[FairfieldLife] Re: "To get a Human Body is a Rare Thing -make full use of it."

[turquoiseb]

It's a word-count utility. I read your rap, and had
nothing to say about it other than the seeming
certainty with which most of the statements in it
were made. 

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Xenophaneros Anartaxius" 
 wrote:
>
> Does it matter that he did or did not read it? This place is a 
> merry-go-round. Everybody does the same thing over and over. Barry is so 
> underwhelmed and does not read things. And it is important to state it is 
> OPINION from time to time, rather frequently. With this attitude it is 
> unlikely he personally counted the words, perhaps he cut and pasted them into 
> a program that does. He might even have automatically added the requisite - 
> 'this is opinion but you did not fess up to it'. I am impressed that he 
> counted the words. Curious as to the method he uses for that.
> 
> I tried a couple of things. One gave me 2,086 words, the other gave 2,140 
> words. And on a number of tests, and average grade level for reading 
> difficulty of about 9. That means someone about to enter or who has just 
> entered high school should be able to wade through the text. However I have 
> sent some of these things on rare occasion to a friend of mine who has a 
> Ph.D., and it means nothing to him. Spiritual writing can have a very special 
> kind of opacity for people, because it is about something that you cannot 
> directly show people, like a living unicorn or an invisible fire-breathing 
> dragon.
> 
> Turq's replies are usually short, which means I will not have to do much if I 
> want to respond to that. Superficial skimming has some advantages. Responding 
> to you however often requires something equivalent to a major military 
> campaign. One needs some assistants and logicians on hand to wade through. 
> Sometimes this is valuable experience, and sometimes just a thankless chore.
> 
> Sometimes when we have conversations with people, we don't exactly hear what 
> they said through inattention or simply not being able to hear well (me), but 
> we nod as if we understood. Then we say something and they nod as if they got 
> what we said. The conversation goes on, for a while as if it was actually 
> working. That is not a lot different in final effect from not reading 
> something, or not reading it through. A real connexion seems kind of rare.
> 
> 
> 
> Someone just told me there was a lost piece by Mozart just discovered.
> 
> http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7403110n
> 
> -
> 
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend"  wrote:
> > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Xenophaneros Anartaxius" 
> >  wrote:
> > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb  wrote:
> 
> >>> Might I point out that you just wrote over 2000 words without
> >>> once acknowledging that they were merely your opinion?  Seems
> >>> to me that if there is any spiritual one-upmanship goin' down,
> >>> you might wanna look to that.  :-)
> 
> >> I don't have to look at it. You observed it yourself. That
> >> is one of the points I was making.
> > 
> > Xeno, you seem to have made the mistake of assuming
> > Barry actually *read* your post. He didn't. He just
> > counted the words.
>

[FairfieldLife] Re: "To get a Human Body is a Rare Thing -make full use of it."

[awoelflebater]

Well you know Anartaxius, I think you are a thoughtful, interesting cultured 
person whose posts I am always happy to read. As far as I am concerned you are 
always worth reading and you add sophistication and class to this site. Old 
fashioned values on my part perhaps but there you have it.

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Xenophaneros Anartaxius" 
 wrote:
>
> Does it matter that he did or did not read it? This place is a 
> merry-go-round. Everybody does the same thing over and over. Barry is so 
> underwhelmed and does not read things. And it is important to state it is 
> OPINION from time to time, rather frequently. With this attitude it is 
> unlikely he personally counted the words, perhaps he cut and pasted them into 
> a program that does. He might even have automatically added the requisite - 
> 'this is opinion but you did not fess up to it'. I am impressed that he 
> counted the words. Curious as to the method he uses for that.
> 
> I tried a couple of things. One gave me 2,086 words, the other gave 2,140 
> words. And on a number of tests, and average grade level for reading 
> difficulty of about 9. That means someone about to enter or who has just 
> entered high school should be able to wade through the text. However I have 
> sent some of these things on rare occasion to a friend of mine who has a 
> Ph.D., and it means nothing to him. Spiritual writing can have a very special 
> kind of opacity for people, because it is about something that you cannot 
> directly show people, like a living unicorn or an invisible fire-breathing 
> dragon.
> 
> Turq's replies are usually short, which means I will not have to do much if I 
> want to respond to that. Superficial skimming has some advantages. Responding 
> to you however often requires something equivalent to a major military 
> campaign. One needs some assistants and logicians on hand to wade through. 
> Sometimes this is valuable experience, and sometimes just a thankless chore.
> 
> Sometimes when we have conversations with people, we don't exactly hear what 
> they said through inattention or simply not being able to hear well (me), but 
> we nod as if we understood. Then we say something and they nod as if they got 
> what we said. The conversation goes on, for a while as if it was actually 
> working. That is not a lot different in final effect from not reading 
> something, or not reading it through. A real connexion seems kind of rare.
> 
> 
> 
> Someone just told me there was a lost piece by Mozart just discovered.
> 
> http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7403110n
> 
> -
> 
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend"  wrote:
> > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Xenophaneros Anartaxius" 
> >  wrote:
> > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb  wrote:
> 
> >>> Might I point out that you just wrote over 2000 words without
> >>> once acknowledging that they were merely your opinion?  Seems
> >>> to me that if there is any spiritual one-upmanship goin' down,
> >>> you might wanna look to that.  :-)
> 
> >> I don't have to look at it. You observed it yourself. That
> >> is one of the points I was making.
> > 
> > Xeno, you seem to have made the mistake of assuming
> > Barry actually *read* your post. He didn't. He just
> > counted the words.
>

[FairfieldLife] When all else fails...

[awoelflebater]

 AZ Grey writes:
"I would also suggest the possibility of her eating her own
 children but that isn't credible as the likelihood of her
 finding a male of the species to actually engage in coitus
 with her is highly unlikely.

I have noticed a number of men on this site who seem to use this line, or some 
variation thereof, when they have otherwise run out of intelligent things to 
say. It usually signifies they are at their wits (or lack of wits) end and can 
think of no other road to take (linguistically speaking). 
First of all AZ, what makes you so hot? Second of all, what does having 
"coitus" with a man have the slightest thing to do with anything you were 
discussing in your post? You appear to be of the opinion that being sexually 
desirable can balance out other transgressions like combativeness, bitchiness 
or a whole slew of other "faults". It appears that your value of a person (a 
woman in this case) escalates in direct proportion to their likelihood of being 
frequently humped. Desirability/attractiveness/sexual attraction could not 
possibly be present in someone who disagrees with you, counters your arguments 
or otherwise challenges you, or so it appears from your comment above. 

Don't get me wrong, sex with men can be great but it doesn't define me and if I 
were accused of lacking fuckability (am I allowed to say that here?) potential 
because I were to disagree with you it would hardly ruin my day, or my next 
romp in bed.

[FairfieldLife] Re: "To get a Human Body is a Rare Thing -make full use of it."

[Xenophaneros Anartaxius]

Does it matter that he did or did not read it? This place is a merry-go-round. 
Everybody does the same thing over and over. Barry is so underwhelmed and does 
not read things. And it is important to state it is OPINION from time to time, 
rather frequently. With this attitude it is unlikely he personally counted the 
words, perhaps he cut and pasted them into a program that does. He might even 
have automatically added the requisite - 'this is opinion but you did not fess 
up to it'. I am impressed that he counted the words. Curious as to the method 
he uses for that.

I tried a couple of things. One gave me 2,086 words, the other gave 2,140 
words. And on a number of tests, and average grade level for reading difficulty 
of about 9. That means someone about to enter or who has just entered high 
school should be able to wade through the text. However I have sent some of 
these things on rare occasion to a friend of mine who has a Ph.D., and it means 
nothing to him. Spiritual writing can have a very special kind of opacity for 
people, because it is about something that you cannot directly show people, 
like a living unicorn or an invisible fire-breathing dragon.

Turq's replies are usually short, which means I will not have to do much if I 
want to respond to that. Superficial skimming has some advantages. Responding 
to you however often requires something equivalent to a major military 
campaign. One needs some assistants and logicians on hand to wade through. 
Sometimes this is valuable experience, and sometimes just a thankless chore.

Sometimes when we have conversations with people, we don't exactly hear what 
they said through inattention or simply not being able to hear well (me), but 
we nod as if we understood. Then we say something and they nod as if they got 
what we said. The conversation goes on, for a while as if it was actually 
working. That is not a lot different in final effect from not reading 
something, or not reading it through. A real connexion seems kind of rare.



Someone just told me there was a lost piece by Mozart just discovered.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7403110n

-

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend"  wrote:
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Xenophaneros Anartaxius"  
> wrote:
> > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb  wrote:

>>> Might I point out that you just wrote over 2000 words without
>>> once acknowledging that they were merely your opinion?  Seems
>>> to me that if there is any spiritual one-upmanship goin' down,
>>> you might wanna look to that.  :-)

>> I don't have to look at it. You observed it yourself. That
>> is one of the points I was making.
> 
> Xeno, you seem to have made the mistake of assuming
> Barry actually *read* your post. He didn't. He just
> counted the words.

[FairfieldLife] Post Count

[FFL PostCount]

Fairfield Life Post Counter
===
Start Date (UTC): Sat Mar 24 00:00:00 2012
End Date (UTC): Sat Mar 31 00:00:00 2012
135 messages as of (UTC) Sun Mar 25 22:52:22 2012

19 Emily Reyn 
16 "Richard J. Williams" 
15 nablusoss1008 
13 turquoiseb 
10 authfriend 
 9 Xenophaneros Anartaxius 
 8 Bhairitu 
 7 Buck 
 5 cardemaister 
 4 John 
 3 marekreavis 
 3 Robert 
 3 Jason 
 2 wgm4u 
 2 raunchydog 
 2 curtisdeltablues 
 2 awoelflebater 
 2 Duveyoung 
 1 sri...@ymail.com, UNEXPECTED_DATA_AFTER_ADDRESS@".SYNTAX-ERROR.
 1 merudanda 
 1 merlin 
 1 wle...@aol.com
 1 Susan 
 1 Rick Archer 
 1 Paulo Barbosa 
 1 Mike Dixon 
 1 Alex Stanley 
 1 "emilymae.reyn" 

Posters: 28
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[FairfieldLife] Re: #5# Think About It... Have we been Labourers Together With God?

[wgm4u]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Paulo Barbosa"  wrote:
>
> Think About It... Have we been Labourers Together With God?
> 
> "For we are  labourers  together  with  God:  ye  are  God's
> husbandry, ye are God's building" (1 Corinthians 3:9).
> 
> what we are doing in God's work? Or, what we are not  doing?
> If God called us to be labourers,  why  we  are  not?  Think
> about it...
> 
> Paulo Barbosa


"The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few", the laborers are 
those who follow the commandments of Moses and the Sermon on the Mount by 
Jesus, etc. Also those who practice Patanjali's eight fold path, how many can 
truly say they follow all of these faithfully?

The harvest is plenteous means by practicing the tenets of Religion and Yoga 
one can experience the Love and Bliss of God beyond measure.

"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect", "Go, and 
sin no more"!

[FairfieldLife] Re: Chopra's Bliss Technique & Primordial Sound anyone?

[srijau]

1. sound evoking nector of immortality 2. sound evoking connectedness to 
Devatas 
 
Vishnu Sahasranama can be listened to by anyone without harm ,without the 
careful consideration of rules nor much instruction or discipline,though these 
could give greater benefits. It gives every kind of material and spiritual 
benefit. It removes the attitude of blaming others for one's situation as well 
as other benefits. For the benefits of listening this tape is not inferior.
Use of Gayatri can require careful instruction or initiation, the benefit is 
more restricted upliftment of the personality 

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "anaand108"  wrote:
>
> Hi folks,
> 
> Can anyone here list exactly what was taught in these in techniques in late 
> 80's or early 90's while Chopra was still a golden boy in the movement. I've 
> looked around on the net and there seem to several versions.
>

[FairfieldLife] Re: #5# Think About It... Have we been Labourers Together With God?

[Xenophaneros Anartaxius]

We Bokononists believe that humanity is organized into teams, teams that do 
God's Will without ever discovering what they are doing. 

-â€"Bokonon (AKA Kurt Vonnegut)

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Paulo Barbosa"  wrote:
>
> Think About It... Have we been Labourers Together With God?
> 
> "For we are  labourers  together  with  God:  ye  are  God's
> husbandry, ye are God's building" (1 Corinthians 3:9).
> 
> what we are doing in God's work? Or, what we are not  doing?
> If God called us to be labourers,  why  we  are  not?  Think
> about it...
> 
> Paulo Barbosa
>

[FairfieldLife] Re: "To get a Human Body is a Rare Thing -make full use of it."

[authfriend]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Xenophaneros Anartaxius" 
 wrote:
> 
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb  wrote:
> >
> > Might I point out that you just wrote over 2000 words without
> > once acknowledging that they were merely your opinion?  Seems
> > to me that if there is any spiritual one-upmanship goin' down,
> > you might wanna look to that.  :-)
> 
> I don't have to look at it. You observed it yourself. That
> is one of the points I was making.

Xeno, you seem to have made the mistake of assuming
Barry actually *read* your post. He didn't. He just
counted the words.





