--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "sandiego108" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <no_reply@> wrote: > > > Bingo. > > > > Selfless service is called that because it's > > selfless; you're do the work because it gives > > you joy to do the work. If you EXPECT something > > "in return," then it's not really selfless > > service now, is it?...Every TM teacher who worked > > their butts off to raise money for a TM Center > > that was then sold out from beneath them by the > > TMO has a right to be angry at the TMO for doing it. > > > > Right? > > Huh? why does the above make sense to you?
Glad you asked. :-) Really, I am. The answer relates to a discussion here during the last week or so, about whether "doing good works" has a value. I say Yes. Ruth, as I remember, tends to agree. Some don't. They think that the idea of "selfless service" is some kind of mood-making if the sup- posedly good works don't spring automatically from the level of the "laws of nature" or some such hogwash. I don't agree. WHY I don't agree is because of the real nature of selfless service. It FREES you from having too much attachment to any *expectations* regarding the service performed. You do something nice for someone, or for some charity or group you care about, and you do it because it feels good JUST to do it. You don't need to believe that doing this good work is going to change the world; you just do the work. And the cool part of all this is that if the good work DOESN'T change the world, you don't feel that you have to bitch and moan and claim that your time was "wasted" the way Sparaig is about the work he performed for Chopra and, by extension, the TM movement. He did the work. If he had been hip to the real nature of selfless service, doing the work would have been ENOUGH. He wouldn't feel let down or "betrayed" if things didn't turn out the way he wanted them to. He would have gotten the "benefits" of doing the work just from doing the work. Similarly, if the people who gave a bunch of money to Maharishi and the TMO for specific projects that never happened understood the nature of selfless service, *they* wouldn't necessarily feel bad or feel that they were ripped off, either. It's about ATTITUDE. I gave a lot of money to the TM movement. I gave a great deal more of my time and energy to the TM movement. Do I feel ripped off? NO, not at all. I was having a *ball* while I was doing this, because I was doing it out of a sense of selfless service. So things didn't turn out the way I was told they would. Big Fucking Deal. I had a *ball* anyway. What have I got to bitch about. Compare and contrast to giving money to the TM move- ment or putting in a lot of time and energy furthering its goals and having nothing come of it, and then feeling like you have the right to bitch and moan. Sure, on one level you have the "right," but look at what *exercising* that "right" buys you -- it makes you miserable and angry and the kind of person who hangs onto a grudge for years. Better, in my view, to just write the whole experience off to being an exercise in selfless service and move on. This is why I admire Rick and a number of the people on this forum who DON'T seem to be holding a grudge. They paid their dues...they put in their time and their effort and they contributed big bucks and in retrospect they now realize that on one level they were ripped off. But are they angry and spiteful and still holding grudges as a result? Not in my estimation. They just write the whole thing off as a learning experience, as an exercise in selfless service, and they get back to enjoying their lives here and now. That is NOT what I see Lawson doing with regard to the time, effort and money he put into promoting Chopra for the TM movement. Instead, he's chosen to bitch and moan now for years about how Chopra "let him down" and let Maharishi and the TM movement down. While he certainly has the RIGHT to feel that way, it doesn't seem to have made him a very happy camper. Similarly, the people we hear from from time to time who bitch and moan about how the TM movement ripped them off financially and who are clearly still carrying a grudge about it don't seem to be happy campers to me. Rick and the other wonderful people here who "took what they needed and left the rest" seem more like happy campers to me. It's all about ATTITUDE. The notion of selfless service can do *wonders* for helping develop that attitude. You can be all pissed off that your hard work didn't turn out the way you wanted it to in your dreams, or you can look upon all that hard work as selfless service and move on. I have a lot more respect for those who do the latter, that's all. That doesn't mean that you can't point out that the organization DID rip you off. It just means that you don't have to feel bad about it ripping you off.
