Why a woman would stay in an abusive relationship is something I'm something of an expert in, and I'm sure that this time Judy won't but in with her rude oneupmanship games. I never got into the TMO because I saw it as a cult. I saw that it was doing some good things, but I saw too many people in cult-like mode for my liking. I thought that this wasn't entirely MMY's fault because these people were all too ready to turn that thing into a cult for themselves. And I think that this happens with followers of any religion, bar none--which is not to say, of course, that all followers of religion are cult-like clones.
But guess what? I did time in a cult anyway. Twice. Two bad marriages, and I came to see that the dynamics were indeed the same. curtisdeltablues <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: "He told you what you wanted to hear while he was > f*cking with your mind to get you to do what he wanted. Very clever > and cagey old buzzard. Tom" This point relates to something Chopra said on the History Channel show. He said that MMY told him that if he didn't exaggerate, people wouldn't move at all in the directions he wanted. It was a justification for lying based on how effectively it can manipulate behavior. Your point (if I understand it) is similar. It assumes that MMY knows something so valuable that he doesn't have to respect any rules of honesty. The end justifies the means. I know why we gave MMY so much power over us when we were all young. We hadn't seen enough of life to even know that is what we were doing. But now as an adult, I don't get why anyone would allow another person to be manipulatively deceptive unchallenged. Why would anyone believe one thing a person said so strongly that they would base many important life choices on it (the value of higher states of consciousness), knowing full well that the person (MMY) places no value on honesty at all? It goes back to my question about how people are convinced that guys like MMY are in a special state with unique insights about how life works. Using MMY's own logic, if TM just gives you a little inner peace and calms you down a bit, he would be justified to claim that it brings you to the goal of all human life and the highest state of human consciousness. If he believed that people had to be tricked into being a little more peaceful, it would be fine to claim that enlightenment is the goal of human evolution and the deepest state of knowledge. I understand why a woman might stay in an abusive relationship. Are the dynamic similar? Is it a self esteem lowering assumption that somehow we don't deserve to be dealt with in an honest way by a "guru"? Reminds me of St. Paul talking about feeding children milk before they were ready for meat in presenting Christianity. Worked better on me when I was a LOT younger. Now I expect to be dealt with honestly and fairly, and if a person decides to violate that basic rule, they lose their interaction privileges. Is respect and fairness too much to ask in the relationship with a "Guru"? Is it an inherently abusive relationship because of the built-in disparity of respect? How does anyone know which parts of MMY's teaching he has given himself permission to lie about? For our own good of course! --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "tomandcindytraynoratfairfieldlis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Barry writes snipped: > Being able to perform siddhis doesn't make a > person good, and being bad doesn't prevent a > person from being able to do them. Used as some > kind of "measure" of a person's enlightenment, > the siddhis are just as big a failure as any > other "measurement" you might imagine. > > TomT: > As I have mentioned here a few times before I feel strongly they were > just another misdirection to keep you on the path. Like the magicians > waving of the one hand while the other hand is doing all the work. > Who's ego wouldn't be fascinated by being able to fly and all that > other stuff. The real work was being accomplished in the process of > the technique. He told you what you wanted to hear while he was > f*cking with your mind to get you to do what he wanted. Very clever > and cagey old buzzard. Tom > Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com