I am SO bored with this topic I can't chime in with much more than a rant. I don't see how anyone with an ounce of integrity can *possibly* be arguing that the TMO does not teach religiously-based ideas.
But I do understand WHY people don't have that ounce of integrity. They've been taught that when it comes to fundamental points of TM dogma that the ONLY thing that matters is not only following them but defending them. And one of the strongest and MOST drummed- into-people's-heads pieces of dogma during their TM instruction is "TM Is Not A Religion." It's said in every Introductory Lecture, *whether the subject comes up on its own or not*, it's said during each night of the three nights of checking, *whether the subject comes up on its own or not*, and it's said pretty much every time after that that the subject of religion comes up. For years. Ad absurdum. This is arguably **THE** most fundamental piece of TM dogma, probably repeated more often than "Thou shalt not strain on the mantra." And after all that much repetition, people just lose all sense of perspective about it. The sub- ject comes up, and they become mindless evangel- ists for the TM Is Not A Religion Religion. They'll say ANYTHING rather than admit what MOST of them know to be the truth, that OF COURSE all of the TM dogma is based on Hindu dogma. They'll lie, they'll deny, they'll come with up excuses, they'll obfuscate, they'll attempt to distract, they'll do ANYTHING rather than violate this First Commandment. And personally I'm getting a little tired of it. There seems to me to be NO QUESTION that teaching TM *as it is taught now* in American school systems violates the Constitution. TM Teachers are just not CAPABLE of teaching the basic technique 1) without a religious puja, and 2) without all of the directly-derived-from- Hinduism "explanations" of what is "really" happening when you meditate during the three nights of checking, and afterwards. The ONLY way to keep this essentially religious dogma from being taught in schools is to not allow it to be taught there in the first place. We simply cannot TRUST TM Teachers to "leave out" the parts of the dogma that are directly derived from Hindu thought when they present the three nights of checking, let alone afterwards, as they try to suck these students into "Advanced Tech- niques" and the Siddhis. And *everyone* here knows that that's exactly what they will do. It is EXACTLY the same situation that caused Thomas Jefferson to write one of his most remem- bered quotes, the one that graces the Jefferson Memorial in Washington. This quote was written in a letter to a friend discussing an attempt by Christians to teach *their* dogma in a school system. In that particular case, *they* promised "not to teach anything explicitly religious" either, and NO ONE BELIEVED THEM. NO ONE SHOULD BELIEVE THE TMO EITHER. Instead, believe Thomas Jefferson. He had the right idea: "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every from of tyranny over the mind of man." Jefferson was talking about *preventing* the teach- ing of religion in schools in America. The principle still stands. It stands in the case of Christianity, and it stands in the case of the TM Is Not A Religion Religion. IMO, of course...
