So it's happened.

[Lies]

Carrey always struck me a a Transcendental Meditation guy.

I LOATHE TM. LOATHE IT.

I think it's absolutely hilarious. And great for strengthening your leg muscles with all that lotus position hopping around, I mean, uh, "yogic flying".

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Wait, is this like Eckanckar? I dated a guy who grew up with that. For like a minute.

[Kai]

You know what? He may be some movie star, but I don't smack on people for enjoying themselves in whatever the hell they want to do with their lives. There's real happenings behind numinous and mystical experiences, and I think it's cool he actually had that experience. The same sort of experience /I've/ had before.

I do have a problem, however, with his craving for it. But that's another issue entirely.

[Lies]

You know what? He may be some movie star, but I don't smack on people for enjoying themselves in whatever the hell they want to do with their lives. There's real happenings behind numinous and mystical experiences, and I think it's cool he actually had that experience. The same sort of experience /I've/ had before.

I do have a problem, however, with his craving for it. But that's another issue entirely.

Well, that's the thing, I totally relate and know what he's going on about, and I'm happy for him, really, but I got a feeling this may be the start of something... I dunno. Just that for some reason, it bugs me.

[Triple Zero]

"After training in our monastery, you will not go out into town and claim you have super powers, even if you do." (sort of) - from "Lamb" by Christopher Moore

Funny, I read some stuff about Buddhism or meditation, that said on the path to Enlightenment (there were 8 steps in this path, IIRC, in this particular teachings), at some point you might be convinced you have superpowers like clairvoyance and the such. But the text said these are traps and you shouldn't get stuck there but carry on and also destroy this ego-based superpower crap (it didn't dismiss them as unreal or imaginary).

I do have a problem, however, with his craving for it. But that's another issue entirely.

I dunno, it's not even the craving that bothers me, but rather the smug way he's on a stage telling people about it with this religious gaze in his eyes. It just screams "scam" at me, even if it's sincere.

Apart from that, I do agree, if Jim found this and is enjoying this, who are we to judge that?

Also +1 on trying to mindfuck him with the 23 enigma.

[Jenne]

You know what? He may be some movie star, but I don't smack on people for enjoying themselves in whatever the hell they want to do with their lives. There's real happenings behind numinous and mystical experiences, and I think it's cool he actually had that experience. The same sort of experience /I've/ had before.

I do have a problem, however, with his craving for it. But that's another issue entirely.

Sorry, I just get itchy at testimonials given with fervor and that rapt look on someone's face as they stand on a hugeass stage that smacks of big box church or convention.  I grew up with that it and was...disconcerting to say the least. 

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

Funny, I read some stuff about Buddhism or meditation, that said on the path to Enlightenment (there were 8 steps in this path, IIRC, in this particular teachings), at some point you might be convinced you have superpowers like clairvoyance and the such. But the text said these are traps and you shouldn't get stuck there but carry on and also destroy this ego-based superpower crap (it didn't dismiss them as unreal or imaginary).

The difference between walking into Chapel Perilous and just smacking your head against the door over and over and over.... 

[Epimetheus]

Cool.

[Telarus]

Funny, I read some stuff about Buddhism or meditation, that said on the path to Enlightenment (there were 8 steps in this path, IIRC, in this particular teachings), at some point you might be convinced you have superpowers like clairvoyance and the such. But the text said these are traps and you shouldn't get stuck there but carry on and also destroy this ego-based superpower crap (it didn't dismiss them as unreal or imaginary).

The difference between walking into Chapel Perilous and just smacking your head against the door over and over and over.... 

Yah. The Rinzai school calls these "Makyo", or hallucinations, and they can manifest as constantly hearing a bamboo flute, being convinced of having superpowers, etc, etc. Wikipedia's got a pretty good description, one sec....


The term makyo (魔境, makyō?) means "ghost cave" or "devil's cave." It is employed in Zen as figurative reference to the kind of self-delusion that results from clinging to an experience and making a conceptual "nest" out of it for oneself. Makyo is, in other words, essentially synonymous with illusion, but the word is used especially in reference to experiences that can occur within meditation practice.

In Philip Kapleau's The Three Pillars of Zen,[1] Yasutani Roshi explained the term as the combination of ma meaning devil and kyo meaning the objective world. This character for "devil" can also refer to Mara, the Buddhist "tempter" figure; and the character kyo can mean simply region, condition or place. Makyo refers to the hallucinations and perceptual distortions that can arise during the course of meditation and can be mistaken by the practitioner as "seeing the true nature" or kensho. Zen masters warn their meditating students to ignore sensory distortions. These can occur in the form of visions and perceptual distortions, but they can also be experiences of blank, trance-like absorption states. In the Zen school, it is understood that neither category of experience – however fascinating they may be – is a true and final enlightenment.

Contemplative literature contains numerous descriptions of the perceptual distortion produced by meditation. It is characterized in some schools as "going to the movies," a sign of spiritual intensity but a phenomenon that is regarded to be distinctly inferior to the clear insight of settled practice. In some Hindu schools it is regarded as a product of the sukshma sharira, or "experience body," in its unstable state, and in that respect is seen to be another form of maya, which is the illusory nature of the world as apprehended by ordinary consciousness.

Tibetan contemplative literature makes use of the perhaps parallel term "nyam", which fall into three categories, usually listed as clarity, bliss, and non-conceptuality. Many types of meditation phenomena can be classed under this rubric, and are generally tied to the reorganization of the body's subtle energies which can occur in meditation. See Dudjom Lingpa, (cited in Wallace, the Attention Revolution), and Padmasambhava (in Treasures from the Juniper Ridge) for more specific examples. Robert Aitken Roshi classifies speaking in tongues as "elaborate[theatrical -Tel] makyo" (Taking the Path of Zen).