[FairfieldLife] Post Count Mon 30-Mar-15 00:15:05 UTC

2015-03-29 Thread FFL PostCount ffl.postco...@gmail.com [FairfieldLife]
Fairfield Life Post Counter
===
Start Date (UTC): 03/28/15 00:00:00
End Date (UTC): 04/04/15 00:00:00
106 messages as of (UTC) 03/29/15 23:43:45

 19 richard
 16 LEnglish5
 15 TurquoiseBee turquoiseb
  8 anartaxius
  6 yifuxero
  5 s3raphita
  5 dhamiltony2k5
  5 Michael Jackson mjackson74
  5 Bhairitu noozguru
  4 jason_green2
  3 jr_esq
  3 emily.mae50
  3 email4you mikemail4you
  2 ultrarishi 
  2 salyavin808 
  2 Mike Dixon mdixon.6569
  1 hepa7
  1 feste37 
  1 eustace10679 
Posters: 19
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[FairfieldLife] Re: Mind of the Meditator

2015-03-29 Thread lengli...@cox.net [FairfieldLife]
Does the term simile mean anything to you? 

 Moving along the ground as a frog jumps probably doesn't mean your legs turn 
green, but that you move in a series of short hops, or so I would interpret it.
 

 

 L
 

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

 Absolutely!  The Dome but-bouncers can even come close to the hopping of real 
frogs. Refer to the websites on the frog-jumping contests at the Calaveras 
County fair. One site shows Larry the Cable Guy holding one of the champion 
frogs.  Larry would'nt be caught dead in the Domes. 
 





Re: [FairfieldLife] Kalama Sutra, a Buddhist text

2015-03-29 Thread rich...@rwilliams.us [FairfieldLife]

 A reliance on religious scriptures in order win a debate? 

So, you believe that a pre-historical Buddha reached enlightenment and that is 
excellent. But how exactly, would you be knowing whether anyone is an 
enlightened Buddha, or not? Go figure. Can anyone explain cognitive dissonance? 
Thanks.

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

 Excellent. See the post I just made to JR. 
 

 From: yifuxero@... [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
 To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
 Sent: Sunday, March 29, 2015 1:55 AM
 Subject: [FairfieldLife] Kalama Sutra, a Buddhist text
 
 
   
 Kālāma Sūtra  - [from YouTube]
Rely not on the teacher, but on the teaching.
Rely not on the words of the teaching, but on the spirit of the words.
Rely not on theory, but on experience.

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.
Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many 
generations.
Do not believe anything because it is spoken and rumored by many.
Do not believe in anything because it is written in your religious books.
Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.

But after observation and analysis,
when you find that anything agrees with reason
and is conducive to the good and the benefit of one and all,
then accept it and live up to it ~

 


 


 











[FairfieldLife] Re: Mind of the Meditator

2015-03-29 Thread anartax...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]
Here is a question: If we assume there is a human experience-able ground state 
to the universe (i.e., enlightenment), and different meditation systems claim 
this can be experienced, is the result the experience of the same ground state 
with different flavours of the experience due to the differences in 
physiological state, or is the result the experience of two different ground 
states due to the differences of physiological state? If the former, what is 
the nature of truth if it is not an identical experience, and if the latter, if 
there are two different truths, what does that say about truth?
 

---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, LEnglish5@... wrote :

 We were debating? 

 Hmmm.
 

 My argument: TM leads to a different style of physiological functioning than 
mindfulness does, and so, to claim that they are spiritually identical doesn't 
make sense, if you by Maharishi's theory that spirituality is based on the 
physical functioning of the nervous system.
 

 Anartaxius' argument: No it doesn't, and research isn't good enough to show 
differences, and even if they DO show differences, it doesn't matter. So there.
 

 

 L
 

---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, dhamiltony2k5@... wrote :

 Anartaxius, really great quotes for this debate. This is some of your best 
writing here in style: clear, precise and shortly said as a knock-out punch 
delivered. Thanks, yes their assumptions and own minds clearly are a problem 
these spock-like guys have for this thing as they try in method to do the big 
put-down of all other meditations, other than TM.  ..by verbal mental 
reductionism. 
  
 An irony in this whole thing though that they try to do with co-opting 
meditation is that their TM-sidhis, the TM-Ved and Physiology practice, and 
several of the advanced TM-techniques are mindfulness by way nature in practice 
anyway. 
 

  In the heart of the body-mind complex of it all, what is going on in 
cultivated spiritual meditation evidently is a lot more than 
alpha-global-coherence, that global-alpha-coherence may even have little to do 
with what is going on underneath.
 JaiGuruYou, 
 -Buck, sitting in pure-awareness meditation prior to going out to check the 
sheep and do chores. Clover and rye are sown ready for spring rains.  Life in 
the body.
 Rain likely, mainly before 10am. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New 
precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
 
anartaxius@... writes:
 

 Quotation
 J. Krishnamurti | (no date)
 
 

 When we stop fighting with ourselves, we aren't creating anymore conflict in 
our mind. Then our mind can for the first time relax and be still. Then for the 
first time our consciousness can become whole and unfragmented. Then total 
attention can be given to all of our thoughts and feelings. And then there will 
be found a gentleness and a goodness in us that can embrace all that is been 
given in the world. Then a deep love for everything will be the result of this 
deep attention. For this total attention, this soft and pure consciousness that 
we are, is nothing but love itself.
 (Note that he is talking about this while being awake and in activity)

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

 I was quoting comments on research to indicate that relying on research with 
the present level of quality is a fool's game. 

 You are making the assumption that 'pure consciousness' is a specific 
meditative state instead of the ground of experience which includes what TM 
calls 'the relative' and this includes CC where pure consciousness is 
coincident with active experience, and Unity where the objects of experience 
are known as 'pure consciousness'. Whether you say the self expands to Self 
(TM) or whether you say the self vanishes and is replaced by the totality 
(mindfulness) makes no difference as they are the same thing expressed from 
opposite points of view. The individual sense of ego gets subsumed by a larger 
quality of experience, and it really matters not what it is called, because 
there is not real definition for it that does not imply limitation by verbal 
mental reductionism.
 

 I quoted Krishnamurti because Maharishi specifically said he was in Unity. And 
true, probably few or none ever got enlightened by him because he just popped 
in, and never really knew how it happened, but you are welcome to point out 
those whom Maharishi enlightened (that is, that are in unity, not CC). More 
comments below.
 

---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, LEnglish5@... wrote :

 Can you point me to contemporary mindfulness essays or research on 
contemporary mindfulness practitioners where they describe a situation where 
there is no thought, no mantra, no awareness of the outside world, no awareness 
of the body, no emotion, no intuition, no memory, no mind content of any kind, 
and yet the meditator is still somehow awake? 
 Also, mindfulness practices tend to disrupt the sense of self, as has been 
reported in quite a few modern 

[FairfieldLife] Re: Ahhhhhh....life is good!

2015-03-29 Thread rich...@rwilliams.us [FairfieldLife]

 So, you like country music. But you probably won't be impressing your 
girlfriend by listing to your iPod and posting to FFL, when you're out on a 
date, Barry. LoL!

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

 A new double album from one of the best songwriters in the world. Now I know 
what my cafe soundtrack will be today. 

 

 
http://www.salon.com/2015/03/28/mark_knopfler_this_getting_older_stuff_ain%E2%80%99t_for_wimps/
 
http://www.salon.com/2015/03/28/mark_knopfler_this_getting_older_stuff_ain%E2%80%99t_for_wimps/
 

 






Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Mind of the Meditator

2015-03-29 Thread TurquoiseBee turquoi...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]
From: anartax...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
 To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
 Sent: Sunday, March 29, 2015 5:54 PM
 Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Mind of the Meditator
   
    Buck, you seem more coherent now that you are out of the dome. 

I was going to say the same thing, and without a hint of snark. It's been a 
pleasure to read Makes Sense Buck again. Really. 

Could it be when one door closes, another one opens? Don't live your life for 
others even if you are supportive of others. I saw Krishnamurti before I 
learned TM. I did not understand what he was talking about then, but now it 
makes sense, but much more than TM was involved in my coming to my present 
understanding. The more variety you have the more options you have for 
understanding something as long as you are able to coordinate the relationships 
between the various concepts, and have the ability to shed concepts that prove 
useless.




---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, dhamiltony2k5@... wrote :

Anartaxius, really great quotes for this debate. This is some ofyour best 
writing here in style: clear, precise and shortly said as aknock-out punch 
delivered. Thanks, yes their assumptions and ownminds clearly are a problem 
these spock-like guys have for this thingas they try in method to do the big 
put-down of all other meditations, other than TM.  ..by verbal mental 
reductionism.  An irony in this whole thing though that they try todo with 
co-opting meditation is that their TM-sidhis, the TM-Ved andPhysiology 
practice, and several of the advanced TM-techniques are mindfulnessby way 
nature in practice anyway. 
 In the heart of the body-mindcomplex of it all, what is going on in cultivated 
spiritual meditationevidently is a lot more than alpha-global-coherence, 
thatglobal-alpha-coherence may even have little to do with what is goingon 
underneath.JaiGuruYou,-Buck, sitting in pure-awareness meditation prior to 
going out tocheck the sheep and do chores. Clover and rye are sown ready for 
spring rains.  Life in the body. Rainlikely, mainly before 10am. Chanceof 
precipitation is 70%. New precipitation amounts of less than atenth of an inch 
possible.
anartaxius@... writes:

QuotationJ. Krishnamurti | (no date)

When we stop fighting with ourselves, we aren't creating anymoreconflict in 
our mind. Then our mind can for the first time relax andbe still. Then for the 
first time our consciousness can become wholeand unfragmented. Then total 
attention can be given to all of ourthoughts and feelings. And then there will 
be found a gentleness anda goodness in us that can embrace all that is been 
given in theworld. Then a deep love for everything will be the result of 
thisdeep attention. For this total attention, this soft and pureconsciousness 
that we are, is nothing but love itself.(Note that he is talking about 
thiswhile being awake and in activity)
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, anartaxius@... wrote :

I was quoting comments on research to indicate that relying on research with 
the present level of quality is a fool's game.
You are making the assumption that 'pure consciousness' is a specific 
meditative state instead of the ground of experience which includes what TM 
calls 'the relative' and this includes CC where pure consciousness is 
coincident with active experience, and Unity where the objects of experience 
are known as 'pure consciousness'. Whether you say the self expands to Self 
(TM) or whether you say the self vanishes and is replaced by the totality 
(mindfulness) makes no difference as they are the same thing expressed from 
opposite points of view. The individual sense of ego gets subsumed by a larger 
quality of experience, and it really matters not what it is called, because 
there is not real definition for it that does not imply limitation by verbal 
mental reductionism.
I quoted Krishnamurti because Maharishi specifically said he was in Unity. And 
true, probably few or none ever got enlightened by him because he just popped 
in, and never really knew how it happened, but you are welcome to point out 
those whom Maharishi enlightened (that is, that are in unity, not CC). More 
comments below.


---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, LEnglish5@... wrote :






Can you point me to contemporary mindfulness essays or research on contemporary 
mindfulness practitioners where they describe a situation where there is no 
thought, no mantra, no awareness of the outside world, no awareness of the 
body, no emotion, no intuition, no memory, no mind content of any kind, and yet 
the meditator is still somehow awake?


Also, mindfulness practices tend to disrupt the sense of self, as has been 
reported in quite a few modern studies on practitioners. In fact, researchers 
note that mind-wandering simply does not happen in long-term practitioners and 
count this a  good thing: they note quite happily, that mindfulness reduces 
activity and interactions between the parts of the brain 

[FairfieldLife] Re: Mind of the Meditator

2015-03-29 Thread lengli...@cox.net [FairfieldLife]
We were debating? 

 Hmmm.
 

 My argument: TM leads to a different style of physiological functioning than 
mindfulness does, and so, to claim that they are spiritually identical doesn't 
make sense, if you by Maharishi's theory that spirituality is based on the 
physical functioning of the nervous system.
 

 Anartaxius' argument: No it doesn't, and research isn't good enough to show 
differences, and even if they DO show differences, it doesn't matter. So there.
 

 

 L
 

---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, dhamiltony2k5@... wrote :

 Anartaxius, really great quotes for this debate. This is some of your best 
writing here in style: clear, precise and shortly said as a knock-out punch 
delivered. Thanks, yes their assumptions and own minds clearly are a problem 
these spock-like guys have for this thing as they try in method to do the big 
put-down of all other meditations, other than TM.  ..by verbal mental 
reductionism. 
  
 An irony in this whole thing though that they try to do with co-opting 
meditation is that their TM-sidhis, the TM-Ved and Physiology practice, and 
several of the advanced TM-techniques are mindfulness by way nature in practice 
anyway. 
 

  In the heart of the body-mind complex of it all, what is going on in 
cultivated spiritual meditation evidently is a lot more than 
alpha-global-coherence, that global-alpha-coherence may even have little to do 
with what is going on underneath.
 JaiGuruYou, 
 -Buck, sitting in pure-awareness meditation prior to going out to check the 
sheep and do chores. Clover and rye are sown ready for spring rains.  Life in 
the body.
 Rain likely, mainly before 10am. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New 
precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
 
anartaxius@... writes:
 

 Quotation
 J. Krishnamurti | (no date)
 
 

 When we stop fighting with ourselves, we aren't creating anymore conflict in 
our mind. Then our mind can for the first time relax and be still. Then for the 
first time our consciousness can become whole and unfragmented. Then total 
attention can be given to all of our thoughts and feelings. And then there will 
be found a gentleness and a goodness in us that can embrace all that is been 
given in the world. Then a deep love for everything will be the result of this 
deep attention. For this total attention, this soft and pure consciousness that 
we are, is nothing but love itself.
 (Note that he is talking about this while being awake and in activity)

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

 I was quoting comments on research to indicate that relying on research with 
the present level of quality is a fool's game. 

