--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "bostonbob53" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I've lurked here off and on for the past few years and I can't believe > that no one calls out this Tom Pall character for the sh*t he says.
I am charmed to be considered "no one." Very Zen. :-) > Have we all forgotten his long diatribe a year or so back on how much > he hates Jews? And now, its the poor (or does he really mean blacks) > in New Orleans and Austin. It's a larger syndrome than merely blacks and Jews. It's called elitism. Us vs. them. The "chosen ones." And sadly, much of religion and spiritual practice is built on its foundation. > Come on people, where is your sense of moral outrage? The guy is > clearly racist and no one cares. It bugs me that this guy attacks > attacks attacks and no one challenges him. > > Seriously, I think the guy is off his meds. I think he's *on* his "meds," the meds in question being reinforcement -- from those he's studied with and those he pays to pray for him -- that he's cool and "they" are not. I've been fortunate enough to meet and work with a few spiritual teachers who don't fall into the elitism mold. It's refreshing. As one of them said, "You can tell more about a spiritual teacher by how he treats his waiter at a restaurant or the guy who pumps his gas than by anything he says." I tend to agree. Santa Fe, New Mexico was a melting pot of various religions and New Age fringe groups. I found that my best feedback on how valuable their beliefs and practices were at cultivating humanity and caring for other people came from my friends, who tended (Santa Fe not exactly being a job Mecca) to work in the service industry, as waiters and waitresses and bartenders. In such a position, you really get a close up look at people and how they treat other people. For example, there was a large Sikh community near Santa Fe. They wore white and acted holy. But ask *any* Santa Fe waitress what they're really like and she'll tell you. They don't tip, they treat those who serve them their food and drink like shit, and they nickle and dime them to death (that is, rather than ten people at the table ordering at the same time, they'll all take their time and force the poor waitress to come back to the table ten times). Same "take" on many of the New Age groups. I saw a funny scene regarding one of them one day. I was sitting at the bar at El Farol one day and I noticed the waitresses "drawing straws" for some- thing. I asked what they were doing. They said that they'd gotten a call, and a rather famous New Age teacher had made a reservation for dinner. So I said, "Oh, so you're drawing straws to see who gets to wait on her?" One of the waitresses said, "No, we're drawing straws to see who *has* to wait on her." (A few months later, I saw the same scene acted out for one of the local celeb- rities, an actor who lived there and had an equally bad "rep," Val Kilmer.) Interestingly, the groups in town with the best "rep" among the service industry were the Tibetans. No one ever had an unkind word to say about them. They walked the walk of their beliefs, and they treated anyone they interacted with as fellow walkers. Unc ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/JjtolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
