[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
In today's exciting episode, having miraculously grown a pair, I finished smoothing out the gravel driveway with the box blade and then replaced the box blade with the snow blade so that the tractor is all set up for plowing the driveway after tomorrow's blizzard. I also hosed off the plastic filter in the septic system that prevents anything bigger than a quarter inch from exiting the main tank, a task that has to be done every few months. Then I whipped up a tasty bowl of sea scallops and celery in ginger-lime coconut milk. In a while, I'll set up the new electric snow-melt mats outside the front door and then go shopping so that we're well prepared at home for the bad weather. ¿Quien es mas macho? Alejandro es mas macho! --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Alex Stanley j_alexander_stanley@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, raunchydog raunchydog@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Alex Stanley j_alexander_stanley@ wrote: I keep my coffee in one of those clear plastic canisters with a rubber gasket and a wire clamping mechanism. In other news, I'm sitting here in Petra's Jeep, by the side of the road, waiting for the inflator to pump up her tire. She drove off to an appointment and didn't notice the flat until a mile from the house. So, I have the satellite radio playing the grateful dead channel, as I post to FFL on my phone. And this is after making us both a gourmet lunch. A hubby's work is never done. Have a relaxing day, Alex. http://youtu.be/OOeB80DePn0 Thanks, but it's a little late for that. The tire was taking an awfully long time to inflate, so I shut off the little compressor, only to hear the loud hiss of air escaping from a gaping hole in the tire. So, I had to change the damn tire, out in cold, clammy, December weather. What pissed me off, though, is that the Jeep has a low tire pressure idiot light, and this is the second time Petra has driven off with that idiot light on. The first time, a tire was a little low. But, today, she got in and drove a mile on a completely dead flat tire. I told her, The next time you drive off with a weird dashboard light on, don't call me.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
If I pay for your plane ticket, will you come clean my roof? And, I'll buy the ingredients and eat whatever you cook. Bring your powers to change the weather and I'll let you sleep on my favorite futon filled with organic flax seed. From: j_alexander_stanley j_alexander_stan...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2012 8:56 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas In today's exciting episode, having miraculously grown a pair, I finished smoothing out the gravel driveway with the box blade and then replaced the box blade with the snow blade so that the tractor is all set up for plowing the driveway after tomorrow's blizzard. I also hosed off the plastic filter in the septic system that prevents anything bigger than a quarter inch from exiting the main tank, a task that has to be done every few months. Then I whipped up a tasty bowl of sea scallops and celery in ginger-lime coconut milk. In a while, I'll set up the new electric snow-melt mats outside the front door and then go shopping so that we're well prepared at home for the bad weather. ¿Quien es mas macho? Alejandro es mas macho! --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Alex Stanley j_alexander_stanley@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, raunchydog raunchydog@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Alex Stanley j_alexander_stanley@ wrote: I keep my coffee in one of those clear plastic canisters with a rubber gasket and a wire clamping mechanism. In other news, I'm sitting here in Petra's Jeep, by the side of the road, waiting for the inflator to pump up her tire. She drove off to an appointment and didn't notice the flat until a mile from the house. So, I have the satellite radio playing the grateful dead channel, as I post to FFL on my phone. And this is after making us both a gourmet lunch. A hubby's work is never done. Have a relaxing day, Alex. http://youtu.be/OOeB80DePn0 Thanks, but it's a little late for that. The tire was taking an awfully long time to inflate, so I shut off the little compressor, only to hear the loud hiss of air escaping from a gaping hole in the tire. So, I had to change the damn tire, out in cold, clammy, December weather. What pissed me off, though, is that the Jeep has a low tire pressure idiot light, and this is the second time Petra has driven off with that idiot light on. The first time, a tire was a little low. But, today, she got in and drove a mile on a completely dead flat tire. I told her, The next time you drive off with a weird dashboard light on, don't call me.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
Thanks Raunchy - it is difficult to explain the feeling of an abstract experience. Cute picture. The picture of the professor dog, which I love, is the closest look to Sandy, although she does think she wears a crown. I brought her back to show the pet store owner who helped me this summer with her when I was in the campground. She was happy to see her and then said all of a sudden as I was talking to her; Oh, you seem mentally better. Ha. I forgot I was confronting my survival in the campgrounds at the beach this summer. We agreed it must be the influence of the little dog and all those walks I've been taking. From: raunchydog raunchy...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 7:43 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Emily Reyn emilymae.reyn@... wrote: This is exactly what I'm asking.  Is it explainable? Excellent questions. An abstract experience is not easily explained, particularly the experiences MJ is talking about. Your experience at the beach hints at it. IMO TM makes your beach experience possible regularly. Explaining the abstract experiences that MJ is talking about was Maharishi's strong suit. MJ rejected the TMO long ago and that's O.K. but as far as the TM technique goes, he stills seems to get benefits from it. Interestingly he still uses the abstract concepts that he learned from Maharishi to explain his experiences. Maybe he does so because it's a language that he's familiar with that validates his experience. So the TMO has a lot of baggage. BFD, IMO, I wish people would just stop whining about it, but that's going to happen. Oh, well, I still like the TM *technique* and MJ seems to as well. To each his own. I don't know if this link works but I thought of you and your little dog Sandy when I saw it: https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/45290_535581186469626_881860797_n.jpg From: raunchydog raunchydog@... To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 7:16 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Emily Reyn emilymae.reyn@ wrote: I definitely go up and down; it's a real drag.  Or maybe not.  What you say below sounds like something Xeno would say.  You are immersed in unbounded awareness?  How do you know this?  Maybe you just think you are.  How do you know you tasted a strawberry and how would you explain it to anyone who hasn't? From: Michael Jackson mjackson74@ To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 7:07 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  But like I said this is my daily experience so meditation is not something I do for more than a few minutes - its useful for release of body stress but the rest, well I already am immersed in unbounded awareness, so its just thinking the mantra in the cosmic soup, I don't go up or down. From: Emily Reyn emilymae.reyn@ To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 9:28 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  Dear MJ, how do you define Pure Awareness?  The Absolute is enlivened in you?  What does that feel like.  From: Michael Jackson mjackson74@ To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 12:07 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  Thanks Emily, for your kind words. For me I started out with TM and the first thing it did was help me sleep better, which was a blessing at the time. And fairly soon after I started TM I began to have what might be termed classic experiences of clear transcending, and then CC, GC (lots of those) and some Unity, and even which for me was real cool, a couple very clear although minor experiences of ritambhara pragya when I was on staff working for the team of governors who were teaching sidhi prep courses in North and South Carolina in the late 70's. This led me to believe that all the things M said about consciousness and TM leading to enlightenment were true since I seemed to be on that path through direct experience. I also assumed that the promises about life improvement such as better behavior, better relationships and so forth were also true. But I early on began to see a large gap between what was promised or claimed for the effects of TM and the actual behavior and energy of most of the leaders and managers of the Movement. Like so many others l made excuses for that gap
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@... wrote: Wow - wonder who's point of view is the true one? Consider this; Curtis is the biggest Maharishi-hater ever to have graced this forum. The level of hate is so intense that even The Turq and Vaj becomes mere amateurs in comparison. If you want to know what Maharishi felt about Christianity all you have to do is to see the video below. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIWqJ8tJ8JU From: nablusoss1008 no_re...@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, December 9, 2012 6:28 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, feste37 feste37@ wrote: If MMY did have a negative view of Christianity it was because of what he saw as its emphasis on suffering, which was directly contrary to his message that life is bliss. In that sense he had a disagreement with the interpreters of Christianity down through the ages, not with the founder himself. In an interview with a Swiss journalist in Majorca on November 23, 1971, Maharishi said, I love Christ very much. He also said in the same interview, TM is a friend of Christianity because it takes awareness to the field that Christ wanted everyone to enjoy. Then he added,No Christian should suffer; it is not necessary. It is not good to propagate suffering in the name of Christ. He also used to refer to Christ as Lord Christ. Maharishi on Christianity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIWqJ8tJ8JU
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
you remain a hick and a jackass, imo. Most people like you, and your earnest confusion, and your stories, so if its working for you, go for it. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, doctordumbass@ no_reply@ wrote: Christianity has so perverted the message that Christ attempted to teach, that it has emerged as a key force of evil in this world. To spend your time attempting to equivocate the badnessitude of Maharishi with the Nazi supporting, child raping, country invading b*llshit of Christianity is a breathtaking excuse in denial. Really makes you look like a country bumpkin driven more by emotions than facts. HEE HAW! I don't know who you are addressing this to since none of the people in this thread were making that point. Maybe you should start with brushing up on what the word equivocate means before you go into insult mode and living up to your latest screen name. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@ wrote: Wow - wonder who's point of view is the true one? They both accurately express the two versions of his teaching, what sounds the best for PR and what he taught to people he trusted more with his candid opinion. But even as he tries to give positive marketing lip service to Christianity, he was expressing his view that Christianity's true goals should mirror the Hindu religion's emphasis on Self-realization. It does not, and him claiming it doesn't make it so. This contempt for the goals of Christianity was not a point missed by the meditating monks I knew. From: nablusoss1008 no_re...@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, December 9, 2012 6:28 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, feste37 feste37@ wrote: If MMY did have a negative view of Christianity it was because of what he saw as its emphasis on suffering, which was directly contrary to his message that life is bliss. In that sense he had a disagreement with the interpreters of Christianity down through the ages, not with the founder himself. In an interview with a Swiss journalist in Majorca on November 23, 1971, Maharishi said, I love Christ very much. He also said in the same interview, TM is a friend of Christianity because it takes awareness to the field that Christ wanted everyone to enjoy. Then he added,No Christian should suffer; it is not necessary. It is not good to propagate suffering in the name of Christ. He also used to refer to Christ as Lord Christ. Maharishi on Christianity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIWqJ8tJ8JU
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
What do you expect him to say publicly? He said whatever he felt would get people flocking to him to keep the dollars rolling in. Curtis, Robin, Vaj and Barry's current state of belief or point of view of Maha and the Movement have nothing to do with the experiences the had, what they saw or heard when with Maharishi. The difference is their point of view. As an example when Barry mentioned his watching Maha ask an initiator to take money in a suitcase across international borders (which many of you doubt ever happened) he said AT THE TIME he felt what the TM Movement was doing was so important and valuable he was willing to overlook what he was seeing for, in essence, the greater good. He no longer feels this way. If Curtis had conversation with the monks he knew in the old days and they told him certain things, then they did, plain and simple. What happened happened, what Maharishi said and did was what he said and did. Its all in the perception of events and actions and words. You seem to feel that anyone who is not a Maharishi supporter is wrong wrong wrong and therefore their point of view is invalid and that somehow means that the events they experienced, witnessed and heard never actually happened. You feel that no matter what, MAharishi was great and wonderful and therefore everything he said did and thought was 100% supported by the laws of nature, and were actually Cosmic thoughts, words and actions. The problem with this point of view, is that many of his deeds and words can't be defended - they are too anomalous as the speech and actions of someone who is supposed to be enlightened, unless you use the old saw of Well, we can't understand the thoughts and actions of an enlightened man in our unenlightened state of awareness. This is the same baloney David Lynch used in trying to calm the agitated German audience in the now famous Raja Emmanuel sticking his big raja hoof in his own mouth by mentioning Hitler's name in the speech he was giving about invincible Germany. The versions of that video still on the Net are edited ones - I saw the unedited full version right after it was posted. When Lynch got up to do damage control, he actually said that Emmanuel had raja training and that we could not understand the subtle awareness and thinking of someone who has had such special training. I couldn't believe at the time that he was making things so much worse with espousing such elitist baloney. If however one comes to the belief that Maharishi was intelligent, a great orator, had great, even tremendous personal energy and charisma that was being orchestrated by his unenlightened ego and he used his rather extensive knowledge to create an organization designed to keep him supplied with huge amounts of money, elevate him to god like status and keep him supplied with yes men to do his bidding and plenty of women for sex, then everything he ever did and said makes sense without having to make excuses for him. I don't hate Maha, but I have no illusions about him either. He was a man who did what most men do. The reason so many people do hate him is that he actually did have an opportunity to create a Movement that could truly have changed the world if the focus had remained on teaching meditation and had that been coupled with numerous small centers that were actually supported by the Movement rather than the other way around and some sort of community service outreach where the meditators actually went out in the community and did good works on a practical hands on level. Instead the Movement became increasingly focused on pay attention to me! I am the Big Cheese! Pay attention to me and pay me. that was it. So its understandable that some would have anger over a very large carrot of personal and global peace and happiness that was derailed by the lust for personal gratification. Of course you may lay all this off to my own dislike for M. From: nablusoss1008 no_re...@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 3:34 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@... wrote: Wow - wonder who's point of view is the true one? Consider this; Curtis is the biggest Maharishi-hater ever to have graced this forum. The level of hate is so intense that even The Turq and Vaj becomes mere amateurs in comparison. If you want to know what Maharishi felt about Christianity all you have to do is to see the video below. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIWqJ8tJ8JU From: nablusoss1008 no_re...@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, December 9, 2012 6:28 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, feste37 feste37@ wrote: If MMY did have a negative view
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
As usual, I found your views and the way that you wrote about them very readable, reasonable and seemingly balanced. I have not had any of the experiences within the movement that you have MJ but you have been around a long time and what you write always carries with it credibility; however, I have no way of proving or disproving any of it nor do I care to. I just enjoy reading what you write most of the time. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@... wrote: What do you expect him to say publicly? He said whatever he felt would get people flocking to him to keep the dollars rolling in. Curtis, Robin, Vaj and Barry's current state of belief or point of view of Maha and the Movement have nothing to do with the experiences the had, what they saw or heard when with Maharishi. The difference is their point of view. As an example when Barry mentioned his watching Maha ask an initiator to take money in a suitcase across international borders (which many of you doubt ever happened) he said AT THE TIME he felt what the TM Movement was doing was so important and valuable he was willing to overlook what he was seeing for, in essence, the greater good. He no longer feels this way. If Curtis had conversation with the monks he knew in the old days and they told him certain things, then they did, plain and simple. What happened happened, what Maharishi said and did was what he said and did. Its all in the perception of events and actions and words. You seem to feel that anyone who is not a Maharishi supporter is wrong wrong wrong and therefore their point of view is invalid and that somehow means that the events they experienced, witnessed and heard never actually happened. You feel that no matter what, MAharishi was great and wonderful and therefore everything he said did and thought was 100% supported by the laws of nature, and were actually Cosmic thoughts, words and actions. The problem with this point of view, is that many of his deeds and words can't be defended - they are too anomalous as the speech and actions of someone who is supposed to be enlightened, unless you use the old saw of Well, we can't understand the thoughts and actions of an enlightened man in our unenlightened state of awareness. This is the same baloney David Lynch used in trying to calm the agitated German audience in the now famous Raja Emmanuel sticking his big raja hoof in his own mouth by mentioning Hitler's name in the speech he was giving about invincible Germany. The versions of that video still on the Net are edited ones - I saw the unedited full version right after it was posted. When Lynch got up to do damage control, he actually said that Emmanuel had raja training and that we could not understand the subtle awareness and thinking of someone who has had such special training. I couldn't believe at the time that he was making things so much worse with espousing such elitist baloney. If however one comes to the belief that Maharishi was intelligent, a great orator, had great, even tremendous personal energy and charisma that was being orchestrated by his unenlightened ego and he used his rather extensive knowledge to create an organization designed to keep him supplied with huge amounts of money, elevate him to god like status and keep him supplied with yes men to do his bidding and plenty of women for sex, then everything he ever did and said makes sense without having to make excuses for him. I don't hate Maha, but I have no illusions about him either. He was a man who did what most men do. The reason so many people do hate him is that he actually did have an opportunity to create a Movement that could truly have changed the world if the focus had remained on teaching meditation and had that been coupled with numerous small centers that were actually supported by the Movement rather than the other way around and some sort of community service outreach where the meditators actually went out in the community and did good works on a practical hands on level. Instead the Movement became increasingly focused on pay attention to me! I am the Big Cheese! Pay attention to me and pay me. that was it. So its understandable that some would have anger over a very large carrot of personal and global peace and happiness that was derailed by the lust for personal gratification. Of course you may lay all this off to my own dislike for M. From: nablusoss1008 no_re...@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 3:34 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@ wrote: Wow - wonder who's point of view is the true one? Consider this; Curtis is the biggest Maharishi-hater ever to have graced this forum. The level
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
And if Maharishi was really enlightened and therefore an expression of Divine Energy, which would mean the Movement was and is an expression of Divine Energy and Cosmic Excellence in Action, how could it have left they trail of people who became basket cases mentally, emotionally, financially and sometimes physically and the numbers of people who now revile Maha - doesn't seem to be the expected manifestation of en enlightened man and movement. From: nablusoss1008 no_re...@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 3:34 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@... wrote: Wow - wonder who's point of view is the true one? Consider this; Curtis is the biggest Maharishi-hater ever to have graced this forum. The level of hate is so intense that even The Turq and Vaj becomes mere amateurs in comparison. If you want to know what Maharishi felt about Christianity all you have to do is to see the video below. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIWqJ8tJ8JU From: nablusoss1008 no_re...@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, December 9, 2012 6:28 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, feste37 feste37@ wrote: If MMY did have a negative view of Christianity it was because of what he saw as its emphasis on suffering, which was directly contrary to his message that life is bliss. In that sense he had a disagreement with the interpreters of Christianity down through the ages, not with the founder himself. In an interview with a Swiss journalist in Majorca on November 23, 1971, Maharishi said, I love Christ very much. He also said in the same interview, TM is a friend of Christianity because it takes awareness to the field that Christ wanted everyone to enjoy. Then he added,No Christian should suffer; it is not necessary. It is not good to propagate suffering in the name of Christ. He also used to refer to Christ as Lord Christ. Maharishi on Christianity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIWqJ8tJ8JU
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
Thanks Ann - you are kind - but its just a point of view - there are plenty of folks here who think I am an idiot at best cuz I don't love M and the TMO although come to think of it, I think the sharpest response I ever got here on FFL was an unflattering remark i once made about Ammachi From: awoelflebater no_re...@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 9:59 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas As usual, I found your views and the way that you wrote about them very readable, reasonable and seemingly balanced. I have not had any of the experiences within the movement that you have MJ but you have been around a long time and what you write always carries with it credibility; however, I have no way of proving or disproving any of it nor do I care to. I just enjoy reading what you write most of the time. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@... wrote: What do you expect him to say publicly? He said whatever he felt would get people flocking to him to keep the dollars rolling in. Curtis, Robin, Vaj and Barry's current state of belief or point of view of Maha and the Movement have nothing to do with the experiences the had, what they saw or heard when with Maharishi. The difference is their point of view. As an example when Barry mentioned his watching Maha ask an initiator to take money in a suitcase across international borders (which many of you doubt ever happened) he said AT THE TIME he felt what the TM Movement was doing was so important and valuable he was willing to overlook what he was seeing for, in essence, the greater good. He no longer feels this way. If Curtis had conversation with the monks he knew in the old days and they told him certain things, then they did, plain and simple. What happened happened, what Maharishi said and did was what he said and did. Its all in the perception of events and actions and words. You seem to feel that anyone who is not a Maharishi supporter is wrong wrong wrong and therefore their point of view is invalid and that somehow means that the events they experienced, witnessed and heard never actually happened. You feel that no matter what, MAharishi was great and wonderful and therefore everything he said did and thought was 100% supported by the laws of nature, and were actually Cosmic thoughts, words and actions. The problem with this point of view, is that many of his deeds and words can't be defended - they are too anomalous as the speech and actions of someone who is supposed to be enlightened, unless you use the old saw of Well, we can't understand the thoughts and actions of an enlightened man in our unenlightened state of awareness. This is the same baloney David Lynch used in trying to calm the agitated German audience in the now famous Raja Emmanuel sticking his big raja hoof in his own mouth by mentioning Hitler's name in the speech he was giving about invincible Germany. The versions of that video still on the Net are edited ones - I saw the unedited full version right after it was posted. When Lynch got up to do damage control, he actually said that Emmanuel had raja training and that we could not understand the subtle awareness and thinking of someone who has had such special training. I couldn't believe at the time that he was making things so much worse with espousing such elitist baloney. If however one comes to the belief that Maharishi was intelligent, a great orator, had great, even tremendous personal energy and charisma that was being orchestrated by his unenlightened ego and he used his rather extensive knowledge to create an organization designed to keep him supplied with huge amounts of money, elevate him to god like status and keep him supplied with yes men to do his bidding and plenty of women for sex, then everything he ever did and said makes sense without having to make excuses for him. I don't hate Maha, but I have no illusions about him either. He was a man who did what most men do. The reason so many people do hate him is that he actually did have an opportunity to create a Movement that could truly have changed the world if the focus had remained on teaching meditation and had that been coupled with numerous small centers that were actually supported by the Movement rather than the other way around and some sort of community service outreach where the meditators actually went out in the community and did good works on a practical hands on level. Instead the Movement became increasingly focused on pay attention to me! I am the Big Cheese! Pay attention to me and pay me. that was it. So its understandable that some would have anger over a very large carrot of personal and global peace and happiness that was derailed by the lust for personal gratification. Of course you
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
Who gives a shit about Maharishi? What about you? What are doing right now to express yourself as Divine Energy? Stop distracting yourself - Jesus Fucking Christ! --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@... wrote: And if Maharishi was really enlightened and therefore an expression of Divine Energy, which would mean the Movement was and is an expression of Divine Energy and Cosmic Excellence in Action, how could it have left they trail of people who became basket cases mentally, emotionally, financially and sometimes physically and the numbers of people who now revile Maha - doesn't seem to be the expected manifestation of en enlightened man and movement. From: nablusoss1008 no_re...@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 3:34 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@ wrote: Wow - wonder who's point of view is the true one? Consider this; Curtis is the biggest Maharishi-hater ever to have graced this forum. The level of hate is so intense that even The Turq and Vaj becomes mere amateurs in comparison. If you want to know what Maharishi felt about Christianity all you have to do is to see the video below. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIWqJ8tJ8JU From: nablusoss1008 no_re...@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, December 9, 2012 6:28 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas à--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, feste37 feste37@ wrote: If MMY did have a negative view of Christianity it was because of what he saw as its emphasis on suffering, which was directly contrary to his message that life is bliss. In that sense he had a disagreement with the interpreters of Christianity down through the ages, not with the founder himself. In an interview with a Swiss journalist in Majorca on November 23, 1971, Maharishi said, I love Christ very much. He also said in the same interview, TM is a friend of Christianity because it takes awareness to the field that Christ wanted everyone to enjoy. Then he added,No Christian should suffer; it is not necessary. It is not good to propagate suffering in the name of Christ. He also used to refer to Christ as Lord Christ. Maharishi on Christianity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIWqJ8tJ8JU
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, doctordumbass@... no_reply@... wrote: you remain a hick and a jackass, imo. Most people like you, and your earnest confusion, and your stories, so if its working for you, go for it. Yeah,...so anyway your comments were made up without any reference to what the thread was about. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, doctordumbass@ no_reply@ wrote: Christianity has so perverted the message that Christ attempted to teach, that it has emerged as a key force of evil in this world. To spend your time attempting to equivocate the badnessitude of Maharishi with the Nazi supporting, child raping, country invading b*llshit of Christianity is a breathtaking excuse in denial. Really makes you look like a country bumpkin driven more by emotions than facts. HEE HAW! I don't know who you are addressing this to since none of the people in this thread were making that point. Maybe you should start with brushing up on what the word equivocate means before you go into insult mode and living up to your latest screen name. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@ wrote: Wow - wonder who's point of view is the true one? They both accurately express the two versions of his teaching, what sounds the best for PR and what he taught to people he trusted more with his candid opinion. But even as he tries to give positive marketing lip service to Christianity, he was expressing his view that Christianity's true goals should mirror the Hindu religion's emphasis on Self-realization. It does not, and him claiming it doesn't make it so. This contempt for the goals of Christianity was not a point missed by the meditating monks I knew. From: nablusoss1008 no_re...@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, December 9, 2012 6:28 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, feste37 feste37@ wrote: If MMY did have a negative view of Christianity it was because of what he saw as its emphasis on suffering, which was directly contrary to his message that life is bliss. In that sense he had a disagreement with the interpreters of Christianity down through the ages, not with the founder himself. In an interview with a Swiss journalist in Majorca on November 23, 1971, Maharishi said, I love Christ very much. He also said in the same interview, TM is a friend of Christianity because it takes awareness to the field that Christ wanted everyone to enjoy. Then he added,No Christian should suffer; it is not necessary. It is not good to propagate suffering in the name of Christ. He also used to refer to Christ as Lord Christ. Maharishi on Christianity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIWqJ8tJ8JU
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
Oh...you mean I hijacked the thread?? Call 911! Because in Curtis World, I Am The First To Do So Here On FFL, And Must Be Called Out! G.M.A.B. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, doctordumbass@ no_reply@ wrote: you remain a hick and a jackass, imo. Most people like you, and your earnest confusion, and your stories, so if its working for you, go for it. Yeah,...so anyway your comments were made up without any reference to what the thread was about. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, doctordumbass@ no_reply@ wrote: Christianity has so perverted the message that Christ attempted to teach, that it has emerged as a key force of evil in this world. To spend your time attempting to equivocate the badnessitude of Maharishi with the Nazi supporting, child raping, country invading b*llshit of Christianity is a breathtaking excuse in denial. Really makes you look like a country bumpkin driven more by emotions than facts. HEE HAW! I don't know who you are addressing this to since none of the people in this thread were making that point. Maybe you should start with brushing up on what the word equivocate means before you go into insult mode and living up to your latest screen name. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@ wrote: Wow - wonder who's point of view is the true one? They both accurately express the two versions of his teaching, what sounds the best for PR and what he taught to people he trusted more with his candid opinion. But even as he tries to give positive marketing lip service to Christianity, he was expressing his view that Christianity's true goals should mirror the Hindu religion's emphasis on Self-realization. It does not, and him claiming it doesn't make it so. This contempt for the goals of Christianity was not a point missed by the meditating monks I knew. From: nablusoss1008 no_re...@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, December 9, 2012 6:28 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, feste37 feste37@ wrote: If MMY did have a negative view of Christianity it was because of what he saw as its emphasis on suffering, which was directly contrary to his message that life is bliss. In that sense he had a disagreement with the interpreters of Christianity down through the ages, not with the founder himself. In an interview with a Swiss journalist in Majorca on November 23, 1971, Maharishi said, I love Christ very much. He also said in the same interview, TM is a friend of Christianity because it takes awareness to the field that Christ wanted everyone to enjoy. Then he added,No Christian should suffer; it is not necessary. It is not good to propagate suffering in the name of Christ. He also used to refer to Christ as Lord Christ. Maharishi on Christianity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIWqJ8tJ8JU
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
-- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, doctordumbass@... no_reply@... wrote: Oh...you mean I hijacked the thread?? Call 911! Because in Curtis World, I Am The First To Do So Here On FFL, And Must Be Called Out! G.M.A.B. So you made some odious shit up to make a fabricated accusation of something no one said as an excuse to insult strangers on the Internet. Do I have it right now? --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, doctordumbass@ no_reply@ wrote: you remain a hick and a jackass, imo. Most people like you, and your earnest confusion, and your stories, so if its working for you, go for it. Yeah,...so anyway your comments were made up without any reference to what the thread was about. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, doctordumbass@ no_reply@ wrote: Christianity has so perverted the message that Christ attempted to teach, that it has emerged as a key force of evil in this world. To spend your time attempting to equivocate the badnessitude of Maharishi with the Nazi supporting, child raping, country invading b*llshit of Christianity is a breathtaking excuse in denial. Really makes you look like a country bumpkin driven more by emotions than facts. HEE HAW! I don't know who you are addressing this to since none of the people in this thread were making that point. Maybe you should start with brushing up on what the word equivocate means before you go into insult mode and living up to your latest screen name. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@ wrote: Wow - wonder who's point of view is the true one? They both accurately express the two versions of his teaching, what sounds the best for PR and what he taught to people he trusted more with his candid opinion. But even as he tries to give positive marketing lip service to Christianity, he was expressing his view that Christianity's true goals should mirror the Hindu religion's emphasis on Self-realization. It does not, and him claiming it doesn't make it so. This contempt for the goals of Christianity was not a point missed by the meditating monks I knew. From: nablusoss1008 no_re...@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, December 9, 2012 6:28 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, feste37 feste37@ wrote: If MMY did have a negative view of Christianity it was because of what he saw as its emphasis on suffering, which was directly contrary to his message that life is bliss. In that sense he had a disagreement with the interpreters of Christianity down through the ages, not with the founder himself. In an interview with a Swiss journalist in Majorca on November 23, 1971, Maharishi said, I love Christ very much. He also said in the same interview, TM is a friend of Christianity because it takes awareness to the field that Christ wanted everyone to enjoy. Then he added,No Christian should suffer; it is not necessary. It is not good to propagate suffering in the name of Christ. He also used to refer to Christ as Lord Christ. Maharishi on Christianity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIWqJ8tJ8JU
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
These concepts are of course subject to misunderstanding. Alex Stanley: Reminds me of the time a group of ISKCON members danced and chanted around the Fairfield farmers market, handing out pamphlets. I was given a pamphlet, and it basically outlined how we need to live lives of abnegation, sexual repression, and austerity and chant the Maha Mantra so that we might enjoy better future lifetimes. That's it - you once read an ISKCON pamphlet? How could we get by without your expert knowledge of Indian religions! IMO, the more a religious org is uptight about sexuality, the more likely it is that, within the org, sexuality will be outwardly expressed in an cc manner, ISKCON and the Catholic Church being two high-profile examples of this. Don't you just hate those Catholics and Hindus!