> This post was a spiritual tome. Somewhere below I also said two things, that 
> spiritual dialogue always has the appearance of opinion. And that it is 
> basically bullshit.  Come on Barry, if you agree with that you would then be 
> in the awkward position of having to say what I said was true. We cannot have 
> that now can we. That would ruin everything. :-)
> 
> > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Xenophaneros Anartaxius"
> >  wrote:
> > >
> > > I would like to address the issue of transcending for 'x' number of
> > minutes.
> > >
> > > This seems to me to be a kind of spiritual one-upmanship when we claim
> > we can meditate for a certain period of time without thoughts, and
> > misrepresents why we might or might not experience a state of no
> > thoughts in meditation, and what the significance of that is.
> > >
> > > 'I can hold my breath longer than you!'
> > > 'I can can *not* go to the bathroom *so* much longer than you!'
> > > 'I can transcend longer than you!'
> > >
> > > First off, I must say I do not know of all possible meditation
> > techniques. The ones I know most about, TM and Zen, do not make a big
> > deal of suppressing thoughts. Thoughts are considered to be spontaneous.
> > That means we have no real substantial control over their arising, just
> > as we have no ultimately substantial control over certain bodily
> > functions, such as breathing.
> > >
> > > The point of meditation is clarity, experiencing the relation of
> > sensory experience and thoughts with the raw character of experience,
> > that is, awareness or consciousness. The raw character of experience is
> > called pure consciousness, that is, awareness without the sensory
> > qualities or the thought qualities present. The transition between our
> > more ordinary states of experience and pure consciousness is called
> > transcending.
> > >
> > > Transcending is an activity. Once it occurs, it is a done deal. The
> > activity of transcending comes to an end. The previous state of
> > experience stopped, and now we have the experience awareness without
> > content other than itself. As long as it lasts, there is no sense of
> > time or space, so as an experience we cannot even say we are doing
> > anything at all. We are completely disengaged from duration.
> > >
> > > Someone observing us may see something different. They are observing a
> > kind of subdued activity in the way they experience or measure our
> > bodily metabolism etc. When thoughts come again, we transcend back to
> > more ordinary experience. To transcend means to be or go beyond the
> > range or limits of - something abstract, typically a conceptual field or
> > division. The definition does not state necessarily what it is that is
> > gone beyond.
> > >
> > > Because we are disengaged as a psyche in this 'transcendent' state, we
> > have no control over what happens next. Sense of individual self is
> > gone, everything except the raw value of awareness is gone.
> > >
> > > There are meditative techniques I have read about where one tries to
> > control thought, suppress thoughts. One such example is pressing the
> > tongue against the upper palate with great force and concentrating on
> > crushing offending thoughts out of existence. Good headache material.
> > One could also attempt to crush out all thoughts.
> > >
> > > It can be noted that in TM meditation, and Zen meditation, as the
> > practice matures, thoughts tend to 'thin out' over time, that is we have
> > less and less thought activity, it becomes more subdued. If we are
> > un-stressing a lot, we can have massive bouts of thoughts; as these
> > stresses dissolve, the thought activity in general becomes less.
> > >
> > > When we have no thoughts in meditation a number of things could have
> > happened. 1) We are experiencing pure consciousness - the thinking mind
> > *has been transcended* (we are not *transcending*). 2) We are in a
> > subtle state of rest, and are applying some subtle force to suppress
> > thought, and it might work if progress is advanced enough, but this
> > requires some subtle sense of volition, so it is not really a state of
> > pure consciousness. 3) We have fallen asleep, but maintain some sense of
> > awareness (i.e., CC) because of an extended time of practice over some
> > years has resulted in a persistent change of experience. This is a
> > conditioning e

[FairfieldLife] Re: Big Bang Theory explained 10,000 yrs back by Hindus, which was confirmed by Hubb

[Xenophaneros Anartaxius]

I like this sukta, its ambiguity, its eternal wishy-washy paradoxical 
construction. If you can demonstrate how the mathematics and physical 
observations that comprise big bang theory can be derived from this, you might 
get a Nobel prize, but merely verbally saying they are equivalent is the usual 
spiritual/physics pablum spooned over by the likes of Chopra and the TMO etc. 
The sukta represents someone's expression of their experience. I suspect that 
person had a good experience.

Also, there is not demonstrable evidence at this date that the sukta was 
composed that long ago. That was the end of the Ice Age, the last glaciation. 
We do not seem to have a detailed description of that from any historical 
source, and that is a lot more recent than current theories of the big bang 
which place it more than one million times further back in time than the Ice 
Age.

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, nablusoss1008  wrote:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nN5xgf9gFeo
>

[FairfieldLife] Did Belief in Gods Lead to Mayan Demise?

[John]

No.  It appears to me it was due to bad land management by the Mayan rulers.

http://news.yahoo.com/did-belief-gods-lead-mayan-demise-223407714.html

[FairfieldLife] Re: "To get a Human Body is a Rare Thing -make full use of it."

[Xenophaneros Anartaxius]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb  wrote:
>
> Might I point out that you just wrote over 2000 words without
> once acknowledging that they were merely your opinion?  Seems
> to me that if there is any spiritual one-upmanship goin' down,
> you might wanna look to that.  :-)

I don't have to look at it. You observed it yourself. That is one of the points 
I was making. This post was a spiritual tome. Somewhere below I also said two 
things, that spiritual dialogue always has the appearance of opinion. And that 
it is basically bullshit.  Come on Barry, if you agree with that you would then 
be in the awkward position of having to say what I said was true. We cannot 
have that now can we. That would ruin everything. :-)

> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Xenophaneros Anartaxius"
>  wrote:
> >
> > I would like to address the issue of transcending for 'x' number of
> minutes.
> >
> > This seems to me to be a kind of spiritual one-upmanship when we claim
> we can meditate for a certain period of time without thoughts, and
> misrepresents why we might or might not experience a state of no
> thoughts in meditation, and what the significance of that is.
> >
> > 'I can hold my breath longer than you!'
> > 'I can can *not* go to the bathroom *so* much longer than you!'
> > 'I can transcend longer than you!'
> >
> > First off, I must say I do not know of all possible meditation
> techniques. The ones I know most about, TM and Zen, do not make a big
> deal of suppressing thoughts. Thoughts are considered to be spontaneous.
> That means we have no real substantial control over their arising, just
> as we have no ultimately substantial control over certain bodily
> functions, such as breathing.
> >
> > The point of meditation is clarity, experiencing the relation of
> sensory experience and thoughts with the raw character of experience,
> that is, awareness or consciousness. The raw character of experience is
> called pure consciousness, that is, awareness without the sensory
> qualities or the thought qualities present. The transition between our
> more ordinary states of experience and pure consciousness is called
> transcending.
> >
> > Transcending is an activity. Once it occurs, it is a done deal. The
> activity of transcending comes to an end. The previous state of
> experience stopped, and now we have the experience awareness without
> content other than itself. As long as it lasts, there is no sense of
> time or space, so as an experience we cannot even say we are doing
> anything at all. We are completely disengaged from duration.
> >
> > Someone observing us may see something different. They are observing a
> kind of subdued activity in the way they experience or measure our
> bodily metabolism etc. When thoughts come again, we transcend back to
> more ordinary experience. To transcend means to be or go beyond the
> range or limits of - something abstract, typically a conceptual field or
> division. The definition does not state necessarily what it is that is
> gone beyond.
> >
> > Because we are disengaged as a psyche in this 'transcendent' state, we
> have no control over what happens next. Sense of individual self is
> gone, everything except the raw value of awareness is gone.
> >
> > There are meditative techniques I have read about where one tries to
> control thought, suppress thoughts. One such example is pressing the
> tongue against the upper palate with great force and concentrating on
> crushing offending thoughts out of existence. Good headache material.
> One could also attempt to crush out all thoughts.
> >
> > It can be noted that in TM meditation, and Zen meditation, as the
> practice matures, thoughts tend to 'thin out' over time, that is we have
> less and less thought activity, it becomes more subdued. If we are
> un-stressing a lot, we can have massive bouts of thoughts; as these
> stresses dissolve, the thought activity in general becomes less.
> >
> > When we have no thoughts in meditation a number of things could have
> happened. 1) We are experiencing pure consciousness - the thinking mind
> *has been transcended* (we are not *transcending*). 2) We are in a
> subtle state of rest, and are applying some subtle force to suppress
> thought, and it might work if progress is advanced enough, but this
> requires some subtle sense of volition, so it is not really a state of
> pure consciousness. 3) We have fallen asleep, but maintain some sense of
> awareness (i.e., CC) because of an extended time of practice over some
> years has resulted in a persistent change of experience. This is a
> conditioning effect of meditation, the body/mind has been retrained and
> functions differently. 4) We could also be dead. We will not re-emerge
> from such a meditation. This actually happed to a friend of mine, who
> passed away in meditation.
> >
> > The goal of meditation is not the process of transcending, but
> self-realisation - whatever that turns out to be. That is, having the

[FairfieldLife] Big Bang Theory explained 10,000 yrs back by Hindus, which was confirmed by Hubb

[nablusoss1008]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nN5xgf9gFeo

[FairfieldLife] Re: Rig-Veda to Higgs Boson

[merudanda]

What Gives Particles Mass?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBNjqVbnrYo


Is it the Higgs discovery?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TdEbu7kM_Q


'God particle'

  or just call it "Billion":

"It's a pity that Leon Lederman, otherwise a nice enough fellow, chose
to go ahead with this moniker at the advice of his publishing agents to
sell more books," Sharma said."I detest the name 'God particle am not
particularly religious, but I find the term an 'in your face' affront to
those who [are]. I do experimental physics not GOD.""I feel the term
'God particle,' invented by a publisher to sell books and make money,
insultingly misrepresents both science and religion," Rutgers University
physicist Matt Strassle The name "carries almost no information about
why the Higgs particle is important, it makes physicists sound pompous
and arrogant, and it reinforces a very harmful presumption that
physicists are trying to replace or compete with 'God,'"

"Maybe we should call it the "Billion" to remind us how much it cost to
find the damn thing :-)" Cranmer wrote.

Nasadiya sukta - Hymn of creation Rig veda 10th Mandala 129 sukta

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nN5xgf9gFeo






  

Does "keys" to unlocking the secrets of the Rigveda consists in
reading many of the words like 'gau' and 'ashva' as well as names of
gods like 'Marut' and 'Indra' as technical terms used in the natural
sciences, and the hymns themselves as descriptions of laws of nature? In
other words does the Rigveda contain a description of the forces of
nature and the laws that govern them, written in cryptic even coded
language??  [:D]

Seems not much different to Hebrew Bible?



How many people do you think would be reading every breathless
pronouncement of a possible Higgs boson sighting, as if it were as rare
and thrilling as a glimpse of an ivory-billed woodpecker or a parking
space on Black Friday? [:D]


--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Jason  wrote:
>
> Â
> Â
> Rig Veda to particle physics
>
> By G.S. Mudur | www.telegraphindia.comâ€" Wed 14 Dec, 2011
> Â
> Â
> New Delhi, Dec. 13:
> Physicist Vivek Sharma who was born in Muzaffarpur, Bihar,
> and now leads an international group hunting for the Higgs
> boson sees the search as an attempt to seek out answers to
> questions posed in the Rig Veda.
>
> Sharma, who went to a Kendriya Vidyalaya in Pune and pursued
> master's in physics at the Indian Institute of Technology,
> Kanpur, says he was drawn to experimental particle physics
> after learning Rig Veda hymns from his mother, a Sanskrit
> scholar. The ancient text has a hymn on creation that
> speculates on the origin of the universe and describes a
> period when "all that existed was void and formless".
>
> "It was a shock, it left an impression in my mind. Thousands
> of years ago people were contemplating our origins," said
> Sharma, a professor at the University of California, San
> Diego, and head of a Higgs search team at CERN, the European
> research laboratory.
>
> He was still a high school student but began thinking how
> modern technology might be used to probe creation. The Higgs
> boson, the subatomic particle that Sharma and his colleagues
> are looking for, was predicted in the 1960s to explain the
> origin of mass.
>
> A discovery of the Higgs boson is important for physicists
> because it is the last missing, or unseen, piece of a
> bedrock theory of physics called the Standard Model that
> explains all the forces and particles in nature except
> gravity.
>
> Sharma moved to the US in 1984, treating higher studies in
> the US as a route to plunge into experimental physics
> requiring expensive machines ' particle accelerators ' but
> spent five years at CERN in the early 1990s where he
> discovered two new subatomic particles, including a cousin
> of the proton, but five times heavier.
>
> His enthusiasm for experimental physics emerges in his talks
> ' whether delivered to fellow-physicists or aspiring
> students. It also appears to temper any emotions that might
> spring each time particle detectors at CERN spot signals
> resembling traces of the Higgs boson.
>
> "Experiments will ultimately tell us what is right and what
> is wrong," he said. In the coming months, Sharma and his
> colleagues will refine their analyses and combine the data
> from the two main particle detectors looking for the Higgs
> boson.
>
> "Our curiosity about our origins doesn't change anybody's
> life, but there is a satisfaction from understanding such
> things," Sharma said in a telephone interview ahead of the
> CERN seminar where scientists presented their latest results
> from the Higgs search.
>
> "But when we build machines like the Large Hadron Collider
> (the particle accelerator at CERN where proton-proton
> collisions are used to search for the Higgs boson), it
> r

[FairfieldLife] Re: Rig-Veda to Higgs Boson

[John]

Also, one can see the concept of the multiverse in the Shrimad Bhagavatam where 
the story of Vishnu sleeping in the causal ocean is narrated.  As he slept, he 
created new universes as he exhaled, and destroyed universes as he inhaled.






