--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "hugheshugo" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, gullible fool <fflmod@> > wrote: > > > > I know only one of them, because he's from my area. , > > Believe it or not, he has a Harvard law degree. > > > > "You come in here with a skullful of mush...I train > > your mind." What would be the TMO version of this > > line? > > How about "we turn your mind into a skull full of mush and > give you a crown to show the job is finished" > > I can't bear to be in the same room as the Maharishi channel > anymore in case someone I know sees me and thinks I approve. > > Some might think that's an overreaction but I'm hardly alone. > Here's a funny story; On one of the last residential courses > in England a couple who had just learned to meditate turned > up for their first taste of rounding, they sat down to dinner > and had apparently had a nice time talking to the rest of the > CP's. Then they met the teacher running the course who > explained what they were going to be doing, gave them there > program etc. After that they sat down to the first meeting > of the weekend where upon the teacher put on a tape of King > Tony espousing his infinite wisdoms at which point the new > couple looked at each other, stood up, walked out of the > room, packed their bags and left, never to be seen again. > > How does the TMO get it so wrong? And without even realising > that most people think the "raja" concept absurdly cultish. > Are they on a mission to alienate all but the most devout?
I honestly think it's a factor of "not getting out much." Seriously. You've got a movement that used to *preach* "Meditate a few minutes morning and evening and then engage in vigorous activity" and "TM is for householders, not recluses." But then what did they do, in all the inner circles of that movement? They started living like recluses. Think about it. The people who become Rajas, what are their lifestyles like? Do they ever even *talk* to someone who doesn't do TM, except to hit them up for money? Do they ever get out and about in the towns they live in? And, most important, do they ever interact with normal people in the world, and get some feed- back from them that *their* lifestyle is any- thing *but* normal? I don't think they do. I would imagine that there are a few genuinely inspired Rajas who, as Jim suggests, are in it for the karma yoga, and who get out and interact in the world in an attempt to try to help that world. But I would also guess that there really are only a handful of them. The rest strike me as poseurs who are in it to impress the people around them. ALL of the people around them do TM, and basically worship Maharishi, and so these guys want to get some "proximity worship" going towards themselves by being able to dress up in funny costumes and say, "Hey...aren't we special...we gave a million bucks to our teacher. Look upon us with awe, ye peasants." Or something like that. Rajas were after my time in the TM movement, but I saw plenty of their predecessors during the time I was there. I'm sorry, Jim, but my experience was that for every truly inspired karma yogi there were 30 poseurs who were in it to be perceived as big fish in a small pond. Why they do such stupid stuff and turn off so many people is that they haven't been *out* of that small pond in years, possibly decades. All they *know* is the small pond. And so these antics and these costumes don't seem strange to them; they actually think they're normal. My theory about spiritual teaching is that the day you lose touch with the "common people" you are theoretically trying to help, on that day you are no longer helping them. You're helping yourself.