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
nope.:-) --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@... wrote: -- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, doctordumbass@ no_reply@ wrote: Oh...you mean I hijacked the thread?? Call 911! Because in Curtis World, I Am The First To Do So Here On FFL, And Must Be Called Out! G.M.A.B. So you made some odious shit up to make a fabricated accusation of something no one said as an excuse to insult strangers on the Internet. Do I have it right now? --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, doctordumbass@ no_reply@ wrote: you remain a hick and a jackass, imo. Most people like you, and your earnest confusion, and your stories, so if its working for you, go for it. Yeah,...so anyway your comments were made up without any reference to what the thread was about. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, doctordumbass@ no_reply@ wrote: Christianity has so perverted the message that Christ attempted to teach, that it has emerged as a key force of evil in this world. To spend your time attempting to equivocate the badnessitude of Maharishi with the Nazi supporting, child raping, country invading b*llshit of Christianity is a breathtaking excuse in denial. Really makes you look like a country bumpkin driven more by emotions than facts. HEE HAW! I don't know who you are addressing this to since none of the people in this thread were making that point. Maybe you should start with brushing up on what the word equivocate means before you go into insult mode and living up to your latest screen name. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@ wrote: Wow - wonder who's point of view is the true one? They both accurately express the two versions of his teaching, what sounds the best for PR and what he taught to people he trusted more with his candid opinion. But even as he tries to give positive marketing lip service to Christianity, he was expressing his view that Christianity's true goals should mirror the Hindu religion's emphasis on Self-realization. It does not, and him claiming it doesn't make it so. This contempt for the goals of Christianity was not a point missed by the meditating monks I knew. From: nablusoss1008 no_re...@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, December 9, 2012 6:28 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, feste37 feste37@ wrote: If MMY did have a negative view of Christianity it was because of what he saw as its emphasis on suffering, which was directly contrary to his message that life is bliss. In that sense he had a disagreement with the interpreters of Christianity down through the ages, not with the founder himself. In an interview with a Swiss journalist in Majorca on November 23, 1971, Maharishi said, I love Christ very much. He also said in the same interview, TM is a friend of Christianity because it takes awareness to the field that Christ wanted everyone to enjoy. Then he added,No Christian should suffer; it is not necessary. It is not good to propagate suffering in the name of Christ. He also used to refer to Christ as Lord Christ. Maharishi on Christianity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIWqJ8tJ8JU
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@... wrote: Thanks Ann - you are kind - but its just a point of view - there are plenty of folks here who think I am an idiot at best cuz I don't love M and the TMO although come to think of it, I think the sharpest response I ever got here on FFL was an unflattering remark i once made about Ammachi Often, for me, it is not all about the viewpoint, it is the sense of the person behind the viewpoint. I don't always agree with ANYONE here but certain posters fail to raise my ire. You are on of those. And you have a voice, a very good one in fact, and I like to hear that voice. You have earned the right to your viewpoint, you have lived much of it so that counts for lots and lots. From: awoelflebater no_re...@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 9:59 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  As usual, I found your views and the way that you wrote about them very readable, reasonable and seemingly balanced. I have not had any of the experiences within the movement that you have MJ but you have been around a long time and what you write always carries with it credibility; however, I have no way of proving or disproving any of it nor do I care to. I just enjoy reading what you write most of the time. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@ wrote: What do you expect him to say publicly? He said whatever he felt would get people flocking to him to keep the dollars rolling in. Curtis, Robin, Vaj and Barry's current state of belief or point of view of Maha and the Movement have nothing to do with the experiences the had, what they saw or heard when with Maharishi. The difference is their point of view. As an example when Barry mentioned his watching Maha ask an initiator to take money in a suitcase across international borders (which many of you doubt ever happened) he said AT THE TIME he felt what the TM Movement was doing was so important and valuable he was willing to overlook what he was seeing for, in essence, the greater good. He no longer feels this way. If Curtis had conversation with the monks he knew in the old days and they told him certain things, then they did, plain and simple. What happened happened, what Maharishi said and did was what he said and did. Its all in the perception of events and actions and words. You seem to feel that anyone who is not a Maharishi supporter is wrong wrong wrong and therefore their point of view is invalid and that somehow means that the events they experienced, witnessed and heard never actually happened. You feel that no matter what, MAharishi was great and wonderful and therefore everything he said did and thought was 100% supported by the laws of nature, and were actually Cosmic thoughts, words and actions. The problem with this point of view, is that many of his deeds and words can't be defended - they are too anomalous as the speech and actions of someone who is supposed to be enlightened, unless you use the old saw of Well, we can't understand the thoughts and actions of an enlightened man in our unenlightened state of awareness. This is the same baloney David Lynch used in trying to calm the agitated German audience in the now famous Raja Emmanuel sticking his big raja hoof in his own mouth by mentioning Hitler's name in the speech he was giving about invincible Germany. The versions of that video still on the Net are edited ones - I saw the unedited full version right after it was posted. When Lynch got up to do damage control, he actually said that Emmanuel had raja training and that we could not understand the subtle awareness and thinking of someone who has had such special training. I couldn't believe at the time that he was making things so much worse with espousing such elitist baloney. If however one comes to the belief that Maharishi was intelligent, a great orator, had great, even tremendous personal energy and charisma that was being orchestrated by his unenlightened ego and he used his rather extensive knowledge to create an organization designed to keep him supplied with huge amounts of money, elevate him to god like status and keep him supplied with yes men to do his bidding and plenty of women for sex, then everything he ever did and said makes sense without having to make excuses for him. I don't hate Maha, but I have no illusions about him either. He was a man who did what most men do. The reason so many people do hate him is that he actually did have an opportunity to create a Movement that could truly have changed the world if the focus had remained on teaching meditation and had that been coupled with numerous small centers that were actually
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
I'm in it right now - how bout you? From: doctordumb...@rocketmail.com doctordumb...@rocketmail.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 10:17 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas Who gives a shit about Maharishi? What about you? What are doing right now to express yourself as Divine Energy? Stop distracting yourself - Jesus Fucking Christ! --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@... wrote: And if Maharishi was really enlightened and therefore an expression of Divine Energy, which would mean the Movement was and is an expression of Divine Energy and Cosmic Excellence in Action, how could it have left they trail of people who became basket cases mentally, emotionally, financially and sometimes physically and the numbers of people who now revile Maha - doesn't seem to be the expected manifestation of en enlightened man and movement. From: nablusoss1008 no_re...@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 3:34 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@ wrote: Wow - wonder who's point of view is the true one? Consider this; Curtis is the biggest Maharishi-hater ever to have graced this forum. The level of hate is so intense that even The Turq and Vaj becomes mere amateurs in comparison. If you want to know what Maharishi felt about Christianity all you have to do is to see the video below. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIWqJ8tJ8JU From: nablusoss1008 no_re...@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, December 9, 2012 6:28 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, feste37 feste37@ wrote: If MMY did have a negative view of Christianity it was because of what he saw as its emphasis on suffering, which was directly contrary to his message that life is bliss. In that sense he had a disagreement with the interpreters of Christianity down through the ages, not with the founder himself. In an interview with a Swiss journalist in Majorca on November 23, 1971, Maharishi said, I love Christ very much. He also said in the same interview, TM is a friend of Christianity because it takes awareness to the field that Christ wanted everyone to enjoy. Then he added,No Christian should suffer; it is not necessary. It is not good to propagate suffering in the name of Christ. He also used to refer to Christ as Lord Christ. Maharishi on Christianity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIWqJ8tJ8JU
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
I think it would be instructive for everyone to watch Rick's latest Buddha at the Gas Pump - where Mark Landau talks about his fantastic experiences of awareness and at the same time he was still fearful, anxious etc. it does bring one to doubt the long term efficacy of TM and perhaps any sort of meditation - its interesting to me to note that Eckhart Tolle has consistently said that no one gets enlightened by meditating. From: Emily Reyn emilymae.r...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 1:34 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas This same paragraph could apply to Amma based on the information that is out on the internet now. From: Michael Jackson mjackso...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 7:03 AM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas And if Maharishi was really enlightened and therefore an expression of Divine Energy, which would mean the Movement was and is an expression of Divine Energy and Cosmic Excellence in Action, how could it have left they trail of people who became basket cases mentally, emotionally, financially and sometimes physically and the numbers of people who now revile Maha - doesn't seem to be the expected manifestation of en enlightened man and movement. From: nablusoss1008 no_re...@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 3:34 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@... wrote: Wow - wonder who's point of view is the true one? Consider this; Curtis is the biggest Maharishi-hater ever to have graced this forum. The level of hate is so intense that even The Turq and Vaj becomes mere amateurs in comparison. If you want to know what Maharishi felt about Christianity all you have to do is to see the video below. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIWqJ8tJ8JU From: nablusoss1008 no_re...@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, December 9, 2012 6:28 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, feste37 feste37@ wrote: If MMY did have a negative view of Christianity it was because of what he saw as its emphasis on suffering, which was directly contrary to his message that life is bliss. In that sense he had a disagreement with the interpreters of Christianity down through the ages, not with the founder himself. In an interview with a Swiss journalist in Majorca on November 23, 1971, Maharishi said, I love Christ very much. He also said in the same interview, TM is a friend of Christianity because it takes awareness to the field that Christ wanted everyone to enjoy. Then he added,No Christian should suffer; it is not necessary. It is not good to propagate suffering in the name of Christ. He also used to refer to Christ as Lord Christ. Maharishi on Christianity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIWqJ8tJ8JU
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
I think it depends on what one's expectations are for one's meditation and what meditation practice one is following, no? As an operational example (not a paradigm), for me I think that meditation helps to lower my stress level. I have no expectations of enlightenment of whatever sort; I simply want to function better in my life. And then I thought, hm, very different idea than unstressing under TM, based on what I've read online. I would like to hear Mark though, so will check it out. I also am a reader here who really has enjoyed your posts mjackson. From: Michael Jackson mjackso...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 10:42 AM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas I think it would be instructive for everyone to watch Rick's latest Buddha at the Gas Pump - where Mark Landau talks about his fantastic experiences of awareness and at the same time he was still fearful, anxious etc. it does bring one to doubt the long term efficacy of TM and perhaps any sort of meditation - its interesting to me to note that Eckhart Tolle has consistently said that no one gets enlightened by meditating. From: Emily Reyn emilymae.r...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 1:34 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas This same paragraph could apply to Amma based on the information that is out on the internet now. From: Michael Jackson mjackso...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 7:03 AM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas And if Maharishi was really enlightened and therefore an expression of Divine Energy, which would mean the Movement was and is an expression of Divine Energy and Cosmic Excellence in Action, how could it have left they trail of people who became basket cases mentally, emotionally, financially and sometimes physically and the numbers of people who now revile Maha - doesn't seem to be the expected manifestation of en enlightened man and movement. From: nablusoss1008 no_re...@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 3:34 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@... wrote: Wow - wonder who's point of view is the true one? Consider this; Curtis is the biggest Maharishi-hater ever to have graced this forum. The level of hate is so intense that even The Turq and Vaj becomes mere amateurs in comparison. If you want to know what Maharishi felt about Christianity all you have to do is to see the video below. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIWqJ8tJ8JU From: nablusoss1008 no_re...@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, December 9, 2012 6:28 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, feste37 feste37@ wrote: If MMY did have a negative view of Christianity it was because of what he saw as its emphasis on suffering, which was directly contrary to his message that life is bliss. In that sense he had a disagreement with the interpreters of Christianity down through the ages, not with the founder himself. In an interview with a Swiss journalist in Majorca on November 23, 1971, Maharishi said, I love Christ very much. He also said in the same interview, TM is a friend of Christianity because it takes awareness to the field that Christ wanted everyone to enjoy. Then he added,No Christian should suffer; it is not necessary. It is not good to propagate suffering in the name of Christ. He also used to refer to Christ as Lord Christ. Maharishi on Christianity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIWqJ8tJ8JU
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
doctordumbass: ...the Nazi supporting, child raping, country invading b*llshit of Christianity is a breathtaking excuse in denial. You're sounding more like a pacifist Buddhist everyday or a Hindu in denial! Buddhists are just about the only people on the face of the earth that have not been doing a lot of killing in the name of religion. Why pick on just the Christians at Christmas? How many humans have been killed by the Hindus in the last few thousand years? Have you read about the battle of Kurukshetra? Go figure. The importance of the place is attributed to the fact that the Kurukshetra War of the Mahabharata was fought on this land and the Bhagavad Gita was preached on this land during the war when Lord Krishna found Arjuna in a terrible dilemma... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurukshetra
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
Thanks Emily, for your kind words. For me I started out with TM and the first thing it did was help me sleep better, which was a blessing at the time. And fairly soon after I started TM I began to have what might be termed classic experiences of clear transcending, and then CC, GC (lots of those) and some Unity, and even which for me was real cool, a couple very clear although minor experiences of ritambhara pragya when I was on staff working for the team of governors who were teaching sidhi prep courses in North and South Carolina in the late 70's. This led me to believe that all the things M said about consciousness and TM leading to enlightenment were true since I seemed to be on that path through direct experience. I also assumed that the promises about life improvement such as better behavior, better relationships and so forth were also true. But I early on began to see a large gap between what was promised or claimed for the effects of TM and the actual behavior and energy of most of the leaders and managers of the Movement. Like so many others l made excuses for that gap, but reached a point that I could no longer make excuses. If TM is as effective as it is supposed to be, the way it is advertised by the Movement, it should be having a very different effect and manifestation in those who have been doing it the longest, especially those who have done the advanced courses. I still occasionally use my TM mantra, it is for me a stress release thing - to explain, when I got the Chopra mantra which is chosen according to your birthday and time, I had the experience with my TM mantra that I would sink into the Absolute, with the Chopra mantra I felt the Absolute being enlivened in me, very vibrantly. After a couple years of using these mantras, and with the discovery of Eckhart Tolle's work, I feel what you might call Pure Awareness around me all the time - sometimes its really prevalent and powerful - other times it fades away. At this point the mantra, TM or other wise, tends to sort of pull me out of that state of Energy - its just like sitting there thinking thoughts. And this is proper meditation practice mind you. So for me about 5 minutes of TM or meditation and its done. Anymore than that its just surfacy thoughts. IF I stop meditating and sit there, silent, its all the Transcendent. TM is most useful for me if I have some physical fatigue or muscle overwork, using the TM or Chopra mantra releases the fatigue or stress very quickly. So for me I understand the love many have for TM and its use in daily life. I have come to the conclusion that I am sure that a LOT of people here will vehemently deny or denounce is that TM is most useful and effective in the early years and later not so much, partly because I think like those who feel we are in the transcendent all the time and all we need to do is become aware of it like Nisargadatta or Eckhart Tolle. I have a good deal of respect for people like Rick Archer and understand his outlook on things, but I disagree totally with his assessment that the David Lynch Foundation is doing good work with certain groups. I have been working with a group of therapists of various kinds who are beginning to treat people especially veterans who have PTSD. Given what I know about the context in which TM is taught (the Movement) and the effect of TM in terms of its stress release capacity it may not be the best technique for those who hold such extreme amounts and kinds of stress that can come forth explosively. I also do not want the TM folks teaching TM in schools at all - the reasons for the teaching is not to benefit the people as much as it is to create more customers for the Movement, the teacher who are on the ground and actually teach the students may not be aware of this, but the leaders of the Movement certainly know it. I do feel TM is of benefit to some degree, but for both PTSD sufferers and school kids there are other more positive meditations that will benefit them more fully without the baggage of the Movement or their hidden motives. So them's my thoughts on meditation today. I await the utter revilement I am sure to receive from nabby and others for expressing these thoughts. From: Emily Reyn emilymae.r...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 1:57 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas I think it depends on what one's expectations are for one's meditation and what meditation practice one is following, no? As an operational example (not a paradigm), for me I think that meditation helps to lower my stress level. I have no expectations of enlightenment of whatever sort; I simply want to function better in my life. And then I thought, hm, very different idea than unstressing under TM, based on what I've read online. I would like to hear Mark though
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
The Buddhists mostly kill themselves when they are not satisfied with something From: Richard J. Williams rich...@rwilliams.us To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 2:39 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas doctordumbass: ...the Nazi supporting, child raping, country invading b*llshit of Christianity is a breathtaking excuse in denial. You're sounding more like a pacifist Buddhist everyday or a Hindu in denial! Buddhists are just about the only people on the face of the earth that have not been doing a lot of killing in the name of religion. Why pick on just the Christians at Christmas? How many humans have been killed by the Hindus in the last few thousand years? Have you read about the battle of Kurukshetra? Go figure. The importance of the place is attributed to the fact that the Kurukshetra War of the Mahabharata was fought on this land and the Bhagavad Gita was preached on this land during the war when Lord Krishna found Arjuna in a terrible dilemma... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurukshetra
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
LOL! --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@... wrote: The Buddhists mostly kill themselves when they are not satisfied with something From: Richard J. Williams richard@... To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 2:39 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  doctordumbass: ...the Nazi supporting, child raping, country invading b*llshit of Christianity is a breathtaking excuse in denial. You're sounding more like a pacifist Buddhist everyday or a Hindu in denial! Buddhists are just about the only people on the face of the earth that have not been doing a lot of killing in the name of religion. Why pick on just the Christians at Christmas? How many humans have been killed by the Hindus in the last few thousand years? Have you read about the battle of Kurukshetra? Go figure. The importance of the place is attributed to the fact that the Kurukshetra War of the Mahabharata was fought on this land and the Bhagavad Gita was preached on this land during the war when Lord Krishna found Arjuna in a terrible dilemma... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurukshetra
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
Oh c'mon - that's like me bringing up the US Civil War. I figure that one was OUR business, just as Kurukshetra was India's ANCIENT business. Nah, what I mean are the thousands of US troops occupying military bases, worldwide. Why the fuck are we still in Germany, and South Korea? You do know we have the capability to hit any country on earth and obliterate them many times over, in minutes - so what's with the military bases overseas? And how many military bases of other countries do we tolerate on US soil? Any way you slice it, we hold the world hostage at the point of a gun. Did you know that the US defense budget is twice, what all of the other countries on earth, spend on weapons? No shit. Pacifist, my ass. Just looking for a little balance, is all. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Richard J. Williams richard@... wrote: doctordumbass: ...the Nazi supporting, child raping, country invading b*llshit of Christianity is a breathtaking excuse in denial. You're sounding more like a pacifist Buddhist everyday or a Hindu in denial! Buddhists are just about the only people on the face of the earth that have not been doing a lot of killing in the name of religion. Why pick on just the Christians at Christmas? How many humans have been killed by the Hindus in the last few thousand years? Have you read about the battle of Kurukshetra? Go figure. The importance of the place is attributed to the fact that the Kurukshetra War of the Mahabharata was fought on this land and the Bhagavad Gita was preached on this land during the war when Lord Krishna found Arjuna in a terrible dilemma... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurukshetra
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
MJ, I recognize you could misinterpret my laughter. I was and am enjoying the flat out calling it as you see it freshness of your expression, not the self-immolation of human beings. Any thought of self destruction is so misguided, such a crime against ourselves, no matter how lofty the intent. But I still kinda want to put what you said on a t-shirt... --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, doctordumbass@... no_reply@... wrote: LOL! --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@ wrote: The Buddhists mostly kill themselves when they are not satisfied with something From: Richard J. Williams richard@ To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 2:39 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  doctordumbass: ...the Nazi supporting, child raping, country invading b*llshit of Christianity is a breathtaking excuse in denial. You're sounding more like a pacifist Buddhist everyday or a Hindu in denial! Buddhists are just about the only people on the face of the earth that have not been doing a lot of killing in the name of religion. Why pick on just the Christians at Christmas? How many humans have been killed by the Hindus in the last few thousand years? Have you read about the battle of Kurukshetra? Go figure. The importance of the place is attributed to the fact that the Kurukshetra War of the Mahabharata was fought on this land and the Bhagavad Gita was preached on this land during the war when Lord Krishna found Arjuna in a terrible dilemma... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurukshetra
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@... wrote: So them's my thoughts on meditation today. I await the utter revilement I am sure to receive from nabby and others for expressing these thoughts. YAWN
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
I really like the Buddhists and really like Buddha himself for what he did and when did it - I felt a little sneaking guilt over saying it From: doctordumb...@rocketmail.com doctordumb...@rocketmail.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 3:40 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas MJ, I recognize you could misinterpret my laughter. I was and am enjoying the flat out calling it as you see it freshness of your expression, not the self-immolation of human beings. Any thought of self destruction is so misguided, such a crime against ourselves, no matter how lofty the intent. But I still kinda want to put what you said on a t-shirt... --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, doctordumbass@... no_reply@... wrote: LOL! --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@ wrote: The Buddhists mostly kill themselves when they are not satisfied with something From: Richard J. Williams richard@ To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 2:39 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  doctordumbass: ...the Nazi supporting, child raping, country invading b*llshit of Christianity is a breathtaking excuse in denial. You're sounding more like a pacifist Buddhist everyday or a Hindu in denial! Buddhists are just about the only people on the face of the earth that have not been doing a lot of killing in the name of religion. Why pick on just the Christians at Christmas? How many humans have been killed by the Hindus in the last few thousand years? Have you read about the battle of Kurukshetra? Go figure. The importance of the place is attributed to the fact that the Kurukshetra War of the Mahabharata was fought on this land and the Bhagavad Gita was preached on this land during the war when Lord Krishna found Arjuna in a terrible dilemma... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurukshetra
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
Me too (human race, et al.) - I have four buddhas around the house, and I like them each a lot - one ivory, two wooden, and one of stone. But some of Buddha's followers have eviscerated Him - all wimped out, and His message, the message of this *great revolutionary*, destroying centuries of Dogma, has been reduced to unfortunate souls making themselves into candles - it sucks. And at the same time, humor is a great way to wake people up, so thanks again! --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@... wrote: I really like the Buddhists and really like Buddha himself for what he did and when did it - I felt a little sneaking guilt over saying it From: doctordumbass@... doctordumbass@... To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 3:40 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  MJ, I recognize you could misinterpret my laughter. I was and am enjoying the flat out calling it as you see it freshness of your expression, not the self-immolation of human beings. Any thought of self destruction is so misguided, such a crime against ourselves, no matter how lofty the intent. But I still kinda want to put what you said on a t-shirt... --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, doctordumbass@ no_reply@ wrote: LOL! --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@ wrote: The Buddhists mostly kill themselves when they are not satisfied with something From: Richard J. Williams richard@ To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 2:39 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas àdoctordumbass: ...the Nazi supporting, child raping, country invading b*llshit of Christianity is a breathtaking excuse in denial. You're sounding more like a pacifist Buddhist everyday or a Hindu in denial! Buddhists are just about the only people on the face of the earth that have not been doing a lot of killing in the name of religion. Why pick on just the Christians at Christmas? How many humans have been killed by the Hindus in the last few thousand years? Have you read about the battle of Kurukshetra? Go figure. The importance of the place is attributed to the fact that the Kurukshetra War of the Mahabharata was fought on this land and the Bhagavad Gita was preached on this land during the war when Lord Krishna found Arjuna in a terrible dilemma... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurukshetra
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
from nabby and others for expressing these thoughts. From: Emily Reyn emilymae.reyn@... To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 1:57 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  I think it depends on what one's expectations are for one's meditation and what meditation practice one is following, no? As an operational example (not a paradigm), for me I think that meditation helps to lower my stress level.  I have no expectations of enlightenment of whatever sort; I simply want to function better in my life.  And then I thought, hm, very different idea than unstressing under TM, based on what I've read online. I would like to hear Mark though, so will check it out. I also am a reader here who really has enjoyed your posts mjackson.  From: Michael Jackson mjackson74@... To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 10:42 AM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  I think it would be instructive for everyone to watch Rick's latest Buddha at the Gas Pump - where Mark Landau talks about his fantastic experiences of awareness and at the same time he was still fearful, anxious etc. it does bring one to doubt the long term efficacy of TM and perhaps any sort of meditation - its interesting to me to note that Eckhart Tolle has consistently said that no one gets enlightened by meditating. From: Emily Reyn emilymae.reyn@... To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 1:34 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  This same paragraph could apply to Amma based on the information that is out on the internet now. From: Michael Jackson mjackson74@... To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 7:03 AM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  And if Maharishi was really enlightened and therefore an expression of Divine Energy, which would mean the Movement was and is an expression of Divine Energy and Cosmic Excellence in Action, how could it have left they trail of people who became basket cases mentally, emotionally, financially and sometimes physically and the numbers of people who now revile Maha - doesn't seem to be the expected manifestation of en enlightened man and movement. From: nablusoss1008 no_re...@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 3:34 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@ wrote: Wow - wonder who's point of view is the true one? Consider this; Curtis is the biggest Maharishi-hater ever to have graced this forum. The level of hate is so intense that even The Turq and Vaj becomes mere amateurs in comparison. If you want to know what Maharishi felt about Christianity all you have to do is to see the video below. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIWqJ8tJ8JU From: nablusoss1008 no_re...@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, December 9, 2012 6:28 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas à--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, feste37 feste37@ wrote: If MMY did have a negative view of Christianity it was because of what he saw as its emphasis on suffering, which was directly contrary to his message that life is bliss. In that sense he had a disagreement with the interpreters of Christianity down through the ages, not with the founder himself. In an interview with a Swiss journalist in Majorca on November 23, 1971, Maharishi said, I love Christ very much. He also said in the same interview, TM is a friend of Christianity because it takes awareness to the field that Christ wanted everyone to enjoy. Then he added,No Christian should suffer; it is not necessary. It is not good to propagate suffering in the name of Christ. He also used to refer to Christ as Lord Christ. Maharishi on Christianity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIWqJ8tJ8JU
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
FWIW, I like your writing style a lot! Very readable even for someone with a mild visual defect, like myself! Strange, huh?! Nice rhythm, or stuff??? --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@... wrote: Thanks Emily, for your kind words. For me I started out with TM and the first thing it did was help me sleep better, which was a blessing at the time. And fairly soon after I started TM I began to have what might be termed classic experiences of clear transcending, and then CC, GC (lots of those) and some Unity, and even which for me was real cool, a couple very clear although minor experiences of ritambhara pragya when I was on staff working for the team of governors who were teaching sidhi prep courses in North and South Carolina in the late 70's.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
Thanks, I appreciate you saying that. From: card cardemais...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 6:50 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas FWIW, I like your writing style a lot! Very readable even for someone with a mild visual defect, like myself! Strange, huh?! Nice rhythm, or stuff??? --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@... wrote: Thanks Emily, for your kind words. For me I started out with TM and the first thing it did was help me sleep better, which was a blessing at the time. And fairly soon after I started TM I began to have what might be termed classic experiences of clear transcending, and then CC, GC (lots of those) and some Unity, and even which for me was real cool, a couple very clear although minor experiences of ritambhara pragya when I was on staff working for the team of governors who were teaching sidhi prep courses in North and South Carolina in the late 70's.