 You are making the assumption that 'pure consciousness' is a specific 
meditative state instead of the ground of experience which includes what TM 
calls 'the relative' and this includes CC where pure consciousness is 
coincident with active experience, and Unity where the objects of experience 
are known as 'pure consciousness'. Whether you say the self expands to Self 
(TM) or whether you say the self vanishes and is replaced by the totality 
(mindfulness) makes no difference as they are the same thing expressed from 
opposite points of view. The individual sense of ego gets subsumed by a larger 
quality of experience, and it really matters not what it is called, because 
there is not real definition for it that does not imply limitation by verbal 
mental reductionism.
 

 I quoted Krishnamurti because Maharishi specifically said he was in Unity. And 
true, probably few or none ever got enlightened by him because he just popped 
in, and never really knew how it happened, but you are welcome to point out 
those whom Maharishi enlightened (that is, that are in unity, not CC). More 
comments below.
 

---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, LEnglish5@... wrote :

 Can you point me to contemporary mindfulness essays or research on 
contemporary mindfulness practitioners where they describe a situation where 
there is no thought, no mantra, no awareness of the outside world, no awareness 
of the body, no emotion, no intuition, no memory, no mind content of any kind, 
and yet the meditator is still somehow awake? 
 Also, mindfulness practices tend to disrupt the sense of self, as has been 
reported in quite a few modern studies on practitioners. In fact, researchers 
note that mind-wandering simply does not happen in long-term practitioners and 
count this a  good thing: they note quite happily, that mindfulness reduces 
activity and interactions between the parts of the brain thought to be 
responsible for sense of self.
 TM, on the other hand, is taught in terms of allowing the mind to wander, and 
physiological research shows that the same activity and interactions that 
mindfulness reduces, TM enhances.
 Interestingly enough, this review article, Towards  a neuroscience of 
mind-wandering (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3112331/ 

[FairfieldLife] Re: : ........THE BEST THING I HAVE EVER DONE........

2015-03-29 Thread email4you mikemail4...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]
always hearing the choral chanting of so many  pandits, i get this absolute 
timeless experience ...
 http://www.maharishiindiacourses.com/?lang=en

 On Saturday, March 28, 2015 2:54 PM, email4you mikemail4...@yahoo.com 
wrote:
   

 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttQUhsf392I
|   |
|   |  |   |   |   |   |   |
| Maharishi Vedic Pandits-How it Feels to Hear 1331 Live. |
| 
 |
| View on www.youtube.com | Preview by Yahoo |
| 
 |
|   |

excellent experience from a course paricipant 
of self  timeless eternity ...



 

   

  

[FairfieldLife] Re: Mind of the Meditator

2015-03-29 Thread anartax...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]
Buck, you seem more coherent now that you are out of the dome. Could it be when 
one door closes, another one opens? Don't live your life for others even if you 
are supportive of others. I saw Krishnamurti before I learned TM. I did not 
understand what he was talking about then, but now it makes sense, but much 
more than TM was involved in my coming to my present understanding. The more 
variety you have the more options you have for understanding something as long 
as you are able to coordinate the relationships between the various concepts, 
and have the ability to shed concepts that prove useless.
 

---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, dhamiltony2k5@... wrote :

 Anartaxius, really great quotes for this debate. This is some of your best 
writing here in style: clear, precise and shortly said as a knock-out punch 
delivered. Thanks, yes their assumptions and own minds clearly are a problem 
these spock-like guys have for this thing as they try in method to do the big 
put-down of all other meditations, other than TM.  ..by verbal mental 
reductionism. 
  
 An irony in this whole thing though that they try to do with co-opting 
meditation is that their TM-sidhis, the TM-Ved and Physiology practice, and 
several of the advanced TM-techniques are mindfulness by way nature in practice 
anyway. 
 

  In the heart of the body-mind complex of it all, what is going on in 
cultivated spiritual meditation evidently is a lot more than 
alpha-global-coherence, that global-alpha-coherence may even have little to do 
with what is going on underneath.
 JaiGuruYou, 
 -Buck, sitting in pure-awareness meditation prior to going out to check the 
sheep and do chores. Clover and rye are sown ready for spring rains.  Life in 
the body.
 Rain likely, mainly before 10am. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New 
precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
 
anartaxius@... writes:
 

 Quotation
 J. Krishnamurti | (no date)
 
 

 When we stop fighting with ourselves, we aren't creating anymore conflict in 
our mind. Then our mind can for the first time relax and be still. Then for the 
first time our consciousness can become whole and unfragmented. Then total 
attention can be given to all of our thoughts and feelings. And then there will 
be found a gentleness and a goodness in us that can embrace all that is been 
given in the world. Then a deep love for everything will be the result of this 
deep attention. For this total attention, this soft and pure consciousness that 
we are, is nothing but love itself.
 (Note that he is talking about this while being awake and in activity)

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

 I was quoting comments on research to indicate that relying on research with 
the present level of quality is a fool's game. 

 You are making the assumption that 'pure consciousness' is a specific 
meditative state instead of the ground of experience which includes what TM 
calls 'the relative' and this includes CC where pure consciousness is 
coincident with active experience, and Unity where the objects of experience 
are known as 'pure consciousness'. Whether you say the self expands to Self 
(TM) or whether you say the self vanishes and is replaced by the totality 
(mindfulness) makes no difference as they are the same thing expressed from 
opposite points of view. The individual sense of ego gets subsumed by a larger 
quality of experience, and it really matters not what it is called, because 
there is not real definition for it that does not imply limitation by verbal 
mental reductionism.
 

 I quoted Krishnamurti because Maharishi specifically said he was in Unity. And 
true, probably few or none ever got enlightened by him because he just popped 
in, and never really knew how it happened, but you are welcome to point out 
those whom Maharishi enlightened (that is, that are in unity, not CC). More 
comments below.
 

---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, LEnglish5@... wrote :

 Can you point me to contemporary mindfulness essays or research on 
contemporary mindfulness practitioners where they describe a situation where 
there is no thought, no mantra, no awareness of the outside world, no awareness 
of the body, no emotion, no intuition, no memory, no mind content of any kind, 
and yet the meditator is still somehow awake? 
 Also, mindfulness practices tend to disrupt the sense of self, as has been 
reported in quite a few modern studies on practitioners. In fact, researchers 
note that mind-wandering simply does not happen in long-term practitioners and 
count this a  good thing: they note quite happily, that mindfulness reduces 
activity and interactions between the parts of the brain thought to be 
responsible for sense of self.
 TM, on the other hand, is taught in terms of allowing the mind to wander, and 
physiological research shows that the same activity and interactions that 
mindfulness reduces, TM enhances.
 Interestingly enough, this review article, 

[FairfieldLife] Kalamata Sutra

2015-03-29 Thread ultrarishi
Olive to see another day.
 



Re: [FairfieldLife] Ahhhhhh....life is good!

2015-03-29 Thread TurquoiseBee turquoi...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]
You probably won't like this one, either. :-) But for fans of high mountain 
harmony, this is a true gem, such that I have to pass it along, just in case 
there is someone here who might appreciate it. It's a little-known version of a 
song made famous by Art Garfunkel, but sung here by the songwriter and a 
long-time friend of his, Linda Ronstadt:

Jimmy Webb (featuring Linda Ronstadt) - All I Know
|   |
|   |  |   |   |   |   |   |
| Jimmy Webb (featuring Linda Ronstadt) - All I Know |
|  |
| View on www.youtube.com | Preview by Yahoo |
|  |
|   |

  
  From: he...@hotmail.com [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
 To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
 Sent: Sunday, March 29, 2015 2:58 PM
 Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Ahhlife is good!
   
   A bit too CW for my taste... : )

  

Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Could it be...Satan?

2015-03-29 Thread rich...@rwilliams.us [FairfieldLife]
It's like a circus over here - send in the clowns. 

How can you believe that Fred Lenz was the last incarnation of Vishnu unless 
someone told you that or you read it in a book? Is it because Rama told you 
that he was Lord Vishnu? Apparently you read a Buddhist scripture and now you 
believe in Buddhas and that they are enlightened? Go figure.

You're not even making any sense today! Is there any truth to your belief in 
Fred Lenz, Vishnu and Buddha?

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

 Aha. FINALLY, JR is able to admit what he believes, and why. I'll riff on it 
below. 


 From: jr_esq@... [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
 To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
 Sent: Saturday, March 28, 2015 11:20 PM
 Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Could it be...Satan?
 
 
   Xeno,
 

 I'm a truth seeker.  

 

 Based on what you say here, John, I would suggest that you are NOT a truth 
seeker. What you seek is someone TELLING YOU what is truth. That is why you 
rely on books from the past and what you were told by teachers like Maharishi. 

Non sequitur.

 

 There was a valid reason why the rishis and prophets of the past have written 
books like the Bible, BGita and Srimad Bhagavatam.  IMO, they were conveying 
their realization of truth through their meditation and contemplation.  

 

 THIS is what I have been trying to get you to admit, and to realize about 
yourself, John. You believe that certain books are true or truth for no 
other reason than that you were TOLD they are. 

Non sequitur.
 

 Similarly, you admit to a belief that truth can be based on the realization 
of truth through meditation and contemplation. Bzzt. Science tells us that 
NO SUCH THING EXISTS. Humans have a near-infinite ability to deceive 
themselves. We can't even be sure that people are reporting the truth when 
they give first-person testimony in court about things that they see in real 
life. Based on studies that have shown how easy it is to implant false 
memories or lead witnesses into changing their testimony, there have been 
serious discussions in the legal system about abandoning the entire concept of 
first-person testimony, because it cannot be relied upon. 

Non sequitur.
 

 Now look at what you believe. Given the fact that science tells us we cannot 
rely on the truth or accuracy of things we perceive in the real world with our 
senses, you're trying to tell us that we should believe in things we see only 
in our heads?  Bzzt...does not compute. Yes, *of course* people can have 
visions. But they are NOT truth. They're just something you see -- or, more 
likely imagine -- in your head. So any of these seeings that form the basis 
of scriptures are -- according to science -- not to be believed. 

Non sequitur.
 

 The other assumption you seem to make is that when a person *claims* to have 
had a subjective experience that they interpret as enlightenment or holy 
revelation, we should believe them. Bzt. If spending a few years on 
Fairfield Life and having encountered bozos like Ravi, Jim, Robin and others 
should have taught you anything, it would be that people have a near-infinite 
ability to fool themselves (and others) about their supposed states of 
consciousness. What makes any of the so-called enlightened seers or authors 
of these scriptures you rely on any different? Why couldn't *they* have been 
fooling themselves just as much as the pretenders to enlightenment on FFL were 
able to?

Non sequitur.

 

 Some stories in the Bible, like the Garden of Eden story, can be understood as 
a metaphor.  But there is a message in that story in many levels that the 
reader and the seeker need to unravel and understand to appreciate its wisdom.  

 

 Need to? Bzt. People who enjoy that sort of thing can read these 
made-up stories as metaphor if they'd like, and they can try to convince 
themselves and others that they have learned something from them. But need 
to? That's just religious fanaticism. No one needs to read any of these 
fairy tales to become wise. They can do that just by living, interacting with 
other human beings, and paying attention.

Non sequitur. 

 

 The basic essence of the message is the importance of human consciousness and 
its capacity to cognize the truth.  

 

 Here is the point we differ on, John. Human consciousness does NOT have the 
ability to cognize truth. That is something that religious fanatics choose to 
believe because it makes them feel more important. But science tells us that no 
such ability exists. The message you cling to is a LIE. 

Non sequitur.

 

 This can be done with human reason and the element of faith.  Without them, 
one cannot perceive the truth that the rishis and prophets were trying to 
convey.
 

 Do you even *know* that reason and faith are different things, and the polar 
opposite of one another? Faith has nothing whatsoever to do with truth. 


Non sequitur.
 

 As it says on the home page of the forum you 

Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Mind of the Meditator

2015-03-29 Thread TurquoiseBee turquoi...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]
From: anartax...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
 To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
 Sent: Sunday, March 29, 2015 5:44 PM
 Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Mind of the Meditator
   
    Here is a question: If we assume there is a human experience-able ground 
state to the universe (i.e., enlightenment), and different meditation systems 
claim this can be experienced, is the result the experience of the same ground 
state with different flavours of the experience due to the differences in 
physiological state, or is the result the experience of two different ground 
states due to the differences of physiological state? If the former, what is 
the nature of truth if it is not an identical experience, and if the latter, if 
there are two different truths, what does that say about truth?



I honestly think that many folks on this forum are far less interested in 
finding truth than they are in asserting that the TM organization holds the 
copyright to the word.
This whole thread, after all, was started because someone essentially claimed 
that the TMO had the right to define what pure consciousness is. Right?


---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, LEnglish5@... wrote :

We were debating?
Hmmm.
My argument: TM leads to a different style of physiological functioning than 
mindfulness does, and so, to claim that they are spiritually identical doesn't 
make sense, if you by Maharishi's theory that spirituality is based on the 
physical functioning of the nervous system.
Anartaxius' argument: No it doesn't, and research isn't good enough to show 
differences, and even if they DO show differences, it doesn't matter. So there.

