--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "TurquoiseB" <turquoiseb@...> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "sparaig" <LEnglish5@> wrote: > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Joe" <geezerfreak@> wrote: > > > > > > I was around when the first sutra/"flying" attempts > > > were made. We were all sitting in chairs in a circle... > > > there was no sitting on foam mats at that time. (This > > > was in one of the hotels around Lake Lucern....I forget > > > which now.) This would have been probably late 1975. > > [...] > > > Tellingly, about 1/4 of the group thought it was > > > hilarious. The rest were horrified and made it clear > > > that this enlightenment business was NO laughing matter. > > > I think that was probably the moment that the first real > > > crack in my belief system started. > > > > > > When you get busted for eating ice cream (another story) > > > and laughing....well, it's time to exit. It took a few > > > more years but I finally did. > > > > Well, for most of the rest in the room, you were poking > > fun at a terribly important moment in their lives which > > almost certainly was going to cause ill-feeling and you > > must have realized this at some level, right? > > > > And you're still trying to pretend what you did was > > "just a joke" 35 years later. > > Gawd. The humorlessness of TMers blows my mind. > Not to mention the tendency to see nefarious > intent in pretty much everything. > > It was just a joke. Then and now. Sane people > are laughing. If you're not, that says something > about YOU, not the jokester.
In retrospect, this post by Lawson kinda says it all about the "You're persecuting me by laughing at me" mentality of spiritual take- themselves-too-seriously types. The scene is a room in which a bunch of guys are sitting in chairs, dressed in suits, with their eyes closed, waiting to FLY. Monty Python or any comedy troupe in the world would have had a field day with anything that ludicrous, ferchrissakes. But Joe, trying to lighten things up with a little...dare I say it...levitation levity, was trying to ruin "an important moment in their lives" and cause ill feelings. The sheer self-importance, humorlessness, and inability to see oneself in a different light and laugh at what one sees blows my mind. Spiritual development is not some take-it-all- as-seriously-as-one-takes-oneself experience. I was fortunate enough to work with teachers who understood this and who devoted a good part of their teaching to getting their students TO laugh at themselves. *Nothing* is more liber- ating than that moment in which you realize that you're laughable, and join in the laughter. But some view that moment as some kind of trauma, and those who attempt to bring a little laughter to the path as intentionally wanting to cause ill feelings, or perpetrate some kind of insult. Go figure. As Joe said so well, moments like this helped him to walk away from a movement that had lost the ability to laugh at itself. Or laugh, period. Some persisted in that oh-so-joyless environment for decades longer, with obvious results.
