[Buddha-l] "Free and Easy" Vajra song

[Dan Lusthaus]

Eric,

>To do that you
> have to be a very experienced meditator, just try it!

What makes you think I am not, or that I haven't?

If memory serves, recently Erich Fromm's work was mentioned here. His _The
Art of Loving_ proposed a very interesting take on the idea that context is
everything. Orgiastic states, he contended, are not "evil" or even
harmful -- the harm and guilt, etc., comes from how the group (e.g.,
society) accepts or disapproves. Pleasure is pleasure. If, after the
pleasure, the group's disapproval seeps in, one starts to feel guilty,
abused, etc. If embraced, then all is honkey dorey. While an interesting
thesis, that was not an idea that caught on, even among other
psychotherapists. Seems to apply here, though.

Catatonia in a hospital bed is not enviable. But wrap it in a different
package and suddenly everybody wants one. Pay your fee, do your work, and
get a high -- at best, it lasts about 6 months. Then time for a booster
shot. Opium is cheaper and more effective. It also gives one the feeling
that everything is unreal, no sense in doing anything, just let me lie here,
everything is fine...

Time for all the would-be mystics to follow their own advice: words are just
words. "Mahamudra," "Tibetan," "meditation," "only us in the in-group
*know*" are just words, not credentials -- or are they?

Time already to revisit the meaning of prapanca?

Want some real mahamudra advice? This from the late Geshe Wangyal:

Detachment without denial; involvement without indulgence.

Nothing catatonic about that. Try it, Eric.

Dan