L


---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, dhamiltony2k5@... wrote :

Anartaxius, really great quotes for this debate. This is some ofyour best 
writing here in style: clear, precise and shortly said as aknock-out punch 
delivered. Thanks, yes their assumptions and ownminds clearly are a problem 
these spock-like guys have for this thingas they try in method to do the big 
put-down of all other meditations, other than TM.  ..by verbal mental 
reductionism.  An irony in this whole thing though that they try todo with 
co-opting meditation is that their TM-sidhis, the TM-Ved andPhysiology 
practice, and several of the advanced TM-techniques are mindfulnessby way 
nature in practice anyway. 
 In the heart of the body-mindcomplex of it all, what is going on in cultivated 
spiritual meditationevidently is a lot more than alpha-global-coherence, 
thatglobal-alpha-coherence may even have little to do with what is goingon 
underneath.JaiGuruYou,-Buck, sitting in pure-awareness meditation prior to 
going out tocheck the sheep and do chores. Clover and rye are sown ready for 
spring rains.  Life in the body. Rainlikely, mainly before 10am. Chanceof 
precipitation is 70%. New precipitation amounts of less than atenth of an inch 
possible.
anartaxius@... writes:

QuotationJ. Krishnamurti | (no date)

When we stop fighting with ourselves, we aren't creating anymoreconflict in 
our mind. Then our mind can for the first time relax andbe still. Then for the 
first time our consciousness can become wholeand unfragmented. Then total 
attention can be given to all of ourthoughts and feelings. And then there will 
be found a gentleness anda goodness in us that can embrace all that is been 
given in theworld. Then a deep love for everything will be the result of 
thisdeep attention. For this total attention, this soft and pureconsciousness 
that we are, is nothing but love itself.(Note that he is talking about 
thiswhile being awake and in activity)
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, anartaxius@... wrote :

I was quoting comments on research to indicate that relying on research with 
the present level of quality is a fool's game.
You are making the assumption that 'pure consciousness' is a specific 
meditative state instead of the ground of experience which includes what TM 
calls 'the relative' and this includes CC where pure consciousness is 
coincident with active experience, and Unity where the objects of experience 
are known as 'pure consciousness'. Whether you say the self expands to Self 
(TM) or whether you say the self vanishes and is replaced by the totality 
(mindfulness) makes no difference as they are the same thing expressed from 
opposite points of view. The individual sense of ego gets subsumed by a larger 
quality of experience, and it really matters not what it is called, because 
there is not real definition for it that does not imply limitation by verbal 
mental reductionism.
I quoted Krishnamurti because Maharishi specifically said he was in Unity. And 
true, probably few or none ever got enlightened by him because he just popped 
in, and never really knew how it happened, but you are welcome to point out 
those whom Maharishi enlightened (that is, that are in unity, not CC). More 
comments below.


---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, LEnglish5@... wrote :







Can 

[FairfieldLife] Re: Mind of the Meditator

2015-03-29 Thread rich...@rwilliams.us [FairfieldLife]

 There is only one single state, but it has different aspects, perception 
depending on one's level of consciousness. The ultimate reality is pure 
consciousness.

My position, and the position of most idealistic transcendentalists, is that we 
infer, from the fact of being conscious, that consciousness itself is the 
ultimate reality - because without consciousness, we would not exist. And we 
accept that inference is a valid means of knowledge. 

Thoughts and ideas, not being material objects, cannot be perceived; they can 
only be inferred. If consciousness means self-consciousness, then it cannot be 
identified by logic with the human body. 

This is the Hindu Advaita Vedanta and to some extent, the view of the Vijnana 
school of Tibetan Buddhism.

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

 Here is a question: If we assume there is a human experience-able ground state 
to the universe (i.e., enlightenment), and different meditation systems claim 
this can be experienced, is the result the experience of the same ground state 
with different flavours of the experience due to the differences in 
physiological state, or is the result the experience of two different ground 
states due to the differences of physiological state? If the former, what is 
the nature of truth if it is not an identical experience, and if the latter, if 
there are two different truths, what does that say about truth?
 

---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, LEnglish5@... wrote :

 We were debating? 

 Hmmm.
 

 My argument: TM leads to a different style of physiological functioning than 
mindfulness does, and so, to claim that they are spiritually identical doesn't 
make sense, if you by Maharishi's theory that spirituality is based on the 
physical functioning of the nervous system.
 

 Anartaxius' argument: No it doesn't, and research isn't good enough to show 
differences, and even if they DO show differences, it doesn't matter. So there.
 

 

 L
 

---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, dhamiltony2k5@... wrote :

 Anartaxius, really great quotes for this debate. This is some of your best 
writing here in style: clear, precise and shortly said as a knock-out punch 
delivered. Thanks, yes their assumptions and own minds clearly are a problem 
these spock-like guys have for this thing as they try in method to do the big 
put-down of all other meditations, other than TM.  ..by verbal mental 
reductionism. 
  
 An irony in this whole thing though that they try to do with co-opting 
meditation is that their TM-sidhis, the TM-Ved and Physiology practice, and 
several of the advanced TM-techniques are mindfulness by way nature in practice 
anyway. 
 

  In the heart of the body-mind complex of it all, what is going on in 
cultivated spiritual meditation evidently is a lot more than 
alpha-global-coherence, that global-alpha-coherence may even have little to do 
with what is going on underneath.
 JaiGuruYou, 
 -Buck, sitting in pure-awareness meditation prior to going out to check the 
sheep and do chores. Clover and rye are sown ready for spring rains.  Life in 
the body.
 Rain likely, mainly before 10am. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New 
precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
 
anartaxius@... writes:
 

 Quotation
 J. Krishnamurti | (no date)
 
 

 When we stop fighting with ourselves, we aren't creating anymore conflict in 
our mind. Then our mind can for the first time relax and be still. Then for the 
first time our consciousness can become whole and unfragmented. Then total 
attention can be given to all of our thoughts and feelings. And then there will 
be found a gentleness and a goodness in us that can embrace all that is been 
given in the world. Then a deep love for everything will be the result of this 
deep attention. For this total attention, this soft and pure consciousness that 
we are, is nothing but love itself.
 (Note that he is talking about this while being awake and in activity)

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

 I was quoting comments on research to indicate that relying on research with 
the present level of quality is a fool's game. 

 You are making the assumption that 'pure consciousness' is a specific 
meditative state instead of the ground of experience which includes what TM 
calls 'the relative' and this includes CC where pure consciousness is 
coincident with active experience, and Unity where the objects of experience 
are known as 'pure consciousness'. Whether you say the self expands to Self 
(TM) or whether you say the self vanishes and is replaced by the totality 
(mindfulness) makes no difference as they are the same thing expressed from 
opposite points of view. The individual sense of ego gets subsumed by a larger 
quality of experience, and it really matters not what it is called, because 
there is not real definition for it that does not imply limitation by verbal 
mental reductionism.
 

 I quoted Krishnamurti because 

[FairfieldLife] Re: The Egotist

2015-03-29 Thread ultrarishi
Both those quotes just made my day!

Awesome!




Once, i thought I made a mistake, but I was wrong.

Re: [FairfieldLife] Ahhhhhh....life is good!

2015-03-29 Thread he...@hotmail.com [FairfieldLife]

 

 A bit too CW for my taste... : )


Re: [FairfieldLife] Ahhhhhh....life is good!

2015-03-29 Thread TurquoiseBee turquoi...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]
Listening to a new Mark Knopfler album is for me as close as I get to having a 
religious ritual in my life. I think so much of the man's writing abilities, 
his guitar skills, his musical taste, his compassion as a songwriter, and above 
all his humility as a human being that whenever a new album comes out I lock 
myself in my room and try to listen to the entire thing from start to finish, 
without interruption. 

And yet, in all of the years and for all of the albums for which I have 
performed this ritual, I have never been able to make it all the way through. 
Not once. I set out with that as my goal, but there is always one song that 
stops me in my tracks and makes me play it over once or more times before I can 
move on to the next songs. 

On this album, that song is Wherever I Go, a lovely duet with Ruth Moody of 
the Wailin' Jennys. It demanded to be heard five whole times before it would 
allow me to move to the second CD of songs. 

Mark Knopfler featuring Ruth Moody - Wherever I Go

|   |
|   |  |   |   |   |   |   |
| Mark Knopfler featuring Ruth Moody - Wherever I Go |
|  |
| View on www.youtube.com | Preview by Yahoo |
|  |
|   |


Maybe I'm bound to wander
From one place to the next
Heaven knows why
But in the wild blue yonder
Your star is fixed in my sky

Just another bar at a crossroads
So far from home
But that's alright
Whenever I'm going down a dark road
I don't feel alone in the night

There's a place in my heart
Though we're far apart
May you always know
No matter how long since I saw you
I'll keep a flame there for you
Wherever I go

They're looking to close up in here
They're pulling down the blinds
But they'll let you stay awhile
They're not going to mind

Now I've got to leave you, brother
So this round's mine
Here's looking at you, anyhow

You can go on and have another
They won't call time
I'm going to say my goodbyes now
There's a place in my heart
Though we're far apart
May you always know
No matter how long since I saw you
I'll keep a flame there for you
Wherever I go

  From: TurquoiseBee turquoi...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] 
FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com

From: TurquoiseBee turquoi...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] 
FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com    A new double album from one of the best 
songwriters in the world. Now I know what my cafe soundtrack will be today. 

http://www.salon.com/2015/03/28/mark_knopfler_this_getting_older_stuff_ain%E2%80%99t_for_wimps/

More joy. First, a short film by Henrik Hansen:
Mark Knopfler - Tracker - A Film By Henrik Hansen

|   |
|   |  |   |   |   |   |   |
| Mark Knopfler - Tracker - A Film By Henrik Hansen |
| 
 |
| View on www.youtube.com | Preview by Yahoo |
| 
 |
|   |


Next, a track-by-track walkthrough by Mark:
Mark Knopfler - Tracker – A Track by Track

|   |
|   |  |   |   |   |   |   |
| Mark Knopfler - Tracker – A Track by Track |
| 
 |
| View on www.youtube.com | Preview by Yahoo |
| 
 |
|   |


Finally, the whole album, for those too cheap to buy it:
Mark Knopfler-Tracker 2015 Full Album[ Deluxe Edition]

|   |
|   |  |   |   |   |   |   |
| Mark Knopfler-Tracker 2015 Full Album[ Deluxe Edition] |
| 
 |
| View on www.youtube.com | Preview by Yahoo |
| 
 |
|   |


   

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Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Drive-By

2015-03-29 Thread TurquoiseBee turquoi...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]
Exactly. And wouldn't you SO get in the van?  :-)

  From: salyavin808 no_re...@yahoogroups.com
 To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
 Sent: Sunday, March 29, 2015 8:12 PM
 Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Drive-By
   
    That's the funniest thing I've seen for a while!

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



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Re: [FairfieldLife] Ahhhhhh....life is good!

2015-03-29 Thread emily.ma...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]
Alright, already.got it.  Lots to check out here.
 

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

 Listening to a new Mark Knopfler album is for me as close as I get to having a 
religious ritual in my life. I think so much of the man's writing abilities, 
his guitar skills, his musical taste, his compassion as a songwriter, and above 
all his humility as a human being that whenever a new album comes out I lock 
myself in my room and try to listen to the entire thing from start to finish, 
without interruption. 

 

 And yet, in all of the years and for all of the albums for which I have 
performed this ritual, I have never been able to make it all the way through. 
Not once. I set out with that as my goal, but there is always one song that 
stops me in my tracks and makes me play it over once or more times before I can 
move on to the next songs. 

 

 On this album, that song is Wherever I Go, a lovely duet with Ruth Moody of 
the Wailin' Jennys. It demanded to be heard five whole times before it would 
allow me to move to the second CD of songs. 

 

 Mark Knopfler featuring Ruth Moody - Wherever I Go 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDuAPhHBbuk
 

  
  
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDuAPhHBbuk
  
  
  
  
  
 Mark Knopfler featuring Ruth Moody - Wherever I Go 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDuAPhHBbuk

 
 View on www.youtube.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDuAPhHBbuk
 Preview by Yahoo
 
  

 

Maybe I'm bound to wander
 From one place to the next
 Heaven knows why
 But in the wild blue yonder
 Your star is fixed in my sky

Just another bar at a crossroads
 So far from home
 But that's alright
 Whenever I'm going down a dark road
 I don't feel alone in the night

There's a place in my heart
 Though we're far apart
 May you always know
 No matter how long since I saw you
 I'll keep a flame there for you
 Wherever I go

They're looking to close up in here
 They're pulling down the blinds
 But they'll let you stay awhile
 They're not going to mind
 
 Now I've got to leave you, brother
 So this round's mine
 Here's looking at you, anyhow
 
 You can go on and have another
 They won't call time
 I'm going to say my goodbyes now 

 There's a place in my heart
 Though we're far apart
 May you always know
 No matter how long since I saw you
 I'll keep a flame there for you
 Wherever I go



 From: TurquoiseBee turquoiseb@... [FairfieldLife] 
FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
 

 From: TurquoiseBee turquoiseb@... [FairfieldLife] 
FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
   A new double album from one of the best songwriters in the world. Now I know 
what my cafe soundtrack will be today. 

