Becoming enlightened, or cosmically conscious, was a hot topic in the '60's, mostly fueled by LSD induced visions & revelations. When we realized that it was possible to experience such states of being while still in a physical body, we began to seek out ways of achieving this by other than chemical means. It seemed that some Eastern religions considered this state of enlightenment to be the greatest achievement possible....we read accounts of monks who isolated themselves in remote caves & meditated for years to reach enlightenment. Apparently this enlightenment required a lifetime (or several lifetimes!) of meditation as well as yoga & an extremely austere diet....a level of discipline & dedication not very attractive to most of us Western raised kids. So when the Beatles fucked off to the promised land (India), and met Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.....who promised them full enlightenment after only 6 - 12 years of practicing his special brand of meditation called "Transcendental Meditation"....we flocked to his meditation initiations by the thousands. For $25.00 we were taken into a small room decorated with posters of Hindu Deities & flowers by an "Initiator" (someone who had taken a brief course in TM), who then whispered our very own personal mantra in our ears and taught us how to use it during our meditations. For children or for those with poorly developed nervous systems who were unable to sit still for 20 minutes, there were "walking mantras". All we had to do was meditate for 20 minutes in the morning & 20 minutes in the early evening, and in 6 - 12 years we would emerge as fully realized beings.
Looking back, I think that this TM phenomenon marked the first real philosophical differences among the hippies. Before Maharishi, we were kind of an amorphous glob of sex, drugs & rock'n roll~~~"if it feels good, do it"~~~but now we still had that group but also the meditators. The sex, drugs & rock'n roll bunch continued to pass around the blotters & joints at Be-Ins & concerts and remained stridently anti-establishment, while the meditators decided to
"change the system from within", doing things like selling Amway out of their old VW vans & converting as many as possible to TM. ( I always get a grin on my face when I hear that old line of Leonard Cohens'," Well, they sentenced me to 20 years of boredom, trying to change the system from within."
A whole bunch of us were initiated into TM on Saltspring Island in 1969. I was in that group & meditated diligently for the next few months just as I had been taught, until I dropped some very pure acid one day and didn't come down for the next 6 months. I didn't meditate during that time but I didn't NOT meditate either.....I was in a state of constant meditation......every move I made was a meditation, and I clearly understood that meditation is is like a boat that you need to use in order to get across the ocean, but once you arrive you don't need it anymore. Sitting on the toilet, eating, dancing, making love...all of it was a meditation....my entire life had become a meditation. I had "arrived". Or so I believed...
During this time, the TM bunch were gearing up with ever more courses & seminars designed to speed up the the process of getting enlightened. These events were being held all over the world, and by now Maharishi was accepting American Express. These sessions were not cheap. I was becoming quite cynical about the whole movement, even writing a song about it......"Cosmic consciousness on credit, any way you can get it". I had an interesting conversation with an older East Indian man once who just laughed when I mentioned Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. He said, " Mahesh is 10% yogi & 90% businessman. In India we have Maharishis who are 90% yogi & 10% businessman!". Many of us made pilgrimages to India. The pixie dust was falling off Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and the hunt for more "hardcore" or authentic gurus was on. Business was good. Since I felt that I had already arrived, I didn't join in this hunt. Everyone I saw or spoke with was my guru. I liked what Don Genaro (Journey to Ixtlan) said about some teachers "indulging in being teachers." Ha, yet I did just that with the smallish "following" I had attracted during this time as a "trip guide".... where I would take people to drop acid in the forests & mountains....teaching them about "woodland rushes", water nymphs and celestial navigation.
My "fall from grace" was inevitable though, since I had tried to sneak my ego along on this journey of sudden enlightenment. Such falls are incredibly painful, black & bleak.......the archetypal being "cast out from the kingdom of heaven". Those darn egos!!! One of my friends told me that there is no such thing as the ego and I said, " Yeah, but just try & tell IT that!"
Humbled, I went back to meditating once or twice a day, hoping that after 6 -12 years of this I'd get to be back in that awesome state. It seemed impossible, it seemed like the proverbial eye of the needle kinda thing. I was afraid that I'd blown the chance of a lifetime & maybe once cast out of the kingdom no return was possible. Well, that was nearly 40 years ago now.....& I've been blessed with several spontaneous "awakenings" over the years, though never for as long, or as powerful as those 6 months were. I honestly don't know whether or not my meditating had anything to do with those awakenings. These days I meditate simply because it helps center me, because it feels good. My meditations are not as "goal oriented" as they once were.
I think that for us Westerners, the traditional Eastern methods of attaining enlightenment are far too demanding & require too much discipline. We can't fit that into our busy lives very easily. I think that NLP & those Holosync type programs could be valuable for us. Anything that requires us to really pay attention to what our mental apparatus is doing can't be a bad thing, esp. if we combine it with some meditation also. A little hint, though....efforts to control or eliminate our thoughts rarely work....it's like the story of the guru who told his disciple that he would become enlightened as long as he didn't think about monkeys,lol. I find that it's of more value simply to learn to become a better observer.....to learn how to become more quiet. Recognition brings release. When we see things more clearly we are able to *respond* instead of our more usual robotic* reactions*.
Have any of you here ever read "Zen Flesh, Zen Bones"? Absolutely marvelous little book!