--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Jason  wrote:
>
>  
>  
> Rig Veda to particle physics
> 
> By G.S. Mudur | www.telegraphindia.comâ€" Wed 14 Dec, 2011
>  
>  
> New Delhi, Dec. 13: 
> Physicist Vivek Sharma who was born in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, 
> and now leads an international group hunting for the Higgs 
> boson sees the search as an attempt to seek out answers to 
> questions posed in the Rig Veda.
> 
> Sharma, who went to a Kendriya Vidyalaya in Pune and pursued 
> master's in physics at the Indian Institute of Technology, 
> Kanpur, says he was drawn to experimental particle physics 
> after learning Rig Veda hymns from his mother, a Sanskrit 
> scholar. The ancient text has a hymn on creation that 
> speculates on the origin of the universe and describes a 
> period when "all that existed was void and formless".
> 
> "It was a shock, it left an impression in my mind. Thousands 
> of years ago people were contemplating our origins," said 
> Sharma, a professor at the University of California, San 
> Diego, and head of a Higgs search team at CERN, the European 
> research laboratory.
> 
> He was still a high school student but began thinking how 
> modern technology might be used to probe creation. The Higgs 
> boson, the subatomic particle that Sharma and his colleagues 
> are looking for, was predicted in the 1960s to explain the 
> origin of mass.
> 
> A discovery of the Higgs boson is important for physicists 
> because it is the last missing, or unseen, piece of a 
> bedrock theory of physics called the Standard Model that 
> explains all the forces and particles in nature except 
> gravity.
> 
> Sharma moved to the US in 1984, treating higher studies in 
> the US as a route to plunge into experimental physics 
> requiring expensive machines ' particle accelerators ' but 
> spent five years at CERN in the early 1990s where he 
> discovered two new subatomic particles, including a cousin 
> of the proton, but five times heavier.
> 
> His enthusiasm for experimental physics emerges in his talks 
> ' whether delivered to fellow-physicists or aspiring 
> students. It also appears to temper any emotions that might 
> spring each time particle detectors at CERN spot signals 
> resembling traces of the Higgs boson.
> 
> "Experiments will ultimately tell us what is right and what 
> is wrong," he said. In the coming months, Sharma and his 
> colleagues will refine their analyses and combine the data 
> from the two main particle detectors looking for the Higgs 
> boson.
> 
> "Our curiosity about our origins doesn't change anybody's 
> life, but there is a satisfaction from understanding such 
> things," Sharma said in a telephone interview ahead of the 
> CERN seminar where scientists presented their latest results 
> from the Higgs search.
> 
> "But when we build machines like the Large Hadron Collider 
> (the particle accelerator at CERN where proton-proton 
> collisions are used to search for the Higgs boson), it 
> requires us to invent new technologies that can change 
> people's lives," he said.
> 
> The World Wide Web was created at CERN to help physicists 
> move data around between different computers in a seamless 
> fashion. "It's a great example of how something that is good 
> for physicists turned out to be fantastic for the public," 
> Sharma said.
> 
> New technologies and ideas that are born in experimental 
> physics laboratories may have implications in information 
> technology and medicine. "Our goals are esoteric, but what 
> sometimes comes out benefits the public," he said.
> 
> Sharma, whose routine in recent years has been eight weeks 
> at CERN and 10 to 15 days with his wife and 7-year-old 
> daughter in San Diego, is also keen on drawing more students 
> to physics.
> 
> His homepage has a link to a talk he once delivered to 
> prospective students and their parents. "The popular belief 
> that physicists do not make much money is totally false," 
> the link says. "Physics majors make more money than 
> chemistry or bio majors."
>  
> ttp://in.news.yahoo.com/rig-veda-particle-physics-214911327.
> html
>

Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Fairfield's fame levitates after Oprah's meditation | The Des Moines Register | DesMoinesRegister.com

[Emily Reyn]

O.K...And Oprah will publish a feature article in O magazine and host a 2-hour 
special on a national TV network (instead of OWN) that will draw millions of 
viewers, "and they will pay" :)



 From: turquoiseb 
To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2012 11:18 AM
Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Fairfield's fame levitates after Oprah's 
meditation | The Des Moines Register | DesMoinesRegister.com
 

  
Maybe it's just that sharing a cyberspace with an editor is getting to me, but 
I'm thinkin' that your post could be made more accurate by taking one phrase 
and repeating it more often:

"And they will come, and they will pay, and they will meditate, and they will 
pay, and they 
will live in sustainable, eco-friendly houses and demand local and 
organic produce (but not, necessarily chickens), and they will pay,  and the 
"Capital of the 
Global Country for World Peace" will be acknowledged as being Fairfield, IA, 
and they will pay,  and Oprah will build a new school, and they will pay, and 
finally the dream of 
thousands more meditators (whatever it takes to achieve world peace) 
will be realized within this generation, and they will pay,  and world peace 
will come to 
fruition, and they will pay, no matter who is president here or anywhere else. 
It's a 
good thing. Planning to prevent sprawl will be important. And they will pay."


--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Emily Reyn  wrote:
>
> And they will come, and they will pay, and they will meditate, and they will 
> live in sustainable, eco-friendly houses and demand local and organic produce 
> (but not, necessarily chickens) and the "Capital of the Global Country for 
> World Peace" will be acknowledged as being Fairfield, IA and Oprah will build 
> a new school, and finally the dream of thousands more meditators (whatever it 
> takes to achieve world peace) will be realized within this generation and 
> world peace will come to fruition, no matter who is president here or 
> anywhere else.  It's a good thing.  Planning to prevent sprawl will be 
> important.
> 
> 
> 
>  From: Emily Reyn emilymae.reyn@...
> To: "FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com" FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
> Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2012 10:47 AM
> Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Fairfield's fame levitates after Oprah's 
> meditation | The Des Moines Register | DesMoinesRegister.com
> 
> 
>   
> People will now start wondering"what is going on in Fairfield?"  And, 
> they will know it's in Iowa.  
> 
> 
> 
>  From: Rick Archer rick@...
> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
> Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2012 10:46 AM
> Subject: [FairfieldLife] Fairfield's fame levitates after Oprah's meditation 
> | The Des Moines Register | DesMoinesRegister.com
> 
> 
>   
> http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20120324/ENT/303240007
>

 

Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Trollin' and Tumblin'

[Bhairitu]

On 03/25/2012 10:10 AM, Richard J. Williams wrote:
>
>>> A graduate student would have posted a list of
>>> their teachers, but not the two Barrys! Let's
>>> see - we've got one Barry who gave money to Lenz,
>>> an English teacher, and the other gives money to
>>> a retire pilot.
>>>
> Bhairitu:
>> Tell us what is wrong with a retired pilot?
>>
> Well, I guess because a guy that was a professional
> pilot for two decades would probably not have time
> to spend two decades learning tantra as well? I
> guess it's possible, but I wonder how good the pilot
> would be at flying, if he sucked at tantra. Who did
> the retired pilot study with?

He began learning tantra at age 16. He followed his guru into the air 
force because his guru was an aeronautical engineer.  He has well over 
40 of practicing tantra.  For the record I've figured out it is a 
practice for someone to start in their teens not an old fart like me.  
I'll never make it to tantra acharya.  In fact I'm happy enough at the 
sidh tantric level.  That's a lot of knowledge itself.

Once again for you remedial students, tantra is largely a householder's 
practice so they often have careers to provide a living for their family.

[FairfieldLife] Re: Dangerous Precedent

[John]

I was thinking of the same thing.  But the US believes that civilians killed as 
part of the collateral damage during combat are not payable.



--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb  wrote:
>
> The headline reads:
> 
> BLOOD MONEY
> <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20120325/as-afghanistan>
> U.S. Reportedly Paid $50,000 To Families Of Afghanistan Shooting Victims
> <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20120325/as-afghanistan>
> Seems to me this is a rather dangerous move. By "paying off" the
> families of the recent shooting victims in Afghanistan at $50,000 per
> person killed, aren't they setting a precedent?
> 
> If the US paid Afghan families $50K for each of the 60,000 civilians
> killed by American forces since the war began, it would cost them 3
> billion dollars.
>

[FairfieldLife] Re: Fairfield's fame levitates after Oprah's meditation | The Des Moines Register | DesMoinesRegister.com

[turquoiseb]

Maybe it's just that sharing a cyberspace with an editor is getting to
me, but I'm thinkin' that your post could be made more accurate by
taking one phrase and repeating it more often:

"And they will come, and they will pay, and they will meditate, and they
will pay, and they  will live in sustainable, eco-friendly houses and
demand local and  organic produce (but not, necessarily chickens), and
they will pay,  and the "Capital of the  Global Country for World Peace"
will be acknowledged as being Fairfield,  IA, and they will pay,  and
Oprah will build a new school, and they will pay, and finally the dream
of  thousands more meditators (whatever it takes to achieve world peace)
will be realized within this generation, and they will pay,  and world
peace will come to  fruition, and they will pay, no matter who is
president here or anywhere else. It's a  good thing. Planning to prevent
sprawl will be important. And they will pay."


--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Emily Reyn 
wrote:
>
> And they will come, and they will pay, and they will meditate, and
they will live in sustainable, eco-friendly houses and demand local and
organic produce (but not, necessarily chickens) and the "Capital of the
Global Country for World Peace" will be acknowledged as being Fairfield,
IA and Oprah will build a new school, and finally the dream of thousands
more meditators (whatever it takes to achieve world peace) will be
realized within this generation and world peace will come to fruition,
no matter who is president here or anywhere else. Â It's a good
thing. Â Planning to prevent sprawl will be important.
>
>
> 
>  From: Emily Reyn emilymae.reyn@...
> To: "FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com" FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2012 10:47 AM
> Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Fairfield's fame levitates after Oprah's
meditation | The Des Moines Register | DesMoinesRegister.com
>
>
> Â
> People will now start wondering"what is going on in Fairfield?"
 And, they will know it's in Iowa. Â
>
>
> 
>  From: Rick Archer rick@...
> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2012 10:46 AM
> Subject: [FairfieldLife] Fairfield's fame levitates after Oprah's
meditation | The Des Moines Register | DesMoinesRegister.com
>
>
> Â
> http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20120324/ENT/303240007
>

Re: [FairfieldLife] Fairfield's fame levitates after Oprah's meditation | The Des Moines Register | DesMoinesRegister.com

[Emily Reyn]

And they will come, and they will pay, and they will meditate, and they will 
live in sustainable, eco-friendly houses and demand local and organic produce 
(but not, necessarily chickens) and the "Capital of the Global Country for 
World Peace" will be acknowledged as being Fairfield, IA and Oprah will build a 
new school, and finally the dream of thousands more meditators (whatever it 
takes to achieve world peace) will be realized within this generation and world 
peace will come to fruition, no matter who is president here or anywhere else.  
It's a good thing.  Planning to prevent sprawl will be important.



 From: Emily Reyn 
To: "FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com"  
Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2012 10:47 AM
Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Fairfield's fame levitates after Oprah's 
meditation | The Des Moines Register | DesMoinesRegister.com
 

  
People will now start wondering"what is going on in Fairfield?"  And, they 
will know it's in Iowa.  



 From: Rick Archer 
To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2012 10:46 AM
Subject: [FairfieldLife] Fairfield's fame levitates after Oprah's meditation | 
The Des Moines Register | DesMoinesRegister.com
 

  
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20120324/ENT/303240007 


 

[FairfieldLife] Dangerous Precedent

[turquoiseb]

The headline reads:

BLOOD MONEY
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20120325/as-afghanistan>
U.S. Reportedly Paid $50,000 To Families Of Afghanistan Shooting Victims
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20120325/as-afghanistan>
Seems to me this is a rather dangerous move. By "paying off" the
families of the recent shooting victims in Afghanistan at $50,000 per
person killed, aren't they setting a precedent?

If the US paid Afghan families $50K for each of the 60,000 civilians
killed by American forces since the war began, it would cost them 3
billion dollars.

[FairfieldLife] Re: Trollin' and Tumblin'

[nablusoss1008]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, nablusoss1008  wrote:
>
> 
> 
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Richard J. Williams"  wrote:
> >
> > 
> > 
> > > > > > Samadhi:
> > > > > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samadhi
> > > > > >
> > > > nablusoss1008:
> > > > Wikipedia comes to the rescue for any lost Buddhist 
> > > > > :-)
> > > > >
> > > > What you fail to understand, Nabby, is that TM is 
> > > > Buddhism. :-)
> > > >
> > nablusoss1008:
> > > What you fail to understand is that you are confused, 
> > > and no quoting of endless text's you may have ready 
> > > will remedy that. :-)
> > >
> > What you failed to understand, Nabby, is that the 
> > Buddha invented the term 'samadhi'. 
> > 
> > Perhaps if you did some research of your own, you'd 
> > find a lot of similarities between 'TM' practice and 
> > Buddhist meditation. LoL!
> > 
> > "Transcendental' means to go beyond; 'meditation' 
> > means thinking. Hence, 'Transcendental Meditation' 
> > means to go beyond thinking." - Charlie Lutes
> > 
> > http://www.maharishiphotos.com/tmintro.html
> 
> 
> So the Buddha invented a word. Fine, very impressive.
>

But you see, the fellow is dead and has been so for quite some time now. What 
is much more interesting is to know how his students of today are experiencing 
Buddhist meditation. 

As you know, the Turq refuses to explain how his "20 minutes without thoughts" 
is experienced. Some would suspect that is because "20 minutes without 
thoughts" is something he has read about in a book and never experienced 
himself.

Have you, as a practioneer of Buddhist meditation, experienced this on a 
regular basis, or ever ?

Re: [FairfieldLife] Fairfield's fame levitates after Oprah's meditation | The Des Moines Register | DesMoinesRegister.com

[Emily Reyn]

People will now start wondering"what is going on in Fairfield?"  And, they 
will know it's in Iowa.  



 From: Rick Archer 
To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2012 10:46 AM
Subject: [FairfieldLife] Fairfield's fame levitates after Oprah's meditation | 
The Des Moines Register | DesMoinesRegister.com
 

  
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20120324/ENT/303240007 
 

[FairfieldLife] Re: "To get a Human Body is a Rare Thing -make full use of it."

