McCartney and Starr reunite in NYC for meditation

[WhiteTara]

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN05371050
NEW YORK, April 4 (Reuters) - The surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, performed together on Saturday to raise money to help kids learn a meditation technique the 1960s icons practiced at the height of their fame.

McCartney was joined onstage by Starr for a rousing rendition of "With a Little Help From My Friends" at Radio City Music Hall at the Change Begins Within concert for the David Lynch Foundation, which promotes Transcendental Meditation.

The Beatles helped popularize Transcendental Meditation -- described as a simple mental technique to combat stress -- in 1967 when they sought spiritual guidance from an Indian guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
snip
Filmmaker David Lynch's foundation says that since 2005 it has provided scholarships for more than 100,000 at-risk young people, teachers and parents in 30 countries to learn Transcendental Meditation.

The concert was intended to raise money to help 1 million children learn to meditate. (Editing by Bill Trott)

this is very wonderful. Children learning to see the space between.

[elleng]

1. THANKS for this!

My brother, who's been a meditator for many years, was at the concert today!

[WhiteTara]

4. I have meditated in a group before

and it was a very powerful experience. What was your brother's experience of the day? Was it mostly a concert?

[elleng]

6. He lives in Iowa, tho grew up in NY, and were in NY FOR the concert.

He hung around Manhattan with his wife, she skated at Rockefeller Center rink, etc.

They have meditated every day, several times a day, for years. They live and work at Maharishi University of Management (I think that's what its called) in Fairfield, Iowa. I think there's a fair amount of group meditation. Transcendental.

[No.23]

14. Cute coincidence.

That Iowa should also be the state where equality in marital rights was recently confirmed.

I just love cute coincidences.

[Metta]

2. as long as they don't get distracted by the organization, they'll be fine.

It's fraught with the antithesis of meditation and leads off the path.

[elleng]

3. What do you mean/about whom are you speaking?

.

[knowbody0]

5. I so know of what you speak.

[elleng]

7. Of what does Metta speak?

.

[Djinn]

9. can't speak for Metta

but a 3 second glance at the DLF website was enough for me - TM is good for people who enjoy it, it helps many people relax, but promotes world peace?? come ON.

Guess there's no war/aggression in the sub continent or in Vedic texts then :eyes:

[No.23]

13. I'll take a swipe at the bonus question.

Is it loving kindness?

[Metta]

15. Meditation, per se, is really good stuff. Trappings of, say, TM, are distraction and wasted time.

The structure and organization of TM is really off the path of meditation. If one meditates using awareness of breath and doing things slowly, creating calm, then one goes right past hindrances and distractions.

Other meditations can shake stuff loose though one can burn them off by grounding, by using Maslow's Hierarchy to see priorities for action/being, etc.

[elleng]

8. nyt

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/05/paul-mccartney-ringo-starr-reunite-at-radio-city/?hp

[Oak2004]

10. I guess I feel somewhat more wary about teaching kids TM

TM is to serious mysticism what McDonalds is to a serious meal. And while "meditation" sounds innocent and wholesome to someone not aware of what mystical practices can entail, the reality is that it's possible to get into some very difficult, even dangerous, states, practicing meditation. Meditation -- and mysticism generally -- is not all just easy calm bliss.

The bad stuff won't happen to most people ("bad" is a bit of an oversimplification: a lot of the "bad" things are in fact the precursor to some very good things, but still, until and unless you deal with them, they're bad). But the bad things do happen to a certain number of people who practice TM (as well as, of course, every other practice). I know for a fact that bad things happen to TM practitioners because there was a study in the 80s (I think) of TM's effectiveness at easing anxiety, and to the researchers surprise (but not to mine), TM appeared to cause "anxiety attacks" in some subjects.

I recognized what the problem really was from the description in the Science News article. The subjects weren't having "anxiety attacks", and the usual treatments for anxiety won't help them (at least I've never seen it significantly help anyone in this condition). They were having a kind of spiritual crisis that occurs in people who are either spiritually precocious and who have better control of their mind than they're really ready to deal with, or in people who've been involved in a lopsided spiritual practice like TM.

It's one thing to teach people mental techniques that can push their thinking beyond ego; it's another thing to genuinely prepare them for it. When you ask someone to go beyond ego, you are in effect asking them to die (actually, it's worse than death-- it feels like standing on the edge of utter annihilation, a death worse than death, and if unready one's mind recoils from it and shuts down. There is no terror like it). If you don't give them the tools to accept that death, but you do give them the tools to slam themselves into it, you've done something pretty nasty to someone. Once they've started slamming themselves into it, they may be banging into it for decades even if they've found someone who understands their problem and can help them. It's a hell of a lot easier to teach someone to concentrate themselves into trouble than it is to teach someone to calmly surrender their existence.

In all fairness I think the people who invented this McDonalds of meditation had little if any understanding what their invention could do to some individuals. I don't think they themselves ever got past the experience of meditation as quiet blissful relaxation and a pleasant little ritual - at least nothing I've seen about TM suggests they have. And TM is fine for people who don't ever get to any difficult stages in their meditation. But TM can be quite painful, even devastating, for those who do, and that definitely includes some kids.

[No.23]

12. An interesting observation.

Thanks for offering it.

I've found that any practice of meditation, which is accompanied by dogmatic explanation and requirements (a fruit of the mind), is destined to only solidify the mind.

Meditation is a boat that we use to get to the other shore. A tool, not the destination itself.

When it becomes the destination instead of a tool, it becomes fraught with complications.

As a tool, however, it is an invaluable one.

[MagickMuffin]

11. This was posted in DU Market Place: Self-study Yoga course 4-3-09

Global Family Yoga was founded as a way for our family to reach out and support the global family through establishing a teacher certification program that focuses on children and families. It is the fulfillment of a vision that has been evolving among us for many years. The science of yoga is a system for living. The ability to find inner peace, relax completely and be more flexible "in mind and body" - is extremely valuable for all of us today and most especially for our young people.

More @ link:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=213x5582

I wonder if David Lynch knows about this group.