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@... wrote: I think it would be instructive for everyone to watch Rick's latest Buddha at the Gas Pump - where Mark Landau talks about his fantastic experiences of awareness and at the same time he was still fearful, anxious etc. Oh, interesting. If there is one thing I would like to rid myself of it is fear. I was sort of hoping that if one is close to enlightenment/increased awareness the fear could disappear. But then, 'increased awareness' could mean being aware of a lot of things. And some of those things could be positively frightful. Plus, the deeper you experience something the more intense it gets and that certainly could create anxiety. However, I think there is a difference between anxiety and fear. Anxiety can be the precursor to fear. Fear is like the flower and fear the bud that precedes it. Also, anxiety, although tinged with fear is a less realized version. It can often turn into full blown terror (fear) but often it just sort of vibrates and suggests it could blossom into the full blown version. Either way, I am not a big fan. it does bring one to doubt the long term efficacy of TM and perhaps any sort of meditation - its interesting to me to note that Eckhart Tolle has consistently said that no one gets enlightened by meditating. From: Emily Reyn emilymae.reyn@... To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 1:34 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  This same paragraph could apply to Amma based on the information that is out on the internet now. From: Michael Jackson mjackson74@... To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 7:03 AM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  And if Maharishi was really enlightened and therefore an expression of Divine Energy, which would mean the Movement was and is an expression of Divine Energy and Cosmic Excellence in Action, how could it have left they trail of people who became basket cases mentally, emotionally, financially and sometimes physically and the numbers of people who now revile Maha - doesn't seem to be the expected manifestation of en enlightened man and movement. From: nablusoss1008 no_re...@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 3:34 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@ wrote: Wow - wonder who's point of view is the true one? Consider this; Curtis is the biggest Maharishi-hater ever to have graced this forum. The level of hate is so intense that even The Turq and Vaj becomes mere amateurs in comparison. If you want to know what Maharishi felt about Christianity all you have to do is to see the video below. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIWqJ8tJ8JU From: nablusoss1008 no_re...@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, December 9, 2012 6:28 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas à--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, feste37 feste37@ wrote: If MMY did have a negative view of Christianity it was because of what he saw as its emphasis on suffering, which was directly contrary to his message that life is bliss. In that sense he had a disagreement with the interpreters of Christianity down through the ages, not with the founder himself. In an interview with a Swiss journalist in Majorca on November 23, 1971, Maharishi said, I love Christ very much. He also said in the same interview, TM is a friend of Christianity because it takes awareness to the field that Christ wanted everyone to enjoy. Then he added,No Christian should suffer; it is not necessary. It is not good to propagate suffering in the name of Christ. He also used to refer to Christ as Lord Christ. Maharishi on Christianity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIWqJ8tJ8JU
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
Dear MJ, how do you define Pure Awareness? The Absolute is enlivened in you? What does that feel like. From: Michael Jackson mjackso...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 12:07 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas Thanks Emily, for your kind words. For me I started out with TM and the first thing it did was help me sleep better, which was a blessing at the time. And fairly soon after I started TM I began to have what might be termed classic experiences of clear transcending, and then CC, GC (lots of those) and some Unity, and even which for me was real cool, a couple very clear although minor experiences of ritambhara pragya when I was on staff working for the team of governors who were teaching sidhi prep courses in North and South Carolina in the late 70's. This led me to believe that all the things M said about consciousness and TM leading to enlightenment were true since I seemed to be on that path through direct experience. I also assumed that the promises about life improvement such as better behavior, better relationships and so forth were also true. But I early on began to see a large gap between what was promised or claimed for the effects of TM and the actual behavior and energy of most of the leaders and managers of the Movement. Like so many others l made excuses for that gap, but reached a point that I could no longer make excuses. If TM is as effective as it is supposed to be, the way it is advertised by the Movement, it should be having a very different effect and manifestation in those who have been doing it the longest, especially those who have done the advanced courses. I still occasionally use my TM mantra, it is for me a stress release thing - to explain, when I got the Chopra mantra which is chosen according to your birthday and time, I had the experience with my TM mantra that I would sink into the Absolute, with the Chopra mantra I felt the Absolute being enlivened in me, very vibrantly. After a couple years of using these mantras, and with the discovery of Eckhart Tolle's work, I feel what you might call Pure Awareness around me all the time - sometimes its really prevalent and powerful - other times it fades away. At this point the mantra, TM or other wise, tends to sort of pull me out of that state of Energy - its just like sitting there thinking thoughts. And this is proper meditation practice mind you. So for me about 5 minutes of TM or meditation and its done. Anymore than that its just surfacy thoughts. IF I stop meditating and sit there, silent, its all the Transcendent. TM is most useful for me if I have some physical fatigue or muscle overwork, using the TM or Chopra mantra releases the fatigue or stress very quickly. So for me I understand the love many have for TM and its use in daily life. I have come to the conclusion that I am sure that a LOT of people here will vehemently deny or denounce is that TM is most useful and effective in the early years and later not so much, partly because I think like those who feel we are in the transcendent all the time and all we need to do is become aware of it like Nisargadatta or Eckhart Tolle. I have a good deal of respect for people like Rick Archer and understand his outlook on things, but I disagree totally with his assessment that the David Lynch Foundation is doing good work with certain groups. I have been working with a group of therapists of various kinds who are beginning to treat people especially veterans who have PTSD. Given what I know about the context in which TM is taught (the Movement) and the effect of TM in terms of its stress release capacity it may not be the best technique for those who hold such extreme amounts and kinds of stress that can come forth explosively. I also do not want the TM folks teaching TM in schools at all - the reasons for the teaching is not to benefit the people as much as it is to create more customers for the Movement, the teacher who are on the ground and actually teach the students may not be aware of this, but the leaders of the Movement certainly know it. I do feel TM is of benefit to some degree, but for both PTSD sufferers and school kids there are other more positive meditations that will benefit them more fully without the baggage of the Movement or their hidden motives. So them's my thoughts on meditation today. I await the utter revilement I am sure to receive from nabby and others for expressing these thoughts. From: Emily Reyn emilymae.r...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 1:57 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas I think it depends on what one's expectations are for one's meditation and what meditation practice one is following
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
H, that is a good question - I'll give a generic answer first then a specific one. I think when anyone begins meditating in any form, they have certain experiences that their teacher or master tells them, Ah! That is so and so. Other wise they might not have any frame of reference by which to have thoughts and feelings about what they are experiencing. Kind of like how Eckhart Tolle said he woke up and yet spent some years talking to Buddhist and other teachers who told him he was enlightened. So for me, the only way I know to describe it is that I have sensation that I call energy - ha, I paused for a few minutes to let myself really feel it to see how to describe it - it feel like a field of energy all around my body for a couple feet I guess. If I close my eyes and just relax the feeling of it gets much stronger. I feel it pretty much all the time and when I do relax I feel it through every particle of my body. It gets so strong when I close my eyes, that it feels like it is everything that is. The only qualities that I can describe it with are a feeling of bliss and usually peace. I feel it also extending into the furniture and general area around me. I can feel fear within it also, or muscle aches of my body - in other words the emotions and mind can do stuff when I feel it but something like fear or discomfort in the body it has nothing to do with the energy I feel, the energy encompasses everything that happens within it, and if my mind gets agitated about something, my awareness of it will fade but I have a clear perception that it is because I am focusing on something else and not allowing my awareness to stay on the energy. So having read and heard all the stuff I have, I assume it is pure awareness. It certainly seems to be there all the time and sometimes I have the sense as I feel it that it kind of goes on forever, there is no end to it. But as others have spoken here on FFL, I could just be having some sort of daily endorphin rush that is kind of pervasive and its all as Richard Bartlett would say an hallucination. From: Emily Reyn emilymae.r...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 9:28 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas Dear MJ, how do you define Pure Awareness? The Absolute is enlivened in you? What does that feel like. From: Michael Jackson mjackso...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 12:07 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas Thanks Emily, for your kind words. For me I started out with TM and the first thing it did was help me sleep better, which was a blessing at the time. And fairly soon after I started TM I began to have what might be termed classic experiences of clear transcending, and then CC, GC (lots of those) and some Unity, and even which for me was real cool, a couple very clear although minor experiences of ritambhara pragya when I was on staff working for the team of governors who were teaching sidhi prep courses in North and South Carolina in the late 70's. This led me to believe that all the things M said about consciousness and TM leading to enlightenment were true since I seemed to be on that path through direct experience. I also assumed that the promises about life improvement such as better behavior, better relationships and so forth were also true. But I early on began to see a large gap between what was promised or claimed for the effects of TM and the actual behavior and energy of most of the leaders and managers of the Movement. Like so many others l made excuses for that gap, but reached a point that I could no longer make excuses. If TM is as effective as it is supposed to be, the way it is advertised by the Movement, it should be having a very different effect and manifestation in those who have been doing it the longest, especially those who have done the advanced courses. I still occasionally use my TM mantra, it is for me a stress release thing - to explain, when I got the Chopra mantra which is chosen according to your birthday and time, I had the experience with my TM mantra that I would sink into the Absolute, with the Chopra mantra I felt the Absolute being enlivened in me, very vibrantly. After a couple years of using these mantras, and with the discovery of Eckhart Tolle's work, I feel what you might call Pure Awareness around me all the time - sometimes its really prevalent and powerful - other times it fades away. At this point the mantra, TM or other wise, tends to sort of pull me out of that state of Energy - its just like sitting there thinking thoughts. And this is proper meditation practice mind you. So for me about 5 minutes of TM or meditation and its done. Anymore than that its just surfacy
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
But like I said this is my daily experience so meditation is not something I do for more than a few minutes - its useful for release of body stress but the rest, well I already am immersed in unbounded awareness, so its just thinking the mantra in the cosmic soup, I don't go up or down. From: Emily Reyn emilymae.r...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 9:28 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas Dear MJ, how do you define Pure Awareness? The Absolute is enlivened in you? What does that feel like. From: Michael Jackson mjackso...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 12:07 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas Thanks Emily, for your kind words. For me I started out with TM and the first thing it did was help me sleep better, which was a blessing at the time. And fairly soon after I started TM I began to have what might be termed classic experiences of clear transcending, and then CC, GC (lots of those) and some Unity, and even which for me was real cool, a couple very clear although minor experiences of ritambhara pragya when I was on staff working for the team of governors who were teaching sidhi prep courses in North and South Carolina in the late 70's. This led me to believe that all the things M said about consciousness and TM leading to enlightenment were true since I seemed to be on that path through direct experience. I also assumed that the promises about life improvement such as better behavior, better relationships and so forth were also true. But I early on began to see a large gap between what was promised or claimed for the effects of TM and the actual behavior and energy of most of the leaders and managers of the Movement. Like so many others l made excuses for that gap, but reached a point that I could no longer make excuses. If TM is as effective as it is supposed to be, the way it is advertised by the Movement, it should be having a very different effect and manifestation in those who have been doing it the longest, especially those who have done the advanced courses. I still occasionally use my TM mantra, it is for me a stress release thing - to explain, when I got the Chopra mantra which is chosen according to your birthday and time, I had the experience with my TM mantra that I would sink into the Absolute, with the Chopra mantra I felt the Absolute being enlivened in me, very vibrantly. After a couple years of using these mantras, and with the discovery of Eckhart Tolle's work, I feel what you might call Pure Awareness around me all the time - sometimes its really prevalent and powerful - other times it fades away. At this point the mantra, TM or other wise, tends to sort of pull me out of that state of Energy - its just like sitting there thinking thoughts. And this is proper meditation practice mind you. So for me about 5 minutes of TM or meditation and its done. Anymore than that its just surfacy thoughts. IF I stop meditating and sit there, silent, its all the Transcendent. TM is most useful for me if I have some physical fatigue or muscle overwork, using the TM or Chopra mantra releases the fatigue or stress very quickly. So for me I understand the love many have for TM and its use in daily life. I have come to the conclusion that I am sure that a LOT of people here will vehemently deny or denounce is that TM is most useful and effective in the early years and later not so much, partly because I think like those who feel we are in the transcendent all the time and all we need to do is become aware of it like Nisargadatta or Eckhart Tolle. I have a good deal of respect for people like Rick Archer and understand his outlook on things, but I disagree totally with his assessment that the David Lynch Foundation is doing good work with certain groups. I have been working with a group of therapists of various kinds who are beginning to treat people especially veterans who have PTSD. Given what I know about the context in which TM is taught (the Movement) and the effect of TM in terms of its stress release capacity it may not be the best technique for those who hold such extreme amounts and kinds of stress that can come forth explosively. I also do not want the TM folks teaching TM in schools at all - the reasons for the teaching is not to benefit the people as much as it is to create more customers for the Movement, the teacher who are on the ground and actually teach the students may not be aware of this, but the leaders of the Movement certainly know it. I do feel TM is of benefit to some degree, but for both PTSD sufferers and school kids there are other more positive meditations that will benefit them more fully without the baggage of the Movement
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
Wow...well, I think I felt something like that after 10 days camping at the beach this summer. I called it getting in the zone. Haven't been there since. From: Michael Jackson mjackso...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 6:59 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas H, that is a good question - I'll give a generic answer first then a specific one. I think when anyone begins meditating in any form, they have certain experiences that their teacher or master tells them, Ah! That is so and so. Other wise they might not have any frame of reference by which to have thoughts and feelings about what they are experiencing. Kind of like how Eckhart Tolle said he woke up and yet spent some years talking to Buddhist and other teachers who told him he was enlightened. So for me, the only way I know to describe it is that I have sensation that I call energy - ha, I paused for a few minutes to let myself really feel it to see how to describe it - it feel like a field of energy all around my body for a couple feet I guess. If I close my eyes and just relax the feeling of it gets much stronger. I feel it pretty much all the time and when I do relax I feel it through every particle of my body. It gets so strong when I close my eyes, that it feels like it is everything that is. The only qualities that I can describe it with are a feeling of bliss and usually peace. I feel it also extending into the furniture and general area around me. I can feel fear within it also, or muscle aches of my body - in other words the emotions and mind can do stuff when I feel it but something like fear or discomfort in the body it has nothing to do with the energy I feel, the energy encompasses everything that happens within it, and if my mind gets agitated about something, my awareness of it will fade but I have a clear perception that it is because I am focusing on something else and not allowing my awareness to stay on the energy. So having read and heard all the stuff I have, I assume it is pure awareness. It certainly seems to be there all the time and sometimes I have the sense as I feel it that it kind of goes on forever, there is no end to it. But as others have spoken here on FFL, I could just be having some sort of daily endorphin rush that is kind of pervasive and its all as Richard Bartlett would say an hallucination. From: Emily Reyn emilymae.r...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 9:28 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas Dear MJ, how do you define Pure Awareness? The Absolute is enlivened in you? What does that feel like. From: Michael Jackson mjackso...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 12:07 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas Thanks Emily, for your kind words. For me I started out with TM and the first thing it did was help me sleep better, which was a blessing at the time. And fairly soon after I started TM I began to have what might be termed classic experiences of clear transcending, and then CC, GC (lots of those) and some Unity, and even which for me was real cool, a couple very clear although minor experiences of ritambhara pragya when I was on staff working for the team of governors who were teaching sidhi prep courses in North and South Carolina in the late 70's. This led me to believe that all the things M said about consciousness and TM leading to enlightenment were true since I seemed to be on that path through direct experience. I also assumed that the promises about life improvement such as better behavior, better relationships and so forth were also true. But I early on began to see a large gap between what was promised or claimed for the effects of TM and the actual behavior and energy of most of the leaders and managers of the Movement. Like so many others l made excuses for that gap, but reached a point that I could no longer make excuses. If TM is as effective as it is supposed to be, the way it is advertised by the Movement, it should be having a very different effect and manifestation in those who have been doing it the longest, especially those who have done the advanced courses. I still occasionally use my TM mantra, it is for me a stress release thing - to explain, when I got the Chopra mantra which is chosen according to your birthday and time, I had the experience with my TM mantra that I would sink into the Absolute, with the Chopra mantra I felt the Absolute being enlivened in me, very vibrantly. After a couple years of using these mantras, and with the discovery of Eckhart Tolle's work, I feel what you might call
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
I definitely go up and down; it's a real drag. Or maybe not. What you say below sounds like something Xeno would say. You are immersed in unbounded awareness? How do you know this? Maybe you just think you are. From: Michael Jackson mjackso...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 7:07 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas But like I said this is my daily experience so meditation is not something I do for more than a few minutes - its useful for release of body stress but the rest, well I already am immersed in unbounded awareness, so its just thinking the mantra in the cosmic soup, I don't go up or down. From: Emily Reyn emilymae.r...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 9:28 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas Dear MJ, how do you define Pure Awareness? The Absolute is enlivened in you? What does that feel like. From: Michael Jackson mjackso...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 12:07 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas Thanks Emily, for your kind words. For me I started out with TM and the first thing it did was help me sleep better, which was a blessing at the time. And fairly soon after I started TM I began to have what might be termed classic experiences of clear transcending, and then CC, GC (lots of those) and some Unity, and even which for me was real cool, a couple very clear although minor experiences of ritambhara pragya when I was on staff working for the team of governors who were teaching sidhi prep courses in North and South Carolina in the late 70's. This led me to believe that all the things M said about consciousness and TM leading to enlightenment were true since I seemed to be on that path through direct experience. I also assumed that the promises about life improvement such as better behavior, better relationships and so forth were also true. But I early on began to see a large gap between what was promised or claimed for the effects of TM and the actual behavior and energy of most of the leaders and managers of the Movement. Like so many others l made excuses for that gap, but reached a point that I could no longer make excuses. If TM is as effective as it is supposed to be, the way it is advertised by the Movement, it should be having a very different effect and manifestation in those who have been doing it the longest, especially those who have done the advanced courses. I still occasionally use my TM mantra, it is for me a stress release thing - to explain, when I got the Chopra mantra which is chosen according to your birthday and time, I had the experience with my TM mantra that I would sink into the Absolute, with the Chopra mantra I felt the Absolute being enlivened in me, very vibrantly. After a couple years of using these mantras, and with the discovery of Eckhart Tolle's work, I feel what you might call Pure Awareness around me all the time - sometimes its really prevalent and powerful - other times it fades away. At this point the mantra, TM or other wise, tends to sort of pull me out of that state of Energy - its just like sitting there thinking thoughts. And this is proper meditation practice mind you. So for me about 5 minutes of TM or meditation and its done. Anymore than that its just surfacy thoughts. IF I stop meditating and sit there, silent, its all the Transcendent. TM is most useful for me if I have some physical fatigue or muscle overwork, using the TM or Chopra mantra releases the fatigue or stress very quickly. So for me I understand the love many have for TM and its use in daily life. I have come to the conclusion that I am sure that a LOT of people here will vehemently deny or denounce is that TM is most useful and effective in the early years and later not so much, partly because I think like those who feel we are in the transcendent all the time and all we need to do is become aware of it like Nisargadatta or Eckhart Tolle. I have a good deal of respect for people like Rick Archer and understand his outlook on things, but I disagree totally with his assessment that the David Lynch Foundation is doing good work with certain groups. I have been working with a group of therapists of various kinds who are beginning to treat people especially veterans who have PTSD. Given what I know about the context in which TM is taught (the Movement) and the effect of TM in terms of its stress release capacity it may not be the best technique for those who hold such extreme amounts and kinds of stress that can come forth explosively. I also do not want the TM folks teaching TM in schools at all
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Emily Reyn emilymae.reyn@... wrote: I definitely go up and down; it's a real drag.  Or maybe not.  What you say below sounds like something Xeno would say.  You are immersed in unbounded awareness?  How do you know this?  Maybe you just think you are.  How do you know you tasted a strawberry and how would you explain it to anyone who hasn't? From: Michael Jackson mjackson74@... To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 7:07 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  But like I said this is my daily experience so meditation is not something I do for more than a few minutes - its useful for release of body stress but the rest, well I already am immersed in unbounded awareness, so its just thinking the mantra in the cosmic soup, I don't go up or down. From: Emily Reyn emilymae.reyn@... To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 9:28 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  Dear MJ, how do you define Pure Awareness?  The Absolute is enlivened in you?  What does that feel like.  From: Michael Jackson mjackson74@... To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 12:07 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  Thanks Emily, for your kind words. For me I started out with TM and the first thing it did was help me sleep better, which was a blessing at the time. And fairly soon after I started TM I began to have what might be termed classic experiences of clear transcending, and then CC, GC (lots of those) and some Unity, and even which for me was real cool, a couple very clear although minor experiences of ritambhara pragya when I was on staff working for the team of governors who were teaching sidhi prep courses in North and South Carolina in the late 70's. This led me to believe that all the things M said about consciousness and TM leading to enlightenment were true since I seemed to be on that path through direct experience. I also assumed that the promises about life improvement such as better behavior, better relationships and so forth were also true. But I early on began to see a large gap between what was promised or claimed for the effects of TM and the actual behavior and energy of most of the leaders and managers of the Movement. Like so many others l made excuses for that gap, but reached a point that I could no longer make excuses. If TM is as effective as it is supposed to be, the way it is advertised by the Movement, it should be having a very different effect and manifestation in those who have been doing it the longest, especially those who have done the advanced courses. I still occasionally use my TM mantra, it is for me a stress release thing - to explain, when I got the Chopra mantra which is chosen according to your birthday and time, I had the experience with my TM mantra that I would sink into the Absolute, with the Chopra mantra I felt the Absolute being enlivened in me, very vibrantly. After a couple years of using these mantras, and with the discovery of Eckhart Tolle's work, I feel what you might call Pure Awareness around me all the time - sometimes its really prevalent and powerful - other times it fades away. At this point the mantra, TM or other wise, tends to sort of pull me out of that state of Energy - its just like sitting there thinking thoughts. And this is proper meditation practice mind you. So for me about 5 minutes of TM or meditation and its done. Anymore than that its just surfacy thoughts. IF I stop meditating and sit there, silent, its all the Transcendent. TM is most useful for me if I have some physical fatigue or muscle overwork, using the TM or Chopra mantra releases the fatigue or stress very quickly. So for me I understand the love many have for TM and its use in daily life. I have come to the conclusion that I am sure that a LOT of people here will vehemently deny or denounce is that TM is most useful and effective in the early years and later not so much, partly because I think like those who feel we are in the transcendent all the time and all we need to do is become aware of it like Nisargadatta or Eckhart Tolle. I have a good deal of respect for people like Rick Archer and understand his outlook on things, but I disagree totally with his assessment that the David Lynch Foundation is doing good work with certain groups. I have been working with a group of therapists of various kinds who are beginning to treat people especially veterans who have PTSD. Given what I know about the context in which TM is taught
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
