Ratacirile yoghine: Brahma's fatal embrace
- From: "Constantin" <ortodox137@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 25 Oct 2005 08:06:41 -0700
http://www.apostle1.com/orthinfo/Transcendental%20Meditation1.htm
Transcendental Meditation
By: Fr. Alexey Young
(Russian Orthodox Church Abroad)
When it was introduced into this country in the revolutionary
decade of the 60s, Transcendental Meditation, or TM, was billed as a
technique for personal development and expanding consciousness.
Although the very word "meditation" was all but foreign to the
American vocabulary, a glance at the popular paperback presentation,
The TM Book: How to Enjoy the Rest of Your Life, prefaced by a
favorable comment by Joe Namair, convinced many an American Joe to
give TM a try. The book says it's easy, effective and, best of all,
fun. Advocates of TM claim it reduces stress, lowers blood pressure,
decreases insomnia, relieves asthma. They say it energizes a person to
use a vastly wider range of mental powers, and therefore become more
creative, as well as happier: "...every step is effortless, natural,
spontaneous....And relationships are enhanced and warmed.... We become
understanding, patient, tender--truly loving...[1] ''What's more, TM
involves minimal time commitment--a mere twenty minutes twice a
day--and no change in lifestyle. It can be, indeed is meant to be
integrated into one's daily life. One does not even have to believe in
TM for it to "work". Little wonder that by the mid-70s over half a
million Americans had learnt TM: it was being taught in schools, in
the Armed Forces, in drug rehabilitation programs. It seemed to be a
miracle panacea.
One of TM's most insistent claims has been that it is not a
religion, that there is no need to modify one's religious beliefs in
order to be a practitioner. The TM Book contains endorsements by a
rabbi, a Lutheran minister and a Roman Catholic priest. More recently,
however, the Roman Catholic Church issued a 23-page document warning
that methods such as TM can "degenerate into a cult of the body." The
mainstream Protestant fundamentalist magazine, Christianity Today, has
sounded a similar note of caution ("Dabbling in the Danger Zone,"
March 5, 1990). Why?
The man who sold TM to the West is Mahesh Brasad Warma. As a
student of physics at the University of Allahabad in the late 30s, he
attended a lecture by a recognized guru, Brahmanada Saraswati, which
changed the focus of his life from science to spirituality. Saraswart,
known as "Guru Dev" or "divine teacher," had spent some forty years as
a recluse in the Himalayas, rediscovering the Vedanta, an ancient
method of attaining, by direct intuition, true knowledge of
Brahma--the ultimate principle, which is the aim of Hinduism. At the
pinnacle of this knowledge is the understanding that the soul is
Brahma and there follows the emancipation from all earthly existence,
including one's own. The many forms of yoga have this same
emancipation as their goal.
After obtaining his degree, Mahesh spent twelve years as a
close disciple of Guru Dev, who encouraged him to take the Vedanta
teaching to the West. In 1953 Guru Dev died, and Mahesh retired to a
cave in the mountains. He emerged three years later, having adopted
the name Maharishi (meaning "Great Sage" or "Seer"), to begin his
ministry in his native India. In 1958 he established the Spiritual
Regeneration Movement in Madras. His aim was nothing less than the
spiritual regeneration of all mankind.
Maharishi modified his teaching for Western audiences, whose
attention he captured when, through the influence of Ravi Shankhat, he
developed a following among the Beatles. They soon grew disillusioned,
however, and Maharishi adopted a more secular approach to reverse his
declining popularity. He was given a boost in the early 70s when
scientific research seemed to support his claims concerning TM's
physical and psychological benefits. Using this "scientific" basis,
Maharishi was able to successfully launch TM into the mainstream of
American society.
