Book Review: "Robes of Silk Feet of Clay" by Judith Bourque

"Robes of Silk Feet of Clay" by Judith Bourque, published 2010, is the true story of Ms. Bourque's 1971-1972 love affair with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. I'd like to share some of my thoughts about the book.

First of all, I believe Ms. Bourque did not make up this story. One, because her account, along with the photos, make internal sense, and fit with other things I have learned over the years about Maharishi and his international staff. Two, because the book is profoundly non-sensational. If Bourque's goal was to write a (fictional) best-selling, the book would not have been so temperate, so lacking in spicy, sexy, torrid, tell-all details.

The gist of this book is that Maharishi did indeed break his vow of celibacy, and then kept it a secret from the world. That's the explicit message. However, what I also found educational were the insights I could tease out from between the lines - details that help me continue to piece together the mystery that was Maharishi. So I will share my musings here, hoping they will be helpful to others.

First, I notice that Maharishi never courted Bourque in the way that many other supposedly celibate gurus courted their students. That is, he didn't promise her that having sex with him would benefit her spiritually, that it was a special privilege to have sex with him, that he would give her spiritual energy, or anything like that. This is surprising to me, since I have read so much about Maharishi being an opportunist and a liar. I wonder why he did not court her in this way. What do you think?

I also note that Bourque did not feel an awe-inspiring super-human overwhelming energy coming from Maharishi, as some people, including myself, have experienced. Why didn't she? (Or why did I? Did you?)

I was very surprised by Maharishi's reaction after the first time he had intercourse with Bourque. It was so different from what I would have expected from a celibate Western religious who had broken his vow. A Westerner, I am guessing, would have felt shame, or guilt, or would have tried to hide it, or would have rationalized it, or would have gone to his superior for confession and counsel. Maharishi, instead, called together his Indian celibate buddies, and they spent the afternoon with him. It seemed as if breaking a vow of chastity was a common event, calling for neighborly consolation and tried-and-true advice. Maharishi seemed to view his slip-up not as a moral or spiritual issue (as perhaps a Catholic monk might), but rather as a practical health/spiritual energy issue. "The energy is used to going up!" he told Bourque, as if the core of the dilemma were physical, not ethical. (Come to think of it, isn't that how he looked at the path to enlightenment? A mechanical physical approach, repeated by rote, rather than a path of prayer or self-examination, as a Westerner might.) In line with this view of his problem, one of his solutions to his slip-up was, logically, also physical: someone gave him a foot massage.

This whole event just confirms for me how little we in the West really understand of Maharishi's worldview.

As I read this particular section of the book, I was reminded of Maharishi's comment at (I think) Humboldt State College in Arcata, California, USA, in the summer of 1972. At one point, he said, "What this movement needs is a few good celibates." At the time, I heard something unusual in his voice, but I couldn't put my finger on exactly what it was. Now I wonder if what I heard was a wistfulness in his voice. Could he have been alluding to the fact that he wished that he had been a good celibate. Or am I being too generous? Maybe it was nostalgia for his ashram days? Or maybe it was just his embarrassment (noted many times in the book) around sex.

I also sadly note that after he had intercourse with Bourque for the first time, Maharishi was concerned about his own well-being, but he never expressed any concern for hers.

I found the photo on page 205 very interesting. This is a snapshot of Maharishi's scribbled notes. He had met with initiators from around the world to hear how some mantras had meanings in various tongues. For instance "rama" means "branch of a tree" in Spanish. (I looked it up in my Spanish-English dictionary.) And "aem" (also spelled "aim" or "ayim"), he notes, speaks to egotistical aspirations in English with its pronunciation as "I am." Maharishi scribbled on his notes"change it." He did, in fact, drop "rama," but not "aem." What about the eternal unchangeable tradition of how to choose the mantras? Or about his insistence that the sound is meaningless. Or that the sound becomes so faint that the exact pronunciation doesn't matter? Or about the mystical, never-to-be-spoken aloud, fragile-as-glass way we were taught to view mantras; and here he was, robustly marking the mantras down, fiddling with foreign languages, notating practical changes for a satisfied customer base.

