I've never been a big fan of Transcendental Meditation but have remained a fan of the Maharishi. TM seemed to me to be too goal- oriented with the idea of blissing out or transcending during the meditation itself; the goal was to have periods where we are not conscious of the mantra we are using nor of other thoughts. The benefit was a reduction in stress and I wasn’t a big fan of the amount they used to charge either.
That said, I still will use the mantra when meditating. I have found it useful when there is a high level of background noise.
When studying TM, we got to hear lots of tapes of the Maharishi. One of his insights was in looking at the way we carry the baggage of our past – whether emotional or other pain.
He likened this burden to having our past carved into rock by our experience; to remove it takes years, maybe more than our lifetime while we wait for wind and rain to smooth the carving from rock. Think how much better it would be if our past were carved in something less durable, like a tree; it would erode much more quickly.
Then again, having our past carved in the ground would shorten the process even more; sometimes wind and rain would remove it in a few hours.
But much better still would be having our past carved in water, where the mark would disappear as soon as it had been made…
Or, how about your life being carved in the air?
Living 'in the moment' is something espoused by quite a few of the 'eastern' traditions - and it certainly has it's merits - but here's a counter-point to ponder.
ReplyDeleteIf your life experiences leave no permanent mark, where does that leave learning?
Although I took Maharishi to be talking mostly about stresses and emotional pain, the principle does throw up a nice paradox: I needed to learn in order to get where I am but it would appear that I don't need to carry that learning with me. I wonder if it's a conscious thing as I'm certainly not aware of learning when I'm practising being in the moment or trying to be aware of what's happening with me.
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