--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb <no_reply@...> wrote: <snip> > That is, the fallout of Maharishi's famous "Every ques- > tion is a perfect opportunity for the answer we have > already prepared." THAT was -- and still is -- the TM > mindset. You ask questions, we give you the "pat answer" > we have already prepared, and you STFU (Shut The Fuck Up).
FWIW, that was never my experience, to the contrary. > Unlike other spiritual traditions I've been exposed to > there is generally no tolerance in the TMO for a seeker > *challenging* the pat answer. To do so, in fact, risks > ridicule or, if you *keep* challenging it after having > been told to STFU a couple of times, excommunication. > The pat answer is Truth. You are expected to *accept* > the Truth. Nor this. > The problem with this, as I see it, is that NO pat > answer in the history of answers has ever been Truth. > At best, it's a partial, relative truth, "true" only > from one point of view and one state of consciousness. > Shift points of view, shift states of consciousness, > and even the pat answers become untrue, or at best > only partially true. This was my point to blusc0ut about how when you take MMY's teachings right down to the nitty-gritty, they end up in contradiction or paradox or infinite regress. No authentic verbal teaching about Unity could be otherwise. > My experience on the spiritual path has left me feel- > ing that this "pat answer" approach is a Really > Dumb Idea. It not only creates in those who accept > the pat answers as Truth a false belief that they > "know the Truth," it also creates in them (IMO) a > reluctance to question further, and often an angry, > attached overreaction to those who suggest that in > their own interest they may want to examine these > pat answers in more detail to see how "true" they > really were, or are. In some cases the annoyance is triggered by the assumption you just made--that you always make-- that one *hasn't* examined the pat answers. > Pat Answer Syndrome explains a LOT of the behavior > we see on FFL One might even suggest that the assumption you've made is an instance of Pat Answer Syndrome: They don't agree with me? Must be because they've never questioned what they believe. The uncomfortable fact is that those who question something in detail--especially something as abstract and complicated (and ultimately utterly simple) as development of consciousness--do not inevitably end up agreeing with each other.
