[Buddha-l] Eckhart Tolle

[Vaj]

On Jan 10, 2006, at 11:17 AM, Joy Vriens wrote:

> Hi all,
>
>
>> It seems the people who talk most about enlightenment are the  
>> ones  who are trying to "sell" you something--either literally or   
>> figuratively. I'm thinking primarily of the Transcendental  
>> Meditation  movement who talk a lot about their Patanjali/Advaita  
>> version of  enlightenment, often with a slew of pseudo-science and  
>> the occasional  actual science. They do have some amazing research  
>> on the EEG  signatures for the "sakshin" or witness-consciousness  
>> so prominent in  Advaita-Vedanta. Of course this "scientific sell"  
>> is probably  necessary when you're charging 3000 US dollars to  
>> learn intro. mantra  meditation.
>>
>
> There is a chance TM (c)(r) will be taught free in Dutch secondary  
> schools as an optional course (keuzevak), part of philosophy. It is  
> hoped this meditation technique will help to improve the learning  
> performances of the students and give them a higher motivation. The  
> project will start in the secondary school of Lelystad this year.
> http://www.nieuws.nl/120909/Transcendente_meditatie_als_keuzevak

I wonder if they are charging the schools? What started out as a  
fairly innocuous inexpensive "mantra shamatha" technique in the 60's  
has become an expensive propostion in most areas. The cultishness has  
become stranger and stranger. More recently the "Maharishi" has  
declared his own government, crowned people as rajas, started his own  
political party, his own monetary system and bilked westerners out of  
over a hundred million dollars for a "Vedic pundits for world peace  
initiative" which never materialized. Now they are trying to raise 10  
trillion dollars for a global organic farming initiative. It gets  
weirder.

Vipassana is a lot cheaper!

-Steve

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