--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > An Ex-TMer Remembers the Maharishi > A former Transcendental Meditation teacher I've known over the Net > for some years wrote me this morning. Very moving. > > by William W. Eberwein > > I spent 13 years with Maharishi. Several friends wrote to tell me of > his passing. I wrote a few words in reflection. > > MMY died today. He had been predicting it for a few weeks. Missed a > few "drop the body" dates, and finally succumbed to whatever ailed > him. He was 91. > > A huge part of my life. I feel about him the way Dean Martin did > about Jerry Lewis. Best thing that ever happened to me was meeting > him. The second best thing was leaving him. I met him in 1971, was > "initiated" personally by him into the teaching profession in 1972, > taught around 500 people "the technique" and established several > centers, and was program manager at the 'TM TV station' in Los > Angeles, spent several 6-months retreats with him, and left the > movement (as we called it) in 1985. > > He was an enigma. Claiming to be a world teacher, his real aim was to > re-elevate Indian culture and influence. He often spoke in harsh > terms about the Chinese, and was dismissive of any claims from other > traditions until they had been veda-ized. Even science, which he used > to underpin his meditative practice, was seen as the sterile though > poetic expression of the Life Force -"The Science Of Creative > Intelligence." In the last 15-20 years, all of the programs were > explicitly "Indian" - from foods and dress codes, to program names. > Schools have been set up in India to train young boys into the > priesthood. They must be genetic Indians to have the pure sage- > capacity, it seems. > > He never taught morals or ethics, and often gleefully counseled us to > break laws if it served the purposes of world enlightenment. It was > thought that meditation would naturally cause one to live in harmony > with nature - and that proper civil laws were derived from nature. > Therefore, any requirements or ethics were a "waste of time." When > enlightenment dawned, you would naturally be a good citizen. > > "Lie to them!" he told us when he made us teachers of TM. "An > elephant has two sets of teeth: one to show and one to chew with!" So > we lied about the matras - the names of Shiva - and how we selected > them - simply by age - and the goals of meditation, thinking we were > serving a higher truth. An odd man. > > "Move the money from SIMS to IMS (two training organizations set up > in the early 1970's) until the audit is complete, then move it back." > When we told him that this was illegal, he snapped, "It's my money!" > > "Go past the passport gate and then hand your passports through the > fence to those still here," he told us, when many of us had exhausted > our six month visas in Switzerland . Those who were leaving would > pretend to be those who were staying. This was pre-9/11 and very > easily accomplished. > > "Start being late and losing their videotapes," he told us at KSCI - > the TM TV station - when we wanted valuable air-time back from the > Koreans, to whom we had sold it months earlier. We now wanted the > prime hours for our own broadcasts, but had signed contracts. "Make > them responsible for breaking the contract. They're only Koreans." > > He was very conservative in the 1970's, telling us to cut our hair, > allow ourselves to be drafted, and "listen to your parents." As time > went on he drifted to the left, mostly due to health-food concerns > that irradiation and genetically modified food was vibrationally > damaging to the soul, and the accompanying conspiratorial charges > that big government and big corporations were intending to enslave > people by weakening them with altered foods. Queue the Twilight Zone > music. > > Most of his big initiatives were accompanied by wild esoteric > prophesies. If we don't get 1000 people to move to Iowa, nuclear war > will start. A demon is just outside the solar system, and is about to > move the world into "Kali Yuga" (the dark ages) unless we have a > facility built in India . He would simultaneously inspire the > faithful with declarations that "The Age of Enlightenment has > dawned!" or is in "Full Sunshine!" which we could see if we could > only open our eyes. Visiting the various Maharishi websites reveal > that there is a currency and a King of the Enlightened world, to > which other meditators must bow and pay homage. One staggers under > the audacity of the enterprise. > > I should write about the good times I had - which would be like the > starry-eyed idealists who became Marxists until they started seeing > the bodies pile up. Yes, yes, lots of days sipping coffee until dawn > in a bohemian apartment, reading utopian poetry, and chasing coeds > with Daddy issues. Waking up at dawn to paint signs and march against > "the machine," throwing rocks, the tang of tear gas, and the wild > glee of having the press bringing pressure to have charges dropped. > > So there were days with the other flower children, feeling we were > saving the world. Sipping herb teas and reading Upanishads until > dawn, but the same coeds. Giving lectures on meditation, and chanting > in an exotic foreign language, chided by the world in their > "ignorance" of the beauty of our message. We felt anointed. > > In the end, like the radicals who grew up and rejected Marxism and > revolution I wish I would have joined the Army, gotten married much > younger, and taught more kids how to throw a curve ball. Spent those > wild years in domesticity and talking to my father. Listening to him. > And wish I would have read the book of John, and followed the > carpenter from Galilee much earlier. > > This isn't regrets. Just a statement of acknowledgment of where the > truth lives. > > William W. Eberwein
Amazing letter Vaj-WOW, kinda confirms a lot of my feeling as well! Funny he should use the same word for MMY I have been using for years.....ENIGMA! Thanks! BillyG.
