yes good reason originally for this forum but since then the SICK stuff that
has subsequently come out of it
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Rick Archer" <r...@...> wrote:
>
> Posts I asked Buck to remind us of:
>
> A Little TSR History
>
> (This is a letter which I sent to the President's
> Office back in 1995. This was sent about 7 or 8
> months after the Dome fees were so dramatically raised
> for TSR through Bevan. In this letter is re-stated
> the time line of events. You will recall that Keith
> Wallace at that time had been brought back to be the
> campus Exec. President. Keith had developed a number
> of working committees from TSR for the University and
> the TSR community in late '93 and early '94. They
> began working that Winter and were subsequently
> spurned by Vlodrop. The stick of retribution came from
> afar by raising the dome fees in the summer of '94.
> Read through this to refresh your mind on the
> sequence. There is nothing wild here. It is just
> recounted. )
> <<
> <<
>
> 8 March 1995
> RR 3 Box 76A-1
> Fairfield, Ia. 52556
> (515) 472-8422
>
> Dear MIU President's Office People;
>
> Thanks for the charted quarterly information on Dome
> attendance that you have sent out this past week. It
> was interesting to ponder. However, I found the chart
> as it was presented does not reveal much about how the
> year really went.
>
> In your sending this chart out, I hope that in the
> middle of all of this, you understand that the ball
> has always been in your court as far as TSR
> participation in your programs goes. The chart really
> is a reflection of your performance.
>
> In matter of fact, for this past year ('94-'95) there
> have been several influences on dome numbers which
> would sort themselves out if you could watch the
> average registrations from quarter to quarter during
> the last year or more. These influences would
> include: 1) Purusha being shipped out, 2) MIU faculty
> being jettisoned to MVU's, 3) A drop in MIU enrollment
> over the summer, 4) The downsizing of the Clinic staff
> and farming people out to MVU's, and of course, 5) The
> stunning effect on the whole community of Bevan's
> visit to Fairfield at the 4th of July in the summer of
> 1994.
>
> These are all influences coming from/through your
> office and effecting the nature of our meditating
> community here. It would be fun to see the charting
> correlated to these influences.
>
> Now, to the extent that you might be looking to lay
> blame or guilt to TSR by sending out your version of
> this chart: a little humility please! Take the time
> to break the numbers down a little further! Take the
> time to sort out the cause and effect and do take some
> responsibility yourself for how the year went.
>
> In looking it over, this attendance chart would be
> more useful if it would break out averages by
> quarterly registrations for the three groups of MIU,
> Purusha and TSR. It would be a more useful graph
> charting of your performance if it were broken down by
> group, by quarter and run through March 1st for
> comparison. Through March 1st would reflect the folks
> who did not renew on an annual basis for TSR.
>
> page 2
>
> Also, it would be most instructive to see what the
> complete effect of Bevan's visit last summer (1994)
> was on the average quarterly registration numbers for
> TSR through March 1st. To be honest, it would take
> that long to witness the whole downfall.
>
> You will recall that Bevan returned to Fairfield
> around July 1st and stayed through the start of the
> Guru Purnima course. During his visit, he
> methodically worked his way through MIU faculty,
> students, and staff, and the TSR community declaring
> to each group: 1) That our friends and neighbors who
> were on the various working groups created by Keith's
> initiative to address improvements in the community
> were enemies of the movement, 2) asserted the party
> line that all the issues had been taken care of, 3a)
> asserted that the movement is for "those who have
> faith and belief in Maharishi" (rebuffing the old
> premise for participation, that anyone who could think
> could meditate and supplanting his new doctrine of
> faith!) and 3b) Encouraged the non-believers to leave,
> 4) Raised the dome fees to $100 @ month, 5) Locked out
> of that Guru Purnima celebration, with no prior
> notice, scores of loyal long-time governors and
> sidhas, 6) Reaffirmed the "old guard" of the
> President's Office, and 7) abruptly leaves town. With
> his tour de force, Bevan certainly gave our larger
> meditating community in Fairfield and around the
> country a lot to talk about at their 4th of July
> picnics! And we certainly did talk.
>
> These are all influences that have gone into the mix;
> and consequently, here we are today. Today we have
> hundreds and hundreds of meditators/Sidhas...long time
> meditators who are living here in the TSR community
> who have, in effect, been spurned by the leadership of
> your office. Today you have hundreds of practicing
> Sidhas carrying on their lives here in Fairfield with
> little reason, other than your apparent spite, to have
> contact with you or the movement. Incredible!
>
> Today in the domes, you have left yourself with some
> TSR people who are generally "well made" people of
> means. Beyond a partial group of "well made" is
> another group of folks who are "well" employed. By
> any demographics you want to choose, both of these
> groups are minorities in our larger group of
> meditators.