TM is marketed through an organizational structure under the
umbrella of the World Plan Executive Council, with headquarters in
Switzerland The principal substructure is the International Meditation
Society (IMS). In 1965 the Students International Meditation Society
was formed and, later, the Foundation for the Science of Creative
Intelligence, aimed at introducing TM to the business and professional
community. Maharishi International University (MIU), relocated in 1974
to Fairfield, Iowa, integrates TM into all aspects of an accredited
course of study. The Spiritual Regeneration Movement works with senior
citizens.
Although the teaching of TM has been standardized, it cannot
properly be learned from books It is an experience based not in
knowledge but in "doing" or, as one practitioner explains, in "not
doing." Maharishi emphasizes the importance of instruction by a
qualified master of meditation who has been trained to impart it
accurately as well as to check experience. Several thousand such
"masters', most trained by Maharishi himself, teach TM at World Plan
Centers, located in major cities through out the United States and
Canada. The fee for a course of instruction, four two-hour sessions
held on consecutive days, ranges from $35 for a junior high school
student to $125 for an adult. This fee also entitles the practitioner
to unlimited checking of the technique. One can also attend meetings,
lecture, and other activities at these local centers.
Two introductory lectures, designed to stimulate interest in the
program, are free. Before beginning the actual course of instruction,
the prospective student is required to have a personal interview, at
which time he is given a mantra, a sound or word, to be kept secret
and never said aloud, that is supposedly "in harmony with the
vibrations of his personality'. [2] At the first session, which is
private, the initiate is taught the TM technique, how to use the
mantra. The next three are group sessions which discuss practical
details about the program, the mechanics et the TM process and the
goal of the program (The TM Book describes this simply as "a life free
from stress, with the full use of mental and physical potential"). At
this time students can also ask questions related to their experiences
during meditation.
While many students never advance beyond the elementary stages
of TM, the program is designed to lead the serious practitioner
through seven progressively advanced states of consciousness. In the
sixth state, "the awareness of the Absolute begins to overflow into
one's own perception of the objective world. The world begins to
appear suffused with the light of the Self, and objects which
previously were only appreciated impersonally now begin to take on
personal qualities - qualities which one could, if one were so
inclined, describe as Divine. [3] Finally, "in the seventh state...one
is aware of the Self not only within but in everything around
one"...'One begins to experience that, at the most fundamental level,
'we are all one and the same.''' [4]
Clearly, this "Self" is Brahma. TM, then, is a thinly-disguised
Hindu discipline, more precisely identified as a form of japa-yoga.
Furthermore, TM's religious bias is not something one encounters only
in its advanced stages. The personal interview held prior to the
course of instruction concludes with a ceremony in which the initiate
takes off his shoes before entering a special room where he is told to
kneel before a low table on which is a picture of Guru Dev. A fruit
and flower offering, which the initiate has been instructed to bring,
is placed on a white handkerchief before the picture by the initiator,
who proceeds to recite a hymn, in Sanskrit, invoking the Hindu gods
and praising Gum Dev as "the Unbounded, the Absolute, the Self
Sufficient, the Eternal."[5] (Maharishi always ends his lectures with
the words 'Jai Guru Dee," meaning: "by the grace of Guru Dev'[6]) The
mantra, which is assigned at this time, is a Sanskrit word of Hindu
significance, sometimes the name of a Hindu deity. The ceremony is
mandatory.
By proper meditation for two 20-minute periods every day, the
masses of the world will discover absolute bliss consciousness, the
natural and proper state of mankind. -- Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Even if it were possible to strip TM of its Hindu theology, the
technique itself is contrary to Orthodox teaching. TM encourages
mental passivity: "...once started, the process happens of its own
accord without any control or coercion on the part of the
individual--indeed, any such attempt would al most certainly disturb
the process.' [7] "With TM there is no concern with the meaning of
thoughts, [8] while Orthodox practice demands vigilance, a precise
awareness of one's thoughts and a conscious engagement in spiritual
warfare. The Christian struggles against laziness, fatigue and a
multitude of other disturbances. In TM this is unnecessary: "the state
of complete mental stillness is itself charming to the attention.' [9]
(The word "charming" here could be translated into Russian as prelest,
a word which even most non Russian-speaking Orthodox recognize as
meaning spiritual "beguilement" or "deception.")