Finally, I've heard Maharishi lecture many times that an enlightened person "averts the danger that has not yet come;" that an enlightened person "is not able to make mistakes." Therefore, the fact that Maharishi had sex - which he felt was unhealthy for him - would indicate either that he was lying to us about what an enlightened person is really like, or that Maharishi was not the enlightened person he implied he was. Or maybe both. What do you think? Did Maharishi believe those things, or was he just trying to entice us? Did he learn those things from Guru Dev?

Did you read the book? Would you like to share your thoughts about it here? Or your comments about my musings?

Ned Wynn: The Personal Danger of Teaching Transcendental Meditation

Old-time Transcendental Meditation Initiator Ned Wynn submitted the following article about the dangers he sees for TM Teachers still telling the same old story about the "meaningless" mantras to new initiates.

Many old timers will know of Ned. He was a Teacher Training Teacher for a number of years, teaching on Mallorca, Fiuggi Fonte, and throughout Europe. He has a lot of insider knowledge about the TM Movement—and the Maharishi—back in the day.

Ned left the Movement in 1972, for reasons he explains below.

Can you believe these mantra issues have been hanging over the TM Org's head for more than 40 years—and they haven't undertaken simple, basic reforms to put them behind them?

---

I warn people today about TM when they ask me my opinion.

Especially about the mantras.

My warning is that teaching these mantras without revealing—to monotheists specifically—that they translate into English, with some variations, "To Lord Shiva, I bow down," could lead to some real trouble for the teachers.

There is danger, personal danger, to teachers of TM should it be discovered by devout Catholics, Jews, Muslims, etc. that the "meaningless" mantra they have been given is in fact a prayer to Shiva.

In today's world of Islamic militancy, for instance, it could lead to the teacher literally being killed. Some of these guys would take their own lives along with the teacher's because of the shame of having sworn fealty to a foreign god.

And for Jews and Christians there is the distinct possibility that there would be some repercussions—though most likely they'd stop short of murder!

Won't they?

I know some committed Christians. I know that they would be horrified at uttering such blasphemous things whenever they said their mantra.

They wouldn't do anything about it in terms of some retaliatory activity, but they would stop meditating using the word(s) they were given. And eventually someone will publish this stuff, and the lack of candor in the teaching won't encourage people to join up.

They don't want to worship pagan gods. It's in direct contravention of the Commandment: Thou shalt have no other God before me. And believe me there are millions of people who take that very seriously.

They feel that their eternal souls are mortally endangered by breaking that Commandment.

Exodus
2 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;
3 Do not have any other gods before me.

Christ especially was concerned with two "Great" Commandments (from Matthew).

Mt 22:36
“[Jesus], which is the great commandment in the law?” And he said to him, ’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.”

It would be hard to love the Lord your God "with all your heart and soul and mind" if you are also, in your meditation, bowing down to a Hindu god. I am not familiar with the Koran, but I do know that the Muslims abide by the Ten Commandments just like Jews and Christians do.

So, teachers and governors and kings or whatever your foolish titles may be, do not think yourselves protected in some magical way from the danger inherent in the meditation technique you are teaching. There is no magical protection enclosing or safeguarding you.

It's a myth promoted by Mahesh.

It's a con.

The machetes in the hands of those increasingly irritated Brothers of Islam, however, are not mythical, their sharp edges are very real.

And the Brothers are famously not squeamish when it comes to releasing gallons of blood from the bodies of tricksters and pagan shamans.

Plus which, when you get down to it, it's simply dishonest.

— Ned Wynn, Former TM Teacher Training Course Leader, Mallorca, Spain & Europe

© 2010 Ned Wynn, all rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any media without prior written consent of the author.

Transcendental Meditation: Still Incompatible with Christianity?

The Maharishi frequently asserted that TM was compatible with all religions in all cultures. A recent article from the National Catholic Register confirms what Cardinal Sin said back in the 1980s: Transcendental Meditation is not compatible with Catholic doctrine — or most other Christian denominations, for that matter.

John M. Knapp, LMSW
KnappFamilyCounseling.com/cultstmf.html

What the Maharishi Meant

A Catholic Reflects on the Legacy of TM Popularizer
BY KEITH E. COBB
REGISTER CORRESPONDENT

February 17-23, 2008 Issue | Posted 2/12/08 at 11:18 AM


MOUNT ANGEL, Ore. — Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of the technique known as Transcendental Meditation, died quietly Feb. 5 at his residence, a former Franciscan monastery in Vlodrop, Holland. He was 91.