 

 
http://www.salon.com/2015/03/28/mark_knopfler_this_getting_older_stuff_ain%E2%80%99t_for_wimps/
 
http://www.salon.com/2015/03/28/mark_knopfler_this_getting_older_stuff_ain%E2%80%99t_for_wimps/
 

 

 More joy. First, a short film by Henrik Hansen:
 

 Mark Knopfler - Tracker - A Film By Henrik Hansen 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7-cpV_H_z4
 

  
  
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7-cpV_H_z4
  
  
  
  
  
 Mark Knopfler - Tracker - A Film By Henrik Hansen 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7-cpV_H_z4

 
 View on www.youtube.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7-cpV_H_z4
 Preview by Yahoo
 
  

 

 Next, a track-by-track walkthrough by Mark:
 

 Mark Knopfler - Tracker – A Track by Track 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpNV5ECePg8
 

  
  
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpNV5ECePg8
  
  
  
  
  
 Mark Knopfler - Tracker – A Track by Track 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpNV5ECePg8

 
 View on www.youtube.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpNV5ECePg8
 Preview by Yahoo
 
  

 








 Finally, the whole album, for those too cheap to buy it:
 

 Mark Knopfler-Tracker 2015 Full Album[ Deluxe Edition] 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jMxMa2-ZjI
 

  
  
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jMxMa2-ZjI
  
  
  
  
  
 Mark Knopfler-Tracker 2015 Full Album[ Deluxe Edition] 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jMxMa2-ZjI

 
 View on www.youtube.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jMxMa2-ZjI
 Preview by Yahoo
 
  

 





 


 
 

 













Re: [FairfieldLife] Ahhhhhh....life is good!

2015-03-29 Thread emily.ma...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]

Comment from Youtube:  This is beautiful, and it is the one last gift to us 
from Linda. Linda Ronstadt retired from professional singing in 2009 due to her 
vocal struggles with early Parkinsons Disease.  Jimmy personally requested this 
favor from Linda to sing this Duet with him, It was only through their long 
friendship that Linda agreed to sing this with her old friend Jimmy before 
fully losing her ability to sing professionally.  It might be the last 
recording from Linda Ronstadt thanks to Jimmy Webb.
 

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

 You probably won't like this one, either. :-) But for fans of high mountain 
harmony, this is a true gem, such that I have to pass it along, just in case 
there is someone here who might appreciate it. It's a little-known version of a 
song made famous by Art Garfunkel, but sung here by the songwriter and a 
long-time friend of his, Linda Ronstadt:

Jimmy Webb (featuring Linda Ronstadt) - All I Know 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCruuS_qps8
 
  
  
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCruuS_qps8
  
  
  
  
  
 Jimmy Webb (featuring Linda Ronstadt) - All I Know 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCruuS_qps8

 
 View on www.youtube.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCruuS_qps8
 Preview by Yahoo
 
  

  

 From: hepa7@... [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
 To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
 Sent: Sunday, March 29, 2015 2:58 PM
 Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Ahhlife is good!
 
 
   A bit too CW for my taste... : )















[FairfieldLife] Re: Drive-By

2015-03-29 Thread salyavin808
That's the funniest thing I've seen for a while! 

 

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

 

 








[FairfieldLife] Drive-By

2015-03-29 Thread TurquoiseBee turquoi...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]





[FairfieldLife] Re: Mind of the Meditator

2015-03-29 Thread salyavin808

 

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

 Here is a question: If we assume there is a human experience-able ground state 
to the universe (i.e., enlightenment), and different meditation systems claim 
this can be experienced, is the result the experience of the same ground state 
with different flavours of the experience due to the differences in 
physiological state, or is the result the experience of two different ground 
states due to the differences of physiological state? If the former, what is 
the nature of truth if it is not an identical experience, and if the latter, if 
there are two different truths, what does that say about truth?
 

 There could be no human experience-able ground state without us being the 
ground state. And this is in fact what Marshy claimed, which is a long way from 
Lawson's claim that spirituality is based on the physical functioning of the 
nervous system.
 

 If the state of pure consciousness was some sort of ground state then you'd 
expect it to be the same when accessed via different types of meditation etc. 
This it clearly is not, and I'm talking from experience. So obviously it's a 
rare neurological state and not anything to do with physics.
 

 What I think happened is this: we have a fascinating experience via meditation 
that gives us the impression that we are unbounded and infinite in some 
fundamental way. So a huge mythos has evolved around these states of mind but 
it's the meditational trip-outs that came first. We recognise the description 
of the experience and we have no way of gainsaying the teacher due to his/her 
presumed affinity with this stuff and get drawn in further until we can't 
separate the two things.
 

 If we were to discover meditation tomorrow and start the nomenclature all over 
again would we still go for a unified field/pure consciousness/vedic infinity 
kind of approach? I think not. The emphasis would be mostly on what use it 
might possibly have, and that would be based on evidence and not the wild 
claims of the reesh.
 

 It would be a good project as we could disabuse people of the idea that it's 
something to do with physics from the get-go and thus remove a lot of tricksy 
cash cows from organisations like the TMO and also stop a lot of people 
spending all their lives sitting in domes waiting to fly and create a 
non-existent peace-field when they could be doing something they might be more 
proud of in later life. 
 

 Would it be as much fun though?
 

 

 


 

 ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, LEnglish5@... wrote :

 We were debating? 

 Hmmm.
 

 My argument: TM leads to a different style of physiological functioning than 
mindfulness does, and so, to claim that they are spiritually identical doesn't 
make sense, if you by Maharishi's theory that spirituality is based on the 
physical functioning of the nervous system.
 

 Anartaxius' argument: No it doesn't, and research isn't good enough to show 
differences, and even if they DO show differences, it doesn't matter. So there.
 

 

 L
 

---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, dhamiltony2k5@... wrote :

 Anartaxius, really great quotes for this debate. This is some of your best 
writing here in style: clear, precise and shortly said as a knock-out punch 
delivered. Thanks, yes their assumptions and own minds clearly are a problem 
these spock-like guys have for this thing as they try in method to do the big 
put-down of all other meditations, other than TM.  ..by verbal mental 
reductionism. 
  
 An irony in this whole thing though that they try to do with co-opting 
meditation is that their TM-sidhis, the TM-Ved and Physiology practice, and 
several of the advanced TM-techniques are mindfulness by way nature in practice 
anyway. 
 

  In the heart of the body-mind complex of it all, what is going on in 
cultivated spiritual meditation evidently is a lot more than 
alpha-global-coherence, that global-alpha-coherence may even have little to do 
with what is going on underneath.
 JaiGuruYou, 
 -Buck, sitting in pure-awareness meditation prior to going out to check the 
sheep and do chores. Clover and rye are sown ready for spring rains.  Life in 
the body.
 Rain likely, mainly before 10am. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New 
precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
 
anartaxius@... writes:
 

 Quotation
 J. Krishnamurti | (no date)
 
 

 When we stop fighting with ourselves, we aren't creating anymore conflict in 
our mind. Then our mind can for the first time relax and be still. Then for the 
first time our consciousness can become whole and unfragmented. Then total 
attention can be given to all of our thoughts and feelings. And then there will 
be found a gentleness and a goodness in us that can embrace all that is been 
given in the world. Then a deep love for everything will be the result of this 
deep attention. For this total attention, this soft and pure consciousness that 
we are, is nothing but love itself.
 

Re: [FairfieldLife] Kalama Sutra, a Buddhist text

2015-03-29 Thread TurquoiseBee turquoi...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]
Excellent. See the post I just made to JR. 

  From: yifux...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
 To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
 Sent: Sunday, March 29, 2015 1:55 AM
 Subject: [FairfieldLife] Kalama Sutra, a Buddhist text
   
    Kālāma Sūtra  - [from YouTube]
Rely not on the teacher, but on the teaching.
Rely not on the words of the teaching, but on the spirit of the words.
Rely not on theory, but on experience.

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.
Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many 
generations.
Do not believe anything because it is spoken and rumored by many.
Do not believe in anything because it is written in your religious books.
Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.

But after observation and analysis,
when you find that anything agrees with reason
and is conducive to the good and the benefit of one and all,
then accept it and live up to it ~

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[FairfieldLife] Re: Mind of the Meditator

2015-03-29 Thread dhamiltony...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]
Anartaxius, really great quotes for this debate. This is some of your best 
writing here in style: clear, precise and shortly said as a knock-out punch 
delivered. Thanks, yes their assumptions and own minds clearly are a problem 
these spock-like guys have for this thing as they try in method to do the big 
put-down of all other meditations, other than TM.  ..by verbal mental 
reductionism. 
  
 An irony in this whole thing though that they try to do with co-opting 
meditation is that their TM-sidhis, the TM-Ved and Physiology practice, and 
several of the advanced TM-techniques are mindfulness by way nature in practice 
anyway. 
 

  In the heart of the body-mind complex of it all, what is going on in 
cultivated spiritual meditation evidently is a lot more than 
alpha-global-coherence, that global-alpha-coherence may even have little to do 
with what is going on underneath.
 JaiGuruYou, 
 -Buck, sitting in pure-awareness meditation prior to going out to check the 
sheep and do chores. Clover and rye are sown ready for spring rains.  Life in 
the body.
 Rain likely, mainly before 10am. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New 
precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
 
anartaxius@... writes:
 

 Quotation
 J. Krishnamurti | (no date)
 
 

 When we stop fighting with ourselves, we aren't creating anymore conflict in 
our mind. Then our mind can for the first time relax and be still. Then for the 
first time our consciousness can become whole and unfragmented. Then total 
attention can be given to all of our thoughts and feelings. And then there will 
be found a gentleness and a goodness in us that can embrace all that is been 
given in the world. Then a deep love for everything will be the result of this 
deep attention. For this total attention, this soft and pure consciousness that 
we are, is nothing but love itself.
 (Note that he is talking about this while being awake and in activity)

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

 I was quoting comments on research to indicate that relying on research with 
the present level of quality is a fool's game. 

 You are making the assumption that 'pure consciousness' is a specific 
meditative state instead of the ground of experience which includes what TM 
calls 'the relative' and this includes CC where pure consciousness is 
coincident with active experience, and Unity where the objects of experience 
are known as 'pure consciousness'. Whether you say the self expands to Self 
(TM) or whether you say the self vanishes and is replaced by the totality 
(mindfulness) makes no difference as they are the same thing expressed from 
opposite points of view. The individual sense of ego gets subsumed by a larger 
quality of experience, and it really matters not what it is called, because 
there is not real definition for it that does not imply limitation by verbal 
mental reductionism.
 

 I quoted Krishnamurti because Maharishi specifically said he was in Unity. And 
true, probably few or none ever got enlightened by him because he just popped 
in, and never really knew how it happened, but you are welcome to point out 
those whom Maharishi enlightened (that is, that are in unity, not CC). More 
comments below.
 

---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, LEnglish5@... wrote :

 Can you point me to contemporary mindfulness essays or research on 
contemporary mindfulness practitioners where they describe a situation where 
there is no thought, no mantra, no awareness of the outside world, no awareness 
of the body, no emotion, no intuition, no memory, no mind content of any kind, 
and yet the meditator is still somehow awake? 
 Also, mindfulness practices tend to disrupt the sense of self, as has been 
reported in quite a few modern studies on practitioners. In fact, researchers 
note that mind-wandering simply does not happen in long-term practitioners and 
count this a  good thing: they note quite happily, that mindfulness reduces 
activity and interactions between the parts of the brain thought to be 
responsible for sense of self.
 TM, on the other hand, is taught in terms of allowing the mind to wander, and 
physiological research shows that the same activity and interactions that 
mindfulness reduces, TM enhances.
 Interestingly enough, this review article, Towards  a neuroscience of 
mind-wandering (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3112331/ 
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3112331/) notes specifically that 
mind-wandering is essential for sense of self according to modern 
neuroscience theories, so to claim that mindfulness leads to the same  kind of 
enlightenment as TM, where sense-of-self is perceived as the basis of all 
reality, is kinda odd: mindfulness disrupts the very foundation of such a 
perspective.
 


 


 Finally, citing that Scientific America citing a wikipedia page is hilarious 
(the text 'unknown/unclear/uncertain or not well-established' appears nowhere 
in the original article, even 

[FairfieldLife] Re: Mind of the Meditator

2015-03-29 Thread lengli...@cox.net [FairfieldLife]
I wouldn't say no thought = no thinker nor would I say the opposite... 

 How could you know?
 

 

 However, even if there's no way to examine the non-existent internal landscape 
of someone while in the PC state, we can look at the physiological correlates, 
and they are quire interesting.
 

 Analysis of EEG implies that the resting state networks, especially the 
default mode network, is quite active, while other parts of the brain are not 
as active. Further, the mind-wanderign mode and PC seem to be very related, and 
the activity of the parts of the brain most associated with sense-of-self seem 
to be very active during PC.
 

 And, outside of meditation, as the EEG starts to become more like that found 
during PC, we find that sense-of-self becomes stronger, but not associated with 
any thing.
 

 All of this seems to support the traditional view that PC, AKA _samadhi_, is 
the state where observer, observed and process of observation have merged, 
leaving only the quality of observer, by Itself.
 

 L
 

---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, s3raphita@... wrote :

 Thanks for posting this sparaig. This is one of my hobby horses. Pure 
consciousness is precisely awareness without any thought, image or sensation. 
And no thought = no thinker. 

 Robert K C Forman (a TM practitioner) has written on this topic, including The 
Problem of Pure Consciousness: Mysticism and Philosophy and (a better choice) 
Mysticism, Mind, Consciousness.
 