This is exactly what I'm asking. Is it explainable? From: raunchydog raunchy...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 7:16 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Emily Reyn emilymae.reyn@... wrote: I definitely go up and down; it's a real drag.  Or maybe not.  What you say below sounds like something Xeno would say.  You are immersed in unbounded awareness?  How do you know this?  Maybe you just think you are.  How do you know you tasted a strawberry and how would you explain it to anyone who hasn't? From: Michael Jackson mjackson74@... To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 7:07 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  But like I said this is my daily experience so meditation is not something I do for more than a few minutes - its useful for release of body stress but the rest, well I already am immersed in unbounded awareness, so its just thinking the mantra in the cosmic soup, I don't go up or down. From: Emily Reyn emilymae.reyn@... To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 9:28 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  Dear MJ, how do you define Pure Awareness?  The Absolute is enlivened in you?  What does that feel like.  From: Michael Jackson mjackson74@... To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 12:07 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  Thanks Emily, for your kind words. For me I started out with TM and the first thing it did was help me sleep better, which was a blessing at the time. And fairly soon after I started TM I began to have what might be termed classic experiences of clear transcending, and then CC, GC (lots of those) and some Unity, and even which for me was real cool, a couple very clear although minor experiences of ritambhara pragya when I was on staff working for the team of governors who were teaching sidhi prep courses in North and South Carolina in the late 70's. This led me to believe that all the things M said about consciousness and TM leading to enlightenment were true since I seemed to be on that path through direct experience. I also assumed that the promises about life improvement such as better behavior, better relationships and so forth were also true. But I early on began to see a large gap between what was promised or claimed for the effects of TM and the actual behavior and energy of most of the leaders and managers of the Movement. Like so many others l made excuses for that gap, but reached a point that I could no longer make excuses. If TM is as effective as it is supposed to be, the way it is advertised by the Movement, it should be having a very different effect and manifestation in those who have been doing it the longest, especially those who have done the advanced courses. I still occasionally use my TM mantra, it is for me a stress release thing - to explain, when I got the Chopra mantra which is chosen according to your birthday and time, I had the experience with my TM mantra that I would sink into the Absolute, with the Chopra mantra I felt the Absolute being enlivened in me, very vibrantly. After a couple years of using these mantras, and with the discovery of Eckhart Tolle's work, I feel what you might call Pure Awareness around me all the time - sometimes its really prevalent and powerful - other times it fades away. At this point the mantra, TM or other wise, tends to sort of pull me out of that state of Energy - its just like sitting there thinking thoughts. And this is proper meditation practice mind you. So for me about 5 minutes of TM or meditation and its done. Anymore than that its just surfacy thoughts. IF I stop meditating and sit there, silent, its all the Transcendent. TM is most useful for me if I have some physical fatigue or muscle overwork, using the TM or Chopra mantra releases the fatigue or stress very quickly. So for me I understand the love many have for TM and its use in daily life. I have come to the conclusion that I am sure that a LOT of people here will vehemently deny or denounce is that TM is most useful and effective in the early years and later not so much, partly because I think like those who feel we are in the transcendent all the time and all we need to do is become aware of it like Nisargadatta or Eckhart Tolle. I have a good deal of respect for people like Rick Archer and understand his outlook on things, but I disagree totally with his assessment that the David
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
if its just me making it up its a pretty good illusion - if I could reach out and give everyone I met the same experience I could get mighty rich - but like I said, it could all be some sort of endorphin thing From: Emily Reyn emilymae.r...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 10:11 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas I definitely go up and down; it's a real drag. Or maybe not. What you say below sounds like something Xeno would say. You are immersed in unbounded awareness? How do you know this? Maybe you just think you are. From: Michael Jackson mjackso...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 7:07 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas But like I said this is my daily experience so meditation is not something I do for more than a few minutes - its useful for release of body stress but the rest, well I already am immersed in unbounded awareness, so its just thinking the mantra in the cosmic soup, I don't go up or down. From: Emily Reyn emilymae.r...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 9:28 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas Dear MJ, how do you define Pure Awareness? The Absolute is enlivened in you? What does that feel like. From: Michael Jackson mjackso...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 12:07 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas Thanks Emily, for your kind words. For me I started out with TM and the first thing it did was help me sleep better, which was a blessing at the time. And fairly soon after I started TM I began to have what might be termed classic experiences of clear transcending, and then CC, GC (lots of those) and some Unity, and even which for me was real cool, a couple very clear although minor experiences of ritambhara pragya when I was on staff working for the team of governors who were teaching sidhi prep courses in North and South Carolina in the late 70's. This led me to believe that all the things M said about consciousness and TM leading to enlightenment were true since I seemed to be on that path through direct experience. I also assumed that the promises about life improvement such as better behavior, better relationships and so forth were also true. But I early on began to see a large gap between what was promised or claimed for the effects of TM and the actual behavior and energy of most of the leaders and managers of the Movement. Like so many others l made excuses for that gap, but reached a point that I could no longer make excuses. If TM is as effective as it is supposed to be, the way it is advertised by the Movement, it should be having a very different effect and manifestation in those who have been doing it the longest, especially those who have done the advanced courses. I still occasionally use my TM mantra, it is for me a stress release thing - to explain, when I got the Chopra mantra which is chosen according to your birthday and time, I had the experience with my TM mantra that I would sink into the Absolute, with the Chopra mantra I felt the Absolute being enlivened in me, very vibrantly. After a couple years of using these mantras, and with the discovery of Eckhart Tolle's work, I feel what you might call Pure Awareness around me all the time - sometimes its really prevalent and powerful - other times it fades away. At this point the mantra, TM or other wise, tends to sort of pull me out of that state of Energy - its just like sitting there thinking thoughts. And this is proper meditation practice mind you. So for me about 5 minutes of TM or meditation and its done. Anymore than that its just surfacy thoughts. IF I stop meditating and sit there, silent, its all the Transcendent. TM is most useful for me if I have some physical fatigue or muscle overwork, using the TM or Chopra mantra releases the fatigue or stress very quickly. So for me I understand the love many have for TM and its use in daily life. I have come to the conclusion that I am sure that a LOT of people here will vehemently deny or denounce is that TM is most useful and effective in the early years and later not so much, partly because I think like those who feel we are in the transcendent all the time and all we need to do is become aware of it like Nisargadatta or Eckhart Tolle. I have a good deal of respect for people like Rick Archer and understand his outlook on things, but I disagree totally with his assessment that the David Lynch Foundation is doing good work with certain groups. I
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
not really - the only reason all of us understand it is cause we had the same TM framework,so whatever M said or what is in the Upanishads and all that is our reference point I guess From: Emily Reyn emilymae.r...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 10:19 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas This is exactly what I'm asking. Is it explainable? From: raunchydog raunchy...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 7:16 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Emily Reyn emilymae.reyn@... wrote: I definitely go up and down; it's a real drag.  Or maybe not.  What you say below sounds like something Xeno would say.  You are immersed in unbounded awareness?  How do you know this?  Maybe you just think you are.  How do you know you tasted a strawberry and how would you explain it to anyone who hasn't? From: Michael Jackson mjackson74@... To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 7:07 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  But like I said this is my daily experience so meditation is not something I do for more than a few minutes - its useful for release of body stress but the rest, well I already am immersed in unbounded awareness, so its just thinking the mantra in the cosmic soup, I don't go up or down. From: Emily Reyn emilymae.reyn@... To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 9:28 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  Dear MJ, how do you define Pure Awareness?  The Absolute is enlivened in you?  What does that feel like.  From: Michael Jackson mjackson74@... To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 12:07 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  Thanks Emily, for your kind words. For me I started out with TM and the first thing it did was help me sleep better, which was a blessing at the time. And fairly soon after I started TM I began to have what might be termed classic experiences of clear transcending, and then CC, GC (lots of those) and some Unity, and even which for me was real cool, a couple very clear although minor experiences of ritambhara pragya when I was on staff working for the team of governors who were teaching sidhi prep courses in North and South Carolina in the late 70's. This led me to believe that all the things M said about consciousness and TM leading to enlightenment were true since I seemed to be on that path through direct experience. I also assumed that the promises about life improvement such as better behavior, better relationships and so forth were also true. But I early on began to see a large gap between what was promised or claimed for the effects of TM and the actual behavior and energy of most of the leaders and managers of the Movement. Like so many others l made excuses for that gap, but reached a point that I could no longer make excuses. If TM is as effective as it is supposed to be, the way it is advertised by the Movement, it should be having a very different effect and manifestation in those who have been doing it the longest, especially those who have done the advanced courses. I still occasionally use my TM mantra, it is for me a stress release thing - to explain, when I got the Chopra mantra which is chosen according to your birthday and time, I had the experience with my TM mantra that I would sink into the Absolute, with the Chopra mantra I felt the Absolute being enlivened in me, very vibrantly. After a couple years of using these mantras, and with the discovery of Eckhart Tolle's work, I feel what you might call Pure Awareness around me all the time - sometimes its really prevalent and powerful - other times it fades away. At this point the mantra, TM or other wise, tends to sort of pull me out of that state of Energy - its just like sitting there thinking thoughts. And this is proper meditation practice mind you. So for me about 5 minutes of TM or meditation and its done. Anymore than that its just surfacy thoughts. IF I stop meditating and sit there, silent, its all the Transcendent. TM is most useful for me if I have some physical fatigue or muscle overwork, using the TM or Chopra mantra releases the fatigue or stress very quickly. So for me I understand the love many have for TM and its use in daily life. I have come to the conclusion that I am sure that a LOT of people here will vehemently
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
O.K. Thanks. I do understand endorphins though. After a long swim, I feel particularly good and unbounded. Tee Hee. From: Michael Jackson mjackso...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 7:22 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas not really - the only reason all of us understand it is cause we had the same TM framework,so whatever M said or what is in the Upanishads and all that is our reference point I guess From: Emily Reyn emilymae.r...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 10:19 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas This is exactly what I'm asking. Is it explainable? From: raunchydog raunchy...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 7:16 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Emily Reyn emilymae.reyn@... wrote: I definitely go up and down; it's a real drag.  Or maybe not.  What you say below sounds like something Xeno would say.  You are immersed in unbounded awareness?  How do you know this?  Maybe you just think you are.  How do you know you tasted a strawberry and how would you explain it to anyone who hasn't? From: Michael Jackson mjackson74@... To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 7:07 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  But like I said this is my daily experience so meditation is not something I do for more than a few minutes - its useful for release of body stress but the rest, well I already am immersed in unbounded awareness, so its just thinking the mantra in the cosmic soup, I don't go up or down. From: Emily Reyn emilymae.reyn@... To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 9:28 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  Dear MJ, how do you define Pure Awareness?  The Absolute is enlivened in you?  What does that feel like.  From: Michael Jackson mjackson74@... To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 12:07 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  Thanks Emily, for your kind words. For me I started out with TM and the first thing it did was help me sleep better, which was a blessing at the time. And fairly soon after I started TM I began to have what might be termed classic experiences of clear transcending, and then CC, GC (lots of those) and some Unity, and even which for me was real cool, a couple very clear although minor experiences of ritambhara pragya when I was on staff working for the team of governors who were teaching sidhi prep courses in North and South Carolina in the late 70's. This led me to believe that all the things M said about consciousness and TM leading to enlightenment were true since I seemed to be on that path through direct experience. I also assumed that the promises about life improvement such as better behavior, better relationships and so forth were also true. But I early on began to see a large gap between what was promised or claimed for the effects of TM and the actual behavior and energy of most of the leaders and managers of the Movement. Like so many others l made excuses for that gap, but reached a point that I could no longer make excuses. If TM is as effective as it is supposed to be, the way it is advertised by the Movement, it should be having a very different effect and manifestation in those who have been doing it the longest, especially those who have done the advanced courses. I still occasionally use my TM mantra, it is for me a stress release thing - to explain, when I got the Chopra mantra which is chosen according to your birthday and time, I had the experience with my TM mantra that I would sink into the Absolute, with the Chopra mantra I felt the Absolute being enlivened in me, very vibrantly. After a couple years of using these mantras, and with the discovery of Eckhart Tolle's work, I feel what you might call Pure Awareness around me all the time - sometimes its really prevalent and powerful - other times it fades away. At this point the mantra, TM or other wise, tends to sort of pull me out of that state of Energy - its just like sitting there thinking thoughts. And this is proper meditation practice mind you. So for me about 5 minutes of TM or meditation and its done. Anymore than that its just surfacy thoughts. IF I stop meditating
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Emily Reyn emilymae.reyn@... wrote: This is exactly what I'm asking.  Is it explainable? Excellent questions. An abstract experience is not easily explained, particularly the experiences MJ is talking about. Your experience at the beach hints at it. IMO TM makes your beach experience possible regularly. Explaining the abstract experiences that MJ is talking about was Maharishi's strong suit. MJ rejected the TMO long ago and that's O.K. but as far as the TM technique goes, he stills seems to get benefits from it. Interestingly he still uses the abstract concepts that he learned from Maharishi to explain his experiences. Maybe he does so because it's a language that he's familiar with that validates his experience. So the TMO has a lot of baggage. BFD, IMO, I wish people would just stop whining about it, but that's going to happen. Oh, well, I still like the TM *technique* and MJ seems to as well. To each his own. I don't know if this link works but I thought of you and your little dog Sandy when I saw it: https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/45290_535581186469626_881860797_n.jpg From: raunchydog raunchydog@... To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 7:16 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Emily Reyn emilymae.reyn@ wrote: I definitely go up and down; it's a real drag. àOr maybe not. àWhat you say below sounds like something Xeno would say. àYou are immersed in unbounded awareness? àHow do you know this? àMaybe you just think you are. àHow do you know you tasted a strawberry and how would you explain it to anyone who hasn't? From: Michael Jackson mjackson74@ To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 7:07 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas àBut like I said this is my daily experience so meditation is not something I do for more than a few minutes - its useful for release of body stress but the rest, well I already am immersed in unbounded awareness, so its just thinking the mantra in the cosmic soup, I don't go up or down. From: Emily Reyn emilymae.reyn@ To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 9:28 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas àDear MJ, how do you define Pure Awareness? àThe Absolute is enlivened in you? àWhat does that feel like. àFrom: Michael Jackson mjackson74@ To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 12:07 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas àThanks Emily, for your kind words. For me I started out with TM and the first thing it did was help me sleep better, which was a blessing at the time. And fairly soon after I started TM I began to have what might be termed classic experiences of clear transcending, and then CC, GC (lots of those) and some Unity, and even which for me was real cool, a couple very clear although minor experiences of ritambhara pragya when I was on staff working for the team of governors who were teaching sidhi prep courses in North and South Carolina in the late 70's. This led me to believe that all the things M said about consciousness and TM leading to enlightenment were true since I seemed to be on that path through direct experience. I also assumed that the promises about life improvement such as better behavior, better relationships and so forth were also true. But I early on began to see a large gap between what was promised or claimed for the effects of TM and the actual behavior and energy of most of the leaders and managers of the Movement. Like so many others l made excuses for that gap, but reached a point that I could no longer make excuses. If TM is as effective as it is supposed to be, the way it is advertised by the Movement, it should be having a very different effect and manifestation in those who have been doing it the longest, especially those who have done the advanced courses. I still occasionally use my TM mantra, it is for me a stress release thing - to explain, when I got the Chopra mantra which is chosen according to your birthday and time, I had the experience with my TM mantra that I would sink into the Absolute, with the Chopra mantra I felt the Absolute being enlivened in me, very vibrantly. After a couple years of using these mantras, and with the discovery of Eckhart Tolle's work, I feel what you might call Pure Awareness around me all the time
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
This should have read what I put in blue below. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, awoelflebater no_reply@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@ wrote: I think it would be instructive for everyone to watch Rick's latest Buddha at the Gas Pump - where Mark Landau talks about his fantastic experiences of awareness and at the same time he was still fearful, anxious etc. Oh, interesting. If there is one thing I would like to rid myself of it is fear. I was sort of hoping that if one is close to enlightenment/increased awareness the fear could disappear. But then, 'increased awareness' could mean being aware of a lot of things. And some of those things could be positively frightful. Plus, the deeper you experience something the more intense it gets and that certainly could create anxiety. However, I think there is a difference between anxiety and fear. Anxiety can be the precursor to fear. Fear is like the flower and anxiety the bud that precedes it. Also, anxiety, although tinged with fear is a less realized version. It can often turn into full blown terror (fear) but often it just sort of vibrates and suggests it could blossom into the full blown version. Either way, I am not a big fan. it does bring one to doubt the long term efficacy of TM and perhaps any sort of meditation - its interesting to me to note that Eckhart Tolle has consistently said that no one gets enlightened by meditating. From: Emily Reyn emilymae.reyn@ To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 1:34 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  This same paragraph could apply to Amma based on the information that is out on the internet now. From: Michael Jackson mjackson74@ To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 7:03 AM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  And if Maharishi was really enlightened and therefore an expression of Divine Energy, which would mean the Movement was and is an expression of Divine Energy and Cosmic Excellence in Action, how could it have left they trail of people who became basket cases mentally, emotionally, financially and sometimes physically and the numbers of people who now revile Maha - doesn't seem to be the expected manifestation of en enlightened man and movement. From: nablusoss1008 no_re...@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 3:34 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@ wrote: Wow - wonder who's point of view is the true one? Consider this; Curtis is the biggest Maharishi-hater ever to have graced this forum. The level of hate is so intense that even The Turq and Vaj becomes mere amateurs in comparison. If you want to know what Maharishi felt about Christianity all you have to do is to see the video below. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIWqJ8tJ8JU From: nablusoss1008 no_re...@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, December 9, 2012 6:28 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas à--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, feste37 feste37@ wrote: If MMY did have a negative view of Christianity it was because of what he saw as its emphasis on suffering, which was directly contrary to his message that life is bliss. In that sense he had a disagreement with the interpreters of Christianity down through the ages, not with the founder himself. In an interview with a Swiss journalist in Majorca on November 23, 1971, Maharishi said, I love Christ very much. He also said in the same interview, TM is a friend of Christianity because it takes awareness to the field that Christ wanted everyone to enjoy. Then he added,No Christian should suffer; it is not necessary. It is not good to propagate suffering in the name of Christ. He also used to refer to Christ as Lord Christ. Maharishi on Christianity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIWqJ8tJ8JU
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
Curis, if this was your one and only post to FFL, it would be enough, it would be enough. You got the gift man! Happy holidays! --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@... wrote: So you take your fresh ground coffee (preferably dark roast Sumatran) and you brew it however you do, (I use one of those Bailetti Italian numbers you see on the stove in every Sofia Loren movie) and then the magic begins. Having tasted versions of Christmas blends through the years, I always thought I could do better, but until this morning never took the trouble. I resisted the temptation to drop in a soft peppermint (tomorrow I'm gunna) and went right for the high grade dark coco powder, a sprinkle of cinnamon, sugar, and some ginger and milk. Christmas blend perfection. I'm sure any version that includes cloves would be great too. But it is the overly strong cloves that I object to in the commercial mixes, aside from the fact that any pre-ground coffee is a non starter in my kitchen. (Coffee oils are where God lives, and God evaporates really quickly.) Speaking of God in his various human imagined personas, I am sipping my yuletide brew while gazing on a nativity baby as pump as the churro stuffed Honduran neighbor's kids who stomp up and down the stairs in their princess dresses, but sound more like the prince's horse. (Type 2 diabetes coming right up.) It is the nativity set from my youth rescued from my Dad's house's attic as we emptied it out. It has a tiny wind-up music box that tinkles out Silent Night, but slowed down by decades of mouse droppings no doubt. It plays the song absentmindedly now in stops and starts, like an old man slumped over the piano in the Alzheimers unit who can only manage a few notes of the melody at a time before his mental ship sails away for a few moments. The song is doubly sentimental for me because as a ploy to get some Maharishi darshon when he visited MIU my first Winter in '75, I put together a group to sing him the song in German. (It is surprisingly not at all Nazi sounding and is beautiful in that language, check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUb8ySdERKs ) It actually worked to flush out the old guru, and it was the longest time I had spent standing next to him at that time. He kept us waiting for hours till the early morning, but he was really gracious about it all, despite the fact that he despised Christianity and looked so tired I thought he was going to fall over. After we were done he asked for Age of Enlightenment songs. Emily Levin banged out one of her saccharine ditties. Before he went back upstairs where he was saving the world and all (banging groupies) he took a moment to look me in the eye. It was a nice steady benevolent look, not exactly kind, a bit curious, non committal but prolonged. For a guy as besotted as I was for the dhotied one at the time, (or my imagination of him) it was my Christmas miracle. I thanked him, and he floated off in a shower of Jai Guru Devs. Back to my nativity. The figures are some kind of plaster and my Dad repainted them in garish Homer Simpson style, no doubt accompanied by more than a bit of Dewar's Scotch, so that the wise men look like members of George Clinton's Parliament- Funkadelic. There are oxen and sheep and an adoring Mary, looking herself a bit sheepish, as Joseph beside her pretends to believe her whopper of a tale of her divine pregnancy in a desperate bid to keep his first century Courtney Stodden age-inappropriate hot wife with him. This better be the ONLY divinely conceived baby in this house Miss Missy! My eyes drift up to my walls with pictures of Santas from 1930's magazines gaily puffing on cigarettes (damn I wish I was English and could say he was sucking on a fag) while the copy makes claims of the throat soothing virtues of Chesterfields. Throat soothing! I've got versions of them all over thanks to Ebay, as if Santa had a walk-on part on Mad Men. I've got some hand carved camels made of olive wood led by a man on a donkey who I can only assume is spending another Christmas in Guantanamo and someone else is now leading these camels laden with the concentrated sap of the poppy which I guess is the wink, wink, nudge, nudge, translation for frankincense and myrrh I loves me some Christmas. It is an atheist version, but I don't let the bastard child of a rapist ghost interfere with my nostalgia wallowing. If you really listen to Christmas songs they are freak'n maudlin aren't they? That hits my blues center just fine. I'm not even a hater of the materialistic/commercial side of Christmas. I like being coerced into buying presents with money I don't have, because otherwise I wouldn't do it, and gift giving is a blast. (If you prime the pump with specific requests, the receiving isn't so bad either.) The
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
Curtis, if this was your one and only post to FFL, it would be enough, it would be enough...you got the gift man! Happy holidays! --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@... wrote: So you take your fresh ground coffee (preferably dark roast Sumatran) and you brew it however you do, (I use one of those Bailetti Italian numbers you see on the stove in every Sofia Loren movie) and then the magic begins. Having tasted versions of Christmas blends through the years, I always thought I could do better, but until this morning never took the trouble. I resisted the temptation to drop in a soft peppermint (tomorrow I'm gunna) and went right for the high grade dark coco powder, a sprinkle of cinnamon, sugar, and some ginger and milk. Christmas blend perfection. I'm sure any version that includes cloves would be great too. But it is the overly strong cloves that I object to in the commercial mixes, aside from the fact that any pre-ground coffee is a non starter in my kitchen. (Coffee oils are where God lives, and God evaporates really quickly.) Speaking of God in his various human imagined personas, I am sipping my yuletide brew while gazing on a nativity baby as pump as the churro stuffed Honduran neighbor's kids who stomp up and down the stairs in their princess dresses, but sound more like the prince's horse. (Type 2 diabetes coming right up.) It is the nativity set from my youth rescued from my Dad's house's attic as we emptied it out. It has a tiny wind-up music box that tinkles out Silent Night, but slowed down by decades of mouse droppings no doubt. It plays the song absentmindedly now in stops and starts, like an old man slumped over the piano in the Alzheimers unit who can only manage a few notes of the melody at a time before his mental ship sails away for a few moments. The song is doubly sentimental for me because as a ploy to get some Maharishi darshon when he visited MIU my first Winter in '75, I put together a group to sing him the song in German. (It is surprisingly not at all Nazi sounding and is beautiful in that language, check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUb8ySdERKs ) It actually worked to flush out the old guru, and it was the longest time I had spent standing next to him at that time. He kept us waiting for hours till the early morning, but he was really gracious about it all, despite the fact that he despised Christianity and looked so tired I thought he was going to fall over. After we were done he asked for Age of Enlightenment songs. Emily Levin banged out one of her saccharine ditties. Before he went back upstairs where he was saving the world and all (banging groupies) he took a moment to look me in the eye. It was a nice steady benevolent look, not exactly kind, a bit curious, non committal but prolonged. For a guy as besotted as I was for the dhotied one at the time, (or my imagination of him) it was my Christmas miracle. I thanked him, and he floated off in a shower of Jai Guru Devs. Back to my nativity. The figures are some kind of plaster and my Dad repainted them in garish Homer Simpson style, no doubt accompanied by more than a bit of Dewar's Scotch, so that the wise men look like members of George Clinton's Parliament- Funkadelic. There are oxen and sheep and an adoring Mary, looking herself a bit sheepish, as Joseph beside her pretends to believe her whopper of a tale of her divine pregnancy in a desperate bid to keep his first century Courtney Stodden age-inappropriate hot wife with him. This better be the ONLY divinely conceived baby in this house Miss Missy! My eyes drift up to my walls with pictures of Santas from 1930's magazines gaily puffing on cigarettes (damn I wish I was English and could say he was sucking on a fag) while the copy makes claims of the throat soothing virtues of Chesterfields. Throat soothing! I've got versions of them all over thanks to Ebay, as if Santa had a walk-on part on Mad Men. I've got some hand carved camels made of olive wood led by a man on a donkey who I can only assume is spending another Christmas in Guantanamo and someone else is now leading these camels laden with the concentrated sap of the poppy which I guess is the wink, wink, nudge, nudge, translation for frankincense and myrrh I loves me some Christmas. It is an atheist version, but I don't let the bastard child of a rapist ghost interfere with my nostalgia wallowing. If you really listen to Christmas songs they are freak'n maudlin aren't they? That hits my blues center just fine. I'm not even a hater of the materialistic/commercial side of Christmas. I like being coerced into buying presents with money I don't have, because otherwise I wouldn't do it, and gift giving is a blast. (If you prime the pump with specific requests, the receiving isn't so bad either.)