[turquoiseb]

Might I point out that you just wrote over 2000 words without
once acknowledging that they were merely your opinion?  Seems
to me that if there is any spiritual one-upmanship goin' down,
you might wanna look to that.  :-)

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Xenophaneros Anartaxius"
 wrote:
>
> I would like to address the issue of transcending for 'x' number of
minutes.
>
> This seems to me to be a kind of spiritual one-upmanship when we claim
we can meditate for a certain period of time without thoughts, and
misrepresents why we might or might not experience a state of no
thoughts in meditation, and what the significance of that is.
>
> 'I can hold my breath longer than you!'
> 'I can can *not* go to the bathroom *so* much longer than you!'
> 'I can transcend longer than you!'
>
> First off, I must say I do not know of all possible meditation
techniques. The ones I know most about, TM and Zen, do not make a big
deal of suppressing thoughts. Thoughts are considered to be spontaneous.
That means we have no real substantial control over their arising, just
as we have no ultimately substantial control over certain bodily
functions, such as breathing.
>
> The point of meditation is clarity, experiencing the relation of
sensory experience and thoughts with the raw character of experience,
that is, awareness or consciousness. The raw character of experience is
called pure consciousness, that is, awareness without the sensory
qualities or the thought qualities present. The transition between our
more ordinary states of experience and pure consciousness is called
transcending.
>
> Transcending is an activity. Once it occurs, it is a done deal. The
activity of transcending comes to an end. The previous state of
experience stopped, and now we have the experience awareness without
content other than itself. As long as it lasts, there is no sense of
time or space, so as an experience we cannot even say we are doing
anything at all. We are completely disengaged from duration.
>
> Someone observing us may see something different. They are observing a
kind of subdued activity in the way they experience or measure our
bodily metabolism etc. When thoughts come again, we transcend back to
more ordinary experience. To transcend means to be or go beyond the
range or limits of - something abstract, typically a conceptual field or
division. The definition does not state necessarily what it is that is
gone beyond.
>
> Because we are disengaged as a psyche in this 'transcendent' state, we
have no control over what happens next. Sense of individual self is
gone, everything except the raw value of awareness is gone.
>
> There are meditative techniques I have read about where one tries to
control thought, suppress thoughts. One such example is pressing the
tongue against the upper palate with great force and concentrating on
crushing offending thoughts out of existence. Good headache material.
One could also attempt to crush out all thoughts.
>
> It can be noted that in TM meditation, and Zen meditation, as the
practice matures, thoughts tend to 'thin out' over time, that is we have
less and less thought activity, it becomes more subdued. If we are
un-stressing a lot, we can have massive bouts of thoughts; as these
stresses dissolve, the thought activity in general becomes less.
>
> When we have no thoughts in meditation a number of things could have
happened. 1) We are experiencing pure consciousness - the thinking mind
*has been transcended* (we are not *transcending*). 2) We are in a
subtle state of rest, and are applying some subtle force to suppress
thought, and it might work if progress is advanced enough, but this
requires some subtle sense of volition, so it is not really a state of
pure consciousness. 3) We have fallen asleep, but maintain some sense of
awareness (i.e., CC) because of an extended time of practice over some
years has resulted in a persistent change of experience. This is a
conditioning effect of meditation, the body/mind has been retrained and
functions differently. 4) We could also be dead. We will not re-emerge
from such a meditation. This actually happed to a friend of mine, who
passed away in meditation.
>
> The goal of meditation is not the process of transcending, but
self-realisation - whatever that turns out to be. That is, having the
essential value of raw experience along with activity. Experience is
clarified so we no longer confute the the raw value of experience with
what happens in that context. There is an intermediate stage.
Self-realisation is an odd term, and there are a lot of ambiguities
associated with it. In the Hindu traditions, we have 'self' and 'Self'
which may be even more ambiguous in Indian alphabets which do not have
upper lower case letters.
>
> Perhaps CC should be called recognition of pure awareness rather than
self-realisation because there is still identification with thought in
CC. The mind and thought are still pretty much the same, and the mind
identifies reality as 

[FairfieldLife] Fairfield's fame levitates after Oprah's meditation | The Des Moines Register | DesMoinesRegister.com

[Rick Archer]

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20120324/ENT/303240007 

Re: [FairfieldLife] Brothers in Arms

[Emily Reyn]

Wow! Ha!  That bass woke me right up.  



 From: cardemaister 
To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2012 10:08 AM
Subject: [FairfieldLife] Brothers in Arms
 

  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g55JlxWYo8Q&feature=related


 

Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: "To get a Human Body is a Rare Thing -make full use of it."

[Emily Reyn]

We are aiming at an experienced truth, not an intellectual or expressed truth. 


Xeno, I just want to say that your ability to articulate how you experience 
consciousness and "self-realization" and the relationship of our minds to the 
universe, etc. is very good and much enjoyed and appreciated.  A real learning 
experience in how to possibly "reframe" one's perceptions and approach the word 
"understanding" differently.  



 From: Xenophaneros Anartaxius 
To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2012 10:14 AM
Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: "To get a Human Body is a Rare Thing -make full 
use of it."
 

  
I would like to address the issue of transcending for 'x' number of minutes.

This seems to me to be a kind of spiritual one-upmanship when we claim we can 
meditate for a certain period of time without thoughts, and misrepresents why 
we might or might not experience a state of no thoughts in meditation, and what 
the significance of that is.

'I can hold my breath longer than you!'
'I can can *not* go to the bathroom *so* much longer than you!'
'I can transcend longer than you!'

First off, I must say I do not know of all possible meditation techniques. The 
ones I know most about, TM and Zen, do not make a big deal of suppressing 
thoughts. Thoughts are considered to be spontaneous. That means we have no real 
substantial control over their arising, just as we have no ultimately 
substantial control over certain bodily functions, such as breathing.

The point of meditation is clarity, experiencing the relation of sensory 
experience and thoughts with the raw character of experience, that is, 
awareness or consciousness. The raw character of experience is called pure 
consciousness, that is, awareness without the sensory qualities or the thought 
qualities present. The transition between our more ordinary states of 
experience and pure consciousness is called transcending. 

Transcending is an activity. Once it occurs, it is a done deal. The activity of 
transcending comes to an end. The previous state of experience stopped, and now 
we have the experience awareness without content other than itself. As long as 
it lasts, there is no sense of time or space, so as an experience we cannot 
even say we are doing anything at all. We are completely disengaged from 
duration. 

Someone observing us may see something different. They are observing a kind of 
subdued activity in the way they experience or measure our bodily metabolism 
etc. When thoughts come again, we transcend back to more ordinary experience. 
To transcend means to be or go beyond the range or limits of - something 
abstract, typically a conceptual field or division. The definition does not 
state necessarily what it is that is gone beyond. 

Because we are disengaged as a psyche in this 'transcendent' state, we have no 
control over what happens next. Sense of individual self is gone, everything 
except the raw value of awareness is gone.

There are meditative techniques I have read about where one tries to control 
thought, suppress thoughts. One such example is pressing the tongue against the 
upper palate with great force and concentrating on crushing offending thoughts 
out of existence. Good headache material. One could also attempt to crush out 
all thoughts.

It can be noted that in TM meditation, and Zen meditation, as the practice 
matures, thoughts tend to 'thin out' over time, that is we have less and less 
thought activity, it becomes more subdued. If we are un-stressing a lot, we can 
have massive bouts of thoughts; as these stresses dissolve, the thought 
activity in general becomes less.

When we have no thoughts in meditation a number of things could have happened. 
1) We are experiencing pure consciousness - the thinking mind *has been 
transcended* (we are not *transcending*). 2) We are in a subtle state of rest, 
and are applying some subtle force to suppress thought, and it might work if 
progress is advanced enough, but this requires some subtle sense of volition, 
so it is not really a state of pure consciousness. 3) We have fallen asleep, 
but maintain some sense of awareness (i.e., CC) because of an extended time of 
practice over some years has resulted in a persistent change of experience. 
This is a conditioning effect of meditation, the body/mind has been retrained 
and functions differently. 4) We could also be dead. We will not re-emerge from 
such a meditation. This actually happed to a friend of mine, who passed away in 
meditation. 

The goal of meditation is not the process of transcending, but self-realisation 
- whatever that turns out to be. That is, having the essential value of raw 
experience along with activity. Experience is clarified so we no longer confute 
the the raw value of experience with what happens in that context. There is an 
intermediate stage. Self-realisation is an odd term, and there are a lot of 
ambiguities associated with it. In

[FairfieldLife] Re: Trollin' and Tumblin'

[nablusoss1008]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Richard J. Williams"  wrote:
>
> 
> 
> > > > > Samadhi:
> > > > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samadhi
> > > > >
> > > nablusoss1008:
> > > Wikipedia comes to the rescue for any lost Buddhist 
> > > > :-)
> > > >
> > > What you fail to understand, Nabby, is that TM is 
> > > Buddhism. :-)
> > >
> nablusoss1008:
> > What you fail to understand is that you are confused, 
> > and no quoting of endless text's you may have ready 
> > will remedy that. :-)
> >
> What you failed to understand, Nabby, is that the 
> Buddha invented the term 'samadhi'. 
> 
> Perhaps if you did some research of your own, you'd 
> find a lot of similarities between 'TM' practice and 
> Buddhist meditation. LoL!
> 
> "Transcendental' means to go beyond; 'meditation' 
> means thinking. Hence, 'Transcendental Meditation' 
> means to go beyond thinking." - Charlie Lutes
> 
> http://www.maharishiphotos.com/tmintro.html


So the Buddha invented a word. Fine, very impressive. 

[FairfieldLife] Re: "To get a Human Body is a Rare Thing -make full use of it."

[Xenophaneros Anartaxius]

I would like to address the issue of transcending for 'x' number of minutes.

This seems to me to be a kind of spiritual one-upmanship when we claim we can 
meditate for a certain period of time without thoughts, and misrepresents why 
we might or might not experience a state of no thoughts in meditation, and what 
the significance of that is.

'I can hold my breath longer than you!'
'I can can *not* go to the bathroom *so* much longer than you!'
'I can transcend longer than you!'

First off, I must say I do not know of all possible meditation techniques. The 
ones I know most about, TM and Zen, do not make a big deal of suppressing 
thoughts. Thoughts are considered to be spontaneous. That means we have no real 
substantial control over their arising, just as we have no ultimately 
substantial control over certain bodily functions, such as breathing.

The point of meditation is clarity, experiencing the relation of sensory 
experience and thoughts with the raw character of experience, that is, 
awareness or consciousness. The raw character of experience is called pure 
consciousness, that is, awareness without the sensory qualities or the thought 
qualities present. The transition between our more ordinary states of 
experience and pure consciousness is called transcending. 

Transcending is an activity. Once it occurs, it is a done deal. The activity of 
transcending comes to an end. The previous state of experience stopped, and now 
we have the experience awareness without content other than itself. As long as 
it lasts, there is no sense of time or space, so as an experience we cannot 
even say we are doing anything at all. We are completely disengaged from 
duration. 

Someone observing us may see something different. They are observing a kind of 
subdued activity in the way they experience or measure our bodily metabolism 
etc. When thoughts come again, we transcend back to more ordinary experience. 
To transcend means to be or go beyond the range or limits of - something 
abstract, typically a conceptual field or division. The definition does not 
state necessarily what it is that is gone beyond. 

Because we are disengaged as a psyche in this 'transcendent' state, we have no 
control over what happens next. Sense of individual self is gone, everything 
except the raw value of awareness is gone.

There are meditative techniques I have read about where one tries to control 
thought, suppress thoughts. One such example is pressing the tongue against the 
upper palate with great force and concentrating on crushing offending thoughts 
out of existence. Good headache material. One could also attempt to crush out 
all thoughts.

It can be noted that in TM meditation, and Zen meditation, as the practice 
matures, thoughts tend to 'thin out' over time, that is we have less and less 
thought activity, it becomes more subdued. If we are un-stressing a lot, we can 
have massive bouts of thoughts; as these stresses dissolve, the thought 
activity in general becomes less.

When we have no thoughts in meditation a number of things could have happened. 
1) We are experiencing pure consciousness - the thinking mind *has been 
transcended* (we are not *transcending*). 2) We are in a subtle state of rest, 
and are applying some subtle force to suppress thought, and it might work if 
progress is advanced enough, but this requires some subtle sense of volition, 
so it is not really a state of pure consciousness. 3) We have fallen asleep, 
but maintain some sense of awareness (i.e., CC) because of an extended time of 
practice over some years has resulted in a persistent change of experience. 
This is a conditioning effect of meditation, the body/mind has been retrained 
and functions differently. 4) We could also be dead. We will not re-emerge from 
such a meditation. This actually happed to a friend of mine, who passed away in 
meditation. 

The goal of meditation is not the process of transcending, but self-realisation 
- whatever that turns out to be. That is, having the essential value of raw 
experience along with activity. Experience is clarified so we no longer confute 
the the raw value of experience with what happens in that context. There is an 
intermediate stage. Self-realisation is an odd term, and there are a lot of 
ambiguities associated with it. In the Hindu traditions, we have 'self' and 
'Self' which may be even more ambiguous in Indian alphabets which do not have 
upper lower case letters.

Perhaps CC should be called recognition of pure awareness rather than 
self-realisation because there is still identification with thought in CC. The 
mind and thought are still pretty much the same, and the mind identifies 
reality as what the thoughts say it is. Consciousness is experienced as 
separate from that. So we have a simplified duality. We have consciousness on 
one side, and all the activity of the world, the mind, thoughts, beliefs etc., 
on the other. Maharishi called this CC, and in Zen sometimes 

[FairfieldLife] Re: Trollin' and Tumblin'

[Richard J. Williams]

> > A graduate student would have posted a list of
> > their teachers, but not the two Barrys! Let's
> > see - we've got one Barry who gave money to Lenz,
> > an English teacher, and the other gives money to
> > a retire pilot.
> >
Bhairitu:
> Tell us what is wrong with a retired pilot?  
>
Well, I guess because a guy that was a professional
pilot for two decades would probably not have time
to spend two decades learning tantra as well? I
guess it's possible, but I wonder how good the pilot
would be at flying, if he sucked at tantra. Who did
the retired pilot study with?

[FairfieldLife] Brothers in Arms

[cardemaister]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g55JlxWYo8Q&feature=related

[FairfieldLife] Re: The Hunger Games (Was: ...and then there is science fiction...)

[Richard J. Williams]

> > > You mean "where is Dr. Pete when YOU need him?" ;-)
> > >
> > Where is Dr. Pete when I need him? ;-)
> >
> > I want to ask a professional psychologist how supporting
> > "systematic mass murder for ten years" relates to enjoying
> > movies that depict it and make money from it - oh, I
> > forgot, we're dealing with pirates here.
> >
> > Is there any shame vicariously?
> >
Bhairitu:
> Why are you assuming the film was pirated?  
>
Because a self-described pirate watched it on his laptop
over in Amsterdam in the middle of the night the day 
before it was released?

> Some films DO open to international markets at the 
> same time as US release. That's one thing that reduces 
> piracy.
>
No pirate would be a dumb as you to pay money to see 
a stupid movie, sitting in a theater filled with a 
gaggle of teenage girl mutants! Have you no shame?

[FairfieldLife] #5# Think About It... Have we been Labourers Together With God?

[Paulo Barbosa]

Think About It... Have we been Labourers Together With God?

"For we are  labourers  together  with  God:  ye  are  God's
husbandry, ye are God's building" (1 Corinthians 3:9).

what we are doing in God's work? Or, what we are not  doing?
If God called us to be labourers,  why  we  are  not?  Think
about it...

Paulo Barbosa

Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Trollin' and Tumblin'

[Bhairitu]

On 03/25/2012 09:48 AM, Richard J. Williams wrote:
>
>>> In other words, they'll act a lot like the
>>> kindergarteners I described them as...
>>>
> Bhairitu:
>> I'm amused looking at the list of suckers er
>> I mean responders to your troll. I see the
>> usual suspects. :-D
>>
> A graduate student would have posted a list of
> their teachers, but not the two Barrys! Let's
> see - we've got one Barry who gave money to Lenz,
> an English teacher, and the other gives money to
> a retire pilot.

Tell us what is wrong with a retired pilot?  My cousin is a retired 
airlines pilot, is he a bad guy too?  My tantra teacher charges for 
consultations based on ones ability to pay.  I charged for teaching 
music lessons.  Same difference.  You're not making any sense, Willy.