---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, LEnglish5@... wrote :

 Rolls eyes. 

 You can force silence by distracting the mind and diverting resources away 
from the verbal centers or you can allow the mind to become more calm until 
silence is everywhere.
 

 

 Pure consciousness during TM is no mantra, no thought, no body awareness, no 
intuition, no emotion, no memory, no sensory awareness  of any kind, not just 
no verbal thoughts.
 

 It occurs spontaneously, not at beck and call, and is accompanies by higher 
levels of alpha coherence in the frontal lobes, along with increased skin 
resistance, abrupt decrease i heart rate as well as an apparent cessation of 
breathing or at least abrupt drop in breath rate.
 

 It's hard to miss when you hook someone up to the right equipment, but what 
they found when the examined the woman who most consistently showed these 
signs, while using the most sophisticated eqiupment, was that she didn't notice 
the existence of the state, only the transition *out of* the state.
 

 

 

 L
  
 

---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, dhamiltony2k5@... wrote :

 No mantra-No thought 

 Sounds the same.
 

 It is a correct experience of the practice of TM (second night checking) and 
evidently Mindfulness too
 

 Pure Awareness.  
 

 # 
 
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, LEnglish5@... wrote :

 What they call pure awareness is not what TMers call pure awareness. 

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

 [Scientific American article by Matthieu Ricard, Antoine Lutz, and Richard J. 
Davidson, Nov. 2014, p. 43]
 

 In our Wisconsin lab, we have studied experienced practioners while they 
performed an advanced form of mindfulness meditation called open presence.  In 
open presence, sometimes called pure awareness, the mind is calm and relaxed, 
not focused on anything in particular yet vividly clear, free from excitation 
or dullness.  The meditator observes and is open to experience without making 
any attempt to interpret, change, reject or ignore painful sensation
 ...[the experimenters somehow induced some pain to experienced meditators, 
then compared the results to novices.]
 .We found that the intensity o0f the pain was not reduced in meditators, but 
it bothered them less than it did members of a control group.
 .
 Compared with novices, expert meditators' brain activity diminished in 
anxiety related regions - the insular cortex and the amygdala - in the period 
preceding the painful stimulus.
 .
 Other tests in our lab have shown that meditation training increases one's 
ability to better control and buffer basic physiological responses - 
inflammation or levels of a stress hormone - to a socially stressful task such 
as giving a public speech or doing mental arithmetic in front of a harsh jury.
 .
 .













Re: [FairfieldLife] The Egotist

2015-03-29 Thread TurquoiseBee turquoi...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]
I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational 
to read in the train.
- Oscar Wilde

  From: s3raph...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] 
FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
 To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
 Sent: Sunday, March 29, 2015 4:40 AM
 Subject: [FairfieldLife] The Egotist
   
    Most people hate egotists.
They remind them of themselves.
I love egotists.
They remind me of me.

(Raymond M Smullyan)

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[FairfieldLife] Re: Living Communally: Wozniak: Future of AI is Scary

2015-03-29 Thread dhamiltony...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]
Yes, within a healthy eco-system of an economic system.. 
 Though as trend-line with modern organizational development/evolution in 
preserving balance of powers it seems that we are moving beyond Divine Rights 
of Kings, or Chieftains, Cardinals, Rajas or CEO's given the nature of 
transparency and quick communications in a digital post-modern secular world. 
 

 Locally I keep advising them it is in their own interests, both internally for 
coalescing what is left of our own dwindling membership and for defending 
against ongoing outside attack that should destroy us as a community, now for 
simple survival to be frankly transparent going forward. 
 

 That is simply part of leadership now as we enter the digital communications 
era. Where as “Ethics is judged as a leading economic indicator” of people and 
groups in the new world then frankly put the tax records, balance sheets and 
income statements of everything on the webpages to be easily linked to. That 
just publishing some glossy pie-charts is not good enough, they smell too much 
of fish. 
 

 The old-guard though at the top who have been there for decades are yet 
frightened of too much transparency, their firm feeling that negative people 
will use any and everything out of context working against the work of the 
movement and just fabricate lies for their own destructive ends. 
 

 There is some truth to that. Evidently there are people working quite 
methodically against the TM community and its very survival or existence. But 
in balance, transparency in general counter-attack seems to be the currency of 
the nature of the digital new-world. Survival evidently is also about 
adaptability.. 
 

 
 
https://sites.google.com/site/mumcongress/welcome/home/organizational-and-social-transformation/models/fundamentals-of-progress
 
https://sites.google.com/site/mumcongress/welcome/home/organizational-and-social-transformation/models/fundamentals-of-progress
 
 What right does a community have to protect itself and its survival?
 In a meditating community that is Fairfield, Iowa, JaiGuruYou 
 #
 

---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, jason_green2@... wrote :

 
 
You have a point. My point is it's good to have a healthy 
eco-system, of the economic system.  A system that has 
diversity of approaches will be more stable in the long run.

I have often noticed that any organisation or country, it's 
success often depends on the vision of the top-man, ie the 
leader.  Could it be a law of nature?

The key word here is transparency. It eliminates 
mismanagement, brings in professionalism.


--- dhamiltony2k5@... wrote :

Hy-Vee Foods, Employee Owned is another good life-cycle example of this 
potential within cooperative living if not actively looked out for by a level 
of transparency and civil society. Employee-owned with a few people at the top 
management cutting hours and benefits of their working not-quite full-time 
employees to pay profits for the salaries of boards and managers on top. As one 
full-time employee there observed after work hours were cut to less than full 
time,  'Employee Owned' by five people at the top..  

Thanks, co-ops sound very ideal towards a sharing. Though sounds further in 
time a lot like any organizations where things starts off with a membership 
with one-person-one-vote then you get an administrative board elected. And it 
becomes an oligarchy of sorts.

Seems co-ops often just go the route of corporations anyway. ..Good for a few 
people at the top once it gets going. Sort of like the Standing Committee over 
communist China.  Putin's Oligarchy.  Or, the TM movement now. 





 Thanks, co-ops sound very ideal towards a sharing. Though sounds further in 
time a lot like any organizations where things starts off with a membership 
with one-person-one-vote then you get an administrative board elected. And it 
becomes an oligarchy of sorts. 
 

 Like what happened with the New Pioneer Food Coop in Iowa City. Now a few 
high-paid administrator/store-managers working at the board level over the 
membership, high priced food, and a lot of lowly-paid working-poor employees to 
pay for the administrator managers. 
 

 Same thing for this Heartland 'Cooperative' that just built this massive 
multi-million dollar facility for the simple business of unloading and 
re-loading grain on to a monopoly-owned rail-line here with slim chance of 
pay-back. Small group of manager-class running it. Pretty evidently a project 
that an administrative-team put together for itself aside from the membership 
understanding the economics of it so far as pay-back. The membership proly 
would have been better off with that capital returned in dividend. But of 
course there is no job in that for the manager-class. 
 

 Seems co-ops often just go the route of corporations anyway. ..Good for a few 
people at the top once it gets going. Sort of like the Standing Committee over 
communist China.  Putin's Oligarchy.  Or, the TM movement now.
 

 

Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Could it be...Satan?

2015-03-29 Thread TurquoiseBee turquoi...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]
Aha. FINALLY, JR is able to admit what he believes, and why. I'll riff on it 
below. 

  From: jr_...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
 To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
 Sent: Saturday, March 28, 2015 11:20 PM
 Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Could it be...Satan?
   
    Xeno,
I'm a truth seeker.  

Based on what you say here, John, I would suggest that you are NOT a truth 
seeker. What you seek is someone TELLING YOU what is truth. That is why you 
rely on books from the past and what you were told by teachers like Maharishi. 
There was a valid reason why the rishis and prophets of the past have written 
books like the Bible, BGita and Srimad Bhagavatam.  IMO, they were conveying 
their realization of truth through their meditation and contemplation.  

THIS is what I have been trying to get you to admit, and to realize about 
yourself, John. You believe that certain books are true or truth for no 
other reason than that you were TOLD they are. 

Similarly, you admit to a belief that truth can be based on the realization 
of truth through meditation and contemplation. Bzzt. Science tells us that 
NO SUCH THING EXISTS. Humans have a near-infinite ability to deceive 
themselves. We can't even be sure that people are reporting the truth when 
they give first-person testimony in court about things that they see in real 
life. Based on studies that have shown how easy it is to implant false 
memories or lead witnesses into changing their testimony, there have been 
serious discussions in the legal system about abandoning the entire concept of 
first-person testimony, because it cannot be relied upon. 

Now look at what you believe. Given the fact that science tells us we cannot 
rely on the truth or accuracy of things we perceive in the real world with our 
senses, you're trying to tell us that we should believe in things we see only 
in our heads?  Bzzt...does not compute. Yes, *of course* people can have 
visions. But they are NOT truth. They're just something you see -- or, more 
likely imagine -- in your head. So any of these seeings that form the basis 
of scriptures are -- according to science -- not to be believed. 

The other assumption you seem to make is that when a person *claims* to have 
had a subjective experience that they interpret as enlightenment or holy 
revelation, we should believe them. Bzt. If spending a few years on 
Fairfield Life and having encountered bozos like Ravi, Jim, Robin and others 
should have taught you anything, it would be that people have a near-infinite 
ability to fool themselves (and others) about their supposed states of 
consciousness. What makes any of the so-called enlightened seers or authors 
of these scriptures you rely on any different? Why couldn't *they* have been 
fooling themselves just as much as the pretenders to enlightenment on FFL were 
able to?
Some stories in the Bible, like the Garden of Eden story, can be understood as 
a metaphor.  But there is a message in that story in many levels that the 
reader and the seeker need to unravel and understand to appreciate its wisdom.  

Need to? Bzt. People who enjoy that sort of thing can read these 
made-up stories as metaphor if they'd like, and they can try to convince 
themselves and others that they have learned something from them. But need 
to? That's just religious fanaticism. No one needs to read any of these 
fairy tales to become wise. They can do that just by living, interacting with 
other human beings, and paying attention. 
The basic essence of the message is the importance of human consciousness and 
its capacity to cognize the truth.  

Here is the point we differ on, John. Human consciousness does NOT have the 
ability to cognize truth. That is something that religious fanatics choose to 
believe because it makes them feel more important. But science tells us that no 
such ability exists. The message you cling to is a LIE. 

This can be done with human reason and the element of faith.  Without them, one 
cannot perceive the truth that the rishis and prophets were trying to convey.
Do you even *know* that reason and faith are different things, and the polar 
opposite of one another? Faith has nothing whatsoever to do with truth. 

As it says on the home page of the forum you are writing to:  What is wanted 
is not the will to believe, but the wish to find out, which is the exact 
opposite.  ~ Bertrand Russell 



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

JR might be a literalist. I certainly am not. I have encountered Christian 
groups that interpret scripture metaphorically and speak of consciousness 
rather than entities such as Moses or Jesus who are going to save your ass if 
you believe in them. Some people just seem to be unable to interpret things 
metaphorically. Perhaps they could try writing poetry. To me a spiritual system 
is a collection of carefully crafted lies that will, if practised properly, 
eventually allow you 

[FairfieldLife] Ahhhhhh....life is good!

2015-03-29 Thread TurquoiseBee turquoi...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]
A new double album from one of the best songwriters in the world. Now I know 
what my cafe soundtrack will be today. 

http://www.salon.com/2015/03/28/mark_knopfler_this_getting_older_stuff_ain%E2%80%99t_for_wimps/



Re: [FairfieldLife] Ahhhhhh....life is good!

2015-03-29 Thread TurquoiseBee turquoi...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]
From: TurquoiseBee turquoi...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] 
FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
 To: FairfieldLife fairfieldlife@yahoogroups.com 
 Sent: Sunday, March 29, 2015 11:36 AM
 Subject: [FairfieldLife] Ahhlife is good!
   
    A new double album from one of the best songwriters in the world. Now I 
know what my cafe soundtrack will be today. 

http://www.salon.com/2015/03/28/mark_knopfler_this_getting_older_stuff_ain%E2%80%99t_for_wimps/

More joy. First, a short film by Henrik Hansen:
Mark Knopfler - Tracker - A Film By Henrik Hansen

|   |
|   |  |   |   |   |   |   |
| Mark Knopfler - Tracker - A Film By Henrik Hansen |
|  |
| View on www.youtube.com | Preview by Yahoo |
|  |
|   |


Next, a track-by-track walkthrough by Mark:
Mark Knopfler - Tracker – A Track by Track

|   |
|   |  |   |   |   |   |   |
| Mark Knopfler - Tracker – A Track by Track |
|  |
| View on www.youtube.com | Preview by Yahoo |
|  |
|   |


Finally, the whole album, for those too cheap to buy it:
Mark Knopfler-Tracker 2015 Full Album[ Deluxe Edition]

|   |
|   |  |   |   |   |   |   |
| Mark Knopfler-Tracker 2015 Full Album[ Deluxe Edition] |
|  |
| View on www.youtube.com | Preview by Yahoo |
|  |
|   |


  

Re: [FairfieldLife] Ahhhhhh....life is good!

2015-03-29 Thread Bhairitu noozg...@sbcglobal.net [FairfieldLife]
I noticed you mentioned on  The Peak that the Harvard Exit closed.  I 
used to see films there in the 1970s as well as at the other art 
houses.  I almost never saw a Hollywood film back then unless it was 
shot in Seattle.  Of course art houses are going the way of the dodo 
since most of the distributors like Mark Cuban's Magnolia Films make 
them available streaming.


