--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > It's probably best to stick with the "standards," > the things that have worked in the past. > > Residence courses, for example. Get your friend > to a weekend or week-long residence course, where > he will be told that he cannot leave the facility > during the course or Bad Things might happen to > him, and during which every moment of his life is > carefully planned for him. The discipline of being > subject to being thrown off the course at any > moment for missing a meeting -- in which you are > to sit quietly staring raptly into a TV monitor > while indoctrination tapes are played -- will add > an element of regimentation and by-rote training > to his TM practice. Also, the discussions of these > tapes will add to his understanding of how to > approach the ideas that support the practice -- > you are to listen quietly and appreciatively to > the explanations given to you by Those Who Know > More Than You Do, and never question anything that > is said. The stern looks given to anyone who does > not will reinforce the "proper attitude," and the > regimentation of the course itself, with its care- > fully-calculated atmosphere of fear of being thrown > off the course at any moment for some unidentified > infraction, will cultivate the proper motivation > to continue the TM practice.
The above language is intentionally provocative, to present a different View of TM residence courses than most TMers have ever entertained. I present it only *as* a different View, not the "definitive" View. Imagine what our two resident feminazis would say if they heard that Obama's campaign had weekend retreats to train volunteers for the campaingn, and that on that retreat 1) every minute of their time was mapped out, and any divergence from the schedule could be punished by being kicked off the retreat, 2) that no one was allowed to leave the retreat to go into town or take a walk by themselves, without a "buddy," and 3) that the lion's share of the retreat was spent sitting in front of TVs watching hours and hours of videotapes from Obama spelling out the principles of his philosphy. You KNOW how they would react. We would be hearing cries of "Indoctrination!" and slurs like "Obamazoid Training." But when I present a different View of TM residence courses, I'll also bet that at least one of these feminazis is going to come roaring in saying how inconscionable it is to compare them to any kind of "indoctrination." Right? I'm NOT saying that this is the *only* View. I'm just suggesting that it's a View that a thinking person should entertain from time to time to figure out why they believe so strongly in the TM dogma. I had me some *great* times on TM residence courses, especially the early ones, before they got completely regimented. And I'm very, very thankful for having had the opportunity to have long, extended meditations; few on this planet have such an opportunity. But I am also coming from a place of having been the person in the TM Western Regional Office who *ran* residence courses for the movement for several years. I set up thousands of such residence courses, and taught hundreds of them myself. I know *exactly* what the Rules were for how such a residence course should be conducted, and what things the participants should be allowed to do and not do. I should; I typed up these Rules, exactly as they had been dictated by International Staff, and distributed them to the course leaders. When I taught a residence course, I followed those Rules myself, to the letter. And, looked at without discrimination, they were horrible. At worst, they were based on the idea that TMers should and must be treated like CHILDREN. They cannot be allowed to leave the course and go into town, because they might be so spaced out that they would do something that could bring injury to themselves or embarrassment to the TMO. They cannot be allowed "free time" because they might be tempted to do something Off The Program during that time. They cannot be allowed to eat their favorite foods, because we know better than they do what they should eat and not eat. And they should *never* be allowed to question the absolute Truth of something said on a tape, because if it's on one of the tapes, it IS absolute Truth. I have also had the experience of attending many retreats and in-residence courses taught or offered by other spir- itual traditions. On those course, we were treated like ADULTS. There was always a schedule, but if we chose to deviate from that schedule and sleep in, or decided to take a walk by ourselves in the woods instead of attending a talk, that was fine. There was no *need* to prevent any- one from "going into town," because the participants on the course were NOT "spaced out." They were, if anything, *more* alert and aware and in charge of their critical faculties than ever. That is, after all, what meditation is supposed to do for you. I'm clarifying because I pretty much know that someone is going to come roaring in here, purple-faced with rage, and suggest that the View I present of the TM residence course structure as a form of indoctrination is BAD, and EVIL, and mean-spirited. It's not. It's just another View. And I think it's one that deserves to be considered. Most of us on this forum spent days, weeks, months and even YEARS in such an environment as I describe in my first paragraph. It became such a *familiar* environment to us that we never challenged its validity or thought about it as a form of indoctrination. But of course it was, and we were all indoctrinated. As the years went by, the structure of the residence courses became more and more regimented and severe. I know that at least one of our number here on FFL was once dragged before a "tribunal" on an ATR course and threatened with being sent home and expelled from the TM movement for the grievous sin of crossing the street from his hotel and buying an ice cream cone from time to time. His "sin" was EATING ICE CREAM." It wasn't, of course. His "sin" was deviating from WHAT HE HAD BEEN TOLD TO DO BY HIS BETTERS. That cannot be countenanced, because he was viewed as a child and those who told him to do these things were his de facto parents. I don't know about you, but I already have a pair of parents, and even though they are now dead, I don't need replacements for them from any organization. I'm an adult, and I expect to be treated like one by any spiritual tradition I interact with.