The Indian meditation practice became popular in the late ‘60s and ‘70s when the Beatles and actress Mia Farrow trekked to India to sit at his feet.

His death brought back a flood of memories for me, for I too was once Maharishi’s disciple. Before entering the Church in 1995, I spent 25 years of my life serving him as meditator, TM instructor and ardent devotee.

My wife was also once a devotee and as a journalist helped to promote the TM movement.

Why did so many people (including Catholics) go for TM back its heyday? How does the teaching that surrounds TM differ from Catholicism? And why have some of these once ardent TMers left behind their meditation practice to return to their Christian roots?

There were the mundane reasons, of course, why many people, including Catholics, went into TM: lower blood pressure, stress reduction and so forth. Many people started for those reasons, happily oblivious to the deeper considerations. But there were deeper reasons as well.

In the ’60s, when Transcendental Meditation began to make inroads in the United States, many of us were shell-shocked by the barrage of life-changing events: the war in Vietnam, violent anti-war demonstrations, the Free Speech Movement, the Watts riots, the Woodstock festival, the advent of the drug culture, the free love movement, and Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, which forebode impending ecological disaster.

In this climate, many of my generation were deeply questioning the values, institutions and power structures that had brought us to this time of turmoil and change. We were searching for answers, a deeper spirituality, an anchor — something that would bring peace, stability and meaning to our troubled and rapidly changing world.

When I heard the basic TM pitch — “It is a way to develop your full mental potential, achieve ideal behavior, develop better health and help promote world peace” — it sounded good, and I took it, hook, line and sinker. Many others did too, especially those like me who did not have a solid grounding in a religious faith.

But there is an even deeper reason why many came to Transcendental Meditation: New Age thinking was changing the way that people thought about themselves in relationship to God.

From a once theocentric view of life that put God at the center and recognized the clear difference between the Creator and his creation, many people began to see life anthropocentrically, putting man at the center and blurring the distinction between God and man.

Transcendental Meditation, which taught that through regular practice anyone could develop higher states of consciousness — God Consciousness and Unity Consciousness — appealed to this New Age mindset.

If one practices Transcendental Meditation for stress reduction or health reasons, he may not have a problem with the profound distinctions that exist between Catholic dogma and TM teaching. But although Maharishi made strenuous efforts to teach this technique as a non-religious, albeit spiritual, technique, the fact is that a great many of those who got deep into it, including me, treated it as a religion.

Philosophically and theologically, Transcendental Meditation and Catholicism are miles apart. In addition to the anthropocentric issue treated above, there are a few other significant differences.

Maharishi taught that God is purely transcendental and impersonal — a field of being, an infinite reservoir of energy and intelligence. The easiest way to know God, according to Maharishi, is to practice Transcendental Meditation.

Every time you transcend, you dip into that reservoir of Being. To Maharishi, this is “a very powerful form of prayer.” Unfortunately, this results in meditators who take Transcendental Meditation for their “religion,” with no personal relationship with God.

Additionally, there is no credence given to redemptive suffering or Christ’s paschal sacrifice. Maharishi once made the comment that he didn’t think that Christ ever suffered.

In another well-known quote Maharishi states: “Life is here to enjoy. Tell everyone. Nobody has to suffer any more.”

While these teachings sound wonderful, they simply do not meet with reality, and they downplay the infinite significance of Christ’s passion, crucifixion and resurrection.

So why have once-ardent TMers dropped the practice and returned to the Church?

To quote Maharishi, it is because “the nature of life is to aspire for more and more.”

Perhaps those who find their way into the Church will have a similar story to tell, but I would like to tell mine.

I started backing out of the movement in 1990 because I was suffering. The novelty of what I had first experienced when I started TM had long since worn off. And, on a deep level, I hungered for something the movement could not give me — an intimate, devotional relationship.

For a long time, I had idolized Maharishi. But my relationship with him was distant. I revered him almost as though he were divine, yet I could not touch him. I could not get close to him. I could not call him father.

When my wife and I were married in 1993, both of us were still meditating, but we went through some stormy times. As much as Transcendental Meditation is touted as a technique to develop ideal behavior, I can’t say that this is what we experienced.

Out of selfishness, we both caused each other to suffer. This suffering drove my wife, a cradle Catholic, back into the Church. I tagged along, though it was all very new to me.