On 03/29/2015 10:58 AM, emily.ma...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] wrote:


Alright, already.got it.  Lots to check out here.



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

*/Listening to a new Mark Knopfler album is for me as close as I get 
to having a religious ritual in my life. I think so much of the man's 
writing abilities, his guitar skills, his musical taste, his 
compassion as a songwriter, and above all his humility as a human 
being that whenever a new album comes out I lock myself in my room and 
try to listen to the entire thing from start to finish, without 
interruption.

/*
*/
/*
*/And yet, in all of the years and for all of the albums for which I 
have performed this ritual, I have never been able to make it all the 
way through. Not once. I set out with that as my goal, but there is 
always one song that stops me in my tracks and makes me play it over 
once or more times before I can move on to the next songs.

/*
*/
/*
*/On this album, that song is Wherever I Go, a lovely duet with Ruth 
Moody of the Wailin' Jennys. It demanded to be heard five whole times 
before it would allow me to move to the second CD of songs.

/*

*/Mark Knopfler featuring Ruth Moody - Wherever I Go 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDuAPhHBbuk/*

*/
/*

image https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDuAPhHBbuk





Mark Knopfler featuring Ruth Moody - Wherever I Go 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDuAPhHBbuk


View on www.youtube.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDuAPhHBbuk

Preview by Yahoo


*/Maybe I'm bound to wander
From one place to the next
Heaven knows why
But in the wild blue yonder
Your star is fixed in my sky

Just another bar at a crossroads
So far from home
But that's alright
Whenever I'm going down a dark road
I don't feel alone in the night

There's a place in my heart
Though we're far apart
May you always know
No matter how long since I saw you
I'll keep a flame there for you
Wherever I go

They're looking to close up in here
They're pulling down the blinds
But they'll let you stay awhile
They're not going to mind

Now I've got to leave you, brother
So this round's mine
Here's looking at you, anyhow

You can go on and have another
They won't call time
I'm going to say my goodbyes now/*
*/
/*
*/There's a place in my heart
Though we're far apart
May you always know
No matter how long since I saw you
I'll keep a flame there for you
Wherever I go/*


*From:* TurquoiseBee turquoiseb@... [FairfieldLife] 
FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com

***
*
*From:* TurquoiseBee turquoiseb@... [FairfieldLife] 
FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
*/A new double album from one of the best songwriters in the world. 
Now I know what my cafe soundtrack will be today.

/*
*/
/*
*/http://www.salon.com/2015/03/28/mark_knopfler_this_getting_older_stuff_ain%E2%80%99t_for_wimps//*


*/More joy. First, a short film by Henrik Hansen:/*
*/
/*
*/Mark Knopfler - Tracker - A Film By Henrik Hansen 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7-cpV_H_z4/*

*/
/*

image https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7-cpV_H_z4





Mark Knopfler - Tracker - A Film By Henrik Hansen 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7-cpV_H_z4


View on www.youtube.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7-cpV_H_z4

Preview by Yahoo

*/
/*
*/Next, a track-by-track walkthrough by Mark:/*
*/
/*
*/Mark Knopfler - Tracker – A Track by Track 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpNV5ECePg8/*

*/
/*

image https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpNV5ECePg8





Mark Knopfler - Tracker – A Track by Track 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpNV5ECePg8


View on www.youtube.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpNV5ECePg8

Preview by Yahoo

*/
/*
*/Finally, the whole album, for those too cheap to buy it:/*
*/
/*
*/Mark Knopfler-Tracker 2015 Full Album[ Deluxe Edition] 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jMxMa2-ZjI/*

*/
/*

image https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jMxMa2-ZjI





Mark Knopfler-Tracker 2015 Full Album[ Deluxe Edition] 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jMxMa2-ZjI


View on www.youtube.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jMxMa2-ZjI

Preview by Yahoo











[FairfieldLife] Re: Mind of the Meditator

2015-03-29 Thread lengli...@cox.net [FairfieldLife]

 Here is Maharishi's take on teh scientific study of meditation. Note that he 
is talking about human consciousness here, not the ground state of natural law, 
aka brahman. That is referred to as that wholeness of life which is present 
everywhere.
 

 

 

 Every experience has its level of physiology, and so unbounded awareness has 
its own level of physiology which can be measured. Every aspect of life is 
integrated and connected with every other phase. When we talk of scientific 
measurements, it does not take away from the spiritual experience. We are not 
responsible for those times when spiritual experience was thought of as 
metaphysical. Everything is physical. Consciousness is the product of the 
functioning of the brain. Talking of scientific measurements is no damage to 
that wholeness of life which is present everywhere and which begins to be lived 
when the physiology is taking on a particular form. This is our understanding 
about spirituality: it is not on the level of faith --it is on the level of 
blood and bone and flesh and activity. It is measurable.
 

 -Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
 

 

 And so, you can assert that pure awareness, ala open monitoring is the same 
as pure awareness ala TM, is the same thing, but that isn't supportable by 
the words that clarify what pure awareness means in the context of the 
original passage.
 

 The question of whether or not mindfulness leads to the same place as TM 
isn't even being addressed here, as my point was simply that the phrase pure 
awareness is being used in a different way than when TMers use it as a synonym 
for samadhi.
 

 

 as I said originally: What they call pure awareness is not what TMers call 
pure awareness.
 

 

 L
 


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

 
 

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

 Here is a question: If we assume there is a human experience-able ground state 
to the universe (i.e., enlightenment), and different meditation systems claim 
this can be experienced, is the result the experience of the same ground state 
with different flavours of the experience due to the differences in 
physiological state, or is the result the experience of two different ground 
states due to the differences of physiological state? If the former, what is 
the nature of truth if it is not an identical experience, and if the latter, if 
there are two different truths, what does that say about truth?
 

 There could be no human experience-able ground state without us being the 
ground state. And this is in fact what Marshy claimed, which is a long way from 
Lawson's claim that spirituality is based on the physical functioning of the 
nervous system.
 

 If the state of pure consciousness was some sort of ground state then you'd 
expect it to be the same when accessed via different types of meditation etc. 
This it clearly is not, and I'm talking from experience. So obviously it's a 
rare neurological state and not anything to do with physics.
 

 What I think happened is this: we have a fascinating experience via meditation 
that gives us the impression that we are unbounded and infinite in some 
fundamental way. So a huge mythos has evolved around these states of mind but 
it's the meditational trip-outs that came first. We recognise the description 
of the experience and we have no way of gainsaying the teacher due to his/her 
presumed affinity with this stuff and get drawn in further until we can't 
separate the two things.
 

 If we were to discover meditation tomorrow and start the nomenclature all over 
again would we still go for a unified field/pure consciousness/vedic infinity 
kind of approach? I think not. The emphasis would be mostly on what use it 
might possibly have, and that would be based on evidence and not the wild 
claims of the reesh.
 

 It would be a good project as we could disabuse people of the idea that it's 
something to do with physics from the get-go and thus remove a lot of tricksy 
cash cows from organisations like the TMO and also stop a lot of people 
spending all their lives sitting in domes waiting to fly and create a 
non-existent peace-field when they could be doing something they might be more 
proud of in later life. 
 

 Would it be as much fun though?
 

 

 

 

 

  









 




  









  


Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Mind of the Meditator

2015-03-29 Thread lengli...@cox.net [FairfieldLife]
I don't know where the debate started, but my point was that two different 
groups are using the same two words in different ways: 

 TMers equote pure awarenessBack 
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/FairfieldLife/conversations/messages with 
pure consciousness with transcendental consciousness with samadhi, which is 
a state devoid of any perception
 

 

 The passage on mindfulness equoted pure awareness to an advanced form of 
mindfulness called open monitoring where one is equally receptive to all 
stimuli.
 

 Devoid of stimuli is not eqivalent to equally receptive to all stimuli 
except in the trivial sense that if there are zero stimuli, that one is equally 
receptive to all of them.
 

 However, the phrase clarifying what pure awareness means in the context of 
open monitoring explicitly refers to perception of pain, so pure awareness 
ala open monitoring is NOT a state devoid of any perception.
 

 

 That was my only point: two different groups are using the same two-word 
phrase to describe different situations.
 

 Which group is using the words correctly is a point that I never raised: I 
merely pointed out that two different groups are saying pure awareness and 
the meaning is quite different: devoid of any perception as compared to open to 
experience without making any attempt to interpret, change, reject or ignore 
painful sensation.
 

 And the implication for me is that once you mistake the label for what is 
being talked about, confusion follows. Nashville, Florida is NOT Nashville, 
Tennessee, and if you seek the Grand Ole Opry in the former, you're going to be 
looking for a ticket seller to a concert for a very long time indeed.
 

 L
 

  
 

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

 I honestly think that many folks on this forum are far less interested in 
finding truth than they are in asserting that the TM organization holds the 
copyright to the word.
 

 This whole thread, after all, was started because someone essentially claimed 
that the TMO had the right to define what pure consciousness is. Right?

 


---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, LEnglish5@... wrote :

 We were debating? 

 Hmmm.
 

 My argument: TM leads to a different style of physiological functioning than 
mindfulness does, and so, to claim that they are spiritually identical doesn't 
make sense, if you by Maharishi's theory that spirituality is based on the 
physical functioning of the nervous system.
 

 Anartaxius' argument: No it doesn't, and research isn't good enough to show 
differences, and even if they DO show differences, it doesn't matter. So there.
 

 

 L
 
 [...]
 

---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, LEnglish5@... wrote :

 You can only measure what y ou have the equipment to measure. 

 However, it's a truism that just because two things can be described teh same 
way at one level, doesn't mean that they are identifical.
 

 My favorite example is what happened to some British friends many decades 
ago... They got a sweetheart travel package to visit Nashville.
 

 

 Nashville, Florida, that is.
 

 

 Just because you can describe a city as Nashville doesn't mean it is the 
Nashville you were hoping to visit. Unfortunately, they actually got on the 
plane and landed before they discovered their mistake.
 

 

 

 The moral is: a label, pure awareness, that is described as being without 
thought, might not  be referring to the same thing between two different 
meditation traditions. A two-word phrase may not provide you enough info to 
make a rationale choice any more than just knowing the name of the city without 
knowing the state it is in is enough to make rationale travel plans.
 

 

 

 L
 

 

  














  







 


 













Re: [FairfieldLife] Ahhhhhh....life is good!

2015-03-29 Thread emily.ma...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]
Yes, I'm starting to feel dated.  The Harvard Exit had real place value. Glad 
it was there for so long.  My kids and I saw documentary Banksy there some 
years ago now - they loved the movie and the location - all the cherry trees 
were in bloom around that corner blowing blossoms.  I am conceding within that 
I will have to go the way of the general populace if I want to do and see what 
I want to do and see.   
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, noozguru@... wrote :

 I noticed you mentioned on  The Peak that the Harvard Exit closed.  I used 
to see films there in the 1970s as well as at the other art houses.  I almost 
never saw a Hollywood film back then unless it was shot in Seattle.  Of course 
art houses are going the way of the dodo since most of the distributors like 
Mark Cuban's Magnolia Films make them available streaming.
 
 On 03/29/2015 10:58 AM, emily.mae50@... mailto:emily.mae50@... [FairfieldLife] 
wrote:

   Alright, already.got it.  Lots to check out here.

 
 
 ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, 
turquoiseb@... mailto:turquoiseb@... wrote :
 
 Listening to a new Mark Knopfler album is for me as close as I get to having a 
religious ritual in my life. I think so much of the man's writing abilities, 
his guitar skills, his musical taste, his compassion as a songwriter, and above 
all his humility as a human being that whenever a new album comes out I lock 
myself in my room and try to listen to the entire thing from start to finish, 
without interruption. 
 
 
 
 And yet, in all of the years and for all of the albums for which I have 
performed this ritual, I have never been able to make it all the way through. 
Not once. I set out with that as my goal, but there is always one song that 
stops me in my tracks and makes me play it over once or more times before I can 
move on to the next songs. 
 
 
 
 On this album, that song is Wherever I Go, a lovely duet with Ruth Moody of 
the Wailin' Jennys. It demanded to be heard five whole times before it would 
allow me to move to the second CD of songs. 
 
 

 Mark Knopfler featuring Ruth Moody - Wherever I Go
 
 
  
  
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDuAPhHBbuk; 
class=ygrps-yiv-805032839ygrps-yiv-2108347099link-enhancr-card-urlWrapper 
ygrps-yiv-805032839ygrps-yiv-2108347099link-enhancr-element
  
  
  
  
  
 Mark Knopfler featuring Ruth Moody - Wherever I Go

 
 View on www.youtube.com
 Preview by Yahoo
 
  

 

 Maybe I'm bound to wander
 From one place to the next
 Heaven knows why
 But in the wild blue yonder
 Your star is fixed in my sky
 
 Just another bar at a crossroads
 So far from home
 But that's alright
 Whenever I'm going down a dark road
 I don't feel alone in the night
 
 There's a place in my heart
 Though we're far apart
 May you always know
 No matter how long since I saw you
 I'll keep a flame there for you
 Wherever I go
 
 They're looking to close up in here
 They're pulling down the blinds
 But they'll let you stay awhile
 They're not going to mind
 
 Now I've got to leave you, brother
 So this round's mine
 Here's looking at you, anyhow
 
 You can go on and have another
 They won't call time
 I'm going to say my goodbyes now 
 
 There's a place in my heart
 Though we're far apart
 May you always know
 No matter how long since I saw you
 I'll keep a flame there for you
 Wherever I go

 

 From: TurquoiseBee turquoiseb@... [FairfieldLife] 
FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
 
 
 From: TurquoiseBee turquoiseb@... [FairfieldLife] 
FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
   A new double album from one of the best songwriters in the world. Now I know 
what my cafe soundtrack will be today. 
 
