Saturday, December 31, 2016

last few hours of 2016 plus one second

It's been a long journey. Having learned TM in 1968, I quit in 1978, I wrote on this Blog for a while in the early 21st century (!) and now it all seems like a memorable film. For some I knew, TM seems to have done some substantial damage, or rather, Mahesh's misuse of TM seems to have done some substantial damage - for others, maybe not so much — who can say for sure.

The follies of youth? There were plenty of very mature, very respectable, well-established adults along the TM way since 1968. Some had qualms, some decided they had wasted time, some remained. All had something to say and I listened. Folly, it seems, is not exclusive to youth.

Although this Blog contains a lot of criticism of TM and Mahesh by yours truly, when I reflect, I prefer to remember the good times with wonderful friends and, here and there, the actual benefits I thought I received. Yes, there were dark times and very questionable "benefits". In the past, I've pretty much reflected on the dark times, a caveat for those who perhaps had their own questions and were looking for reinforcement, clarification, justification or something else entirely.

For me, TM/Mahesh set me on a course of seeking, looking for some sort of resolution to that niggling suspicion that there was something I hadn't yet found that I ought to keep looking for. After nearly a decade of sifting through the Yoga Sutras (yogadarśana), word-by-word, I concluded that Patañjali and Mahesh were on different paths, in different countries, going in different directions totally unaware of one another. Further reflection lead back to the place where I had begun in 1964 and I once again turned to the teachings of the Buddha. Now, quite the opposite of 1964, there is an abundance of material freely available.  Maybe, sans TM/Mahesh, I wouldn't have had the drive to pursue my curiosity. Who knows!

I think my primary thoughts with some 6.5 hours (and that one extra second) remaining in this very troubled year of 2016 focus on one particular thing: take that niggling feeling just a little more seriously.

Happy 2017. Make the most of it; do what you can for yourself and then for others. 

 


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