aggle-rithm
Ardent Formulist
I picked up a pamphlet in a restaurant yesterday that provided some of the most entertaining reading I have seen in a long time. It was entitled "Maum Meditation", with the cryptic and unparseable subtitle, "Where does human need to go while living?" It is a fairly slick publication, albeit with the occasional graphic that looks like it was designed by a five-year-old equipped with a crayon.
This meditation technique was created by a man named -- I swear to God I am not making this up -- Woo Myung. He is a South Korean who suddenly "became enlightened" in the mid-90's and realized that we are all living in a false world in which we die, and if we only realize that the real world is hiding behind the false one, we will live forever. This is a stunningly original idea that would come as a complete shock to anyone who hasn't read a little C. S. Lewis.
Woo lays out his strategy for achieving this with a simple 7-step process:
Level 1: Throwing away the remembered thoughts
Yes, because, who needs those?
Level 2: Throwing away the images of myself, images of my human relationships and myself.
So, no photo albums allowed. And go ahead and delete your Facebook account.
Level 3: Throwing away my body
Level 4: Throwing away my body and the universe
Level 5: Throwing away my body and the universe
OK, I can see that throwing away the universe would be a pretty gargantuan task and would take two steps at least. But why does getting rid of a body take THREE steps?
Level 6: Self disappears by subtraction and becomes the Universe
Oh, good! We needed one of those we threw away in steps 4 and 5.
Level 7: Throwing away the illusionary world of pictures and myself living inside that world
Woo really seems to have a problem with pictures. Perhaps he was a failed photographer?
Anyway, if you can believe the long list of Maum Meditation Centers around the world, this is a HUGE movement in many different countries as diverse as Madagascar and Paraguay. There are seven centers in Japan alone, but -- strangely -- not one in Woo's native South Korea.
Woo has also written many books that are "in the process of being translated" into nine languages, one of which is English. I assume it is written in Korean, since that doesn't appear on the list. This is fantastic, since none of the many meditation centers around the world are in countries that speak Korean.
Looking at his list of writings, apparently Woo has improved greatly in the art of title-writing. His first book was entitled "Stop Living in this World Go to the Everlasting World of Happiness Live There Forever". A more recent book has the more succinct title, "Mind".
There is a Maum Meditation Center here in Austin. I'm tempted to stop by just to see what it looks like.
This meditation technique was created by a man named -- I swear to God I am not making this up -- Woo Myung. He is a South Korean who suddenly "became enlightened" in the mid-90's and realized that we are all living in a false world in which we die, and if we only realize that the real world is hiding behind the false one, we will live forever. This is a stunningly original idea that would come as a complete shock to anyone who hasn't read a little C. S. Lewis.
Woo lays out his strategy for achieving this with a simple 7-step process:
Level 1: Throwing away the remembered thoughts
Yes, because, who needs those?
Level 2: Throwing away the images of myself, images of my human relationships and myself.
So, no photo albums allowed. And go ahead and delete your Facebook account.
Level 3: Throwing away my body
Level 4: Throwing away my body and the universe
Level 5: Throwing away my body and the universe
OK, I can see that throwing away the universe would be a pretty gargantuan task and would take two steps at least. But why does getting rid of a body take THREE steps?
Level 6: Self disappears by subtraction and becomes the Universe
Oh, good! We needed one of those we threw away in steps 4 and 5.
Level 7: Throwing away the illusionary world of pictures and myself living inside that world
Woo really seems to have a problem with pictures. Perhaps he was a failed photographer?
Anyway, if you can believe the long list of Maum Meditation Centers around the world, this is a HUGE movement in many different countries as diverse as Madagascar and Paraguay. There are seven centers in Japan alone, but -- strangely -- not one in Woo's native South Korea.
Woo has also written many books that are "in the process of being translated" into nine languages, one of which is English. I assume it is written in Korean, since that doesn't appear on the list. This is fantastic, since none of the many meditation centers around the world are in countries that speak Korean.
Looking at his list of writings, apparently Woo has improved greatly in the art of title-writing. His first book was entitled "Stop Living in this World Go to the Everlasting World of Happiness Live There Forever". A more recent book has the more succinct title, "Mind".
There is a Maum Meditation Center here in Austin. I'm tempted to stop by just to see what it looks like.
