Please forgive yet another small babble from me but I'm not sure that true 'peacefulness' is the sole reserve of premies with a Master. In fact I found the whole experience of accepting Maharaji as a master a mixed blessing. I have discovered that I can access that same peace and do the same meditation techniques without 'having to' listen to Maharaji. Life is inspiring enough without him funnily enough. Somewhat of a revelation since I expected the experience to 'vanish' when I sold my soul to the devil and dared disagree with the Master. The only thing that I could possibly miss of value is the semblance of 'structured teaching' that reminded and encouraged one to take the time out to relax and do the meditation. But for me, M's particular structure grew to be more limiting and off-putting than freeing and inspiring. So I've gone back to it just being me and the Universe and nothing in-between as that seems to cause problems.

My 'feeling peace' doesn't override my critical faculties. If I am grateful for his having turned me on to meditation I don't feel I have to worship him for ever after or turn a blind eye to his faults. My gratitude has been moderated by my experiences of what M expected/demanded in return and the guilt trips the taught me too. I would say that as much as Maharaji seemed to be a force for 'good' in the world, the amount of 'evil' behaviour that happened around him throws his trustworthiness into question. If you disagree with that fine- it's just something I was sensitive to. Maybe I was too earnest or consciencious for my own good. So be it. I consider myself to be continuingly thirsty enough for the truth that I can't settle for 'peace ' if that means ignoring my conscience and sincerity. That's what made me thirsty in the first place.

I too have felt that I've often experienced 'The peace that passeth all undestanding' in meditation but I can also quote another biblical conundrum which challenges the would-be peaceful to a reality check: "The peace of contentment is the peace of death". (Can't remember exactly where it's from but it been a motivating phrase since I was 16). So I believe in not being too romantic about the singular cure-all quality of inner peace. Too much inner peace can stop you from looking where you're going. Too little can kill you too.

By the way, you needn't worry about people here having any pretensions that their wisdom will give people inner peace. This is just a discussion board where that qualification is not required.

"IMHU, a person who is experiencing peace doesn't resort to gripes and insults."

Not true. Peace alone is not the only quality that is needed for a person to be a kind and balanced human being. These virtues are plainly learned in other ways than than by sitting in silence and peace. (which conversely seems to have an amazing propensity for making people extremely bossy and insensitive to others). That is not to say that the natural propensity for goodness and intelligence doesn't exist inherently within people. I observe that my kids possess a trusting innocence, patience and common sense that I sometimes feel I could spend my whole life trying to regain.

As you must know so well, people who practice these techniques are just as prone to getting upset, emotional, confused, agressive, insulting etc. as anyone else. Sometimes more so. Sometimes, the righteous indignation of someone 'apparently poised in perfection' can be quite a rude awakening to the prosaic truth of where they're actually at on a day to day human level. (I remember myself that being 'in Holy Name' made one quite cross when disturbed!). Premies can be bigoted, unkind and narrow-minded. Not all but some.

The trouble seems to me to be that it is a big mistake to try and escape into a Divine fantasy world whereby one thinks one only has to feel 'good and peaceful' and the rest of one's understanding about life and what it means to be a virtuous human being will fall effortlessly into place. Everything is poetic and beautiful and the rest is deemed unreal and with less value. I aspire to a less dualistic and more realistic approach to life even if that means not being always pre-occuppied with my own supposed inner peace.

You all may be able to confuse a few folks with your babble but the thirsty will find the water.

So you would suggest that all that these people have achieved is confuse people by babble. You condescendingly dismiss the experiences of people who , themselves were once the exact same sincere thirsty people you're talking about. Maybe their understanding and thirst has grown - not diminished as you would like to believe.

If Jim Heller or Mike Finch or Dettmers or any of you exes could speak like him, I'd spend 3 days listening to you too.