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
And so it is. I've missed your spirit -- Christmas or otherwise -- around here, and thus happy for the drive-by. Loved the Three Wise Men as Parliament-Funkadelic, and the bastard child of a rapist ghost. At least here in the Netherlands they celebrate a *real* Saint Nicholas. True, he was a bishop in Turkey and they still portray him as accompanied by his black servants (as opposed to elves), but he really existed, so in that respect he's got a leg up on both Santa Claus *and* Jesus. :-) As for coffee, putting anything into it except cream and a dollop of sugar is heresy. And I have it on good authority that while Santa may enjoy his cuppa with a bit of single-malt whiskey, it's always on the side, not added as an adulterant. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@... wrote: So you take your fresh ground coffee (preferably dark roast Sumatran) and you brew it however you do, (I use one of those Bailetti Italian numbers you see on the stove in every Sofia Loren movie) and then the magic begins. Having tasted versions of Christmas blends through the years, I always thought I could do better, but until this morning never took the trouble. I resisted the temptation to drop in a soft peppermint (tomorrow I'm gunna) and went right for the high grade dark coco powder, a sprinkle of cinnamon, sugar, and some ginger and milk. Christmas blend perfection. I'm sure any version that includes cloves would be great too. But it is the overly strong cloves that I object to in the commercial mixes, aside from the fact that any pre-ground coffee is a non starter in my kitchen. (Coffee oils are where God lives, and God evaporates really quickly.) Speaking of God in his various human imagined personas, I am sipping my yuletide brew while gazing on a nativity baby as pump as the churro stuffed Honduran neighbor's kids who stomp up and down the stairs in their princess dresses, but sound more like the prince's horse. (Type 2 diabetes coming right up.) It is the nativity set from my youth rescued from my Dad's house's attic as we emptied it out. It has a tiny wind-up music box that tinkles out Silent Night, but slowed down by decades of mouse droppings no doubt. It plays the song absentmindedly now in stops and starts, like an old man slumped over the piano in the Alzheimers unit who can only manage a few notes of the melody at a time before his mental ship sails away for a few moments. The song is doubly sentimental for me because as a ploy to get some Maharishi darshon when he visited MIU my first Winter in '75, I put together a group to sing him the song in German. (It is surprisingly not at all Nazi sounding and is beautiful in that language, check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUb8ySdERKs ) It actually worked to flush out the old guru, and it was the longest time I had spent standing next to him at that time. He kept us waiting for hours till the early morning, but he was really gracious about it all, despite the fact that he despised Christianity and looked so tired I thought he was going to fall over. After we were done he asked for Age of Enlightenment songs. Emily Levin banged out one of her saccharine ditties. Before he went back upstairs where he was saving the world and all (banging groupies) he took a moment to look me in the eye. It was a nice steady benevolent look, not exactly kind, a bit curious, non committal but prolonged. For a guy as besotted as I was for the dhotied one at the time, (or my imagination of him) it was my Christmas miracle. I thanked him, and he floated off in a shower of Jai Guru Devs. Back to my nativity. The figures are some kind of plaster and my Dad repainted them in garish Homer Simpson style, no doubt accompanied by more than a bit of Dewar's Scotch, so that the wise men look like members of George Clinton's Parliament- Funkadelic. There are oxen and sheep and an adoring Mary, looking herself a bit sheepish, as Joseph beside her pretends to believe her whopper of a tale of her divine pregnancy in a desperate bid to keep his first century Courtney Stodden age-inappropriate hot wife with him. This better be the ONLY divinely conceived baby in this house Miss Missy! My eyes drift up to my walls with pictures of Santas from 1930's magazines gaily puffing on cigarettes (damn I wish I was English and could say he was sucking on a fag) while the copy makes claims of the throat soothing virtues of Chesterfields. Throat soothing! I've got versions of them all over thanks to Ebay, as if Santa had a walk-on part on Mad Men. I've got some hand carved camels made of olive wood led by a man on a donkey who I can only assume is spending another Christmas in Guantanamo and someone else is now leading these camels laden with the concentrated sap of the poppy which I guess is the wink, wink, nudge, nudge, translation for frankincense and myrrh I loves me some Christmas. It is an atheist version, but I don't let the
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
Much appreciated. Merry Krishnaamas back atchya. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, laughinggull108 no_reply@... wrote: Curtis, if this was your one and only post to FFL, it would be enough, it would be enough...you got the gift man! Happy holidays! --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: So you take your fresh ground coffee (preferably dark roast Sumatran) and you brew it however you do, (I use one of those Bailetti Italian numbers you see on the stove in every Sofia Loren movie) and then the magic begins. Having tasted versions of Christmas blends through the years, I always thought I could do better, but until this morning never took the trouble. I resisted the temptation to drop in a soft peppermint (tomorrow I'm gunna) and went right for the high grade dark coco powder, a sprinkle of cinnamon, sugar, and some ginger and milk. Christmas blend perfection. I'm sure any version that includes cloves would be great too. But it is the overly strong cloves that I object to in the commercial mixes, aside from the fact that any pre-ground coffee is a non starter in my kitchen. (Coffee oils are where God lives, and God evaporates really quickly.) Speaking of God in his various human imagined personas, I am sipping my yuletide brew while gazing on a nativity baby as pump as the churro stuffed Honduran neighbor's kids who stomp up and down the stairs in their princess dresses, but sound more like the prince's horse. (Type 2 diabetes coming right up.) It is the nativity set from my youth rescued from my Dad's house's attic as we emptied it out. It has a tiny wind-up music box that tinkles out Silent Night, but slowed down by decades of mouse droppings no doubt. It plays the song absentmindedly now in stops and starts, like an old man slumped over the piano in the Alzheimers unit who can only manage a few notes of the melody at a time before his mental ship sails away for a few moments. The song is doubly sentimental for me because as a ploy to get some Maharishi darshon when he visited MIU my first Winter in '75, I put together a group to sing him the song in German. (It is surprisingly not at all Nazi sounding and is beautiful in that language, check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUb8ySdERKs ) It actually worked to flush out the old guru, and it was the longest time I had spent standing next to him at that time. He kept us waiting for hours till the early morning, but he was really gracious about it all, despite the fact that he despised Christianity and looked so tired I thought he was going to fall over. After we were done he asked for Age of Enlightenment songs. Emily Levin banged out one of her saccharine ditties. Before he went back upstairs where he was saving the world and all (banging groupies) he took a moment to look me in the eye. It was a nice steady benevolent look, not exactly kind, a bit curious, non committal but prolonged. For a guy as besotted as I was for the dhotied one at the time, (or my imagination of him) it was my Christmas miracle. I thanked him, and he floated off in a shower of Jai Guru Devs. Back to my nativity. The figures are some kind of plaster and my Dad repainted them in garish Homer Simpson style, no doubt accompanied by more than a bit of Dewar's Scotch, so that the wise men look like members of George Clinton's Parliament- Funkadelic. There are oxen and sheep and an adoring Mary, looking herself a bit sheepish, as Joseph beside her pretends to believe her whopper of a tale of her divine pregnancy in a desperate bid to keep his first century Courtney Stodden age-inappropriate hot wife with him. This better be the ONLY divinely conceived baby in this house Miss Missy! My eyes drift up to my walls with pictures of Santas from 1930's magazines gaily puffing on cigarettes (damn I wish I was English and could say he was sucking on a fag) while the copy makes claims of the throat soothing virtues of Chesterfields. Throat soothing! I've got versions of them all over thanks to Ebay, as if Santa had a walk-on part on Mad Men. I've got some hand carved camels made of olive wood led by a man on a donkey who I can only assume is spending another Christmas in Guantanamo and someone else is now leading these camels laden with the concentrated sap of the poppy which I guess is the wink, wink, nudge, nudge, translation for frankincense and myrrh I loves me some Christmas. It is an atheist version, but I don't let the bastard child of a rapist ghost interfere with my nostalgia wallowing. If you really listen to Christmas songs they are freak'n maudlin aren't they? That hits my blues center just fine. I'm not even a hater of the materialistic/commercial side of Christmas. I like being
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@... wrote: So you take your fresh ground coffee (preferably dark roast Sumatran) and you brew it however you do, (I use one of those Bailetti Italian numbers you see on the stove in every Sofia Loren movie) and then the magic begins. Having tasted versions of Christmas blends through the years, I always thought I could do better, but until this morning never took the trouble. I resisted the temptation to drop in a soft peppermint (tomorrow I'm gunna) and went right for the high grade dark coco powder, a sprinkle of cinnamon, sugar, and some ginger and milk. Christmas blend perfection. I'm sure any version that includes cloves would be great too. But it is the overly strong cloves that I object to in the commercial mixes, aside from the fact that any pre-ground coffee is a non starter in my kitchen. (Coffee oils are where God lives, and God evaporates really quickly.) Speaking of God in his various human imagined personas, I am sipping my yuletide brew while gazing on a nativity baby as pump as the churro stuffed Honduran neighbor's kids who stomp up and down the stairs in their princess dresses, but sound more like the prince's horse. (Type 2 diabetes coming right up.) It is the nativity set from my youth rescued from my Dad's house's attic as we emptied it out. It has a tiny wind-up music box that tinkles out Silent Night, but slowed down by decades of mouse droppings no doubt. It plays the song absentmindedly now in stops and starts, like an old man slumped over the piano in the Alzheimers unit who can only manage a few notes of the melody at a time before his mental ship sails away for a few moments. The song is doubly sentimental for me because as a ploy to get some Maharishi darshon when he visited MIU my first Winter in '75, I put together a group to sing him the song in German. (It is surprisingly not at all Nazi sounding and is beautiful in that language, check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUb8ySdERKs ) It actually worked to flush out the old guru, and it was the longest time I had spent standing next to him at that time. He kept us waiting for hours till the early morning, but he was really gracious about it all, despite the fact that he despised Christianity and looked so tired I thought he was going to fall over. After we were done he asked for Age of Enlightenment songs. Emily Levin banged out one of her saccharine ditties. Before he went back upstairs where he was saving the world and all (banging groupies) he took a moment to look me in the eye. It was a nice steady benevolent look, not exactly kind, a bit curious, non committal but prolonged. For a guy as besotted as I was for the dhotied one at the time, (or my imagination of him) it was my Christmas miracle. I thanked him, and he floated off in a shower of Jai Guru Devs. Back to my nativity. The figures are some kind of plaster and my Dad repainted them in garish Homer Simpson style, no doubt accompanied by more than a bit of Dewar's Scotch, so that the wise men look like members of George Clinton's Parliament- Funkadelic. There are oxen and sheep and an adoring Mary, looking herself a bit sheepish, as Joseph beside her pretends to believe her whopper of a tale of her divine pregnancy in a desperate bid to keep his first century Courtney Stodden age-inappropriate hot wife with him. This better be the ONLY divinely conceived baby in this house Miss Missy! My eyes drift up to my walls with pictures of Santas from 1930's magazines gaily puffing on cigarettes (damn I wish I was English and could say he was sucking on a fag) while the copy makes claims of the throat soothing virtues of Chesterfields. Throat soothing! I've got versions of them all over thanks to Ebay, as if Santa had a walk-on part on Mad Men. I've got some hand carved camels made of olive wood led by a man on a donkey who I can only assume is spending another Christmas in Guantanamo and someone else is now leading these camels laden with the concentrated sap of the poppy which I guess is the wink, wink, nudge, nudge, translation for frankincense and myrrh I loves me some Christmas. It is an atheist version, but I don't let the bastard child of a rapist ghost interfere with my nostalgia wallowing. If you really listen to Christmas songs they are freak'n maudlin aren't they? That hits my blues center just fine. I'm not even a hater of the materialistic/commercial side of Christmas. I like being coerced into buying presents with money I don't have, because otherwise I wouldn't do it, and gift giving is a blast. (If you prime the pump with specific requests, the receiving isn't so bad either.) The invention of the modern Christmas and many of its most iconic symbols and traditions was pretty recently laid herky jerky on
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
Thanks man. Funny how the Italians have a word for grappa enhanced coffee, they call it caffè corretto as if it needed to be corrected! --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb no_reply@... wrote: And so it is. I've missed your spirit -- Christmas or otherwise -- around here, and thus happy for the drive-by. Loved the Three Wise Men as Parliament-Funkadelic, and the bastard child of a rapist ghost. At least here in the Netherlands they celebrate a *real* Saint Nicholas. True, he was a bishop in Turkey and they still portray him as accompanied by his black servants (as opposed to elves), but he really existed, so in that respect he's got a leg up on both Santa Claus *and* Jesus. :-) As for coffee, putting anything into it except cream and a dollop of sugar is heresy. And I have it on good authority that while Santa may enjoy his cuppa with a bit of single-malt whiskey, it's always on the side, not added as an adulterant. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: So you take your fresh ground coffee (preferably dark roast Sumatran) and you brew it however you do, (I use one of those Bailetti Italian numbers you see on the stove in every Sofia Loren movie) and then the magic begins. Having tasted versions of Christmas blends through the years, I always thought I could do better, but until this morning never took the trouble. I resisted the temptation to drop in a soft peppermint (tomorrow I'm gunna) and went right for the high grade dark coco powder, a sprinkle of cinnamon, sugar, and some ginger and milk. Christmas blend perfection. I'm sure any version that includes cloves would be great too. But it is the overly strong cloves that I object to in the commercial mixes, aside from the fact that any pre-ground coffee is a non starter in my kitchen. (Coffee oils are where God lives, and God evaporates really quickly.) Speaking of God in his various human imagined personas, I am sipping my yuletide brew while gazing on a nativity baby as pump as the churro stuffed Honduran neighbor's kids who stomp up and down the stairs in their princess dresses, but sound more like the prince's horse. (Type 2 diabetes coming right up.) It is the nativity set from my youth rescued from my Dad's house's attic as we emptied it out. It has a tiny wind-up music box that tinkles out Silent Night, but slowed down by decades of mouse droppings no doubt. It plays the song absentmindedly now in stops and starts, like an old man slumped over the piano in the Alzheimers unit who can only manage a few notes of the melody at a time before his mental ship sails away for a few moments. The song is doubly sentimental for me because as a ploy to get some Maharishi darshon when he visited MIU my first Winter in '75, I put together a group to sing him the song in German. (It is surprisingly not at all Nazi sounding and is beautiful in that language, check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUb8ySdERKs ) It actually worked to flush out the old guru, and it was the longest time I had spent standing next to him at that time. He kept us waiting for hours till the early morning, but he was really gracious about it all, despite the fact that he despised Christianity and looked so tired I thought he was going to fall over. After we were done he asked for Age of Enlightenment songs. Emily Levin banged out one of her saccharine ditties. Before he went back upstairs where he was saving the world and all (banging groupies) he took a moment to look me in the eye. It was a nice steady benevolent look, not exactly kind, a bit curious, non committal but prolonged. For a guy as besotted as I was for the dhotied one at the time, (or my imagination of him) it was my Christmas miracle. I thanked him, and he floated off in a shower of Jai Guru Devs. Back to my nativity. The figures are some kind of plaster and my Dad repainted them in garish Homer Simpson style, no doubt accompanied by more than a bit of Dewar's Scotch, so that the wise men look like members of George Clinton's Parliament- Funkadelic. There are oxen and sheep and an adoring Mary, looking herself a bit sheepish, as Joseph beside her pretends to believe her whopper of a tale of her divine pregnancy in a desperate bid to keep his first century Courtney Stodden age-inappropriate hot wife with him. This better be the ONLY divinely conceived baby in this house Miss Missy! My eyes drift up to my walls with pictures of Santas from 1930's magazines gaily puffing on cigarettes (damn I wish I was English and could say he was sucking on a fag) while the copy makes claims of the throat soothing virtues of Chesterfields. Throat soothing! I've got versions of them all over thanks to Ebay, as if Santa had a walk-on part on Mad Men. I've got some hand carved camels made of olive wood led by a man on a donkey who I can only assume is spending
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@... wrote: Thanks man. Funny how the Italians have a word for grappa enhanced coffee, they call it caffè corretto as if it needed to be corrected! I hear that. :-) Here's some Krishmas Cheer for the wannabee Hindus in the group. Fits right in, doesn't he? --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb no_reply@ wrote: And so it is. I've missed your spirit -- Christmas or otherwise -- around here, and thus happy for the drive-by. Loved the Three Wise Men as Parliament-Funkadelic, and the bastard child of a rapist ghost. At least here in the Netherlands they celebrate a *real* Saint Nicholas. True, he was a bishop in Turkey and they still portray him as accompanied by his black servants (as opposed to elves), but he really existed, so in that respect he's got a leg up on both Santa Claus *and* Jesus. :-) As for coffee, putting anything into it except cream and a dollop of sugar is heresy. And I have it on good authority that while Santa may enjoy his cuppa with a bit of single-malt whiskey, it's always on the side, not added as an adulterant. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: So you take your fresh ground coffee (preferably dark roast Sumatran) and you brew it however you do, (I use one of those Bailetti Italian numbers you see on the stove in every Sofia Loren movie) and then the magic begins. Having tasted versions of Christmas blends through the years, I always thought I could do better, but until this morning never took the trouble. I resisted the temptation to drop in a soft peppermint (tomorrow I'm gunna) and went right for the high grade dark coco powder, a sprinkle of cinnamon, sugar, and some ginger and milk. Christmas blend perfection. I'm sure any version that includes cloves would be great too. But it is the overly strong cloves that I object to in the commercial mixes, aside from the fact that any pre-ground coffee is a non starter in my kitchen. (Coffee oils are where God lives, and God evaporates really quickly.) Speaking of God in his various human imagined personas, I am sipping my yuletide brew while gazing on a nativity baby as pump as the churro stuffed Honduran neighbor's kids who stomp up and down the stairs in their princess dresses, but sound more like the prince's horse. (Type 2 diabetes coming right up.) It is the nativity set from my youth rescued from my Dad's house's attic as we emptied it out. It has a tiny wind-up music box that tinkles out Silent Night, but slowed down by decades of mouse droppings no doubt. It plays the song absentmindedly now in stops and starts, like an old man slumped over the piano in the Alzheimers unit who can only manage a few notes of the melody at a time before his mental ship sails away for a few moments. The song is doubly sentimental for me because as a ploy to get some Maharishi darshon when he visited MIU my first Winter in '75, I put together a group to sing him the song in German. (It is surprisingly not at all Nazi sounding and is beautiful in that language, check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUb8ySdERKs ) It actually worked to flush out the old guru, and it was the longest time I had spent standing next to him at that time. He kept us waiting for hours till the early morning, but he was really gracious about it all, despite the fact that he despised Christianity and looked so tired I thought he was going to fall over. After we were done he asked for Age of Enlightenment songs. Emily Levin banged out one of her saccharine ditties. Before he went back upstairs where he was saving the world and all (banging groupies) he took a moment to look me in the eye. It was a nice steady benevolent look, not exactly kind, a bit curious, non committal but prolonged. For a guy as besotted as I was for the dhotied one at the time, (or my imagination of him) it was my Christmas miracle. I thanked him, and he floated off in a shower of Jai Guru Devs. Back to my nativity. The figures are some kind of plaster and my Dad repainted them in garish Homer Simpson style, no doubt accompanied by more than a bit of Dewar's Scotch, so that the wise men look like members of George Clinton's Parliament- Funkadelic. There are oxen and sheep and an adoring Mary, looking herself a bit sheepish, as Joseph beside her pretends to believe her whopper of a tale of her divine pregnancy in a desperate bid to keep his first century Courtney Stodden age-inappropriate hot wife with him. This better be the ONLY divinely conceived baby in this house Miss Missy! My eyes drift up to my walls with pictures of Santas from 1930's magazines gaily puffing on cigarettes (damn I wish I was English and could say he was sucking on a fag) while the copy makes claims of the throat
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
Two thumbs up for this piece. Nice. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@... wrote: So you take your fresh ground coffee (preferably dark roast Sumatran) and you brew it however you do, (I use one of those Bailetti Italian numbers you see on the stove in every Sofia Loren movie) and then the magic begins. Having tasted versions of Christmas blends through the years, I always thought I could do better, but until this morning never took the trouble. I resisted the temptation to drop in a soft peppermint (tomorrow I'm gunna) and went right for the high grade dark coco powder, a sprinkle of cinnamon, sugar, and some ginger and milk. Christmas blend perfection. I'm sure any version that includes cloves would be great too. But it is the overly strong cloves that I object to in the commercial mixes, aside from the fact that any pre-ground coffee is a non starter in my kitchen. (Coffee oils are where God lives, and God evaporates really quickly.) Speaking of God in his various human imagined personas, I am sipping my yuletide brew while gazing on a nativity baby as pump as the churro stuffed Honduran neighbor's kids who stomp up and down the stairs in their princess dresses, but sound more like the prince's horse. (Type 2 diabetes coming right up.) It is the nativity set from my youth rescued from my Dad's house's attic as we emptied it out. It has a tiny wind-up music box that tinkles out Silent Night, but slowed down by decades of mouse droppings no doubt. It plays the song absentmindedly now in stops and starts, like an old man slumped over the piano in the Alzheimers unit who can only manage a few notes of the melody at a time before his mental ship sails away for a few moments. The song is doubly sentimental for me because as a ploy to get some Maharishi darshon when he visited MIU my first Winter in '75, I put together a group to sing him the song in German. (It is surprisingly not at all Nazi sounding and is beautiful in that language, check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUb8ySdERKs ) It actually worked to flush out the old guru, and it was the longest time I had spent standing next to him at that time. He kept us waiting for hours till the early morning, but he was really gracious about it all, despite the fact that he despised Christianity and looked so tired I thought he was going to fall over. After we were done he asked for Age of Enlightenment songs. Emily Levin banged out one of her saccharine ditties. Before he went back upstairs where he was saving the world and all (banging groupies) he took a moment to look me in the eye. It was a nice steady benevolent look, not exactly kind, a bit curious, non committal but prolonged. For a guy as besotted as I was for the dhotied one at the time, (or my imagination of him) it was my Christmas miracle. I thanked him, and he floated off in a shower of Jai Guru Devs. Back to my nativity. The figures are some kind of plaster and my Dad repainted them in garish Homer Simpson style, no doubt accompanied by more than a bit of Dewar's Scotch, so that the wise men look like members of George Clinton's Parliament- Funkadelic. There are oxen and sheep and an adoring Mary, looking herself a bit sheepish, as Joseph beside her pretends to believe her whopper of a tale of her divine pregnancy in a desperate bid to keep his first century Courtney Stodden age-inappropriate hot wife with him. This better be the ONLY divinely conceived baby in this house Miss Missy! My eyes drift up to my walls with pictures of Santas from 1930's magazines gaily puffing on cigarettes (damn I wish I was English and could say he was sucking on a fag) while the copy makes claims of the throat soothing virtues of Chesterfields. Throat soothing! I've got versions of them all over thanks to Ebay, as if Santa had a walk-on part on Mad Men. I've got some hand carved camels made of olive wood led by a man on a donkey who I can only assume is spending another Christmas in Guantanamo and someone else is now leading these camels laden with the concentrated sap of the poppy which I guess is the wink, wink, nudge, nudge, translation for frankincense and myrrh I loves me some Christmas. It is an atheist version, but I don't let the bastard child of a rapist ghost interfere with my nostalgia wallowing. If you really listen to Christmas songs they are freak'n maudlin aren't they? That hits my blues center just fine. I'm not even a hater of the materialistic/commercial side of Christmas. I like being coerced into buying presents with money I don't have, because otherwise I wouldn't do it, and gift giving is a blast. (If you prime the pump with specific requests, the receiving isn't so bad either.) The invention of the modern Christmas and many of its most iconic symbols and traditions was
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
Thanks Edge, Merry Christmas. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Duveyoung no_reply@... wrote: Two thumbs up for this piece. Nice. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: So you take your fresh ground coffee (preferably dark roast Sumatran) and you brew it however you do, (I use one of those Bailetti Italian numbers you see on the stove in every Sofia Loren movie) and then the magic begins. Having tasted versions of Christmas blends through the years, I always thought I could do better, but until this morning never took the trouble. I resisted the temptation to drop in a soft peppermint (tomorrow I'm gunna) and went right for the high grade dark coco powder, a sprinkle of cinnamon, sugar, and some ginger and milk. Christmas blend perfection. I'm sure any version that includes cloves would be great too. But it is the overly strong cloves that I object to in the commercial mixes, aside from the fact that any pre-ground coffee is a non starter in my kitchen. (Coffee oils are where God lives, and God evaporates really quickly.) Speaking of God in his various human imagined personas, I am sipping my yuletide brew while gazing on a nativity baby as pump as the churro stuffed Honduran neighbor's kids who stomp up and down the stairs in their princess dresses, but sound more like the prince's horse. (Type 2 diabetes coming right up.) It is the nativity set from my youth rescued from my Dad's house's attic as we emptied it out. It has a tiny wind-up music box that tinkles out Silent Night, but slowed down by decades of mouse droppings no doubt. It plays the song absentmindedly now in stops and starts, like an old man slumped over the piano in the Alzheimers unit who can only manage a few notes of the melody at a time before his mental ship sails away for a few moments. The song is doubly sentimental for me because as a ploy to get some Maharishi darshon when he visited MIU my first Winter in '75, I put together a group to sing him the song in German. (It is surprisingly not at all Nazi sounding and is beautiful in that language, check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUb8ySdERKs ) It actually worked to flush out the old guru, and it was the longest time I had spent standing next to him at that time. He kept us waiting for hours till the early morning, but he was really gracious about it all, despite the fact that he despised Christianity and looked so tired I thought he was going to fall over. After we were done he asked for Age of Enlightenment songs. Emily Levin banged out one of her saccharine ditties. Before he went back upstairs where he was saving the world and all (banging groupies) he took a moment to look me in the eye. It was a nice steady benevolent look, not exactly kind, a bit curious, non committal but prolonged. For a guy as besotted as I was for the dhotied one at the time, (or my imagination of him) it was my Christmas miracle. I thanked him, and he floated off in a shower of Jai Guru Devs. Back to my nativity. The figures are some kind of plaster and my Dad repainted them in garish Homer Simpson style, no doubt accompanied by more than a bit of Dewar's Scotch, so that the wise men look like members of George Clinton's Parliament- Funkadelic. There are oxen and sheep and an adoring Mary, looking herself a bit sheepish, as Joseph beside her pretends to believe her whopper of a tale of her divine pregnancy in a desperate bid to keep his first century Courtney Stodden age-inappropriate hot wife with him. This better be the ONLY divinely conceived baby in this house Miss Missy! My eyes drift up to my walls with pictures of Santas from 1930's magazines gaily puffing on cigarettes (damn I wish I was English and could say he was sucking on a fag) while the copy makes claims of the throat soothing virtues of Chesterfields. Throat soothing! I've got versions of them all over thanks to Ebay, as if Santa had a walk-on part on Mad Men. I've got some hand carved camels made of olive wood led by a man on a donkey who I can only assume is spending another Christmas in Guantanamo and someone else is now leading these camels laden with the concentrated sap of the poppy which I guess is the wink, wink, nudge, nudge, translation for frankincense and myrrh I loves me some Christmas. It is an atheist version, but I don't let the bastard child of a rapist ghost interfere with my nostalgia wallowing. If you really listen to Christmas songs they are freak'n maudlin aren't they? That hits my blues center just fine. I'm not even a hater of the materialistic/commercial side of Christmas. I like being coerced into buying presents with money I don't have, because otherwise I wouldn't do it, and gift giving is a blast. (If
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
This picture is so funny - it is the perfect advertisement for the TMO From: turquoiseb no_re...@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, December 9, 2012 12:11 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@... wrote: Thanks man. Funny how the Italians have a word for grappa enhanced coffee, they call it caffè corretto as if it needed to be corrected! I hear that. :-) Here's some Krishmas Cheer for the wannabee Hindus in the group. Fits right in, doesn't he? --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb no_reply@ wrote: And so it is. I've missed your spirit -- Christmas or otherwise -- around here, and thus happy for the drive-by. Loved the Three Wise Men as Parliament-Funkadelic, and the bastard child of a rapist ghost. At least here in the Netherlands they celebrate a *real* Saint Nicholas. True, he was a bishop in Turkey and they still portray him as accompanied by his black servants (as opposed to elves), but he really existed, so in that respect he's got a leg up on both Santa Claus *and* Jesus. :-) As for coffee, putting anything into it except cream and a dollop of sugar is heresy. And I have it on good authority that while Santa may enjoy his cuppa with a bit of single-malt whiskey, it's always on the side, not added as an adulterant. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: So you take your fresh ground coffee (preferably dark roast Sumatran) and you brew it however you do, (I use one of those Bailetti Italian numbers you see on the stove in every Sofia Loren movie) and then the magic begins. Having tasted versions of Christmas blends through the years, I always thought I could do better, but until this morning never took the trouble. I resisted the temptation to drop in a soft peppermint (tomorrow I'm gunna) and went right for the high grade dark coco powder, a sprinkle of cinnamon, sugar, and some ginger and milk. Christmas blend perfection. I'm sure any version that includes cloves would be great too. But it is the overly strong cloves that I object to in the commercial mixes, aside from the fact that any pre-ground coffee is a non starter in my kitchen. (Coffee oils are where God lives, and God evaporates really quickly.) Speaking of God in his various human imagined personas, I am sipping my yuletide brew while gazing on a nativity baby as pump as the churro stuffed Honduran neighbor's kids who stomp up and down the stairs in their princess dresses, but sound more like the prince's horse. (Type 2 diabetes coming right up.) It is the nativity set from my youth rescued from my Dad's house's attic as we emptied it out. It has a tiny wind-up music box that tinkles out Silent Night, but slowed down by decades of mouse droppings no doubt. It plays the song absentmindedly now in stops and starts, like an old man slumped over the piano in the Alzheimers unit who can only manage a few notes of the melody at a time before his mental ship sails away for a few moments. The song is doubly sentimental for me because as a ploy to get some Maharishi darshon when he visited MIU my first Winter in '75, I put together a group to sing him the song in German. (It is surprisingly not at all Nazi sounding and is beautiful in that language, check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUb8ySdERKs ) It actually worked to flush out the old guru, and it was the longest time I had spent standing next to him at that time. He kept us waiting for hours till the early morning, but he was really gracious about it all, despite the fact that he despised Christianity and looked so tired I thought he was going to fall over. After we were done he asked for Age of Enlightenment songs. Emily Levin banged out one of her saccharine ditties. Before he went back upstairs where he was saving the world and all (banging groupies) he took a moment to look me in the eye. It was a nice steady benevolent look, not exactly kind, a bit curious, non committal but prolonged. For a guy as besotted as I was for the dhotied one at the time, (or my imagination of him) it was my Christmas miracle. I thanked him, and he floated off in a shower of Jai Guru Devs. Back to my nativity. The figures are some kind of plaster and my Dad repainted them in garish Homer Simpson style, no doubt accompanied by more than a bit of Dewar's Scotch, so that the wise men look like members of George Clinton's Parliament- Funkadelic. There are oxen and sheep and an adoring Mary, looking herself a bit sheepish, as Joseph beside her pretends to believe her whopper of a tale of her divine pregnancy in a desperate bid to keep his first century Courtney Stodden age-inappropriate hot wife with him
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
Curtis - The only known manuscript of Stille Nacht in the handwriting of either the composer or lyricist:
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
I am once again thinking there might be something in this Jesus thing after all. I must assume, Curtis, you do not believe that Jesus was God. Christmas therefore is not the celebration of God's birthday as a newborn infant. If I have this right--No need to respond. You certainly make me think: There's a lot to say for atheism. If only Saint Francis of Assisi were here to post a response. But he's dead too--along with the Christ guy. I didn't expect anything less (writing-wise). I like people with fierce and passionate beliefs-as long as they are intelligent. So, this makes it for me. Thanks, Curtis. You got the right perception of the way things are now--but history would refute you--but can't. Merry Christmas. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@... wrote: So you take your fresh ground coffee (preferably dark roast Sumatran) and you brew it however you do, (I use one of those Bailetti Italian numbers you see on the stove in every Sofia Loren movie) and then the magic begins. Having tasted versions of Christmas blends through the years, I always thought I could do better, but until this morning never took the trouble. I resisted the temptation to drop in a soft peppermint (tomorrow I'm gunna) and went right for the high grade dark coco powder, a sprinkle of cinnamon, sugar, and some ginger and milk. Christmas blend perfection. I'm sure any version that includes cloves would be great too. But it is the overly strong cloves that I object to in the commercial mixes, aside from the fact that any pre-ground coffee is a non starter in my kitchen. (Coffee oils are where God lives, and God evaporates really quickly.) Speaking of God in his various human imagined personas, I am sipping my yuletide brew while gazing on a nativity baby as pump as the churro stuffed Honduran neighbor's kids who stomp up and down the stairs in their princess dresses, but sound more like the prince's horse. (Type 2 diabetes coming right up.) It is the nativity set from my youth rescued from my Dad's house's attic as we emptied it out. It has a tiny wind-up music box that tinkles out Silent Night, but slowed down by decades of mouse droppings no doubt. It plays the song absentmindedly now in stops and starts, like an old man slumped over the piano in the Alzheimers unit who can only manage a few notes of the melody at a time before his mental ship sails away for a few moments. The song is doubly sentimental for me because as a ploy to get some Maharishi darshon when he visited MIU my first Winter in '75, I put together a group to sing him the song in German. (It is surprisingly not at all Nazi sounding and is beautiful in that language, check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUb8ySdERKs ) It actually worked to flush out the old guru, and it was the longest time I had spent standing next to him at that time. He kept us waiting for hours till the early morning, but he was really gracious about it all, despite the fact that he despised Christianity and looked so tired I thought he was going to fall over. After we were done he asked for Age of Enlightenment songs. Emily Levin banged out one of her saccharine ditties. Before he went back upstairs where he was saving the world and all (banging groupies) he took a moment to look me in the eye. It was a nice steady benevolent look, not exactly kind, a bit curious, non committal but prolonged. For a guy as besotted as I was for the dhotied one at the time, (or my imagination of him) it was my Christmas miracle. I thanked him, and he floated off in a shower of Jai Guru Devs. Back to my nativity. The figures are some kind of plaster and my Dad repainted them in garish Homer Simpson style, no doubt accompanied by more than a bit of Dewar's Scotch, so that the wise men look like members of George Clinton's Parliament- Funkadelic. There are oxen and sheep and an adoring Mary, looking herself a bit sheepish, as Joseph beside her pretends to believe her whopper of a tale of her divine pregnancy in a desperate bid to keep his first century Courtney Stodden age-inappropriate hot wife with him. This better be the ONLY divinely conceived baby in this house Miss Missy! My eyes drift up to my walls with pictures of Santas from 1930's magazines gaily puffing on cigarettes (damn I wish I was English and could say he was sucking on a fag) while the copy makes claims of the throat soothing virtues of Chesterfields. Throat soothing! I've got versions of them all over thanks to Ebay, as if Santa had a walk-on part on Mad Men. I've got some hand carved camels made of olive wood led by a man on a donkey who I can only assume is spending another Christmas in Guantanamo and someone else is now leading these camels laden with the concentrated sap of the poppy which I guess is the wink, wink, nudge, nudge,
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, awoelflebater no_reply@... wrote: snip This is, in some way, hideously blasphemous but nevertheless very interesting. It didn't leave me feeling very Christmas-y though. Here, try this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3HLVzNO5mM Jauchzet, frohlocket, Bach Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248 The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra Choir Ton Koopman (conductor) Jauchzet, frohlocket! auf, preiset die Tage, Rühmet, was heute der Höchste getan! Lasset das Zagen, verbannet die Klage, Stimmet voll Jauchzen und Fröhlichkeit an! Dienet dem Höchsten mit herrlichen Chören, Laßt uns den Namen des Herrschers verehren! Shout for joy, exult, rise up, glorify the day, praise what today the highest has done! Abandon hesitation, banish lamentation, begin to sing with rejoicing and exaltation! Serve the highest with glorious choirs, let us honour the name of our Lord!