 
 
 
http://www.salon.com/2015/03/28/mark_knopfler_this_getting_older_stuff_ain%E2%80%99t_for_wimps/
 
http://www.salon.com/2015/03/28/mark_knopfler_this_getting_older_stuff_ain%E2%80%99t_for_wimps/
 

 

 More joy. First, a short film by Henrik Hansen:
 
 
 Mark Knopfler - Tracker - A Film By Henrik Hansen
 
 
  
  
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7-cpV_H_z4
  
  
  
  
  
 Mark Knopfler - Tracker - A Film By Henrik Hansen

 
 View on www.youtube.com
 Preview by Yahoo
 
  

 
 
 Next, a track-by-track walkthrough by Mark:
 
 
 Mark Knopfler - Tracker – A Track by Track
 
 
  
  
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpNV5ECePg8
 

(Message over 64 KB, truncated)





















Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Mind of the Meditator

2015-03-29 Thread lengli...@cox.net [FairfieldLife]
This might be Maharishi's distinction between little-t transcending, where the 
mind is diverted from thinking the mantra and  back on thoughts even though 
pure consciousness never occured, vs Big-T Transcending, aka pure 
consciousness aka pure awareness, where all perception of any kind has 
ceased, leaving the brain in an alert mode without any object of attention to 
be alert about. 

 There's a switch between the inward and outward strokes of meditation, with 
no object-less situation between.
 
 L

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

 According to Comans, samadhi has two stages: samprajana samadhi - enstasis 
where there is still object-consciousness; and, nirvikalpasamadhi - where  
there  is  no longer any object-consciousness. 

The purpose of yogic meditation is to *isolate* bodily fluctuations and pass 
into samprajana samadhi, hence to total isolation of mental fluctuations and 
then to pass into nirvakalpasamadhi where the Self is not hidden by external 
conditions of the body or the mind (citta).

'The question of the importance of Samadhi in modern and classical Advaita 
Vedanta' 
by Michael Comans
http://buddhism.lib.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-PHIL/comans.htm 
http://buddhism.lib.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-PHIL/comans.htm  

 

---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, LEnglish5@... wrote :

 I don't know where the debate started, but my point was that two different 
groups are using the same two words in different ways: 

 TMers equote pure awarenessBack 
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/FairfieldLife/conversations/messages with 
pure consciousness with transcendental consciousness with samadhi, which is 
a state devoid of any perception
 

 

 The passage on mindfulness equoted pure awareness to an advanced form of 
mindfulness called open monitoring where one is equally receptive to all 
stimuli.
 

 Devoid of stimuli is not eqivalent to equally receptive to all stimuli 
except in the trivial sense that if there are zero stimuli, that one is equally 
receptive to all of them.
 

 However, the phrase clarifying what pure awareness means in the context of 
open monitoring explicitly refers to perception of pain, so pure awareness 
ala open monitoring is NOT a state devoid of any perception.
 

 

 That was my only point: two different groups are using the same two-word 
phrase to describe different situations.
 

 Which group is using the words correctly is a point that I never raised: I 
merely pointed out that two different groups are saying pure awareness and 
the meaning is quite different: devoid of any perception as compared to open to 
experience without making any attempt to interpret, change, reject or ignore 
painful sensation.
 

 And the implication for me is that once you mistake the label for what is 
being talked about, confusion follows. Nashville, Florida is NOT Nashville, 
Tennessee, and if you seek the Grand Ole Opry in the former, you're going to be 
looking for a ticket seller to a concert for a very long time indeed.
 

 L
 

  
 

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

 I honestly think that many folks on this forum are far less interested in 
finding truth than they are in asserting that the TM organization holds the 
copyright to the word.
 

 This whole thread, after all, was started because someone essentially claimed 
that the TMO had the right to define what pure consciousness is. Right?

 


---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, LEnglish5@... wrote :

 We were debating? 

 Hmmm.
 

 My argument: TM leads to a different style of physiological functioning than 
mindfulness does, and so, to claim that they are spiritually identical doesn't 
make sense, if you by Maharishi's theory that spirituality is based on the 
physical functioning of the nervous system.
 

 Anartaxius' argument: No it doesn't, and research isn't good enough to show 
differences, and even if they DO show differences, it doesn't matter. So there.
 

 

 L
 
 [...]
 

---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, LEnglish5@... wrote :

 You can only measure what y ou have the equipment to measure. 

 However, it's a truism that just because two things can be described teh same 
way at one level, doesn't mean that they are identifical.
 

 My favorite example is what happened to some British friends many decades 
ago... They got a sweetheart travel package to visit Nashville.
 

 

 Nashville, Florida, that is.
 

 

 Just because you can describe a city as Nashville doesn't mean it is the 
Nashville you were hoping to visit. Unfortunately, they actually got on the 
plane and landed before they discovered their mistake.
 

 

 

 The moral is: a label, pure awareness, that is described as being without 
thought, might not  be referring to the same thing between two different 
meditation traditions. A two-word phrase may not provide you enough info to 
make a rationale choice any more than just knowing the name of the city without 
knowing the state it is in is enough 

Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Mind of the Meditator

2015-03-29 Thread rich...@rwilliams.us [FairfieldLife]
According to Comans, samadhi has two stages: samprajana samadhi - enstasis 
where there is still object-consciousness; and, nirvikalpasamadhi - where  
there  is  no longer any object-consciousness. 

The purpose of yogic meditation is to *isolate* bodily fluctuations and pass 
into samprajana samadhi, hence to total isolation of mental fluctuations and 
then to pass into nirvakalpasamadhi where the Self is not hidden by external 
conditions of the body or the mind (citta).

'The question of the importance of Samadhi in modern and classical Advaita 
Vedanta' 
by Michael Comans
http://buddhism.lib.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-PHIL/comans.htm 
http://buddhism.lib.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-PHIL/comans.htm  

 

---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, LEnglish5@... wrote :

 I don't know where the debate started, but my point was that two different 
groups are using the same two words in different ways: 

 TMers equote pure awarenessBack 
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/FairfieldLife/conversations/messages with 
pure consciousness with transcendental consciousness with samadhi, which is 
a state devoid of any perception
 

 

 The passage on mindfulness equoted pure awareness to an advanced form of 
mindfulness called open monitoring where one is equally receptive to all 
stimuli.
 

 Devoid of stimuli is not eqivalent to equally receptive to all stimuli 
except in the trivial sense that if there are zero stimuli, that one is equally 
receptive to all of them.
 

 However, the phrase clarifying what pure awareness means in the context of 
open monitoring explicitly refers to perception of pain, so pure awareness 
ala open monitoring is NOT a state devoid of any perception.
 

 

 That was my only point: two different groups are using the same two-word 
phrase to describe different situations.
 

 Which group is using the words correctly is a point that I never raised: I 
merely pointed out that two different groups are saying pure awareness and 
the meaning is quite different: devoid of any perception as compared to open to 
experience without making any attempt to interpret, change, reject or ignore 
painful sensation.
 

 And the implication for me is that once you mistake the label for what is 
being talked about, confusion follows. Nashville, Florida is NOT Nashville, 
Tennessee, and if you seek the Grand Ole Opry in the former, you're going to be 
looking for a ticket seller to a concert for a very long time indeed.
 

 L
 

  
 

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

 I honestly think that many folks on this forum are far less interested in 
finding truth than they are in asserting that the TM organization holds the 
copyright to the word.
 

 This whole thread, after all, was started because someone essentially claimed 
that the TMO had the right to define what pure consciousness is. Right?

 


---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, LEnglish5@... wrote :

 We were debating? 

 Hmmm.
 

 My argument: TM leads to a different style of physiological functioning than 
mindfulness does, and so, to claim that they are spiritually identical doesn't 
make sense, if you by Maharishi's theory that spirituality is based on the 
physical functioning of the nervous system.
 

 Anartaxius' argument: No it doesn't, and research isn't good enough to show 
differences, and even if they DO show differences, it doesn't matter. So there.
 

 

 L
 
 [...]
 

---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, LEnglish5@... wrote :

 You can only measure what y ou have the equipment to measure. 

 However, it's a truism that just because two things can be described teh same 
way at one level, doesn't mean that they are identifical.
 

 My favorite example is what happened to some British friends many decades 
ago... They got a sweetheart travel package to visit Nashville.
 

 

 Nashville, Florida, that is.
 

 

 Just because you can describe a city as Nashville doesn't mean it is the 
Nashville you were hoping to visit. Unfortunately, they actually got on the 
plane and landed before they discovered their mistake.
 

 

 

 The moral is: a label, pure awareness, that is described as being without 
thought, might not  be referring to the same thing between two different 
meditation traditions. A two-word phrase may not provide you enough info to 
make a rationale choice any more than just knowing the name of the city without 
knowing the state it is in is enough to make rationale travel plans.
 

 

 

 L
 

 

  














  







 


 















[FairfieldLife] Re: Mind of the Meditator

2015-03-29 Thread rich...@rwilliams.us [FairfieldLife]
According to what I've read, there are two truths - there is relative truth and 
there is absolute truth. 

The Advaita Vedanta idea of two levels of truth (Sanskrit: satya) is similar to 
the Buddhist doctrine of the two truths (Tibetan: bden-pa gnyis). In Indian 
Buddhism, there is a relative or commonsensical truth, and an absolute or 
ultimate truth. In Tibetan Buddhism, the ultimate truth is synonymous with 
emptiness. Go figure.
 
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, anartaxius@... wrote :

 Here is a question: If we assume there is a human experience-able ground state 
to the universe (i.e., enlightenment), and different meditation systems claim 
this can be experienced, is the result the experience of the same ground state 
with different flavours of the experience due to the differences in 
physiological state, or is the result the experience of two different ground 
states due to the differences of physiological state? If the former, what is 
the nature of truth if it is not an identical experience, and if the latter, if 
there are two different truths, what does that say about truth?
 

---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, LEnglish5@... wrote :

 We were debating? 

 Hmmm.
 

 My argument: TM leads to a different style of physiological functioning than 
mindfulness does, and so, to claim that they are spiritually identical doesn't 
make sense, if you by Maharishi's theory that spirituality is based on the 
physical functioning of the nervous system.
 

 Anartaxius' argument: No it doesn't, and research isn't good enough to show 
differences, and even if they DO show differences, it doesn't matter. So there.
 

 

 L
 

---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, dhamiltony2k5@... wrote :

 Anartaxius, really great quotes for this debate. This is some of your best 
writing here in style: clear, precise and shortly said as a knock-out punch 
delivered. Thanks, yes their assumptions and own minds clearly are a problem 
these spock-like guys have for this thing as they try in method to do the big 
put-down of all other meditations, other than TM.  ..by verbal mental 
reductionism. 
  
 An irony in this whole thing though that they try to do with co-opting 
meditation is that their TM-sidhis, the TM-Ved and Physiology practice, and 
several of the advanced TM-techniques are mindfulness by way nature in practice 
anyway. 
 

  In the heart of the body-mind complex of it all, what is going on in 
cultivated spiritual meditation evidently is a lot more than 
alpha-global-coherence, that global-alpha-coherence may even have little to do 
with what is going on underneath.
 JaiGuruYou, 
 -Buck, sitting in pure-awareness meditation prior to going out to check the 
sheep and do chores. Clover and rye are sown ready for spring rains.  Life in 
the body.
 Rain likely, mainly before 10am. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New 
precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
 
anartaxius@... writes:
 

 Quotation
 J. Krishnamurti | (no date)
 
 

 When we stop fighting with ourselves, we aren't creating anymore conflict in 
our mind. Then our mind can for the first time relax and be still. Then for the 
first time our consciousness can become whole and unfragmented. Then total 
attention can be given to all of our thoughts and feelings. And then there will 
be found a gentleness and a goodness in us that can embrace all that is been 
given in the world. Then a deep love for everything will be the result of this 
deep attention. For this total attention, this soft and pure consciousness that 
we are, is nothing but love itself.
 (Note that he is talking about this while being awake and in activity)

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

 I was quoting comments on research to indicate that relying on research with 
the present level of quality is a fool's game. 

 You are making the assumption that 'pure consciousness' is a specific 
meditative state instead of the ground of experience which includes what TM 
calls 'the relative' and this includes CC where pure consciousness is 
coincident with active experience, and Unity where the objects of experience 
are known as 'pure consciousness'. Whether you say the self expands to Self 
(TM) or whether you say the self vanishes and is replaced by the totality 
(mindfulness) makes no difference as they are the same thing expressed from 
opposite points of view. The individual sense of ego gets subsumed by a larger 
quality of experience, and it really matters not what it is called, because 
there is not real definition for it that does not imply limitation by verbal 
mental reductionism.
 

 I quoted Krishnamurti because Maharishi specifically said he was in Unity. And 
true, probably few or none ever got enlightened by him because he just popped 
in, and never really knew how it happened, but you are welcome to point out 
those whom Maharishi enlightened (that is, that are in unity, not CC). More 
comments below.
 