>> If they were wise they probably would have
>> ignored it. ;-)
>>
> Yeah, you responded but said nothing. ;-)

I didn't respond to the topic in the post just the fact of who did 
respond to it. :-D

[FairfieldLife] Rig-Veda to Higgs Boson

[Jason]

 
 
Rig Veda to particle physics

By G.S. Mudur | www.telegraphindia.com– Wed 14 Dec, 2011
 
 
New Delhi, Dec. 13: 
Physicist Vivek Sharma who was born in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, 
and now leads an international group hunting for the Higgs 
boson sees the search as an attempt to seek out answers to 
questions posed in the Rig Veda.

Sharma, who went to a Kendriya Vidyalaya in Pune and pursued 
master's in physics at the Indian Institute of Technology, 
Kanpur, says he was drawn to experimental particle physics 
after learning Rig Veda hymns from his mother, a Sanskrit 
scholar. The ancient text has a hymn on creation that 
speculates on the origin of the universe and describes a 
period when "all that existed was void and formless".

"It was a shock, it left an impression in my mind. Thousands 
of years ago people were contemplating our origins," said 
Sharma, a professor at the University of California, San 
Diego, and head of a Higgs search team at CERN, the European 
research laboratory.

He was still a high school student but began thinking how 
modern technology might be used to probe creation. The Higgs 
boson, the subatomic particle that Sharma and his colleagues 
are looking for, was predicted in the 1960s to explain the 
origin of mass.

A discovery of the Higgs boson is important for physicists 
because it is the last missing, or unseen, piece of a 
bedrock theory of physics called the Standard Model that 
explains all the forces and particles in nature except 
gravity.

Sharma moved to the US in 1984, treating higher studies in 
the US as a route to plunge into experimental physics 
requiring expensive machines ' particle accelerators ' but 
spent five years at CERN in the early 1990s where he 
discovered two new subatomic particles, including a cousin 
of the proton, but five times heavier.

His enthusiasm for experimental physics emerges in his talks 
' whether delivered to fellow-physicists or aspiring 
students. It also appears to temper any emotions that might 
spring each time particle detectors at CERN spot signals 
resembling traces of the Higgs boson.

"Experiments will ultimately tell us what is right and what 
is wrong," he said. In the coming months, Sharma and his 
colleagues will refine their analyses and combine the data 
from the two main particle detectors looking for the Higgs 
boson.

"Our curiosity about our origins doesn't change anybody's 
life, but there is a satisfaction from understanding such 
things," Sharma said in a telephone interview ahead of the 
CERN seminar where scientists presented their latest results 
from the Higgs search.

"But when we build machines like the Large Hadron Collider 
(the particle accelerator at CERN where proton-proton 
collisions are used to search for the Higgs boson), it 
requires us to invent new technologies that can change 
people's lives," he said.

The World Wide Web was created at CERN to help physicists 
move data around between different computers in a seamless 
fashion. "It's a great example of how something that is good 
for physicists turned out to be fantastic for the public," 
Sharma said.

New technologies and ideas that are born in experimental 
physics laboratories may have implications in information 
technology and medicine. "Our goals are esoteric, but what 
sometimes comes out benefits the public," he said.

Sharma, whose routine in recent years has been eight weeks 
at CERN and 10 to 15 days with his wife and 7-year-old 
daughter in San Diego, is also keen on drawing more students 
to physics.

His homepage has a link to a talk he once delivered to 
prospective students and their parents. "The popular belief 
that physicists do not make much money is totally false," 
the link says. "Physics majors make more money than 
chemistry or bio majors."
 
ttp://in.news.yahoo.com/rig-veda-particle-physics-214911327.
html

[FairfieldLife] Re: Trollin' and Tumblin'

[Richard J. Williams]

> > In other words, they'll act a lot like the 
> > kindergarteners I described them as...
> >
Bhairitu:
> I'm amused looking at the list of suckers er 
> I mean responders to your troll. I see the 
> usual suspects. :-D
> 
A graduate student would have posted a list of
their teachers, but not the two Barrys! Let's
see - we've got one Barry who gave money to Lenz, 
an English teacher, and the other gives money to 
a retire pilot.

> If they were wise they probably would have 
> ignored it. ;-)
>
Yeah, you responded but said nothing. ;-)

[FairfieldLife] Re: Trollin' and Tumblin'

[turquoiseb]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitu  wrote:
>
> I'm amused looking at the list of suckers er I mean 
> responders to your troll.  I see the usual suspects. :-D
> 
> If they were wise they probably would have ignored it. ;-)

It's not as if I didn't warn them. :-)

Re: [FairfieldLife] Trollin' and Tumblin'

[Bhairitu]

On 03/25/2012 12:02 AM, turquoiseb wrote:
> For those who haven't gotten it yet, me describing
> what the definition of what it takes to achieve the
> level of "talented beginner" in many forms of med-
> itation was a bit of a troll.
>
> It's all true, and fairly basic knowledge for anyone
> who knows anything about the wider world of meditation
> outside of TM, but the point I was trying to make was
> that diehard, "one-pointed" TM meditators don't know
> anything *about* the wider world of meditation. They
> *settled* for what they were told about meditation
> by Maharishi and his parrots. I likened this to
> having decided to remain in kindergarten, rather
> than deciding to continue to learn.
>
> True, there is a lot of pressure placed on TMers *to*
> remain in kindergarten. They are not only discouraged
> from learning anything more about the wider world of
> meditation, they are actually *punished* if they do so.
> Think I'm exaggerating? Go to an introductory course
> in any other form of meditation other than TM, then
> apply for a dome pass and admit it. See what happens
> to you.
>
> Here's my theory of why TM *is* a form of spiritual
> kindergarten. I don't claim that it's Truth, merely my
> theory.
>
> Maharishi was never allowed to be part of any of Guru
> Dev's formal teachings. He was the wrong caste, and
> would never have been allowed to teach any form of
> yoga or meditation within the Shankaracharya tradition.
> It seems likely, given the accounts of Paul Mason and
> others who were in Guru Dev's ashram with him, that
> he was never instructed formally in any of the forms
> meditation (some of them concentration-based) that
> Guru Dev taught to his real students.
>
> So after GD's death, when Maharishi discovered that
> sitting in a cave like his guru told him to do wasn't
> really his cuppa tea, and decided to go out into the
> world and teach meditation, he decided to teach the
> only form of meditation he'd ever been able to master
> himself. That is, daydreaming.
>
> That (from the point of view of the wider world of
> meditation) is what TM is. You sit there lost in
> thought, coming back to the mantra only when you wake
> up enough to recognize that you're not thinking it any
> more. That, in most forms of meditation in the world,
> is defined as daydreaming, not meditating. But MMY's
> genius (if you can call it that) was to describe this
> process of lazy daydreaming *as* meditation, and to
> tell people that by sitting there with a mind full of
> thoughts were doing meditation *correctly*. All of
> these thoughts filling your mind were *not* the result
> of a lazy mind or a lack of ability to focus; they were
> the result of meditating *correctly*. "Something good
> is happening." "Some stress is being released."
>
> Yeah, right. Having experienced (as Nabby and Judy never
> have) what a more focused form of meditation can produce
> in terms of the number of thoughts in one's head, vs.
> TM, call me crazy but I prefer the silence of samadhi.
> They prefer sitting there with a head full of thoughts.
>
> They, having been taught to regard it so, consider sit-
> ting there with a bunch of thoughts in their heads --
> for *decades* -- to not only be "correct meditation,"
> but the BEST meditation, the "highest truth." That's
> why I refer to it as spiritual kindergarten.
>
> And IMO they're reacting as I suspected they would,
> going for epithets and character assassination, rather
> than simply admitting the truth -- that they know so
> little about the wider world of meditation that they
> effectively *have* settled for staying in kindergarten
> for a lifetime. And they'll probably continue to do so,
> trying to find any excuse they can to "shoot the
> messenger," and clinging to their Dick and Jane dogma
> as if it were really "the highest truth." In other
> words, they'll act a lot like the kindergarteners I
> described them as.

I'm amused looking at the list of suckers er I mean responders to your 
troll.  I see the usual suspects. :-D

If they were wise they probably would have ignored it. ;-)

Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: The Hunger Games (Was: ...and then there is science fiction...)

[Bhairitu]

On 03/25/2012 08:26 AM, Richard J. Williams wrote:
 It's worth seeing, if for no other reason
 than as a vision of one of America's possible
 futures, a sort of 1% vs. 99% battle of the
 bands.

>>> What is it about some FFL TMers who profess
>>> non-violence and rail about killing, yet get totally
>>> entertained in trivial pursuits like violent TV and
>>> movies? Go figure.
>>>
>>> "Anyone who has been supporting this war has
>>> been supporting systematic mass murder for ten
>>> years. If anyone should be ashamed, it's them."
>>>
>>> 306478
>>>
>>> Where is Dr. Pete when we need him?
>>>
> Bhairitu:
>> You mean "where is Dr. Pete when YOU need him?" ;-)
>>
> Where is Dr. Pete when I need him? ;-)
>
> I want to ask a professional psychologist how supporting
> "systematic mass murder for ten years" relates to enjoying
> movies that depict it and make money from it - oh, I
> forgot, we're dealing with pirates here.
>
> Is there any shame vicariously?

Why are you assuming the film was pirated?  Some films DO open to 
international markets at the same time as US release.  That's one thing 
that reduces piracy.

[FairfieldLife] Re: Trollin' and Tumblin'

[Richard J. Williams]

> > > > Samadhi:
> > > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samadhi
> > > >
> > nablusoss1008:
> > Wikipedia comes to the rescue for any lost Buddhist 
> > > :-)
> > >
> > What you fail to understand, Nabby, is that TM is 
> > Buddhism. :-)
> >
nablusoss1008:
> What you fail to understand is that you are confused, 
> and no quoting of endless text's you may have ready 
> will remedy that. :-)
>
What you failed to understand, Nabby, is that the 
Buddha invented the term 'samadhi'. 

Perhaps if you did some research of your own, you'd 
find a lot of similarities between 'TM' practice and 
Buddhist meditation. LoL!

"Transcendental' means to go beyond; 'meditation' 
means thinking. Hence, 'Transcendental Meditation' 
means to go beyond thinking." - Charlie Lutes

http://www.maharishiphotos.com/tmintro.html 

[FairfieldLife] Re: The Hunger Games (Was: ...and then there is science fiction...)

[Richard J. Williams]

> > > It's worth seeing, if for no other reason
> > > than as a vision of one of America's possible
> > > futures, a sort of 1% vs. 99% battle of the
> > > bands.
> > >
> > What is it about some FFL TMers who profess
> > non-violence and rail about killing, yet get totally
> > entertained in trivial pursuits like violent TV and
> > movies? Go figure.
> >
> > "Anyone who has been supporting this war has
> > been supporting systematic mass murder for ten
> > years. If anyone should be ashamed, it's them."
> >
> > 306478 
> >
> > Where is Dr. Pete when we need him?
> >
Bhairitu:
> You mean "where is Dr. Pete when YOU need him?" ;-)
>
Where is Dr. Pete when I need him? ;-)

I want to ask a professional psychologist how supporting
"systematic mass murder for ten years" relates to enjoying
movies that depict it and make money from it - oh, I
forgot, we're dealing with pirates here.

Is there any shame vicariously?

[FairfieldLife] Re: Trollin' and Tumblin'

[nablusoss1008]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Richard J. Williams"  wrote:
>
> 
> 
> > > Samadhi:
> > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samadhi
> > >
> nablusoss1008:
> Wikipedia comes to the rescue for any lost Buddhist 
> > :-)
> >
> What you fail to understand, Nabby, is that TM is 
> Buddhism. :-)


What you fail to understand is that you are confused, and no quoting of endless 
text's you may have ready will remedy that. :-)

[FairfieldLife] Re: Trollin' and Tumblin'

[Richard J. Williams]

> > Samadhi:
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samadhi
> >
nablusoss1008:
Wikipedia comes to the rescue for any lost Buddhist 
> :-)
>
What you fail to understand, Nabby, is that TM is 
Buddhism. :-)

The most ancient sustained expression of yogic ideas 
is found in the early discourses of the historical 
Buddha, thus Patanjali's conception of freedom is 
related to the ancient Buddhist view that the source 
of suffering is the craving for permanence in a 
universe of impermanence. 

"Freedom is a reversal of the evolutionary course 
of prakriti, which is empty of meaning for the 
Purusha; it is also the power of conciousness in a 
state of true identity" (YS 4.34). 

According to Barbara Stoler-Miller in Yoga: 
Discipline of Freedom, "Both the Four Noble Truths 
and the Eightfold Path articulated in the Buddha's 
first discourse are elements that underlie the 
classical yoga system." 

Two striking examples of this are Patanjali's use 
of the word 'nirodha' in the opening definition of 
yoga as 'citta-vrtti-nirodha', that is, "Yoga is 
the cessation of the turnings of thought" and the 
statement that "all is suffering, dukkha, for the 
wise man" (52). 

'Dukkha', suffering, and 'nirodha', cessation, are 
crucial terms in Buddhist vocabulary is the core 
of what Buddhists believe the Buddha taught after 
gaining enlightenment. 

Patanjali's Ashtang eight-limbed practice is a 
parallel to the eight-limbed path of Shakya the 
Muni. 

Work Cited: 

"Yoga: Discipline of Freedom" 
by Barbara Stoler-Miller 
Acclaimed translator of the Bhagavad Gita. 
Bantam Wisdom Editions 1998 
p. 5, 52. 

[FairfieldLife] Re: Trollin' and Tumblin'

[nablusoss1008]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Richard J. Williams"  wrote:
>
> 
> 
> > > Having experienced (as Nabby and Judy never
> > > have) what a more focused form of meditation 
> > > can produce in terms of the number of 
> > > thoughts in one's head, vs. TM, call me crazy 
> > > but I prefer the silence of samadhi...
> > >
> nablusoss1008:
> > And we are still waiting for your description 
> > of how it is like to really experience "20 
> > minutes without thoughts" that you claim to 
> > have on a regular basis.


> Samadhi:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samadhi


That's what I was waiting for. Instead of a personal account, which they 
obviously don't have, Wikipedia comes to the rescue for any lost Buddhist :-)

[FairfieldLife] Maharishi Mahesh Yogi - Sage for a New Generation

[nablusoss1008]

Recently digitally re-mastered on DVD from the original negative, this historic 
film, as seen through the eyes of the 60's Generation, now offers 
never-before-released production notes and other bonus features, making it an 
essential part of every TM library. 