When I joined the Church in 1995, things started improving, but we were continually saddened because there were so many meditating couples in our hometown of Fairfield, Iowa, the premier Transcendental Meditation community in the United States, whose marriages were going up in flames. That drove us out of Fairfield to Oregon and to our current home.

With the Eucharist to feed us and the support of new Christ-centered relationships that we were forming, we steadily grew in our faith. God was no longer a distant impersonal reality, but was becoming ever more an intimate personal experience.

We joined the choir, got involved in youth ministry, devoured literature on the saints, wrote three books on Pope John Paul II, and had a child. While all this was going on, our involvement with Transcendental Meditation slowly slipped away until one day we realized that it was no longer a part of our life.

It is clear to me that the Holy Spirit was working powerfully in our lives. In 2003, I enrolled in the Master of Arts program in theology at Mount Angel Seminary, where I have just completed my thesis.

Today, I am in love with Jesus Christ and in awe of the Catholic Church. As I absorb more and more of what the Church is and has to offer, I never cease to be amazed at the spiritual wealth that she holds: the depth of the prayer life she maintains, the richness of her traditions and spiritual practices, and the abundance of self-giving love that she manifests.

I do not begrudge the past. God has a way of turning everything to the good. Though I wouldn’t recommend anyone to walk the same path that I took to get into the Catholic Church, perhaps I wouldn’t be here writing this testimony today if it weren’t for Maharishi. And for that, I say, “God bless you!”


Keith E. Cobb writes from

Mount Angel, Oregon.

keithcobb@charter.net


Send-Off For Guru
NEW DELHI — Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the spiritual guru of millions of people across the world, who died in the Netherlands in early February, was cremated at one of Hinduism’s holiest sites in India’s northern city of Allahabad on Feb. 11.

Thousands of followers of the Maharishi, credited with introducing meditation to the West, witnessed the cremation at the Sangam, the confluence of the holy Ganges and the Yamuna rivers in Allahabad. His nephew, Swami Girish Chandra Verma, lit the funeral pyre made of sandalwood logs on which the guru’s body was placed in a yogic posture, state-run broadcaster All India Radio reported.

Earlier, the Maharishi’s body was carried by his relatives and disciples amidst Hindu chants to a specially erected platform near the Sangam in Allahabad, which lies over 600 kilometres south-west of New Delhi. After a helicopter showered rose petals on the body, uniformed police lowered their guns and the last post was sounded as a mark of state honour.

DPA story

Pelagianism and Catholicism

According to Catholic theology, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Transcendental Meditation program constitutes Pelagianism. Pelagius was a 4th century heretic who disbelieved in the need for the grace of God. He avowed that one could attain higher spiritual states through ones own efforts at purity. This view is not accepted in the Catholic church. Yet, essentially, this is what TM dogma teaches: you can attain higher levels of spirituality through your own efforts through meditation.

I believe that this idea of TM dogma is taken directly from one branch of Buddhism, which says that heaven can be attained essentially by meditation alone.

Catholicism believes in a person's need for the grace of God and that it is not possible to attain a great level of spiritual purity through one's own efforts alone. So, dogmatically speaking, TM doesn't mix with Catholicism. However, the technique, taken by itself may pose no conflict, except that I don't think self-induce trance, if that is what it is, done regularly would be considered healthy in any religion.
NEXT POSTAGE by Sue: Trancing Out

THINK FREE: 02/17/07

THINK FREE is a regular feature of TM-Free Blog. It features a summary of news about TM and other orgs labeled "cults" by critics.

• 10 TM Teachers Meditate for World Peace in Malaysia The Star [Don't They Know We Need 10,000 Vedic Pandits? Or Was It 10,000 Per Country?]
  
• Author Martin Amis Terms Islamism a Death Cult Times Online
  
• Baton Rouge Man Mixes Christianity and Scientology 2TheAdvocate.com [Hasn't He Heard that L. Ron Preached Jesus Never Existed?]
  
• Scientology Claims More Celebs Rolling Stone [More Support of Nature for L. Ron]
  
• The Christ/AntiChrist Arrives In America USA Religious News [When the Rapture Comes – Can I Have Your Car?]
  

Have a hot tip? See something we missed? Email jmknapp53@gmail.com.