Paragraph Length


Although the basic rule is one paragraph/one idea, it is possible to write very long paragraphs that contain only one idea.

Such paragraphs are, however, extremely difficult to read, even on paper. They are even more difficult to read on a computer screen.

Take a look at the following paragraph. It looks heavy and uninviting. It almost makes you want to give up reading it. Do you agree?

Enlightenment is a word that everybody uses but seldom cares to
define, like the word, mantra.  I occasionally tell my wife that I must
be approaching enlightenment - but she laughs and knows better. 
Meditators early on looked for "enlightenment" in a few months or years,
perhaps expecting a flash of lightening from the sky to carry them off to
some space craft or some other visualized heavenly like setting. 
Enlightnement is simply a continuous process of knowing more about things
to be known - of getting better and better at knowing degrees of
nothingness.  Maharishis has said it all in various forms over the years,
not to mention Gita and other similar sources.  Personal experiences
become richer.  It is a continuous analog process of knowing almost
nothing to finally really knowing all about nothingness.  Maharishi is the
most profound among us, else we might not be here - who knows?  We here
what he has to say.  More important, we verify what he has to say, and he
is usually quite right.  Is he ominscient?  Of course not, nor has he ever
so proclaimed.  He is a highly attuned one who we all admire greatly.  He
is not a god any more or any less than you may be a god, depending on
precisely how you might use and define such a word.  We, the students, are
all on a path toward ever greater enlightenment, day by day and month by
month.  Just like some of us have more money than others or have achieved
higher grades in studying some subject, so some of us come to have
experiences here and there in advance of others.  No harm done, for the
whole world of psychology is pretty convinced that we all reach maturation
about some specialization in due time.  So what is the big problem and why
is this such an issue with you.  Most, if not all, big problems in my own
personal live have always centered around interpersonal relationships. 
For instance, at mangement levels in big corporations, the mangement group
is either of relatively like mind or not.  The not aspect usually implies
early retirement one way or the other.  Not only at management levels, any
group, anywhere is made up of core elements.  The rest of the group either
is quite reasonably similar, or they fade away, one way or the other.  TM
Teachers have experienced considerable tugs from the organization in many
ways, and sadly, there are plenty of TM teachers who have simply left the
organization, quietly.  Indeed, I know of a sincere, lovely lady who was a
profound TM teacher and who was even instrumental in my becoming a
teacher, who now formally denies any contact or association with the
organization.  Sad, but this phenomena happens in every sector of life,
not just in the TM organization.  It is a function of human nature in
general rather than being specific to anything about TM.  However, the
nature of abstractions inherent with this mantra meditation may slightly
add to the confusions.