 Filmmaker Alan Waite was specifically commissioned by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi to 
make this film about TM in 1968. It won 'Best Documentary' in the 1969 
Hollywood Film Festival, being noted for its 'patchwork quilt' style. 


http://www.maharishidvd.com/

[FairfieldLife] Re: Trollin' and Tumblin'

[Richard J. Williams]

> > Having experienced (as Nabby and Judy never
> > have) what a more focused form of meditation 
> > can produce in terms of the number of 
> > thoughts in one's head, vs. TM, call me crazy 
> > but I prefer the silence of samadhi...
> >
nablusoss1008:
> And we are still waiting for your description 
> of how it is like to really experience "20 
> minutes without thoughts" that you claim to 
> have on a regular basis.
> 
"In Buddhism, it can also refer to an abiding in 
which mind becomes very still but does not merge 
with the object of attention, and is thus able to 
observe and gain insight into the changing flow 
of experience." - Richard Shankman

'The Experience of Samadhi'
An in depth Exploration of Buddhist Meditation'
Shambala, 2008
http://tinyurl.com/6wfweep

> Could it be that your fear of sharing your 
> experiences leads a lot of people here to 
> believe you are bluffing ?
>
Barry didn't define his 'samadhi', but he seems to
believe that samadhi is a state of 'no-thought'. 
I wonder where he got this notion - from Rama 
probably. Go figure.  

Four developments of samadhi are mentioned in the 
Pali Canon:

 1.Jhana
 2.Increased alertness
 3.Insight into the true nature of phenomena 
(knowledge and vision)
 4.Final liberation
 
Post-canonical Pali literature identifies three 
different types of samadhi:

 1.momentary samadhi (khaikasamadhi)
 2.access concentration (upacarasamadhi)
 3.fixed concentration (appa?asamadhi)

Samadhi:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samadhi

[FairfieldLife] Judith ann Braun, a wonderful artist

[marekreavis]

http://judithannbraun.com/default3.asp

[FairfieldLife] Re: Trollin' and Tumblin'

[nablusoss1008]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Richard J. Williams"  wrote:
>
> turquoiseb
> > If you wish to compare TM to some other form of med-
> > itation, with the idea of declaring it "better," do
> > so *based on your own personal experience with the
> > two techniques you are comparing*.
> >
> You are really asking a lot from the current forum
> informants, Barry!
> 
> After 'just sitting' with Suzuki for some time and allowing
> my mantra to come of it's own accord I began to realize
> that 'just sitting' without the mantra would really be 'dead
> sitting' and THAT is what prompted me to try the Rinzai
> Zen approach. 

Was it not you that some time ago claimed you taught a meditation technique you 
previously called TM ? And now you're practicing Buddhist techniques - I 
suppose you continue to teach TM to make a buck or two. Am I correct ?

[FairfieldLife] Re: Trollin' and Tumblin'

[nablusoss1008]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb  wrote:
>
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Buck"  wrote:
> >
> > Turq, I don't think you'll get a statistically valid response 
> > here from readers of FFL because so many who do lurk here are 
> > still under the thumb of the TM course office to get valid 
> > dome badges for the large group meditation here.  
> 
> As I suggested, still in kindergarten.
> 
> To provide some contrast, I have checked out dozens of
> spiritual traditions over the years since I walked away
> from the TMO. I have received instruction from many of
> them. NOT ONE OF THEM ever suggested that I should not
> "see other teachers" or avoid learning things from other
> traditions. Many of them suggested exactly the opposite,
> that I *should* continue to explore other spiritual paths
> and traditions, and that if I found any of them interesting
> I was free to either leave (with no hard feelings) and
> join the other tradition I explored, or continue to visit
> both groups. 


That's a precise recipe for spiritual confusion. Blending different traditions 
with different energies is one of the most foolish things a seeker can do. 
A confusion which you, BTW, expose here on a daily basis. I mean, you are not 
even able to substantiate your claims of long periods of Samadhi in meditation.

[FairfieldLife] Re: Trollin' and Tumblin'

[Richard J. Williams]

turquoiseb:
> I have checked out dozens of spiritual 
> traditions over the years since I walked 
> away from the TMO. I have received 
> instruction from many of them...
>
So, we know already about your experience
learning meditation from Rama, but what
other teachers have you studied meditation 
with? 

Are you certified to teach anything?

Apparently you are very advanced in your
meditation training but you fail to provide 
any details, which is the purpose of this
thread, right? It's your thread, Barry, so 
let's have some spiritual instruction. 

Oh, I get it - you're not allowed to give 
out secret information about techniques. 

LoL!

[FairfieldLife] Re: Trollin' and Tumblin'

[nablusoss1008]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb  wrote:

Yeah, right. Having experienced (as Nabby and Judy never
> have) what a more focused form of meditation can produce
> in terms of the number of thoughts in one's head, vs. 
> TM, call me crazy but I prefer the silence of samadhi.
> They prefer sitting there with a head full of thoughts.


And we are still waiting for your description of how it is like to really 
experience "20 minutes without thoughts" that you claim to have on a regular 
basis.

Could it be that your fear of sharing your experiences leads a lot of people 
here to believe you are bluffing ?

[FairfieldLife] Re: Lying

[Xenophaneros Anartaxius]

I looked it up this morning but as you found it on the same site I did... I had 
just that chapter in a book, with no annotations about translation, and did not 
even compare the version in the book with what I came up with online. The book 
which had the excerpt was called the *The Penguin Book of Lies, an Anthology 
Edited by Philip Kerr,* with various essays about deception from a wide range 
of authors and eras.

I tried to find a text version of the table of contents for this book, and I 
typed into amazon.com "Peguin Book of Lies" misspelling Penguin and the first 
book that came up in the search was a translation of the Bhagavad Gita!


--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend"  wrote:
>
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Xenophaneros Anartaxius"  
> wrote:
> >
> > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend"  wrote:
> > >
> > > Editorial comment: I have no idea how faithful this
> > > translation is to the original, but just on its own
> > > terms, it's a model of syntactical elegance and
> > > clarity. I'd guess it does reflect those same
> > > qualities in the Italian. Very satisfying to read
> > > just for the "music" (and the content is pretty
> > > good too).
> > > 
> > > Any idea who the translator was, Xeno?
> > 
> > No I do not. If I have more time later on maybe I can see if
> > I can find it again on the Internet and see if in fact the 
> > translator is mentioned. Sometimes if you type a particular
> > phrase into Google, you can find sources of a quotation.
> > Family matters intrude - good evening.
> 
> Found it. (I thought you might own the book and could just
> look on the flyleaf.) It's W.K. Marriott, 1908. Complete
> text is here (among many other sites, including as a free
> e-book download):
> 
> http://www.constitution.org/mac/prince00.htm
> 
> Couldn't find anything about Marriott himself (assume
> it's a him) on the Web, but he's done a lot of translating.
> 
> 
> 
> > 
> > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Xenophaneros Anartaxius" 
> > >  wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Concerning The Way In Which Princes Should Keep Faith
> > > > 
> > > > by Nicolo Machiavelli
> > > > 
> > > > Every one admits how praiseworthy it is in a prince to keep faith, and 
> > > > to live with integrity and not with craft. Nevertheless our experience 
> > > > has been that those princes who have done great things have held good 
> > > > faith of little account, and have known how to circumvent the intellect 
> > > > of men by craft, and in the end have overcome those who have relied on 
> > > > their word. You must know there are two ways of contesting, the one by 
> > > > the law, the other by force; the first method is proper to men, the 
> > > > second to beasts; but because the first is frequently not sufficient, 
> > > > it is necessary to have recourse to the second. Therefore it is 
> > > > necessary for a prince to understand how to avail himself of the beast 
> > > > and the man. This has been figuratively taught to princes by ancient 
> > > > writers, who describe how Achilles and many other princes of old were 
> > > > given to the Centaur Chiron to nurse, who brought them up in his 
> > > > discipline; which means solely that, as they had for a teacher one who 
> > > > was half beast and half man, so it is necessary for a prince to know 
> > > > how to make use of both natures, and that one without the other is not 
> > > > durable. 
> > > > 
> > > > A prince, therefore, being compelled knowingly to adopt the beast, 
> > > > ought to choose the fox and the lion; because the lion cannot defend 
> > > > himself against snares and the fox cannot defend himself against 
> > > > wolves. Therefore, it is necessary to be a fox to discover the snares 
> > > > and a lion to terrify the wolves. Those who rely simply on the lion do 
> > > > not understand what they are about. Therefore a wise lord cannot, nor 
> > > > ought he to, keep faith when such observance may be turned against him, 
> > > > and when the reasons that caused him to pledge it exist no longer. If 
> > > > men were entirely good this precept would not hold, but because they 
> > > > are bad, and will not keep faith with you, you too are not bound to 
> > > > observe it with them. Nor will there ever be wanting to a prince 
> > > > legitimate reasons to excuse this nonobservance. Of this endless modern 
> > > > examples could be given, showing how many treaties and engagements have 
> > > > been made void and of no effect through the faithlessness of princes; 
> > > > and he who has known best how to employ the fox has succeeded best.
> > > > 
> > > > But it is necessary to know well how to disguise this characteristic, 
> > > > and to be a great pretender and dissembler; and men are so simple, and 
> > > > so subject to present necessities, that he who seeks to deceive will 
> > > > always find someone who will allow himself to be deceived. One recent 
> > > > example I cannot pass over in silence. Alexander VI 

[FairfieldLife] Re: Fwd: Obama

[Richard J. Williams]

wgm4u:
> Obama missed his calling, it was the economy when 
> he was elected and alas, it's still the economy...
>
"Ryan is arguing that we are on an unsustainable 
course that will lead inevitably to a debt crisis 
requiring far more painful adjustments than anything 
he is proposing. He notes that the Congressional 
Budget Office cannot even model the economy past 
2027 because of looming debt. Think Greece..."

'Ryan's budget kicks the can at timorous Democrats'
Washington Examiner, March 20, 2012
http://tinyurl.com/865wanm

[FairfieldLife] UFO portal in the sky seen all around the world 2012

[nablusoss1008]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VWQL07ufy4

[FairfieldLife] Re: Fwd: Obama

[Richard J. Williams]

> > So, if you don't agree with Obama's policies, then 
> > you're a racist.
> >
Duveyoung:
> And you're a racist too.  
>
So, if you don't agree with Obama's policies, then 
you're a racist.

> Sue me for slander. 
>
You're not making any sense, Ed.

> See who wins the lawsuit after all your posts ere 
> are offered to ANY JURY.  
> 
So, we are agreed, but what posts would that be, Ed?

> > > Even if all the below is true, you're a racist.  
> > >
> > So, if you don't agree with Obama's policies, then 
> > you're a racist.
> > 
> > > What kind of hell is the inside of your head like?
> > >   
> > > 
> > It must be true, otherwise you would probably have 
> > posted a rebuttal. 
> > 
> > "The question is, can he run on his record in 2012, 
> > and the answer is no, because it's abysmal. He took 
> > a trillion dollars and where it went, nobody knows. 
> > He dismantled healthcare, he weakened America around 
> > the world, he sold out the State of Israel. All he's 
> > got to run on is being a Democrat and indicting the 
> > other fellow..."
> > 
> > Posted by Glenn Reynolds:
> > http://pajamasmedia.com/tatler/2011/06/14/mamet-on-obama/

[FairfieldLife] Re: Trollin' and Tumblin'

[authfriend]

Bar, if you hadn't been a TM teacher for many years,
it would be possible to chalk up your "daydreaming"
rap to ignorance or misunderstanding.

Here again is the question I asked that you didn't
dare answer:

When you were a TM teacher, if some TMer who had
been meditating for only a year or two bragged that
they were so talented they could sit in samadhi at
will for 10-20 minutes at a time, what would you
have told them?

Or, for that matter, what would you have told a 
newbie TMer if they asked you about any of the
claims you make below?

All you need to do in response is "parrot," 
nothing fancy. Pretend you don't know a thing
about any other technique.



--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb  wrote:
>
> For those who haven't gotten it yet, me describing
> what the definition of what it takes to achieve the
> level of "talented beginner" in many forms of med-
> itation was a bit of a troll. 
> 
> It's all true, and fairly basic knowledge for anyone
> who knows anything about the wider world of meditation
> outside of TM, but the point I was trying to make was
> that diehard, "one-pointed" TM meditators don't know
> anything *about* the wider world of meditation. They
> *settled* for what they were told about meditation
> by Maharishi and his parrots. I likened this to 
> having decided to remain in kindergarten, rather
> than deciding to continue to learn.
> 
> True, there is a lot of pressure placed on TMers *to*
> remain in kindergarten. They are not only discouraged
> from learning anything more about the wider world of
> meditation, they are actually *punished* if they do so.
> Think I'm exaggerating? Go to an introductory course
> in any other form of meditation other than TM, then
> apply for a dome pass and admit it. See what happens
> to you.
> 
> Here's my theory of why TM *is* a form of spiritual
> kindergarten. I don't claim that it's Truth, merely my
> theory. 
> 
> Maharishi was never allowed to be part of any of Guru
> Dev's formal teachings. He was the wrong caste, and 
> would never have been allowed to teach any form of 
> yoga or meditation within the Shankaracharya tradition. 
> It seems likely, given the accounts of Paul Mason and 
> others who were in Guru Dev's ashram with him, that
> he was never instructed formally in any of the forms 
> meditation (some of them concentration-based) that 
> Guru Dev taught to his real students. 
> 
> So after GD's death, when Maharishi discovered that 
> sitting in a cave like his guru told him to do wasn't
> really his cuppa tea, and decided to go out into the
> world and teach meditation, he decided to teach the
> only form of meditation he'd ever been able to master
> himself. That is, daydreaming.
> 
> That (from the point of view of the wider world of
> meditation) is what TM is. You sit there lost in 
> thought, coming back to the mantra only when you wake
> up enough to recognize that you're not thinking it any
> more. That, in most forms of meditation in the world,
> is defined as daydreaming, not meditating. But MMY's
> genius (if you can call it that) was to describe this
> process of lazy daydreaming *as* meditation, and to
> tell people that by sitting there with a mind full of
> thoughts were doing meditation *correctly*. All of
> these thoughts filling your mind were *not* the result
> of a lazy mind or a lack of ability to focus; they were 
> the result of meditating *correctly*. "Something good 
> is happening." "Some stress is being released."
> 
> Yeah, right. Having experienced (as Nabby and Judy never
> have) what a more focused form of meditation can produce
> in terms of the number of thoughts in one's head, vs. 
> TM, call me crazy but I prefer the silence of samadhi.
> They prefer sitting there with a head full of thoughts.
> 
> They, having been taught to regard it so, consider sit-
> ting there with a bunch of thoughts in their heads -- 
> for *decades* -- to not only be "correct meditation,"
> but the BEST meditation, the "highest truth." That's
> why I refer to it as spiritual kindergarten.
> 
> And IMO they're reacting as I suspected they would, 
> going for epithets and character assassination, rather
> than simply admitting the truth -- that they know so 
> little about the wider world of meditation that they
> effectively *have* settled for staying in kindergarten
> for a lifetime. And they'll probably continue to do so,
> trying to find any excuse they can to "shoot the
> messenger," and clinging to their Dick and Jane dogma
> as if it were really "the highest truth." In other 
> words, they'll act a lot like the kindergarteners I 
> described them as.
>

[FairfieldLife] Re: Trollin' and Tumblin'

[Richard J. Williams]

turquoiseb
> If you wish to compare TM to some other form of med-
> itation, with the idea of declaring it "better," do
> so *based on your own personal experience with the
> two techniques you are comparing*.
>
You are really asking a lot from the current forum
informants, Barry!