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@... wrote: So you take your fresh ground coffee In the afterlife, I'll probably have to spend eternity drinking percolator robusta, but I stopped fresh grinding my coffee. I bought a Cuisinart coffee grinder at the Home Store in FF, and it's a piece of junk that I really hate using. So, I went back to grinding the whole bag of beans at the store, with their grinder. Please forgive me.
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
Ah, authfriend, just when Curtis nails Christ you bring in the Resurrection--just like you did last time. Resurrection in this instance being metaphoric. Curtis's piece was funny--because of his religious experience of not believing in the Baby Jesus. Seems no one can kill your spirit, authfriend--gotta love that. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend authfriend@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, awoelflebater no_reply@ wrote: snip This is, in some way, hideously blasphemous but nevertheless very interesting. It didn't leave me feeling very Christmas-y though. Here, try this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3HLVzNO5mM Jauchzet, frohlocket, Bach Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248 The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra Choir Ton Koopman (conductor) Jauchzet, frohlocket! auf, preiset die Tage, Rühmet, was heute der Höchste getan! Lasset das Zagen, verbannet die Klage, Stimmet voll Jauchzen und Fröhlichkeit an! Dienet dem Höchsten mit herrlichen Chören, Laßt uns den Namen des Herrschers verehren! Shout for joy, exult, rise up, glorify the day, praise what today the highest has done! Abandon hesitation, banish lamentation, begin to sing with rejoicing and exaltation! Serve the highest with glorious choirs, let us honour the name of our Lord!
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
I'm rolling a Cuisinart burr grinder from Bed Bath and Behind that makes it all very easy. But I am no stranger to the charms of the higher end pro ground bag. If you just keep it sealed up tight you can keep the God in. I try to balance food snobbery with the pain in the ass factor too. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Alex Stanley j_alexander_stanley@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: So you take your fresh ground coffee In the afterlife, I'll probably have to spend eternity drinking percolator robusta, but I stopped fresh grinding my coffee. I bought a Cuisinart coffee grinder at the Home Store in FF, and it's a piece of junk that I really hate using. So, I went back to grinding the whole bag of beans at the store, with their grinder. Please forgive me.
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Robin Carlsen maskedzebra@... wrote: I am once again thinking there might be something in this Jesus thing after all. I must assume, Curtis, you do not believe that Jesus was God. I believe he was a community organizer and a hippie. He might have been met a kinder end if his century had some psycho-stabilizing drugs. For me it is a tragic tale of grandiose delusions meet the power of the state. The state won. That is if we consider any of his story more than a contrived myth collage to begin with. Christmas therefore is not the celebration of God's birthday as a newborn infant. Not for me, I consider it a delightful nostalgia-fest. If I have this right--No need to respond. I'm not sure what was in doubt. You certainly make me think: There's a lot to say for atheism. If only Saint Francis of Assisi were here to post a response. I would only engage him in a discussion of our beloved animals. I suspect we would get along famously once I introduced him to the wonders of modern deodorant. But he's dead too--along with the Christ guy. I didn't expect anything less (writing-wise). I like people with fierce and passionate beliefs-as long as they are intelligent. So, this makes it for me. Thanks, Curtis. That was nice of you Robin, thanks. You got the right perception of the way things are now--but history would refute you--but can't. Very curious. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas to you Robin. I hope you are also enjoying all the season's nostalgia triggers too. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: So you take your fresh ground coffee (preferably dark roast Sumatran) and you brew it however you do, (I use one of those Bailetti Italian numbers you see on the stove in every Sofia Loren movie) and then the magic begins. Having tasted versions of Christmas blends through the years, I always thought I could do better, but until this morning never took the trouble. I resisted the temptation to drop in a soft peppermint (tomorrow I'm gunna) and went right for the high grade dark coco powder, a sprinkle of cinnamon, sugar, and some ginger and milk. Christmas blend perfection. I'm sure any version that includes cloves would be great too. But it is the overly strong cloves that I object to in the commercial mixes, aside from the fact that any pre-ground coffee is a non starter in my kitchen. (Coffee oils are where God lives, and God evaporates really quickly.) Speaking of God in his various human imagined personas, I am sipping my yuletide brew while gazing on a nativity baby as pump as the churro stuffed Honduran neighbor's kids who stomp up and down the stairs in their princess dresses, but sound more like the prince's horse. (Type 2 diabetes coming right up.) It is the nativity set from my youth rescued from my Dad's house's attic as we emptied it out. It has a tiny wind-up music box that tinkles out Silent Night, but slowed down by decades of mouse droppings no doubt. It plays the song absentmindedly now in stops and starts, like an old man slumped over the piano in the Alzheimers unit who can only manage a few notes of the melody at a time before his mental ship sails away for a few moments. The song is doubly sentimental for me because as a ploy to get some Maharishi darshon when he visited MIU my first Winter in '75, I put together a group to sing him the song in German. (It is surprisingly not at all Nazi sounding and is beautiful in that language, check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUb8ySdERKs ) It actually worked to flush out the old guru, and it was the longest time I had spent standing next to him at that time. He kept us waiting for hours till the early morning, but he was really gracious about it all, despite the fact that he despised Christianity and looked so tired I thought he was going to fall over. After we were done he asked for Age of Enlightenment songs. Emily Levin banged out one of her saccharine ditties. Before he went back upstairs where he was saving the world and all (banging groupies) he took a moment to look me in the eye. It was a nice steady benevolent look, not exactly kind, a bit curious, non committal but prolonged. For a guy as besotted as I was for the dhotied one at the time, (or my imagination of him) it was my Christmas miracle. I thanked him, and he floated off in a shower of Jai Guru Devs. Back to my nativity. The figures are some kind of plaster and my Dad repainted them in garish Homer Simpson style, no doubt accompanied by more than a bit of Dewar's Scotch, so that the wise men look like members of George Clinton's Parliament- Funkadelic. There are oxen and sheep and an adoring Mary, looking herself a bit sheepish, as Joseph beside her
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend authfriend@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, awoelflebater no_reply@ wrote: snip This is, in some way, hideously blasphemous but nevertheless very interesting. It didn't leave me feeling very Christmas-y though. Here, try this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3HLVzNO5mM This refutes Curtis. There is more evidence for the truth of Christ in this than there is evidence of the falseness of Christ in Curtis's essay. Reality favours Bach--and Bach was not as funny as Curtis, but his music is so much more beautiful. Beauty wins here over writing and humour. Inspired--it's like you balanced creation with this, authfriend. Bach has the last word. Which means (for me) Christmas was once real. The tiny hands of the infant born in Bethlehem formed the stars. And Mary, I trust her--and Joe too. The painting instills belief too. It certainly was all true. Every Word of it. Jauchzet, frohlocket, Bach Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248 The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra Choir Ton Koopman (conductor) Jauchzet, frohlocket! auf, preiset die Tage, Rühmet, was heute der Höchste getan! Lasset das Zagen, verbannet die Klage, Stimmet voll Jauchzen und Fröhlichkeit an! Dienet dem Höchsten mit herrlichen Chören, Laßt uns den Namen des Herrschers verehren! Shout for joy, exult, rise up, glorify the day, praise what today the highest has done! Abandon hesitation, banish lamentation, begin to sing with rejoicing and exaltation! Serve the highest with glorious choirs, let us honour the name of our Lord!
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Robin Carlsen maskedzebra@... wrote: Ah, authfriend, just when Curtis nails Christ you bring in the Resurrection--just like you did last time. Resurrection in this instance being metaphoric. Curtis's piece was funny--because of his religious experience of not believing in the Baby Jesus. Seems no one can kill your spirit, authfriend--gotta love that. Thank you, Robin. Hope that awful Nazi-sounding language Bach was burdened with didn't get in the way of your enjoyment of the piece. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend authfriend@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, awoelflebater no_reply@ wrote: snip This is, in some way, hideously blasphemous but nevertheless very interesting. It didn't leave me feeling very Christmas-y though. Here, try this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3HLVzNO5mM Jauchzet, frohlocket, Bach Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248 The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra Choir Ton Koopman (conductor) Jauchzet, frohlocket! auf, preiset die Tage, Rühmet, was heute der Höchste getan! Lasset das Zagen, verbannet die Klage, Stimmet voll Jauchzen und Fröhlichkeit an! Dienet dem Höchsten mit herrlichen Chören, Laßt uns den Namen des Herrschers verehren! Shout for joy, exult, rise up, glorify the day, praise what today the highest has done! Abandon hesitation, banish lamentation, begin to sing with rejoicing and exaltation! Serve the highest with glorious choirs, let us honour the name of our Lord!
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Robin Carlsen maskedzebra@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend authfriend@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, awoelflebater no_reply@ wrote: snip This is, in some way, hideously blasphemous but nevertheless very interesting. It didn't leave me feeling very Christmas-y though. Here, try this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3HLVzNO5mM This refutes Curtis. There is more evidence for the truth of Christ in this than there is evidence of the falseness of Christ in Curtis's essay. I think it supports my main point which is that there is much to enjoy in this season artistically no matter how you relate to the Jesus myth. Bach is as much testament to man's artistic genius as some supernatural agency. I just stop at at the human composer and painter with my awe and wonder. Reality favours Bach--and Bach was not as funny as Curtis, but his music is so much more beautiful. Beauty wins here over writing and humour. Inspired--it's like you balanced creation with this, authfriend. Bach has the last word. Which means (for me) Christmas was once real. The tiny hands of the infant born in Bethlehem formed the stars. And Mary, I trust her--and Joe too. The painting instills belief too. It certainly was all true. Every Word of it. Jauchzet, frohlocket, Bach Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248 The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra Choir Ton Koopman (conductor) Jauchzet, frohlocket! auf, preiset die Tage, Rühmet, was heute der Höchste getan! Lasset das Zagen, verbannet die Klage, Stimmet voll Jauchzen und Fröhlichkeit an! Dienet dem Höchsten mit herrlichen Chören, Laßt uns den Namen des Herrschers verehren! Shout for joy, exult, rise up, glorify the day, praise what today the highest has done! Abandon hesitation, banish lamentation, begin to sing with rejoicing and exaltation! Serve the highest with glorious choirs, let us honour the name of our Lord!
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
Curtis, Welcome back dude. I don't believe I've ever read a version of Christmas the way you just presented. It certainly is unique and eclectic. JR --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@... wrote: So you take your fresh ground coffee (preferably dark roast Sumatran) and you brew it however you do, (I use one of those Bailetti Italian numbers you see on the stove in every Sofia Loren movie) and then the magic begins. Having tasted versions of Christmas blends through the years, I always thought I could do better, but until this morning never took the trouble. I resisted the temptation to drop in a soft peppermint (tomorrow I'm gunna) and went right for the high grade dark coco powder, a sprinkle of cinnamon, sugar, and some ginger and milk. Christmas blend perfection. I'm sure any version that includes cloves would be great too. But it is the overly strong cloves that I object to in the commercial mixes, aside from the fact that any pre-ground coffee is a non starter in my kitchen. (Coffee oils are where God lives, and God evaporates really quickly.) Speaking of God in his various human imagined personas, I am sipping my yuletide brew while gazing on a nativity baby as pump as the churro stuffed Honduran neighbor's kids who stomp up and down the stairs in their princess dresses, but sound more like the prince's horse. (Type 2 diabetes coming right up.) It is the nativity set from my youth rescued from my Dad's house's attic as we emptied it out. It has a tiny wind-up music box that tinkles out Silent Night, but slowed down by decades of mouse droppings no doubt. It plays the song absentmindedly now in stops and starts, like an old man slumped over the piano in the Alzheimers unit who can only manage a few notes of the melody at a time before his mental ship sails away for a few moments. The song is doubly sentimental for me because as a ploy to get some Maharishi darshon when he visited MIU my first Winter in '75, I put together a group to sing him the song in German. (It is surprisingly not at all Nazi sounding and is beautiful in that language, check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUb8ySdERKs ) It actually worked to flush out the old guru, and it was the longest time I had spent standing next to him at that time. He kept us waiting for hours till the early morning, but he was really gracious about it all, despite the fact that he despised Christianity and looked so tired I thought he was going to fall over. After we were done he asked for Age of Enlightenment songs. Emily Levin banged out one of her saccharine ditties. Before he went back upstairs where he was saving the world and all (banging groupies) he took a moment to look me in the eye. It was a nice steady benevolent look, not exactly kind, a bit curious, non committal but prolonged. For a guy as besotted as I was for the dhotied one at the time, (or my imagination of him) it was my Christmas miracle. I thanked him, and he floated off in a shower of Jai Guru Devs. Back to my nativity. The figures are some kind of plaster and my Dad repainted them in garish Homer Simpson style, no doubt accompanied by more than a bit of Dewar's Scotch, so that the wise men look like members of George Clinton's Parliament- Funkadelic. There are oxen and sheep and an adoring Mary, looking herself a bit sheepish, as Joseph beside her pretends to believe her whopper of a tale of her divine pregnancy in a desperate bid to keep his first century Courtney Stodden age-inappropriate hot wife with him. This better be the ONLY divinely conceived baby in this house Miss Missy! My eyes drift up to my walls with pictures of Santas from 1930's magazines gaily puffing on cigarettes (damn I wish I was English and could say he was sucking on a fag) while the copy makes claims of the throat soothing virtues of Chesterfields. Throat soothing! I've got versions of them all over thanks to Ebay, as if Santa had a walk-on part on Mad Men. I've got some hand carved camels made of olive wood led by a man on a donkey who I can only assume is spending another Christmas in Guantanamo and someone else is now leading these camels laden with the concentrated sap of the poppy which I guess is the wink, wink, nudge, nudge, translation for frankincense and myrrh I loves me some Christmas. It is an atheist version, but I don't let the bastard child of a rapist ghost interfere with my nostalgia wallowing. If you really listen to Christmas songs they are freak'n maudlin aren't they? That hits my blues center just fine. I'm not even a hater of the materialistic/commercial side of Christmas. I like being coerced into buying presents with money I don't have, because otherwise I wouldn't do it, and gift giving is a blast. (If you prime the pump with specific requests, the receiving
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend authfriend@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Robin Carlsen maskedzebra@ wrote: Ah, authfriend, just when Curtis nails Christ you bring in the Resurrection--just like you did last time. Resurrection in this instance being metaphoric. Curtis's piece was funny--because of his religious experience of not believing in the Baby Jesus. Seems no one can kill your spirit, authfriend--gotta love that. Thank you, Robin. Hope that awful Nazi-sounding language Bach was burdened with didn't get in the way of your enjoyment of the piece. I like how you can make reverence and irony co-exist in the same post. Johann just went a little deeper than Curtis--but Curtis will never know this--and must disbelieve it. There has to be truth in something that is allowed to be this beautiful. JSB versus CDB: We keep celebrating Christmas no matter what. It's almost involuntary. Curtis's atheism can't create Chartres or Christmas Oratorio--but his (CDB's) beliefs are nevertheless very pure. Merry Christmas to you, authfriend. The universe liked your post--and its timing. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend authfriend@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, awoelflebater no_reply@ wrote: snip This is, in some way, hideously blasphemous but nevertheless very interesting. It didn't leave me feeling very Christmas-y though. Here, try this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3HLVzNO5mM Jauchzet, frohlocket, Bach Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248 The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra Choir Ton Koopman (conductor) Jauchzet, frohlocket! auf, preiset die Tage, Rühmet, was heute der Höchste getan! Lasset das Zagen, verbannet die Klage, Stimmet voll Jauchzen und Fröhlichkeit an! Dienet dem Höchsten mit herrlichen Chören, Laßt uns den Namen des Herrschers verehren! Shout for joy, exult, rise up, glorify the day, praise what today the highest has done! Abandon hesitation, banish lamentation, begin to sing with rejoicing and exaltation! Serve the highest with glorious choirs, let us honour the name of our Lord!
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
I keep my coffee in one of those clear plastic canisters with a rubber gasket and a wire clamping mechanism. In other news, I'm sitting here in Petra's Jeep, by the side of the road, waiting for the inflator to pump up her tire. She drove off to an appointment and didn't notice the flat until a mile from the house. So, I have the satellite radio playing the grateful dead channel, as I post to FFL on my phone. And this is after making us both a gourmet lunch. A hubby's work is never done. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@... wrote: I'm rolling a Cuisinart burr grinder from Bed Bath and Behind that makes it all very easy. But I am no stranger to the charms of the higher end pro ground bag. If you just keep it sealed up tight you can keep the God in. I try to balance food snobbery with the pain in the ass factor too. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com wrote: So you take your fresh ground coffee In the afterlife, I'll probably have to spend eternity drinking percolator robusta, but I stopped fresh grinding my coffee. I bought a Cuisinart coffee grinder at the Home Store in FF, and it's a piece of junk that I really hate using. So, I went back to grinding the whole bag of beans at the store, with their grinder. Please forgive me.
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, John jr_esq@... wrote: Curtis, Welcome back dude. I don't believe I've ever read a version of Christmas the way you just presented. It certainly is unique and eclectic. JR Thanks for checking it out. The perspective that Joseph might not have been thrilled when his knocked up young wife delivered the good news was lifted from a routine from the late genius comedian Sam Kinison. It all goes back to Jesus... he's got to be up in heaven freaking out at all the interpretations of the things they SAY he said. He didn't even KNOW he was the son of God. As soon as he was born, as soon as he could speak the language, his mother said, 'You're the son of God. When you were born the angels came, and the stars stood in one place, the wise men brought gifts, and the whole world's been waiting for you to come and do great things.' [As baby Jesus] 'Really? Me? Are you sure?' [Back to normal voice] Everybody but Joseph. Joseph's walking around going, [very suspicious] 'Yeah, you had better be the son of God, I'll tell you that. You had BETTER be him, little mister. And you better be the ONLY son of God.' -- Early routine from the Comedy Annex in Houston, 1979. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: So you take your fresh ground coffee (preferably dark roast Sumatran) and you brew it however you do, (I use one of those Bailetti Italian numbers you see on the stove in every Sofia Loren movie) and then the magic begins. Having tasted versions of Christmas blends through the years, I always thought I could do better, but until this morning never took the trouble. I resisted the temptation to drop in a soft peppermint (tomorrow I'm gunna) and went right for the high grade dark coco powder, a sprinkle of cinnamon, sugar, and some ginger and milk. Christmas blend perfection. I'm sure any version that includes cloves would be great too. But it is the overly strong cloves that I object to in the commercial mixes, aside from the fact that any pre-ground coffee is a non starter in my kitchen. (Coffee oils are where God lives, and God evaporates really quickly.) Speaking of God in his various human imagined personas, I am sipping my yuletide brew while gazing on a nativity baby as pump as the churro stuffed Honduran neighbor's kids who stomp up and down the stairs in their princess dresses, but sound more like the prince's horse. (Type 2 diabetes coming right up.) It is the nativity set from my youth rescued from my Dad's house's attic as we emptied it out. It has a tiny wind-up music box that tinkles out Silent Night, but slowed down by decades of mouse droppings no doubt. It plays the song absentmindedly now in stops and starts, like an old man slumped over the piano in the Alzheimers unit who can only manage a few notes of the melody at a time before his mental ship sails away for a few moments. The song is doubly sentimental for me because as a ploy to get some Maharishi darshon when he visited MIU my first Winter in '75, I put together a group to sing him the song in German. (It is surprisingly not at all Nazi sounding and is beautiful in that language, check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUb8ySdERKs ) It actually worked to flush out the old guru, and it was the longest time I had spent standing next to him at that time. He kept us waiting for hours till the early morning, but he was really gracious about it all, despite the fact that he despised Christianity and looked so tired I thought he was going to fall over. After we were done he asked for Age of Enlightenment songs. Emily Levin banged out one of her saccharine ditties. Before he went back upstairs where he was saving the world and all (banging groupies) he took a moment to look me in the eye. It was a nice steady benevolent look, not exactly kind, a bit curious, non committal but prolonged. For a guy as besotted as I was for the dhotied one at the time, (or my imagination of him) it was my Christmas miracle. I thanked him, and he floated off in a shower of Jai Guru Devs. Back to my nativity. The figures are some kind of plaster and my Dad repainted them in garish Homer Simpson style, no doubt accompanied by more than a bit of Dewar's Scotch, so that the wise men look like members of George Clinton's Parliament- Funkadelic. There are oxen and sheep and an adoring Mary, looking herself a bit sheepish, as Joseph beside her pretends to believe her whopper of a tale of her divine pregnancy in a desperate bid to keep his first century Courtney Stodden age-inappropriate hot wife with him. This better be the ONLY divinely conceived baby in this house Miss Missy! My eyes drift up to my walls with pictures of Santas from 1930's magazines gaily puffing on
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend authfriend@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, awoelflebater no_reply@ wrote: snip This is, in some way, hideously blasphemous but nevertheless very interesting. It didn't leave me feeling very Christmas-y though. Here, try this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3HLVzNO5mM Jauchzet, frohlocket, Bach Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248 The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra Choir Ton Koopman (conductor) Jauchzet, frohlocket! auf, preiset die Tage, Rühmet, was heute der Höchste getan! Lasset das Zagen, verbannet die Klage, Stimmet voll Jauchzen und Fröhlichkeit an! Dienet dem Höchsten mit herrlichen Chören, Laßt uns den Namen des Herrschers verehren! Shout for joy, exult, rise up, glorify the day, praise what today the highest has done! Abandon hesitation, banish lamentation, begin to sing with rejoicing and exaltation! Serve the highest with glorious choirs, let us honour the name of our Lord! Ah...glorious chills of Jauchzet, frohlocket reverberating in my being. Thank you, Judy.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
If I may be so bold to ask, why do you say Maharishi despised Christianity? I have never heard that. From: curtisdeltablues curtisdeltabl...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, December 9, 2012 12:02 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas Much appreciated. Merry Krishnaamas back atchya. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, laughinggull108 no_reply@... wrote: Curtis, if this was your one and only post to FFL, it would be enough, it would be enough...you got the gift man! Happy holidays! --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: So you take your fresh ground coffee (preferably dark roast Sumatran) and you brew it however you do, (I use one of those Bailetti Italian numbers you see on the stove in every Sofia Loren movie) and then the magic begins. Having tasted versions of Christmas blends through the years, I always thought I could do better, but until this morning never took the trouble. I resisted the temptation to drop in a soft peppermint (tomorrow I'm gunna) and went right for the high grade dark coco powder, a sprinkle of cinnamon, sugar, and some ginger and milk. Christmas blend perfection. I'm sure any version that includes cloves would be great too. But it is the overly strong cloves that I object to in the commercial mixes, aside from the fact that any pre-ground coffee is a non starter in my kitchen. (Coffee oils are where God lives, and God evaporates really quickly.) Speaking of God in his various human imagined personas, I am sipping my yuletide brew while gazing on a nativity baby as pump as the churro stuffed Honduran neighbor's kids who stomp up and down the stairs in their princess dresses, but sound more like the prince's horse. (Type 2 diabetes coming right up.) It is the nativity set from my youth rescued from my Dad's house's attic as we emptied it out. It has a tiny wind-up music box that tinkles out Silent Night, but slowed down by decades of mouse droppings no doubt. It plays the song absentmindedly now in stops and starts, like an old man slumped over the piano in the Alzheimers unit who can only manage a few notes of the melody at a time before his mental ship sails away for a few moments. The song is doubly sentimental for me because as a ploy to get some Maharishi darshon when he visited MIU my first Winter in '75, I put together a group to sing him the song in German. (It is surprisingly not at all Nazi sounding and is beautiful in that language, check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUb8ySdERKs ) It actually worked to flush out the old guru, and it was the longest time I had spent standing next to him at that time. He kept us waiting for hours till the early morning, but he was really gracious about it all, despite the fact that he despised Christianity and looked so tired I thought he was going to fall over. After we were done he asked for Age of Enlightenment songs. Emily Levin banged out one of her saccharine ditties. Before he went back upstairs where he was saving the world and all (banging groupies) he took a moment to look me in the eye. It was a nice steady benevolent look, not exactly kind, a bit curious, non committal but prolonged. For a guy as besotted as I was for the dhotied one at the time, (or my imagination of him) it was my Christmas miracle. I thanked him, and he floated off in a shower of Jai Guru Devs. Back to my nativity. The figures are some kind of plaster and my Dad repainted them in garish Homer Simpson style, no doubt accompanied by more than a bit of Dewar's Scotch, so that the wise men look like members of George Clinton's Parliament- Funkadelic. There are oxen and sheep and an adoring Mary, looking herself a bit sheepish, as Joseph beside her pretends to believe her whopper of a tale of her divine pregnancy in a desperate bid to keep his first century Courtney Stodden age-inappropriate hot wife with him. This better be the ONLY divinely conceived baby in this house Miss Missy! My eyes drift up to my walls with pictures of Santas from 1930's magazines gaily puffing on cigarettes (damn I wish I was English and could say he was sucking on a fag) while the copy makes claims of the throat soothing virtues of Chesterfields. Throat soothing! I've got versions of them all over thanks to Ebay, as if Santa had a walk-on part on Mad Men. I've got some hand carved camels made of olive wood led by a man on a donkey who I can only assume is spending another Christmas in Guantanamo and someone else is now leading these camels laden with the concentrated sap of the poppy which I guess is the wink, wink, nudge, nudge, translation for frankincense and myrrh I loves me some Christmas. It is an atheist
