Originally Posted By: Revlgking

Lots to dialogue about, eh?



Well yes and no.
The basic mechanics of TM are not taught in the open lectures. So if one hasn't taken the time to learn and become familiar with the simple mechanical approach to the underlying field of presence, as you enjoy from Tolle's writings, then it stands to reason that you were not actually familiar with Maharishi's teaching but familiar with possibly an opinion made by someone else. From what you said you took for granted everything of another's experience to call it your own. You took an idea from another, who made a judgment call without actually applying the tools as they were taught, and from that made a judgment of the teaching.


One of the most common objections is the money.

There is a saying: "Place no idols before God"

The ego thinks everything should be given without any investment or commitment. Like a lazy man who wants to be paid for doing little or nothing spirituality is shunned if it involves giving up anything that is revered as holy to the ego. That would be money. The ego values it's worth not only by comparing itself to others but it values itself according to the standard of material wealth, and it also sees sacrifice, such as martyrdom as noble.
So a large majority of spiritual wannabes approach their spirituality with a chip on their shoulder, angry at the idea of there being a God that would treat humanity the way it is in its suffering of victims and uncertain futures, eager to prove itself worthy if not better than any divine host.

A True Guru (destroyer of ignorance) is not giving out handouts to those who are not capable of making a commitment nor desirous of eliminating the very habits and attachments that support the ego. (The "Cast ye no pearls before swine kinda thinking")

It is a fact that an extremely small percentage of humanity is ready to actually give up their ego. The rest either don't care to know anything about spirituality or think they already know enough about it to avoid having to give up anything at all.
They are like those who think to themselves, "everyone else has made this same approach to spirituality and enlightenment without any experience of God and any real lasting results, but if I do it something different is going to happen."

The reality is that the ego will absolutely not surrender itself to anything that it is threatened by. And you just might happen to fall into that category.
When a Guru speaks of the Truth, the ego revolts.

I find you still have no experience of the Atonement and of God, and have little knowledge of the meaning of scripture.
From my experience, everything so far that you have tried to adorn yourself with is the experience of self title and self measure.
Your defense of ego and any justification in keeping it for as long as you need it, speaks as evidence to the ambiguous ideals that have morphed and changed according to how you perceive yourself and the definitions of reality that are your religious convictions and beliefs.

The fact that you found Maharishi boring and that you think the Sanskrit Mantra is just a word, only means you have an opinion of something you never tried or wasn't interested in because your interest lay somewhere else. Obviously your opinion has value to you and you may also think it has value for someone else, otherwise you wouldn't have so easily accepted your friends opinion and valued it as your own.

Such is the state of affairs with much of the world today, from spirituality to politics we often take meaning from what others say without engaging ourselves in the subject at hand. Creating a democratic approach to reality thinking I can't be wrong if everyone agrees with it. That is the nature of religion as it is understood and from that illusion the intellect moves outward into more illusion.

I think you will agree that if someone invests themselves in years of spiritual endeavors that are based on illusions that the time does not add up to the mastery of anything at all, but more of an illusion of investment that the ego thinks it ought to get some kind of credit for.
Sadly in the real world, and the world of duality this kind of self measurement fails to produce any results of lasting importance to anyone but the person clinging to the illusion.
When the person dies so does any importance that person measures themself by.


So in summary we don't seem to be able to discuss the nature of the Guru on even ground.


I was addicted to the Hokey Pokey, but then I turned myself around!!