--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Michael Flatley" <untilbeyond@...> wrote: > > Thank you, Turk. > > To be always questioning everything, to be starved for > substantive information, can become tiresome.
Not quite as tiresome as being demonized for question- ing itself, but I get your point. :-) > The allure of a system that presented a world of answers... "Pat" answers. Answers presented as if they were Truth Incarnate, and never to be questioned, on peril of being excommunicated. > ...is what made me vulnerable. Answers are like a drug. Exactly. My point is that many here are WAY strung out on the "pat answers" they've been parroting for decades, and at this point cannot live without them. They react to those who suggest that the "pat answers" ARE drugs exactly the same way that junkies react to those might suggest that their neighborhood dealers are not nice guys who are merely filling a societal need. :-) > And drugs can be extremely helpful in moderation. The > risk is getting addicted, right? Exactly. "Pat answers" are fine *in their place*, and recognized as the temporary learning aids they are. Few would argue that the simplistic pat answers they were given in kindergarten or grade school presented the whole story, or were all that they ever need to learn about a given subject. But you have people doing that here with regard to the simplistic pat answers given to them by Maharishi. > In shamanic cultures, they had no tolerance for self- > importance. The value of a tyrant is in their ability to > illustrate and magnify self-importance. Tyrants facilitate > awareness. > > In The Fire Within, Castenada did a great job of explaining > how vital it was to locate a petty tyrant, to practice being > senior... his teachers made it clear that if we can't overcome > a human tyrant in this realm, then we will be ill-prepared for > dealing with more signifigant predators on the other side. Ahem. While I agree that Carlos Castaneda wrote well and compellingly about many things, I met the dude and I've spent some time with folks who studied with him closely for years. Suffice it to say that he rarely walked his own talk. Much of what he wrote was creative fiction, and had nothing to do with the cultures he attributed it to, modern or ancient. That said, there is still much to be learned from his writings IMO. > ... I noticed that most of y'all are beyond the righteous > indignation, and have a playful attitude about the foolishness > we bought into for as long as we did. We sucked hard and long > and pretended to love it. I do see the humor now. As much as I poke and prod at the exceptions on this forum -- those who cannot get past regarding the pat answers they were given as The Answers -- I agree with you, Michael. One of the reasons I like this place is that many seem to have developed a sense of humor about the stuff we went through, and *our own part in it*. No one could have really *forced* us to believe in the guff we believed in for decades and submit to many of the indignities of "life in the TMO." We did so willingly, because we had come to believe "the end justifies the means," and had stopped analyzing the means themselves, and what they *said* about us, and our values. Now, belatedly, many are beginning to question our decades of non-questioning and obeisance. I think that's a healthy process, and applaud it. Some on this forum use every opportunity presented to them to put it down and demonize it. Go figure.