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@... wrote: If I may be so bold to ask, why do you say Maharishi despised Christianity? I have never heard that. I got the impression from a few sources. One was when they asked Maharishi on one of the early courses if they could put up Christmas decorations and he replied we don't celebrate those pagan holidays. I was close to one of the M initiators who was very involved with the Christian Monks. Maharishi made it clear to him how he felt. It became an issue when I was a student there that we were holding monastic prayer services. The world from Switzerland was knock it off. For all the lip-service about supporting religions, no insider could ever maintain their going to religious services and being on the fast track with Maharishi's organization. You might have witnessed that yourself. Maharishi was not shy about expressing its inferiority to Hinduism in how much natural law it expressed. He was a triumphalist Hindu. From: curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@... To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, December 9, 2012 12:02 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  Much appreciated. Merry Krishnaamas back atchya. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, laughinggull108 no_reply@ wrote: Curtis, if this was your one and only post to FFL, it would be enough, it would be enough...you got the gift man! Happy holidays! --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: So you take your fresh ground coffee (preferably dark roast Sumatran) and you brew it however you do, (I use one of those Bailetti Italian numbers you see on the stove in every Sofia Loren movie) and then the magic begins. Having tasted versions of Christmas blends through the years, I always thought I could do better, but until this morning never took the trouble. I resisted the temptation to drop in a soft peppermint (tomorrow I'm gunna) and went right for the high grade dark coco powder, a sprinkle of cinnamon, sugar, and some ginger and milk. Christmas blend perfection. I'm sure any version that includes cloves would be great too. But it is the overly strong cloves that I object to in the commercial mixes, aside from the fact that any pre-ground coffee is a non starter in my kitchen. (Coffee oils are where God lives, and God evaporates really quickly.) Speaking of God in his various human imagined personas, I am sipping my yuletide brew while gazing on a nativity baby as pump as the churro stuffed Honduran neighbor's kids who stomp up and down the stairs in their princess dresses, but sound more like the prince's horse. (Type 2 diabetes coming right up.) It is the nativity set from my youth rescued from my Dad's house's attic as we emptied it out. It has a tiny wind-up music box that tinkles out Silent Night, but slowed down by decades of mouse droppings no doubt. It plays the song absentmindedly now in stops and starts, like an old man slumped over the piano in the Alzheimers unit who can only manage a few notes of the melody at a time before his mental ship sails away for a few moments. The song is doubly sentimental for me because as a ploy to get some Maharishi darshon when he visited MIU my first Winter in '75, I put together a group to sing him the song in German. (It is surprisingly not at all Nazi sounding and is beautiful in that language, check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUb8ySdERKs ) It actually worked to flush out the old guru, and it was the longest time I had spent standing next to him at that time. He kept us waiting for hours till the early morning, but he was really gracious about it all, despite the fact that he despised Christianity and looked so tired I thought he was going to fall over. After we were done he asked for Age of Enlightenment songs. Emily Levin banged out one of her saccharine ditties. Before he went back upstairs where he was saving the world and all (banging groupies) he took a moment to look me in the eye. It was a nice steady benevolent look, not exactly kind, a bit curious, non committal but prolonged. For a guy as besotted as I was for the dhotied one at the time, (or my imagination of him) it was my Christmas miracle. I thanked him, and he floated off in a shower of Jai Guru Devs. Back to my nativity. The figures are some kind of plaster and my Dad repainted them in garish Homer Simpson style, no doubt accompanied by more than a bit of Dewar's Scotch, so that the wise men look like members of George Clinton's Parliament- Funkadelic. There are oxen and sheep and an adoring Mary, looking herself a bit sheepish, as Joseph beside her pretends to believe
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
Most definitely, this is true--not just objectively, either. He has a terrific secret animus against Christ and Christianity--I noticed this in all the hours I studied him live and in every video, every audio tape. *And he communicated this contempt to his teachers*--each and every one--even without them knowing it. No, Curtis read him perfectly here. He conveyed a sense of the inferiority of Christianity to Hinduism--and it was impossible not to catch this and appropriate it for oneself--as a TM teacher. It still persists probably in almost every initiator and ex-initiator. But Maharishi's hatred--it was deeper than Curtis's--who at least feels he is detached in the perfection of his religious belief: *There is no God*. With Maharishi, that antipathy went down as deep as the Crucifixion itself. This is the unmistakable impression I got from tracking Maharishi very closely on this matter, Michael. He even reacted to all the teachers singing Silent Night to him one Christmas. Robin --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@... wrote: If I may be so bold to ask, why do you say Maharishi despised Christianity? I have never heard that. From: curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@... To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, December 9, 2012 12:02 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  Much appreciated. Merry Krishnaamas back atchya. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, laughinggull108 no_reply@ wrote: Curtis, if this was your one and only post to FFL, it would be enough, it would be enough...you got the gift man! Happy holidays! --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: So you take your fresh ground coffee (preferably dark roast Sumatran) and you brew it however you do, (I use one of those Bailetti Italian numbers you see on the stove in every Sofia Loren movie) and then the magic begins. Having tasted versions of Christmas blends through the years, I always thought I could do better, but until this morning never took the trouble. I resisted the temptation to drop in a soft peppermint (tomorrow I'm gunna) and went right for the high grade dark coco powder, a sprinkle of cinnamon, sugar, and some ginger and milk. Christmas blend perfection. I'm sure any version that includes cloves would be great too. But it is the overly strong cloves that I object to in the commercial mixes, aside from the fact that any pre-ground coffee is a non starter in my kitchen. (Coffee oils are where God lives, and God evaporates really quickly.) Speaking of God in his various human imagined personas, I am sipping my yuletide brew while gazing on a nativity baby as pump as the churro stuffed Honduran neighbor's kids who stomp up and down the stairs in their princess dresses, but sound more like the prince's horse. (Type 2 diabetes coming right up.) It is the nativity set from my youth rescued from my Dad's house's attic as we emptied it out. It has a tiny wind-up music box that tinkles out Silent Night, but slowed down by decades of mouse droppings no doubt. It plays the song absentmindedly now in stops and starts, like an old man slumped over the piano in the Alzheimers unit who can only manage a few notes of the melody at a time before his mental ship sails away for a few moments. The song is doubly sentimental for me because as a ploy to get some Maharishi darshon when he visited MIU my first Winter in '75, I put together a group to sing him the song in German. (It is surprisingly not at all Nazi sounding and is beautiful in that language, check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUb8ySdERKs ) It actually worked to flush out the old guru, and it was the longest time I had spent standing next to him at that time. He kept us waiting for hours till the early morning, but he was really gracious about it all, despite the fact that he despised Christianity and looked so tired I thought he was going to fall over. After we were done he asked for Age of Enlightenment songs. Emily Levin banged out one of her saccharine ditties. Before he went back upstairs where he was saving the world and all (banging groupies) he took a moment to look me in the eye. It was a nice steady benevolent look, not exactly kind, a bit curious, non committal but prolonged. For a guy as besotted as I was for the dhotied one at the time, (or my imagination of him) it was my Christmas miracle. I thanked him, and he floated off in a shower of Jai Guru Devs. Back to my nativity. The figures are some kind of plaster and my Dad repainted them in garish Homer Simpson style, no doubt accompanied by more than a bit of Dewar's Scotch, so that the wise men look like members
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
Good for him! There is not a religion more disgusting in the way it has been endlessly used to conquer and kill indigenous tribes, plunder and rape other civilizations, and continues to this day as convenient cover for pedophiles and war mongers. Religion in general is a bad idea, and f*cking Christianity takes the cake. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@ wrote: If I may be so bold to ask, why do you say Maharishi despised Christianity? I have never heard that. I got the impression from a few sources. One was when they asked Maharishi on one of the early courses if they could put up Christmas decorations and he replied we don't celebrate those pagan holidays. I was close to one of the M initiators who was very involved with the Christian Monks. Maharishi made it clear to him how he felt. It became an issue when I was a student there that we were holding monastic prayer services. The world from Switzerland was knock it off. For all the lip-service about supporting religions, no insider could ever maintain their going to religious services and being on the fast track with Maharishi's organization. You might have witnessed that yourself. Maharishi was not shy about expressing its inferiority to Hinduism in how much natural law it expressed. He was a triumphalist Hindu. From: curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, December 9, 2012 12:02 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  Much appreciated. Merry Krishnaamas back atchya. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, laughinggull108 no_reply@ wrote: Curtis, if this was your one and only post to FFL, it would be enough, it would be enough...you got the gift man! Happy holidays! --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: So you take your fresh ground coffee (preferably dark roast Sumatran) and you brew it however you do, (I use one of those Bailetti Italian numbers you see on the stove in every Sofia Loren movie) and then the magic begins. Having tasted versions of Christmas blends through the years, I always thought I could do better, but until this morning never took the trouble. I resisted the temptation to drop in a soft peppermint (tomorrow I'm gunna) and went right for the high grade dark coco powder, a sprinkle of cinnamon, sugar, and some ginger and milk. Christmas blend perfection. I'm sure any version that includes cloves would be great too. But it is the overly strong cloves that I object to in the commercial mixes, aside from the fact that any pre-ground coffee is a non starter in my kitchen. (Coffee oils are where God lives, and God evaporates really quickly.) Speaking of God in his various human imagined personas, I am sipping my yuletide brew while gazing on a nativity baby as pump as the churro stuffed Honduran neighbor's kids who stomp up and down the stairs in their princess dresses, but sound more like the prince's horse. (Type 2 diabetes coming right up.) It is the nativity set from my youth rescued from my Dad's house's attic as we emptied it out. It has a tiny wind-up music box that tinkles out Silent Night, but slowed down by decades of mouse droppings no doubt. It plays the song absentmindedly now in stops and starts, like an old man slumped over the piano in the Alzheimers unit who can only manage a few notes of the melody at a time before his mental ship sails away for a few moments. The song is doubly sentimental for me because as a ploy to get some Maharishi darshon when he visited MIU my first Winter in '75, I put together a group to sing him the song in German. (It is surprisingly not at all Nazi sounding and is beautiful in that language, check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUb8ySdERKs ) It actually worked to flush out the old guru, and it was the longest time I had spent standing next to him at that time. He kept us waiting for hours till the early morning, but he was really gracious about it all, despite the fact that he despised Christianity and looked so tired I thought he was going to fall over. After we were done he asked for Age of Enlightenment songs. Emily Levin banged out one of her saccharine ditties. Before he went back upstairs where he was saving the world and all (banging groupies) he took a moment to look me in the eye. It was a nice steady benevolent look, not exactly kind, a bit curious, non committal but prolonged. For a guy as besotted as I was for the dhotied one at the time, (or my imagination of him
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Alex Stanley j_alexander_stanley@... wrote: I keep my coffee in one of those clear plastic canisters with a rubber gasket and a wire clamping mechanism. In other news, I'm sitting here in Petra's Jeep, by the side of the road, waiting for the inflator to pump up her tire. She drove off to an appointment and didn't notice the flat until a mile from the house. So, I have the satellite radio playing the grateful dead channel, as I post to FFL on my phone. And this is after making us both a gourmet lunch. A hubby's work is never done. Have a relaxing day, Alex. http://youtu.be/OOeB80DePn0 --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: I'm rolling a Cuisinart burr grinder from Bed Bath and Behind that makes it all very easy. But I am no stranger to the charms of the higher end pro ground bag. If you just keep it sealed up tight you can keep the God in. I try to balance food snobbery with the pain in the ass factor too. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com wrote: So you take your fresh ground coffee In the afterlife, I'll probably have to spend eternity drinking percolator robusta, but I stopped fresh grinding my coffee. I bought a Cuisinart coffee grinder at the Home Store in FF, and it's a piece of junk that I really hate using. So, I went back to grinding the whole bag of beans at the store, with their grinder. Please forgive me.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
Thanks to both Curtis and Robin for giving these answers - this is just something I had never heard and i appreciate knowing this - I was never a TM teacher, just one of the many RU's who meditated twice a day - it does not surprise me in a way, and in another way it does surprise me. I just wish all the folks who are listening to David Lynch's PR these days were aware of this - it might put a chill on his effort to re-brand TM back to the pre-sidhi days. On another note, I really appreciate everyone here who has shared their experiences with and about Maharishi and the Movement. The time I have spent here has been very transformative for me. I had pretty much put my years and experiences of TM on the back burner till I recently re-connected with someone who was on MIU staff same time I was. He remained after I left and had some real wowzer experiences both positive and negative, some of which almost killed him, but that was in part due to some unethical treatments he received at the hands of someone who was also on staff in charge of a certain part of MIU ayurveda program. He was also at MIU when Mark Totten committed suicide and had a few things to say about the crummy response the MIU leaders had to his death. Listening to his recounting of the events brought up a bunch of stuff that made me look back and to seek some clarification of some things I had not thought about for years with regards to events, experiences and my beliefs about Maharishi and the Movement, as I still call it. I obviously have not agreed with everyone who posts here but I do appreciate hearing about direct experiences regarding TM, whether they tie into my viewpoint or not. I really really appreciate everyone's expressing themselves. This FFL has been a very transformative experience for me as I said. It is so interesting to see that some believe that the TMO is doing good work and that Maharishi was an enlightened man who always did good, while others like myself feel he was a damned old fraud all the way. The most interesting viewpoints I have seen are those who remember and appreciate a lot of good stuff they experienced with Maharishi yet feel he was a con artist to some extent. Personally I would not be surprised if he is remembered as the most successful con artist in the 20th Century. But anyhow, I appreciate everyone for expressing their feelings and points of view and however inadvertently, contributing to my transformation. For whatever it is worth, nor not worth, I did not really believe any of the allegations that Maharishi had ever had sex with women when I started reading and posting on FFL - I have now become convinced that he did - so as a few folks here say Go figure! From: Robin Carlsen maskedze...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, December 9, 2012 3:49 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas Most definitely, this is true--not just objectively, either. He has a terrific secret animus against Christ and Christianity--I noticed this in all the hours I studied him live and in every video, every audio tape. *And he communicated this contempt to his teachers*--each and every one--even without them knowing it. No, Curtis read him perfectly here. He conveyed a sense of the inferiority of Christianity to Hinduism--and it was impossible not to catch this and appropriate it for oneself--as a TM teacher. It still persists probably in almost every initiator and ex-initiator. But Maharishi's hatred--it was deeper than Curtis's--who at least feels he is detached in the perfection of his religious belief: *There is no God*. With Maharishi, that antipathy went down as deep as the Crucifixion itself. This is the unmistakable impression I got from tracking Maharishi very closely on this matter, Michael. He even reacted to all the teachers singing Silent Night to him one Christmas. Robin --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@... wrote: If I may be so bold to ask, why do you say Maharishi despised Christianity? I have never heard that. From: curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@... To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, December 9, 2012 12:02 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  Much appreciated. Merry Krishnaamas back atchya. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, laughinggull108 no_reply@ wrote: Curtis, if this was your one and only post to FFL, it would be enough, it would be enough...you got the gift man! Happy holidays! --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: So you take your fresh ground coffee (preferably dark roast Sumatran) and you brew it however you do, (I use one of those Bailetti Italian numbers you see on the stove in every Sofia Loren movie) and then the magic begins. Having
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
Well I think MMY's behavior is a little strange. Most of the Hindus I know, including myself naturally respect Jesus and Christianity since it is part of the Hindu conditioning of to each his own. However I can identify with what Curtis crudely states as Hindu triumphalism. It's natural that the Hindu thought or the ancient Indian wisdom's insistence on the purity, dignity, freedom of each individual's inner journey being superior to Christian fascination on a life-abnegating, poverty worshipping messiah from the dark ages which is no different from the Guru worship. In this case Maharishi was a big fucking hypocrite. I also don't agree with Curtis when he states that Jesus should have been medicated. Grandiosity and delusional behavior are a natural side effect of the highly intense, impersonal mystical energy. Jesus was just not sophisticated or intelligent enough to see it and he didn't have to - this was 2000 years back. If I was around Jesus I would have asked him to stop making a fool of himself, stop insulting my individual freedom and dignity by his insistence on suffering for my sins. I would have given him some decent clothes, some money and asked him to get a girlfriend and a job. But of course it's not a fair comparison since Jesus was the right answer for people 2000 years back since the culture was crude, uneducated and unsophisticated. So any criticism of Jesus has to consider the context he was in and the people, culture he was in. It's disgusting when the same mindset continues in the fascination for charlatans like Ammachi. On Sun, Dec 9, 2012 at 12:49 PM, Robin Carlsen maskedze...@yahoo.comwrote: ** Most definitely, this is true--not just objectively, either. He has a terrific secret animus against Christ and Christianity--I noticed this in all the hours I studied him live and in every video, every audio tape. *And he communicated this contempt to his teachers*--each and every one--even without them knowing it. No, Curtis read him perfectly here. He conveyed a sense of the inferiority of Christianity to Hinduism--and it was impossible not to catch this and appropriate it for oneself--as a TM teacher. It still persists probably in almost every initiator and ex-initiator. But Maharishi's hatred--it was deeper than Curtis's--who at least feels he is detached in the perfection of his religious belief: *There is no God*. With Maharishi, that antipathy went down as deep as the Crucifixion itself. This is the unmistakable impression I got from tracking Maharishi very closely on this matter, Michael. He even reacted to all the teachers singing Silent Night to him one Christmas. Robin --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@... wrote: If I may be so bold to ask, why do you say Maharishi despised Christianity? I have never heard that. From: curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@... To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, December 9, 2012 12:02 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  Much appreciated. Merry Krishnaamas back atchya. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, laughinggull108 no_reply@ wrote: Curtis, if this was your one and only post to FFL, it would be enough, it would be enough...you got the gift man! Happy holidays! --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: So you take your fresh ground coffee (preferably dark roast Sumatran) and you brew it however you do, (I use one of those Bailetti Italian numbers you see on the stove in every Sofia Loren movie) and then the magic begins. Having tasted versions of Christmas blends through the years, I always thought I could do better, but until this morning never took the trouble. I resisted the temptation to drop in a soft peppermint (tomorrow I'm gunna) and went right for the high grade dark coco powder, a sprinkle of cinnamon, sugar, and some ginger and milk. Christmas blend perfection. I'm sure any version that includes cloves would be great too. But it is the overly strong cloves that I object to in the commercial mixes, aside from the fact that any pre-ground coffee is a non starter in my kitchen. (Coffee oils are where God lives, and God evaporates really quickly.) Speaking of God in his various human imagined personas, I am sipping my yuletide brew while gazing on a nativity baby as pump as the churro stuffed Honduran neighbor's kids who stomp up and down the stairs in their princess dresses, but sound more like the prince's horse. (Type 2 diabetes coming right up.) It is the nativity set from my youth rescued from my Dad's house's attic as we emptied it out. It has a tiny wind-up music box that tinkles out Silent Night, but slowed down by decades of mouse droppings no doubt. It plays the song absentmindedly now in stops and starts, like an old man slumped over the piano in the Alzheimers unit who
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
Your remarks on Jesus, Ravi, are hilarious. You have a perfect (and destined) innocence when it comes to Christianity--zero intuition. Your Brahman ancestors have kept you immunized from the Incarnation. And this, I think, is as it should be. Your knowledge of Hinduism is true and real, your knowledge of Christianity is the proof that metaphysically it not longer exists--else, even unconsciously it would influence you. It has no influence on you whatsoever--and this seems true to me. True, then, to the present ontological context of the whole damn universe. ;-) --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Ravi Chivukula chivukula.ravi@... wrote: Well I think MMY's behavior is a little strange. Most of the Hindus I know, including myself naturally respect Jesus and Christianity since it is part of the Hindu conditioning of to each his own. However I can identify with what Curtis crudely states as Hindu triumphalism. It's natural that the Hindu thought or the ancient Indian wisdom's insistence on the purity, dignity, freedom of each individual's inner journey being superior to Christian fascination on a life-abnegating, poverty worshipping messiah from the dark ages which is no different from the Guru worship. In this case Maharishi was a big fucking hypocrite. I also don't agree with Curtis when he states that Jesus should have been medicated. Grandiosity and delusional behavior are a natural side effect of the highly intense, impersonal mystical energy. Jesus was just not sophisticated or intelligent enough to see it and he didn't have to - this was 2000 years back. If I was around Jesus I would have asked him to stop making a fool of himself, stop insulting my individual freedom and dignity by his insistence on suffering for my sins. I would have given him some decent clothes, some money and asked him to get a girlfriend and a job. But of course it's not a fair comparison since Jesus was the right answer for people 2000 years back since the culture was crude, uneducated and unsophisticated. So any criticism of Jesus has to consider the context he was in and the people, culture he was in. It's disgusting when the same mindset continues in the fascination for charlatans like Ammachi. On Sun, Dec 9, 2012 at 12:49 PM, Robin Carlsen maskedzebra@...wrote: ** Most definitely, this is true--not just objectively, either. He has a terrific secret animus against Christ and Christianity--I noticed this in all the hours I studied him live and in every video, every audio tape. *And he communicated this contempt to his teachers*--each and every one--even without them knowing it. No, Curtis read him perfectly here. He conveyed a sense of the inferiority of Christianity to Hinduism--and it was impossible not to catch this and appropriate it for oneself--as a TM teacher. It still persists probably in almost every initiator and ex-initiator. But Maharishi's hatred--it was deeper than Curtis's--who at least feels he is detached in the perfection of his religious belief: *There is no God*. With Maharishi, that antipathy went down as deep as the Crucifixion itself. This is the unmistakable impression I got from tracking Maharishi very closely on this matter, Michael. He even reacted to all the teachers singing Silent Night to him one Christmas. Robin --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@ wrote: If I may be so bold to ask, why do you say Maharishi despised Christianity? I have never heard that. From: curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, December 9, 2012 12:02 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas à Much appreciated. Merry Krishnaamas back atchya. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, laughinggull108 no_reply@ wrote: Curtis, if this was your one and only post to FFL, it would be enough, it would be enough...you got the gift man! Happy holidays! --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: So you take your fresh ground coffee (preferably dark roast Sumatran) and you brew it however you do, (I use one of those Bailetti Italian numbers you see on the stove in every Sofia Loren movie) and then the magic begins. Having tasted versions of Christmas blends through the years, I always thought I could do better, but until this morning never took the trouble. I resisted the temptation to drop in a soft peppermint (tomorrow I'm gunna) and went right for the high grade dark coco powder, a sprinkle of cinnamon, sugar, and some ginger and milk. Christmas blend perfection. I'm sure any version that includes cloves would be great too. But it is the overly strong cloves that I object to in the commercial mixes, aside from the fact that any pre-ground coffee is a non starter in my
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, raunchydog raunchydog@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Alex Stanley j_alexander_stanley@ wrote: I keep my coffee in one of those clear plastic canisters with a rubber gasket and a wire clamping mechanism. In other news, I'm sitting here in Petra's Jeep, by the side of the road, waiting for the inflator to pump up her tire. She drove off to an appointment and didn't notice the flat until a mile from the house. So, I have the satellite radio playing the grateful dead channel, as I post to FFL on my phone. And this is after making us both a gourmet lunch. A hubby's work is never done. Have a relaxing day, Alex. http://youtu.be/OOeB80DePn0 Thanks, but it's a little late for that. The tire was taking an awfully long time to inflate, so I shut off the little compressor, only to hear the loud hiss of air escaping from a gaping hole in the tire. So, I had to change the damn tire, out in cold, clammy, December weather. What pissed me off, though, is that the Jeep has a low tire pressure idiot light, and this is the second time Petra has driven off with that idiot light on. The first time, a tire was a little low. But, today, she got in and drove a mile on a completely dead flat tire. I told her, The next time you drive off with a weird dashboard light on, don't call me.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
Well Robin - I have always felt bad for the fact that I live in the Western Civilization with hardly any knowledge on Christianity - you writings have helped a little bit but I was hoping I could somehow make it up by having a partner from the West who could possibly educate and enlighten me on aspects of Christianity. But I'm sure it's never too late - I hope such a partner can challenge me, like the statements below and somehow stimulate me into some new insights, something that could possibly make you happier than my current views :-) On Sun, Dec 9, 2012 at 1:52 PM, Robin Carlsen maskedze...@yahoo.com wrote: Your remarks on Jesus, Ravi, are hilarious. You have a perfect (and destined) innocence when it comes to Christianity--zero intuition. Your Brahman ancestors have kept you immunized from the Incarnation. And this, I think, is as it should be. Your knowledge of Hinduism is true and real, your knowledge of Christianity is the proof that metaphysically it not longer exists--else, even unconsciously it would influence you. It has no influence on you whatsoever--and this seems true to me. True, then, to the present ontological context of the whole damn universe. ;-) --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Ravi Chivukula chivukula.ravi@... wrote: Well I think MMY's behavior is a little strange. Most of the Hindus I know, including myself naturally respect Jesus and Christianity since it is part of the Hindu conditioning of to each his own. However I can identify with what Curtis crudely states as Hindu triumphalism. It's natural that the Hindu thought or the ancient Indian wisdom's insistence on the purity, dignity, freedom of each individual's inner journey being superior to Christian fascination on a life-abnegating, poverty worshipping messiah from the dark ages which is no different from the Guru worship. In this case Maharishi was a big fucking hypocrite. I also don't agree with Curtis when he states that Jesus should have been medicated. Grandiosity and delusional behavior are a natural side effect of the highly intense, impersonal mystical energy. Jesus was just not sophisticated or intelligent enough to see it and he didn't have to - this was 2000 years back. If I was around Jesus I would have asked him to stop making a fool of himself, stop insulting my individual freedom and dignity by his insistence on suffering for my sins. I would have given him some decent clothes, some money and asked him to get a girlfriend and a job. But of course it's not a fair comparison since Jesus was the right answer for people 2000 years back since the culture was crude, uneducated and unsophisticated. So any criticism of Jesus has to consider the context he was in and the people, culture he was in. It's disgusting when the same mindset continues in the fascination for charlatans like Ammachi.