After 'just sitting' with Suzuki for some time and allowing
my mantra to come of it's own accord I began to realize
that 'just sitting' without the mantra would really be 'dead
sitting' and THAT is what prompted me to try the Rinzai
Zen approach. It may be that Dogen Kigen got caught in
the infinite regress you mention for he is VERY wordy.
Soto Zen style is the epitome of 'control techniques' as
you may know, so I was somewhat surprised at the
almost opposite approach of Rinzai Zen.

So, I attended the Zendo of one Samuel L. Lewis on
Precita Avenue in San Francisco for about a year. Lewis
was a disciple of the Zen Master Nyogen Sensaki, who
opened the first official Rinzai Zendo in the U.S. and was
the first Zen Master to live in the United States for any
length of time.

Apparently, Nyogen Sensaki had empowered both Lewis
and Paul Reps to teach Rinzai Zen. Reps collaborated
with Sensaki to produce the book 'Zen Flesh. Zen Bones'.


  

Lewis was adamantly opposed to the Soto Zen approach
of Shunryo Suzuki. I can remember countless hours at
the Rinzai Zendo listening to Lewis reviewing the koans
and commenting on the 101 Zen stories form the book.
the Mumonkan. We often met on Alan Watt's houseboat
'The Vallejo' for 'sesshin.'

Shortly thereafter, around 1967, I attended the first
tantric puja which was performed by Lama Tarthang
Tulku in Berkeley. Right away I was fascinated by the
Vajrayana approach!

The Vairayana philosophy recognizes that to trigger the
reality-structurer it is important simply to feed the
bio-computer the proper symbols.

Tantra is a meta-program, a set of symbols which
enables the bio-computer to communicate with the
structurally subtler levels of the nervous system that
control the realitiy-structurer.

If we cannot acquire the attitude necessary to trigger the
reality-structurer, we may, like the Vajrayana yogin,
simply choose an arbitrary symbol (M. Talbot, 1980). It
is often easier to visualize simple mnemonic hierarchies
than it is to deal with highly abstract philosophies!

As Blofeld explains, "The purpose of visualization is to
gain control of the mind, become skilled in creating
mental constructions, make contact with power forces
(themselves the products of mind) and achieve higher
states of consciousness in which the non-existence of
own-being and the non-dual nature of reality are
transformed from intellectual concepts into experiential
consciousness - non-duality is no longer just believed
but felt.

In short, tantric visualization is a yoga of the mind. It
produces quick results by utilizing forces familiar to
man only at the subtler levels of consciousness, of
which ordinary people rarely become aware except in
dreams.

These are the forces wherewith mind creates and
animates the whole universe; ordinarily they are not
ours to command, for until the false ego is negated or
unless we employ yogic means to transcend its bounds,
our individual minds functions it were, like small
puddles isolated from the great ocean" (J. Blofield 1970).

"Just sitting.
No effort. No control.
Thoughts come.
Words fail!
The rain poured on Buddha's natal day!"

Read more:
http://www.rwilliams.us/archives.htm


'Zen Flesh Zen Bones'
A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings
by Paul Reps and Nyogen Senzaki
http://tinyurl.com/78x3yg7 

[FairfieldLife] Re: Trollin' and Tumblin'

[turquoiseb]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Buck"  wrote:
>
> Turq, I don't think you'll get a statistically valid response 
> here from readers of FFL because so many who do lurk here are 
> still under the thumb of the TM course office to get valid 
> dome badges for the large group meditation here.  

As I suggested, still in kindergarten.

To provide some contrast, I have checked out dozens of
spiritual traditions over the years since I walked away
from the TMO. I have received instruction from many of
them. NOT ONE OF THEM ever suggested that I should not
"see other teachers" or avoid learning things from other
traditions. Many of them suggested exactly the opposite,
that I *should* continue to explore other spiritual paths
and traditions, and that if I found any of them interesting
I was free to either leave (with no hard feelings) and
join the other tradition I explored, or continue to visit
both groups. 

I know that there are other spiritual groups out there 
that are as restrictive and as spiritually fascist as the
TMO, and that forbid their students from visiting other
teachers or traditions. But I personally have never 
encountered any of them. The ONLY spiritual group or
tradition I've ever studied with that suggested that I
should not learn from others was the TMO.

> That is their choice and people deal with that dissonance 
> in their own ways. FFL is too public a forum for most to 
> safely answer your troll.  

And this is what you want people to "come back to?"
Get real.

> The TM course office interrogators work FFL and do create 
> files on people. To get a more accurate sample you'd have 
> to ask people more directly out on the street in a more 
> private way. You can learn a lot that way. 

I dunno. I learned a lot just from reading your response.
It suggests to me that not only were TMers in my day stuck
in a kind of spiritual kindergarten, many still are. 

Think about what you said, "Buck." You are suggesting that
grown men and women -- who you often tout as better or more
highly evolved than "non-meditators" -- are so terrified of
(or should be terrified of) the organization that taught 
them TM that they should be afraid to speak up on a public
forum. What a fuckin' waste of life. Hope you're happy with
the Play-Doh and the Legos, dude. 


> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb  wrote:
> >
> > Just to cover the bases, and to extend the troll 
> > a bit :-), I have no problem with those who are 
> > happy with TM and have no desire to ever learn any 
> > other form of meditation. What I object to is these 
> > people acting as if they know anything about these 
> > other forms of meditation they've never experienced.
> > 
> > So if anyone would like to dispute my theory below
> > (and a theory -- opinion -- is all that it is), I
> > would suggest you do so. Chime in and present your
> > own theory, or theories.
> > 
> > BUT, and here's where the challenge comes in, try 
> > to do so without parroting what you have been told
> > by Maharishi and his parrot-teachers.  
> > 
> > If you wish to compare TM to some other form of med-
> > itation, with the idea of declaring it "better," do
> > so *based on your own personal experience with the
> > two techniques you are comparing*. 
> > 
> > Those who can are speaking from personal experience,
> > and thus are IMO a significant notch higher in terms
> > of believability than those who have experienced only
> > one of the techniques they are discussing. The latter
> > are only repeating what they were told by someone else,
> > dare I say it, the same way that kindergarteners 
> > repeat the things they were told. 
> > 
> > IMO, having a valid opinion about an experience pretty
> > much depends on whether you've ever *had* that exper-
> > ience. If you have never practiced any form of meditation
> > but TM, I don't see that you have very much to say about
> > any of these other forms. So when you respond to this
> > post, please tell us 1) when and where you learned the
> > technique(s) of meditation you are comparing to TM, 2)
> > whether you learned it(them) from a book or directly from 
> > a teacher, 3) how long and how regularly you practiced
> > this(these) other technique(s), etc. 
> > 
> > If you fail to do this, you'll have to excuse me if I
> > suspect that you're talking through your hat, and merely
> > repeating something you were told by someone else...dare
> > I say it, the same way kindergarteners do.
> > 
> > FFL *could* be an interesting forum on which to discuss
> > the wider world of meditation, 1) if more people had 
> > actually experienced this wider world of meditation, and
> > 2) if in describing other forms and comparing them to TM
> > they were speaking from experience, and not just repeating
> > dogma. I know that many here *have* left the sandbox behind
> > and learned other forms of meditation. If any of you feel
> > like comparing them to TM, I'd love to hear it. But those
> > who feel that they have 

[FairfieldLife] Re: Trollin' and Tumblin'

[Buck]

Turq, I don't think you'll get a statistically valid response here from readers 
of FFL because so many who do lurk here are still under the thumb of the TM 
course office to get valid dome badges for the large group meditation here.  
That is their choice and people deal with that dissonance in their own ways.  
FFL is too public a forum for most to safely answer your troll.  The TM course 
office interrogators work FFL and do create files on people.  To get a more 
accurate sample you'd have to ask people more directly out on the street in a 
more private way.  You can learn a lot that way. 
-Buck in FF

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb  wrote:
>
> Just to cover the bases, and to extend the troll 
> a bit :-), I have no problem with those who are 
> happy with TM and have no desire to ever learn any 
> other form of meditation. What I object to is these 
> people acting as if they know anything about these 
> other forms of meditation they've never experienced.
> 
> So if anyone would like to dispute my theory below
> (and a theory -- opinion -- is all that it is), I
> would suggest you do so. Chime in and present your
> own theory, or theories.
> 
> BUT, and here's where the challenge comes in, try 
> to do so without parroting what you have been told
> by Maharishi and his parrot-teachers.  
> 
> If you wish to compare TM to some other form of med-
> itation, with the idea of declaring it "better," do
> so *based on your own personal experience with the
> two techniques you are comparing*. 
> 
> Those who can are speaking from personal experience,
> and thus are IMO a significant notch higher in terms
> of believability than those who have experienced only
> one of the techniques they are discussing. The latter
> are only repeating what they were told by someone else,
> dare I say it, the same way that kindergarteners 
> repeat the things they were told. 
> 
> IMO, having a valid opinion about an experience pretty
> much depends on whether you've ever *had* that exper-
> ience. If you have never practiced any form of meditation
> but TM, I don't see that you have very much to say about
> any of these other forms. So when you respond to this
> post, please tell us 1) when and where you learned the
> technique(s) of meditation you are comparing to TM, 2)
> whether you learned it(them) from a book or directly from 
> a teacher, 3) how long and how regularly you practiced
> this(these) other technique(s), etc. 
> 
> If you fail to do this, you'll have to excuse me if I
> suspect that you're talking through your hat, and merely
> repeating something you were told by someone else...dare
> I say it, the same way kindergarteners do.
> 
> FFL *could* be an interesting forum on which to discuss
> the wider world of meditation, 1) if more people had 
> actually experienced this wider world of meditation, and
> 2) if in describing other forms and comparing them to TM
> they were speaking from experience, and not just repeating
> dogma. I know that many here *have* left the sandbox behind
> and learned other forms of meditation. If any of you feel
> like comparing them to TM, I'd love to hear it. But those
> who feel that they have the right to compare TM to tech-
> niques of meditation *they have never experienced*, please
> start by describing why what anyone should believe you if
> all that you're doing is parroting someone else's opinion, 
> never having had the experience necessary to develop your 
> own.
> 
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb  wrote:
> >
> > For those who haven't gotten it yet, me describing
> > what the definition of what it takes to achieve the
> > level of "talented beginner" in many forms of med-
> > itation was a bit of a troll. 
> > 
> > It's all true, and fairly basic knowledge for anyone
> > who knows anything about the wider world of meditation
> > outside of TM, but the point I was trying to make was
> > that diehard, "one-pointed" TM meditators don't know
> > anything *about* the wider world of meditation. They
> > *settled* for what they were told about meditation
> > by Maharishi and his parrots. I likened this to 
> > having decided to remain in kindergarten, rather
> > than deciding to continue to learn.
> > 
> > True, there is a lot of pressure placed on TMers *to*
> > remain in kindergarten. They are not only discouraged
> > from learning anything more about the wider world of
> > meditation, they are actually *punished* if they do so.
> > Think I'm exaggerating? Go to an introductory course
> > in any other form of meditation other than TM, then
> > apply for a dome pass and admit it. See what happens
> > to you.
> > 
> > Here's my theory of why TM *is* a form of spiritual
> > kindergarten. I don't claim that it's Truth, merely my
> > theory. 
> > 
> > Maharishi was never allowed to be part of any of Guru
> > Dev's formal teachings. He was the wrong caste, and 
> > would never have been allowed to teach any form of 
> > yoga or meditation withi

[FairfieldLife] Next "breakthrough" in photography??

[cardemaister]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT2tAqcWP4o

[FairfieldLife] Asian Call-Girls Forced to take Steroids

[Jason]

 
The horrifying fate of prostitutes forced to take steroids 
in order to look 'healthier' for their clients
 
 
By Reuters Reporter
PUBLISHED: 21:26 GMT, 20 March 2012 
UPDATED: 23:35 GMT, 20 March 2012

 
Their faces painted heavy with make-up, teenage girls in 
short, tight blouses and long petticoats loiter in squalid 
alleys, laughing and gesturing to potential clients who roam 
Tangail town's infamous red light area in the early evening. 
  
The neighborhood of around a hundred of buildings with more 
than 800 small rooms is one of the 14 official brothels of 
Bangladesh, but are in essence a prison for around 900 sex 
workers. The young sex workers of this brothel must serve at 
least 10-15 customers each day. 

It is common practice among prostitutes of Kandapara brothel 
in Tangail to take steroids like Oradexon — a steroid used 
by farmers to fatten their cattle. The drug can be found in 
any tea or cigarette stall around the brothel. It increases 
their appetite, making them gain weight rapidly and giving 
the appearance that these poorly nourished teens are in fact 
healthy and older - attracting clients who prefer girls with 
"curves".

