--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "metoostill" <metoost...@...> wrote:
>
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend" <jstein@> wrote:
> >
> > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <no_reply@> wrote:
> > <snip>
> > > A guy who will deny the existence of *his own
> > > wife and kids* and keep them hidden for 8 years
> > > because of "Maharishisez" is never going to do
> > > anything in his entire life *other than*
> > > Maharishisez.
> >
> > (Unless, of course, it was Tony and his wife who insisted
> > on secrecy and "Maharishisez" is just a cover story.)
>
> This will be a mental space to preserve for a group who
> want to continue thinking "Tony, OK, something wrong,
> but MMY, perfection." I have to wonder which is more
> important to preserve in that instance, MMY's perfection
> or the individual thinking about themself "I couldn't
> have been that wrong, could I?"
I think that an important guideline to keep
in mind at times like this is the Judy Stein
Once A Liar Always A Liar Rule.
She -- Beacon Light Of Cyberspace -- has spent
over 16 years pushing this rule. How many times
have we seen her claim to have "caught someone
in a lie" and then later, when they say some-
thing she doesn't like, say, "How can you believe
ANYTHING this person says? This person is a
'proved LIAR.'"
Surely she's not going to go back on something
that has been essentially her whole act and
modus operandi for 16 years at this point. So
I assume that, displaying the intellectual hon-
esty she claims to be known for, she will never
again cite either Maharishi Mahesh Yogi or
Maharaja Adhiraj Rajaraam ("King" Tony) as an
authority about anything, as if their words
could be taken as "true." After all, once a
liar, always a liar. :-)
> Not trying to point the finger far away, I had 3 decades
> deep of my own inside. Hey, it is what it is. We aren't
> dead yet. There is still a future as well as a past,
> capiche? No shame in being an idealist or a utopian,
> but at the same time the road to hell is paved with good
> intentions, only to mean that idealism and utopian
> intentions do not guarantee good ideas. If you were
> wrong, and you realize it, shrug and go on to the next
> thing.
Well said. My "dig" above is just that, poking
a little fun at someone who more than deserves
it. It *will* be interesting to see who calls
Judy on *not* extending her Once A Liar Always
A Liar Rule to Maharishi and "King" Tony when
she does it...and we all know she will.
At the same time, that's just fundamentalism, and
we all know that, too. When I wrote what I did
about The Ups and Downs of Sex and Spiritual
Teaching yesterday, I said some harsh things about
Rama - Dr. Frederick Lenz. All of them were true.
He could be a real slimeball.
And yet. Some of the things he said still have
value, and I value them to this day. As you say,
the issue is "picking and choosing," and coming
to some sense of comfort with what we still choose
to believe and that which we do not.
As much as some people would like to claim that
there are, there are no hard and fast "rules" in
spiritual practice. All spiritual teachers in
human history have been...uh...human. I do not
believe that a single one of them was "perfect."
They *all* fucked up at some point. They probably
*all* lied at some point. That does NOT mean that
everything they said was a lie, or valueless.
Heck, there are a few things I learned from Maha-
rishi that I still value. True, I can count them
on the fingers of one hand, but they're still
there. I *never* believed in his "perfection"
and certainly do not today, but then I don't LOOK
for "perfection" in a spiritual teacher. I look
only for them to be able to teach me something
of value. He did. So did the Rama fellow, slime-
ball or no slimeball. Am I not supposed to value
that which is of value, just because they were
both slimeballs from time to time?
Yes, there will be some who will find a way to
put this whole "WTF scandal" out of their minds
and preserve their illusions that Maharishi and/or
"King" Tony are perfect. That's called fundamentalism.
There will be others who react bitterly and reject
*everything* they ever said or taught them because
they are now "proven liars." That's fundamentalism.