Maharishi's view of morality is equally at variance with
Christian teaching. He believes that all actions have the same final
goal...The most egocentric and selfish actions are only manifestations
of the search for the true Self and ultimate fulfillment [Therefore]
one can never judge another's state of consciousness by his actions
alone? [10] St. Paul writes of the need to keep the body under
subjection, as a result of the Fall and man's consequent inclination
to sin. By contrast, TM claims that "no enlightened man ever had to
control his body, his actions, his words or his thoughts; if they
changed they changed as a spontaneous result of his higher state of
con sciousness.'' [11]
In 1978 the court decided that according to American legal usage
TM does, in fact, constitute a religion. At the same time, scientific
support for TM was weakened when a Stanford research team reported
that "the controls who simply relaxed twice daily for fifteen or
twenty minutes, using no mantra at all or repeating a mock mantra,
found comfort in the experience that did not differ significantly from
what the meditators found.' [12] While such findings have diminished
TM's immediate popularity, it has had lasting impact as a channel for
the successful marketing of Eastern philosophy and meditation
techniques here in the West. No longer is interest in Eastern
religions confined to the counter-culture domain. Today's MIU students
and faculty belong not to some eccentric fringe but are, for the most
part, clean-cut respectable members of society. Within the Christian
establishment, liberal American Roman Catholics have been
experimenting with Eastern meditation techniques for years; today
these techniques have penetrated even the traditionally conservative
churches of Spain and Italy where, according to the Catholic
publication, 30 Days (September 1989), "Christian Zen" is being taught
through church structures and publications. The same article reveals
that "congregations of religious women propose yoga sessions as annual
retreats; in many parishes Zen is the basis of many catechism classes;
monks practice transcendental meditation as their private prayer in
their cells.'' [13] These practitioners would emphatically deny that
they are in any way compromising their Christian faith. But as one
authority on cults warns, "By getting people involved in the practice,
they may eventually embrace the philosophical belief which underlies
it, [14] a belief which is fundamentally anti-Christian. Among these
infiltrated churches, this is a time not for caution but for alarm.
The Orthodox Church, with her infinitely rich spiritual
tradition, her staunch religious conservatism and her profound
experience m the art of prayer, fortunately remains closed to any
interest in Eastern meditation practices. This is not to say that she
has no need for concern here. The influence of Eastern philosophies on
the religious make-up of the West today is both subtle and pervasive.
Unless the Orthodox Church ensures that her spiritual treasure is
handed down to future generations as a well integrated,
well-articulated, vibrant, challenging and relevant tradition, she,
too, will risk losing some of her children to Brahma's fatal embrace.
>>From which may God in His mercy preserve us all.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] D. Deniston and P. McWilliarns, The TM Book: How to Enjoy the Rest
of Your Life (Allen Park, MI, 1975), pp. 172, 173.
[2] R.S. Ellwood, Religious and Spiritual Groups in Modern America
(New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1973), p. 234.
[3] Peter Russell, The TM Technique (Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul,
1976), p. 125.
[4] Ibid., pp. 163, 101.
[5] Kenneth Boa, Cults, World Religions and You (Wheaton, IL: Victor
Books, 1977), p. 161.
[6] Russell, p. 27
[7] Ibid., p. 16.
[8] Ibid., p. 42.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid., p. 122.
[11] Ibid., p. 148.
[12] Daniel Cohen, The New Believers (New York: M. Evans and Co.,
1975), p. 101.
[13] Quoted in Religion Watch, October 1989.
[14] Boa, p. 162.
.
- Prev by Date: Re: Vorbesc in numele Presedintelui
- Next by Date: Ratacirile yoghine
- Previous by thread: Secta lui Gregorian Bivolaru are adepti si la Bacau
- Next by thread: O noua biserica pentru romanii timoceni
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
Loading