There is no shortage of men looking for 'company' in 
Kandapara slum, a labyrinth of tiny lanes - lined 
cheek-by-jowl with corrugated iron shacks - a few hours 
drive northeast of Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka.   
But with rates as low as 50 taka (38p), the need to attract 
as many customers as possible is desperate - prompting a 
rising, yet dangerous, trend of steroid abuse among 
adolescent sex workers to 'enhance' their appearance.  

'There is a huge difference between my appearance now and 
the malnourished look of my childhood,'says Hashi, 17, who 
was lured into the sex trade by a trafficker when she was 10 
and sold to Kandapara's brothel, where she began taking 
steroids. 

'I am healthier than before and fit to serve a lot of 
customers in a day. Sometimes up to 15,' she says, placing a 
large black bindi, or dot used by Hindu women, between her 
perfectly shaped eyebrows.
  
She sits in her tiny room with a bed, a cooking stove and 
posters of Bollywood stars taped across the wall.   
 Hashi shows Oradexon, the steroid commonly taken by 
 prostitutes in order to appear more 'alluring' for men
Hashi is one of around 900 sex workers - some as young as 12 
- living a painful life of exploitation in Kandapara, not 
only bonded by debt and fear of stigma, but compelled to 
take the steroid, Oradexon, which brings more income but 
leaves dangerous side effects. 
 
Also known as Dexamethasone, Oradexon treats inflammation 
and allergies in humans and is used by farmers to fatten 
livestock. 
Charities say the over-the-counter drug is taken by 90 
percent of sex workers in Kandapara and the other 14 l 
egalised brothels across this impoverished South Asian 
nation.   The girls are first forced to take it by their 
madams, or 'sardarnis', who run the brothels.  

It increases their appetite, making them gain weight rapidly 
and giving the appearance that these poorly nourished teens 
are in fact healthy and older - attracting clients who 
prefer girls with 'curves'.  It also helps sardarnis keep 
the police away. The legal age for sex work in Bangladesh is 
18.  

The girls then continue to consume it, saying that it keeps 
them 'strong and healthy', which in turn will help them get 
more clients in a day so they can earn enough to survive.   
  
'My sardarni forced me to take a tablet. She beat me up and 
stopped giving food. She threatened me and reminded me about 
my loans,' says Hashi, who has a four-year-old son staying 
with relatives, whom she has not seen for two years.
'In this brothel, customers always look for healthy girls. I 
take Oradexon. I need customers so I can pay my bills and 
loans. If I don't get any customers one day, I cannot eat in 
the next day. I wish to save some money for my son.'
The story is the same with most of Kandapara's teenage sex 
workers, or 'chukris'

Sold for as little as 20,000 taka (£154) by their poor, 
rural families to traffickers, they are then traded on to 
brothel sardarnis, who are former prostitutes themselves and 
keep the teenagers in bonded sex work.    

The girls speak of being with up to 15 men in one day, but 
say their earnings are pocketed by their sardarnis, who tell 
them they have to work to pay off the money paid for them.  
   
Many girls have been in Kandapara's brothel for years, yet 
due to their illiteracy, they have no idea whether their 
debts have been cleared and what their rights are.  

Others, who have been left by their sardanis because they 
are too old or not-profitable, are in principle free to 
leave but choose not to, fearful of the social exclusion 
they will face in the conservative, Muslim society outside 
of Kandapara. 

Oradexon, they say, keeps them going, even though there are 
known risks associated with its long-term use.   

[FairfieldLife] Re: Trollin' and Tumblin'

[turquoiseb]

Just to cover the bases, and to extend the troll 
a bit :-), I have no problem with those who are 
happy with TM and have no desire to ever learn any 
other form of meditation. What I object to is these 
people acting as if they know anything about these 
other forms of meditation they've never experienced.

So if anyone would like to dispute my theory below
(and a theory -- opinion -- is all that it is), I
would suggest you do so. Chime in and present your
own theory, or theories.

BUT, and here's where the challenge comes in, try 
to do so without parroting what you have been told
by Maharishi and his parrot-teachers.  

If you wish to compare TM to some other form of med-
itation, with the idea of declaring it "better," do
so *based on your own personal experience with the
two techniques you are comparing*. 

Those who can are speaking from personal experience,
and thus are IMO a significant notch higher in terms
of believability than those who have experienced only
one of the techniques they are discussing. The latter
are only repeating what they were told by someone else,
dare I say it, the same way that kindergarteners 
repeat the things they were told. 

IMO, having a valid opinion about an experience pretty
much depends on whether you've ever *had* that exper-
ience. If you have never practiced any form of meditation
but TM, I don't see that you have very much to say about
any of these other forms. So when you respond to this
post, please tell us 1) when and where you learned the
technique(s) of meditation you are comparing to TM, 2)
whether you learned it(them) from a book or directly from 
a teacher, 3) how long and how regularly you practiced
this(these) other technique(s), etc. 

If you fail to do this, you'll have to excuse me if I
suspect that you're talking through your hat, and merely
repeating something you were told by someone else...dare
I say it, the same way kindergarteners do.

FFL *could* be an interesting forum on which to discuss
the wider world of meditation, 1) if more people had 
actually experienced this wider world of meditation, and
2) if in describing other forms and comparing them to TM
they were speaking from experience, and not just repeating
dogma. I know that many here *have* left the sandbox behind
and learned other forms of meditation. If any of you feel
like comparing them to TM, I'd love to hear it. But those
who feel that they have the right to compare TM to tech-
niques of meditation *they have never experienced*, please
start by describing why what anyone should believe you if
all that you're doing is parroting someone else's opinion, 
never having had the experience necessary to develop your 
own.

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb  wrote:
>
> For those who haven't gotten it yet, me describing
> what the definition of what it takes to achieve the
> level of "talented beginner" in many forms of med-
> itation was a bit of a troll. 
> 
> It's all true, and fairly basic knowledge for anyone
> who knows anything about the wider world of meditation
> outside of TM, but the point I was trying to make was
> that diehard, "one-pointed" TM meditators don't know
> anything *about* the wider world of meditation. They
> *settled* for what they were told about meditation
> by Maharishi and his parrots. I likened this to 
> having decided to remain in kindergarten, rather
> than deciding to continue to learn.
> 
> True, there is a lot of pressure placed on TMers *to*
> remain in kindergarten. They are not only discouraged
> from learning anything more about the wider world of
> meditation, they are actually *punished* if they do so.
> Think I'm exaggerating? Go to an introductory course
> in any other form of meditation other than TM, then
> apply for a dome pass and admit it. See what happens
> to you.
> 
> Here's my theory of why TM *is* a form of spiritual
> kindergarten. I don't claim that it's Truth, merely my
> theory. 
> 
> Maharishi was never allowed to be part of any of Guru
> Dev's formal teachings. He was the wrong caste, and 
> would never have been allowed to teach any form of 
> yoga or meditation within the Shankaracharya tradition. 
> It seems likely, given the accounts of Paul Mason and 
> others who were in Guru Dev's ashram with him, that
> he was never instructed formally in any of the forms 
> meditation (some of them concentration-based) that 
> Guru Dev taught to his real students. 
> 
> So after GD's death, when Maharishi discovered that 
> sitting in a cave like his guru told him to do wasn't
> really his cuppa tea, and decided to go out into the
> world and teach meditation, he decided to teach the
> only form of meditation he'd ever been able to master
> himself. That is, daydreaming.
> 
> That (from the point of view of the wider world of
> meditation) is what TM is. You sit there lost in 
> thought, coming back to the mantra only when you wake
> up enough to recognize that you're not thinking it any
> more. That, in most forms of me

[FairfieldLife] Indian Divorce Law amendment

[Jason]

 
Equality in marriage lawBy Sobhana K | www.telegraphindia.com – Sat 24 Mar, 2012
 

..New Delhi, March 23: 
The cabinet today approved a bill that, if passed, could 
remove a financial constraint that deters many women locked 
in abusive marriages from seeking divorce.

The Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill 2010 aims to give women 
the right to stake claim to property bought by their 
husbands within the duration of the marriage, apart from 
introducing "irretrievable breakdown of marriage" as a new 
ground for seeking divorce. (See chart)

Social activists say that under current laws, property 
remains with the spouse in whose name it has been bought or 
registered, who usually happens to be the husband. So, a 
woman is left with hardly any financial support after 
divorce apart from the "maintenance" granted by the courts, 
which is generally a small fraction of the husband's 
purported earnings.

The bill, however, refrains from fixing the share of the 
property wives are entitled to, leaving it to the courts to 
decide case by case. Activists fear this might condemn the 
wives to an unequal legal battle with their husbands.

"We had demanded the right to equal share of property," said 
women's rights advocate and former Law Commission member 
Kirti Singh.

"Leaving it to the discretion of the courts is not enough 
because we have seen that this discretion is not exercised 
properly. Women are routinely doled out symbolic sums as 
maintenance by the courts."

Singh said the new property rights were necessary because in 
four out of five Indian divorces now, the woman has no place 
to go to and is forced to live with her parents.

"When the wife has helped in building the home, why should 
the man walk away with all the gains just because he is the 
only earning member? How can we devalue the contribution 
made by the women in keeping the home together?"

The ancestral properties of the husband or wife do not come 
under the ambit of this provision.

Singh was, however, critical of the bill's provision for 
divorce on the new ground of "irretrievable breakdown of 
marriage", pleaded by either spouse, despite the safeguards 
it has introduced for women.

According to the cabinet note, a wife can oppose a husband's 
plea for divorce under the new clause even on the ground 
that annulment of marriage would leave her under grave 
financial hardship. But a husband cannot oppose a wife's 
plea for divorce under the clause.

Singh, however, said: "This is giving the men the easy way 
out considering that the bill does not define the concept of 
'irretrievable breakdown'. It could be very subjective."

The cabinet go-ahead to the bill may reflect a nascent but 
growing trend of breaking with a past whose laws and 
regulations often treated women as the invisible sex.

One recent instance is the framing of the Border Security 
Force's recruitment rules for the Combatised Paramedics 
Group C in 2009, an exercise that appeared to have remained 
oblivious to the fact that many women now work for the 
force. Against the requirement for "chest", the rules said: 
"Should be well developed".

Only after a parliamentary panel rapped the home ministry 
was this changed, in 2010, to "not applicable" for women. 
The panel's report, tabled last Wednesday, says the original 
entry was "not only undesirable but also derogatory in 
nature, especially when it concerns women candidates".

The Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill 2010 also says the courts 
will be free to waive the "cooling-off period", usually a 
minimum of six months, for couples before they enter a joint 
plea for divorce. The original draft had suggested doing 
away with this waiting period altogether but this was 
opposed by a parliamentary standing committee.

The bill also aims to give the adopted children of divorcing 
couples the same rights as the couple's biological children.
Introduced in the Rajya Sabha on August 4, 2010, the bill 
was referred to a parliamentary standing committee headed by 
Jayanti Natarajan the same month.
 
The current grounds for divorce include, among other things, 
adultery, conversion to another religion, unsoundness of 
mind, a virulent and incurable form of leprosy, venereal 
disease in a communicable form, renouncement of the world 
and not having been heard of as being alive for a period of 
seven years. The provisions for seeking divorce for cruelty 
and desertion were introduced only in 1974.

in.news.yahoo.com/equality-marriage-law-214105538.html

[FairfieldLife] Trollin' and Tumblin'

[turquoiseb]

For those who haven't gotten it yet, me describing
what the definition of what it takes to achieve the
level of "talented beginner" in many forms of med-
itation was a bit of a troll. 

It's all true, and fairly basic knowledge for anyone
who knows anything about the wider world of meditation
outside of TM, but the point I was trying to make was
that diehard, "one-pointed" TM meditators don't know
anything *about* the wider world of meditation. They
*settled* for what they were told about meditation
by Maharishi and his parrots. I likened this to 
having decided to remain in kindergarten, rather
than deciding to continue to learn.

True, there is a lot of pressure placed on TMers *to*
remain in kindergarten. They are not only discouraged
from learning anything more about the wider world of
meditation, they are actually *punished* if they do so.
Think I'm exaggerating? Go to an introductory course
in any other form of meditation other than TM, then
apply for a dome pass and admit it. See what happens
to you.

Here's my theory of why TM *is* a form of spiritual
kindergarten. I don't claim that it's Truth, merely my
theory. 

Maharishi was never allowed to be part of any of Guru
Dev's formal teachings. He was the wrong caste, and 
would never have been allowed to teach any form of 
yoga or meditation within the Shankaracharya tradition. 
It seems likely, given the accounts of Paul Mason and 
others who were in Guru Dev's ashram with him, that
he was never instructed formally in any of the forms 
meditation (some of them concentration-based) that 
Guru Dev taught to his real students. 

So after GD's death, when Maharishi discovered that 
sitting in a cave like his guru told him to do wasn't
really his cuppa tea, and decided to go out into the
world and teach meditation, he decided to teach the
only form of meditation he'd ever been able to master
himself. That is, daydreaming.

That (from the point of view of the wider world of
meditation) is what TM is. You sit there lost in 
thought, coming back to the mantra only when you wake
up enough to recognize that you're not thinking it any
more. That, in most forms of meditation in the world,
is defined as daydreaming, not meditating. But MMY's
genius (if you can call it that) was to describe this
process of lazy daydreaming *as* meditation, and to
tell people that by sitting there with a mind full of
thoughts were doing meditation *correctly*. All of
these thoughts filling your mind were *not* the result
of a lazy mind or a lack of ability to focus; they were 
the result of meditating *correctly*. "Something good 
is happening." "Some stress is being released."

Yeah, right. Having experienced (as Nabby and Judy never
have) what a more focused form of meditation can produce
in terms of the number of thoughts in one's head, vs. 
TM, call me crazy but I prefer the silence of samadhi.
They prefer sitting there with a head full of thoughts.

They, having been taught to regard it so, consider sit-
ting there with a bunch of thoughts in their heads -- 
for *decades* -- to not only be "correct meditation,"
but the BEST meditation, the "highest truth." That's
why I refer to it as spiritual kindergarten.

And IMO they're reacting as I suspected they would, 
going for epithets and character assassination, rather
than simply admitting the truth -- that they know so 
little about the wider world of meditation that they
effectively *have* settled for staying in kindergarten
for a lifetime. And they'll probably continue to do so,
trying to find any excuse they can to "shoot the
messenger," and clinging to their Dick and Jane dogma
as if it were really "the highest truth." In other 
words, they'll act a lot like the kindergarteners I 
described them as.