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
If MMY did have a negative view of Christianity it was because of what he saw as its emphasis on suffering, which was directly contrary to his message that life is bliss. In that sense he had a disagreement with the interpreters of Christianity down through the ages, not with the founder himself. In an interview with a Swiss journalist in Majorca on November 23, 1971, Maharishi said, I love Christ very much. He also said in the same interview, TM is a friend of Christianity because it takes awareness to the field that Christ wanted everyone to enjoy. Then he added,No Christian should suffer; it is not necessary. It is not good to propagate suffering in the name of Christ. He also used to refer to Christ as Lord Christ. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@... wrote: Thanks to both Curtis and Robin for giving these answers - this is just something I had never heard and i appreciate knowing this - I was never a TM teacher, just one of the many RU's who meditated twice a day - it does not surprise me in a way, and in another way it does surprise me. I just wish all the folks who are listening to David Lynch's PR these days were aware of this - it might put a chill on his effort to re-brand TM back to the pre-sidhi days. On another note, I really appreciate everyone here who has shared their experiences with and about Maharishi and the Movement. The time I have spent here has been very transformative for me. I had pretty much put my years and experiences of TM on the back burner till I recently re-connected with someone who was on MIU staff same time I was. He remained after I left and had some real wowzer experiences both positive and negative, some of which almost killed him, but that was in part due to some unethical treatments he received at the hands of someone who was also on staff in charge of a certain part of MIU ayurveda program. He was also at MIU when Mark Totten committed suicide and had a few things to say about the crummy response the MIU leaders had to his death. Listening to his recounting of the events brought up a bunch of stuff that made me look back and to seek some clarification of some things I had not thought about for years with regards to events, experiences and my beliefs about Maharishi and the Movement, as I still call it. I obviously have not agreed with everyone who posts here but I do appreciate hearing about direct experiences regarding TM, whether they tie into my viewpoint or not. I really really appreciate everyone's expressing themselves. This FFL has been a very transformative experience for me as I said. It is so interesting to see that some believe that the TMO is doing good work and that Maharishi was an enlightened man who always did good, while others like myself feel he was a damned old fraud all the way. The most interesting viewpoints I have seen are those who remember and appreciate a lot of good stuff they experienced with Maharishi yet feel he was a con artist to some extent. Personally I would not be surprised if he is remembered as the most successful con artist in the 20th Century. But anyhow, I appreciate everyone for expressing their feelings and points of view and however inadvertently, contributing to my transformation. For whatever it is worth, nor not worth, I did not really believe any of the allegations that Maharishi had ever had sex with women when I started reading and posting on FFL - I have now become convinced that he did - so as a few folks here say Go figure! From: Robin Carlsen maskedzebra@... To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, December 9, 2012 3:49 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  Most definitely, this is true--not just objectively, either. He has a terrific secret animus against Christ and Christianity--I noticed this in all the hours I studied him live and in every video, every audio tape. *And he communicated this contempt to his teachers*--each and every one--even without them knowing it. No, Curtis read him perfectly here. He conveyed a sense of the inferiority of Christianity to Hinduism--and it was impossible not to catch this and appropriate it for oneself--as a TM teacher. It still persists probably in almost every initiator and ex-initiator. But Maharishi's hatred--it was deeper than Curtis's--who at least feels he is detached in the perfection of his religious belief: *There is no God*. With Maharishi, that antipathy went down as deep as the Crucifixion itself. This is the unmistakable impression I got from tracking Maharishi very closely on this matter, Michael. He even reacted to all the teachers singing Silent Night to him one Christmas. Robin --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@ wrote: If I may be so bold to ask, why do you say
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, feste37 feste37@... wrote: If MMY did have a negative view of Christianity it was because of what he saw as its emphasis on suffering, which was directly contrary to his message that life is bliss. In that sense he had a disagreement with the interpreters of Christianity down through the ages, not with the founder himself. In an interview with a Swiss journalist in Majorca on November 23, 1971, Maharishi said, I love Christ very much. He also said in the same interview, TM is a friend of Christianity because it takes awareness to the field that Christ wanted everyone to enjoy. Then he added,No Christian should suffer; it is not necessary. It is not good to propagate suffering in the name of Christ. He also used to refer to Christ as Lord Christ. Maharishi on Christianity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIWqJ8tJ8JU
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, nablusoss1008 no_reply@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, doctordumbass@ no_reply@ wrote: Good for him! There is not a religion more disgusting in the way it has been endlessly used to conquer and kill indigenous tribes, plunder and rape other civilizations, and continues to this day as convenient cover for pedophiles and war mongers. Religion in general is a bad idea, and f*cking Christianity takes the cake. Certainly. But the number one idea for anyone on a spiritual path to despise in Christianity as we know it, is the doctrine of suffering and sin. That whole religion is based on fear and keeping the people downtrodden by telling them they are sinners who will go to Hell. It also reinforces sole identity with the I/me story, as in I am this object that does this stuff called sin. Basically, it's the antithesis of I am That. Thou art That. All this is That.
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Alex Stanley j_alexander_stanley@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, nablusoss1008 no_reply@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, doctordumbass@ no_reply@ wrote: Good for him! There is not a religion more disgusting in the way it has been endlessly used to conquer and kill indigenous tribes, plunder and rape other civilizations, and continues to this day as convenient cover for pedophiles and war mongers. Religion in general is a bad idea, and f*cking Christianity takes the cake. Certainly. But the number one idea for anyone on a spiritual path to despise in Christianity as we know it, is the doctrine of suffering and sin. That whole religion is based on fear and keeping the people downtrodden by telling them they are sinners who will go to Hell. It also reinforces sole identity with the I/me story, as in I am this object that does this stuff called sin. Basically, it's the antithesis of I am That. Thou art That. All this is That. There is also the Indian doctrine or doctrines of karma, which serves a similar control function as the concept of sin. What happens to you is the result of 'bad' stuff in the past, and you better watch out, you better not cry, because if you do something 'bad' now, your karma will hit you in the face at some later time, or in another life. If you leave the Christian concept of sin, you are still screwed if you adopt the karma concept. These concepts are of course subject to misunderstanding.
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@... wrote: Wow - wonder who's point of view is the true one? They both accurately express the two versions of his teaching, what sounds the best for PR and what he taught to people he trusted more with his candid opinion. But even as he tries to give positive marketing lip service to Christianity, he was expressing his view that Christianity's true goals should mirror the Hindu religion's emphasis on Self-realization. It does not, and him claiming it doesn't make it so. This contempt for the goals of Christianity was not a point missed by the meditating monks I knew. From: nablusoss1008 no_re...@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, December 9, 2012 6:28 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, feste37 feste37@ wrote: If MMY did have a negative view of Christianity it was because of what he saw as its emphasis on suffering, which was directly contrary to his message that life is bliss. In that sense he had a disagreement with the interpreters of Christianity down through the ages, not with the founder himself. In an interview with a Swiss journalist in Majorca on November 23, 1971, Maharishi said, I love Christ very much. He also said in the same interview, TM is a friend of Christianity because it takes awareness to the field that Christ wanted everyone to enjoy. Then he added,No Christian should suffer; it is not necessary. It is not good to propagate suffering in the name of Christ. He also used to refer to Christ as Lord Christ. Maharishi on Christianity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIWqJ8tJ8JU
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
Do you recall what the monks attitude or position on his attitude towards Christianity? From: curtisdeltablues curtisdeltabl...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, December 9, 2012 7:37 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@... wrote: Wow - wonder who's point of view is the true one? They both accurately express the two versions of his teaching, what sounds the best for PR and what he taught to people he trusted more with his candid opinion. But even as he tries to give positive marketing lip service to Christianity, he was expressing his view that Christianity's true goals should mirror the Hindu religion's emphasis on Self-realization. It does not, and him claiming it doesn't make it so. This contempt for the goals of Christianity was not a point missed by the meditating monks I knew. From: nablusoss1008 no_re...@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, December 9, 2012 6:28 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, feste37 feste37@ wrote: If MMY did have a negative view of Christianity it was because of what he saw as its emphasis on suffering, which was directly contrary to his message that life is bliss. In that sense he had a disagreement with the interpreters of Christianity down through the ages, not with the founder himself. In an interview with a Swiss journalist in Majorca on November 23, 1971, Maharishi said, I love Christ very much. He also said in the same interview, TM is a friend of Christianity because it takes awareness to the field that Christ wanted everyone to enjoy. Then he added,No Christian should suffer; it is not necessary. It is not good to propagate suffering in the name of Christ. He also used to refer to Christ as Lord Christ. Maharishi on Christianity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIWqJ8tJ8JU
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Xenophaneros Anartaxius anartaxius@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Alex Stanley j_alexander_stanley@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, nablusoss1008 no_reply@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, doctordumbass@ no_reply@ wrote: Good for him! There is not a religion more disgusting in the way it has been endlessly used to conquer and kill indigenous tribes, plunder and rape other civilizations, and continues to this day as convenient cover for pedophiles and war mongers. Religion in general is a bad idea, and f*cking Christianity takes the cake. Certainly. But the number one idea for anyone on a spiritual path to despise in Christianity as we know it, is the doctrine of suffering and sin. That whole religion is based on fear and keeping the people downtrodden by telling them they are sinners who will go to Hell. It also reinforces sole identity with the I/me story, as in I am this object that does this stuff called sin. Basically, it's the antithesis of I am That. Thou art That. All this is That. There is also the Indian doctrine or doctrines of karma, which serves a similar control function as the concept of sin. What happens to you is the result of 'bad' stuff in the past, and you better watch out, you better not cry, because if you do something 'bad' now, your karma will hit you in the face at some later time, or in another life. If you leave the Christian concept of sin, you are still screwed if you adopt the karma concept. These concepts are of course subject to misunderstanding. Reminds me of the time a group of ISKCON members danced and chanted around the Fairfield farmers market, handing out pamphlets. I was given a pamphlet, and it basically outlined how we need to live lives of abnegation, sexual repression, and austerity and chant the Maha Mantra so that we might enjoy better future lifetimes. IMO, the more a religious org is uptight about sexuality, the more likely it is that, within the org, sexuality will be outwardly expressed in an inappropriate manner, ISKCON and the Catholic Church being two high-profile examples of this.
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
Robin1:This refutes Curtis. There is more evidence for the truth of Christ in this than there is evidence of the falseness of Christ in Curtis's essay. snip Curtis1:I think an example of human produced art reinforces my point, which is that there is much to enjoy aesthetically during Christmas regardless of what you believe about the religious side of the holiday. Bach's music is no more proof of a supernatural agency than Vince Vance's, and if my musical taste is the benchmark, my ipad is Bach free right now but Vince is on seasonal rotation. Robin2: I think you make a very good point here, Curtis. This is something I won't be saying again. I can't think of anything to say to refute you, and I think that is always significant. I defer to you totally. I wish, however, you would not go at me with that particular inimitable combination of brain and soul--which is your trademark. But I like being defeated like this. It's good for me. A little crucifixion--without all the glory--or the promise. I liked it when no was around who could push me around. I get things are going to be different now. But I can take it, Curtis. Someday I might think of something to criticize about you, but for now, I just like saying: You are one mighty fine thinker. It's simple: You're right; I'm wrong. But this feels good to me, Curtis. Robin1: Reality favours Bach--and Bach was not as funny as Curtis, but his music is so much more beautiful. Beauty wins here over writing and humour. Curtis1: : Well if the new standard for epistemological merit of anyone's post is now the greatest art from Western civilization than I don't really see how you expect to fare any better. Especially when you seem to be speaking on behalf of reality again because reality just called me after a series of urgent texts and I am reality's new mouthpiece, you have been let go Robin. Sorry to have to break it to you but reality was too much of a Nancy boy to do it itself. Robin2: You are pulling my leg here, right, Curtis? Again, I can't quite follow you--not at this speed. I have neither the wit nor the will. But as far as I am concerned, reality is a whore--if she loved me as she did, and now she wants to accept you as her lover. Cuckolded. But I think she finds you sexier. I can live with that, Curtis. I just feel that we have played with all the toys in our sandbox--and I know what your dump trucks can do, and what my bulldozers can do. I like just watching your blue dump trucks go through and down all the roads I made when we last played together. I can't keep up, Curtis. But don't feel bad about this. I will be fine. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend authfriend@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, awoelflebater no_reply@ wrote: snip This is, in some way, hideously blasphemous but nevertheless very interesting. It didn't leave me feeling very Christmas-y though. Here, try this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3HLVzNO5mM This refutes Curtis. There is more evidence for the truth of Christ in this than there is evidence of the falseness of Christ in Curtis's essay.a Reality favours Bach--and Bach was not as funny as Curtis, but his music is so much more beautiful. Beauty wins here over writing and humour. Inspired--it's like you balanced creation with this, authfriend. Bach has the last word. Which means (for me) Christmas was once real. The tiny hands of the infant born in Bethlehem formed the stars. And Mary, I trust her--and Joe too. The painting instills belief too. It certainly was all true. Every Word of it. Jauchzet, frohlocket, Bach Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248 The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra Choir Ton Koopman (conductor) Jauchzet, frohlocket! auf, preiset die Tage, Rühmet, was heute der Höchste getan! Lasset das Zagen, verbannet die Klage, Stimmet voll Jauchzen und Fröhlichkeit an! Dienet dem Höchsten mit herrlichen Chören, Laßt uns den Namen des Herrschers verehren! Shout for joy, exult, rise up, glorify the day, praise what today the highest has done! Abandon hesitation, banish lamentation, begin to sing with rejoicing and exaltation! Serve the highest with glorious choirs, let us honour the name of our Lord!
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@... wrote: Do you recall what the monks attitude or position on his attitude towards Christianity? They were not bothered by Maharishi's fundamentalist Hindu perspective. They still believed that he was theologically wrong and that his soul was in peril for not using meditation for developing a personal relationship with God. For them the absolute was the silence of God, but not God himself. They liked TM at first as a nice preparation for them to do their prayer. These were mystically oriented monks who were big on experience. For them the act of will was required to open yourself to God even within the silence of meditation. The whole mechanical means of God realization was anathema to their POV. When TM advocates glibly mouth Maharishi's statements about TM fulfilling the purpose of Christianity, it reflects Maharishi's own ethnocentric ignorance of what the tenants of Christianity require. Over time the difference in world view accompanied by their belief that people could get lost in the absolute and never reach God led the monks to devise their own meditation ripping off some of Maharishi's best instruction of TM and including what could be compared to doing sunyama on the name of Jesus and sometimes a phrase including his name. Personally I believe that both approaches reflect the lack of a more modern understanding of how our minds work, so that all internal experiences are viewed through an ancient, and I would claim archaic, filter. Experiencing a god doesn't mean there really is one, it means that our minds have the capacity to generate this kind of experience given certain pre-conditions. I don't think humans have a very good track record in this area. We not only suck at this, we are perversely endowed with an unwarranted confidence, a surety when interpreting the meaning of our inner experiences. It is a predictable result of entertaining altered states that we exhibit this cognitive gap. Thanks for asking, so what is your perspective on this? From: curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@... To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, December 9, 2012 7:37 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@ wrote: Wow - wonder who's point of view is the true one? They both accurately express the two versions of his teaching, what sounds the best for PR and what he taught to people he trusted more with his candid opinion. But even as he tries to give positive marketing lip service to Christianity, he was expressing his view that Christianity's true goals should mirror the Hindu religion's emphasis on Self-realization. It does not, and him claiming it doesn't make it so. This contempt for the goals of Christianity was not a point missed by the meditating monks I knew. From: nablusoss1008 no_re...@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, December 9, 2012 6:28 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas à--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, feste37 feste37@ wrote: If MMY did have a negative view of Christianity it was because of what he saw as its emphasis on suffering, which was directly contrary to his message that life is bliss. In that sense he had a disagreement with the interpreters of Christianity down through the ages, not with the founder himself. In an interview with a Swiss journalist in Majorca on November 23, 1971, Maharishi said, I love Christ very much. He also said in the same interview, TM is a friend of Christianity because it takes awareness to the field that Christ wanted everyone to enjoy. Then he added,No Christian should suffer; it is not necessary. It is not good to propagate suffering in the name of Christ. He also used to refer to Christ as Lord Christ. Maharishi on Christianity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIWqJ8tJ8JU
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
Christianity has so perverted the message that Christ attempted to teach, that it has emerged as a key force of evil in this world. To spend your time attempting to equivocate the badnessitude of Maharishi with the Nazi supporting, child raping, country invading b*llshit of Christianity is a breathtaking excuse in denial. Really makes you look like a country bumpkin driven more by emotions than facts. HEE HAW! --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@ wrote: Wow - wonder who's point of view is the true one? They both accurately express the two versions of his teaching, what sounds the best for PR and what he taught to people he trusted more with his candid opinion. But even as he tries to give positive marketing lip service to Christianity, he was expressing his view that Christianity's true goals should mirror the Hindu religion's emphasis on Self-realization. It does not, and him claiming it doesn't make it so. This contempt for the goals of Christianity was not a point missed by the meditating monks I knew. From: nablusoss1008 no_re...@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, December 9, 2012 6:28 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, feste37 feste37@ wrote: If MMY did have a negative view of Christianity it was because of what he saw as its emphasis on suffering, which was directly contrary to his message that life is bliss. In that sense he had a disagreement with the interpreters of Christianity down through the ages, not with the founder himself. In an interview with a Swiss journalist in Majorca on November 23, 1971, Maharishi said, I love Christ very much. He also said in the same interview, TM is a friend of Christianity because it takes awareness to the field that Christ wanted everyone to enjoy. Then he added,No Christian should suffer; it is not necessary. It is not good to propagate suffering in the name of Christ. He also used to refer to Christ as Lord Christ. Maharishi on Christianity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIWqJ8tJ8JU
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
Wow, this is very well written Curtis. I was nearly atheist when I began TM in 1974 and soon began to feel some bliss and all that jazz which over time warmed me up to the idea of God again. Honestly I don't know what the hell anything is going to be once we drop the body. Sometimes I like the idea of a personal God, then others I read things like Michael Roads the Aussie farmer who had all the wild experiences of awareness, - when you read his Journey into Oneness, I think it is, he feels the awareness of the Universal Mind, feels all the joy and suffering of humanity all at once and he experiences it as all OK cause the Universal Mind is totally at peace within itself. I am not even sure we will get the straight skinny when we die - it could just be more dreams and made up stuff only without a body. Its fascinating that the monks believed the Absolute was the silence of God but not God Himself. I always thought of it the other way, at least from the Hindu/Vedic/TM perspective where the Pure Awareness underlies all creation and the first sprouting of that Presence is God. Your statement Experiencing a god doesn't mean there really is one is a powerful expression of something I think I understand. I don't know if you read any of the posts I wrote recently telling of my experiences with channeling. It was something I sort of happened upon and to this day I don't know if its real or made up bullshit (can't wait for my fans here to comment) The only reason I ever did it was the feeling of energy I experienced - it was like transcending but 100 times deeper and more blissful. It was never about transmission of words or information but a way to sit in the energy for a period of time and enjoy. Even when I was channeling some Archangel, I wondered if it is real or not, just like I sometimes in meditation have wondered if I am feeling bliss due to being aware of Pure Awareness or is it some endorphin induced brain gymnastics. Sometimes I question not only most of the New Age stuff (believe me I have some friends who believe in all kinds of wild stuff) but also the vedic perspective - sometimes I sit there and think Who the heck said the Indians got it right except the Indians themselves or at least the gurus said they did. If the point of view and experience of Michael Roads is correct, that God is there but so all pervasive and aloof I guess it would take an act of will to open yourself to God. So that is my rambling tonight. From: curtisdeltablues curtisdeltabl...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, December 9, 2012 9:51 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@... wrote: Do you recall what the monks attitude or position on his attitude towards Christianity? They were not bothered by Maharishi's fundamentalist Hindu perspective. They still believed that he was theologically wrong and that his soul was in peril for not using meditation for developing a personal relationship with God. For them the absolute was the silence of God, but not God himself. They liked TM at first as a nice preparation for them to do their prayer. These were mystically oriented monks who were big on experience. For them the act of will was required to open yourself to God even within the silence of meditation. The whole mechanical means of God realization was anathema to their POV. When TM advocates glibly mouth Maharishi's statements about TM fulfilling the purpose of Christianity, it reflects Maharishi's own ethnocentric ignorance of what the tenants of Christianity require. Over time the difference in world view accompanied by their belief that people could get lost in the absolute and never reach God led the monks to devise their own meditation ripping off some of Maharishi's best instruction of TM and including what could be compared to doing sunyama on the name of Jesus and sometimes a phrase including his name. Personally I believe that both approaches reflect the lack of a more modern understanding of how our minds work, so that all internal experiences are viewed through an ancient, and I would claim archaic, filter. Experiencing a god doesn't mean there really is one, it means that our minds have the capacity to generate this kind of experience given certain pre-conditions. I don't think humans have a very good track record in this area. We not only suck at this, we are perversely endowed with an unwarranted confidence, a surety when interpreting the meaning of our inner experiences. It is a predictable result of entertaining altered states that we exhibit this cognitive gap. Thanks for asking, so what is your perspective on this? From: curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@... To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, December 9, 2012 7:37 PM Subject
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
Thanks for sharing your perspective, I really enjoyed reading that. For me I am way too ignorant of the limits of our mind's internal generative capability to even start needing an external agency for experiences like channeling. I'm pretty sure that is well within the wheelhouse of our mind's abilities. The ability to open up the brain's endorphin dumping capacity is not exactly chopped liver, even without it being a glimpse of another world of beings. I think we need more study of what it means. One weird thing is how over the experience of hyper bliss states I am now. They were such a big part of my life at one time and now I have zero interest in them no matter how enjoyable they once were. They seem too content free or something. I believe that if they were actually the goal of human life (and putting to the side the whole bliss is not blissful song and dance for now) I would not have grown out of an interest in them. All fascinating stuff to think about especially with the experiences we have all had of altered states. I'm really glad I spent the time I did to at least realize that the mystics are just bullshitting about their experiences. But that doesn't mean they are interpreting them properly, and given the pre-disposition toward grandiosity in most traditional systems, I find that unlikely. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@... wrote: Wow, this is very well written Curtis. I was nearly atheist when I began TM in 1974 and soon began to feel some bliss and all that jazz which over time warmed me up to the idea of God again. Honestly I don't know what the hell anything is going to be once we drop the body. Sometimes I like the idea of a personal God, then others I read things like Michael Roads the Aussie farmer who had all the wild experiences of awareness, - when you read his Journey into Oneness, I think it is, he feels the awareness of the Universal Mind, feels all the joy and suffering of humanity all at once and he experiences it as all OK cause the Universal Mind is totally at peace within itself. I am not even sure we will get the straight skinny when we die - it could just be more dreams and made up stuff only without a body. Its fascinating that the monks believed the Absolute was the silence of God but not God Himself. I always thought of it the other way, at least from the Hindu/Vedic/TM perspective where the Pure Awareness underlies all creation and the first sprouting of that Presence is God. Your statement Experiencing a god doesn't mean there really is one is a powerful expression of something I think I understand. I don't know if you read any of the posts I wrote recently telling of my experiences with channeling. It was something I sort of happened upon and to this day I don't know if its real or made up bullshit (can't wait for my fans here to comment) The only reason I ever did it was the feeling of energy I experienced - it was like transcending but 100 times deeper and more blissful. It was never about transmission of words or information but a way to sit in the energy for a period of time and enjoy. Even when I was channeling some Archangel, I wondered if it is real or not, just like I sometimes in meditation have wondered if I am feeling bliss due to being aware of Pure Awareness or is it some endorphin induced brain gymnastics. Sometimes I question not only most of the New Age stuff (believe me I have some friends who believe in all kinds of wild stuff) but also the vedic perspective - sometimes I sit there and think Who the heck said the Indians got it right except the Indians themselves or at least the gurus said they did. If the point of view and experience of Michael Roads is correct, that God is there but so all pervasive and aloof I guess it would take an act of will to open yourself to God. So that is my rambling tonight. From: curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@... To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, December 9, 2012 9:51 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@ wrote: Do you recall what the monks attitude or position on his attitude towards Christianity? They were not bothered by Maharishi's fundamentalist Hindu perspective. They still believed that he was theologically wrong and that his soul was in peril for not using meditation for developing a personal relationship with God. For them the absolute was the silence of God, but not God himself. They liked TM at first as a nice preparation for them to do their prayer. These were mystically oriented monks who were big on experience. For them the act of will was required to open yourself to God even within the silence of meditation. The whole mechanical means of God realization was anathema
[FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, doctordumbass@... no_reply@... wrote: Christianity has so perverted the message that Christ attempted to teach, that it has emerged as a key force of evil in this world. To spend your time attempting to equivocate the badnessitude of Maharishi with the Nazi supporting, child raping, country invading b*llshit of Christianity is a breathtaking excuse in denial. Really makes you look like a country bumpkin driven more by emotions than facts. HEE HAW! I don't know who you are addressing this to since none of the people in this thread were making that point. Maybe you should start with brushing up on what the word equivocate means before you go into insult mode and living up to your latest screen name. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@ wrote: Wow - wonder who's point of view is the true one? They both accurately express the two versions of his teaching, what sounds the best for PR and what he taught to people he trusted more with his candid opinion. But even as he tries to give positive marketing lip service to Christianity, he was expressing his view that Christianity's true goals should mirror the Hindu religion's emphasis on Self-realization. It does not, and him claiming it doesn't make it so. This contempt for the goals of Christianity was not a point missed by the meditating monks I knew. From: nablusoss1008 no_re...@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, December 9, 2012 6:28 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas  --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, feste37 feste37@ wrote: If MMY did have a negative view of Christianity it was because of what he saw as its emphasis on suffering, which was directly contrary to his message that life is bliss. In that sense he had a disagreement with the interpreters of Christianity down through the ages, not with the founder himself. In an interview with a Swiss journalist in Majorca on November 23, 1971, Maharishi said, I love Christ very much. He also said in the same interview, TM is a friend of Christianity because it takes awareness to the field that Christ wanted everyone to enjoy. Then he added,No Christian should suffer; it is not necessary. It is not good to propagate suffering in the name of Christ. He also used to refer to Christ as Lord Christ. Maharishi on Christianity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIWqJ8tJ8JU
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas
I've said before and I repeat I like the perspective of Richard Bartlett who teaches something he calls Matrix Energetics - he says he has guides like angels and Masters and he says he listens to what they say and they give good info and guidance, but he says he hallucinates them, that everything we have is inside us and we just hallucinate the Masters etc to give us an excuse to have an experience where we receive or perceive something beyond what we normally experience. I have gotten to where I feel it may very well be like that - even tho I have been doing it for 25 years I have gotten to where I think most if not all of the Ascended Master, angel stuff is made up stuff on some level - it certainly does have a good effect for some of the practitioners pocket books like Doreen Virtue ( I happen to like her energy) - but as I once said, its like a Marvel Comic book these days. I did a lot of research and I can't find any reference to any Ascended Masters prior to the late 1800's when Helena Blavatsky started talking and writing about her teachers, the Mahatmas - although she said they were actual embodied souls. It was Alice Baliey and Annie Besant who first began to claim they were in touch with non-incarnated souls that were Masters like Djwal Khul and others. After the Theosophical Society waned, the Master torch was taken up by people like Baird Spaulding and that told fraud Guy Ballard and his wife Edna. Then Mark and Elizabeth Prophet and later Bob Fickes and now a whole bunch of others. But it all seemed to start with Blavatsky and its ironic to me that she was so heavily influenced by her study of the Hindu scriptures These days I feel like people need to do whatever is practical for them that gives them an enjoyable happy life, preferably with a decent income. How long did you stick with the TM Movement, if I may ask? From: curtisdeltablues curtisdeltabl...@yahoo.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, December 9, 2012 11:25 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: And so this is Christmas Thanks for sharing your perspective, I really enjoyed reading that. For me I am way too ignorant of the limits of our mind's internal generative capability to even start needing an external agency for experiences like channeling. I'm pretty sure that is well within the wheelhouse of our mind's abilities. The ability to open up the brain's endorphin dumping capacity is not exactly chopped liver, even without it being a glimpse of another world of beings. I think we need more study of what it means. One weird thing is how over the experience of hyper bliss states I am now. They were such a big part of my life at one time and now I have zero interest in them no matter how enjoyable they once were. They seem too content free or something. I believe that if they were actually the goal of human life (and putting to the side the whole bliss is not blissful song and dance for now) I would not have grown out of an interest in them. All fascinating stuff to think about especially with the experiences we have all had of altered states. I'm really glad I spent the time I did to at least realize that the mystics are just bullshitting about their experiences. But that doesn't mean they are interpreting them properly, and given the pre-disposition toward grandiosity in most traditional systems, I find that unlikely. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson mjackson74@... wrote: Wow, this is very well written Curtis. I was nearly atheist when I began TM in 1974 and soon began to feel some bliss and all that jazz which over time warmed me up to the idea of God again. Honestly I don't know what the hell anything is going to be once we drop the body. Sometimes I like the idea of a personal God, then others I read things like Michael Roads the Aussie farmer who had all the wild experiences of awareness, - when you read his Journey into Oneness, I think it is, he feels the awareness of the Universal Mind, feels all the joy and suffering of humanity all at once and he experiences it as all OK cause the Universal Mind is totally at peace within itself. I am not even sure we will get the straight skinny when we die - it could just be more dreams and made up stuff only without a body. Its fascinating that the monks believed the Absolute was the silence of God but not God Himself. I always thought of it the other way, at least from the Hindu/Vedic/TM perspective where the Pure Awareness underlies all creation and the first sprouting of that Presence is God. Your statement Experiencing a god doesn't mean there really is one is a powerful expression of something I think I understand. I don't know if you read any of the posts I wrote recently telling of my experiences with channeling. It was something I sort of happened upon and to this day I don't know if its real or made
