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[Guest guest]

Dear Fairfield Friends,

 

first of all, i'm very happy to report that i'm still alive and doing well. i want to thank my well-wishers and anyone who's been concerned for me.

 

i'm only an occasional visitor to the Life in Fairfield chatgroup, but i wanted to make a point today that, while it may not be new, the more i think about it, the more useful it seems to be in organizing my thoughts about personal growth. btw, for what it's worth, i still love Maharishi. i find that i admire his skill in teaching more and more with every passing year.

 

anyway, my good friend, Tony at 21st Century Bookstore, recently sent me a book called, 'Spiritual Enlightenment', by Jed McKenna.  while i don't get the impression that Jed is a vedantic 'Jedi' master on the order of Ramana Maharishi or Nisargadatta Maharaj, i feel that he makes a very important distinction, which i can perhaps summarize in the general and specific cases as,

 

1. that subtle/mystical experiences do not necessarily have anything to do with truth-realization and abidance in non-dual awareness, and

 

2. that unity consciousness (as both Mahesh and Ramana Maharshis have pointed out) should rightfully be included in the first category, ie, while it is the pinnacle of mystical experiences, it too does not necessarily have anything to do with truth-realization and abidance in non-dual awareness, simply because unity is a state of mind while brahmin is not.

 

by way of support for these ideas,

 

1. someone once gave me a quote, supposedly from MMY, that ended with the statement, 'Unity consciousness is just a state of consciousness.',  and

 

2. in 'Be As You Are', Ramana presents 3 views that one can adopt wrt the world. the 3rd one, ajata vada, is clearly his favorite and is clearly uc. he then says words to the effect, 'using any one of these, go beyond all duality [even a relationship based on appreciating the object of perception in terms of one's self - ed.] to the non-dual Self.'

 

i think that the idea that uc is true enlightenment, as opposed to the best possible mystical experience, is one of the most subtle points of confusion among truth-seekers today.

 

i've come to believe that these experiences are precisely what we need to stop being fascinated with, as they all, even unity, subtly reinforce the sense of a separate self. i'm picturing a bumper sticker that reads, 'UC- get over it'.

 

it may be that we've been using the word, 'enlightenment' in it's general, as opposed to its specific, sense. i think this happens with a lot of words. for example, 'bugs' is actually a specific sub-set of the major set, 'insects', commonly referred to simply as, 'bugs'.

 

i really think that this is an important and timely distinction for our community. i say 'timely' in the same spirit (i hope) that Maharishi referred to his 7-states model as, 'no more valid' in his great Victory Day phone call ten years ago this year.

 

love to all my Fairfield friends!

 

Michael Baxter