>
>
> page 3
>
> Gone generally from the domes are the hourly working
> people of our community. Gone generally from the
> domes are the trades people , the homemakers; the
> normal folks of our community who have always been the
> largest
> numbers in our group. Gone from the Domes is a large
> chunk of regular meditators/sidhas who have been
> continually spurned in our pricing and continually
> eroded as a group by the nature of your style of
> cultivating exclusivity.
>
>
> There is a lot that went on this past year ('94). If
> charted honestly, the graph will help reveal your
> performance in this. Truthfully, it is not a chart of
> success! Yet, the ball is in your court to serve. I
> wish you well.
>
> JAI GURU DEV!
>
>
> Doug Hamilton
>
> -----------------------
>
> Shorter version:
>
> III
> Certainly, the cultivated exclusivity of favor is a
> large aspect of what has brought us down. It needs to
> change if things are going to improve.
>
> Our granting such a large status to money is a large
> part of what has brought us down into a fractured
> community. This is a huge problem for the community.
> Too many meditators and sidhas have solved their sense
> of offense by simply withdrawing their interest,
> withdrawing their sense of ownership in the movement
> and then backing away from it. Many are still here;
> but they no longer vest themselves in what goes on nor
> can they speak on its behalf.
>
> Whether it is in the administrative perk of who gets
> seated up front for celebrations, or who gets granted
> audiences, or whose kids might get which teachers in
> school, or who becomes privy to information, or how
> the 'latest knowledge' gets sold, or what special
> seating arrangements are made for community
> productions at Spayde Theater or at a Debu Chaudhuri
> concert, or in the arrangements for who gets invited
> to ground breaking ceremonies; or who may get included
> in special meetings, the broadest, the most
> inclusive and the most even approach is what will
> re-gather, re-build and sustain this community. For
> this community, anything short of this is destructive,
> divisive and corrupting.
>
>
>
> A year ago last Spring this was all driven home for
> all to witness once again as the senior class of MSAE
> made their special trip to Holland. They had worked
> together to get themselves there for much of the year.
> Once there, they were kept aside and in the end
> denied an audience. However, in the end, they then
> stood by to watch as their one classmate, the son of a
> wealthy donor, would be ushered through the gate
> keepers, the others in the class watching as he was
> escorted through and granted access, along with his
> wealthy father. The bitter news from there came back
> as a disheartened titter that rippled through the
> community here. It was news which was again a dreadful
> confirmation of how exclusionary, elitist and corrupt
> we have become as a people.
>
> And what of the character of those who co-operate,
> manipulate, and play the trade so willingly?
>
> This corruption of the organization is not new to the
> movement. As a
> method it surely has had free rein for 20 years. It
> was recognized as a corrupting agent and specifically
> fingered as a phenomena in strategy meetings for the
> university and the community held here in the early
> 1990's as discussions with Keith Wallace, while he was
> the executive president of the University. The
> meetings were sponsored and held by the President's
> Office with the community to gain their input and
> perspective on how things were going for the
> meditating and university community in Fairfield. One
> of several of these meetings held with Keith was with
> about 40 people from the University and TSR held at
> David Katz's home shortly after Keith Wallace had
> received his appointment as Executive Vice President
> at MIU in the fall of 1993.
> The subject matter of the meeting was wide ranging
> and frank in nature. A thread which ran through the
> four hour long discussion was how aspects of the
> movement fund raising have served to erode the trust
> of the meditating community.
> As it turned out, these meetings were a watershed
> point in the well-being of the university and the
> movement at-large.
>
> As it would happen, Bevan would subsequently come to
> Fairfield in the Spring of that year, sometime after
> these meetings were sponsored and hosted by the
> president's office. At that time, Bevan methodically
> moved through the elements of the community, declaring
> at each turn that the many people participating in
> these meetings were enemies of the movement. Enemies?
>
> It was ludicrous and showed how out of touch he is in
> character. In fact, these were good earnest people
> who were longtime active loyal movement people. They
> were field teachers of old, university faculty, old
> time active loyal dedicated movement people. There is
> irony in the story in that many of the suggestions
> brought up in these meetings were subsequently adopted
> as policy for the University and for the movement.
> Enemies? Bevan sees things through his eyes and we
> certainly have our experience.
> Continuing from that time, this mark of character
> within the administration of the movement has been
> enormously hurtful to the community of the movement as
> we have it now.
> Of course, subsequent to this castigation by Bevan,
> during a return trip to Fairfield that summer,
> appearing in misguided vindictive retaliation, the
> predatorial pricing for movement participation was
> brought forth with its consequent whacking of the
> numbers of meditators involved with the movement here
> to about a third in repercussion. It was a stunning
> squandering of the assets of the movement here.
>
> The suggestion here then is quite simple; but, it is
> quite fundamental and reaching in effect. The
> cultivated exclusivity of favor is a large aspect of
> what has brought us down. It needs to change if
> things are going to improve.
>
> Jai Guru Dev!
>
> Doug Hamilton
>
