela Mailander > wrote: > > > > According to William Blake, movements always end like this-- stale, > authoritarian, rigid. They begin with fiery spirit and end in > ashes. > > >He describes the process in some detail and at great depth in > >his "Book of Urizen," which I read when I first got my children > >involved with TM, and I thought, hmm, here's a test case, and it has > been amazing to see how it went down exactly like the man said it > would. > > >So, perhaps, there is no need to speak of failure. Instead, we can > realize that this is the natural process for any movement. This does > not mean that there is anything wrong with the technique. > > > > Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: "Maharishi Effect" Quantum-Failure > Essay > > > Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