---In 

[FairfieldLife] Re: Mind of the Meditator

2015-03-29 Thread lengli...@cox.net [FairfieldLife]
Lots of people enjoy piling onto Maharishi about hopping like a frog being 
the first stage of Yogic Flying, with a latter stage being levitation, but as I 
pointed out, the _Shiva Samhita_ describes levitation as coming in various 
stages, including moving along the ground as a  frog jumps (around verse 
45ish I think) so this isn't something MMY made up. 

 As well, when Herbert Benson wanted to investigate paranormal claims about 
meditation, he asked the Dalai Lama about it and was sent to a  remote region 
of Tibet as he describes in his book:
 

 Timeless Healing by Herbert Benson 
https://books.google.com/books?id=jpLwDJppxqQCpg=PA166lpg=PA166dq=%22relaxation+response%22+levitationsource=blots=Yq4zV4heN7sig=50UtshUT0ja6FxxUL-D3zekXarchl=ensa=Xei=Gmr_VLCLC8nuoASAyYHQBQved=0CC4Q6AEwAw#v=onepageq=%22relaxation%20response%22%20levitationf=false
 
https://books.google.com/books?id=jpLwDJppxqQCamp;pg=PA166amp;lpg=PA166amp;dq=%22relaxation+response%22+levitationamp;source=blamp;ots=Yq4zV4heN7amp;sig=50UtshUT0ja6FxxUL-D3zekXarcamp;hl=enamp;sa=Xamp;ei=Gmr_VLCLC8nuoASAyYHQBQamp;ved=0CC4Q6AEwAw#v=onepageamp;q=%22relaxation%20response%22%20levitationamp;f=false
 
https://books.google.com/books?id=jpLwDJppxqQCamp;pg=PA166amp;lpg=PA166amp;dq=%22relaxation+response%22+levitationamp;source=blamp;ots=Yq4zV4heN7amp;sig=50UtshUT0ja6FxxUL-D3zekXarcamp;hl=enamp;sa=Xamp;ei=Gmr_VLCLC8nuoASAyYHQBQamp;ved=0CC4Q6AEwAw#v=onepageamp;q=%22relaxation%20response%22%20levitationamp;f=false

 

 ...On other expeditions, my colleagues and I tried to confirm legendary 
reports that Tibetan monks levitate, rising and hovering above the ground 
during meditation. But when we were allwed to view the levitation of monks in 
the mountain hamlet of Chail, it appeared only to be an act of considerable 
physical agility in which monks, leg-locked in lotus position, sprang several 
inches off the floor. They did not hover. I was told through a translator that 
the sages of old had done so. When I asked, Is it possible today? the monk 
replied, with a twinkle in his eye, There is no need. Today we have airplanes.

 

 
 And, I should point out that the subjects for Fred Travis' study on the 
psychological and physiological correlates of enlightenment were mostly drawn 
from long-term participants in teh Invincible America course. The average foam 
time was about 15,000 hours. Further, the EEG of the TM-Sidhis, including Yogic 
Flying when hopping isn't involved, is TM-like, but with more coherence in 
non-alpha frequencies -in other words, more CC-like.
 

 So mocking people who sit on the foam  in the Domes for years is an expression 
of both rudeness AND ignorance (of course those often go hand-in-hand).
 

 

 L
 
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, no_re...@yahoogroups.com wrote :

 
 
 [...]
 If we were to discover meditation tomorrow and start the nomenclature all over 
again would we still go for a unified field/pure consciousness/vedic infinity 
kind of approach? I think not. The emphasis would be mostly on what use it 
might possibly have, and that would be based on evidence and not the wild 
claims of the reesh.
 

 It would be a good project as we could disabuse people of the idea that it's 
something to do with physics from the get-go and thus remove a lot of tricksy 
cash cows from organisations like the TMO and also stop a lot of people 
spending all their lives sitting in domes waiting to fly and create a 
non-existent peace-field when they could be doing something they might be more 
proud of in later life. 
 

 Would it be as much fun though?
 

 

 


 

 

  









 




  












Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Mind of the Meditator

2015-03-29 Thread yifux...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]
May be two sides of the same pure Consciousness coin, as hinted at by a 
previous contributor. You may be conflating going into Ecstacy (the Ecstatic 
state is a particular state described by certain Christian Saints and their 
observers in which to outwarded appearances, the subject is (as if) dead or 
totally unconsciousness.)  While in Ecstasy, the Saint's body may be observed 
to levitate or engage in other mystical events. .
 Upon awakening to normal consciousness, the Saint may or may not have a memory 
of what transpired during the Ecstatic state.
 .
 Similarly, Ramakrishna made a big thing of going into Samadhi and being in a 
type of stupor.  Sometimes he would be standing while in the state.  His 
example appears to be close to what you are describing as a true state of 
Samadhi.
 ..
 However, it's unclear to me at least (not having experienced it), that one 
even has to go into the (to outward appearances) unconscious state  at all. Was 
not Krishnamurti in Unity regardless of what he did: waking, dreaming, deep 
sleep, or whatever.?
 .
 Similarly, in the Sat Mat (Radhaswami) Tradition, a state of Ecstasy is 
recognized accompanied by the body appearing as if dead, in a state of apparent 
rigor mortis.
 .
 Short if any proof or scientific evidence for the existence of such state's, 
I can only go so far as to listen to what the Saints have to say with an open 
mind; and some day hope to gain similar experiential knowledge.


[FairfieldLife] Mushroom men

2015-03-29 Thread s3raph...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]
From The Telegraph:
 A new type of mushroom shaped like a fisherman has been discovered in Norfolk 
– just don't try to eat it.

 The fungi, first spotted in the remote Cockley Cley, almost 15 years ago has 
been confirmed by scientists as a completely new species.

 Its appearance has been compared to a fisherman because it has a little round 
head that could be a seafaring hat and two protrusions that look somewhat like 
arms inside a Mackintosh.

 
 The fungi have been given the name Geastrum britannicum, recognising that, so 
far, they have only been found in Britain.

 



[FairfieldLife] Re: Mind of the Meditator

2015-03-29 Thread yifux...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]
But the dome but-bouncers haven't even gotten to the first (frog-hopping) 
stage, so it's more a matter of objectivity rather than rudeness. ..
 As far as even close to being credible, (imo) a good second hand account would 
be the chapter in Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi on the levitating Saint 
(a practitioner of Kriya Yoga).  There are other accounts of Kriya Yogin 
levitators besides Yogananda's.
 ..
 In any event, the Traditions of a. Kriya Yoga and b. Christianity; may be good 
candidates for exploring possible examples of true levitation (hovering); in 
contrast to the TM Tradition which is a dud.   


[FairfieldLife] featuring Richard J. Davidson

2015-03-29 Thread yifux...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]
Co-author of the SA article Mind of the Meditator.  The bio says he's a 
confidante and friend of the Dalai Lama.
 Center for Investigating Healthy Minds - Center Founder, Dr. Richard J. 
Davidson http://www.investigatinghealthyminds.org/cihmDrDavidson.html

 
 
 http://www.investigatinghealthyminds.org/cihmDrDavidson.html 
 
 Center for Investigating Healthy Minds - Center Fo... 
http://www.investigatinghealthyminds.org/cihmDrDavidson.html Center Founder, 
Dr. Richard J. Davidson 
 
 
 
 View on www.investigatinghe... 
http://www.investigatinghealthyminds.org/cihmDrDavidson.html 
 Preview by Yahoo 
 
 
 



[FairfieldLife] Re: Mind of the Meditator

2015-03-29 Thread lengli...@cox.net [FairfieldLife]
Responses embedded following your text in the old school way of responding... 

 L
 

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

 [...]
 Meditation may reduce death, heart attack and stroke in heart patients
 

 Meditation and Heart Health 
http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/More/MyHeartandStrokeNews/Meditation-and-Heart-Disease-Stroke_UCM_452930_Article.jsp
 (another AHA page) 
 
 
http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/More/MyHeartandStrokeNews/Meditation-and-Heart-Disease-Stroke_UCM_452930_Article.jsp
 
 Meditation and Heart Health 
http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/More/MyHeartandStrokeNews/Meditation-and-Heart-Disease-Stroke_UCM_452930_Article.jsp
 Lower stress, cardiovascular disease risk by meditating. Taking a few minutes 
to relax each day could help you lower your risks of cardiovascular disease.


 
 View on www.heart.org 
http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/More/MyHeartandStrokeNews/Meditation-and-Heart-Disease-Stroke_UCM_452930_Article.jsp
 Preview by Yahoo 
 



 

 On the other hand, the only long-term study on mindfulness and high blood 
pressure I know of explicitly says that the effects of mindfulness on blood 
pressure go away after 2 or 3 years. What were the effects of the follow up on 
the TM study? I don't know, by the way. 
 

 The 2012 study they refer to WAS the followup:

 

 Meditation may reduce death, heart attack and stroke in heart patients | 
American Heart Association 
http://newsroom.heart.org/news/meditation-may-reduce-death-heart-240647 
 
 http://newsroom.heart.org/news/meditation-may-reduce-death-heart-240647 
 
 Meditation may reduce death, heart attack and stroke in ... 
http://newsroom.heart.org/news/meditation-may-reduce-death-heart-240647 Study 
Highlights: Twice-a-day Transcendental Meditation helped African Americans with 
heart disease reduce risk of death, heart attack and stroke. Medit...
 
 
 
 View on newsroom.hea... 
http://newsroom.heart.org/news/meditation-may-reduce-death-heart-240647 
 Preview by Yahoo 
 
 
  
  African Americans with heart disease who practiced Transcendental Meditation 
regularly were 48 percent less likely to have a heart attack 
http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/HeartAttack/Heart-Attack_UCM_001092_SubHomePage.jsp,
 stroke 
http://www.strokeassociation.org/STROKEORG/AboutStroke/About-Stroke_UCM_308529_SubHomePage.jsp
 or die from all causes compared with African Americans who attended a health 
education class over more than five years, according to new research published 
in the American Heart Association journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality 
and Outcomes.
  

 

 [...]
 Fred Travis has published physiological research on 17 people in CC and tells 
me that he has found at least 51 new CC subjects for a new physiological study 
on CC that he's doing. Anyone who wants 'enlightenment' really should aim a bit 
higher than CC, or 'glorified ignorance' as M said. CC is pretty common these 
days with so many meditators from various traditions having practised for many 
decades.
 

 I remain unconvinced of that. Many different states can be described the same 
way, and yet have completely different physiological correlates. CC, for 
example, seems to depend on strengthening the connections between the parts of 
the brain thought to be responsible for sense-of-self (which typically is 
associated in scientific literature with mind-wandering and aimless thoughts) 
without associating any specific mental activity with the connectivity between 
the regions of the brain  responsible for sense-of-self. The Self in CC is 
just what everyone else calls self, but without the ongoing mental stuff that 
clouds the issue about what Self really is or isn't. 

 

 Other practices actually reduce connectivity between these same parts of the 
brain, and are held (by the scientists reporting the fact) to be reducing 
sense-of-self. And state that can be interpreted to sound like CC obviously 
isn't teh same thing as  self goes away as a result of these practices.
 

 

 

 And as far as the claim that Unity isn't involved goes, I simplified Fred's 
papesr. He  asked people who  had Self present 24 hours per day, to describe 
their self and made physiological measures and correlated them with the 
response to the question and to other psychological measures.
 

 The only criterion was that Self was present 24 hours a day, including during 
deep sleep, continuously for at least a year. He didn't try to screen OUT 
people who were in higher states than CC. Here's teh response to the question 
Describe your self given by various enlightened subjects. Note that CC, GC, 
and UC-like responses were given by various people, but with only 17 subjects 
total, it wasn't possible to do sub-group analysis, so there's no way to say 
what physiological correlates there were for CC vs GC vs UC, if indeed there 
are any such distinctions to be found:
 

 

 Physiological correlates:
 

 

[FairfieldLife] featuring Mattheu Ricard

2015-03-29 Thread yifux...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]
(a Buddhist Monk and co-author of Mind of the Meditator.)
 ..
 Home - Matthieu Ricard http://www.matthieuricard.org/en/

 
 
 http://www.matthieuricard.org/en/ 
 
 Home - Matthieu Ricard http://www.matthieuricard.org/en/ Thought of the week 
The underlying sense of uneasiness that we have now is actually a good thing: 
it is the expression of our sensitivity. 
 
 
 
 View on www.matthieuricard.org http://www.matthieuricard.org/en/ 
 Preview by Yahoo 
 
 
 



[FairfieldLife] Re: Mind of the Meditator

2015-03-29 Thread lengli...@cox.net [FairfieldLife]
So now you're saying that the Yogic Flyers aren't really hopping like a frog? 

 

 Hmmm
 

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

 But the dome but-bouncers haven't even gotten to the first (frog-hopping) 
stage, so it's more a matter of objectivity rather than rudeness. ..
 As far as even close to being credible, (imo) a good second hand account would 
be the chapter in Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi on the levitating Saint 
(a practitioner of Kriya Yoga).  There are other accounts of Kriya Yogin 
levitators besides Yogananda's.
 ..
 In any event, the Traditions of a. Kriya Yoga and b. Christianity; may be good 
candidates for exploring possible examples of true levitation (hovering); in 
contrast to the TM Tradition which is a dud.   




[FairfieldLife] Re: Mind of the Meditator

2015-03-29 Thread yifux...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]
Absolutely!  The Dome but-bouncers can even come close to the hopping of real 
frogs. Refer to the websites on the frog-jumping contests at the Calaveras 
County fair. One site shows Larry the Cable Guy holding one of the champion 
frogs.  Larry would'nt be caught dead in the Domes.